Sunday, December 14, 2008

Ashley Gardner updates

It’s been a year since my last post, and I thought it was high time I updated. I hope everyone is pleased to learn that Ashley Gardner is not dead (several people have asked me if I were).

Ashley Gardner is also Jennifer Ashley and Allyson James. See my blogs: http://www.jennifersromances.blogspot.com/ and http://www.allysonjames.blogspot.com/ for a running look at what books I’m working on. I update those twice a month at the very least.

I want to say thank you to the many, many people who have written me to inquire about the Captain Lacey series. I’m thrilled he still has a following. I’m getting more feedback on him now than when the books were in print! I have every intention of continuing the series (I want to write 10 books in all), but follow…

I have not shopped any more books in the series this year for the simple reason that I haven’t had time. In 2008 I wrote four books and two novellas (turned in the last novella on 12/12--last Friday). I’m contracted at Berkley and Dorchester for at least four more books and one novella at this point.

I seriously hope to squeeze in a proposal for a Lacey novel sometime this year. My schedule has evened out a little (with an actual week or two between turning in one book and starting the next). As I say, I’d like to do four more of Lacey's books, for 10 in all.

Please do continue to email me, as I am saving all emails to update readers when I have more news.

What I’m working on that might be of interest to mystery readers: I just signed a contract with Berkley to do a new series set in the American southwest, where I live. It will be a cross between mystery, fantasy, and romance (think Tony Hillerman meets Charlaine Harris or Patricia Briggs). The sleuth is a half-Navajo woman who investigates paranormal crime and draws her magic from the powerful lightning storms that often hit the southwest. The first book is tentatively titled Stormwalker, with a pub date of May 2010.

A novella introducing this setting and some secondary characters will be published in October 2009 in a yet-to-be-named anthology at Berkley (this is the novella I just turned in). I will be writing these books as Allyson James, and I’ll post information on my Allyson James site and blog when the time comes.

If you are a historical lover: This year Jennifer Ashley begins a new historical romance series without any paranormal elements. The setting is Victorian England and Scotland, and the series revolves around four brothers in an aristocratic Scottish family.

Because I haven’t been able to write straight mystery, each of these books will involve a mystery story of some kind. The first book The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, will be out in May 2009 (by Jennifer Ashley). The hero has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism.

More information on the series, as well as other forthcoming books can be found at: http://www.jennifersromances.com/forthcoming.html

The upshot of this post is—I’m not dead and haven’t stopped writing. But I have had to move in other directions for now.

Again, please see my other blogs: http://www.allysonjames.blogspot.com/ and http://www.jennifersromances.blogspot.com/ for more up to date commentary on what I’m writing and what’s being released.

Happy holidays!

Ashley Gardner