On May 23, little more than a week after Tookie Goes Undercover, the third in the Tookie series, was released, my publisher circulated royalty reports for the most recent quarter. Describing the results had been disappointing, as they had for many small publishers, they offered to release rights back to any authors who wanted them to do that. Not desiring to search for a new publisher at this time, I decided to hold pat for a while and work on the next book in the series, working title Mata Hari Tookie.

I plodded on for a couple of weeks until June 10 when Lauri, the acquisitions editor, announced that Black Opal Books was being purchased and that she was retiring. The current owner is in ill health and had to sell the business. The change in ownership will be effective on July 1. She stated that the new publisher would honor all contracts. The Black Opal message board hummed with activity, mostly thanks to Lauri for all she had done for us and best wishes on her well-deserved retirement. No one guessed at who the new publisher was. I surely didn’t have a clue.

Yesterday, June 13, Lauri wrote that a David Allen would be the new acquisitions editor and that he was very experienced and seemed very nice. A search of the name David Allen returned several different people but none seemed to me to be the right one. I guess I’ll just have to wait to find out. My biggest hope is that the new publisher has the resources to promote the Tookie series.