The Flower Reader in the UK
I am so happy to be able to announce that The Flower Reader will be released in the UK (including Australia/New Zealand) by Random House/Preface. The publication date is set for June, so readers in the UK and Australia (you know who you are) should be able to find The Flower Reader in local shops only a couple of months after the US release.
I am absolutely over the moon! Preface has also bought the UK/ANZ rights to The Second Duchess, for publication in 2013, and to my new book, tentatively titled The Alchemist Prince (more Medici! more murders! exotic alchemical experiments! and Barbara of Austria’s little sister Giovanna!), which is scheduled for 2014.
In a press release from Preface, my wonderful editor Rosie de Courcy said:
From the moment I read the first sentence of The Flower Reader, I was spellbound and had butterflies in my stomach. I adore the mixture of romance, history and menace which is the hallmark of Elizabeth’s writing.
*Dies.*
The Flower Reader is also going to Germany and Italy so far, so my heroine Rinette and I have an exciting year coming up. I am so grateful to everyone who read and reviewed and talked about The Second Duchess, because by doing that you helped make The Flower Reader a reality.
Christmas with the Second Duchess
A tiny snippet with mouthwatering details of a Renaissance Christmas celebration in Ferrara. Note also the hints of intrigue swirling around Duchess Barbara and her new husband’s opulent court:
On Christmas Eve we fasted: we ate no meat, but our supper was made up of dozens of different fish dishes, rice with nuts and spices, sweet pastas, fruits, and a fabulous subtlety in the form of St. George’s dragon breathing fire, the delicate curling melted-sugar flames painted with cinnamon and saffron and gilt. On Christmas Day we went to Mass; the rest of the day was given up to the performance of a magnificent chivalric fete entitled Il Tempio d’Amore, which featured even more elaborate machinery than La Festival delle Stelle, as well as dazzling verse, music and dancing, and an astonishing pyrotechnical conclusion.
The second day of Christmastide, St. Stephen’s Day, there were tennis matches—the duke was one of the best tennis-players in Europe, and even in the winter sometimes arranged matches in the large courtyard of the Castello. After supper we gathered to hear Torquato Tasso recite excerpts from his romantical work Rinaldo. Crezia was everywhere, whispering with everyone, dancing with her handsome lover, and celebrating the season with a fine goodwill. Nora was present as well, as she had been for all the Christmastide events; apparently she was back in her brother’s favor for the moment at least. She seemed subdued, and she made it a point to avoid me; I wondered if she regretted her visit to me. I did not see her exchange so much as a word with Tasso. Had they quarreled? Tasso was the center of attention, his fine long-legged figure clad in amethyst satin, the color of poets; once again I was struck by the almost visible aura of brilliance and magnetism that surrounded him…
The Second Duchess makes a delicious and atmospheric last-minute Christmas gift to the readers on your list. Check Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, Books-a-Million, and of course your favorite indie bookstore. Go here for The Second Duchess on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks, or on your computer with iTunes.
Fascination
Haven’t posted a beagle picture for a while! Here are Cressie (left–note the white crescent on her rear end that gives her her name) and Boudin, intent on some adventure happening in the front yard. We’ve had enormous geckos this year–not sure if it’s the hot dry summer or what, but I’ve seen lizards the size of squirrels running up the trees. (Well, maybe that’s a teensy exaggeration. But really big lizards.) That may have been what fascinated them so.
In other fascinating news–The Second Duchess is in the finals for the 2011 Goodreads Choice Award for historical fiction! I am amazed and excited and thrilled and so happy. If you feel moved to vote, go here.
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Cressie and Boo thank you!
The Goodreads Choice Awards
As authors we know, or we learn quickly, that readers’ reviews are not about us–they’re about our books, and by publishing our books we’ve set them free into the wild to find their own ways, take their own knocks, and make their own friends. Sometimes it’s fabulous and sometimes it hurts, but you know, that’s what a community like Goodreads is about. It’s about readers, not writers.
That’s why it’s so incredible and fantastic to me that The Second Duchess is a nominee in the opening round in the Historical Fiction category of the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2011. I have to say, it is in some pretty elevated company. Please vote for your favorite in all the categories!
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Huge thanks to everyone–yes, everyone–who’s read and rated The Second Duchess on Goodreads.
Vojvotkinja
The Serbian edition of The Second Duchess has been released–it’s called Vojvotkinja, which is Duchess in Serbian. A very striking cover, don’t you think? Barbara is far too beautiful, of course (cover models always are) and is showing rather too much bare skin as well (cover models often do that as well), but it really does capture the moment in the story when, wearing her scarlet wedding dress after a session with a portrait painter, she manages to send her ladies away and runs up some stairs to find the mysteriously hidden portrait of the first duchess. I do love the way she is looking over her shoulder–she even says, in the text, that she feels she is being watched.
(Which she is, of course…)
The translator, Branislav Ivkovic (Hi, Bran!) tells me that the line of copy under the title reads, “Love, intrigue and secrets in the city of art and beauty.” Really a perfect description of the story.
For more information, check out the website of publisher Mono I Manjana.
Astrology as Science
In the sixteenth century, which is where my heart seems to be drawn over and over again, astrology was a serious science. Perfectly orthodox Christians had horoscopes cast, as earnestly as you and I might have an MRI. Astrologers (and alchemists, but we’ll be getting to that in my next book) were taken very seriously, and often had considerably influence over the affairs of nations and princes.
I used astrological signs liberally in The Second Duchess, and they’re all quite real, in the sense that they’re based on the historical birth dates of the characters. Yes, Alfonso II d’Este really was a Scorpio (born November 22, 1533). Barbara of Austria really was a Taurus (born April 30, 1539). Lucrezia de’ Medici is a tiny bit more problematic, in that there is some confusion as to her actual birth date—some sources say June 7, 1545, and other sources say February 14, 1545. I chose the June date and made her a Gemini in the course of writing the book, although now, after the fact and after more research, I am leaning toward the February date—Lucrezia would fit just as well as an Aquarius.
That’s the thing. The signs just fit the personalities so well. Alfonso is a Scorpio down to the bone. Barbara is so perfectly a Taurus. It’s enough to make one believe.
A week or two ago I received an email from a reader, Victoria Jadick, who is herself a Taurus and who kindly gave me permission to quote from her reflections on how similar her own personality was to Barbara’s personality:
I recently finished your book about Barbara of Austria, The Second Duchess. I normally don’t like historical fiction placed in Italy. But this book was so beautiful. The detail of the decadence and luxury of the court of Ferrara was so entrancing. I also could not help but notice how similar Barbara and I are, not only because I am a Taurus, because of how proud, defiant, and so composed in stressful situations.
I love the fact that Victoria identified with Barbara so closely, and that it was partly because she and Barbara were actually Taurus sisters!
The Second Duchess
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