The first two books in the series were written in 1997 and then put in a closet for 11 years before being published!
“The Carrie Lee” was originally called “The Mary Lee” after Mary Lee Gibbons, the co-author of the first book in the series, who decided eleven years later that she didn’t want to name a character (even a ship) after herself. To this day, author Brenda Darnley Martin occasionally makes the “Mary Lee” slip when reading the books aloud.
“Bernadette” was the middle name of author Brenda Darnley Martin’s paternal grandmother.
The character, “Judge Mia Mendez,” was named after a real baby, whose grandmother “bought” the naming rights by winning a silent auction item to benefit a YMCA.
“The Treasure-Hunt Three and Judge Mia’s Decree” took 8 months to conceptualize, but was almost entirely written in two hours on a flight from Tampa to Detroit.
The third book in the series, “Judge Mia’s Decree,” was actually the FOURTH book to be written.