Sunday, October 25, 2009

The `Mulzini Place'



(I found this link on Sarah Weinman's blog. Thanks, Sarah.)

Welcome to the 'Mulzini' place

apierleoni@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1D

Is Northern California big enough for both Marcia Muller and her husband, Bill Pronzini?
For the "Mulzinis," as their friends jokingly call them, there's always a new chapter ahead in a remarkable collaborative life of mystery. The Petaluma-based writers are two of the most widely recognized names in crime fiction – he for his "Nameless Detective" series, she with her Sharon McCone thrillers.

Both series, like many of their stand-alone novels, are set throughout Northern California. And both series' protagonists are private investigators with residences and agencies in San Francisco.

Thus the question: Is there any possibility that the couple – he a Petaluma native, she a transplant from Detroit who came to California in the early 1970s – might run out of settings in the region?

"I don't think so, though between the two of us, we've carved up California," Muller said on the phone from their Petaluma home. "Places change so fast, and San Francisco is a whole different city than it was. We revisit other places and notice the changes, which gives us a fresh perspective."

Both were named grand masters by the Mystery Writers of America – she in 2005, he in 2007. They married in 1992 after meeting at a gathering of the Northern California chapter of the MWA when Pronzini was vice president.

Their longtime writing arrangement suits them just fine, said Muller, adding with a laugh, "My office is a loft upstairs. Bill works on the bottom floor, at the other end of the house, so we're safe."

For the rest go here:

http://www.sacbee.com/books/story/2262118.html?mi_rss=Books%20and%20Media

3 comments:

  1. I doubt that a nicer and more talented couple exists.

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  2. As my facial stubble and sidburns go gray (among other things, including the skin at times), I have to wondder, who's this old guy...the Bill Pronzini I started reading 35 years ago or so had this dark hair and all...Marcia Muller I starte reading a Mere twenty years ago, so here transformation is only somewhat a reminder of what Don Wollheim once referred to as the Very Slow Time Machine...we have had any number of impressive CF couples, haven't we...perhaps even moreso than in other fields. Macdonald and Millar, Muller and Pronzini, Highsmith and Meaker, Kuttner and Moore (even if they did more and even better elsewhere), and couples that much more likely to read this entry...

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  3. Anonymous7:27 AM

    I have to second Bob Napier's words. How rare and delightful when success shines on such decent and kind folks!

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