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One of the reasons this book is taking longer than usual is that the story is partly set in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I have always been a bit obsessive about research (sometimes it's a good excuse for delaying that terrifying moment of sitting down to write the first sentence). But this is the first time I have tried my hand at a period piece and I don't want to get too many things wrong.

Most writers, I imagine, get letters or emails telling them they've made mistakes. In my second book, THE LOOP, I had Buck Calder owning an old, red John Deere tractor. Well, I know, as most people know, that John Deere tractors are green. In an early draft I'd explained that Buck had painted it, but later I took that bit out and consequently I had dozens of letters from readers (mostly from the Midwest), pointing out what looked like a mistake: Dear Mr. Evans, loved the book, however, on page... I wrote back to all of them, with gritted teeth, saying he painted the wretched thing. Lo and behold, not so long ago, I had a follow-up letter from one of these correspondents, a woman in Missouri. She apologized, enclosing a newspaper clipping that showed that John Deere had briefly, in the 1930s, made a Model B tractor that was red. So I was right all along -- by mistake.

Then there was the Oyster Bay restaurant in THE DIVIDE with the view of the ocean... but I won't go into that except to say it's a matter of semantics. Of course, now I've set myself up for more of these emails and letters when the new book is published (Dear Mr Evans, loved the book, but the Ford Galaxie did not have tail fins like that until April 1961). Please feel free not to write.

One sad event, earlier this year, was the death of Koani, a wolf who had been adopted and reared by some good friends of mine in Montana, Bruce Weide and Pat Tucker. There are pictures of them on my website. Koani was nearly sixteen years old when she died, a grand age for a wolf, and for most of that time she had been hard at work for Wild Sentry, the non-profit organization that Pat and Bruce set up to further the world's understanding of these amazing creatures and to counter the many wicked myths that surround them.

I got to know the three of them in the late nineties while researching THE LOOP and from then on, whenever I visited, Koani seemed to remember me and would lick my face and let me cuddle and rub her neck. It was such a great privilege. I will never forget being at their place in the hills outside Hamilton, sitting with my family around the campfire, when a police siren sounded in the valley and Koani, lying beside us, stirred and sat up and started to howl. We all hunkered down around her and started to howl too and it went on like that for several minutes. It was one of the most moving moments of my life and one that my kids will treasure forever. Bruce and Pat are now trying to raise funds to make a documentary film out of the fabulous footage they have accumulated over the years so that Wild Sentry's extraordinary work can continue. It's a cause well worth supporting and if you feel so inclined, you can visit their website www.wildsentry.org.

Fans of these newsletters seem to like my occasional observations about the seasons and the bizarre weather we seem to have nowadays. Well, we didn't get a summer until it was autumn and when it finally arrived it was heralded by another bout of biblical floods (no plague of locusts yet, but don't count it out). The swallows didn't know whether to stay or head home to Africa and great conventions took place on the power lines to discuss the issue. Many plants and shrubs were similarly confused and appeared to think it was spring again, bursting into flower for the second or third time when they should have been shedding their leaves.

It was all too late, however, for the hummingbird hawkmoths who normally patrol the lavender beds. They are intriguing creatures with tongues as long as their bodies. People say they don't breed here but fly in from France but I've never been convinced. Anyway, this year they never showed up. Maybe they stayed home in protest against our continued involvement in Iraq -- or French flies being renamed Freedom flies.

Now winter has arrived and in the meadows across the river, the great honking gatherings of geese have at last dispersed. Tonight, as I write, the sky outside my window is brimming with stars and there's a distinct hint of frost in the air. Away in the woods, rival tawny owls are hooting, each asserting his territory and, now and then I can hear Hopi, our beautiful brindled lurcher, barking on her nightly patrol, badgering the badgers and never outfoxing the foxes. Cosy indoors, my little five-year-old son, who crams more fun into his day than any creature I've ever met, is softly snoring in his bed, dreaming, perhaps, of his newfound hero, Indiana Jones. A fine log fire burns in the hearth and that's where I'm now headed. In this small corner of the world, at least, all is well.

Happy whispers,

Nicholas (Nicholas@NicholasEvans.com)

Now, from the number-one bestselling author of THE HORSE WHISPERER comes an epic thriller of the human heart.

Two backcountry skiers find the body of a young woman embedded in the ice of a remote mountain creek. All through the night, police work with arc lights and chain saws to dig her out. But identification doesn't take as long. Abbie Cooper is wanted for murder and acts of eco-terrorism, and her picture is on law-enforcement computers all across America. But just how did she die? And what was the trail of events that led this joyous, golden child of a loving family so tragically astray?

In a journey of discovery and redemption, from the streets of New York to the daunting grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, THE DIVIDE delves into the dynamics of a fractured family and their struggle with the pain of lost happiness. Electrifying and heartbreaking, master storyteller Nicholas Evans's newest novel delivers an extraordinary tale about the timeless power of nature, and about the yearnings, hopes, and disillusionments that connect -- and separate -- all men and women.

-Click here to read an excerpt.
-Click here to buy the book.

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This Month's Giveaway:
Subscribers who sign up for Nicholas Evans' newsletter by December 31, 2007 will be entered in a random drawing to win a paperback copy of THE DIVIDE. The winner will be contacted via email to get his or her mailing information.

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