Spies and Prejudice Launch

 Today is the official birthday of my second novel Spies and Prejudice!!!

I am so excited for Berry and Tanner (and Mary Chris, Jason, Ryan, Drew and Collin) to be out in the world!  This is a book that has been four years in the making, from an idea that seized hold of me in June 2009 to an actual book today. 

Within days of coming up with the idea for a book that started with asking myself the question "what if something actually happened during the summer I worked for my dad's private investigation firm?", I had thirty pages and my own Saint Bernard puppy as "research" for Berry's dog Lulu.

At the time, I was still working on the first draft of Silver, and I set Spies aside to finish that book.  Spies sat dormant for a year, as I revised and submitted Silver.  Then a funny thing happened while Silver was on submission in 2010.  While considering Silver, Egmont asked to see what else I was working on.  I sent over the pages I had of Spies, along with ten pages of another idea I'd been playing with.  Two hours later, I got this email from Sarah:  "They want to buy the Spy book!"

I will never forget that day, the day that Spies and Prejudice went from being a fun distraction to a real, live book.  In some ways, Spies was the hardest book I ever wrote, requiring me to dig deep and find the story.  But it was also the most fun.  The characters were a blast to play with, full of sass and wit.  I've loved every minute I've spent with them, and I hope others will too!