Big News for Llewellyn Fans!

So, I promised y'all more good news, and here it is. But there is kind of a funny story behind it, so I thought I'd share.

I keep saying I am not going to write any more Llewellyn books, as much as I love them, because the novels take so much of my time now. Then, of course, I came up with the idea of the 365 Day book, which I'm working on now. But that was ABSOLUTELY going to be the last one.

Then, around my birthday at the end of April, my beloved Llewellyn editor, Elysia Gallo, made a cryptic comment about how she had something for my birthday, and I was either going to love it or curse her name. Huh? I said. And then promptly forgot about it. (I pretty much promptly forget about everything.)

Then, towards the end of May, a package showed up in my mailbox.

The Mysterious Package

 I felt it as I walked up my driveway, and it was clearly a book. But it felt like a hardcover, albeit a small one, so it clearly wasn't one of mine. I was without clue. (Also not unusual.) So I opened the package as I was walking and pulled out this:

DOG Magic? WTF?

 For a minute, I was completely baffled. Elysia knows I'm a cat person. Why on earth would she be sending me a book of DOG MAGIC for my (belated) birthday?

So I read the pretty card she sent with it...and laughed so loudly, I think I scared the birds. (Yes, I was still in the driveway--I was curious!)

My belated birthday card. Isn't it cool?

The Card

Here's part of what it said:

Dear Deborah,
Happy belated birthday!
Your crazy-making gift from me is a new book idea--how would you like to write the companion to this book--but The Book of Cat Magic? Isn't it cute? And it's tiny--only 40K words! You know you want to! Please?

The really funny part? I had literally said in a conversation with my agent Elaine the day before, "And I'm pretty sure the 365 Day book is the last Llewellyn book I'm going to do." Boy, when the universe laughs at me, it isn't even subtle, is it? Snort.

So I called Elaine and asked her if she thought we could squeeze this into my schedule, and she said, "It's the book of CAT magic! You have to write it!"

So I called Elysia and said yes :-)

Apparently I'm doing one more Llewellyn book after all. It won't be out until sometime in 2018 (the tarot deck is coming January '17 and the 365 Day book will be out in the fall of '17, probably), but boy, am I going to have fun writing it!

Anyone else excited about this too? (And yes, I'll be putting together some kind of giveaway to celebrate at the beginning of next week. Any requests?)

WHOO HOOO!