Time to Play with Ideas Again

I’m waiting on feedback from my critique partners before I give Facing the Music one last polish. While I’m waiting, it’s time to start work on my next Jazzi and Ansel. For this story, they’re going to be finishing work on the warehouse they’re converting into condos. It’s going to be nice for Jazzi because Fazal and his mother have moved into a two-bedroom condo on the first floor, and Fazal’s mom has agreed to babysit Toby while Jazzi works. That means that Jazzi can zip down to nurse Toby and hold him during short breaks.

It’s been a while since I wrote the last Jazzi and Ansel, and this sounds horrible because I’ve lived with them through ten books, but I had to dig out my notes to remember everyone’s names and where I left them. I don’t want that much time to pass between their books again. There was a reason for it. After Kensington dropped the series, I wrote a few more books, thinking that I might pitch them to get published with something else. So I wrote A Cut Above, thinking I’d send it to my agent and try for another book deal. But I was so happy with Karnie and Matt that I didn’t want to wait to go through the whole publishing process, sending it to Lauren to see if she liked it, then waiting while she sent it to editors, and then waiting even longer for it to be published, so I put it on Kindle myself. I decided to try something different to send out instead, so I wrote Posed in Death, a darker cozy. But my agent didn’t like the pairing of dark and cozy, so I ended up self-publishing it, too. Then I thought I might try more of a whimsical type of mystery for her and wrote A Ghost of a Chance. But it was shorter than most publishers want, and I liked it that way, so…. I self-published that, too, without even running it past Lauren. And now, I have way too many different series. But I like every single one of them. Regardless, I don’t intend to wait this long between Jazzi mysteries again. I’m excited. Jazzi can strap on her toolbelt and solve murders once more.