Today’s MSN headlines let our friend Ben know that one of Silence Dogood’s and my favorite authors, Tony Hillerman, just died. Tony Hillerman is the author of a series of mysteries set in the Four Corners region of the Southwest and starring fictional Navajo Tribal Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

British expatriate science fiction author, futurist, and visionary Arthur C. Clarke died on Wednesday in a hospital in his adopted hometown of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was 90 years old.

Now that the Totally Fulfilled book has been released I am hoping to have some more time to dedicate to this blog and update it much more often. As of May 1st, I will open the blog up and have your comments and questions posted for all to see. For everyone who has left me messages to date - please know I have personally read them all and I thank you for your kind words and support.

First of all apologies for not posting messages as much as I would like to. The book hit and I have literally been traveling non-stop all over the country promoting it. I have been fortunate to meet so many amazing people along the way.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer has died of renal failure at the age of 84. Mailer won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Armies of the Night in 1968 and The Executioner's Song in 1979.

Rare is the scientific paper today written by a single author. With research being conducted by teams of scientists, most studies now boast a half-dozen or so authors. According to a new study led by a scientist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, credit for those papers is far from evenly distributed, and the order in which the authors’ names are listed makes a big difference.

An appreciative Ayaan Hirsi Ali has declined Denmark’s offer of asylum.

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey is a slim volume, 51 pages including notes and acknowledgments, but Natasha Trethewey packs Native Guard full of poetic goodness. At least that's my take on it. I have problems determining if I like poetry because it's good or because it speaks to my own experiences and biases, but I really think this is good stuff.

The notoriously private novelist Cormac McCarthy will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show in his first-ever TV interview to discuss the 57th Oprah's Book Club selection The Road on Tuesday, June 5, 2007.