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Burning Questions
Wondering what happened to your favorite author? Gosh, so are we. Ask away: Send your cards and letters to Burning Questions, 2501 21st Ave. South, Suite 5, Nashville, TN 37212. Or better yet, send us e-mail. 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."
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Scary Gothic stuff
Dear B.Q.
Marcia Friedman
Tom Savage's latest, The Inheritance (Dutton), was released in August. No publication date has been set, but Dutton will publish Savage's next book in 1999.
Jonesin' for Brown
Dear Burning Questions:
Can you give us an idea of when his next book will be out? I'm like a junkie who needs a fix. Any information you can unearth will be appreciated. Gordon Kitchen We understand your pain -- we think this gritty southern writer is tops. Father and Son (Algonquin, 1996) is Brown's most recent novel, but another one is on the way. You just have to hold out until the fall of 1999. That's when the tentatively titled Wild Child will be released by Algonquin. You'll also be interested to know that scheduled to be released at the same time as Wild Child is a documentary film about Brown. This film, recently screened in New York, is produced by Gary Hawkins -- the very same man who produced the documentary of writer Harry Crews, which aired on PBS several years ago. A screenplay of Facing the Music will also be included in the documentary.
Red, white, and new
Hey, I have a burning question.
Cloud Shearmyer
This month Long Island-based author Susan Isaacs offers a new novel about a man and a woman "whose similar family ancestries have led them to different places in modern America." Red, White, and Blue (HarperCollins) will delight Isaacs fans. Charlie Blair is an FBI agent in Wyoming; Lauren Miller is a reporter for the Jewish News in New York. When the two come together, they make all kinds of discoveries.
Dancing all the way to the bank
Dear Burning Questions,
Julie Harte
As announced at the 1997 Southern Festival of Books, K.C. McKinnon is a pseudonym for Cathie Pelletier, author of, among other literary novels, Beaming Sonny Home (Crown). "McKinnon" is a Pelletier family name which also appeared in Pelletier's first three novels, The Funeral Makers, Once upon a Time on the Banks, and The Weight of Winter. For years Pelletier has enjoyed success as a "midlist" author, but she hit the big time with the publication of the more commercial Harvest Moon (Doubleday). Doubleday will be releasing the next McKinnon novel, Candles on Bay Street, in April 1999. We recently spoke to Pelletier from her home in Nashville. In high spirits, she informed us that she had just signed a contract with ABC for Candles on Bay Street to be made into an ABC movie (scheduled to be released in about a year). Pelletier also told us that Dancing at the Harvest Moon was bought to be made into a feature film starring Farrah Fawcett. Other movie deals are also in the works; three of her books have already been opted. When we talked, Pelletier said that the third K.C. McKinnon novel was already half-written. For the first time ever, Pelletier (wearing the hat of McKinnon) is setting her novel in the South. It is a ghost story of sorts about a woman who comes to the Natchez Trace. A new Pelletier novel, tentatively titled Running the Bulls, is also currently in the works but will not be out for another couple of years. Pelletier said of all her dealings with movie and TV execs, "Writers need to stand by their guns." Sounds like she's standing tall.
Auel watch Here we are years later, and the rumors about Jean Auel's health and Book 5 continue to amaze us. Strokes, heart attacks, death, attacks by swarms of killer bees -- this poor woman still gets killed off weekly in our Burning Questions mail. We recently spoke once again to Auel's agent's office who says that she's still clicking away on the next installment in the adventures of Ayla, uber-cavewoman. As for a release date for Book 5, sorry, there's just not one. Rest assured, there is indeed a fifth book on the way, but no publication date has been set. We'll keep you posted.
Contest update The results for the Random House Webster's Newer Words Faster Contest are in! The Random House Webster's editorial staff selected the following words as winners based on their creativity. The grand prize winner will receive a boxed set of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary and College Thesaurus and a t-shirt featuring one of the newest words in the dictionary, "yada-yada-yada" and its dictionary definition (blah blah blah). The ten first prize winners will receive a copy of the Random House Webster's Pocket American Dictionary. Drum roll, please . . . Grand prize:
uniquack (n. a cliched thought of the popular press; groupspeak)
First prizes:
1. brainfart (n. the equivalent of drawing a blank; "I'm having a brainfart and can't remember . . .")
2. road pizza (n. roadkill, the remains of a fatal accident, or an exaggeration implying death or trouble; "He's going to be road pizza if he isn't more careful.")
3. peopled out (adj. exhausted from having spent too much time among the public; "I have to get away on vacation; I'm peopled out.")
4. stud-muffin (n. a man considered to be sexy and desirable)
5. pew potato (n. a person who goes to church but does not participate)
6. skanky (adj. ugly)
7. value-added (n. extra incentive that makes a product more appealing, often in the form of additional product)
8. browsability (n. the degree to which an electronic resource such as a Web site affords the user quick and easy access to information)
9. flares (n. bell bottomed pants)
10. assisted living (n. housing with personal services and often health care)
We just want to say "conthankulations" to all who entered. That's our new word. Guess what it means.
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