Number four?

Book number four.

Long before I finished Case of the Missing Tucker, book number two came to me. I really didn’t want to think about it, as I still had to wind up number one, so I made some notes to help me hang on to the idea, and put it in a corner of my brain where it would not get in the way and I could go back to it later. It was the same with Case of the Lonelyfarmer: the seed for Where the Hell is Angie sprouted, and I had to put it away somewhere I could find it again so that I could focus on finishing the one that I was working on. As I was getting close to finishing Where the Hell is Angie, I started wondering where Max and Skip’s next case would take them, but they just weren’t talking to me. And last week when I typed the last word for Angie, I still had nothing.

Now, I don’t get writer’s block. I don’t always know where my characters are going, but they always go somewhere, and I follow along, writing it all down. I have to admit that I got a little bit of a panic attack when I realized that I had three books written and no place to go from there. I wondered if I was just going to write three books and never write another. It seemed like a short writing career. But I told myself that I had a lot to do, and maybe a bit of a break from writing would be good for me. I mean, I have to start putting some more effort into marketing Tucker. I have to go over the proofs for Lonelyfarmer, fix the typos and random blank pages that always seem to sneak past, get it through the publisher and on Amazon where people can get their hands on it and read it. And even though the first draft is written, I have a ton of work left on Angie. So when I started getting that anxious feeling that I had nothing more to write, I would just remind myself how much I still had left to do on the three that were written.

But then it happened. I was laying there last night thinking about something else, looking up at the darkness, and the next book jumped into bed with me. It flooded my brain and I couldn’t think of anything else. Four hours later I had it outlined in my head, start to finish. This morning I made some notes. Stand by, because G&B Detective Agency: Case of the Cold Case is on the way. I feel a lot better now.