Ellen Crosby--The Loon and Me

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You know how sometimes you just fall in love with a book, or a series? (I'm sure that's NEVER happened to anyone here, right?) Well, that happened to my daughter and me when we read Ellen Crosby's first two Sophie Medina books. These books had everything, a great protagonist, mystery, suspense, travel, fascinating bits of history and science. We couldn't wait to read more of Sophie's adventures! 

AND THEN THERE WERE NO MORE BOOKS! This just seemed so wrong, Sophie's stories so unfinished, and every time I've seen Ellen since, I've nagged her. I'm sure she got quite annoyed hearing, "When is there going to be another Sophie book???"

But wishes do sometimes come true. Not only will there be another Sophie Medina, readers who've missed the first two books (or want to reread them!) now have the chance to catch up! As Ellen will explain!

The Loon and Me

 Ellen Crosby

Last spring a Common Loon landed in a small man-made pond in a subdivision about fifteen minutes from where I live in Fairfax County, Virginia and you would have thought—as someone said—that Brad Pitt had been spotted walking down the street. To begin with, loons don’t usually fly very far inland, but what made this loon even more unusual was that it stuck around this tiny suburban pond for a whole week. Within days it had its own Facebook page, plus The Washington Post sent a reporter (twice) to cover the loon and its many followers who were becoming known as the“loonarazzi.”

Before long folks started worrying that the reason the loon hadn’t left to continue her journey north to New England and the Great Lakes was because she (yes, it was a female loon) couldn’t leave. You see loons, which are large, heavy, awkward birds, need a long runway for takeoff and this little pond was, well, little. So a plan was hatched (not sorry, it’s the right verb!) to sneak up on the bird in the middle of the night, throw a bag over her head, and move her to a larger pond. It took two nights because making sounds like baby chicks calling their mother fizzled, but on Night #2 there was success with an iPhone app that made a sound like a male loon.

Lately I have been thinking about this loon and her predicament because I am writing book three in a series in which the last book will have come out eight years ago—seven, if you count the paperback—by the time the new one is released in 2023. And I am wondering how long a runway I need for my new book to take off and fly.

The series, about an international photojournalist named Sophie Medina, has always been close to my heart. Before I started writing fiction full time I worked as a freelance journalist in the US and overseas. Thanks to my husband’s assignments—he was a radio and television journalist—we lived in Geneva, Moscow, and London, three fabulous posts. I’m also an avid amateur photographer. So writing this series seemed like the perfect fit for me. I wrote two books—Multiple Exposure and Ghost Image—which came out in 2013 and 2015, respectively. And then . . . I stopped.

My new publisher wanted more books in the mystery series I write about Lucie Montgomery, who owns a vineyard in Virginia. So I did what any author would do: I wrote them. In fact, I wrote 6 more books and the 12^th, Bitter Roots, will be out in the US on April 5. It’s already getting great reviews, so I’m thrilled.

Last summer when I turned in the manuscript to my editor at Severn House, she asked if I’d consider writing another vineyard book. I thought about it for a while before I said:  no, thank you. I felt I needed to take a break as I’d done in 2015 after I wrote the first six books in that series. I also said I’d really like to write another book about Sophie Medina. To me the series had always seemed unfinished: there were more stories to tell. I’m really lucky to have an editor who has so much faith in me, because after some discussion about the potential perils involved—i.e., the time between books—she said, “Okay, go for it.” The icing on the cake was that my agent (who is Superman because he can do anything) got my rights back for the first two books, which Severn House not only promptly acquired, but then almost immediately reissued with gorgeous new covers on February 1. So anyone who wants to catch up on the series before Book 3 comes out can do so.

Still, it is going to be tricky to reintroduce a series where there has been such a long hiatus between books. Do I age Sophie? Has she lived through a pandemic? What if I decide to, say, kill off a well-liked character who was prominent in the other books, which is always tough to do? Will readers be more forgiving since it was so long since the last one?

Those are questions about the story itself, but then there’s this: am I nuts to walk away from a popular series that’s done so well and (re)try something else? I’m betting it all on the answer being no, but I’m wondering what you guys think. Reds, have any of you ever done something like this? Other authors please weigh in, too. And readers, what about you? Would you follow an author to a new (sort of) series?

The stranded loon, by the way, managed to take off and leave from the larger pond where she had been relocated. As for me, I still have a year to test out my runway.

Which gives me lots of time to make sure it’s plenty long enough. And to hope you all will come along for the journey.

 

MULTIPLE EXPOSURE: When Sophie Medina’s husband oil executive and covert CIA operative Nicholas Canning is kidnapped from their home in London, Sophie fears the that Nick is dead. When he is spotted a few months later in Moscow, his CIA handlers tell Sophie that not only is Nick a murderer, but also a thief who vanished with valuable logs revealing the discovery of oil in a remote part of Russia. No longer able to tell friend from foe, Sophie enters Nick’s shadowy world as she races to prove her husband’s innocence before those who are after him catch up with her as well.

   

                      

            GHOST IMAGE: When Brother Kevin Boyle, controversial environmentalist and Franciscan friar, is found dead on the grounds of a magnificent monastery in Washington, D.C., photojournalist Sophie Medina is certain it was no accident: Kevin was murdered. Before he died, Kevin hinted at a discovery he’d made potentially worth billions to the pharmaceutical industry. The search for Kevin’s killer takes Sophie from Capitol Hill to London as she seeks to learn what her friend found in an ancient botanical encyclopedia before the information falls into the wrong hands—and his killer finds her.

DEBS: Aren't those covers terrific? Here's more about Ellen:

For many years I worked as a freelance journalist in the US and while living overseas in London, Moscow, and Geneva, Switzerland before turning to writing fiction full time. My last job as a stringer was as a regional feature writer for The Washington Post, covering many of the places where my wine country mysteries are set.

DEBS: To answer at least part of Ellen's questions, I will happily follow an author I like from one series to another, and am certainly not deterred by a gap between books in a series that I love. 

What about you, REDS and readers?

P.S. I loved the loon story, Ellen. We've had something similar here in the Dallas area with a pair of nesting bald eagles. Their nest in a cottonwood tree at a popular lake was the subject of much media coverage and so many visitors gawking that the city had to barricade the area. Then last week in a ferocious windstorm, the tree blew down and both nest and eggs were lost. This was headline news! But to everyone's relief, the pair seem to be rebuilding nearby. Hopefully with better luck this time!