GOOD NEWS!

Well, it's been a long time since I posted to this blog and at last I have something newsworthy to report. I've finally secured a new book deal for my mystery series featuring nurse-turned-coroner Mattie Winston! It will be released under the pseudonym Annelise Ryan (and I'm still working on that pseudophoto) in a hard/soft deal through Kensington. The first book is already written and the path to legitimate publication has been a long and circuitous one. I self published it as a POD under the title THE VICARIOUS LIVER a few years ago as part of an experiment, detailing my efforts and the results in a newsletter. It garnered dismal sales (expected) and a couple of nice reviews from POD-dy Mouth and the Midwest Book Review. It was also a finalist in the EPIC annual book awards.

I withdrew it from publication two years ago and restarted the long and arduous search for a new agent. I found a gem of one in Jamie Brenner, who is with Artists and Artisans. She sold the manuscript in a matter of weeks and after some contract negotiations, we finally ended up with a 3-book deal. The book is tentatively scheduled for release in the fall of 2009 under a new title (not sure what it will be yet...the working title is LIVER LET DIE) with two more books to follow.

It's only taken 10 years to restart my writing career! But it goes to show that perseverance (or stubborness, as those close to me call it) can pay off. I'm already hard at work on book #2 in the series so check back here from time to time as I will be detailing my journey in this exciting new process.