Hey there, lovely reader,
My, my, it's been an exercise in humility these past two weeks. I've had to suck it up, get outside my comfort zone, accept I don't know stuff, and prepare myself for looking like an absolute fool on numerous occasions.
A couple of weeks ago, I joined a gym.
It's a lovely gym, a huge gym on a college campus with rows and rows of machines, with lots and lots of people using them, all of whom appear to know exactly what they are doing.
The experience reminded me of when I first came to the US: a place I'd been a few times, but never for long. A place where I didn't know anyone but my husband. A place where lots and lots of people went around looking like they knew exactly what they were doing.
And I didn't.
I've taken the same approach with this gym as I did back then: try a new thing every day. A new machine. A new class. A new service offering. And exercise every day.
A fortnight later, the operation of some machines has beaten me. You can find me at the back of classes, wobbling and sweating. And I still haven't located the water fountains.
But on the positive side, I'm hitting the gym at 6 am most mornings, I've conquered the majority of the machines I've tried (there are many, many more to go), I can operate the treadmill at a basic level. And last weekend I went to my very first Bollywood dance class and enjoyed it so much I went again the next day!
This growth process is pretty much the arc of all my recurring characters: Graham, Annabelle, Roxy, and Diana, plus all the secondaries. This arc is what fascinates us at a human level. I constantly wonder about how my characters might change and grow. And I hope you'll stick around to find out how they do.
Today I answer a question, offer you a new exclusive, and point you to an older one you may have missed or perhaps would like to revisit.
Reader Question
Since you ended the Annabelle series and next year will end the Diana series, will you be starting on a new detective series?
The short answer is yes and no, and in time. π The details of my new series are under wraps but this is what I can say:
My goal is to have two active series at one time. That allows me to publish books in the series that are not too far apart from one another while not knocking myself out and contorting my body into the shape of a chair as I spend far too many hours at my desk.
Currently though, I am writing in three series – Graham, Diana, and Roxy – which is one more than I would like. Too much time passes between releases given the speed at which I write.
So before I start a new series I am looking to finish two of those series. Those series will be Diana (one more) and Roxy (two more.) When I have done that, I will start a new series.
I have a trilogy and another six-book series planned. All nine books are already drafted. They do not feature detectives but amateur sleuths and they slot firmly into the cozy mystery genre. Realistically, however, we are a few years away from seeing them, but eventually, we will.
I will probably end the Inspector Graham series at fifteen books, so there is still a long way to go there!
Thank you to Joanne B. for her question. If you have something you would like to ask me, please reply to this email. If I choose your question for a newsletter feature, I'll send you an Amazon gift card!
You can read more Ask Alison Q&As here!
I'm going to spend an hour or two with my latest jigsaw now. It's perhaps the hardest one I've done, certainly number two hardest if not number one. I'll share it with you when I've completed it. That might be 2026. LOL.
Have a lovely week. Don't forget to download your starter library.
Happy reading,
