At it again: Another children's book is about to be released

I admit it: I love to tell stories. Not lies, exactly. Fiction isn't quite a lie, is it? In every fiction there's a grain of truth, it's said. And while we're saying, let me tell you that a book I wrote a few years ago with two adorable children (who are now in preteen stage) is about to be released.

It's called, Mystery at the Phoenix Festival, and it's about two children and their parents who are traveling cross-country in an RV with their service dogs. Life is good, they are having fun, and then ... the dogs are dog-napped. The story puts some hard questions in front of the children, to be sure. The sub-plots are unnervingly timely, and I have to say that while it was fun to take their outline and develop the characters and the story, I wondered if the timeliness of the message would be lost by the time the book was actually released.

Well, as fate would have it, some things never change. People remain people, some helpful, some cruel. So the story is just as strong as it was when I wrote it two years ago. It's odd that it's release comes on the heels of my other children's book, Mystery at the Lake House. They are not part of the same series. They are not related in subject matter or even style. I do like the idea of helping children tell their stories, though -- kids are wonderfully imaginative.

If I ever run out of stories to tell, I know exactly who to ask for ideas.   

New project started; history revisited

Now that The Pirate's Bastard is out and Second Wind Publishing as accepted The Mystery of the Phoenix Festival, my next project can begin in earnest. This work is the second in the Called to Serve young readers series. The Mystery of the Phoenix Festival is the first.

While The Pirate's Bastard is intended for adult readers, compared to what is on television and in "G"-rated movies, there's nothing objectionable in there (except the title, perhaps). It's been suggested to me that it might be a great fit for an Accelerated Reader program through schools, and I'm looking into that as a possibility.

The question has come up, though, about my ability to write for adults and young readers. I don't see any reason why a decent story teller can't tell a variety of stories to different audiences. My publisher seems to agree with me. I write in vastly different genres, too. There is a constant in all that I write, though. The constant is history. Even in the Called to Serve series, the mysteries involve history. It might be history of a place, or in the case of the second book, there's rich history in the characters and location shared in a fresh way.

I'll share more about the story as it progresses.