The good news is, a fifth installment of the Estela Nogales/Arroyo Loco mystery series should be appearing, if not soon, at least before March 1st. I can hardly wait for you to see it!

In a previous post I wrote about the process of outlining this book, and throughout the months of November and December, I wrote and wrote, hardly taking time out for anything else and making myself crazy. Tomorrow, the draft will be ready for its last edit before other eyes see it. This last edit involves reading the whole book slowly and out loud to the cat. Today, I will trim the cat’s claws. She’s not a cruel critic, but we did not name her Patience because she’s got any.

I am thrilled to be able to tell you the book finally got a title. Sometimes coming up with the right title can seem harder than writing the whole book, and this one had me really stumped for a long while. Then, one night, I was awakened with a flash of inspiration. There are very few things that will wake me out of a sound sleep: the aforementioned cat in the midst of a dietary emergency, the one dog who suffers occasional bouts of Tourette’s barking during bad dreams, the rare flash of literary brilliance. Wisely, I got up that night and wrote down my inspiration on a random junk mail envelope. In the morning, I was excited to pick up the envelope and read

Mrs tole Idtntly

The meaning completely eluded me. Back to the drafting board, I started thinking about how annoying I find all of those girl books. You know, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, The German Girl. Seriously, go wander around your local independent bookstore and make a list of all the girl books. There are dozens. The first thing you are going to notice is that almost none of those books are about girls. They are about women being referred to as girls. What’s that about? I thought we fought that battle in the 70s. Grrr, grinding of teeth.

Anyway, since I already knew my story was about a boy, I decided that should be reflected in the title. Just to be different. Just to express my annoyance. And, as you know, dry wit is a big part of the series. So here is the title I finally settled on

The Boy Who Bought It

By the way, I did eventually decipher the earlier idea written on the envelope. It turned out to be, Mistaken Identity, an already over-used title in the mystery genre. So much for nocturnal flashes of brilliance.

Okay, so new book out by March 1st, and if that isn’t enough excitement, here is the cover. What do you think?