Writer-Lawyers: Laura James

From Publishers' Lunch today:

"Attorney, true crime historian, and founder of CLEWS: The True Crime Blog Laura James's THE LOVE PIRATE, the untold story of Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins, a wealthy American playgirl and osteopath who shot one husband, experimented with a slow poison on another, drove a lover to suicide, ruined two banks, blackmailed her abortion clients, and dealt in illegal drug and drink during Prohibition, culminating in her unsolved murder in 1924, and evidence suggesting her lawyer, Jesse James Jr., was the one who slit her throat for a fortune in diamonds, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press, by Rick Broadhead at Rick Broadhead & Associates (NA)."

Laura James has a fabulous blog, and I'm thankful to Publisher's Lunch for the discovery. At Clews, The Historic True Crime Blog, James writes, "WELCOME to my study of historic true crime, where the chairs rest at the intersection of history, journalism, law, and murder, and the shelves are filled with the finest true crime literature. PS STEAL FROM THIS LIBRARY AND IT'S PISTOLS AT DAWN."

Her blog is chock full of great stuff, and I'm looking forward to surfing through all of it.

I'm also interested in reading her book on Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins. Never heard of this case before. Why am I already imagining a movie with Angelina Jolie in this role? The Jesse James connection? Her role in Original Sin? I dunno. I do know we'll have to wait for the book -- a quick surf for background info on Dr Wilkins doesn't bring up much.

Managing Time: Mary Kay's Rule of 6

Mary Kay Ash began each morning with a list of six things to accomplish that day - things that had to be done. I try and do this, too.

The spin that I put on Mary Kay's rule is while all six tasks must be done, the yuckiest one on the list has to be done first. Get the Yuck out of the way, and the rest of the day is much nicer.

NYTimes Reading Room Blog - Your Online Book Club?

On October 11th, NYT Book Review Editor Sam Tanenhaus announced that the new translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace (by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) would be read and discussed in a blog format, one volume of the tome each week (plus the epilogue), with a panel of bloggers making their contributions and the door open for any and all of us to comment. The blog has been named "The Reading Room."

It's already October 26th, perhaps a little late to play catch-up with a 1200-page work but not too late to watch this baby and see what happens. It's definitely something different on the menu from Oprah's version with its message boards.

Here's the panel, as described by the Blog:

Bill Keller
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, reported from the paper's Moscow Bureau from December, 1986, until October, 1991.

Stephen Kotkin
Stephen Kotkin teaches history and directs the program in Russian and Eurasian studies at Princeton University.

Francine Prose
Francine Prose's most recent book is Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them.

Liesl Schillinger
Liesl Schillinger, a regular reviewer for the Book Review, studied comparative literature and Russian at Yale, and lived in Moscow in 1993, where she was editor of the English supplement of Moscow Magazine and wrote dispatches for The New Republic.

Sam Tanenhaus (Moderator)
Sam Tanenhaus is the editor of the Book Review.