JanDunlap.com

I can’t believe it. It looks like a Scott’s Oriole has been sighted in Duluth, MN, just three hours from my home. What’s unusual about that is that a Scott’s Oriole is a bird native to the southwest. What’s even odder (is that an oxymoron?) is that my Bob White characters see a Scott’s Oriole in my most recent release, Falcon Finale, when they go to Arizona. And now they could have stayed home and seen one right here in Minnesota!

This has happened to me before with these books: bird events that echo my book events. For the first book, it was an influx of Boreal Owls (normally very hard to find) in northern Minnesota the winter after the book The Boreal Owl Murder debuted in September 2008… ...more...

A funny thing happened on the MOU listserve last week. (If you aren’t familiar with the listserve, it’s the Minnesota Ornithologists Union’s means of keeping all the birders updated on what bird was seen where, along with other items of interest to Minnesota birders. Since I am a member of the MOU (as is my fictional protagonist Bob White), I get all the emails, and the one that caught my eye last week was a sighting of Northern Bobwhites, which is the premise of my third Birder Murder, titled “A Bobwhite Killing”. Another birder responded to the one who saw the bird, explaining that Northern Bobwhites are no longer considered wild in Minnesota because they have been so domesticated by farms. This is true, as I point out in my ...more...

Great news! The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is going to be carrying my Birder Murders! I’ve been trying to place “The Boreal Owl Murder” in the gift shop there for the last year, and now it’s a done deal, complete with some book signings for both “Boreal Owl” and my newest, “Murder on Warbler Weekend,” scheduled for the busy holiday shopping season. The Arb has visitors from all over the country (not to mention the world), so I thought it would be a great spot for some high visibility, not to mention all the birdwatchers that frequent the extensive grounds there. Another new spot I’ve landed is on the internet – my books are currently featured on a new website called Reading Minnesota that celebrates Minnesota books. Check it out at ...more...