the adventure in self-publishing continues

Sometimes life feels like one giant experiment with Hope. You have children, and hope and pray they grow up to be wonderful adults. You move to a new town and hope for a new friend. There's the new job, a new neighbor, a new puppy.

     Sometimes Hope is holding your breath as you try a new way of doing old things.

     As many of you know, I've treaded out into the world of self-publishing after 30 children's books with traditional houses: Scholastic, Harcourt, Holiday House. I miss my editors and the camaraderie of teamwork. But in its place is a new freedom. Instead of waiting a minimum of two years while a monolithic bureaucracy draws up a contract and goes through the necessary editing process then escorts the book to stores, self-publishing can be swift. As hard and fast as an author wants to work, that's how soon you can reach readers. I like that part. Recently I published Stalked: Danger and Fury, Ellis Island 1912, a Young Adult thriller set in the NYC tenements, and meanwhile kept writing.

     For several years children, teachers, and parents have been asking for a new adventure with the cousins Jeff, David, and Claire. So here it is friends,  CABIN CREEK MYSTERIES #7:  The Phantom of Hidden Horse Ranch, available in paperback and as an e-book. My son Cody did the interior drawings, and the cover is a photograph he took on a foggy morning in New Meadows, Idaho, where he has his studio. We hunched together over his computer experimenting with fonts and design then soon it was ready to pair with the edited manuscript. I love that part.

     It was a lot of fun and I hope you like it!