JanDunlap.com

Yikes! I just looked at my blog and realized I’ve been incommunicado since late March. I’ve got good excuses – #1: April was the last month of the spring semester and I poured the work on my online students at New Mexico State University, which meant I had tons of papers to read; #2: In May, I graded final papers and then I proofed the final version of the third Birder Murder mystery, which is due out this September, and I also signed books at the Urban Birding Festival in Ramsey County; #3: my middle daughter got married in early June, which meant I was doing mother-of-the-bride busyness on top of excuses #1 and #2; and #4: I forgot to blog.

So now I’m ready to get back to ...more...

I just received confirmation that my second Bob White Birder Murder, “Murder on Warbler Weekend,” has been nominated for the 2009 Minnesota Book Award. That makes it two for two, since the first book in the series “The Boreal Owl Murder” received a nomination last year. Finalists will be announced in February.

This coming March is shaping up to be an interesting marketing month for me. The first weekend of the month I’ll be at the International Owl Festival in Houston, MN. Last year’s event was delightful, so I’m looking forward to meeting birders and signing books there again. For the last weekend in the month, I’ve been invited to come speak and sign books at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN. I haven’t visited the new center there yet ...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...