Dear Burning Questions,

I would love to know if Arthur Phillips, the author of Prague, The Egyptologist and Angelica, will be publishing anything in the near future. I've enjoyed all three of his previous novels a great deal and would appreciate any information you can provide.

Sharon Arnette
Hendersonville, North Carolina

Readers never know what to expect from the inventive Phillips. Since his first novel, which was set in 1990s Budapest (despite being titled Prague), he's jumped to 1920s Egypt and Victorian London. His fourth novel, The Song Is You, returns to the present day and will be published by Random House in Spring 2009. Phillips tells BQ the book is "a tragicomic romance (?) set in contemporary Brooklyn, about a man who falls in love with a rock singer, a woman half his age. Mostly, it's about a man in love with his iPod."

SHE'S BACK

Dear Burning Questions,

When is J.A. Jance going to publish another book in her Sheriff Joanna Brady series? The last one I can locate is Exit Wounds, which was published in 2003. She left Joanna pregnant and running for re-election and I do hope she continues the series.

Dorothy Johnson
Cumberland, Maryland

A true J.A. Jance fan like you probably snapped up the long-awaited Joanna Brady book, Damage Control, when it hit bookstore shelves at the end of July. In the novel, Sheriff Brady looks into the mysterious deaths of two nursing home residents while balancing her complicated family life, which includes her teen daughter and newborn baby.

Coming up next for Jance is the fourth installment in her Ali Reynolds series, Cruel Intent (Touchstone), which will be published December 2. Death comes to Ali's doorstep—literally—when her twin daughters find a dead body and her contractor, Logan, becomes the suspect. Only Ali believes in his innocence, but can she convince Detective Dave Holman?

THERE SHE IS, OUR IDEAL

We're delighted to announce that Author Enabler columnist Kathi Kamen Goldmark is the winner of the 2008 WNBA Award from the Women's National Book Association. The award honors a woman who has done outstanding work promoting books and literacy.

Kathi will be honored at a reception in San Francisco on Nov 8. She joins such luminaries as Eleanor Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Patricia Schroeder on the list of WNBA Award winners. The organization cited Kathi's work as a founder of the Rock Bottom Remainders, as an author and as an advocate for literacy in choosing her as this year's recipient.

"The WNBA award is a great honor, and came as a complete surprise," Kathi tells BQ. "I'm delighted to accept . . . and more relieved than you can imagine that there was no swimsuit competition involved."

Kathi, who gets our vote as Miss Congeniality in any contest, founded the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders in 1992 and has recruited such writers as Stephen King, Dave Barry, Amy Tan and Ridley Pearson to play along. The group has raised more than $1.5 million for literacy initiatives and other causes. She also serves as the author liaison for the San Francisco Library Laureate's dinner and helped to organize San Jose's annual Book Group Expo.