Author Brad Strickland has announced via his website the twelfth title in the Lewis Barnavelt series. The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer is to be published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2008.

We are interested in learning more about John Bellairs's contributions to the Phoenix, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based weekly newspaper. It's a long shot, we know, being almost 40 years after the fact, but that hasn't stopped us before. Here is what we know:

** We have a copy of Bellairs's article "Graffiti" that appeared in the debut issue on October 9, 1969.

** He was only associated with the paper for a few weeks; therefore we believe his remaining articles would be found in the October 16 and 23 issues.

** We have confirmed he had no column in the October 30 edition; however it is tempting to determine if there is anything on November 6 (though we doubt it).

After this it's a bit murky. We've contacted the usual archival sources in the Boston/Cambridge area (libraries and colleges and such), as well as other universities that specialize in alternative newspapers from the 1960s (yes, such collections exist), to no avail. Some collections do not feature the Phoenix; those that do usually have only issues from 1970 forward. For those curious, there is a connection, albeit a small one, between this version of the Phoenix and the modern, better-known Boston Phoenix - but that association hasn't helped much.  Actually it hasn't helped at all.

John Bellairs's timid, chubby hero, Lewis Barnavelt first introduced in 1973's The House with a Clock in its Walls returns to print this October thanks to author Brad Strickland.  The House Where Nobody Lived is the eleventh book in the Barnavelt series and the fifth written by Strickland since 1996.

 

In House, Lewis again teams up with his best friend Rose Rita Pottinger as they delve into the mysterious happenings of New Zebedee.  This time it involves the Hawaii House, a strange structure not far from Lewis's house.  The man who built it in the 1800's had been a representative of the United State government to the Sandwich Islands, which is what the Hawaiian Islands were known then.  A new family has moved into the house and soon strange sounds are heard from deep within the building.  What sinister spirits will they find themselves up against this time?  With support from Lewis's uncle Jonathan and neighborly witch Mrs. Zimmermann, Strickland weaves another suspenseful tale.

 

The House Where Nobody Lived is set for release in October 2006 by Dial Books for Young Readers.