A Huge Thank You...and (Another) New Book!
Kopp Sisters Literary Society
Thank you, thank you, to the Kopp Sisters Literary Society!
It's been a month since the publication of Dear Miss Kopp and I just wanted to drop you all a note to give you my thanks for your reviews, your posts, your pictures, your recommendations...there are only so many ways to say "you have no idea how much it means to me" but there you go, it means a lot to me.
Normally my publisher asks me to send you all a survey to find out how it all went, and whether you were able to share and spread the word. They use this to justify the costs of printing and and shipping extra galleys to their higher-ups.
But this year, no one asked (blame it on the shutdown, nothing's working as it usually does), so I'm not going to bother you with that unless they ask me!
It's possible that they're not asking about the survey because they're not going to have the expense of printing and shipping physical galleys for the next book. It might be all ebooks next time.
This is actually a change that happened a year ago, when the shutdown began and book reviewers who normally received books at their offices were now at home. It was far too complicated to get the home addresses of a bazillion book reviewers and press people, so galleys became digital and it was all handled by email.
My publisher is telling me that they might have a limited ability to print a few real galleys, but that pretty much it's all digital. More on that as I know it.
Which brings me to...THE NEXT BOOK! ALREADY!
Coming September 7!
It's so crazy to be talking about the next book already! But this gets me back on my regular schedule, with a new book coming in September.
I LOVE this cover and I'm especially excited to have Fleurette on the cover for the first time! She's the Miss Kopp referred to in the title.
It feels like a bit of a spoiler to tell you this, but it's on the back of the book and in all the promo text, and it all pretty much comes out in the first few pages, so here goes...
After World War I, Francis Kopp died unexpectedly of a heart attack, leaving Bessie and the children to fend for themselves. The Kopp sisters sold their farm in Wyckoff and moved into Hawthorne--in fact they moved in just two doors down from Bessie.
I don't know, in real life, what everyone's financial situation was, but I have to assume that they moved into town to be closer to Bessie and the children and to help out in some way.
It was at this point that they founded their own detective agency. I saw it called the Kopp Sisters Detective Agency in newspapers, although I've never seen an official business listing by that name.
Mostly, the Kopps focused on divorce work, meaning catching cheating spouses in the act and so forth. I have dozens of newspaper clippings about the cases they worked on in the 1920s. There are a few interesting, non-divorce cases that I think I can really work with, and also a few interesting real-life crimes that happened in the 1920s that I might get them involved with.
Anyway, this novel tells the tale of how it all began. It sets us up for the next chapter in their lives--the 1920s, the detective agency, and dealing with the aftermath of their brother's death.
I already have a page up on my website about it, and it's available for pre-order if you know anyone who just can't wait. (I've heard that pre-order does not yet work for the ebook version. I'm sure it will soon.)
So that's what's happening next.
I wanted to share it with you first.
Please stay well, stay safe, and feel free to just hit reply and write back if you want to.
I appreciate you all and I hope you're getting through 2021 as best you can.
Cheers,
Amy
oh, and there are a few events coming up...
in case you didn't see them:
Feb 9 Flower Chat with Teresa Sabankaya
Feb 11 Dear Miss Kopp with Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Feb 24 Writer's Chat about the editing process
March 3 Live Art Demo landscape painting
March 10 Garden Party with Abra Lee