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You've got to love the titles, alone.

  Author Barrie Summy got off to a great start with those. Her middle grade mystery series about 13-year-old Sherry, a girl with an active social life and a ghost of a mother (literally) is graced with covers that pop off the shelf, too. A school librarian in town told me the series is a huge hit with 5th grade girls at her school. Which is interesting in and of itself, now that I think about it. At our public library, they're shelved in the juvenile section. But the main character is 13. (Barrie ... if you read this, and I feel your ghostly presence, did you plan the books for the YA crowd, or middle grade readers? Or is it middle school readers and why isn't that a genre?)

The first book in the series was I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES. Then I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY, followed by I SO DON'T DO MAKEUP, which came out this month. Next year's release is I SO DON'T DO FAMOUS.

Barrie will tell you, herself, that the series had an interesting start. It wasn't instant stardom and fame. Hers is a great story, though. And such a happy ending! I'll let her tell you how it devloped.

1. There are now three I SO DON'T DO books. When you wrote the first one, did you have a series in mind? What kind of schedule does your contract call for? How many words - roughly - are your manuscripts? How do you respond to the pressure of a deadline? Tell us about about your journey into the series realm.

Well, I did actually envision the first book as the beginning book in a series. HOWEVER, I think I was the only who saw it that way! ;) Not my agent, not my critique partners, not my pets!

So, I actually had an outline and a title for a 2nd book when the first book sold. Random House asked if I thought I could write a 2nd book. I jumped up and down for joy and patted myself on the back for my brilliant foresight. :)

I gave Random House the title. They didn't like it. I showed them the outline. They didn't like it either. However, the first contract was for two books. As you can imagine, I SO DON'T DO SPOOKY (the 2nd book) is VERY diffferent from the 2nd book I had in mind. ;) Oh, and the second contract was for the next two books.

The manuscripts are 52,000 to 56,000 words. I'm basically writing a book a year for the series. However, the second and third book came out six months apart. So, uh, that was a pretty tight schedule. :)

How do I respond to the pressure of a deadline? I start off great. I plot on a calendar how much I have to get accomplished by when. And, for a while, it all goes swimmingly. Then life and children and oil changes and colds and whatever start to intrude. Then, I'm behind in my schedule enough to give me a knot in my stomach. So....I book a weekend away in a hotel and work like crazy to get back on schedule. In general, I need a weekend away (sometimes two!) per manuscript. I'm starting to think a weekend away