All hail Stephenie Meyer, protectress of America! “ONN’s Terrorism Expert Omar Al-Farouq explains how Al Qaeda’s love for the beloved teen vampire series prevented the death of thousands.”
Al-Qaeda Calls Off Attack On Nation’s Capitol T…, posted with vodpod
Stupid, callous, oblivious to U.S. history… oh, sorry there. I got distracted thinking up adjectives to describe certain members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The ones who yesterday tried to savage U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan because she clerked for, and admires, a man they consider “out of the mainstream”: Thurgood Marshall.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the panel, branded Marshall a “well-known activist.” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Marshall’s legal view “does not comport with the proper role of a judge or judicial method.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) pronounced Marshall “a judicial activist” with a “judicial philosophy that concerns me.”
Justice Marshall, former Solicitor General of the United States, the man who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education, and the first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, was a giant of 20th century jurisprudence and an American hero. In person, his presence was formidable. At oral argument, I once saw him reduce the Attorney General of Missouri to a puddle on the courtroom floor — with just two words. The Attorney General had asserted some conclusion about his case, and Marshall asked the man for facts to back up his assertion. The Attorney General said, “I don’t have that information.” Marshall paused, leaned forward, and thundered, “Why not?” Good God, it terrified me, and I was sitting in the back of the visitors’ gallery.
As Dana Milbank notes in the Washington Post:
It was, to say the least, a curious strategy to go after Marshall, the iconic civil rights lawyer who successfully argued Brown vs. Board of Education. Did Republicans think it would help their cause to criticize the first African American on the Supreme Court, a revered figure who has been celebrated with an airport, a postage stamp and a Broadway show? The guy is a saint — literally. Marshall this spring was added to the Episcopal Church’s list of “Holy Women and Holy Men,” which the Episcopal Diocese of New York says “is akin to being granted sainthood.”
With Kagan’s confirmation hearings expected to last most of the week, Republicans may still have time to make cases against Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Gandhi.
Hey, guys, dudes, men, fellas, chaps, bubbas, pardners, mates: the Sunday Herald includes The Liar’s Lullaby in its Hottest Summer Reads.
Under Books for Blokes.
And all you gals, dudettes, sisters: You already knew the book was for you. Now go tell the men in your lives it’s for them.
Posted in The Liar's Lullaby
Everybody’s going to be linking to Nora Ephron’s parody of Stieg Larsson. So let me jump on the front of the bandwagon.
The Girl Who Fixed the Umlaut.
Salander opened the door a crack and spent several paragraphs trying to decide whether to let Blomkvist in. Many italic thoughts flew through her mind. Go away. Perhaps. So what. Etc.
I love Lisbeth Salander. And this is pretty funny.
(Warning: Contains spoilers.)
Kate sends this photo taken on a trip to a state we’ll call “back east.”
It’s outrageous. The grammar! The grammar!
Posted in Random
Pond Parleys interviews me about being an American in England.
Posted in Life
No, I didn’t really forget that my new novel has been published. But I really should blog about it, because this blog is lying for a living.
The Liar’s Lullaby, out now!
U.S. edition:
U.K. edition:
Bonus! More stuff to distract you!
Watch me talk about The Liar’s Lullaby. Then read an extract.
Listen to the title song:
Posted in The Liar's Lullaby
A while back, commenting on my post about the Guardian asking authors to ask themselves questions journalists never ask, Susan wrote: “And Meg? What about your unasked questions?”
Let’s start with the asked questions. The ones I wish people had kept to themselves.
“You’re a writer? Have you published anything?”
No. I killed the real Meg Gardiner, stole all these published novels you see before you, and have assumed her identity.
“Isn’t it nice that your hobby has turned into something?”
Would you ask the same question of Serena Williams? Oh, never mind — of course you would.
“You… work?”
The guy who asked that — an American businessman, not a Saudi princeling or time-traveler from 1950 — may still be reeling around Waterloo station, staggered by the revelation that ex-pat women don’t spend their days (and their husbands’ earnings) buying English regency antiques.
“Does your publisher keep track of book sales?”
No. The publisher leases a cargo 747 and flies around the world, shoveling copies of my novels out the loading ramp until the jet is empty. Because publishing runs on wishes and sparkles and the giggles of kittens.
And questions I do wish people would ask:
What are the top ten favorite scenes you’ve ever written?
If you could have a free ride on the space shuttle, would you take it?
And:
More chocolate with your Tahitian beach vacation, Ms. Gardiner?
Answers next time.
Posted in Writing
Over at Whatever, Hugo award winner (and feisty Orc with an axe) John Scalzi has kindly posted my piece on The Big Idea behind The Liar’s Lullaby.
The novel’s about the collision of fame and power. Also about the collision of helicopters, country-western singers, celebrity stalkers, White House minions, violent right-wing militants, and a television reporter from the Channel of the Blondes.
The big idea is: The Celebrity-Political complex has turned conspiracy-mongering into an American sport. It’s both crazy and deadly. To sort truth from fiction, it’s going to take a shrink. Jo must find out whether there’s a real conspiracy, one that threatens the President.
And hello to folks who have landed here from Whatever. Thanks for stopping by!
Posted in The Liar's Lullaby
Doing a live radio interview over the phone is a rare event for me. So I try to be prepared. My checklist: (1) Warn everybody in the house as to when I need the line free, so that nobody will be on the phone when the interviewer calls, (2) Sequester myself in a quiet room with the door and windows shut.
Now I must add: (3) Ask the family not to play the piano and run the vacuum cleaner until I finish the interview, because once I’m on the air, running into the living room and shouting at them — over the vacuum and the music — to please be quiet just makes things worse, and so I end up retreating into the bathroom and talking to the interviewer from behind a pile of towels.
Posted in Uncategorized
This evening I’ll be joining Diane Janes, Imogen Robertson, and Rory Clements for a crime evening in Kingston Upon Thames. Stand back as we rampage through the town.
No. Please take a seat and pepper us with questions at Waterstone’s.
Kingston Killers night at Waterstone’s Kingston
Thursday 24th June
6:30 p.m.
Waterstone’s, Bentall Centre, Wood Street, Kingston, Surrey, KT1 1TR
Tel: 020 8974 6811
Posted in Uncategorized
Poe’s Deadly Daughters, a blog for mystery lovers (of course) grills me about Jo Beckett, how I write action scenes, and whether I’m musical.
Jo looks at victims’ emotional, moral, and psychological lives to figure out why they died. She digs beneath the clinical “what” and “how” of the police lab, into the messy, mysterious, and spooky realm of the mind. And that’s what fascinated me about her job.
CSI is great, but I wanted to go beyond it. In the real world, crime lab technology is not an infallible truth-o-meter. Physical evidence is not in fact bulletproof. Real life is murkier—and more fascinating. That’s what Jo explores.
Read the rest: Meg Gardiner and the Deadshrinker.
And they’re giving away three hardcover copies of The Liar’s Lullaby.
Posted in The Liar's Lullaby, Writing
Between 9:30-10:00 a.m. today I’ll be on BBC Radio Surrey’s Breakfast Show, talking about The Liar’s Lullaby. You can listen live or can hear a replay online.
Posted in The Liar's Lullaby
Blue Door, my UK publisher, has done something really slick: they trapped me into sitting in front of a video camera and talking about The Liar’s Lullaby. Watch me stare into the camera like a possum in the headlights, babbling about my book! Even better, click at the end of the video to read an excerpt from Chapter 1.
Here’s the tricksy part. The image below is not the actual video. It’s a static photo. This is because if I embed the actual video, WordPress.com automatically plays it every time you visit my blog. And I don’t want you to hate me. Not for that, at least. But if you click on the image, Internet magic will take you straight to the video, so you can ooh and ahh and laugh at me all you want.
Or you could click this link to watch the video.
Over the course of the next few days, Blue Door will be releasing new videos, and new excerpts from the book. You can read each excerpt as it comes online. You can sign up to be notified when new content posts. You can buy the book — your very own British edition, with the bloody microphone on the cover. So please click. They won’t let me out of this book-lined office until you do.
Posted in The Liar's Lullaby
