storytelling

Not yet released, but it looks very promising. The Sparks Fly Upward is a kind of sequel to the Makepeace Burke novels, about her daughter Philippa. The cover blurb:

A new novel of love and courage in a time of war, from the author of A Catch of Consequence and Taking Liberties.

Few of those Philippa loves in London return her affection. Not the love of her life, who has a new bride. Not even her widowed mother, Makepeace Burke. So Philippa decides on a marriage of convenience to a prudish, if kind, man.

Across the Channel in France, the Reign of Terror is causing the beheading of thousands from the French nobility. Among those in danger is Philippa's friend, the Marquis de Condorcet. Not only has Philippa the means of rescuing him from the guillotine, she's got the courage. And as fate would have it, Philippa will find love where she least expects it-while staring death in the face.

Scheduled for release on September 5.

Posted by at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

You know those mustard colored banners at the top and bottom of the QoS cover? They were meant to stand in for what would be gold foil, but in the meantime -- fuuugly.

Today my editor wrote to say that they were worried about the timing on the production of the cover, which is tight. If the gold foil turned out badly, there would be no time to fix it. So they changed the banners to a deep scarlet.

And I'm pleased. I like this. What do you think?

Posted by at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBacks (0)

Over at LibraryThing they've launched the new groups feature. Anybody can set up a group for people with a common bookish interest, and anybody can join. There's a group discussion board, and group statistics, and all kinds of lovely geeky things to make my heart beat faster.

I just set up a new group called Romance, from Austen to Byatt to Crusie. All you need is a free LibraryThing account and you can hop on over there and join.

Can you see this as a challenge? As people are scrambling to set up groups and get members to join, the romance community could kick some butt. Some thriller-butt, some baseball-butt, some aviation-butt, even poetry and theology and numismatic butt.

Posted by at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week the Mathematician's symptoms suddenly improved to a surprising degree. Almost pain free, and able to take reasonable short hikes. So yesterday the neurosurgeon postponed the surgery for two months.

Because he's getting better, and because he's almost certain to relapse. Eventually he'll need the surgery, but not just now.

So, good. For the moment.

Posted by at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)