Hello, readers:

Just wanted to give everyone an update and let you know about some projects on the horizon and where they stand. A mob-related book (details of which will be coming soon) is still in the works and progressing. Also -- and this is exciting -- Plexus Publishing in England, the same folks who reprinted both "The Killing of Tupac Shakur" and "The Murder of Biggie Smalls" in the UK have put a collaboration of stories together in a book titled "Tupac: A Thug Life." The editors have included as one of the book's chapters an article I wrote for George Magazine titled "Dead Poets." "Tupac: A Thug Life" is scheduled to be released July 30 in the UK. For Tupac fans and those interested in hip hop culture, it promises to be an interesting read. Here's the book's description: "The first black artist to have become as legendary as Elvis or James Dean, Tupac Shakur's reputation rests on a mass of contradictions. He is the gangsta rapper who eulogized the 'thug life'; the erudite young man who hoped for a political and spiritual awakening among his peers; the star who served a prison term for sexually abusing a female fan, the sensitive son of a politicized single mother. A Thug Life tells the definitive story of Tupac's career in a thorough selection of interviews, articles, reviews and essays on rap music's enduring icon." I've been continuing to do many radio and TV interviews about the Tupac, Biggie and Ted Binion cases. I'm working on a second edition this summer -- while I'm on summer vacation from teaching journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- of "Death in the Desert: The Ted Binion Homicide Case" (and it may get a new title in the process). I'll keep you posted when it's set to be released. Also, I'm working on a second biography of my uncle, Father Seraphim Rose, a Russian Orthodox monk who died in 1982 and is in the process of being canonized. When I was in San Francisco in February as a speaker at the National College Newspaper Convention I went to the Mission District and visited the book store next to the Holy Virgin Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church where Fr. Seraphim was ordained a monk. I also interviewed a few people at the church who knew him. I'll be adding quite a bit to the story and reorganizing the project as a whole. It will be released sometime in 2006. I'm still hiking and spending some time on Mt. Charleston and in Red Rock Canyon. Just had to buy a new iBook when my 2-1/2-year-old one gasped it's last breath this week.

My mother, Eileen Rose Busby, a fellow author, passed away on April 6, The San Diego Union Tribune. Her third book -- which she finished writing a few months before her death -- will be published in spring 2006 by Schiffer Books. It's a collector's coffee table edition titled "Royal Winton Chintz and Pastel Ware," to be released by Schiffer Publishing. Because it's the first book to be published solely about chintz china in seven years, collectors around the world have been waiting for it. We're all proud of my mother. Have a safe summer! And keep reading!

All my best