Interview & Giveaway at Paperback Dolls

Please join me and my hostesses today at PaperBack Dolls.  I'm helping them celebrate their 2nd annual Month of Love with an interview and book giveaway.

The interview?  Covers many topics.
The giveaway? An autographed copy of the first book of my Dressmakers Series, Silk is for Seduction.

Interview and Giveaway at Ex Libris Today!

Ex Libris

Why historical romance?  Why me?  Where would I time travel to if I could?  The answers to these and other questions—along with some delightful illustrations—appear today at Ex Libris, along with a chance to win a print copy of Silk is for Seduction or an e-ARC of Book Two of the Dressmakers Series, Scandal Wears Satin.

Please join us in celebrating Ex Libris' 2 Year Blogoversary!

Scandal Wears Satin

 Here's your sneak peak at the cover, which isn't yet up at Amazon.

And some advance news of interviews:

23 February at Ex Libris, to help celebrate their second Blogoversary (book giveaway included).

28 February at Paperback Dolls, to help celebrate their second annual Month of Love (book giveaway here, too).

Scandal Wears Satin is coming this summer

A great many people have asked about Book 2 of the Dressmakers series.  I've postponed updating my website until I have the final cover from my publisher.

But here's a brief update:
Scandal Wears Satin, featuring Sophy Noirot & Lord Longmore, will be a July book from Avon.
The official release date is 26 June 2012.

The building above, which stands on St. James's Street, London, is the one I chose to play the part of Maison Noirot.  It isn't No. 56, that building being very modern and completely unsuitable.

For those nerdy history persons who like to know about such things: There actually was a dressmaker  at No. 56 St. James's Street early in the 19th century. 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dickens

Today, 7 February, is Charles Dickens's 200th birthday.  He was and continues to be my inspiration.  Every year I reread at least one of his books, for the sheer fun of it as well as the re-setting of impossibly high standards.  No matter how many times I reread his stories, I always discover something new.  This was a writer who could give a chair a personality. 

He inspired my love of English history and taught me to love a city I'd never seen—London—and set off that writer's itch that keeps me going and enriches my travels and makes me endlessly curious about the past, especially the world he grew up in and lived in and wrote about.

I am not sure I would have written a single novel, if not for him.

Thank you, Mr. Dickens, for all you've given us & all you've given me.

And a very Happy Birthday to you, wherever you are.

The illustration of a young Charles Dickens (about age 30 if the info is correct), is from Wikipedia—and quite a different look from the more familiar portraits of his older self.

A really nice review of Silk is for Seduction

This one, at The Romance Reviews (TRR)  was so positive & enthusiastic, it made me blush.  Thank you, Carol Ann!