It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since “601 Suspense Street” was released. It’s about time for book 3 in that series to take shape, and that’s exactly what’s beginning to happen. There are a lot of details yet to be determined, but I like what I’ve got so far. Plots for Mystery Lane are harder to construct than plots for The House of Bannerman and The Investigations of Jack Ryland series. That’s because Miles and Anika have good reason to encounter villains. Jack does, too. But Will and Gemma? Not so much. They live in the idyllic town of Eerie, where grandparents and goodwill abounds. They’re not going to run into trouble, or happen on it on a daily/weekly basis, like certain of my other characters. They will, however, occasionally come across a mystery. And I now know what their next mystery will be.

I also came up with two new book ideas. One of them I struggled back and forth over, much like “Failure to Engage.” But… like “Failure,” I do not think I will fail to write it. When characters and their stories begin to take shape, it’s for a reason. Either God wants to teach me something through them, He wants to encourage someone else, or both. Whatever the case, I’m fast learning to go the way of Nike, and just do it.

“Failure to Engage” is now 185 pages, with notes. It isn’t writing particularly quickly, but, that is due to the majority of my time being monopolized by other things. Sleep is not one of them.

Our ridiculous cat, Star, has been a pill lately. One night this week in particular, she was chatty and demanding in the extreme. Every few minutes she’d hop on the foot of the bed, then stomp all over us on her way to see if we were awake. And assist us in waking, if we didn’t appear to be and failed to pet her. I got tired of that fast.

Kicking her off the bed before she could make the trek, didn’t deter her a bit. Scooping her up and tossing her to the foot of the bed was perceived as a fun game, apparently, as it seemed only to encourage her. She just kept coming back.

Brad finally asked me to please quit throwing the cat. I said sorry, but she’s bugging me. He said him too, but I was throwing the cat at him. Apparently I have terrible aim in the middle of the night, in the dark. Oops!

It’s time for me to get back to “Failure to Engage.” Until next time, happy reading!