The first blush of fall lays upon the Eastern face of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Humpback Mountain, above 2000 feet, shows bright color. One of the joys of living here is watching the color march down those mountains.

My dogwoods have started that red glow, and a sugar maple in the front drive at this moment is flaming orange. For most everything else, the color here should peak in two weeks. Then again, one never knows.

If I natter on about the weather, the season, it's because as a farmer you'd better be able to read the signs. Good as radar and the Weather Channel are, nothing will tell you about what's on deck better than furry caterpillars, leaf color, or animals developing a thick undercoat. The signs point to winter coming earlier this year and being colder than last year. If it kills the mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggers, I'm for it.

The "flying" part of the book tour started Monday, October 19 when I was in Detroit and Ann Arbor. One of these days, I will see Mackinaw Island in Michigan. However, book tours don't send you there.

Along the Eastern seaboard, we're cubbing. Actually, this is going on wherever there's a foxhunting club, a beagle or basset club, too. Foxhunters chase; we don't kill. I have to keep saying that because there's always someone who doesn't know, who thinks we are like the English. They do things their way; we do things ours.

And mid-November, rifle-season begins in Virginia. Bow season is already on for deer. Some people are opposed to deer hunting. The laws around suburban areas have created a deer population explosion, a good thing for anyone involved in body work. So many deer slam in to cars that those businesses are booming. Then the deer eat everyone's gardens. Finally, residents realize there's a major problem. They empower the police to cull the deer. Result: tax money spent to kill animals that no one eats. A complete and total waste no matter how you look at it. If that's the way it's going, can't those communities support Hunters for the Hungry?

ANIMAL MAGNETISM, publication date October 13, 2009, is the book for which I am flinging myself across the midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Usually, I write a book, am grateful I can do what I love for I do love writing every bit as much as I love hounds, horses, and my snotty cats. But this book, non-fiction, is close to my heart for it's about the animals in my life and what they have taught me. I'm not sure I've taught them much, but I have so loved them that I think they don't much mind the imbalance.

Whoever you are, may you be alive to Nature's beauty and wisdom, happy and curious about the creatures with whom you share your home and the world. We're all in it together.

Roger, Wilco, Over and Out

Rita Mae Brown

Rita Mae Brown's earliest memory is of the soothing purr of Mickey, her family's long-haired tiger cat, who curled up and claimed a spot in her crib. From there, a steady parade of cats, dogs, horses, and all manner of two- and four-legged critters have walked, galloped, and flown into and through her world. In ANIMAL MAGNETISM, the bestselling author shares the lessons she's learned from these marvelous creatures as well as her deep appreciation for them.

Brown readily admits that she prefers the company of animals to people, a trait handed down from her mother. After all, Brown explains, “There's no such thing as a dumb dog, but God knows there are continents filled with dumb humans.” In fact, by observing the dogs on her farm, the horses in her stables, and the cats that have helped her flesh out her many novels, Brown has gained better insight into herself and other human beings-one need only look at a chicken coop, she once realized, to see its striking similarity to her mother's clucking and preening group of friends.

In hilarious and heartwarming stories, Brown introduces us to Franklin, a parrot with a wicked sense of humor; R.C., a courageous Doberman who defined loyalty and sacrifice; Suzie Q, the horse who taught her the meaning of hard work; Baby Jesus, a tough tiger cat from New York City with sharp teeth to match his attitude; and of course the beloved and prolific Sneaky Pie, who needs no introduction to her legions of fans. In her succinct and personable style, Brown also revisits the very human parts of her life -- growing up in the segregated South, dealing with the pain and the loss of those dearest to her, and coming into her own as an adult and as a writer.

Every recollection here reveals nature's delight and wonder -- and offers solid evidence of the ability of animals to love. As funny as it is poignant, ANIMAL MAGNETISM shows how these inspiring creatures, great and small, can bring out the best in us, restore us to our greater selves, and even save our lives.

Buy the book here.

Read an excerpt here.

“Sister” Jane Arnold, esteemed master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, has traveled to Kentucky for one of the biggest events of the season: the Mid-South Hound Show, where foxhounds, bassets, and beagles gather to strut their champion bloodline stuff. But the fun is squelched when, immediately after the competition, one of the contestants, Mo Schneider, turns up dead -- facedown, stripped to the waist, and peppered with birdshot. Universally detested by his peers, Mo had no shortage of enemies, making the list of suspects as long as the line for homemade pecan pie at a church bake sale.

Two weeks later, back in Virginia, Sister is rocked when her friend the popular veterinarian Hope Rogers dies from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sister refuses to believe that Hope killed herself and vows to sniff out the truth. But before she can make real headway, a wealthy pet food manufacturer vanishes during the granddaddy of all canine exhibitions, the Virginia Hound Show.

Ever reliant on her “horse sense,” Sister can't help but connect the three incidents. And what she uncovers will make her blood run colder than the bodies that keep turning up in unexpected places.

Thrilling adventures with horses and hounds, breathtaking vistas, furry friends, and familiar faces, including Shaker Crown and the girls from Custis Hall -- Rita Mae Brown weaves all these elements into a dazzling novel of suspense.

Buy the book here.

Read an excerpt here.

New York Times bestselling authors Rita Mae Brown and her feline partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, are back for the holidays in a new mystery featuring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and corgi Tee Tucker. Can they save the season from a killjoy who's decided to gift the festive little town…with murder?

As Harry well knows, there's hardly a place on earth cozier than Crozet, Virginia, at Christmastime. The snowflakes drifting lazily down, the soft glow of the winter light, the sound of old carols in the streets…even cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter get into the spirit batting ornaments and climbing the holiday tree. In fact, it's this year's tree that Harry and her husband, Fair, have gone to fetch when they find the one they've chosen grimly decorated with a dead body.

The tree farm is run by The Brothers of Love, a semimonastic organization that tends to AIDS patients. The brothers live in a monastery atop the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains. Harry is surprised to find an old high-school friend associated with The Brothers of Love. Christopher Hewitt wasn't a bad man, but good works weren't exactly one of his priorities. But then, if even Scrooge could turn over a new leaf, certainly Chris could. And after the scandal that all but destroyed his life, there were probably few in Crozet who needed the gift of a second chance more.

Harry knows she shouldn't take it personally, but it was her tree that someone left the corpse under. Now, as the season grows merrier, a murderer is growing bolder. One by one, prominent men of Crozet are being crossed off Christmas shopping lists and added to the morgue. And if Harry and her four-legged helpers aren't very good-and very careful-this Christmas may be her last.

Buy the book here.

As a subscriber to Rita Mae Brown's newsletter you already are entered in a random drawing to win one of five copies of ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

Please note that subscribers who sign up for Rita Mae Brown's newsletter by December 31st are eligible. May we suggest that you forward this newsletter to a friend who is a Rita Mae Brown fan?

If you're reading this newsletter it means you have such good taste in literature. As THE HOUNDS AND THE FURY has just been released, you can exercise your aesthetic impulse. As to your other impulses, the less said the better.

Where I live the Blue Ridge is turning red, orange, gold and variations in between. Certain species of hawks on their southern migration pause here to spiral in the wind currents and rest. The sight of hundreds of raptors slowly twirling is astonishing. They talk among themselves, too.

The deer are moving about as all creatures are preparing for winter, but the wild turkeys seem to have the most perverse sense of humor about it. They'll dash in front of you (unless it's hunting season, they always know when) and then tuck up for the night.

THE HOUNDS AND THE FURY, the fifth in the Foxhunting series, takes place right here in central Virginia, and Sister Jane, the main character, can read Nature's book as clearly as I can. Her problems arise from humans, not animals, since humans have an odd habit of killing one another for reasons that they feel they can justify. Killing in self-defense or to eat makes sense. Otherwise it seems rude. Well, as usual, Sister winds up in the thick of it. Why tell you more? If I could talk out a book I wouldn't write it now, would I? Actually, I'm not too good at creating synopses. It's a little bit like asking a hitter at the plate the kinesiology of his/her swing. They'll never touch the ball after that.

Read it. If you don't like it, fear not: there's an avalanche of novels out there. One is bound to please you. If you do like it, I commend your sensibility.

If all goes well, I'll return again to Sister Jane, Inky, Diana, Aztec and the others.

As I write this, my co-author on the Mrs. Murphy series has just brought in a yellow finch, very much alive. She doesn't kill birds. She drops them at my feet where they remain still in a state of terror. So I have to pick this little guy up and put him in the woodshed while he overcomes the shock and then flies out. She's obviously not working on her book.

Well, I'll be working on mine, and when not, I'll be out there chasing foxes who flip their claw at you (since they can't flip the finger). Such saucy creatures.

Roger, Wilco, Over and Out,

Rita Mae

Critics and fans alike are wild about Rita Mae Brown's richly imagined and utterly engaging foxhunting mysteries --- and this latest novel promises more thrilling hunts, breathtaking vistas, and an all-new sinister scandal.

Millions of dollars seem to be missing after a long-overdue audit of the local aluminum plant reveals a major accounting discrepancy. Company president Garvey Stokes finds himself at a loss --- in more ways than one. He turns to his sharp-tongued, ornery bookkeeper, Iphigenia "Iffy" Demetrios, for an explanation, but she's no help. Yet when the fuzzy math suddenly includes a body count, the figures can no longer be ignored.

-Click here to read an excerpt from THE HOUNDS AND THE FURY.

Rita Mae Brown will be making the following appearances in the coming months.

10/24/2006
Davis - Kidd Booksellers
2121 Green Hills Village Drive, Suite 281
Nashville, TN 37215
615-385-2645 6 pm

10/25/2006
Joseph Beth Booksellers
4345 Barclay Downs Dr. SouthPark Mall
Charlotte, NC 28207
704-602-9800 7 pm

11/8/2006
Mystery Lovers Bookshop
514 Allegheny River Blvd.
Oakmont, PA 15139
412-828-4877 7 pm

11/9/2006
McIntyre's Fine Books
2000 Fearrington Village Center
Pittsboro, NC 27312
919-542-3030 7 pm

As a subscriber to Rita Mae Brown's newsletter you already are entered in a random drawing to win one of five copies of THE HOUNDS AND THE FURY.

Please note that subscribers who sign up for Rita Mae Brown's newsletter by December 31st are eligible. May we suggest that you forward this newsletter to a friend who is a Rita Mae Brown fan?