Most Excellent News!!!!!!!

You know the news must indeed be excellent since I am posting twice in the same day after not posting at all for like a month!!!! And it is very excellent news! My wonderful editor, Kirk Shaw, emailed me today but before I can tell you the good news - I have to give you the backstory (Butch hates this part of my storytelling process).

I have been working on the new Haggerty book, Murder by the Book, for almost a year. I meant to have it done by the end of last year. When that didn't happen, I told myself I'd have it finished by the end of January, then February, then, well you get the idea. Life kept getting in the way and I finally emailed it in to Kirk much later than I intended. I was really hoping for a fall release - but knew that because of my tardy submission it would be a miracle if the book came out before next year. Sure enough, when Kirk gave me the good news that the book had been accepted for publication - he also gave me the bad news that it wouldn't come out until January 2010.

This was bad for several reasons. A January release means that you miss the entire Christmas buying season - which is the best book-buying market of the year. And even though I do write books for the fun of it - my family depends on the royalty checks that I receive in February and August. The February check reflects sales from the previous July through December. A January release would mean that the proceeds from the sale of the new book wouldn't make it to me until August of 2010. And that's a long time from now. But the MAIN problem was that readers wouldn't have access to the new book until January.

So, today Kirk emailed me with the miraculous news that they were able to work Murder by the Book (possibly by another name - I haven't heard for sure about the title yet) into the fall lineup and it will be released in October 2009!!!!! Which eliminates all of the above mentioned concerns.

Like I said, excellent news!!!!