Dear Burning Questions,

What, oh what, has happened to one of my very favorite authors, Kent Haruf? I discovered him in BookPage several years ago, and since then have read all of his books. I especially enjoyed Plainsong and then the sequel, Eventide. I am so looking forward to his next book.

Mimi Mullin
Columbus, Ohio

No contemporary writer can match Haruf's spare, haunting depictions of the Colorado plains, so we can't blame you for wishing that he would bless readers with another book. Haruf's publicist at Knopf tells us he is indeed working on a new novel, "set in Holt County, in contemporary times." No publication date has been set.

In the meantime, readers can look forward to Norton's publication of West of Last Chance in February 2008. In this collaboration with award-winning photographer Peter Brown (who took the cover photo for Eventide), Haruf contributes a number of brief prose pieces about the Great Plains, which accompany 137 of Brown's stunning color photographs. Also coming this winter is a stage adaptation of Plainsong, which will premiere at Denver's Stage Theater on January 21.

DOGGONE

Dear Burning Questions,

I enjoyed Last Days of the Dog-Men and The Heaven of Mercury by Brad Watson, the Mississippi writer. I lost track of him when he left the University of West Florida. Can you provide an update on him and whether he has another book scheduled for publication?

Henry Newsom
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

You're in luck. Watson, who's under contract with Norton for two more books, says he is "working on a couple of short novels, a new collection, and this fall will be back to work on a novel I shelved for a while, waiting it out."

Watson's Last Days of the Dog-Men won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and The Heaven of Mercury was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award. In keeping with this success and the busy schedule that comes with being an award-winner, Watson moved around and held several one-year visiting writer positions until last fall. "[It has] been hard to work on long projects with all this transition. Some personal setbacks, too, are settling down," he tells BQ. Watson's current gig, besides working on your next bookstore purchase, is at the University of Wyoming, where he is an assistant professor of English.

NO CHANCE FOR NOVEL

In our July Q&A with Janet Evanovich, she was excited about a fall publicity tour for No Chance, a book she collaborated on with Stephen J. Cannell. Chapter One was already posted on Evanovich's website, and an excerpt was also available on Cannell's site. Unfortunately for readers, in mid-July Grand Central Publishing announced that it no longer had plans to publish the novel in October, despite featuring Cannell and Evanovich prominently at the company's launch party at Book Expo America on May 31.

So why is there no chance for No Chance? Both Evanovich and her agent Robert Gottlieb cite "scheduling problems," but that doesn't explain why Grand Central cancelled the book instead of just rescheduling it. Grand Central publicist Evan Boorstyn would only say that Gottlieb is "speaking on behalf of everyone." We'll have to wait and see whether, as Gottlieb says, "both authors will be talking next year about revisiting the work given their commitments" and "when the book is ready . . . we will show it again to Grand Central."

HARD COPY

Dear Burning Questions,

Of the eight books in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, six are available in hardcover. Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls, the second and third books in the series, are only available in paperback. Why has Pantheon skipped these two?

Tammie Black
Birmingham, Alabama

When Alexander McCall Smith was first published in America, Pantheon decided to print his novels in trade paperback format, which is cheaper to produce and allows readers to discover a new author for $15 instead of $25. As the series grew in popularity, Pantheon moved it into hardcover starting with the fourth installment, 2003's The Kalahari Typing School for Men. So why is the first book available in hardcover? We asked McCall Smith's publicist, Michiko Clark, for an explanation. "We decided to bring out the first one in hardcover as a gift book one holiday season after the fifth volume was out. We may eventually bring out #2 and #3 in hardcover, but as of right now have no plans to do so," says Clark. "It is good to know that people are interested in collecting the entire series in hardcover."

The next novel in the series won't be published until next spring—but McCall Smith is currently in Botswana on the set of the film version of the first novel, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which is being directed by Anthony Minghella.