New Release! The Playground Queen

Hey! So my book challenge continues, my audacious/foolhardy plan to release twelve books over twelve months…

And I’m early! Can you believe it?

Even though I already released my book for October, I proudly present to you, ahead of schedule, Challenge Book #3!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN “EARLY”? IT’S ALREADY NOVEMBER!!

Yes, well… I did publish this back in October. (You can check the publication date.) I just then proceeded to not quite get this announcement out until now. My apologies.

I CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT MIGHT HAVE DISTRACTED YOU LATELY…

Actually! My official distraction was this BIG COZY MYSTERY LAUNCH we’ve got coming up! But I’m getting ahead of myself. One new book at a time…

From the author of the hilarious picture book HOW TO TALK TO A ROCK, this new chapter book will bring the kids in your life an action-packed tale set where some of their greatest adventures really happen in real life: the school playground.

How do you win the game…

…when the queen makes all the rules?

Agatha has been the Playground Queen for forever. Her turn was only supposed to last one week! But every time they run a tournament to choose the new ruler, she makes it impossible for anyone else to win.

Brian is determined to win anyway and be the next king, so that Harriet, Frank and all his friends can finally play games they like again at recess. Can they all work together to defeat Queen Agatha?

Or will they all be stuck playing “Let’s Think of Things We Like About Agatha” for the rest of their lives?

Note: This chapter book is best suited for readers aged 6 to 8, but older kids may enjoy it as well.

Includes a special section of “Questions and Activities” for classroom or personal use.

One-click THE PLAYGROUND QUEEN now!

WAIT, WHAT? YOU ALSO WRITE CHAPTER BOOKS? FOR KIDS?

Apparently, yes.

I loved chapter books when I was a kid reader, and my kids love them now. I’m excited to get into writing them again.

BUT I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T WRITING ANYTHING NEW FOR THIS CHALLENGE?

That’s true—I have such a backlog of work that needs to be published that I’ll be well past the end of this challenge before I’ve caught up to publish what I’m writing now. What can I say? Writing’s the fun part.

Though I’ll be honest; it is a rush to release a new book. And the more I streamline my publishing process, the quicker I can get these out to you.

I wrote THE PLAYGROUND QUEEN awhile back, but I’ve already written another chapter book this year, and I’m working on a third.

My kids seem to really enjoy them, and that’s just too much fun to miss.

HEY! LOOKS LIKE THERE’S ALREADY A BOOK ON AMAZON WITH THE SAME NAME!!

Yes. So… after I published this, I went back later to search for it and discovered that there’s already a picture book with the same title, The Playground Queen. It was published in 2021, and from the super-cute cover and description, it looks like a lovely little book.

Normally, I try to avoid duplicate titles, but I wrote this so long ago (like… erm… twenty years?) that even if I’d known, I’m not sure I would have chosen a different title. At this point, “The Playground Queen” is burned into my brain.

Fortunately, that’s a picture book, and this is a chapter book, so that should help reduce the confusion. And you can tell at a glance from the cover how different the stories are: in the picture book, the Queen is the hero, while in my book, alas, the Queen is rather a tyrant.

Will I be super annoyed if some future book comes out called, say, MURDER FEELS AWFUL or (perhaps less likely) HOW TO TALK TO A ROCK? Yes. I’m sure. But hopefully it won’t bother me for too long, as long as it’s clear that their books are quite different and they had no intention of trying to copy my work.

On a side note, apparently there’s this move that came out back in 2010 called… Frozen. It’s a psychological horror thriller where a bunch of people get trapped on a ski lift. And no (as Dave Barry used to say), I am not making this up. I have no idea whether that Frozen is any good, but I imagine everyone involved must have been bemused, at the least, when Anna and Elsa took over the world a few years later.

(So if any agents are reading this and getting ideas about making playground royalty the next Disney princess… hmm… you should probably go talk to Casey Morris and Jasmine Mills, honestly. Their Queen looks super sweet.)

SO WHAT ABOUT THIS “BIG LAUNCH” YOU KEEP TEASING?

Yes! I’m still working on the final details, but BOOK FOUR in my Wonder Springs Cozy Mystery Series, MURDER IN A PSYCHIC PRISON, is still on track to come out this month, as promised.

CAN’T WE AT LEAST SEE THE COVER?

Soon! Here’s what’s going to happen:

• I will quietly put the book up for preorder…
• But you will probably want to WAIT, and not order it yet.

WAIT, WHAT? YOU’RE SAYING NOT TO PREORDER YOUR NEXT MYSTERY WHEN IT COMES OUT?

I mean, you can. Feel free. I would love that. It’s just that you might want to wait for the special launch.

To get special deals. Maybe even a bonus or two.

OKAY, OKAY!! WOULD YOU JUST LAUNCH THIS BOOK ALREADY??

Yes! Will do.

And thanks, as always, for reading this update. Myself, I know I’m always on the lookout for fun, clean new chapter books for my own young readers, so if you’ve got any kids in your life, THE PLAYGROUND QUEEN might be well worth a look.

See you soon!

Bill Alive