It's been quite a long time since I sent out an update. We now have only 76 days left until Jean's long awaited 5th book, The Shelters of Stone, is released! AND guess what? This newsletter now goes to 7,315 ECfans around the world!! For up-to-date information about the book, be sure and visit The Shelters of Stone Updates page at ECfans.com! I'm adding confirmed titles of translations (and links when available), as well as any new developments on the media front to this page. Current happenings: Crown Publisher's announced the start of 'The Great Search for Ayla' sweepstakes in their recent January newsletter. It's a mail-in contest that covers only North America, since that's their main publishing audience. See their site at http://thesheltersofstone.com for rules and further details. I ALMOST wish I'd named my son Ayla so I could enter... Well - almost! ;D I KNOW he wouldn't have appreciated it at all!! Crown has also released, though Bookwrap, 5 short online video clips of Jean Auel, from a November interview in New York City, discussing "The Shelters of Stone" and it's creation. If you're a Mac user, and you can't get the video working, you might want to see Don's tips on his "An Evening with Jean Auel" page on how to get the streaming-videos running on your machine. If you haven't been to this page of his yet, I highly recommend it! If you didn't get a chance to read the first two chapters of The Shelters of Stone in the November 2001 re-released edition of The Clan of the Cave Bear, you get the chance to read at least the first chapter of "The Shelters of Stone" on the Bookwrap link with the video clips, or on Amazon's book listing. At Amazon, you'll find it to the left of the book listing under 'Book Information'. You'll find links to the various versions of The Shelters of Stone at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk on http://ecfans.com. They're open for pre-ordering. The audio versions are available in CD and audio cassette in two formats - produced by Brilliance Audio. (I've only linked directly to the less expensive of the two options.) Randomhouse is coming out with a large print hard cover, in addition to the regular hard cover, and the spanish translation (in paperback) is available through both sites, as well. The German version is now also available for pre-ordering at Amazon.de. If you're going to shop at Amazon or Amazon.co.uk, please consider starting your shopping excursion using the links at http://ecfans.com! The proceeds go toward paying for server expenses to keep the ECfans family of sites up and running. Thank you to everyone who started their holiday shopping from here this year! The Amazon links mostly pay only 5% of the purchase price, but every bit helps! Advance PRELIMINARY information - no further details available yet... There is an author tour planned for the US in seven cities: Kansas City; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Portland, OR; San Francisco; and Washington, DC. This could possibly change - but that's what's planned to date. The EC Quiz scripts at http://quiz.ecfans.com now give you the latest top 10 scores by User Name! With just 76 days to go till book 5 comes out, this might be a good time to brush up on your Earth's Children facts! A head's up for Internet Explorer 6.0 users! You'll need to adjust your Cookie Privacy settings for the EC Quiz to track what questions you've answered, and for The AuelBoard to report what threads were updated since your last visit - as well as keeping your login status if you're a registered user. You'll find some suggested settings in the Board Questions and Comments forum on The AuelBoard. ECfans/AuelBoard Sponsors - if you haven't been to the Sponsor's forum lately, we're looking for your input on re-naming the 'new member' and 'board regular' user titles for The AuelBoard. Time to give them a more EC-ish flavor!! I'll be sending updates more frequently as we get closer to the April 30th release date. If you need to talk to someone while you endure the rest of the wait, be sure and stop in at The AuelBoard at http://forums.ecfans.com and join in on the fun!! You'll find forums in English, Spanish, German, French and Scandinavian - and fellow Earth's Children Fans from all continents on the globe! I am going now... :) Diane in Cincinnati If you no longer wish to receive Updates from this list, follow the link below, or use the unsubscribe newletter feature at http://ecfans.com.