Happy New Year

by

I’d first published this post on January 10, only to discover as I was updating the sidebars that the excerpts that ‘d loaded to my website had disappeared during the server migration earlier that day–long story that began with a hacker attack on my host server right after the new year.  So I had to pull the post.  If it showed up at Goodreads or in your feed, my apologies.  I should have checked first whether the excerpts were still up, and failing that, I should have had back-ups that would enable me to quickly reload, so I didn’t have to wait until I had a three-hour window of time to recreate the pages.  Lesson learned.

Phew, am I glad to have the blog back.

You’d think, given how casually I neglect this blog, that I wouldn’t even notice if it went down for a week or ten days.  And you’d be right.  But ironically, the hacker attack on my host server that started the year happened to coincide with me turning in a couple of manuscripts and wanting to say a thing or two about them.

The folks at Janus Portal have been working around the clock.  Today they asked me to change my name server in my domain registry.  And finally the blog is back–and let’s hope it stays back.

You might have seen the cover for my July release, Ravishing the Heiress.  In case you haven’t yet, here it is, in all its purple glory.

I like the cover, but more significantly, I love the story.  When I started working on the trilogy, I was still bombed out from HIS AT NIGHT and didn’t know whether I had anything historical left in me.  I’m happy to report that working on the trilogy has totally rejuvenated me.

I think of the three books of the trilogy as the appetizer book, the main course book, and the dessert book.  Rest assured each of them function perfectly as stand-alones, but together they form a three-course spread.   The appetizer book and the dessert book are of course, slightly lighter in character.  But the main course book is as angsty as anything I’ve ever written–and answers the question I’ve been asking myself, namely, can I write a book in which the hero and the heroine are always nice to each other?  (Cuz you know how I love to have them rip each other apart.)  And the answer is yes, the leads can be absolutely lovely to each other and the story can still rip your–I mean, my–guts out.  As a result, RAVISHING THE HEIRESS currently holds the position of my personal favorite among not just the trilogy, but all my romances.

Your mileage, of course, will vary.  I’m just reporting mine. 🙂

Excerpts for both BEGUILING THE BEAUTY and RAVISHING THE HEIRESS are up at my website.

Now I must return to work on TEMPTING THE HEIRESS, which is due on February 1.  Happy New Year!

23 thoughts on “Happy New Year”

  1. Hi, Sherry – I read both excerpts and as I said on Twitter, I like them. However, when your blog post mentions the main course, I assume you mean Ravishing the Heiress. There was something so sad about Millie accomodating Fitz’s relationship with Isabelle. They were all civil and friendly, yet Millie must be pained by the role she has cast for herself. Since it’s a romance, there must be a HEA.

    In case you missed my tweet, have you tracked down the British train schedules yet? I don’t know if you saw these links in your research, but it gives the UK stations, routes and arrival/departure times from 1889 – 1902:

    http://bit.ly/AEbFZL

    If you need an earlier time, this is from the 1870s:

    http://bit.ly/zYAjbT

    • Hi Kim,

      The link is fantastic!!! Thank you so much, I did miss your tweet somehow. (Kicks self)

      Yes, it is rather heartbreaking. But trust me, Millie is not some useless chit. She is, if anything, too proud and strong. And if it’s any consolation, this is no more a love triangle than Private Arrangements was. It is all about Millie and Fitz. They are the two dots at the end of a straight line and Isabelle is just another dot somewhere else. 🙂

      • That’s good to hear. When I read the excerpt, I kept hoping it had a lot of Millie & Fitz and not just his feelings for Isabelle.

        I’m glad you liked the links. I love finding needles in the proverbial internet haystack.

  3. Sherry, I can’t wait to read these books! I have a question though, on Amazon, it looks like Beguiling the Beauty won’t be available on kindle, but Ravishing the Heiress is. Will BtB be available eventually? I have all your books on kindle so far – keepers all of them! I hope it will available!

    • HI Julie,

      I’d asked that question to my editor earlier. They said absolutely it will be available in Kindle, just that they’ve no idea when it will show up on Amazon. I’ll be sure to say something about it once it is available.

  4. Ravishing the Heiress looks to be very Jamesian in plot (a bit like “The Golden Bowl”)! Dare I hope to find lots of psychological and emotional twists and turns?

    • LOL, I hate to dash your hopes of a Jamesian plot, but from what I know of The Golden Bowl, I don’t see much of a similarity at all. This is not about a girl shedding her naivety and becoming a more subtle, more equal wife to the jaded man she marries. This is more the coming of age of both the lead characters and the building of a marriage through time, despite all the most unfavorable factors at the get-go.

      Quite different from anything I’ve done but still a very Thomasian plot, I’d say. 🙂

  5. July can’t come too soon! I’m so excited that your personal favorite is a marriage of convenience story, which I love. And for some reason, although I’ve never been into the punishment brought on by a quietly yearning for an apparently hopeless love kind of book, I can’t get enough of your special brand of angst. 😉 It all comes out rather satisfying in the end.

    • HI Rosie,

      As I’d said in reply to Evangeline, this isn’t just about angst and yearning. It is also the building of a marriage, the weaving together of two lives into a shared destiny. But hoo, boy, the angst also goes through the roof at times. 🙂

  6. It’s so good to see you’ve made it through most of the trilogy writing with your sanity intact. I’ve been yearning for a new book from you, and it was such a delight to read the excerpts. Can July be moved up on the calendar? Is there an app for that?

  7. I read the excerpt a couple days ago without realizing when the publication date was. As a result, I was hooked by the excerpt and when I scrolled up to see if the book as available for purchase now, or if I’d have to wait a few weeks, I was dismayed to find I have to wait months! This I definitely one I’m going to be anxiously awaiting; I’ve set a reminder on my Google calendar so I remember the release date!

    I’ve read your backlog and loved them all (with PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS being my favorite)… but I have a feeling this one is going to be really special and is going to more than exceed my expectations. In just the short excerpt from the website I find I’m already emotionally invested in all three characters (yes, even Isabelle) and can hardly wait to find out how it they’re going to untangle their happily ever after.

    • Sorry about the wait–I posted the excerpts as soon as the books settled down enough, not quite thinking about how far away their pub dates still are. (Actually, the first one feels as if it’s breathing down my neck. I’ve begun to ask myself–as much as I hate promotion–what I should be doing for it.)

      Ravishing the Heiress is quite different from anything I’ve done. I hope it will be as satisfying for you to read as it was for me to write.

  8. Hi Sherry,

    All I can say is “Wow!!!!”. These excerpts are incredible. I’m trying very hard not to gush right now.
    It’s so exciting that we’ll finally get to read the trilogy this year. I always have such high expectations of your books. But I can honestly say that after reading these excerpts, I’m totally blown away. My Kindle and I will be eagerly awaiting their release!

    • Hi Lauren,

      Thank you!!

      I hope the remainder of the books live up to the excerpts. It is always my goal to have a book starts well and gets better as it moves forward. But readers have to judge the results. So fingers crossed your expectations will be met.

      Sherry

  9. I’ve been on tenterhooks for months, checking and rechecking Amazon to see when these would become available. I have my pre-orders in for the first two, and am now awaiting the third. The wait since HAT has been tough, but I’m so happy that THREE books are coming in short order. So happy.

    Oh, and you are already at work on #8 for us, right? Right?

    • Hi Susan,

      Book #8? LOL. Here’s my schedule. I just turned in galleys for Beguiling on Monday. I have till Valentine’s Day to do copyedits/last fixes for Ravishing. (And there will be some fixing, there always is.) And then Tempting–which has a ROUGH first draft–needs major fleshing out by beginning of March, followed by a regular round of revision, followed by another round during copyedits.

      So no, I am not already at work on #8. But you never know. Sometimes writers pull out manuscripts from hats too. I will do my best to have a book out in 2013, how’s that? 🙂

  10. Hi Sherry,

    I’ve just read the excerpt of “Ravishing the Heiress” and like all the other girls, I’ve marked the date and I’m anxiously waiting the realease! I’m a fan of your work since the first time I read Private Arrangements ( now I lost count ;)) and I love the emotional roallercoaster that you provoke in every book, and I’m pretty sure that this one will overtake our expectations.

    P.S. Loved the Jane Austen references! 🙂

    • Hi Gaby,

      Thank you. Won’t be too long now. And you will definitely be getting a rollercoaster with Ravishing the Heiress!

      P.S. I love putting in Jane Austen–mainly P&P–references. 🙂

  11. Sherry, i love all your books and really really looking forward to reading ravishing the heiress 🙂

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