I love Florida truly except in hurricane season. It wasn’t always this way. Apparently there’s a new “hurricane alley” and the Gulf Coast is it. My dad’s town of St Pete got hit with Helene, the first time in a hundred years there was such flooding and loss of life for his city. My dad is safe. As he mentioned to me, he is on the fourth floor! Here, a bit south of St Pete, we did not get hit so hard. We only recently finished repairs to our home from Hurricane Ian two years ago.
Typically, fall is my favorite season, although in Florida there isn’t much autumn. And winter rarely calls for a coat. One of my December pasttimes in Michigan was reading Christmas historical romances and mysteries. I start about now. When my publisher put out a call for those very kinds of books, I thought “This is my big chance!” As much as I love historicals, I’ve never written one. Well, I did thirty years or so ago but it was terrible. I threw it away. But this time my novella was good enough to publish. And the release date, after moving into 2025, has now pivoted back to Christmas 2024!!!! December 18.
Christmas Courtship is a 100 page seasonal e-book only release. It will be available on Kindle, Nook, iPhone, and every other e-retail outlet. Pre-sale will be set up ten weeks before the pub date. I loved writing this book about my favorite historical period and place, Regency England. The fashion, the revolutions, the inventions! Women were still legally the property of their husbands, but they were beginning to push back on that ancient idea. Marriage for the first time in history was about more than consolidating property and money…love had entered the picture. Jane Austen was writing her novels to acclaim from royalty and everyone else who could read.
This is my first e-book-only. My publisher prints any acquired titles over 60,000K words. If you can imagine, I wanted e-book-only. It’s too difficult to attend writer and reader events in Florida these days. It takes a lot of work to set up and you never know when your big sales or signing event will be cancelled by a hurricane. Which is what happened this year. Luckily, I was not selling anything. But I was looking forward to taking in some workshops, talking to a few Regency writers I knew would be there, and having a fun time with friends.
After the conference was cancelled due to Helene, I felt sad but also … relieved. I have been attending and participating in writing events for forty or more years. At least once a year. Often more. I had decided 2024 would be my last writing conference. I have never been an e-book author, not only e-book, but now I am going to try it. And I’m looking forward to it with the same kind of thrill I used to get from bookstore and conference signings.
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