Release Day = Graduation + First Day of School

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. Heiress Without a Cause has been quietly available on Barnes and Noble all last week, but today is the official launch. It's like the first day of school, my birthday (before the stupid terrorists ruined it forever), and graduation all rolled into one. In many ways, it's like a graduation -- the culmination of a lot of work over several years, ending in one lovely day full of celebrating and laughter and merriment. Some of my friends are taking me out tonight, which will be a great way to end the day, and I've gotten some wonderful emails and tweets and comments from all over the world. So today is truly a day to celebrate and reflect on everything that's happened over the last few years (preferably with some champagne and possibly a mani/pedi).

But in other ways, it's more like the first day of school. Will the other kids (readers) like me? Am I wearing the right clothes? Am I smart enough to handle the work? What's that smell in the cafeteria? (I've been shamefully neglecting my kitchen this weekend...). While all the work of getting my book out in the world has culminated in this, the next phase of work -- connecting with readers, writing to deadlines, mastering the art of juggling writing and promo -- is just beginning.

Still, it's an exciting day, and I'm going to enjoy it. Thank you for celebrating with me, and I'm so glad you're here as I kick off the next phase. If you want to stay updated when the book launches everywhere, or if you want to be invited to signings/events/launch parties, please sign up for my mailing list.

And really, if my outfit is a wreck, promise you'll tell me?

Coming in January - My First Two Books!

I am utterly thrilled to announce that I am publishing my first two books on January 26, 2012! Heiress Without a Cause and Scotsmen Prefer Blondes are the first two books in my Muses of Mayfair series, featuring a secret club for ladies with scandalous artistic ambitions. Heiress was a 2011 Golden Heart finalist in the Regency category, and Scotsmen won the Golden Heart in 2009. You can read more about both books below. I shall write another post in a few days about why I am self publishing and why I'm excited by the opportunities available online (note: it involves control, but doesn't involve any sort of screed against 'legacy' publishers). But today is for celebrating, not for cold details of the publishing business. Please join me in the celebration - leave a comment, and I will drink some virtual champagne with you (only virtual, since I've had enough real champagne this week to float an armada or sink an admiral - take your pick). And if you want to stay updated on release schedules, contests, signings, etc. (and get sneak peeks at new content!), please join my mailing list.

Thank you for celebrating with me, and I can't wait to take the next step in my career with your support!

-------------------------------------------

HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE - Muses of Mayfair #1 - coming January 2012

One title to change his life...

A disgraced son with a dark reputation, William “Ferguson” Avenel is content to live in exile – until his father dies in the scandal of the Season. With rumors of insanity swirling around them, his sisters desperately need a chaperone. Ferguson thinks he’s found the most proper woman in England – and he won’t ruin her, even if he desperately wants the passionate woman trapped beneath a spinster’s cap.

One chance to break the rules...

Lady Madeleine Vaillant can’t face her blighted future without making one glorious memory for herself. In disguise, on a London stage, she finds all the adoration she never felt from the ton. But when she’s nearly recognized, she will do anything to hide her identity – even setting up her actress persona as Ferguson’s mistress. She’ll take the pleasure he offers, but Madeleine won’t lose her heart in the bargain.

One season to fall in love...

Every stolen kiss could lead to discovery, and Ferguson’s old enemies are determined to ruin them both. But as their dangerous passion ignites their hearts and threatens their futures, how can an heiress who dreams of freedom deny the duke who demands her love?

-------------------------------------------

SCOTSMEN PREFER BLONDES - Muses of Mayfair #2 - coming January 2012

She never wanted marriage...

When a friend is forced to consider a marriage of convenience, Lady Amelia Staunton is determined to rescue her. But her plans trap her in an illicit seduction, and Amelia must marry him herself. Malcolm’s all-consuming kisses and devilish humor might make up for her lost freedom, but she believes he will force her to abandon the Gothic romances she yearns to write. Since she can’t escape him, she must distract him from her secret...

He isn’t looking for love...

A powerful autocrat with a well-hidden rebellious streak, Malcolm MacCabe doesn’t need another beautiful mistress – he needs an obedient wife. Obedience is not one of Amelia’s virtues. But he’s too enthralled by her wit and passion to let her go – even if it means risking the political reputation he is building to save his clan.

Their hearts can’t survive the scandal...

Despite their intentions, every wicked embrace binds them together. But as their conflicting desires combust into insatiable hunger and unavoidable ruin, they must decide whether to pursue their personal destinies alone – or fight for the love that could destroy them both.

Grief and the Regency

"Grief and the Regency" doesn't have quite the same appeal as "Sex and the City," but bear with me. I have tried to write this blog post for six months. Perhaps I should have let it go. And yet every time I opened Wordpress, I couldn't ignore the draft and move on - or force myself to write it. In April, one of my friends died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. He wasn't quite thirty. I had dinner with him and his fiancee the previous week, and he seemed fine - happy with life, excited about the wedding, eager for the next step. A week later, I was sitting in his fiancee's parents' living room, crying with her and mourning what was supposed to have been. Their save-the-date cards had been delivered the day he died.

The mourning process is something I've thought a lot about over the past few months. I'm much closer to the fiancee than I was to him; she and I have been friends and coworkers for years, although I worked with him as well. They were wonderful both together and apart, and I loved hanging out with them as a couple even though I didn't have someone by my side to make it a double date. I was devastated for her...am still devastated for her...was supposed to have attended their wedding last weekend, and instead saw a string of tributes posted on the Facebook page created in his memory.

The point of this post isn't to bring you down, or to make me feel better - it's not your issue, and I don't believe that "blog posts heal all wounds" is a valid statement. But in my ruminations on grief, I've wondered whether the very strict rules around women and mourning during the Regency and Victorian periods were to save other people from having to deal with the bereaved. Reaching out to someone like my friend is hard - does she want to talk? Is she overwhelmed with people? Is she trying to move on? There's the fear of not knowing what to say, of saying the wrong thing, of bringing up a bad memory, of causing unintentional pain.

Middle and upper class Regency/Victorian ladies didn't face that pressure to the same degree. The funeral was held, the house and the ladies were draped in black, and the ladies weren't seen again at major social functions until their prescribed mourning time was up. By then, if they hadn't moved on, Society certainly had. One lovely (from a writing standpoint, not an emotional standpoint) example of this was in Deanna Raybourn's first Julia Grey novel, Silent in the Grave - a whole year of mourning passed by very quickly, with Julia essentially a bored, aimless prisoner in her own house. Almost certainly worse for *her* than being able to go out, socialize, take her mind off of her loss - but also almost certainly easier for those who didn't want to be reminded of her grief.

There's a long history of the bereaved (and by that I mean almost entirely women - men were expected to move on) being ignored or tossed aside, from the very word 'relic' (a rather disagreeable word for a 'widow') to the act of sati (Indian widows immolating themselves on the pyres of their husbands, either voluntarily or under duress). I think we can all be thankful that sati is no longer common - in fact, it's illegal to even see sati committed in India, in an effort to prevent forced immolation. And we no longer expect widows to sit at home alone, wearing black and staying out of the way as others go about their lives.

But rituals, whether it's weddings, funerals, christenings, handfastings, religious events, maypole dances, or any other events, give people a list of rules to follow. They reduce the outward side of something like mourning to a checklist: dye clothes black; cover the mirrors with black cloth; muffle the door knockers; stop the clocks. I don't want to be told how to mourn, just as I wouldn't want to be told that my wedding has to follow an exact plan, or that my funeral can't be light on hymns and heavy on Bon Jovi (just kidding about that, I think). And yet...

...and yet, checklists make it all easier. Perhaps there wouldn't be $100,000 weddings if they were still supposed to take place before noon in one's own parish. Perhaps my neighbors would have greeted me with casseroles when I moved in a few months ago, rather than remaining strangers and leaving me wondering if I'm letting in a resident or a serial killer when I hold the gate for the person following me. And perhaps I would know what to say to my friend, how to comfort her, and how to comfort myself.

No checklist will solve that. But what do you think? Do you wish your community had more rituals than it currently does? Are things still too ritualized for your liking? Or are you the proverbial Baby Bear of rituals and have managed to get it just right?

Back From the Dead

I'm sitting in a friend's apartment in New York City, about to relocate to the Marriott for the Romance Writers of America annual convention. I must apologize for the abrupt, unusual silence on the blog; I've had quite the spring, including a three-week roadtrip involving 4500 miles of driving around the Great American West and a sudden unplanned move to a new apartment in San Francisco. But, once the conference (and a two-week trip to Germany for a friend's Indian/Scottish wedding immediately after the conference) is over, I shall blog again in earnest! Check back this week for updates, though - I've got a lot of exciting events coming up, including breakfast with Sarah Maclean and Sophie Jordan, dinners with the 2009 and 2011 Golden Heart finalists, and the Golden Heart awards ceremony (where all shall be revealed). It's all going to be fun, and I can't wait to share it with you.

Check Out My Guest Blog on Using Screenwriting Tricks in Your Novel!

Apologies for the blogging hiatus, dear readers; one of my friends passed away a month ago, just before I went on a three-week roadtrip (during which I drove 4500 miles), and it has taken me awhile to get back into my regularly scheduled life. I will be active here again any day now -- but to tide you over, check out my guest post on the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog. I'm chatting with my fellow 2009 Golden Heart finalists about using screenwriting tricks to plot your novel -- please stop by and say hi!

And now, a word on the day job...

So I have exciting news - I've decided to focus some time on my writing career. The alternative phrasing is that I quit my day job! I know, I'm crazy, and this is totally not recommended on any website I've ever seen that gives advice to writers. But, I feel strongly that giving myself a chance to focus on my writing is going to yield huge rewards, even if I don't become self-sufficient through writing in time to avoid getting another job in the future. And, I planned ahead for this day for quite awhile, so it will be a couple of years before I starve to death.

If you're curious about how I made this decision, I'm blogging today at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood (http://goo.gl/Sf6M). Stop by and share your thoughts! I also expect to get a lot more vocal here in the coming weeks - stay tuned.