Happy Holidays

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Here in New England we’ve ridden a winter roller coaster, from arctic temperatures to something vaguely like spring. We’ve had snow at an untimely time as well as the dreaded icy mix and torrential downpours. We’ll probably go through another series of ups and downs before too long. It’s been good weather for staying in and reading, maybe thinking about characters and what to do with them.

I’m not sure that weather is a good excuse for my lack of communication with you. While in London, all I had to do was go places and share them. Then I came home to real life. That slowed my pace, which eventually came to a standstill as the holiday season seemed to rush in out of nowhere. But there’s a lot more to share from the London visit, along with news, and I plan to do better as the New Year gets rolling. As to the YouTube Channel: I’m definitely resolved to get that filled with, you know, YouTube things.

Thank you for taking the appearances and disappearances in stride, and for all the comments and messages. You’ve made me laugh and cry and grow a head several sizes too large. For better or worse, you’ve encouraged me to continue during difficult times. I’m one very fortunate author.

May yours be truly happy holidays, in exactly the form you like best: quiet and tranquil, lively and noisy, in crowds, in small groups, or peacefully solitary.

Valentine's Day Greetings

Yes, falling in love can be like that. You’re going along, living your life—and love crashes through like a hit and run driver.

That happens in many (most? all?) of my books. While writing, I’ve had lines from an old song in my head: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s version of “Orange-colored Sky”:

I was walkin' along, minding my business

When love came and hit me in the eye

Wham, bam, alakazam!

Outta the orange-colored sky

In the stories, I’ve likened the experience to being punched in the head or walking into a door in the dark. Usually, this is the hero’s experience—either love at first sight or sudden realization or, as in Rupert’s case in Mr. Impossible, having somebody else diagnose his puzzling condition. The women, on the other hand, tend to recognize the symptoms early on, and fight them.

All in vain, of course.

Because love conquers all.

Suddenly or gradually. Loudly or quietly. It slams the lead characters in the head and heart or it sneaks up on them. Love can happen in so many ways. The road to Happily Ever After is never a smooth one. It’s rocky, stormy, aggravating, ridiculous, tear-inducing, seemingly impassable/impossible at times. But one way or another, in romance novels love wins and everything comes out right in the end.

Lucky us, readers and writers. We get to live in that romantic Valentine’s Day world every day.

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.