What's Going On?

First, this is not a complaint! I’m actually quite happy about what’s going on, even though I don’t quite understand it.

The past couple of weeks, I seem to have gained a zillion new readers. At least, I’ve heard from a zillion new readers. Over the last couple of years, especially since Target selected The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes as a bookclub pick in 2008, I’ve gradually gained new readers and it’s been wonderful. I’ve heard from many of them via email and spoken to dozens of bookclubs via speakerphone. This last week, though, for some reason I haven’t been able to figure out, I’ve received more than fifty emails asking me what books I have coming up and which older books are available. I always receive a couple of those emails a day, but fifty in a week?? In addition, several readers have explored my list of books on Amazon, discovering titles they’d never heard of and emailing me to ask why. So I think, given this influx of similar questions, it’s time for me to offer a few answers.

First, the Amazon query. There is another author named Diane Chamberlain. She often uses her middle initial: Diane K. Chamberlain. She writes inspirational Christian non-fiction, and she’s a lovely person. There’s nothing she or I can do about the fact that Amazon can’t keep us straight and puts my books on her page and vice versa. I’m sorry for the confusion, but if I have to be confused with someone, I’m glad it’s her.

Second, the Amazon query again. I’ve addressed this several times, but I’ll repeat it now for those new blog readers: different countries sometimes give my books different titles. Most notably, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes is The Lost Daughter in the UK and A Beautiful Lie in Australia. If you see a book on Amazon (or anywhere else) that you haven’t heard of before, check out the story description to be sure you haven’t read it.

Third, people have asked me if my books are linked. All of my books are written to stand alone, but several of them are linked:

•The Keeper Trilogy: Keeper of the Light, Kiss River and Her Mother’s Shadow

•The Topsail Island Books: Before the Storm and Secrets She Left Behind

Finally, readers sometimes have trouble keeping track of which books are available, which are reissues, when older books will be reissued and most importantly, when the next brand new book will be out. With so many people asking me these questions over the past couple of weeks, I decided to write a standard answer to plug into my otherwise personalized responses to their emails (I always answer my own email. You’re important to me!) Here’s what I said:

•Please check out the “books” page on my website to see what books are available. In the upper right hand corner of that page, there’s a link to a printable book list. I keep that list updated at all times and it will let you know the publication date of all my books, as well as which books are reissues and what books will be published in the near future.

I hope this helps those of you who are new (or even not so new) to my books. I’m delighted you’re enjoying my stories and look forward to entertaining you for many years to come!