This past Christmas break, I dusted off an old, but favored manuscript and prepped it for self-publishing. The Mystery of the Baffling Burglaries is a fun mystery I wrote a few years back, but I never found a publisher for it. I had been wanting to self-publish this story as well as a few others, but it wasn’t until I was asked to read a writing sample to the 5th graders at Westhoff Elementary several weeks back that I knew I needed to get it ready for print.

The 5th graders had an assignment to write a short mystery story based on a single picture, and the teachers had asked if I could read something that would help inspire them. I was going to use a chapter I had read to another group of 5th graders a few years back, but then I remembered that I had a perfect story that started out with a great visualization. So I printed out the first chapter of the Baffling Burglaries, as well as a picture of a pair of high top sneakers, and presented my story to three separate 5th grade classes.

Why a pair of sneakers? Well, it’s because Jeremy Dawes, the main character of the story, is being followed by someone wearing a pair of squeaky sneakers. The chapter ends in a great cliff hanger, and during the Q & A at the end of each reading, at least one student asked if it was available for them to read. So my work these past few weeks — editing, formatting, creating the cover, etc. — was part of a promise to get it published.

The Mystery of the Baffling Burglaries is now available on Amazon.com in Kindle format, but it will soon be available in paperback.

Thanks to the 5th graders, I am eager to publish more of my manuscripts, so stay tuned!

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