Two Nerdy History Girls on YouTube

If you missed the Two Nerdy History Girls’ chat with Meena Jain and the wonderful group of readers and nerdy history people who joined us, you can tune into YouTube. Or you might want a replay in case you missed something. I sure did. While I love not knowing what questions will arise (it keeps my brain stimulated), I know there will be some whose answers escape me at the time—or maybe I’ll think of additional information after the chat is over. So yes, this happened, and I will probably do some follow-ups.

If you’d like to watch or re-watch, here’s the link. Or you can look up “The Two Nerdy History Girls Ride Again! 4.14.2025”, which is on the Ashland Public Library MA channel.

Readers asked about Court dress and maternity wear (very important at a time when so many women spent most of their childbearing years bearing children) as well as a number of questions about medical care, disease, women’s health.

If you’d like to follow up on a subject raised during the chat, you can send me an email via the Contact Loretta page on my website. Your topic might be quite blogworthy—which would allow me to go on and on in nerdy history fashion—something to look forward to!

In excellent timing, @littleblossomdarling (Blossom Darling on Facebook), very recently posted a short video about menstruation and women’s clothing. You might want to follow her on social media, because she tackles many of the same topics that come up in these chats and elsewhere. And a note of credit to dress and textile historian Hilary Davidson (@fourredshoes) whose discussion of Jane Austen’s clothing got the 2NHGs thinking about women’s heights.

Author event on 3 April with Elizabeth Everett, Caroline Linden, & me

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The time has come for another in-person historical romance author event. This time, Caroline Linden and I will join Elizabeth Everett, in celebration of Elizabeth’s latest release, The Lady Sparks a Flame.

If you haven’t yet met Elizabeth’s brainy and brave, rule-breaking women, it’s time for an introduction. We’ll be talking about Sam & Phoebe’s story and women who break rules and a great deal more.

Here’s the where and when:

Thursday 3 April⁠ 7 - 9pm EDT⁠

Lovestruck Books⁠ 44 Brattle Street ⁠Cambridge MA 02138⁠

Tickets here.

Elizabeth will donate $1 per book for all pre-orders and books sold at the event to Guttmacher Institute.

Welcoming "My Inconvenient Duke" and celebrating "Lord of Scoundrels"

As has been proclaimed in various areas of my website, the third Difficult Dukes book, My Inconvenient Duke, will be released on 21 January. After all the frustration, and the fighting with characters (those strong and rather secretive personalities!) and delays and delays, Alice & Blackwood’s story will finally reach my readers.

It’s won some thumbs-up early reviews, including a starred advance review in Booklist in December, which included the following:

With the latest dazzling addition to her Difficult Dukes series (A Duke in Shining Armor, Ten Things I Hate About the Duke), readers will again revel in Chase’s buoyant yet deliciously sharp sense of wit and her ability to craft radiantly romantic love stories rendered with the meticulous attention to detail she pays to everything, from nuanced characterization to an expertly evoked historical setting. — John Charles

It’s will also get a party, at the Ashland Public Library, where we’ll celebrate the 30th anniversary of Lord of Scoundrels as well.

This is an actual, in-person event.

1-3PM ET 25 January 2025

Ashland Public Library (Schiesske Large Meeting Room)

66 Front St / Ashland Massachusetts 01721

Ph 508 881 0134 / Email: ashlandprograms@minlib.net

Further details here. Kindly register here.

Aesop’s Fable bookshop is once again providing the books, which you can pre-order here.

Also, we’re celebrating Lord of Scoundrels’ thirtieth anniversary with an eBook deal of $1.99 (through 31 January). If you haven’t yet met Jessica and Dain, this is an opportunity to do it for a couple of bucks. If you know their story already, it might make a suitable gift for somebody.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to hear me hold forth about My Inconvenient Duke as well as Lord of Scoundrels, you can listen to this podcast. Megan Zinn, Host of The Writers' Block on WHMP radio, Northampton, Massachusetts, is a superior interviewer, and the time (about 20 minutes) flew.

With a new book shortly to be released, and an older title being celebrated, you can expect a little flurry of blog posts and, very likely, an actual newsletter in the near future. Just warning you.