MAILING LIST Mailing List Members receive advance information about Dan's new books and book signings and events. This mailing list is private... your e-mail address will not be shared. Note that the company we use, VerticalResponse.com, is a no-spam email service. If you have a spam-blocker on your email account, you may need to put Dan_Fesperman@mail.vresp.com into your Contacts or on your approved list in order to receive newsletters. After you click JOIN NOW, you will return to this page so you can read the latest news. You will soon receive an email from Dan, which contains a link to click (it just takes this ONE click and you're signed up). Thanks! Email Address: NEWS Winter 2007/2008 I'm finally coming up for air after turning in another manuscript. And just in time, too, with The Amateur Spy due out shortly in the U.S. If you happen to live in one of the cities where I'll be visiting while on book tour in March and April (check the Events calendar), please drop by and say hello. The manuscript was a real joy to work on. It's tentative title is The Arms Maker of Berlin, and much of it is set in neutral Switzerland during the Second World War. Although the country was hemmed in by Axis armies throughout most of the war, the capital city of Bern nonetheless became quite a hotbed for spies of all the combatants. It made for a surreal setting—a gentleman's war of intrigue, often played out in drawing rooms and cafes. It was a place where you could never quite be sure who was telling the truth, and who was spinning a yarn of disinformation. If you didn't choose wisely, lives would be lost. One of the best parts of the research was spending a month digging through declassified OSS records at the U. S. National Archives—everything from harrowing infiltration reports to the lavish expense accounts of operatives. They did enjoy their cognac. Unceasingly interesting material. And now, of course, I must pull myself out of this dream of the past, slap my face a few times with cold water, and journey back to the present for the upcoming book tour. The Amateur Spy is very much a here-and-now sort of novel, set in the precariously placed kingdom of Jordan, which, come to think of it, enjoys a status not unlike Switzerland's during World War II—officially at peace with all its neighbors, yet also a prime listening post for every major rival in a dangerously contentious region. It, too, was a joy to write and research. On the film front, now that the Writers Guild strike has ended, I'm hoping that plans for a film version of The Small Boat of Great Sorrows will continue to move ahead. The Kennedy/Marshall Company has brought on board a director, Danis Tanovic, whose film, "No Man's Land," won the 2002 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and a screenplay has been written by Gil Dennis, who won a 2005 Oscar for best adapted screenplay for the Johnny Cash biopic, "Walk the Line." Fingers crossed. Late this March I'll be headed to Dubai for several weeks to begin research for my next novel. From all I've heard about the place, it should be a fascinating journey, with a touch of the bizarre. (And if any of you have any contacts there, please pass them along by email!) Hope to see you somewhere out on the road. Cheers, Winter 2006/2007 Okay, the biggest news first: The Kennedy/Marshall Company, whose production credits include Seabiscuit, Snow Falling on Cedars and The Bourne Identity, has purchased the film rights for The Small Boat of Great Sorrows. If the movie ever actually goes into production, I might even be able to send my children to college. Although they, of course, are more interested in obtaining cameo roles, preferably as the downtrodden children of domineering parents. I'm also pleased to announce that I've contributed a tale to Baltimore Noir, a collection of mystery short stories published by Akashic Books. The stories were compiled and edited by good friend and fine writer Laura Lippman, who also pitched in with a tale of her own. As any discerning reader must have figured out by now, these various publication dates must mean that right now I'm either A) Being terribly lazy, or, B) Already hard at work on book #6. The correct answer is "B," and in preparation I spent several weeks last October in Jordan and Greece, doing interviews and taking notes at various locations which will eventually work their way into the book. I'm trying something a little different this time, by telling most of the narrative in first person. The story opens on a small Greek island, then moves quickly to Amman, and it's all about... well, on second thought, better not give away too much before I've even finished the first hundred pages. Suffice it to say that most of it will be set in the Middle East. And if I'm ever going to finish, I'd better get back to work. Cheers, Winter 2004-2005 It has been quite a year for traveling, most of it having to do with the publication of The Warlord's Son, which came out first in the UK. In July I spent a week at the wonderfully strange "Semana Negra," a 10-day carnival wrapped around a book festival in the coastal town of Gijon, in the northern reaches of Spain's Asturius province. A friend had described it to me as "like Bouchercon (the North American mystery confab) if it were done by Fellini," and that sums it up pretty well. For starters, where else would a few dozen jet-lagged scribblers be greeted like conquering heroes. Yet, that's exactly what happened - not once, but twice, first for a lavish buffet lunch en route from Madrid, then at journey's end in Gijon. A large crowd and a marching band were on hand for both arrivals, and a photographer for Spain's largest daily newspaper, El Pais, snapped Alan Furst and I as we (somewhat bemused and bewildered, but happily so) made our way from the train. The rest of the week was something of a blur. Dinners and drinks lasted well into the night. Author interviews and writing seminars took place in a tent just around the corner from street performers and a giant Ferris wheel. And there's nothing like eating a plateful of boiled octopus and barbecued sausages just after midnight to produce an interesting cycle of dreams - at least, it did for those of us who actually made it back to bed before dawn. One of the week's highlights was being able to strike up a friendship with American writers Bob Reiss (aka Ethan Black) and Rebecca Pawel, and also with the British writer Robert Wilson, and his wife Jane, who are lucky enough to live just across the Iberian peninsula in Portugal. A few weeks later I was in in Great Britain for the entertaining mystery festival at the old spa town of Harrogate (the place Agatha Christie disappeared to, in one of the her darker episodes). Once again, Robert and Jane Wilson were good company, and there was plenty of fun to be had at the hotel bar with the likes of Val McDermid, Simon Kernick, Laura Lippman, Mo Hayder and, well, too many others folk to name without going on about it forever. As if to accommodate the festival's atmospherics, a spree killer just happened to be on the loose at the time in Yorkshire. My U.S. tour in the Fall was no less eventful, and many thanks to everyone who stopped by or said hello in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Austin, Washington, New York, Raleigh or my past and present hometowns of Charlotte and Baltimore. Special thanks to Lorraine Adams, author of the fine novel Harbor, with whom I was privileged enough to share double-billing at events in New York and the Miami Book Fair, and also to the witty Lorenzo Carcaterra, author most recently of Paradise City, who doubled-up at the podium in San Mateo. The best event of all was probably the three days I spent at this year's Bouchercon, in Toronto, where there was almost always someone around with which to share a drink, a dinner, or more than a few laughs. As for now, I'm hard at work on my next book, tentatively titled The Prisoner of Guantanamo, which I'm due to finish this summer. And, yes, I've visited Guantanamo, too, as well as the lovely Camp Delta, a foreboding and darkly fascinating place which, in its way, is about as bizarre as anywhere I've traveled. But seeing as how the Pentagon isn't likely to let you see for yourself anytime soon - unless, of course, you're in the Army or the, ahem, "Agency" -- I'll be happy to be your tour guide as long as you can wait until publication. Cheers,