Dear Burning Questions,

Please, please tell me that Annie Proulx has another book in the works.

Bonnie Ellis
Mount Vernon, Ohio

There's something about Annie Proulx's writing that reduces readers to begging. Since her second novel, The Shipping News (1994), won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Proulx (the name rhymes with shoe) has been a favorite of readers and critics alike. We have a feeling that you're hoping for another Proulx novel (her last was That Old Ace in the Hole in 2002) but we can't offer any information on that possibility. We can tell you, though, that Scribner will publish a new collection of Proulx's short stories next May. Fine the Way It Is will return to the Wyoming settings that Proulx has chronicled in such acclaimed stories as "Brokeback Mountain" and "The Bunchgrass Edge of the World."

Another option for getting a taste of Proulx's writing is the art book, William Matthews: Working the West, which was published in September by Chronicle. Proulx contributes an essay to this collection of 180 watercolors by Matthews, a noted painter of the American West who illustrated Proulx's 1999 short story collection, Close Range.

DEAR, DEAR

Dear Burning Questions,

I just came across a series of books which I enjoyed thoroughly, the Dearest Dorothy series by Charlene Ann Baumbich. I've found four books in the series, beginning with Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet? and ending with Dearest Dorothy, Who Would Have Ever Thought? Are there any more? I hope so. She can't leave us hanging!

Margaret Shaw
West Chester, Pennsylvania

Charlene Ann Baumbich is not the kind of author who would leave you hanging—especially not in Dorothy's fictional hometown of Partonville, where one of the most exciting things happening is the contest to name a new mini-mall. Dorothy, who loves her circle-the-square town "in the northern part of southern Illinois," is one of the few lead characters we know in her 80s—and what a character she is, with her own ideas about aging gracefully. Asked about the inspiration for her spunky heroine, Baumbich says, "There was a real Dearest Dorothy in my life! She was in her late 70s when I met her. She was also on her fourth computer upgrade, taught music all her working days, and played in the community band in her retirement years. Series' readers will recognize those familiar traits of the fictional Dorothy, too."

Baumbich says you're not the only reader who missed the fifth book in the series, Dearest Dorothy, Merry Everything! "Sadly, I've received buckets of e-mail from readers inquiring as to a fifth book in the series, which breaks my heart since it released last November," Baumbich tells BQ. "And to be honest, even though the art work is a Christmas scene—and yes, it's Christmas time in Partonville, and yes, the word 'merry' is in the title—it isn't a Christmas book but rather the next installment of everything dear in my little town." This fall, Penguin published a sixth book in the series, Dearest Dorothy, If Not Now, When?! In this installment, Dorothy welcomes the return of her oldest son, Jacob, who is ready to give up on big-city life.

TIME STANDS STILL

Dear Burning Questions,

I love Diana Galbadon's books. Is she ever going to write another one about Jamie, and what happens to the family?

Glenda Guglielmo
Ansonia, Connecticut

Diana Gabaldon's star-crossed lovers from her Outlander series have a lot to overcome—Jamie is from 18th-century Scotland, and Claire is a married nurse from the 1940s who is accidentally transported back in time. Still, the two made it through various travails, and even across the ocean to America just in time for the Revolution, in five subsequent books, most recently A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Bantam, 2005).

Gabaldon has promised at least two more books to Claire and Jamie's many fans—and it's just been announced that the seventh, which is as yet untitled, will be published by Bantam in fall 2009. The first line, according to Gabaldon's website, is "The pirate's head had disappeared."

Between Outlander novels, Gabaldon has focused on her Lord John series, which stars a peripheral character from the Outlander saga. The latest in this series, Lord John and the Hand of Devils, is scheduled for release November 27. According to Gabaldon, one of the differences between the two series is that the Lord John books are "not big enough to break your nose if you fall asleep while reading it in bed (a common complaint, evidently, with the larger books)."

IT'S A MYSTERY

Congratulations to this year's winners of the Macavity Awards, chosen by members of Mystery Readers International and presented at the mystery convention Boucheron in Anchorage, Alaska:

Best Novel: The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (Ballantine)

Best First Novel: Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone (HarperCollins)

Best Nonfiction: Mystery Muses: 100 Classics That Inspire Today's Mystery Writers edited by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar (Crum Creek)

Sue Feder Historical Mystery: Oh Danny Boy by Rhys Bowen (Minotaur)