DUNE BLOG

Friday, July 11, 2008

The View from Roswell

We do so much traveling throughout the year on writing-related trips that we rarely take any time for ourselves. Recently, however, Rebecca and I carved out three days for a road trip, driving from our Colorado home down into New Mexico, stopping at Billy the Kid's Grave in Fort Sumner, then going the rest of the way to Roswell, where we stayed the night. Naturally, we visited the famed UFO museum and had a lot of fun.

We drove from Roswell down to Carlsbad Caverns, where we spent a day in the magnificent caves, taking both guided and unguided tours. The caverns are truly among the most amazing sights we have ever seen -- something to put on your List, if you haven't already been there. Unfortunately, our plans didn't allow us to stay until nightfall, when thousands of bats stream out of the cave entrance. (We did, however, make a stop in the "Bat Cave," which was quite appropriate, since I was just finishing the last tweaks on the manuscript for BATMAN/SUPERMAN: FIRST ENCOUNTER.)

Then, after only three days, it was back home and back to the writing and editing.

UPDATES: I have delivered the final ms. for FIRST ENCOUNTER to HarperCollins (scheduled publication is May 2009), and I've completed the draft of the first TERRA INCOGNITA book, which I'm currently titling THE EDGE OF THE WORLD. I really enjoyed writing that novel, and I think it'll be one of my very best, a worthy follow-up to "The Saga of Seven Suns."

Brian Herbert and I have met and brainstormed the details for JESSICA OF DUNE. The chapter-by-chapter outline is written, but we're still fleshing it out before we choose our chapters to write. We expect to get to work on our writing by the beginning of August, and the novel will be released around September 2009.

Lastly, we learned yesterday that the just-released paperback of SANDWORMS OF DUNE has debuted on the New York Times extended bestseller list.

Oh -- and don't forget to take advantage of our offer for a free hardcover of CRYSTAL DOORS at www.wordfire.com.

Keep reading,
-- KJA