JanDunlap.com

Maybe I should rename March and make it Predator Month. The first weekend I was in Houston, MN, for the International Festival of Owls. Karla Kinstler and her team of fabulous volunteers put on a great festival as usual, although all the little kids with faces painted like owls probably tickled me the most. I met owlers from all over the region and got to connect with both old and new fans of my Birder Murder series, talking about birding experiences and mystery writing. This last weekend of the month I was in Wabasha, on my first visit to the National Eagle Center. Scott Mehus, one of the program directors there, told me they’d had about 14,000 visitors in March during their month-long celebration of the spring migration. It’s a ...more...

My publisher, North Star Press of St. Cloud, tells me that the third Bob White Birder Murder Mystery is scheduled for release on September 1, 2010. It’s titled “A Bobwhite Killing,” and I will be reviewing the proofs in a few weeks and finishing the back cover copy.  The opportunity to be so involved with the production of the book is one of the many reasons I love working with North Star. A few weeks ago, I participated in a small panel of mystery authors at Normandale Community College’s bookstore, and we compared notes about our input to our finished products. My two colleagues (both with large East Coast publishing houses) told me they have no authority when it comes to naming their books or making creative decisions about cover ...more...

Last month was a great kickoff for the release of my second Birder Murder, titled “Murder on Warbler Weekend.” The Launch party at Once Upon a Crime was a blast, and the next day I was at the reception for the Hawk Ridge celebration in Duluth, MN, where I met birders from across the upper Midwest. I spent the following morning at Hawk Ridge, watching migrants and people! When one of the naturalists walked by me with a bird tail sticking out of the bottom of an orange juice can, I had to stop him and ask about it. Guess what was in the can? A merlin! The naturalists catch birds for banding at the Ridge, and to keep the birds calm, they slide them into empty cans, which not ...more...