Hello everyone,

I've been lax over the past year or more about sending out my newsletters. My excuse is my hectic vagabond life, but I feel I could have been more on the ball about it, so my sincere apologies.

However, here I am with a full newsletter, and the resolution to send one most months in 2011.

I started writing this on a train to London, which is one of the good sides of our decision to return to live in England, and in particular of our move down to Devon. Our first landing spot was in the north, in Whitby, Yorkshire. That's a wonderful port town with a rich history, but cold. Very cold. It's also poorly connected, so to get to the fast train to London took 2 hours or more, whereas here it’s down the street.

We were going “up to Town” specifically to enjoy the Canaletto exhibition at the National Gallery, but we visited other museums and such, and I'll be blogging about my trip at the Word Wenches sometime soon. Click here to see the latest treat.

This link is to books about the Canaletto exhibit, but it also shows some of his pictures. Click here.

Canaletto spent some time in London in the middle of the 18th century, and turned his clear eye on the scene. His paintings are a marvelous resource for me. This is of the famous pleasure gardens, Ranelagh.

This one is of the Earl of Northumberland’s house. Perhaps a Malloren is one of the fashionable men you see nearby. Click on the picture to enlarge.

I love the clarity and precision of his work. I really feel as if I’m there, and yet no photograph could do the same job. It’s magical.

I haven’t written a lot of new work recently, but then, since summer 2009 we've driven across Canada, found a rental house in Whitby, enjoyed the ups and downs of that (along with a lot of interesting side trips around the north), found a rental place in Devon, taken some side trips to Paris and Romes, and moved in. Oh, and I spent July in North America, attending Rom Con in Denver, RWA in Orlando, and visiting friends and family in Ottawa and Toronto!

In that time I have managed to finish two books -- The Secret Duke, out in March 2010, and An Accidental Countess, which will be out in March 2011. My goodness, we're steaming into the 21st century with alarming speed, aren't we! You can sign up for an on-sale reminder by following the link above. The cover is in the side panel, top left.

I also wrote the Georgian story for an SF collection called Songs of Love and Death. There’s more about that here.

In addition, my classic Regencies have been reissued at three-monthly intervals. These were already written, of course, but I still had to go over the page proofs, update author notes, and work with my publisher on covers. It’s been worth it to have them available again, and they’ve have been so successful that my publisher is moving on to my Regency historicals, starting with Forbidden Magic. Another publisher is bringing out new editions of some of my older books….

Don't worry! If you’re confused, there’s a list of all recent and upcoming books at the end of this newsletter.

And what about e-books?

That's the publishing revolution of the moment, and it's revolving more quickly than anyone imagined. My newer books are available in e-form, and my backlist will be fairly soon. This is great news for people who want to read parts of my series that are otherwise unavailable. Even if you don't have an e-reader -- and I predict that most of us will soon, if only for occasional use -- you can read an e-book on the computer, or even, I gather, on cell phones and such. I’m not sure I could do that!

I like to pass on web treats in my newsletters. This first one is not connected to my work, but my goodness, what spectacular photographs! Click here.

Another London treat was the Sir Thomas Lawrence exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. There's a bit about it here.

Lawrence is a lovely resource for the late Georgian and Regency period, and the National Portrait Gallery is fabulous. Want to know what a real person in a novel looked like? Use their search function to see if they have an image. For example, search for the Duke of Bridgwater. You'll find an engraving of him at about the time he's appearing in a couple of my novels.

Now, here’s the book list.

In 2010, the new works were:
January
The Raven and the Rose, in Chalice of Roses.
March
The Secret Duke, a Malloren World novel.
November
The Marrying Maid, n Songs of Love and Death.

If the Rogues reissues seem a bit disorderly, they’re coming from two different publishers. My current publisher, NAL, will be reissuing the later Rogues in order, so The Devil’s Heiress will be out later in 2011

In 2012, there’ll be the next new novel, probably titled A Scandalous Countess. But there will be many more newsletters before then. I promise!

It is very useful if you spread the word online about the books you enjoy, so please talk up mine if you can. I appreciate it.

All best wishes,

Jo

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