The beginning of November. A cool breezy day outside. Wind rattles the neighborhood trees, still with gold and orange and sienna leaves hanging against the arc of azure sky. And beyond looms the great peak itself--Pikes Peak--its rocky slopes gleaming in the morning light with last weekend's snow.

On my desk sits a two-inch-high stack of paper: a photocopy of the second edition of Scenic Driving Colorado. I've spent the last couple months fact-checking the entire manuscript--making changes in public land management, revising acreages of state and national parklands, checking those oh-so-important address and phone numbers and websites that my readers rely on to find additioinal information.

Today the pile of paper is getting shipped out the door and off my desk. Whisked off to my project editor Lynn at Globe Pequot's world headquarter offices in lovely Guilford, Connecticut. There Lynn will work with a designer to recreate Scenic Driving Colorado into a brand spanking new third edition. The imprint of the book will also change, as Scenic Driving New England did last year, and be republished as an Insider's Guide. Readers won't discover big changes. The great writing and interpretative info is still inside. The design will be modernized and will be very user friendly. The cover will be clean and clear and obvious on the bookshelf.

Look for the revised Scenic Driving Colorado next spring.