Once again I'd like to thank everyone for continually sending me emails or posts about the Captain Lacey mysteries. It's heartening that so many people like them and want them to continue.
Here's the story: I plan to write more of these, but I will no longer be publishing them through Berkley Prime Crime for various reasons (including my editor leaving the company). I think all but Covent Garden Mystery are out of print right now, unfortunately (although still available used or from libraries).
I am working now on getting the rights to the series back. It's a process that simply involves my agent writing a letter and the publisher writing a letter back, but it can take a while.
I am writing many other things--finishing up contracts that have been keeping my nose to the grindstone for the last year and a half. I hope to write Lacey book 7 before long and find a new publisher for it.
I'd love to know if people would be willing to buy these books from small press if I decided to go that way. They'd likely be hardbacks in a limited print run, and you'd have to order them from the press. That's just a possibility--I have to submit and have them accepted first!
I've also been toying with the idea of writing a novella and giving it away to fans through my website, or possibly for a couple dollars on Amazon, if they're still doing their "shorts."
Mostly I've slowed down on Lacey because of so many other committments. I've been writing four to five books a year and haven't been able to fit in the captain. I'm hoping I can slow down to a dull roar and have Lacey be one of the three-four books I want to write a year.
I wanted to let all readers know that I haven't abandoned the series, or forgotten about Lacey, or blown off my readers, or died (at least not as of this posting).
In the meantime, if you like historical novels, please take a look at my two Tudor offerings, The Queen's Handmaiden by Jennifer Ashley (published Oct. 2007), and A Lady Raised High by Laurien Gardner (originally pubbed March 2006; reprint trade edition due out April 2008). Information on these two books is here:
www.jennifersromances.com/tudorhistoricals.html
I am keeping a running tab of emails I get, even if I can't answer them all. If you want to be put on that list to be informed via newsletter of updates to the Lacey series, please email me through the www.gardnermysteries.com website.
Thanks everyone so much, and keep those emails coming!!
Ashley Gardner
www.gardnermysteries.com
