The week before my then-agent Dawn Dowdle passed away, she'd called me to tell me One More Chapter (HarperCollins UK) wanted three more Detective Honeywell mysteries! We'd started negotiating in the days leading up to her death. Then the bottom dropped out. Fast forward a few weeks. I signed with Paula Munier at Talcott Notch. But there were lots of contractual complications in dealing with the closing of Dawn's agency. Then the publishing world closed down for the holidays. But things kicked into high gear recently and resulted in this: It's official. Matthias Honeywell and Emma Anderson will be back for three more books, the first one set to release this December. And I should mention, Beyond Redemption is my working title. I'm certain my publisher will change it by the time it comes out. They always manage to come up with better titles than I do!

Earlier this week, this happened: HELPLESS has garnered my seventh Agatha nomination.  I still remember my first one. Back then, we were notified by a phone call. I'm pretty sure I broke the poor woman's eardrum with my scream. That was the only time I screamed at the news. Every time since then, I've sobbed happy, grateful tears. Now, we're notified by email, so only my husband gets to witness my tears.  We don't know who else is nominated until the official announcement.  Holy cow, what an incredible group of books and authors!  I have so many wonderful readers who are cheering me on. "This is your year!" they say. I smile and silently remind myself of Einstein's definition of insanity: " Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results ." Of course, I always hope to hear my name called. Part of me has an irrational lust to possess one of those Agatha teapots, but I'm well aware that the true honor is...