Beware the Mad Skull!!!

Big news, folks!

I always intended the adventures of the Wilde family to be a series, and have always considered it one. My publisher (G.P. Putnam's Sons) also saw it as a series, but hadn't yet committed to doing more books. They had to wait and see how the first book, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, did in order to be sure it was a good idea.

A few weeks ago my editor contacted my agent and told her they were ready to buy more Doc Wilde. Not only that, they were ready to contract for the next two books.

It’s now official: the adventures of the amazing Doc Wilde and his daring kids are a series. An actual, real, genuine, more-than-one-book series.

I've been working all along on the assumption that would happen, and had three Wilde books in varying states of development. I'd intended the second in the series to be Doc Wilde and The Daughter of Darkness, so most of the work had gone into it.

Unfortunately, DoD is a complex tale with lots of moving parts, and I wasn’t sure I could finish it properly, the way I want it to be, before the agreed upon deadline for the next book (which is not far off).

So one of the other stories leaped heroically forward to take its place:

Doc Wilde and The Mad Skull

The elements of this tale, filled with weirdness and cliffhanging action, date back to the earliest days of Doc Wilde's existence in my imagination, the 1980s. The story's been brewing long enough and it's a great time to let it loose on the world.

Publication is scheduled for May 2011, after which the books will go to a yearly schedule.

And in the meantime...

I also have a secret project underway, and if it works out, there will be some extra adventure coming along to entertain you while you wait.

Watch this space (and sign up for the newsletter!) for more news as it develops...