Last September, I had a grand time with the incoming Honors students at Rutgers University. A journalist named John Connelly asked if he could do a follow-up interview about the new novel. The interview will be published in the Rutgers Review in December, 2010, but here is the link to Mr. Connelly's new on-line  outlet. http://ofpensandswords.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/a-conversation-with-mary-doria-russell/ ...
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I deplore anti-intellectualism. I cringe when a somebody brags about "going with my gut" or sneers at smartypants Ph.D. eggheads who think climate change or natural selection are real. Unlike a majority of my fellow citizens, I actually even like that our current president is emotionally continent and speaks in paragraph form. My television habits are decidedly skewed toward PBS and the Science Channel, although I admit to watching way too much HGTV. I have never seen America Has Talent or Dancing with the Stars or any of the modern variants of Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7KCCiX3cuA ...
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People always ask writers where they get their ideas. What I want to know is, where do microbiologists get their ideas? What kind of person looks at a bug and thinks, "Hey, I bet if we isolate protein from a bunch of cockroach brains and sprinkle it on stuff, it''ll cure something!" http://www.rationalskepticism.org/general-science/cockroach-brain-can-help-fight-superbugs-t12298.html I'm sure their moms are proud, but microbiologists are very strange people ...
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Several readers have told me about a N.Y. Times article entitled  "Italy's Treatment of Jews in World War II is Reconsidered." I just read the article, and I think it's fair. Mussolini's government promulgated anti-semitic race laws in 1938, which is long before the Nazi occupation began on Sept. 8, 1943. Those laws were damaging, insulting and ugly. (You can read Tullio Bertini's translation of the ordinances by clicking on the FAQs for A Thread of Grace and scrolling to the end of the page.) The difference in Italy was that such laws were not impossible to get around. While ...
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Okay, this has just got to stop. Twice now, I've heard reporters on CNN use effort as a verb, as in, "I'm efforting to find out, Wolf!" No, darling. You are trying to find out. Or, if you're not into the whole brevity thing,  perhaps you are making an effort to find out. But you are not, ever, under any circumstances, efforting ...
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It started like a Stephen King novel. A reader contacted me about my books initially, but we got to emailing about our dogs, and the exchange went on for a few days. I mentioned that I had to go practice piano, and Ms. H asked what I was working on. So I sent a link to Valentina Lisitsa playing Schumann's “Traumerei” as an encore after a concert in Seoul, and said, “I'm working on the B section of this piece.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHlfNYY1YIY Ms. H writes back that Valentina Lisitsa is a buddy of hers, and furthermore Val would be doing a ...
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...  writing a blog is like walking on a tightrope above a vat of boiling narcissism. Thanks to all of you who've signed up to see if the entertainment value outweighs the wretched self-promotion that authors are expected to do these days! Hoping not to slip, Mary P.S. If you live in northern Michigan, stop by Brilliant Books  at 305 St. Joseph Street in Sutton Bay on Saturday, Oct. 23rd at 7 PM. Yes, this is wretched self-promotion, but the bookstore will bribe you to listen to me. Wine and cheese, people! How bad can it be? ...
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From the beginning, readers have said that The Sparrow is very cinematic. People in Hollywood thought so, too.  Producer Nick Wechsler came close to doing a movie adaptation twice, first with Antonio Banderas at Universal Pictures and most recently with Brad Pitt at Warner Brothers. The adaptations for both studios were variations on a large-scale, big budget action-adventure that Nick called "Lawrence of Rakhat." Eventually both studios decided against the project. The film rights to the novel have reverted to me, and there is now a window of opportunity to see if a more faithful adaptation of the book can ...
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Welcome to the updated and expanded website for novelist Mary Doria Russell! Her newest novel, DOC, will be published on May 3, 2011, but you can read an excerpt now by clicking on DOC above. Check out MEDIA to listen to radio interviews and podcasts, and to find links to articles about Mary's work. To hear the music that inspired scenes in her books, click MUSIC IN THE NOVELS. If you are interested in booking Mary for your event, there are excerpts from her talks and contact information in SPEAKING. To find out about scheduled appearances, click UPCOMING EVENTS, and ...
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