There’s so much good news going around on the blog these days, I guess I’ll add mine!
First off, I’ve announced before that next year’s Stella book will be the last one in the series. I’d planned on five books to tell Stella’s story, and 2008’s book will be #5. It’s a good thing. Stella needs a rest, and I need to do something different for a while.
For “something different” I am lucky enough to have two things going.
First, I will have a new series with Poisoned Pen beginning on 2009. The idea is still pretty fresh in my mind, so I’m not going to share a whole lot (or even a little) about that quite yet. But get ready to meet someone new.
Second, I have a book coming out this winter with another publisher, Herald Press. Herald Press is a division of the Mennonite Publishing Network, and will be coming out with my book, Lost Sons. Lost Sons is a contemporary novel, featuring Detective Stan Windemere, of the Goshen (Indiana) police department. Stan’s son, Jamie, is in the Navy and is MIA. Because of the anxiety associated with this, Stan takes a leave of absence from work and takes a moonlighting job as a night security guard for Mennonite Central Committee. While there, he discovers the story of Clayton Kratz, a Mennonite missionary who went to Russia in 1920 to serve the Church, and disappeared. Stan becomes engrossed in this mystery and sets out to try to solve it.
Stan is a product of my imagination, but Clayton Kratz is not. He was a real guy, who really did disappear all those years ago, leaving friends and family to grieve for him. I’ve known about this story all my life, and have wanted to share it in a novel. Now I have my chance.
Lost Sons is the first in a series I will be doing for Herald Press, which will be novels surrounding real Mennonite historical figures. I am very excited about the series, and have already begun research on the next book.
Stella is still my focus these days, however, as I head toward my November deadline for book #5. The Day Will Come, the fourth in the series, just came out, and I am enjoying hearing what people have to say about it.
Tonight, as Casey mentioned yesterday, I will be joining her, C.R., and Don at the Clyde Public Library at 7:00 PM. I hope to see some of you there!