What’s in Grafton’s luggage?
Mystery writer Sue Grafton shares with Nell McShane Wulfhart what she can’t travel without
AFTER more than 30 years writing the “alphabet series” of detective novels, Sue Grafton is finished. The second to last, was published on Aug 22. Grafton spends half the year in Santa Barbara, California, and the other half in Louisville, Kentucky. She and her husband travel for pleasure, but she also tours for book signings every other year.
“I used to write a book a year and it just got to be too much. I was either writing or on the road or doing interviews and I got really cranky and I thought, this is no way to spend my life. So I cut it back to a book every two years and now I’m cheerful and good-natured and enjoy myself. Plus, I only have one to go, baby!”
When travelling for work, she doesn’t bother packing things she won’t use. “I never take workout clothes and I never take a laptop because I don’t own one. If I’m o the road I don’t worry about exercise and I don’t work. I focus on the job at hand, which makes me really boring, but at least I get in there and spend my energy correctly.”
There is one city she returns to again and again. “I absolutely adore London. I would go once a year if I could, but I’m always writing a book so I have to be selective. Once I finish the alphabet, who knows what’s going to happen. I probably won’t go too often, though. You don’t want to wear the nap off a country.”
This is what she takes on every trip:
BOOKS
“I think we all travel with five paperbacks: The one you’re reading, the one you realise you’ve already read, two you can’t stand and the one you finally settle on. Right now I’m reading Philippa Gregory’s
which I’m very much enjoying. I read Sara Gran. And of course I read Lee Childs and Michael Connelly and Laura Lippman. I’m always hopelessly behind.”
BOOK SIGNING SCHEDULE
“I have my publishers set up my schedule so each day is contained within itself. And at the end of each day I tear it off the schedule and throw it in the trash so my schedule gets lighter and thinner and smaller as each day passes. Psychologically it’s a lift, to me.” A PLETHORA OF PENS
“I also travel with 15 dozen signing pens. I sign with a Marvy 2.0 calligraphy pen and as I sign, I dump them. The nibs start getting soft and I can’t stand that. I’m a prissy little thing and I like to have my signature looking really sharp.”
DRAWING MATERIALS
“I take a 5x8 sketchbook and a Sheaffer fountain pen and when I’m sitting at airports I do quick sketches of people sitting nearby. It’s just a different way of entertaining myself.”
TRAVEL SCRABBLE
“Sometimes I’ll take portable Scrabble if I’m travelling with my husband and friends, especially on a river cruise. That’s a really fun way to spend an afternoon.”
HER UNIFORM
“I hate travelling in the summer. Summer clothes always get wrinkled. My favourite time to travel for book signings is when it’s chilly, and I can wear black tights and a miniskirt made of wool, and they take up no room. I wear tights, and flats but never heels. I’m just not a high-heeled kind of gal. Usually I do 10 days to two weeks on the road and wear the same outfit every day. I might change my earrings. I think that’s very dashing of me.”