Trouble Lives!

Good News! The first coherent draft of Trouble Takes a Holiday is finally complete!! It’s a massive 136,000 words. I’m exhausted. This was supposed to be a simple little one-off romp: with London Calling, Trouble goes to Europe to solve a spooky mystery in an old castle. Things just got out of hand.

Marco and I brainstormed this one in the Infinite Sadness of 2020’s cruel winter, freezing our asses off at the park, masked up and social distanced with Covid running rampant. But then I hit The Wall. One chapter in, I found it simply impossible to write from home. All Things Must Pass, and hot vax summer, brief though it was, lasted long enough for me to find my groove again. And then we got really ambitious. Shoutout to all the Starbucks I wrote this one in, drinking hot chocolate and masked up, just to be safe.

Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with us while I toiled away. Trouble is still finding new readers all the time, and we can really feel The Love Below every review and comment sent our way. If you liked the first two books, I think you’re going to love this one. There’s still a long road of edits and revisions ahead, but the end is now in sight, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Look for the next chapter in Trouble’s story this summer.

-JT

Update: One year later...

It’s hard to believe Trouble has been in the wild for over a year already. Thank you to everyone who has read the book, and especially those who left a rating or review. The response has been tremendously positive, and hearing everyone’s reactions to the end of Book 1 has been great motivation to get cranking on Book 2.

Speaking of which: I finished the second draft of Trouble Always Finds Me this morning, cutting the manuscript from 105,000 words down to 92,000. Book 2 is now leaner and meaner and hopefully just as much fun to read as the first one. The plan, if all goes well, is to publish in the fall. Right now, the next step is getting feedback from beta readers. Keep an eye on this spot for more Trouble news over the next few months, including an excerpt that sheds some light on you know who. Stay safe out there.

-JT

Update: One month later...

Amazingly, the book has been out for a month already. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy! We’ve surpassed our modest sales targets and have been getting really positive reviews on Amazon and GoodReads. I’m delighted that our readers are getting to know Jenny Valentine and enjoying her antics so much. We’ve got a few updates to share on Trouble’s one-month birthday:

At the end of our last Bros Watch PLL Too podcast, Marco and I did a non-spoiler / spoiler Q & A for My Name is Trouble. Skip ahead to 1:37:34 for it. Don’t worry, there’s a warning when we get to the spoiler section.

We’ve created a subreddit for the Trouble books for readers to theorize and discuss the novels. Head over to /r/TroubleNovels and start a conversation!

Work has already begun on Book 2. There’s still a long road to publication, but actual pages exist, and we’re really excited about some of the new concepts we can play with in the sequel.

In the meantime, if you want to help support the book, consider leaving a review. Or loan the book to a friend. Or force your book club to read it. Happy sleuthing.

-JT