Dukes Prefer Blondes Now Available for Pre-order

The day before yesterday, I got a stack of cover flats for Dukes Prefer Blondes, and jumped up and down like the two-year-old who lives inside me.

Cover flats are the covers without the book inside. Instead, they might have information for the various retailers about why they should buy this book for their customers.

Their appearance told me my book might be available for pre-order. So I checked, and sure enough, it was!

So yes, Lady Clara's story is five months away from actually getting into your hands, with a 29 December 2015 release day.

But if you like, you can lay claim to it now.

And you can amuse yourself in the meantime by taking a gander at the back cover book description. Just click on any of the following links to various retailers.


As a bonus, I offer for your viewing pleasure the inside cover. (Please click on images to enlarge.)

Since Lady Clara has appeared in all three Dressmakers books, we’re listing Dukes Prefer Blondes as the fourth book of the Dressmakers series, even though the Noirot sisters make only cameo appearances. This book is all about Lady Clara—and the man most people would think least likely to capture her wayward heart.

You can expect to see more about the book here and on my Pinterest page in coming weeks and months.

Audio News: Mr. Impossible and Lord Perfect

We're still making some final adjustments to the audio book covers, so you may not see them online just yet. But those who like to order in advance may want to know that it's now possible.  The audio editions of Mr. Impossible and Lord Perfect are available for pre-order.

These are the second and third books, respectively, of my Carsington brothers series—the one that was supposed to be a trilogy. It ended up with five books. You can find out more on the Books Page.

Release date for Mr. Impossible and Lord Perfect is  14 July. Once again, Kate Reading provides her stellar narration. The Audio Gals are spreading the news, and will be reviewing the audio editions on release day.

Many thanks to alert reader Hope for being the first to let me know about the pre-orders.


Lady Clara's book, Dukes Prefer Blondes—update

I've just finished reviewing the copy edits and making corrections to the manuscript of Dukes Prefer Blondes. This is my next-to-last chance to go over the work and try to catch as many errors and stupidities as possible. The copy editor has gone over the manuscript in detail, correcting punctuation, spelling, and typos; providing formatting instructions for the printer; correcting or querying inconsistencies; and pointing out content that looks wrong or sentences that don't make sense. 

It is always a wonder to me how anybody can do this for 400 pages (probably two or three times, I'll bet) and not set the manuscript on fire. Of course, these days, we are copy editing electronically, using Track Changes, so the fire would only be virtual.

Track Changes definitely makes things easier and faster, and I'm happy to have it. But my brain doesn't always read the computer screen correctly. I know some authors can work without ever printing out anything, but they are not me. I went through the whole manuscript electronically. Then, because I had time and  OCD, I printed it out and went over it again. And guess what?  I found 20 or more problems I'd missed on the first run-through. And you know what? Next go-round will be the page proofs, and you can be sure I will still find several crazy mistakes that none of us caught the first or second times.

And when the book goes to print, we may be sure there will be at least one mistake.

But that's some time away. The publication date is January 2016, with a release date of 29 December 2015.

Trafalgar Square, illustrated above, plays an important part in the story. This image is from the mid 1830s (Wikipedia has it for 1837-43, but the dresses look 1834-35 to me). The area was a work-in-progress for many years. Nelson's Column wasn't completely completed until the 1860s.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will allow you to view it at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.