July 1996
Haven't heard from your favorite author in a while? Curious to know if another book is on the way? Send us a note (email and snail mail address below) and we'll see what we can find out for you. Each month the BookPage Burning Questions staff goes to the ends of the Earth and back again to find the answers to our readers' most burning questions. The answers are printed each month, both online as well as in our print edition. Go ahead, try to stump us!
Before we get to the questions, a contest
We have noticed a trend. You can name a first novel anything. It doesn't matter. Go ahead -- look around the room, and pick an object, a phrase, anything. Damaged Floppies: A Novel. The Cheapest Gimme Mug in the World: A Novel. The Calculator: A Novel. Suddenly, such rich meaning emerges.
In the interest of testing this hypothesis, we invite you to submit the title of that first novel you haven't gotten around to writing yet. This is easier than you think.
The prize, you ask? A book, of course. Five entrants will receive a first novel of our choosing. We'll share our favorite entries with our readers, too -- imagine the delicious moment when you see your novel in print, without even having to write it.
Remember: Our judges are looking for the best random/profound book titles.
Send entries (one per person, please!) to: Name It Anything, c/o BookPage, 2501 21st Ave. South, Suite 5, Nashville, TN 37212. Or email your to contest@bookpage.com. Deadline for entries is Friday, August 30, 1996.
Sci-fi newsflash
Dear Burning Questions:
One of my favorite science fiction authors is William Gibson, who wrote the incredible Neuromancer trilogy and coined the term "cyberspace." I haven't heard of anything he's had in the works since Virtual Light (Bantam) came out three years ago, though. Do you know of any of his current projects? Thanks.
Todd Shirley
Dayton, Ohio
Our 11-year-old nephew is a big Gibson fan. When he told us about the Neuromancer trilogy, we thought he was talking about some sordid Ricki Lake episode he'd seen. What did we know? We cannot keep up with such precocity, so we simply nod politely and hope he doesn't hack his way into our computer.
Putnam will publish William Gibson's next book, Idoru, in September.
Kingdom gone, alas
Dear Burning Questions:
I have been waiting eagerly for the sequel to Thomas Tryon's The Wings of the Morning (Fawcett) and In the Fire of Spring (Ivy). I know that he passed away in 1991, but I thought that there was to be another book in a series called Kingdom Come. Can you help?
Sheranna Cochran
Kennesaw, Georgia
Unlike some authors who continue to publish long after they die (the dearly departed yet weirdly prolific V.C. Andrews comes to mind), Tom Tryon is indeed resting in peace. No more deciphering royalty statements for him. Our sources at Alfred A. Knopf tell us that The Wings of the Morning was Tryon's final book.
A memorial BQ in honor of our grandma who adored Phyllis Whitney
Dear Burning Questions:
Can you tell me what has happened to Phyllis A. Whitney? She usually releases one book each year, but I haven't seen a new book since 1994.
Cynthia Sullivan
Nashville, Tennessee
You are correct: Whitney's most recent novel was published in 1994, Daughter of the Stars (Fawcett). This enduring doyenne of romantic suspense has just completed her newest, fortieth novel, Amethyst Dreams, which Crown will publish in spring 1997. It is a compelling drama about a woman who is enticed to visit the family of an old friend from college who has mysteriously disappeared.
Chaim Potok: alive and well and writing in Pennsylvania
Dear Burning Questions:
Do you know if Chaim Potok is still writing? I know that Knopf published his book Sky of Now last October.
Ann L. Kennedy
Tucker, Georgia
Potok is still writing. He has a new book coming out in November from Alfred A. Knopf called The Gates of November: Chronicles of the Slepak Family. It is a work of nonfiction chronicling the stormy lives of a Jewish father and son in the Soviet Union.
Good news about Nancy Mairs
Dear Burning Questions:
I love everything and anything that Nancy Mairs writes. Her last two books from Beacon Press, Ordinary Time and Voice Lessons, were very helpful. I know that she suffers with multiple sclerosis, and while writing Ordinary Time her husband was deteriorating with cancer. Is she still writing? Is anything new on the horizon from her pen and wit and intelligence?
via the Internet
Nancy Mairs is indeed still writing, but you will have to wait until January 1997 when Beacon Press publishes her next book, Waist High in the World. It is a book of essays about Mairs's struggle with multiple sclerosis.
Get thee a bib
Dear Burning Questions:
Could you tell me when Octavia Butler's next novel is expected to be out? Last I heard she was working up on a follow-up to her last Parable of the Sower which I thought was going to be called something like Parable of the Talents. I love and have read all her work and am salivating with anticipation for the next.
amani na nguvu
via the Internet
Parable of the Talents (the second part of a trilogy beginning with Parable of the Sower) is due out in 1997 from Seven Stories Press. There is no word as of yet when the third part of the trilogy will be written or published.
Party on, Anne Sexton
Dear Burning Questions:
I was first introduced to Anne Sexton in college and have since become a great fan of her poetry. I am also a musician, so I was intrigued when I heard that she was once in a band. Is this true, and, if so, what were they called, and can I get a copy of the recordings?
Maud Macrory
Seattle, Washington
New England poet Anne Sexton (1928-1974) was indeed in a "parlor" band called "Anne Sexton and Her Kind." She and some of her former students formed this group and played what she described as "chamber rock music" (use your imagination). Unfortunately, as far as we know, no recordings exist.
A few good BQs. That's all we need in this world. A few good BQs.
Write us at Burning Questions, 2501 21st Ave. South, Suite 5, Nashville, TN 37212. Or better yet, e-mail us at Burning_Questions@bookpage.com.
Alas, we regret that personal replies are not possible.
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