Hello again! Now that the holidays, the January doldrums and the life-threatening blizzard are all over and there's a lull in my edits, more actual news:

–Frail, the sequel to Dust, has an official release date: October 2011. (Exact precise day of delivery to be announced when the midwife informs me.) This is much sooner than I had anticipated so I am very excited and, as mentioned, neck-deep in edits. Frail, as previously mentioned, takes place in the immediate aftermath of Dust and switches from the undead viewpoint to the all-important human perspective–but as Dust readers already know, "human" and "inhuman" are open questions in this universe. Which makes it all that much more fun to write, even when neck-deep in edits. Many new characters, some surprise appearances by old ones, more northwest Indiana/Calumet region local color and all manner of Significant Mayhem.

–The paperback edition of Dust also comes out this year. Yes! I don't have an official date of release yet, but hopefully soon.

–I can't announce it until the proverbial ink is dry, but there's more news regarding Dust that makes me very pleased, and might please some readers, and perhaps soon I can share it with the world. I'm only cryptic because I love.

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A few weeks ago, I was terribly surprised and flattered to find out that Dust is being taught in a freshman seminar at Dartmouth. No, really, here's proof:

ENGL-007-01 The Weird in Contemp. Novels

Hour: 11 Instructor: Michael Chaney

Description: Why are contemporary novels preoccupied with the weird, the strange, the bizarre? Beyond simply making for good stories, encounters with the weird, the fantastic, and the marvelous in contemporary novels are also commentaries on existence today, theorizing who we are and how we relate to each other. In this course, students will read several contemporary, highly acclaimed novels that stage encounters with the weird. Likely examples include Haruki Murakami's After Dark, Joan Turner's Dust, and Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City. In order to understand how these stories about alternate realities, zombies, and surreal twists of fate intervene on the human condition today, students will also read secondary materials drawn from philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literary criticism.

Textbook(s)Required: The City and The City China Mieville Del Rey ISBN-13: 978-0345497512 Never Let me Go Kazuo Ishiguro Vintage ISBN 978-1-4000-7877-6 After Dark Haruki Murakami Vintage 978-0-307-27873-9 Atmospheric Disturbances Rivka Galchen Picador ISBN -13 978-0-312-42843-3 Dust Joan Frances Turner Ace 978-0-441-01928-1 Shades of Grey Jasper Fforde Viking 978-0-670-01963-2 Chronic City Jonathan Lethem Doubleday 978-0-385-51863-5

That's some incredibly flattering company, needless to say, and it was even more flattering when the professor invited me to do a Q&A with his class a couple of weeks ago. Many interesting questions ensued, including but not limited to the book's conception of "race" (human vs. inhuman) and racial conflict, the role local geography plays in the plot (any time I get to ramble at length about my backyard is always a good time, well, at least for me), language and communication–and all their attendant failures–the challenge of writing personality-challenged characters, the conception of spirituality, and my favorite zombie movie–though whether it qualifies as such is still up for debate–Carnival of Souls. If anyone from the seminar is reading this: I had a lovely time talking to all of you, and thank you so much for the invitation and your notes of thanks–it really was my pleasure. Of course, all this means that though Dartmouth is my undergrad alma mater's unofficial arch-rival I now have to stop regarding it as Bears fans regard the Packers, but then, we all know that life is pain.

That's all for the moment, but hopefully more on the above in short(ish) order. As the sidebar sayeth, in the meantime you can find me on Facebook and Twitter.

–JFT, 2/9/11