POLISHING THE DRAFT AND GIVING PRESENTS
December 17th, 2010
The draft is done and by the end of the weekend, Max, first of the Ransleigh Rogue cousins, should see the draft of his book winging its digital way to my editor. As always when finishing a book, there’s a sense of wonder in how the story and the character migrated from its first glimmerings in my mind, with Max and Caro ending up together (as always envisioned) but after traveling down ways NOT envisioned. In fact, Max wandered so far that one of his Rogue cousins not only got his name changed (from Rex to Will) but also has a new heroine…the woman who betrayed Max at the Congress of Vienna.
Although I want to move immediately into writing the Undone that should accompany Max’s book (featuring Caro’s cousin Elizabeth, a disillusioned widow who married the rake with whom she fell madly in love and came to bitterly regret it) there will still be time for holiday rejoicing. I’m looking forward to spending Christmas in Mississippi at the the new home of my oldest son and his bride, then returning home where ALL my children and their significant others will join us for New Years. Hmm…should have built a bigger house!
Then there’s the great holiday giveaway ongoing with the Harlequin Historical Authors Advent Calendar contest. The event will visit here on Sunday, December 19. All you must do to be entered for my individual prize of a $50 Amazon gift certificate and the grand prize of a Kindle 3G is to post a comment here, on the news/blog page.
Happy Holidays to all!
NEARING THE END
December 1st, 2010I didn’t quite make it for November, but I’m finally closing in on the end of the first Ransleigh Rogues book, featuring Magnificant Max. Five more scenes to go…and then some polishing (okay, alot of polishing) before sending it off to my editor as an early Christmas present to me. During the writing process, I discovered that one of the other rogues, Max’s cousin, originally named “Rex,” actually must be “Will”…and his heroine won’t be who I thought she was either. In the meantime, Max ended up doing some things for Caro that I hadn’t anticipated, while the interplay between them was hotter than I’d first imagined it. That’s a rogue for you, always surprising you with the unexpected!
Next up, an Undone.
THE HAPPIEST DAYS…
November 11th, 2010
To paraphrase Melanie in “Gone With the Wind,” the happiest days are when terrific new covers come in. So last Monday, when my editor emailed me the just-released cover for my upcoming February 2011 release, SOCIETY’S MOST DISREPUTABLE GENTLEMAN, was a wonderful day indeed! Check out the gorgeous cover and book description of this, the story of Greville Anders, brother of heroine Joanna from FROM WAIF TO GENTLEMAN’S WIFE, on the Bookshelf page.
CHECKING IN WITH NEWS!
September 22nd, 2010After having abandoned updates on this page for a shamefully long time (in her defense, Julia points to the many blogs she’s been writing over the last six weeks to promote the release of SMUGGLER,) she is happy to check in with some great news. Greville’s book has a title (SOCIETY’S MOST DISREPUTABLE GENTLEMAN) and a January 2011 release date. One of her favorite all-time books, WICKED WAGER, will be released for the first time in the UK in November with a lovely new cover. And A MOST UNCONVENTIONAL MATCH was just released again in the UK with a different cover that looks like an “outtake” of the original cover art, only much brighter. (Images of both to be posted on the Bookshelf page shortly.)
In the meantime, after the usual disruption for the end of summer and beginning of school, Julia is diving back into the writing of the first book of the Ransleigh Rogues series. Caro and Max are still tiptoeing around each other, but events are soon going to spiral out of their control.
Don’t you love it when that happens?
LAND HO! CONFERENCE AHEAD!
July 14th, 2010If the gentle reader wonders why Julia has neglected to provide much news of late, please look at the extensive list of blogs to which she has and will contribute this summer as part of the promotion for the REGENCY SILK & SCANDAL miniseries, including her Book 3, THE SMUGGLER AND THE SOCIETY BRIDE. You may find her Words of Wisdom (or at least commentary) posted at the Pink Heart Society; e-harlequin’s Community “Regency Silk & Scandal” Authors’ blog; the UK Historical Romance Authors; the Summer of Love; RomCon; Cataromance and Mysteries and Margaritas; dates and urls are listed below.
In the meantime, while working on the first book of her new Ransleigh Rogue series (see the Bookshelf page for details) she is preparing for Romance Writers of America’s annual National Conference, being held this year from July 28-August 1 in Orlando, right next to Epcot at the Swan & Dolphin hotels. She’ll be participating in a workshop entitled “Dressed for Historical Success,” for which Jeannie Linn, new Harlequin Historical author of Golden Heart winner BUTTERFLY SWORDS, created a wonderfully amusing video:
http://www.jeannielin.com/index.php/video-blog-preparing-for-rwa-2010/
View it and enjoy!
WHAT? SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE??
May 27th, 2010Yes, school (in Texas, at least) is winding to a close and summer is just a cold drink by a warm pool on a hot day away. Where does the time go?
This May, it’s mainly gone to keeping up with blog comments about the free online read “Seduced by the Dark Stranger, ” a prequel to the upcoming REGENCY SILK & SCANDAL miniseries that’s been running all month at eharlequin.com (http://www.eharlequin.com/article.html?articleId=1460) and with the RS&S authors’ blog at eharlequin’s Community. (http://community.eharlequin.com/content/regency-silk-and-scandal) As RS&S begins next month with Louise Allen’s The Lord and the Wayward Lady, there will be lots more blogs, both at eharlequin and elsewhere, as you can see from the entries on this page.
I’m looking forward to the release of my contribution to the miniseries, Book 3, THE SMUGGLER AND THE SOCIETY BRIDE, which will be out in August. Gabe Hawksworth is a roguish, free-spirited hero after my own heart, as is never-intended-to-break-the-rules-but-it-just-happens heroine Honoria. And I absolutely LOVED researching the county of Cornwall, with its beautiful misty coasts and mysterious history of smuggling.
I’m also eagerly anticipating the summer to charge forward on my next project, the Ransleigh Rogues, four childhood friends and cousins from radically different backgrounds whose lives are changed by war, heartbreak and scandal. Of course, four such strong-minded men need equally strong-minded ladies to straighten them out!
The first story features “Magnificent Max” Ransleigh, unofficial leader of the group, a charismatic man said to be able to persuade any man and charm any lady…until scandal at the Congress of Vienna soils his reputation and ruins his hopes for a brilliant diplomatic career. Exiled from polite society and shunned even by his family, he seems an unlikely savior for a well-bred young lady. Except that Miss Caroline Denby doesn’t want to be saved…she wants to be ruined. Why not, she argues, use his bad reputation to do her this one small favor?
More on Max and Caroline later!
REWRITES IN AND LOOKING OUT
April 21st, 2010Julia’s just sent off the rewrites of Greville’s book (he’s the brother of heroine Joanna in WAIF, the disgraced estate manager who gets himself knocked over the head and wakes up on a prison hulk, about to become the newest crew member of the HMS “The Illustrious.”) While awaiting word back from her editor, she’s toying with the possibility of a new series about four cousins who go off to fight with Wellington, have their lives changed in unimaginable ways, and find new goals and lives with the help of one special lady. The proposal was called “The Ransleigh Rogues.” Keep your fingers crossed that the eds like this one!
NEW COVER!
March 4th, 2010
Julia is thrilled with the cover of her upcoming August book, THE SMUGGLER AND THE SOCIETY BRIDE! (check the Bookshelf page for a peek!) Although Honoria appears a bit too demure to be in character, Gabe is displayed in all his roguish charm. So far, all the covers we’ve seen for the Regency Silk & Scandal continuity series have been beautiful; check the RS&S page on the Bookshelf tab to view the covers for THE LORD AND THE WAYWARD LADY and PAYING THE VIRGIN’S PRICE.
All the continuistas are excited as the June debut of this series approaches. In addition to an ad in Romance Sells, the RWA publication sent to librarians and booksellers displaying upcoming titles in romance fiction (if your library or bookstore doesn’t receive this, they can sign up on the booksellers & librarians page at www.rwanational.org for this FREE booklet) there will be lots of blogs, contests and giveaways. In addition, Christine Merrill, author of Books 2 and 8, has written an Undone featuring some of the characters, which will appear in May as “Taming her Gypsy Lover.” All six authors just completed an on-line read introducing the series that will run at eharlequin.com sometime in May, tentatively entitled “The Lady’s Scandalous Escapade.” So check back often for updates!
THE BOOK IS IN!
March 4th, 2010After funerals, illness, snowstorms, power outages…The Book That Would Not End, Greville’s book, is finally done and submitted to my editor. Drum roll signifyng relief, please! This book is the story of the brother of WAIF’s heroine, Joanna Anders Merrill. When we last hear of Greville in WAIF, he’s been abducted by the venal estate agent Barksdale, beaten and sold to a press gang. In Greville’s book (which I’m calling The Sailor and the Baron’s Daughter,) after the intervention of their noble cousin The Marquess of Englemere (Nicky from THE WEDDING GAMBLE) Greville has been rescued from service as a common seaman and, wounded after an action against pirates off the coast of Africa, sent back to the Coastal Brigade while the Admiralty settles the matter of his future. Also at Nicky’s intervention, he’s been invited to reside with Ned’s friend Lord Bronning, whose lovely daughter Amanda rejected Ned’s tentative courtship in WAIF.
Amanda is astonished and outraged when this grimy, wounded sailor limps over her father’s entry. What could Papa have been thinking, to have agreed to house such a specimen? Greville, a man whom eight months at sea at the bottom of the social ladder have given an entirely new perspective on life and his place in it, tends to agree with her opinion.
Amanda can’t wait to get to London to begin her Season and fulfill her life-long dream of making a brilliant match and becoming a political hostess to rival the fabled Duchess of Devonshire. Greville can’t wait to recover and try to figure out what he’s going to do with his life. It seems they have nothing at all in common…until an attraction they just can’t master and a danger to family and home throw the two together.
I’m waiting to see what my editor will think of Greville. There will surely be revisions. Then it’s on to the next project, another matter for which I’m awaiting my editor’s decision. It could be the first book in what I’m calling the Brotherhood of Badajos, the story of four soldiers who band together to survive the storming of that fortress city and pledge a lifelong friendship. Or something else. More on that later.
RINGING IN THE NEW…SADLY
January 18th, 2010The holidays were both joyous and difficult as I was faced with the loss of my mom the Friday before Christmas. She was my hero and inspiration and will be sorely missed. (For a tribute to Mom and Inspiring Women everywhere, see my January 20 blog at Access Romance, http://www.accessromance.com/blog/) I’m also still wrestling with the last few scenes of Greville’s book, its completion long-delayed by events such as that bit of unexpected out-of-town travel. Only a few scenes left now, so I’m hoping to finish the first draft SOON!
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