At least two of the contributors to Do You Know were finishing up novels in Katrina's wake. The first was Toni McGee Causey, who was helping evacuees from New Orleans and elsewhere at the LSU triage, finishing the edits on her first of three novels with St. Martin's Press, running an excellent and frequently updated blog and writing an original essay for us. Oh yeah, she and her husband also run a construction company. One reason she can do all this is she never sleeps. I can send her an email at one or two in the morning — on the West Coast, mind you — and she'll respond within minutes. Amazing.

The other novelist putting the finishing touches on her work when she contacted us was Sarah K. Inman. Her piece for Do You Know presents a rough side of New Orleans that tourists don't see. And it's all from the vantage point of a trapeze artist, or aerialist, alternately getting lost in her art and being rudely awakened by the city below. Her novel, Finishing Skills, also has a strong physical element: it explores the world of female boxing in New Orleans. It has just been released by Livingston Press, and a favorable review ran in the Times-Picayune in late November.