Dear Burning Questions,
A few months ago I'm certain I saw Steve Martin in an interview discussing a book that was to be released soon entitled Shopgirl. If you have any information about this, please contact me, otherwise I'd be tempted to believe that I have an overactive imagination.

Dave
via e-mail

If you did imagine that interview, we commend you on your prescience. Martin certainly did write a book called Shopgirl, and it's scheduled for release in October (Hyperion). This debut novella is a bittersweet story of modern day love and of a woman named Mirabelle whose world changes when she meets a lonely businessman. One thing we're certain of: In Martin's hands, love's a funny thing.

A passing to note

Dear Burning Questions,
I really enjoy Gary Jennings's historical sagas. Does he have a new one coming out soon? Thanks.

Linda Gonzalez
Roanoke, Virginia

Sadly, Gary Jennings, author of Aztec and Aztec Autumn, passed away last year. Forge Books is currently working with Jennings's estate to buy the rights to the outlines of two books he was planning to write, Aztec Three and Babylon, so they can be written by someone else. If negotiations are successful, Forge will publish these books either late this year or early next year.

Do mess with Texas

Dear Burning Questions,
I enjoy the China Bayles mysteries so very much and am interested in finding out just when Susan Albert will have another book out. Is there one possibly in the works?

Lori Priess
via e-mail

That'd be a big Texas "yessum." Mistletoe Man: A China Bayles Mystery (Berkley) will be released in October. Albert's unique heroine, herbalist China Bayles, is multi-tasking: searching for a killer, struggling to help a friend, and trying to follow her heart's desire.

Author Susan Wittig Albert lives with her husband, Bill, near Austin, Texas. In addition to the China Bayles mysteries, she writes a Victorian mystery series along with her husband under the pseudonym Robin Paige.

Fear and reading

Dear Burning Questions,
What's up with Hunter S. Thompson? Does he have any new books coming out soon? When will he put out volume two of his letters?

Gary Kremnitzer
Worth, Illinois

We won't even touch the first part of that question. If we knew what was up with glorious gonzo journalist Hunter S., we'd write a book ourselves. We can tell you that in November, Simon & Schuster will publish Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist and that the second volume of his letters will follow shortly thereafter (it's an anticipated three volume collection).

The king of nonfiction?

Dear Burning Questions,
When will Stephen King publish another story?

Gordon Landers
Gainesville, Florida

Okay, so this probably isn't what you had in mind when you asked that question, but a Stephen King fan is a Stephen King fan, are we right? In October, King offers On Writing: A Memoir of Craft (Scribner), and he should know. As the title indicates, this isn't your average writing manual, but is instead a melding of memoir (King revisits his childhood and adolescence) and how-to (he lets readers in on the tools of the trade).

Luddites

Dear Burning Questions,
I'm a huge Robert Ludlum fan. What's next?

via e-mail

In October, St. Martin's Press will publish another major thriller from Ludlum. In The Prometheus Deception, Ludlum's first new book in three years, a deep-cover operative discovers he was operating for the wrong guys. Who's a guy to trust?

Fern solo

Dear Burning Questions,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article in the May issue of BookPage about Fern Michaels. However, some years ago I read where Fern Michaels was a husband and wife team, with Fern being her name and Michael being his. What gives? Was she previously married and writing with her husband?

John Wherry
Taylors, South Carolina

You might have her confused with Judith Michaels, the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team. Although Fern does get asked that occasionally, she's never been part of a husband and wife writing duo. Fern's Listen to Your Heart (Kensington) came out in May.

15 and counting

Dear Burning Questions,
I'm anxious, as always for the next installment of Sue Grafton's alphabet series. When is P Is for . . . coming out?

via e-mail

P is for perseverance as far as we're concerned. Do you think she knew what she was getting herself into when she signed on for this whole alphabet thing? (Check out fellow mystery writer Marcia Muller's comments on page 5.) In May 2001 Putnam is scheduled to publish Grafton's latest, P Is for . . . You fill in the blank.

The forecast: a storm, of sorts

Dear Burning Questions,
When is Book Three of George R.R. Martin's series coming out?

Mike Boren
Seymour, Indiana

A Storm of Swords, another enormous fantastic yarn from Martin, will be unleashed in October (Bantam). That same month, volume two in the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings, will be issued in a mass market paperback edition (Spectra). Modern myth-maker Martin is a master of fantasy; his fans can't wait for this storm to come.

Sound reasoning

Dear Burning Questions,
Can you tell me if there are plans to publish James Reasoner's three Civil War books -- Manassas, Shiloh, and Antietam -- in paperback editions in the near future?

Bob Katzenbach
Vandalia, Ohio

Cumberland House, Reasoner's publisher, tells us that at this time there are no plans to publish paperback editions since it is an ongoing series, with eight books planned. The fourth book in the series, Chancellorsville, will be published in October.

It's revolutionary

Dear Burning Questions,
American Sphinx was great fun, and I don't usually curl up with history. Does Joseph Ellis have another project in the works?

via e-mail

American Sphinx, Ellis's insightful look at Thomas Jefferson, was indeed worthy reading -- and worthy of the National Book Award it received. In Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, out from Knopf in October, Ellis expands his vision, but keeps it in the family, as he explores the lives of Jefferson's "brothers" -- Washington, Madison, and Burr.