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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, 2143 Belcourt Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212. Or better yet, send us e-mail. When you write, please include your full name and the city and state where you live. 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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A NEW LEIF
We've waited, we've wondered, we've almost lost hope, and now at last relief is on the horizon. Leif Enger, author of the beloved novel Peace Like a River (2001), has finally produced a second book. So Brave Young and Handsome will be published in May by Atlantic Monthly Press. We hear that it's a Western, and very different from Peace, but definitely worth waiting for. Watch for details in a future issue.
BACK IN TIME Dear Burning Questions, I just discovered the Sarah Tolerance mystery series by Madeleine E. Robins. After devouring both Point of Honour and Petty Treason in one weekend, I was devastated to see that there are no more. Will she be bringing Sarah out for more fascinating Regency mysteries?
Christy Lockstein
Robins does have more adventures in mind for her Regency-era sleuth, but unfortunately they won't be appearing anytime soon. "While the hardcovers of both books sold well, mass market sales were not good—the people who loved it and bought it appear to have bought it in hardcover—and Tor asked me to try something new," Robins tells BQ. "There's no villain here: the series was hard to package so that the right audience would find it, and in paperback it was particularly hard for the chains to know where to shelve them. It's not a story unique to me, alas. I'm looking for a small press publisher that might be interested in picking the series up (since I have about 3/4 of book three, and 1/3 or so of book four, written)." According to Tor, the Tolerance series is "on hold." Robins' editor there describes their current project, set in 1100s Italy, as "an historical novel with some fantastical elements."
ROAD READY Dear Burning Questions, I haven't heard anything about Anne Rivers Siddons in quite some time. I know she relocated from Atlanta to Charleston a few years ago, and I think I read that she'd had some health issues. Can we expect any more of her wonderful books?
Ellen Yordan
As far as we can determine, Anne Rivers Siddons has lived in Charleston since marrying her husband in 1966. But she did make a move this year—she has changed publishers, signing a three-book contract with Grand Central in 2007. As for the other part of your question, BQ doesn't have any inside info about Siddons' health, but promising to write three books would indicate that she's feeling pretty chipper. Her first project with Grand Central, Off Season, is scheduled for release in June. In the novel, a woman takes a road trip to the place she and her late husband fell in love, and re-evaluates her life and marriage along the way. We're betting that the place Lilly visits on the coast of Maine is inspired by Siddons' own summers there.
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