The Mayfair Mistletoe Plot is out in the world!

The Mayfair Mistletoe Plot is out in the world! It takes the Rannochs and their friends on a mission at Emily Cowper’s holiday ball in Mayfair. It’s definitely a mystery but it’s also the most Jane Austen/Georgette Heyer-ish story in the series. You can hear my thoughts below.

Happy reading!

Tracy

 

THE APSLEY HOUSE INCIDENT/ACCIDENT

Dear Readers,

This has been a year of challenges, indeed, so I suppose we should expect the same in our fictional lives as well!
As some of you know, it’s been a bit of a rocky road to the release of The Apsley House Incident!  (or maybe I should call it the Apsley House accident?).   Due to a “technical difficulty” the content in the Kindle version was from a different book entirely.

For those of you who got the ‘misplaced’ book, I’m so sorry you had to wait to read Melanie and Malcolm’s new adventure!  I can imagine your disappointment, because my own heart dropped when I went excitedly online to see what was happening, only to find 1* reviews abounding. and a raft of confused comments on Facebook and GoodReads.

So first of all, here’s what you can do to get the correct version of The Apsley House Incident if you haven’t already been able to do do so. Amazon and NYLA say

We’ve sent an e-mail to customers who own copies of “The Apsley House Incident” to notify them of the update made to the content. Readers can now update the content on their “Manage Your Content and Devices” page (www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage). If you own a copy of your book, you can also download the newer version from this page. 

For readers who already returned the book and got a refund, they’ll need to repurchase. But everything should be correct.

And for those of you who have the new — or new-new — book, it would be such a lovely and appreciated gesture if you could go to the Amazon listing and let readers know that the correct version is being delivered.   And of course, I always value your reviews, good or bad, so I appreciate that extra feedback if you’re willing!

You can find a direct link to “The Apsley House Intrigue“ on Amazon here.

Here’s to smooth sailing ahead, and warm hopes for a lovely and happy Thanksgiving for those celebrating. One of the many things I am thankful for is all the wonderful support readers give to Malcolm and Mélanie Rannoch and their friends – and to me. The last couple of days have been extremely challenging, but one silver lining was seeing how many readers were so eager to get the novella and how supportive you all were through the process.

  If you have questions or are still having any issues, please email me at tracy@tracygrant.org or leave a comment below.

With heartfelt thanks,

Tracy

 

WESTMINSTER INTRIGUE Book Party!

http://www.pieceofheartphoto.com/

Happy summer (or almost summer)! The Westminster Intrigue has been out for a couple of weeks. So exciting to have it out in the world and to be able to talk about it with readers. On that note, my daughter Mélanie and I are excited to invite you to a virtual book party to celebrate its launch on Thursday, June 24, at 5:00 pm Pacific Time/8:00 pm Eastern. We are thrilled that the lovely and multi-talented Lauren Willig, one of my best friends and favorites writers and an honorary aunt to Mélanie, will be our special guest.

Lauren and I have been friends for years, and though she now writes amazing stand alone novels, we have had many conversations about the fun and challenges of writing about Napoleonic spies as she wrote her fabulous Pink Carnation series. We also share the fun and challenges of writing a parents of young children (I have a wonderful memory of talking writing in her New York apartment with our then-toddler daughters playing on the carpet and then falling asleep in our laps. Also of a very fun visit to the Children’s Museum at the New York Historical Society – good to start hands-on research early!

The Westminster Intrigue Book Party is free and open to all, but it will be on Zoom, so you need to register in advance so I can send you the link. You can sign up here or email me (tracy@tracygrant.org).

https://laurenwillig.com/

Lauren and I will be chatting about books and writing and taking questions from the audience. You can also submit your questions in the comments below or by emailing me at tracy@tracygrant.org. Feel free to ask questions about The Westminster Intrigue or either of our books or writing in general.

Since the book party coincides with happy hour on the West Coast and after-dinner drinks on the East Coast, I’ve come up with a Westminster Intrigue cocktail for the occasion:

• 1 part gin
• 2 parts rosé sparkling wine
• 1/2 part Aperol
• 1/2 part Bruto Americano

Pour over ice in a wine glass. Watch for hidden codes in the bubbles.

For a nonalcoholic version, my daughter Mélanie suggests blood orange Italian soda with a dash of grenadine.

Mélanie wants readers of Talea’s Mysteries to know she will be posting more soon, now we are getting through the flurry of the Westminster Intrigue release.

Mélanie and I also both recently got to do our first joint interview on the #MomsWritersClub YouTube channel. It was so much fun! Do check out all their videos – they are great, full of fascinating insights into writing – and parenting!

Hope to see you on June 24th!

xx Tracy & Mélanie

 

Motherhood & the Art of Juggling – Revisited

photo by Piece of Heart Photography

On U.S. Mothers’ Day weekend, it seems a good time to revisit an article I first posted in July 2012. At the end of the movie I Don’t Know How She Does It (based on the novel by Allison Pearson) the Greg Kinnear character describes his wife (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) as “a juggler.” Words which I found very apropos of my own life nine years ago when I first wrote this post, when my own Mélanie was a baby, and still find apropos today. The words are also apropos for Mélanie Rannoch, Kitty, Cordelia, Laura, and Lady Frances in the about-to-be-released The Westminster Intrigue, which sees Mélanie and Kitty on a mission that ends in a knife fight and coming home to check on their children (for that matter Malcolm and Julien are too – fatherhood is also the art of juggling), Mélanie interviewing suspects while she watches the children play in the Berkeley Square garden, Cordelia hosting a ball while trying to be part of the investigation and parent Livia and Drusilla, Lady Frances getting up early the day after the ball (very unusual for Frances!) thanks to the twins.

I wrote nine years ago that I’m very fortunate that my own Mélanie’s temperament and my own schedule make iteasier than I had anticipated to keep up with my writing schedule while being a mom. But it is a juggling act, I said then, whether that means balancing a baby against my shoulder or nursing while I type one-handed, spooning applesauce while I brainstorm with writer friends, doing a book reading aware on the edge of my consciousness of some tiny squeaks as a friend walks with Mel at the back of the room, holding her asleep in my lap on the red eye while I edit on my iPad, having lunch with my agent and editor with Mel asleep in her carrier beside me.

Today the juggling also involves my job at the Merola Opera Program. As well as taking breaks during precious evening and weekend writing time for “mummy daughter time” . One busy Sunday as I finishing Westminster Intrigue I took a couple of hours off for Mélanie to have a play date and all of us to go swimming, and in the end I realized the break was good for me as well as her and got just as much done as if I’d been at the computer all day – because if I had been, I’d have spent a certain amount of time staring into space or scrolling through social media while my brain searched for the next coherent thought.

I think it’s fortunate that my writing process has always involved lots of thinking and mulling time. I wrote in the original post nine years ago about talking with Veronica Wolff, a wonderful writer, fabulous mom, and great friend, about how we can both only write so many words before before inevitably we need to ponder how to handle a transition, a plot development, an upcoming scene (it’s amazing how something as simple as getting a character into or out of the room can stymie one). And a lot of this mulling is subconscious, so I often find I can work through whatever writing issue is plaguing me during a break with Mélanie. It also can play well with having a second job. By the time I get to an evening of writing, some issues have sorted themselves in my subconscious while spending the day at my other job.

Of course some things fall by the wayside – I said that nine years ago and it’s still true today. I don’t blog nearly as much – I hope to get back to it. Nine years ago, I said some days I don’t look at social media at all and then there are other days when I find the one thing I can accomplish while tending to a fussing baby is updating Facebook and Twitter (fairly easy to do one-handed). Now it’s Instagram too and if all I get to is a social media post it’s because I had a late meeting and then spent the evening with Mélanie. (Since COVID, posting a photo every day has become a routine, because it gives me a reason to get moderately dressed up and do my hair and makeup 🙂 Nine years ago I wrote that that some nights I wonder how writing a book with a baby can seem entirely do-able but fixing dinner with one can seem an insurmountable challenge. Fixing dinner is easier now- and my daughter helps -it’s a fun activity to share. And as for my house – well, my friends can attest that I was inclined to let housework go when on a deadline even pre-Mélanie :-). And that hasn’t changed much in nine years :-).

There are days when I feel I’m not getting anything done – that was true then and now. But I have written a book and novella every year since Mélanie born. Even the days when I only write a few hundred words add up over the course of a week or a month. Averaging around 1,000 words a day, most days, works pretty well and is doable – even if those words are sometimes written between midnight and 2:00 am. Snatching moments to write is key. I started my new novella on Thursday night while sitting in the car with Mélanie waiting for the wonderful San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows drive-in concert to start while Mélanie watched Carmen Sandiego on my phone (like me she loves spy stories).

When I wrote nine years ago I had just visited the Stanford campus with friends and I showed Mélanie where Mummy was an undergrad. We went to the History Department, where I learned so much that helps me as an historical novelist. But thinking back to those days of balancing classes, rehearsals, an honors thesis, my first novel (which I was co-writing my mom while in school), I realized that the art of juggling is something else I took away from my university years.

Now Mélanie is writing her own stories, which entails a different sort of juggling – finding time when she can have the computer (those are good moments to clean the house). Having watched me write since she was born, she is wonderfully supportive and understanding. The night I was finishing the Westminster Intrigue copy edits she offered encouragement, helped with proofreading (she caught a misnumbered chapter), and shared her precious York mints to keep me going. Writing is so much more fun with her!

How do you balance different elements of your life, whether it’s writing or parenthood or other elements?

 

GLENISTER PAPERS Book Launch Party – June 2nd

Birthday and GLENISTER PAPERS publication day dinner at Alchemy in Ashland, Oregon, 15 May, 2019

Happy almost summer! THE GLENISTER PAPERS has been out in the world for two weeks. Do share your thoughts about it, here, or on the the Goodreads Group or other platforms.

I’ll be celebrating it’s release with a launch party at Book Passage in Sausalito this Sunday, June 2, at 4:00 pm. We’ll have wine and cheese and other treats, as well as snacks for kids, and I’ll be reading from and talking about the book and signing copies.

If you can’t make it but would like a personalized, signed copy, you can order one from Book Passage (800) 999-7909) and tell them you would like it personalized on June 2nd.

We’re also going to livestream the talk and q&a on my Facebook page. You can either watch live at 4:00 pm PST or check the page for the video later. If you have questions you’d like me to answer, email me or post them here, and I’ll add them to the questions at the event.

I’ll be sure to post pictures after the launch!

Cheers,

Tracy