Welcome to the wacky world inside my head!

My Facebook page has grown by leaps and bounds in the last three days, so I thought it was time to give an update on my projects, plans for the blog, and introduce you to the people who make my books reality.

We’ll start with the last thing first. There are several people who work behind the scenes to keep me in line. The wonderful lady who started me down this road is Jamie Livingston-Dierks. She encouraged me to publish the first Lizzie story, Death of a Cantankerous Old Coot, created the cover and formatted the story. Without her encouragement, I wouldn’t have made it this far. She writes the Gotcha Detective Agency mystery series under the name Jamie Lee Scott; they are excellent books. Check them out!

There is a group of people who are responsible for me starting the series: the Dotters group. I wrote the story for them. After every chapter was posted on this blog, they threw out more suggestions on what should happen next. I used some of their ideas in that book, and subsequent books. They keep me going. Love you guys!

There are brainstormers and proofreaders who listen to me whine, tell me to suck it up, and listen to my crazy ideas for my characters: Jamie, Kristi Spinks, Kathy Evans, Lonnie Wolgamott, Kim Frederick, Bente Gallagher, Holley Buckalew and Stacy Jeziorowski (two new people to this lucky group), my wonderful parents and my adorable son. (I’m sure I have forgotten someone, and if I have, I am truly sorry! It wasn’t intentional!)

I have two assistants: my son James, who listens to my ideas, contributes his own, and nags me to death. Erin Maurer-Lang is my technical assistant. She comes up with wonderful ideas for the blog, she has created some wonderful pictures for the street team page, and she is arranging some fantastic interviews and features for you! Between James and Erin, they are making sure that I’m getting new stories out for you!

So what projects am I working on? Wow, that is a LONG list! Here we go:

Death Silences a Gossip Queen – book six of the Lizzie Crenshaw series will find Lizzie and the gang investigating the death of an old friend as well as celebrating the wedding of Amelia Crenshaw, Lizzie’s mother. Deep, dark secrets of the victim will come to light, stirring up a whole pot of suspects. Did someone kill our Gossip Queen to keep their secret?

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Stalkers Bite – this is a story I wrote almost three years ago for National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known as NaNo). I recently pulled the story out of the filing cabinet, blew off the dust, and shared it with a few people to see if it was worth saving. They all demanded I finish it! (Bossy people!) It is a bit darker than the Lizzie series, but still filled with humor. Plenty of twists, turns, explosions and broken noses. 🙂

Untitled book – I haven’t come up with a good title for this one yet. A simple request to help her friend, who is a private investigator, ends with two people shot, a dead body, corporate espionage, and a secretive husband. And that is just the first chapter!

Top secret project – I cannot divulge much about this one. But I promise plenty of laughs and a very good mystery. Trust me!

Plans for the blog: Erin and I have laid out a schedule for the blog: Mondays will be Teresa’s Diary Days – I will give you updates on projects and talk about whatever is on my mind. Fair warning, this could be a dangerous thing, especially if I am sleep deprived. I get very slap happy and goofy. Wednesdays will be special content days: interviews with authors or character interviews (similar to Lizzie’s interview with Patti Larsen’s Sydlynn). Fridays will be Book Review days with Erin. She reads almost as much as I do! I know she has been reading some wonderful mysteries, and I can’t wait for her to share the reviews!

So that’s it! Lots of things going on here. It will take us a week or so to get them going, so please be patient. Until then, if you have any questions or anything that you are just dying to know, please feel free to ask! I love hearing from you! You have no idea how big the smile on my face gets when I receive a message or email from a reader!

Teresa