A Passion For History Is Reborn!

You might have noticed that the blog has been taking a break. Or you might not!

A Passion For History is now reborn, with a slightly different focus for a new decade. There will be items of historical and writing interest (I won't say trivia but that's what I really mean), historical recipes -pigeon pie, anyone? - places, people and quotations. There will be some book news from me, links to other historical blogs and my current personal favourite feature, Academic Crush of the Week. Come to think of it, this might be a shortlived feature. Having worked around academics for 15 years, I can say that crush material was thin on the ground. We'll see.

Here's a quick round up of what's been keeping me away from the blog:

I've just sent in book 2 of my new six part series Scandalous Women of the Ton. The first trilogy kicks off in October 2010 with Whisper of Scandal. The current manuscript, One Wicked Sin will be out in November 2010 and Mistress By Midnight will complete the first half of the series in December. The reason One Wicked Sin has distracted me from blogging and much else? Yes, it's the truly startling levels of sensuality contained in this book. It was exhausting though completely in keeping with the plot and characters. Of course. On a more sober note, it also required a lot of research because it is set against a somewhat neglected aspect of British Regency history, the prisoners of war held in England and Scotland during the Napoleonic Wars. I found this subject fascinating and will be blogging about it closer to the time of the book's release.

In other news, I have just received copies of my first book from the MIRA imprint. This is the beautiful Australian version of Unmasked, which, confusingly, has the same cover as the US version of The Confessions of a Duchess. My UK books will be published by MIRA in future and I am very excited about this. Look out of the Brides of Fortune Trilogy coming to the UK from May!

The perennial mystery of what the faceless heroines of Fortunes Folly actually looked like was partially solved a few days ago when I received a lovely copy of the Estonian edition of The Confessions of a Duchess complete with Laura's face. Here it is on the right. I'm looking forward to seeing Alice and Lizzie's faces too in the fullness of time!

And finally - to celebrate the relaunch of the blog, I am offering a prize to one commenter. My Book of the Month is Laurel McKee's sumptuous new historical Countess of Scandal, a big, sweeping story with two fabulous protagonists and a vivid historical background of late 18th century Ireland. I have one copy to give away. All you need to tell me is which aspect of the reborn Passion for History blog you are looking forward to the most! Oh, and don't miss the contest on my website as well! Thanks for dropping in!