A Good Laugh

I'm happy to report that I've begun work on the next Sammy Keyes book. That girl is such a kick to spend time with. This is the 12th book in the series and I'm nowhere near tired of her. When I do school visits I sometimes joke with kids that I write to crack myself up--that my reason for writing is simply to make myself laugh. That's not true, of course. I write for much more complex and serious reasons than that. But I also write to crack myself up. And so far, I've done a lot of laughing. I mean, having a man get scared to death is, on the surface, not funny. But when it's Sammy doing the scaring, for some reason it becomes hilarious. Poor girl. The things I make her go through to get a good laugh.