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  • Norton

If your true-crime-loving friends aren't super-enthused to talk about what happened on True Detective last night, this might be why: The Pacific Northwest's original queen of true crime writing, Ann Rule, has died. Rule's family made the news of her death public today, and it's been picked up by outlets throughout the region.

Ann Rule is perhaps best known as the writer behind The Stranger Beside Me, which infamously recounts her acquaintance with Ted Bundy, a fellow suicide-hotline volunteer, and Rule's increasing suspicion that Bundy was behind the disappearances and murders of local girls and women. Rule drew on her background as a police officer to write about crime, and her work developed a huge following. There'll probably plenty of pieces coming out about her life over the next few days—including the allegations that came out last spring, that Rule's sons had exploited her financially. (Can't we just leave elderly writers in poor health alone? Wait, don't answer that.)

Before all those pieces emerge, I'd recommend checking out Rule's own delightfully Web 2.0 website. It's an artifact that includes some of her typical responses to frequent questions about her line of work. This one is my favorite:

DO I HAVE BAD DREAMS? A lot of people ask me how I cope with the grim tragedies I have to write about and they expect me to have nightmares. Oddly, I don’t have nightmares; I think we have bad dreams about things we repress—and writing about subjects that might cause nightmares brings them out in the open. I try to surround myself with happier things: my garden, wind chimes, prisms (to cast rainbows over my desk), pets, and my collection of more than a hundred angels. I usually listen to an “oldies music” radio station when I write or to Dr. Joy Browne. (I do NOT listen to Dr. Laura Schlessinger because her self-righteous and demeaning lectures to people in trouble would give me nightmares!)

More questions and answers from the queen of true crime here. She will be missed.