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

Time to Update

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