The Two Nerdy History Girls Chat Is Now Online. Also, Other Matters.

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So there are these long stretches of time when you don’t hear from me . . . and then I inundate you. This ought to be the last one for a while at least.

Our most recent Two Nerdy History Girls chat is now online. You can watch it on YouTube here.

Susan Holloway Scott and I had a wonderful time—again—chatting with Meena Jain and readers about nerdy historical matters. We talked about 18th and 19th century travel quite a bit, and the dangers and discomforts thereof. I also mentioned a couple of nerdy history resources I’ve made frequent use of.

The Epicure’s Almanack: Eating and Drinking in Regency London, ed. Janet Ing Freeman. This is one of the books I might never have found on my own, so I’m grateful to author Candice Hern for calling my attention to it. If you don’t follow Candice on Facebook, you might want to start. She offers all kinds of fascinating historical material, including items from her amazing collection.

Paterson’s Roads (yes, that’s the correct spelling). Though I managed to get my hands on a crumbling 1830s edition, you will find many editions online. You can read an interesting blog post about it here at the Public Domain website.

Detail adapted from a kimono design in Yachigusa by Ueno, Seikō, 1901, Smithsonian Libraries colection

Coming Attractions

Meena Jain has very kindly invited the Two Nerdy History Girls for a return engagement on 17 June at 7pm.

She’s also invited me to join—this time in person—another cast of stellar authors for a RomCon in the spring.

Romancing New England RomCon 2024 - Romance Authors Festival at the Ashland Public Library, Ashland Massachusetts, on Saturday 18 May from 10-4pm

If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll attend. We have fewer opportunities to talk to readers in person these days, and Meena Jain and her team organize an especially enjoyable event.

More official posts will appear as we draw closer to the dates.

P.S. And for all the kind readers who signed up for this blog after the 2NHG chat: Due to deadline and then a flurry of catchup activity, combined with my own technological incompetence, I wasn’t able to update the subscribers list until today. Some of you may want to check out the blog post just before this one, wherein the fate of the third Difficult Dukes book is revealed.

At Long Last, She Wrote "The End"

G. Spratt, The Circulating Library, c. 1830. Rijkmuseum

Actually, I never write “The End” at the end of my manuscripts. When the words stop, that seems to be a big enough clue.

So I didn’t write it this time, either, but all who have been wondering when in blazes I’d ever finish the Blackwoods’ story now have the answer. Thursday 11 January. About 10:30pm. It’s now in my editor’s hands. After she reads it, she will return it to me with questions and notes and such, and I will make the necessary revisions. That is to say, if she doesn’t decide it’s beyond hope and gently suggests I find another profession.

If, however, she is able to work with it, and I can make it better for her (actually, for you), it will then be turned over to the copy editor, who’ll go through it, looking for inconsistencies and grammatical insanities and oddities. Meanwhile he/she will be putting in the hieroglyphs that the printers understand for formatting. Then it’s my turn again, to review what the copy editor hath wrought, and add or subtract my own things. It’s my last chance to make any significant changes.

Then it goes to the printer and gets made to look like a book, but not the final book, because I get to go over it once more, looking for errors that somehow the ten thousand people who’ve gone over this thing have missed. And of course, no matter what, no matter how many people check and re-check, it will go out into the world with a mistake or two. There are always sneaky little devils that manage to hide from all those probing eyes. Ask any author. There’s even an Internet meme about it.

All of which is to say, it’ll be a while before the book is in fact a book you can buy in a shop or online. However, when I have a publication date, I’ll let you know. Or you’ll be able to tell by the screaming and laughing and crying, which you will hear over great distances. My neighbors will see me dancing in the street, champagne glass aloft.

It’s been a long journey. Thank you for waiting so patiently.

New England Readers' Choice Contest Now Open

A month ago, I invited readers to be judges in the New England Readers’ Choice Awards.

The contest is now open, and I’m inviting authors to enter their works.

Following is the invitation from the New England Romance Writers, of which organization I am a proud member and have been for many years.

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Welcome to the 2024 New England Readers’ Choice Awards contest for published authors, recognizing excellence in published romance fiction. Sponsored by New England Romance Writers, the NERCA contest is one of the few judged exclusively by fans: librarians, booksellers, and devoted romance readers.

This year, the grand prize winner of the New England Readers’ Choice contest will receive admission to Write Better Faster 101, offered by Becca Syme and Better-Faster Academy! The first, second, and third place winners in each category will receive a web badge, as well as a printed award certificate. Winners will be announced on the NERW website and on NERW’s social media accounts. Questions? Please contact contest@nerw.org.

CONTEST CATEGORIES

• Contemporary Romance: Long (above 80K words)

• Contemporary Romance: Short (40K-80K words)

• Erotic Romance

• Historical Romance

• Paranormal/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Time Travel Romance

• Romance Novella (20-40K words)

• Romance with Religious or Spiritual Elements

• Romantic Suspense

To Enter: Please visit the the contest entry page.

For more information, please follow this link. Or, you can email the contest coordinator at contest@nerw.org.

Please feel free to share this information.