What's Next?

Wow, the day after I post the Korean cover for Enchanted, Inc., I get an offer from that publisher for the Korean rights to Once Upon Stilettos. I can't wait to see what that cover looks like! Now I just need to sell another book in this country, but it would probably help if I'd finish revising that proposal, huh? I'm not quite at the level where they'll send me a contract for another book blindly. I have to at least be able to pretend that I know where I'm going.

And then I have to figure out what comes next for me. The follow-up book to a popular (even if only mildly so) series is always a challenge. I know that as a reader. I have some authors I'd follow anywhere, but I also know of a few cases where it was the particular series I fell in love with, and the characters in that series, and I just wasn't interested in the author's other books. I suppose it's possible that if I'd given them a chance, I might have fallen for those characters, but the topic, subject matter or story line of the other books didn't appeal to me. I know all about wanting more of the same, only maybe a bit different, from a favorite author. And I know that some of you would prefer that I keep writing more and more books in this same series. I'm certainly not planning to end it definitively for good. In fact, I already have a story line for a second series brewing. But I think I can do a better job of writing those books and do a better service to those characters and to my readers to give myself a break and write something else for a while. I have a rather short attention span and need to mix things up. There are also other characters and other stories in my head, fighting to get out. So, I hope that whatever comes next, y'all will give it a chance. I'm trying to do something that will have some of the same appeal while still being a bit different. Don't worry, I have no plans to write an Oprah-esque dead baby book (seriously, did it seem to anyone else that every novel she picked, back when she was doing contemporary novels, had something to do with a dead, dying or missing child?). I can't seem to help being funny and quirky, even when I'm trying to be just the opposite.

Again, I'm afraid I don't have a lot of time to chat today, as I have class this afternoon, have some errands I need to run along the way, and lots of work to get done. Not to mention the fact that House is back tonight. Yay!!! I've missed His Surliness. And I imagine I'll have to make some tweaks to my House essay soon. I'm finishing up revisions on my Firefly essay and trying to avoid thinking about the fact that apparently the Mighty Whedon himself will be reading these (Jane Espenson is the editor of the book, and I already know that she liked my essay -- which is kind of nice validation for a certain theory I've been discussing since 2002, and some of you who've been around me since then or who even "met" me through discussion of that particular theory will know exactly what I'm talking about). By the way, y'all did hear that Joss Whedon is directing an episode of The Office, right? All my worlds are colliding!

Okay, off to lunch and then Target and then music class.