I spoke too soon.

Having made several snide remarks about customer reviews on amazon (well, I've had some unfair ones and those somehow stay with you), I now take it all back.

I just (Feb. 10) got a delightful review of ISLAND OF EXILES from a total stranger who is not a regular reviewer and who could not have had anything in mind except to offer a thank-you for an enjoyable read. And that makes this one of the best reviews I ever got, including those from professional…

Most of my days are ordinary. Occasionally, there's a depressing one, but that feeling tends to pass with work.

So I like to mark days when hopeful things happen, and today two happened in one morning:

1. I typed "The End" for my new novel, feeling pretty good about it -- even though plenty of small changes loom for another month.

2. I signed two contracts, one for translation rights for two novels, and one for audio recording rights for five.

It would be nice if…

Well, I suppose if you're writing historical novels, it's a very good thing if the Historical Novel Society reviews your latest and praises it. I'm grateful. I like all my reviews. In a way I live for the reviews.

My connection to historical novelists is tenuous at best, though. To me the Akitada series are mysteries first of all. Even my current book (set in 18th century Germany) I look at as somewhat off-genre -- a novel about two young people, brother and sister, facing their…

I made my first visit to New York as an author. Mind you, I love the city for its own sake and I loved it again this time (in spite of a sinfully expensive hotel). But the main reason I loved this trip was that I met my agents for the first time in person. It was an incredible visit. I was treated like an important author with a gourmet lunch and limousine ride to Penguin headquarters. It's still all a bit unbelievable.

I have said so before, and many times: I'm incredibly lucky in my…

In the recent CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, I have a review for ISLAND OF EXILES. It's by David Montgomery, more's the joy, for not all reviewers were created equal. This mystery reviewer is GOOD! So I feel immensely flattered and very grateful for the attention. And now, here it is:

I.J. Parker's latest is the fifth mystery to feature Sugawara Akitada, a nobleman in medieval Japan with a knack for solving crimes. Island of Exiles is a superior effort that ranks as…

ISLAND OF EXILES (just released) is my fifth published novel in the Akitada series.

My first publisher chose two novels out of order (I had four completed in 2001).

This was disappointing…

As picked up on Galley Cat: Apparently a very popular blogger on a science site panned a recent release by an author, calling the author, among other things "a classic crackpot." The author brought suit. The lawyer for the blog responded that the author had no case because libel law requires that the claim be false.

I got a chuckle out of that one.

Sarah Weinman's blog today is full of fascinating mystdery-related subjects. It deals with Marilyn Stasio, the mystery critic for the New York Times but contains among other matters this quote from an exchange between P.D.James and Lawrence Block about the morality of the mystery protagonist:

"L.B.: In the earliest American hard-boiled fiction, there were heroes who were virtually criminals themselves. Even Sam Spade was absolutely a cold-blooded…

Ever since I made the mistake of allowing someone to do an e-mail campaign for me (my agent suggested it might be a good idea), I have been bombarded with mail (both snail and e) from the same outfit. They change their name periodically. Perhaps because word gets out. Last year they were Airleaf. Now they are Author Celebrity Associates. And they offer instant fame! For money. The costs rise with every new campaign.

The latest bit made me sit up. The bold headline read: "Imagine The…

Nobody much comes to my page, so this will probably not do much good. In a way it is symbolic of R.D. Wingfield's life as a mystery author. Nobody much cared -- or nobody in the publishing world cared enough to promote this writer. We have only a handful of Frost novels. The British eventually produced a wonderful television series based on some of them. But the novels are not well known and very hard to find. I eventually managed to find them in cheap paperback editions. And Wingfield gave…

I've just learned that Publishers Weekly has given ISLAND OF EXILES a starred review. Even better than that fact is the review itself:

"Parker's fourth Sugawara Akitada mystery (after 2006's Black Arrow), set in 11th-century Japan, manages to outplot its superb predecessors. When exiled and disgraced Prince Okisada is poisoned on…

I just received, via airmail all the way from France, my first Press Book. This consists of a fat stack of pages carrying reviews and comments in the French Press for my two books THE DRAGON SCROLL and RASHOMON GATE, translated into French and published by Belfond. The first novel (released last October) had 64 of these; the more recent RASHOMON GATE 24.

Not only have none of my novels ever received this kind of coverage in this country,…

I’ve been thinking about the long delayed exoneration of the four young white men from upper-class backgrounds who stood accused of having kidnapped and gang-raped a poor black exotic dancer. Accusations are flying, this time…