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.

Please save the date: In January, we're going to celebrate!

We’re going to have a tea party! It’s happening in January. It’s happening live, in Massachusetts, where it will be cold and possibly snowy. Have your boots ready.

Meena Jain, Director of the Ashland Public Library, is throwing the party to celebrate the release of My Inconvenient Duke. I’ll be there, of course, chatting with my good friend, author Caroline Linden, and those of you readers who can make it. There will be treats. And attendees are welcome to dress in Regency/Romantic era costume, if they so choose.

January 2025 also marks Lord of Scoundrels’ 30th anniversary (may I say Yikes). We’ll also celebrate this miracle of longevity.

Details, details

  • This is an actual, in-person event.

  • 1-3PM ET

  • 25 January 2025

  • Ashland Public Library / 66 Front St / Ashland Massachusetts 01721

  • More info here.

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

  • Kindly register here.

The photo: The teacup and saucer belonged to my mother, and was probably a wedding gift. She gave it to me when I turned into a serious tea drinker. Of course I’m afraid to use it, but I keep it where I can see it every day… and wonder if she ever drank tea from it. She was a coffee drinker (black, always) all the time I knew her.

Difficult Dukes #3 News—or, What's Happening With the Blackwoods? Also, Other News

As reported elsewhere, the third Difficult Dukes book, the Blackwoods’ story, is in production.

It doesn’t yet have a cover, but that is in process. It does have a title and a release date, which I feel pretty safe in reporting, now that it appears on major online bookseller pages:

My Inconvenient Duke 21 January 2025

Meanwhile, because the writing happens ages before the publishing (in my case, something resembling eternity occurs between these two phases), I am working on the next book, which currently seems to be a spinoff. But things change. It may turn out to be something completely different.

Previous Occurrences

In May, the Ashland Public Library, in Ashland Massachusetts, was the site of yet another great RomCon last month. In fact, my assistant Jessica and I were so busy that we never got to take photos, so I had to steal them from the library. Thank you, readers, for enduring yet another wet New England day, and for making us feel so welcome and loved.

Top Row: The authors; Historical Romance Panel-Carla Kelly, Caroline Linden, Loretta Chase, Evelyn Richardson; Moi with crocheted Jane Austen figure. Bottom Row: Meena Jain & her Minions aka Meenions—an incredible team, who kept everything running smoothly.

Coming Attractions:

July will see a return of the Two Nerdy History Girls, courtesy our most excellent host, Meena Jain, and the Ashland Public Library. You can register for the event if you follow this link. I will report in more detail as we get nearer the date.