Dear Burning Questions,
I really enjoyed Larry's Party (even though I liked The Stone Diaries better), and I was wondering when Carol Shields will give us a new book.

via the Internet

It's certainly a cause for celebration. A new short story collection from this Pulitzer Prize winner, entitled Dressing up for the Carnival, is coming in May from Viking.

A story with heart

Dear Burning Q.,
Does Julie Garwood have another book coming?

Grace Richardson
via the Internet

Garwood's latest, Heartbreaker, will be released from Pocket Books this summer. Clayborne Brides it is not, but take heartthis thriller (Garwood's first contemporary novel) has some passion and romance, too. (This is Julie Garwood, after all.) It's the classic storyyou know, psychopath stalks spirited young woman, FBI agent sent to protect spirited young woman falls in love with her, spirited young woman and said agent risk everything for love.

The truth about Dare

Dear Burning Questions,
Is it true? Is Knopf publishing a Tartt book in October 2000?

Jaymie
via the Internet

We've given you Donna Tartt updates over the years, and this time we actually have something newsworthy to report. Tartt, of Secret History fame, does have a new novel, entitled The Dare. Alas, it's too soon to say if it will be released next fall, but Tartt's publisher says "we're crossing our fingers"along with hundreds of Tartt fans, we might add.

She's really Dunnett this time

Dear Burning Questions,
I am a huge fan of Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels. Before I start reading the Niccolo series for the third time, can you tell me if she is writing another one or was the last really the last?

Jane Talbot
via the Internet

This summer Alfred A. Knopf will publish Dunnett's final installment (the 8th) in the House of Niccolo series, entitled Gemini. In it, the protagonist's adventures come to a grand finale, revealing his fate and the fate of those around him. Lady Dunnett, who is also an established portrait painter, lives in Edinburgh.

On the bayou

Dear Burning Questions,
James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels are some of the finest suspense novels I know. When will he come out with more Robicheaux adventures?

Robert Smith
via the Internet

Purple Cane Road will be released from Doubleday this August. In it, Dave's on a search for his mother's killers. James Lee Burke is the author of 19 previous novels, including Sunset Limited and Burning Angel.

Down under

Dear Burning Q.,
A Walk in the Woods was just great. I also liked I'm a Stranger Here Myself. What can we expect next from the always witty Bryson?

via the Internet

Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country (Broadway) will be released in June, just in time for the 2000 Olympics. This time Bryson takes us on a rollicking ride through the outback. It's adventure Australian style.

From the Hollywood Hills to the Deep South

Dear Burning Questions,
I think Cold Mountain is one of the top ten books I have ever read. I thought that a movie was going to be made of this book and that Hollywood had bought the rights. Is this going to happen?

To answer your question, we conferred with our Hollywood correspondent, writer Pat Broeske. Pat told us that Cold Mountain is indeed in development as a movie. It will be the next movie for British writer-director Anthony Minghella, who is currently writing the script and has said that he plans to make the movie in the Deep South.

Minghella also wrote the screenplay adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1953 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and directed that film. And he wrote the screenplay adaptation of The English Patient, which he also directed. (He got a Best Director Oscar, and that movie won as Best Picture.) And right now, it looks as if Ripley will also be a Best Picture candidate. The screenplay is only now being written, and this writer-director tends to take his time. Pat predicts that production probably won't even begin until next year, which means that the movie release is at least a couple years down the road.

All smiles

Dear BQ,
I'm waiting eagerly for Jane Smiley's next novel. Do you have any information?

via the Internet

Information is what we're all about (not that it's always accurate . . . ). In April, Jane Smiley rides again with Horse Heaven (Alfred A. Knopf), a novel of horse racing. Smiley is out and about these daysand not just horsing around. She's also written the introduction to The Sagas of Icelanders (Viking), an April 2000 release celebrating the 1000th anniversary of the discovery of America.

Mary, Mary, quite sc-scary

Dear Burning Questions,
I am a fan of Mary Higgins Clark and would like to know when/if she's writing another book.

Anne
via the Internet

Before I Say Good-bye (Simon & Schuster) will be released in April. Intrigue, suspense, Clark has it all in this tale of a young woman who falls into the clutches of a fraudulent psychic. We predict Clark fans will love it.

Robbins returns in a big way

Many of you have written us over the years anxious to know what that off-beat guy Tim Robbins is up to these days. The author of Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, among others, is at long last giving us another outrageous novelreportedly his longest yet. In true Robbins fashion, the novel, a May release, is entitled Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (Bantam Books). We're not even going to speculate what it's about, but we know that if it's anything like Robbins's other novels, it will be wild, witty, and wise.

A look at Langston Hughes

Dear Burning Questions,
Many years ago someone gave me a poem I believe was by Langston Hughes (it was about girls of color and how each depending on their color was different). Could you point me in the right direction as to what the name of the poem may be or what book it may be in?

R. Barkley
via the Internet

We think you're referring to Langston Hughes's wonderfully rich poem "Harlem Sweeties," which you can find in The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Vintage Books). In it, Hughes sings the praises of the women of Harlem with such sensuous lines as "Brown sugar lassie,/Caramel treat,/Honey-gold baby/Sweet enough to eat."

Langston Hughes's life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. To learn more about him, you can visit the Web site for The Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org.