At the 2006 Festival I heard someone ask Marilyn Ross about this work. This was not in a panel; it was in the dealer's room. She had a sad look on her face and mentioned Craig Hamrick's battle with cancer (initially I said "passing" here but when I thought about it, I'm almost positive he was still alive at this point. I believer I heard he died soon after. A few months after the festival I tracked down a copy of this story. So I've modified my post here. Maybe someone else closer to Craig can let me know if my timeline is correct or if it's off). She said something about her husband being very happy with his adaptation of the story he'd written. My memory is not specific with regard to direct quotations but I do recall vividly that she was aware of who he was and that he had Ross's blessing to adapt the story.
I doubt that it would have been published as a novella. I suspect that the story was a mostly about the personal details and that there would have been a mystery involved as well, perhaps one that teamed up Barnabas and Vicki in much the same way she and Burke worked together in some of the other novels. This is just a guess, of course. At the time I was not aware of the novella until I heard Mrs. Ross talk about it, so I didn't have any questions ready.