Dear Burning Questions,
Is there any possibility that Pauline Gedge might try another Roman novel, (or Briton novel, depending how your sympathies fall) in the order of The Eagle and the Raven? Thanks.

Yvette Viets Flaten
via the Internet

According to her agent in Toronto, Gedge is not at this time considering any further Roman novels. Her next novel, after her new trilogy Lords of the Two Lands, will probably be the missing novel linking the end of Lords of the Two Lands to her very first novel. Whew.

Volumes One, Two, and Three of the Lords of the Two Lands trilogy will be published in Canada at six month intervals, but there is not a U.S. publisher in place just yet.

If you're really aching for a Roman novel, we suggest Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.

Plum crazy

Dear Burning,
Any info on when the next tome by Nelson DeMille is due? I heard that it's a sequel to Plum Island. True?

mjw51
via the Internet

True. Everyone who was anyone was reading Plum Island at the beach last summer. Now DeMille is back with The Lion's Game, due in June (Warner). This fast-paced thriller again features NYPD detective John Corey, who now must capture the world's most dangerous terrorist.

Nelson DeMille is also the author of The Gold Coast, The Charm School, Word of Honor, The Talbot Odyssey, Cathedral, and By the Rivers of Babylon. He lives in Garden City, Long Island.

Gold rush

Dear Burning Questions,
I have read all four books written by the team Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I couldn't put them down. Do you know if they have another book scheduled?

Marisa Schmidt
via the Internet

The authors of Riptide, The Relic, Reliquary, and Mount Dragon return this July with Thunderhead (Warner), a new thriller about an ill-fated search for the fabled Lost City of Gold.

Douglas Preston was the managing editor of the American Museum of Natural History's Curator. He lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico. Lincoln Child, also a former editor, lives in Convent Station, New Jersey.

Furiously writing

Dear Burning Questions,
I'm seeking some information on the sequel to the fascinating book In Death Ground by David Weber and Steve White. I'd greatly appreciate any help and information you can provide.

David
via the Internet

Our contact at Baen Books confirms that there are plans for a sequel, but it's not in the works at this time. Currently, the authors are working on a prequel to Path of the Fury.

What's in a name?

Dear Burning Questions,
I was just curious -- in the January issue of BookPage it was mentioned in the review of W.E.B. Griffin's newest book that he writes under some eight different pseudonyms. Well, what other names does he write under? This is the first I've heard of this!

Fred Simon
via the Internet

In addition to W.E.B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth, III, has written under the following pseudonyms: Alex Baldwin, Webb Beech, Walker E. Blake, Edmund O. Scholefield, Eden Hughes, James McM. Douglas, and Patrick J. Williams. These names are found in a variety of genres, from children's books to romance novels. Several of these are used for his military novels.

Why all the names? According to the author, "Writing for me is a business. I decided long ago that if a librarian has a limited amount of money to spend, she's not going to spend it all on one writer . . ." (Source: The Washington Post, January 7, 1997)

An invisible book

Dear Burning Questions,
I would like to know the author of a book entitled Chalky. It was about a boy with an invisible friend that turned out to be real. I think he also turned out to be a math genius. I read it when I was about ten years old.

Mary Jones
Columbus, OH

Chalky, unfortunately, is out of print, but we can tell you that the author is Matthew Vaughan. Why is it that all of those wonderful books of our youth have bitten the chalk-dust, so to speak?