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Beyond happy and all the way into euphoric to announce that my holiday novella, The Advent of Lady Madeline, is now available on all major digital platforms!

(There will be a print edition too, once I’m satisfied with the proofs. Originally, I’d planned to sync the digital and print versions, the way I did with Awakened and Other Enchanted Tales, but that went out the window when UPS and the post office lost the first proofs in transit–and in a textbook case of passing the buck, both carriers pointed fingers at each other and disavowed all responsibility for tracking the lost package, which remains trapped in the Bermuda Triangle of domestic shipping. If anyone deserves coal in their stockings this Christmas…)

But onto pleasanter thoughts: this release is kind of a personal milestone–my fourth romance and fifth book overall. And it will be followed in January 2016 by a novel-length sequel, Devices & Desires, Book One in The Lyons Pride, my new historical series about a contentious, competitive ducal family and their quest for lasting love and happiness.

The Story Behind the Story: In addition to being my fifth book, The Advent of Lady Madeline is my first prequel. Generally, my Muse is more interested in what happened next than in what happened before, so I couldn’t have been more surprised when, after I finished Devices & Desires in late 2014, the hero’s older sister tapped me on the shoulder and suggested–or rather, insisted–that I tell her story, which takes place almost a decade earlier.

Resistance was futile–and to be honest, I didn’t struggle very hard. When a story demands to be written and the ideas come thick and fast, it’s a gift that no writer should take for granted. Best to strike while the iron is hot, and the Muse is cooperating, because you can’t predict when or if it will happen again.

Which doesn’t mean there weren’t setbacks and occasional delays, owing to real-life needs and other scheduled projects. But once the process was well and truly underway, I enjoyed every minute of telling Madeline and Hugo’s story! I even found myself relishing the challenge of imagining all the characters at a younger, more vulnerable age and setting up the situations and conflicts that will explode nine years later in Devices & Desires.

For a time, I toyed with the idea of releasing the novel first, especially when the novella hit a snag that made my goal of having it published by Christmas look like a pipe dream. How vital is a strict chronology anyway? One of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, hopscotches up and down the timeline of her much-loved Vorkosigan Saga, picking up the threads of her characters’ lives wherever and whenever she wants. George Lucas completed Chs. 4, 5, and 6 of his Star Wars series, before doubling back years later to film Chs. 1, 2, and 3. Admittedly, the Star Wars prequels were something of a mixed bag (Jar-Jar Binks…<shudders>), but Lucas’s decision to tell the overarching story out of sequence doesn’t seem to have harmed the franchise overall. (And now Ch. 7 is due to come out this very week!)

Nonetheless, I decided to pursue my original plan, and much to my relief, completed the novella a month before the release date I’d originally had in mind. Now polished, edited, formatted, and given a beautiful cover by the talented Kim Killion, The Advent of Lady Madeline makes its  debut in time for Christmas! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Happy Holidays!