Where is Phoebe?

Um, so, the other night I had a dream about someone reading and reviewing my first book, "Found Phoebe."  This person liked it immensely, which left me with a warm fuzzy long after the dream ended.  But when I got up, It got me thinking, whatever happened to Phoebe?  I haven't looked at her story in ages.  I've been so preoccupied with other projects, and oh, yeah, life issues, like moving and looking for jobs....

But I haven't given up on her story, not entirely.  I have a first draft of the second book nearly finished (though I haven't looked at it in several months!).  It's been so long since I invested in her story that I'm curious whether anyone else is still thinking of her.  Back when it first came out, I got a lot of questions about a sequel.  Lately I've been working so hard on my Dark Lightning books that I had to put Phoebe on the back burner, so to speak.

You guys are the readers, what do you think?  Should I keep working on Phoebe's stories?  Is there still interest in sequels?   Should I work to get "Found Phoebe" picked up by a publishing company, or try to market the version I have a bit more?

I'm open to any & all (constructive) thoughts.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmrichards/4561008472/

I Still Write, I Swear!

Have you ever noticed how life tends to go in cycles?

A couple of years ago, right around this time, I had the privilege of releasing a story I'd written into print format. It was pretty exciting for me, to have my words and thoughts so widely available.

To everyone who bought and read "Found Phoebe," I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you didn't, don't worry, I'm not keeping a list or anything. I was just pleasantly surprised that folks did take the time to read--and more importantly, respond. I received a lot of positive feedback from that experience.

One of the most unanimous comments--to my overwhelming surprise--was: "When is the next one coming out?"

I still don't have a very good answer for that.

Truthfully, getting "Found Phoebe" printed by Red Lead always seemed like kind of a temporary solution, until I could find a "real" publisher (who would presumably then publish other works of mine, for example, the sequels).

But these past couple years have been sort of busy--not crazily so; just enough to keep me kind of distracted from my writing. I still write. But I spent a large chunk of my writing time tweaking another story, entirely unconnected to Phoebe.

Recently, however, Phoebe's been on my mind again. I've cycled back to it. I'm a little over halfway through the second book. I think. I'll work on other things, but Phoebe is still there, lingering, her story waiting to be told.

If you're interested, I have links to first chapter excerpts for both "Faladdyr's Rescue" (Phoebe Book 2) and "The Jagged Edge of Lightning" (my other project). Let me know what you think.

Writing is slow work, but I love it. Maybe someday I'll be able to devote more time to it.

Anyway, thanks again for reading--and responding!