We are very excited to announce that you may now walk into just about any bookstore in the country and pick up a copy of a book with our work in it!

You may recall Rebecca’s post from November of last year, in which she described the feeling of reading Laurie R. King’s work, and how much of an impact it had on her. Well, now it’s my turn.

I’ll begin by saying that Laurie King is a New York Times Bestselling Author and has written 19 novels, the most recent of which was released on April 28th. It’s called The Language of Bees, and is the 9th in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series.

Sherlock Holmes is very dear to my heart. You could even say I grew up with him – my mother always had a copy of The Complete Sherlock Holmes in a prominent place on one of her many, many bookshelves. I wore her copy out when I was a teenager and then bought my own when I moved out. It’s a huge thing, thick and black and well-loved.

I’ve even watched (and thoroughly enjoyed) the old black and white Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson.

With all of this said, I hope it’s clear that I hold Sherlock Holmes to a high standard, and did not believe that any modern writer could do him justice. Gladly, I was utterly mistaken. Laurie King’s Holmes is just how I remembered him. A little older, a little more worn, but still sharp and just as unable to suffer fools as he always was. And even better than getting Holmes just right, she’s invented Mary Russell, who narrates the stories, solves plenty of crime on her own merit, and does something that Arthur Conan Doyle never really could: humanize Holmes. Laurie King (through Mary Russell) gives him life and vitality and subtlety in addition to the clockwork deduction that I recall. It’s really a fairly amazing feat to accomplish.

The photo that Laurie King chose as her jacket portrait is posted below, along with another of her favorites from that shoot back in October. We are very happy with how it turned out, ecstatic to see it in print, and thankful that it’s attached to such a high quality work of art.

I also feel compelled to point out that there’s a special tie-in with this new book. If you order a copy of the book through the LRK Amazon store, a percentage of the purchase price goes to Heifer International’s Beehive Project, which helps poor families supplement their income through beekeeping.

I’ve purchased both a print version and an electronic version of the Language of Bees (for my new Kindle 2), and it’s a fantastic read. Highly recommended, and with the Official Red Bat Seal of Approval!

I’m currently on assignment in Southern California, so not much time for updates, but I DID take some pictures of some bunnies.  Everyone loves bunnies, right?

A special note about the time of year. Easter is great and all, but a lot of people get animals for children for Easter, and by and large, this is not a good idea. The rabbits above all live at Zooh Corner Rabbit Rescue, which has helped save the lives of literally thousands of rabbits since 1993, many of them originally purchased as Easter Bunnies, and then discarded as the rabbit got older and bigger. For more information, please visit mybunny.org.