~A Letter from Julie~

Welcome to October, my pumpkins! (<--note the seasonal nature of my greeting. Clever, eh?) Hope fall finds all of you feeling frisky! In my neck of the woods, the advent of the season is usually very subtle—the lone Japanese maple in my backyard is stealthily going orange, and that's pretty much the only sign so far—but this year, fall started off with a BANG for me. As I type this, Ways to be Wicked has already spent nearly two solid weeks as the #1 Bestselling Historical Romance at Barnes & Noble.com. Not only that, but it's been on their Overall Romance Bestseller list (once at #2, right between Nora and Nicholas Sparks!) and in their Top 100, peaking at #30 (my eyes almost fell out of my head when I saw that). It already made the Amazon bestseller list, too!

Truthfully, I'm not entirely certain what any of this really means, but I'll hazard a guess: readers are really enjoying the book! LOL. The reviews rock, and I've already had wonderful emails from readers who received their preordered copies from Amazon and B&N in early September, and now I'm excited to hear what the rest of you think—if you don't have a copy yet, Ways to be Wicked should now be on the shelves in your favorite romance bookstore! And if you'd like to read excerpts first, check Book News below to learn about an exclusive steamy scene found only on select blogs. ;)

But that's not my only big news. I'm thrilled to announce that my next series of historical romances will be published by Harper Collins—Avon, that is! And as Avon is home to romance royalty Stephanie Laurens, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and—well, do I need to go on?—I couldn't be more delighted. :) I can't wait to tell you about my new series, too! Stay tuned for more news in the weeks ahead.

So you might be thinking all this great news calls for a celebration. Well, as they say, great minds think alike, as I thought the very same thing. As a matter of fact, I'm having a Cyber Dance Party at my blog, The Julie Chronicles (TJC), right...NOW! Well, October 2nd and 3rd, to be specific. Come on over to read Toni Blake's interview with me about Ways to be Wicked and other things both trivial and profound, and then go ahead ask me any question you feel like asking. I promise I'll either 1) answer it with searing, poignant, honesty; 2) dodge it creatively; or 3) lie whimsically.

One randomly chosen questioner will win a complete set of my books (all four of 'em!) and a pair of pearl and diamond earrings a prize inspired by a scene in WICKED involving a certain Daisy Jones and a giant oyster—a scene which, as one reader, Sheryl L. put it, "made me laugh so hard I almost had an accident." (Mercifully, she didn't specify what sort of accident.) Everyone else who participates will get a party favor—a signed bookmark!

And seriously, I'm calling it a Cyber Dance Party because I've created a soundtrack of GREAT dance songs you can actually listen to while you're hanging out. Some of the songs are my longtime favorites, some were requested by regular blog visitors, and one includes the deathless lyric, "underground like a wild potato. " None of them are YMCA.

Hope you join us!! A winner will be announced at TJC on the 4th.

I think that's it for now, but that's quite enough, don't you think?? LOL! As always, feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you think might enjoy it, and take good care for now!

Warm Regards,

Julie :)

In Ways to be Wicked, Tom Shaughnessy very matter-of-factly explains to Sylvie what a bawdy song is by actually singing one to her, as follows:

"Nell was a young woman so young and so fair
Who cherished her virtue 'til she met Lord Adair
Who took her for a ride in the warm summer air
And gave her a necklace of baubles to wear
Of baubles, of baubles, of baubles to wear,
Oh!
He gave her a necklace of baubles to wear!

Now, I made that song up, but it's pretty representative of the, shall we say, innuendo-rich bawdy songs of the period. I mean—three guesses what "baubles" represent in that little ditty. But if you don't think you know what baubles are, or if you're looking for other creative and hilarious euphemisms for body parts, you can consult the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence edited by Francis Grose and Robert Cromie. It's a reference manual beloved by Regency authors, and you can find it in its entirety online. You can also find a few Regency slang words at Prints George.


[Visit the Magical History Tour Archives]