Dear Burning Questions,
After seeing the CNN Movers profile of Ruth Reichl, I picked up her autobiography, Tender at the Bone. It was such a terrific read, I was wondering if she is planning a second book, since the first one ends before she goes to New York.

Marilyn M. Dickinson
Pickford, Michigan

Reichl is cooking up another wonderful book, entitled Comfort Me with Apples (Random House); it's scheduled for release in April. The new book explores how chef Reichl became a food writer and, eventually, the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. Sounds appetizing.

Full of promise

Dear Burning Questions,
The last I heard of my favorite writer Richard Russo (Nobody's Fool, Straight Man) he was working on screenplays (Twilight) and the screen adaptation of Straight Man. He did, however, promise not to stop writing novels. Has he kept his promise? Is there another novel in the works?

Janice
via e-mail

We like a man who keeps his promise. Knopf is publishing Russo's new novel, Empire Falls, in May. It's a generational story about a town in Maine that once had an impressive logging and textile industry but doesn't anymore. The central character, Miles Roby, is a man who grew up there and left but has now been brought back by family obligations. It's a social novel, and his editor feels it's "Russo's magnum opus."

P.D. please

Dear Burning Questions,
I'm a huge P. D. James fan. Please tell me that we can expect the return of Adam Dalgliesh soon. Also please profile this wonderful, prolific author. Thanks.

a reader in Wisconsin

Death in Holy Orders, to be published by Knopf in April, heralds the return of Adam Dalgliesh, back after a four-year hiatus. Here Dalgliesh is drawn to investigate the death of a young student at a cliff-side theological college.

British novelist P. D. (Phyllis Dorothy) James was born in 1920. To the delight of her many loyal readers, she offers classic detective fiction with a modern sensibility. James spent much of her career in public service, while also pursuing her childhood dream to write. Her first novel, Cover Her Face (1966), introduced the recurring character, Adam Dalgliesh, while An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972) introduced readers to female investigator Cordelia Gray. James is also the author of other mystery novels -- A Mind to Murder (1963) and Devices and Desires (1989) to name just two.

Lies, all lies

Dear Burning Questions,
I have recently read Jeanne Ray's Julie and Romeo, and I loved it! However, I have heard an unfortunate rumor that she has died. Can you please either confirm or deny this rumor and let me know if she has written any other books? Thanks.

Claire Jamerson
British Columbia, Canada

We're pleased to report that Jeanne Ray is very much alive and well -- and that we can expect more great things from her. Julie and Romeo is Ray's first novel, and her publicist at Harmony (an imprint of Crown) tells us that she is currently at work on another one. No pub date is set. (FYI: It's in the genes. Ray's daughter is Nashville author Ann Patchett, who wrote Taft, The Patron Saint of Liars, and, most recently, The Magician's Assistant.)

Pern, baby, Pern

Dear Burning Questions,
What's going on with Anne McCaffrey these days?

via e-mail

In April, Del Rey will publish The Skies of Pern -- in which we find that McCaffrey's famed dragonriders have been called back after three years. Pern may be free of Threadfall, but a new danger is coming. Born in Cambridge in l926, Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win the Hugo Award. A TV series titled Dragonriders of Pern, based on her novels, is in development and is scheduled to debut later this year.

Dailey news

Dear Burning Questions,
I have not read anything from Janet Dailey for over two years. What happened to her?

Leona L. Widmen
South Suburban, Illinois

We learned from Dailey's office that the popular romance author began working on two more Calder books at the beginning of the year. No pub date is scheduled as of yet.

According to Dailey's Web site (www.janetdailey.com), she is the #1 best-selling female author in North America and the third best-selling author in the whole wide world. Who knew? The site also offers some encouragement for would-be writers: Janet wrote her first novel, No Quarter Asked, after her husband urged her to back up her claim that she could write a better romance novel than the ones she had read. Currently there are over 300 million copies of her novels in print throughout the world, with translations in 19 languages.