Lunch with Katherine Neville

What I love about being a writer is talking about writing, telling crazy stories, and listening to even more wild ones!

At the start of the year, I got to do just that — one of the most fun things, for me, a writer can do: I had lunch with one of my favorite authors! And not only did I get to have lunch with her, but I also got to have lunch with a bunch of her writer friends!

Here’s the skinny.

I’ve been keeping in touch with Katherine Neville’s career ever since I interviewed her years ago for a journalism class project. So when her latest newsletter arrived in my inbox at the end of 2009, I opened it eagerly. Her newest book, The Fire, was out in paperback, and I had just bought it. Because we’ve been corresponding over the years, and I’ve been reviewing all her books, I sent a few kinds words, and suggested that I interview her for my blog.

She shot back that she was on her way to West Coast, and could maybe arrange a time. Then on January 1, she called to invite me to lunch.

We (my husband, Ezra – also a writer — and I) arrived at Poggio, a Sausalito restaurant, on a beautiful day of light rain. Katherine greeted me and introduced me to her partner, Karl Pribram, a world- renowned scientist and expert on the brain.

Katherine told delightful stories, about food, about Basque country, and how she’s been honored there on Celtic land, her new book to be written in a Sausilito tree house (my lips are sealed!), and how she loves chocolate, while she hardly touched her food.

“Writing is life,” Katherine said.

In addition to Katherine and Karl, around the table sat some fun mystery writers! Name dropping, I know… but that’s what’s fun! There was Rhys Bowen, and her husband, John, whose life seemed almost as colorful as the mysteries his wife writes; Cara Black, and her husband, Jim; the wisecracking, Sheldon Siegel, and his lovely wife, Linda; and ever intriguing, Jacqueline Winspear.

By the time we left, I’d renewed my ties with Katherine, shared with her about a beautiful children’s book on the firebird (a motif in her book, The Fire; see image on left), and vowed to stay in touch with her, and the other writers. A fun way to bring in the New Year, and sit at the big table.

Thanks Katherine!