George Chedzoy

The fifth book in my Lou Elliott mystery adventure series, Secrets in the Mountains, has just been published. At last!

I'm sorry it's taken a while. So many other things have required my attention in recent months, not least the growing care demands of our autistic son. But Lou, Jack, David and Emily are all doing well and really looking forward to sharing their latest adventure with you.

The series begins with Smugglers at Whistling Sands and their fifth adventure finds them back in their beloved North Wales. It's summer again and this time they are camping amid the mountains of Snowdonia. The parents of Jack, David and Emily are with them - perhaps after what they happened in book two, they didn't want to let them go off camping on their own. Mr and Mrs Johnson assume that with a close eye kept on their offspring, nothing untoward could possibly happen. But with Lou joining them, they could well be wrong about that!

The children had a slightly more sedate time of it in book four, Trouble at Chumley Towers, when they turned detective over the Christmas holidays to try to solve the mystery of thefts from a stately home. But book five sees them firmly back in the thick of an exciting and at times dangerous adventure.

It's now being edited and typeset and will be with you soon! I will post regular updates on its progress here. The important thing is that those of you who begged me to get a fifth book out will not have too long to wait. My intention is to keep going with the series for as long as there are readers out there keen to keep following the lives of Lou Elliott and her friends Jack, David and Emily Johnson.

Smugglers at Whistling Sands was my first-ever novel and initially, I had only a vague idea that I wished to write a sequel (let alone a succession of books). I was aware that some might find such adventure stories too traditional and old-fashioned, albeit Lou, Jack, David and Emily are adept at harnessing modern technology when needed.

But I loved writing it and was pleased to find the demand was there. In 2013 book two was published: The Missing Treasure, followed by a shorter novel: Something Strange in the Cellar. After that I wrote a fantasy adventure novella with a Halloween theme: The Mystery of the Misty Woods. I have since published a sequel to this, involving a bottle with a strange message inside which washes up on the sea shore. It leads the youngsters to make friends with a strange, fragile young girl called Martha. It's called The Mystery of the Message in a Bottle.

As for me, I am a full-time freelance writer working from home and avoiding the two-hour (sometimes three-hour) commute that used to be my fate as a newspaper journalist. It is also my task to help my wife raise two young children at our home in North Wales - possibly the toughest challenge of all - especially Thomas, aged 11, who has pretty bad autism and ADHD. But he's lovely lad and that's the important thing. As for Sophie, aged ten, she is the latest reader of my Lou Elliott series and so far, she's really enjoying them.

Incidentally, I've recently published a very special biography, written by fairy tale princess Rapunzel, giving her account of what life was like growing up in the clutches of the witch Dame Gothel, her time in the tower and what happened next. Some of it will be familiar, some parts will surprise you. Rapunzel: My True Story.

I love hearing readers' thoughts on my books and please consider leaving a review if you have time. You can contact me via email at georgechedzoy@hotmail.co.uk with any comments, queries or feedback. You might also wish to take a look at my blog which is very out of date but I will be updating it soon: http://georgechedzoy.blogspot.com

Kind regards and keep reading!

George