A Bunch of Ghostwriter Information

I'm having some personal problems, and that's why it's taken so long for me to post anything. I won't go into farther detail, but I will try to update this blog more often. I'm working on a review right now and hopefully will have it up soon.

I was looking through LinkedIn again and discovered a whole lot of Ghostwriter information. Not sure how I missed all this last time, but the profiles might not have been there.

First, we have two ghostwriters for the recent "Hardy Boys Adventures" series:
-Ruben Sack wrote #6,7,10,12,15. He also wrote the Diaries book "A Nancy Drew Christmas".
-Paul Crilley wrote #9.

We have three ghostwriters who I know wrote Nancy Drew books, but I'm not sure what ones:
-Louise Ladd was mentioned on someone's page as a Nancy Drew Ghostwriter.
-Janet Jones and Pamela Willis wrote a Nancy Drew Digest in 1996, no information on which one they wrote.
-Cathy Hapka wrote Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books.

Finally, Stacia Deutsch wrote the Nancy Drew Clue Crew book, "Pony Problems", and several other Nancy Drew books.

Nancy Drew Diaries #17 “Famous Mistakes”

Nancy Drew Diaries #17 “Famous Mistakes” is still not listed on Simon and Schuster’s website. Amazon barely has any info on the book, and there are still two releases for the book going around the internet.  I suspect that the book has been cancelled.

However, thanks to the Library of Congress, we now know what the plot of “Famous Mistakes” is. And to be quite honest, I won’t mind if the book gets cancelled.

“Nancy and her sleuthing friends race to find out who is responsible for sabotaging a controversial comedian's upcoming performance at River Heights's new arts complex, where an exhibition of Dutch Masters is being installed.”

It’s yet another Diaries book where Nancy Drew investigates sabotage. Most of the Diaries books have been about sabotage. Even “A Nancy Drew Christmas” seems to be about sabotage. It seems like Simon and Schuster have run out of ideas for Nancy Drew books, which is odd, because the Hardy Boys Adventures series doesn’t seem to have this problem.

I really don’t see the Diaries series lasting for much longer, especially since “Famous Mistakes” is looking like a “Phantom Book” *, a book that is announced, but never published. Normally, if a Nancy Drew or a Hardy Boys series has one of these, it means the series has been cancelled. 

I could be wrong about this, and I will be keeping an eye on Simon and Schuster’s website to see if anything changes. 

*Two examples of Phantom Books are the Fear Street Segas books "The Raven Woman" and "Carousel of Doom". The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers book "The Case of the MyFace Kidnapper" is another example.

A Nancy Drew Christmas in September

According to Simon and Schuster's website, the 18th book in the Nancy Drew Diaries series will be called "A Nancy Drew Christmas: Super Special". The book has a release date of 18 Sep 2018. There's no cover for it yet, but we do have a back cover summery:

Nancy finds herself a Christmas mystery in this super special eighteenth book of the Nancy Drew Diaries series, a fresh approach to the classic mystery series.

Nancy Drew’s dad surprises her with a trip to a beautiful New England ski resort for Christmas break. Nancy is so excited. What could be better than a whole week of skiing and five-star dining?

But no vacation can go smoothly when Nancy is involved. On her very first run down the slopes, Nancy hits a bad patch of ice and takes a serious tumble. A doctor sends her back to the hotel in a cast and mandates twelve days of bed rest. That means no long car trips back to River Heights and twelve days of sitting around. Luckily, there’s still the five-star dining and beautiful views.

Just hours into her convalescence, Nancy witnesses something very suspicious through another hotel room window. And when she presses the concierge she learns there have been mysterious break-ins throughout the hotel. It’s clear someone has been going into guest’s rooms but, as far as anyone can tell, nothing has been taken. Nancy can’t resist—she has to investigate. Only trouble is, she’s still bed bound.

Taking some cues from Home Alone’s Kevin McCallister, Nancy devises some clever schemes to get her investigating done from her bed. But for all her plans, Nancy still can’t find the source of the break-ins. Or the purpose. What’s worse the mood of the hotel has turned decidedly un-merry. People are leaving in droves and the jolly hotel owner is worried about the hotel’s success.

With all the odds stacked against her, can Nancy solve this crime in time to save Christmas? Or is this one Yuletide she’ll wish to forget?

Despite not really being interested in the Diaries series, I'll will admit the book sounds interesting. What's also interesting is the fact that Simon and Schuster is releasing a Christmas themed book in September.

Also, that release date is very pretty close to the release date(s) for Diaries #17 "Famous Mistakes", which is supposed to come out on either  August 28, 2018, or September 5, 2018, depending on what site you check. "Famous Mistakes" is also not listed on the S&S website, nor do we have a back cover summery for "Famous Mistakes".

Is "A Nancy Drew Christmas" replacing "Famous Mistakes"?

A Nancy Drew Files Mystery Solved?

Recently, I've been looking through LinkedIn to see if I find any info on Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew ghostwriters. I actually found quite a bit:
-Ami Boghani wrote The Nancy Drew Diaries #10
-Ellen Keller wrote The Hardy Boys Casefiles #91
-Deborah Gaine wrote The Nancy Drew Files #40 and #44

However, one LinkedIn page not only revealed the name of a ghostwriter, but might have solved a mystery as well. But first, some background info.

The final book in the Nancy Drew Files series, "Crime at the Chat Cafe" was published on December 1st, 1997. However, that may have not been the last book written for the series. The Book Depository had a listing and an ISBN number for Nancy Drew Files #128, before the listing was removed.* They also had listings for other unpublished Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, like Casefiles #129, 131-134 and Super Mystery #38.

What the Book Depository didn't have were ISBN numbers for Nancy Drew Files #125-127. Now, you'll notice that I didn't list Casefiles #130 as one of the unpublished books. That's because it actually got published as Digest #150, "The Crisscross Crime". If you were to search the Book  Depository for "Casefiles #130", back when the site still listed unpublished books, you'd find nothing.

So where were the ISBN numbers for Nancy Drew Files #125-127? I have long suspected that those three Nancy Drew Files books got published as Nancy Drew Digests. However, I've never been able to figure out exactly Digests started out as Files books.

Now back to LinkedIn. While searching, I found this profile. (You need a LinkedIn account to access it)

In the experience section, she lists some of the books she's written. Now this is where it gets interesting. One of the entries on her list is, "The E-Mail Mystery, Nancy Drew Files (Megabooks; Simon & Schuster)". 

This is strange, because "The E-Mail Mystery" is actually Digest #144. However, Denise Hidalgo referred to it as a Nancy Drew Files book. Considering that she wrote the book, I don't think this was an error. 

Now I haven't read "The E-Mail Mystery", but the summery on the back cover makes it sound a lot like a Nancy Drew Files book. I'm pretty sure that the "The E-Mail Mystery" is one of the three missing Files books (#125-127). 

*For those wondering, the ISBN number for Nancy Drew Files #128 is 9780671007553.