|
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."
|
RETURN TO ROMANCE
Dear Burning Questions, I enjoy reading Jude Deveraux's work greatly. I had heard that her young son was killed, so I was wondering how she was coping with that and if it will be reflected in her coming works, if she is even continuing to write—is she?
Olivia Herrell
The author of dozens of best-selling romance novels, Jude Deveraux turned to contemporary women's fiction in recent years, starting with 1999's High Tide. "I find that now [that I'm a mother] I'm not so interested in the events that happen between a man and woman," she has said. Sadly, her eight-year-old son, Sam, died in a dirt bike accident in October 2005. Deveraux has not commented on her son's death, but she has continued to write—and has made a return to romance and her popular Montgomery family. In Someone to Love (Atria), which goes on sale July 24, Jace Montgomery is still reeling from his fiancée's suicide three years before. When a mysterious note in one of her paperbacks leads him to an English mansion, Jace encounters a ghost who might be able to help him find the truth about what happened to his fiancée.
GIMME SOME SUGAR Dear Burning Questions, Is there a sequel planned for The Crimson Petal and the White?
Nancy Ferry
We, too, admire Michel Faber's sprawling neo-Victorian saga, so BQ set out to discover whether more adventures were in store for the novel's engaging protagonist, prostitute Sugar. We found that a short story collection starring many of the characters from Crimson Petal does exist—but it hasn't yet been published in the U.S. The stories in The Apple take place before and after the action of the novel. An editor at Harcourt, which is publishing The Apple in 2009, told BQ that "two stories feature Sugar before she met Rackham; one features Rackham long after Sugar's departure; another is about Sugar's grandson at a women's suffrage march." Until then, Faber fans will have to be content with a different set of stories—and if its title is any indication, this one is firmly set in modern times. Vanilla Bright Like Eminem will be published in September, and includes 16 tales that "move from unspeakable sadness through moments of exquisitely distilled happiness."
BACK IN TIME Dear Burning Questions, Julie Garwood's historical romances are some of my favorite books, but it has been years since she's published a new one. Instead of historical romances she has been writing a lot of romantic suspense novels in recent years. Does she have any plans to return to her historical romance roots?
Karen Oll
Like many romance authors, Julie Garwood made the leap from historical romance to romantic suspense in the late 1990s. But historical fiction (and likewise historical romance) is hot again, and Garwood is currently finishing up her first historical romance in eight years. Set in medieval Scotland, the book features the ancestors of the Buchanan family ftom some of her contemporary novels, including last year's Shadow Dance. A firm pub date has not yet been set, but our sources at Ballantine say it should hit shelves at the end of 2007 or early 2008.
MORE THAN FRIENDS Dear Burning Questions, Can you tell me if Julia Spencer-Fleming is writing another Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery? Her books are very popular at our library.
Judy Schroeder
"I'm finishing up the sixth Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery," Spencer-Fleming tells BQ. "It opens just a few weeks after the events of All Mortal Flesh and takes the people of Millers Kill, New York, through an entire year. We'll be seeing more of the Van Alstyne family, more of how joining the New York State National Guard affects the Reverend Fergusson's life and ministry, and of course, lots more Russ and Clare, as they struggle to come to grips with the events of All Mortal Flesh," says Spencer-Fleming. "This book has been a challenge because for the first time ever, I'm writing a very, um, romantic encounter between two characters. I've discovered it's much easier to describe car wrecks and fistfights than kissing." Spencer-Fleming started writing while taking a break from practicing law to raise her three children. The first Fergusson/Van Alstyne mystery, In the Bleak Midwinter, was such a success that she's never gone back, and now writes full time from the 180-year-old Maine farmhouse that she shares with her family and dog.
Headline
Congratulations to the readers who won free audiobook CDs of Tim Willocks' epic, The Religion, from Audio Renaissance:
|
We contacted this Agatha Award-winning author to find out what's next for her unique protagonists, a female Episcopal priest and a police chief. As BookPage Whodunit? columnist Bruce Tierney put it, "If you admire atmospheric prose, if you appreciate a good story with clever twists," this series is right up your alley.