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Burning Questions
Wondering what happened to your favorite author? Gosh, so are we. Ask away: Send your cards and letters to Burning Questions, 2143 Belcourt Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212. Or better yet, send us e-mail. When you write, please include your full name and the city and state where you live. Sadly, personal replies are not possible. And if your question is too hard, we'll simply put it in our big file labeled "We dunno."
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SMELLS LIKE A WINNER
For several years, fans of Virginia Lanier's Bloodhound series have been howling for the publication of the sixth book starring dog trainer Jo Beth Sidden and her wily hounds. BQ is happy to throw a bone to Lanier's fans with the news that her new book, A Bloodhound to Die For, will be published in August by HarperCollins. This time Jo Beth is on the trail of a prison escapee and an elderly woman who is lost in the Okefenokee Swamp. Lanier published her first book, Death in Bloodhound Red (1995), at the age of 64 and immediately won admirers for her Southern storytelling style. Despite numerous health problems and the death of her husband two years ago, she finally managed to complete the manuscript of her new book last year. Unfortunately, Lanier has said this book is likely to be her last.
MOOSE ON THE LOOSE
Dear Burning Questions,
Diana Stone Your family's wait is just about over. The fourth book in the Moosepath League series, set in turn-of-the-century Maine, will be released this July. Mrs. Roberto, Or, the Widowy Worries of the Moosepath League continues Tobias and Phileda's courtship while another member of the League, Joseph Thump, seeks out an old flame, Dorthea Roberto, a former daredevil hot air balloonist. No word on whether Cordelia Underwood (the first title in the series and a New York Times notable book) has been brought to the attention of PBS execs.
LAST CALL
Dear Burning Questions,
Marty Levine Romance novelist LaVyrle Spencer announced her retirement when she released her last novel, Then Came Heaven, in 1997. BQ's romance source reports that Spencer has stuck to that statement and is happily living in her lakeside Minnesota home. As you've noted, her publishers do continue to keep her books in print and reissue new editions regularly. While there's never a substitute for a favorite author, you might want to try Dorothy Garlock, Jill Marie Landis, Debbie Macomber or Susan Wiggs, who are all still writing.
SOUTHERN TALE
Dear Burning Questions,
Catherine Long Like you, many readers were fascinated by Mailer's debut novel about a young girl's coming of age in rural Arkansas. Her publicist at Random House informs BQ that Mailer (who is married to fellow writer Norman Mailer) is working on a sequel to Windchill Summer. A release date has not been set.
MORE LAUGHS We received quite a response to the April question from reader Marilyn Nevins asking for recommendations of funny women authors. The more the merrier, we always say, so here are a few more suggestions from our thoughtful correspondents:
You did not mention my favorite, Joan Medlicott. Her series, beginning with The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love,
follows the adventures of three ladies over the age of 65. The fourth book is coming out in October. These books are
a delight and you may very well find yourself smiling or laughing out loud. What impresses me most is that Joan Medlicott
did not write these books until she was well into her 60s.
Bonnie Markiewicz
I'd like to direct Ms. Nevins to Janet Evanovich. She is my absolute favorite and my books are passed around constantly
to friends from 14 to 60. We all love her for the misadventures of her heroine and her bawdy sense of humor.
Bonnie Werring To assure that readers spend the summer in stitches, Evanovich will release her latest romp, To The Nines, on July 15.
A FRENCH CONNECTION
Dear Burning Questions,
Nan Boyko Patricia MacDonald's 11th novel, Suspicious Origin, was published in April by Atria Books. BQ got in touch with MacDonald at her New Jersey home to ask about the new book and her upcoming tour of France in September.
As for the September tour, it will be her fourth trip to promote her books in France, where she's often at the top of bestseller lists. "Traveling to France to do publicity has been fun and challenging—had to learn how to speak French, and I manage pretty well now, out of necessity," she says. Those language skills are also a big help on her trips to Quebec, another place she tours frequently.
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According to MacDonald, Suspicious Origin is "romantic suspense, with an emphasis on suspense." It centers on a cable TV producer who travels to Vermont to attend her estranged sister's funeral only to find that the fire that caused the sister's death may not have been an accident.