Hello, everyone.

This is a long newsletter, but then, I’ve skipped a few this year.

Dare’s story is out! The official pub date is Tuesday, September 5th, but it’s been found, bought, read and enjoyed in the past few days.

I’m sure you all realize that this is the long-awaited story about Lord Darius Debenham, who had small parts in the early Rogues books, but still managed to steal everyone’s heart so that when I killed him off at Waterloo there was a campaign, with buttons, for “Dare Lives!”

I suppose I must have intended to bring him back as I didn’t provide a body, but I had no idea how and when. I just knew I wouldn’t do amnesia as it seemed too pat. I honestly don’t know when I realized that he’d fallen into the hands of Therese Bellaire, but there he was in Devil’s Heiress, frail, addicted to opium, but winning the reader’s heart again by his attempts to look after the children.

I didn’t know what his love story would be until I wrote The Rogue’s Return and discovered the St. Bride family, especially Mara. There it was. An audible click.

I’m really pleased with To Rescue A Rogue because I think I’ve managed to do some difficult things. First, to deal with the struggle to fight free of addiction honestly without making the book grim. Second, no bring all the Rogues into the final story of the main stream of Rogue romances without weighing the story down with superfluous characters. I hope you, too, think I’ve succeeded.

Along the way I also discovered some things, which is always delightful. I realized, because Nicholas told me, that this isn’t only Dare’s story but the end of a story arc that began in An Arranged Marriage when Nicholas allowed himself to be drawn into Therese’s power. That began a series of dark events that affected many lives. That story appeared to end with Therese’s death, but that wasn’t true. The true end would come only when Dare was finally and completely healed. And thus it is.

I made another discovery which truly startled me, but I’ll let you find that one out for yourselves.

There are excerpts up on the web site if you wish to sample before buying. The excerpts start here.

You might also want to check out Valancourt Books. They do wonderful reissues of the delicious gothic novels of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and Mara loves them. What’s more, she gets Dare involved in writing one.

This isn’t the end of the Rogue’s World, of course. How could it be? It exists! It’s my version of the English Regency and will be the setting for many more stories.

There’s another strange twist to this story. To Rescue A Rogue was supposed to come out next March, then it was moved ahead to January. Only in April was it moved way up to September. Amid all the flurry I didn’t immediately realize that this would put it on the fifth anniversary of September 11th. What’s the connection? A tenuous one in many ways, but one I realized when my agent said how touched she’d been by the tribute to fallen soldiers in the book.

Now my present agent was not my agent back in 1992 when An Unwilling Bride was published, so she didn’t recognize the words spoken by Nicholas when they learned of the death toll at Waterloo, including, as they then thought, Dare.
To all the fallen; may they be young forever in heaven.
To all the wounded; may they have strength and heal.
To all the bereaved; may they feel joy again.
And we pray God, may there one day be an end to war.'"

I’d written those words under the influence of the Gulf War which was raging exactly when I was writing the scenes around Waterloo. I’d been particularly struck by the difference. My characters waited days, hearing only rumors, some false. I sat in the evening to watch the war happen on TV.

I thought no more of it, however, until September 2001 when a reader wrote to me to ask if she could use the words on a quilt she was making to commemorate the dead of 9/11. I was honored to say yes.

I included the words in To Rescue A Rogue because they fit the story in a natural way, but also because Dare is still wounded by the war, though indirectly. He needs the strength to truly heal. My agent’s comment, however, made me realize that, yes, the world is plagued by war again, and strangely, the book would come out almost exactly five years after 9/11. Indeed, may there one day be an end to war.

Now here's a weird twist on Dare's story. Once upon a time -- February 1993, to be precise -- I wrote another twist to his story. You'll see what I mean by weird if you read it here.

What other news is there? The reissue of Faery Magic is also appearing on shelves now. Originally this wouldn’t be happening simultaneously with a new book, but there you are. Dragon Lovers, by the same quartet is in production and will be out next March. We’re excited to have received a ringing endorsement from no other than the Dragon Queen herself, Anne McCaffrey.

I have a couple of signings coming up. The first is in Ithaca, NY, as part of a conference there. 4:00 - 5:30 PM -- SEPTEMBER 9, 2006 -- HOLIDAY INN, ITHACA, NY (Books must be purchased at the book fair) Visit the conference site here.

The second is in Ottawa, Ontario at the Rideau Street Chapters on either the 19th or 20th of September. If you’d like to attend that one, please contact the store for details. I will be out of e-mail contact for a while.

I’ll also be at the SF Conference V-Con the first weekend of October, if you’re going to attend that. I hope to get a newsletter out before then, however.

Something else different – I’ll be on internet radio on Wednesday, 6th September. Voice America. The program is Author’s Exclusive, and I’ll be live at 6:25 am PST. Good thing I’m a morning person! The great thing is that you can listen later or download it to your mp3 player.

Lastly, I’ll like to recommend a friend’s book which is also coming out in September. Step Into Darkness is Naomi Bellis’s first book, but it’s a wonderfully emotional and dramatic read involving an English couple embroiled in a rescue mission amid the French Revolution. Naomi Bellis

Long live Dare!

Jo

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