Category Archives: readings and visitations

February 10, 2012

New England Excitement with Eloisa James & Julia Quinn!

By Sarah MacLean

Do you all remember a few weeks ago when I promised you that there were excitements afoot (aside: I love the word afoot. I wish there were more cause to use it in 2012 without sounding like you just stepped off a time machine. But I digress. We were talking about excitements.)?

Anyway. In that post, I told you that I was going on tour for the launch of A ROGUE BY ANY OTHER NAME through the spring (and even into the fall as we edge up on the release of ONE GOOD EARL DESERVES A LOVER), and I said: “(psst! If you’re in Connecticut or Boston, stay tuned…because something exciting is brewing for you guys…which I do not want to jinx!)”

Well…I did not jinx it! And the excitement in question has been fully brewed!

I am so so so excited to announce that I’ll be doing two events in New England alongside two of my very favorite authors ever!

* On Thursday, April 5th at 6:30PM, I’ll be at Flora Restaurant in BOSTON with the fabulous Eloisa James!

and,

* On Sunday, April 15, from 5-7pm, I’ll be at the Ridgefield Public Library in RIDGEFIELD, CT with Eloisa James and the amazing Julia Quinn!

I can already hear you squeezing, and what I have to say to that is: I KNOW!!!

For more information on these events, check out the Sarah on Tour Page.

Now, if you’re a New Englander, there’s something you should know. It’s generally accepted that you don’t read much romance. To that I say, Whaa? Because I’m also a New Englander. And I read A LOT of romance. So I know you’re out there. And even more, I know you love Eloisa and Julia as much as I do. So please please come out and meet us…and let’s talk romance! Oh, who am I kidding? Eloisa and Julia will talk romance. I will stand by the wayside and bask in the glow of their awesome.

 

 

3 comments | posted in readings and visitations

January 27, 2012

Sarah on the Road!

By Sarah MacLean

You guys! You guys!! I’m packing my travel trunks and getting out on the road! If you’re in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania/Ohio, or Southern California, I’m going to be in your neck of the woods sometime very soon! Some of the highlights:

*I’m launching A ROGUE BY ANY OTHER NAME at my hometown bookstore in Brooklyn on March 1, with an awesome party at the fabulous WORD bookstore to celebrate romance with Eloisa James and Maya Rodale!

*I’ll be giving a talk as part of the Penn State Erie Behrend Gender Conference (open to the public!) entitled “Real Heroines Rip Their Own Bodices,” on April 20th.

*I’ll be spending a “Girl’s Afternoon Out” with Katharine Ashe, Sophia Nash and Maya Rodale in Lansing, MI on March 3.

*And….I’ll be at both the RT Booklovers convention (in Chicago) and the RWA Annual Convention (in Anaheim) this year!

For a full list of my events through July, please check out the Find Sarah in Person page!

(psst! If you’re in Connecticut or Boston, stay tuned…because something exciting is brewing for you guys…which I do not want to jinx!)

Annnnd….If you’re in Dallas…I’m coming your way TWICE in the Fall (October and November)! And yes…I made Sophie Jordan promise she’d take me to see high school football games a la Friday Night Lights.

I’m super jazzed, y’all. I’m getting ready to tour like Duke Ellington. Question: How many books do you think I need to write before I can commission my own railroad car?  (Answer: Way more. Way way more.)

4 comments | posted in a rogue by any other name, readings and visitations, things that are awesome

September 4, 2011

Live Online with Katharine Ashe & Miranda Neville!

By Sarah MacLean

This post is cross posted from The Ballroom Blog:

There are days that I love being a New Yorker. Mostly, they are the days when my writing friends arrive in the city to visit with publishers or read at Lady Jane’s Salon. This week, two of my fellow Ballroom Bloggers–Katharine Ashe & Miranda Neville–will be in town, doing these things!

If you’re in the city (or the area) on Monday night, you can’t miss Lady Jane’s…aside from the fabulous Misses Katharine & Miranda reading, it’s a wonderful thing to stand in a roomful of romance readers and know that you’ve found your people! Added bonus: Lady Jane’s is dripping with leopard print, fringed lamps and tufted velvet. It’s like a Victorian bordello. Really. The salon is at Madame X, 94 Houston St. (bet. Thompson & LaGuardia).

“But wait!” you say, “I’m not in the city! What about me?” 

Well, you lucky thing, Katharine & Miranda are making a special stop at the Avon Books headquarters on Tuesday morning at 11am for a live, online chat just for you! I am thrilled to be a part of it; I’ll be interviewing these lovelies as part of RomanceLive! We’re going to talk about their new books, The Amorous Education of Celia Seaton and In the Arms of a Marquess, about the Avon Books Ovarian Cancer Awareness Campaign Kiss & Teal, and–of course–about The Ballroom Blog!

RomanceLIVE! 
Sarah MacLean interviews Katharine Ashe & Miranda Neville
Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 11am
www.livestream.com/romance

The livestream event starts promptly at 11am ET, and will run for 45 minutes, with plenty of opportunities for you to ask questions of these fabulous authoresses…and we’ll even answer questions about Lady B and Albert!

Please join us!

Leave a comment | posted in bookshelf, interviews, on romance, readings and visitations, the ballroom blog

April 27, 2011

Events, Excitement & Eloisa James!

By Sarah MacLean

It is official! Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart is out in the world in all it’s pink glory! I’m so thrilled to have heard from many of you, who have already hunted down a copy and begun reading (and in some cases finished reading!!) Juliana & Simon’s story! My readers are the BEST!

Today is an even bigger day than yesterday, though, so hang onto your hats!

After some writing this morning, I’m headed off to a studio in midtown Manhattan to meet with Eloisa James for our LIVE online virtual booksigning and author chat! We will be talking about romance (I’ve got plans to get her to chat about Josie & Mayne and about her incredible article on history and sex and how romance reconciles the two) and answering readers’ questions (yours, I hope!) live!  You’ll also be able to order signed, personalized books from both Eloisa and me as part of the event! It all starts at 5pm ET…I hope you’ll join us at livestream.com/romance… these events are particularly fun because the chat box on the livestream page gets…well…chatty, and you’ll meet other romance readers from around the world!

But the live event with Eloisa isn’t the only thing that’s happening today! After that, I’ll be headed to WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn for a book party with two other fabulous authors who also have new releases out…Maya Rodale and Kieran Kramer! Kieran was just selected as an Author to Watch by RT Book Reviews, and her latest, Cloudy With a Chance of Marriage, is already burning up the lists…and Maya’s A Tale of Two Lovers continues her Writing Girls series, about young women writers in the Regency (added bonus, she has a Simon! AND a Julianna!!)!

I’m SUPER excited for this event…WORD is taking questions via email (info@wordbrooklyn.com), and we’ll be recording the whole thing to share online, ultimately! It’s going to be incredibly fun, and with Maya & Kieran around, incredibly funny! If you’re a New Yorker with nothing to do tonight…please join us…and if you’re not a New Yorker, consider sending in your questions anyway! We promise to share the answers!

All in all, a busy day…especially considering the fact that I need to write for a bit before I start getting cuted up for the festivities…but thank you, thank you, thank you for being so awesome and reading my blog…and also my books. You’re the best part of this whole gig. Really.

1 comment | posted in 11 scandals, on romance, readings and visitations

April 12, 2011

In Which I Make a Plug for Pre Ordering…

By Sarah MacLean

So, unless you have just stumbled upon the blog in your search for “Who would win in a fight, a mole or a koala,” you know that I’ve got a book coming out. Soon. Very. Very. Soon. In fact, in two weeks, exactly.

And it looks like advanced copies are trickling out to reviewers, which is awesome…but unless you’re a book reviewer, you probably won’t be able to find a copy of Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart any time before April 26th.

As my first signing isn’t until April 27th, you can’t get a *signed* copy of Eleven Scandals until then (although that event is SUPER DUPER AWESOME and will be LIVESTREAMED on the Internet…and includes ELOISA JAMES!!) *BUT* when you preorder the book (or any of Eloisa’s!) from my local Indie (WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn), it will be signed by me (or Eloisa)…before being shipped to you!

As an added treat, your package will include bookmarks and this fun “Do Not Disturb” sign, which made its debut at the RT convention last week!

(clicky to embiggen)

And the back:

(click for embiggenation)

For those of you who don’t do print books anymore…never fear! While I can’t come to your house and sign your Kindle or Nook…Eleven is out on the e-devices on the same day it’s available in stores! And, you can send me a Self-Addressed-Stamped-Envelope, and I’ll happily send you bookmarks and doorhangers! Email the Goodies line for more info on that!

So…tell me…are you a preorderer? A same-day bookstore goer? Or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, buy-the-book-whenever-you-happen-to-find-yourself-next-in-a-bookstore book buyer?

6 comments | posted in 11 scandals, readings and visitations

April 7, 2011

Women’s Education and Romance

By Sarah MacLean

I’m going to be away from the blog for the next few days, headed up to my alma mater, Smith College for a week of writing and a very very exciting panel…Romance Literature: Love it or Leave it.

The panel will celebrate the opening of the Smith College Friends of the Libraries Reading Room, which is fitting, as I was a friend of the library when I was a student at Smith, and I continue to be a friend of libraries now. I’m particularly excited because it will feature my fellow Smith alums May Chen (editor at Avon Books), Judith Arnold, Stephanie Dray/Draven, and the “Book Maven,” Bethanne Patrick!

People don’t think of women’s colleges as being a place where romance gets read, thought about, or written…but I have said many many times that, while I was reading romance long before I got to Smith, it was there, in Northampton, that I really started to *think* about romance. Aside from having a gaggle of friends who all read romance (and who all loved to *talk* about romance), I also studied the genre as part of my American Studies coursework. This was before teaching romance was “cool”…and I can remember having huge arguments in class with other students who thought the genre was “perpetuating the myth of male dominance.” I could never get behind that. I thought romance was a feminist genre all the way. Literature by women, for women, about women, offering women *exactly* what they want.

So, yeah. I’m super excited about this panel…if you’re in Western Massachusetts, it’s open to the public…and I’d love to see you there!

April 13, 2011, 4:30pm
Smith College Alumnae in Romance
Neilson Library Browsing Room
Smith College
Northampton, MA

1 comment | posted in on romance, readings and visitations

March 26, 2011

One Month Until Eleven Scandals! First Page & Events!

By Sarah MacLean

Exactly one month to go until Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart hits stores! I’m getting that excited-but-also-nervous-OMG-I-might-be-sick feeling that is becoming tragically familiar in the weeks leading up to a book release.

BUT! I figure I’ve kept you all in the dark about Eleven for long enough! I mean, you know who we’re dealing with…Juliana Fiori, the Italian, half-sister of Ralston (Nine Rules…) and Nick (Ten Ways…), and her Duke of Disdain, Simon Pearson, the Duke of Leighton.

As a “one month until release day” present, would you like to read the first page of the book?

In retrospect, there were four actions Miss Juliana Fiori should have reconsidered that evening.

First, she likely should have ignored the impulse to leave her sister-in-law’s Autumn ball in favor of the less-cloying, better-smelling and far more poorly-lit gardens of Ralston House.

Second, she very likely should have hesitated when that same impulse propelled her deeper along the darkened paths that marked the exterior of her brother’s home.

Third, she almost certainly should have returned to the house the moment she stumbled upon Lord Grabeham, deep in his cups, half-falling down, and spouting entirely ungentlemanly things.

But, she definitely should not have hit him.

It didn’t matter than he had pulled her close and breathed his hot, whiskey-laden breath upon her, or that his cold, moist lips had clumsily found their way to the high arch of one cheek, or that he suggested that she might like it just as her mother had.

Ladies did not hit people.

At least, English ladies didn’t.

There it is…I hope it whets your appetite!

If so, I hope you’ll join me at one of the events that we’ve got planned for the launch of Eleven Scandals! I’ll be on tour in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York City, but for those of you who aren’t in those areas, please join me and the FABULOUS Eloisa James for an online, live-streamed chat about books, romance and writing on April 27th at 5pm EST! I’m so excited about this event…I love Eloisa’s books, and I can’t wait to talk with her about writing and more! Mark your calendars!

LIVE ONLINE!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 5:00 – 6:30pm
RomanceLIVE! with New York Times Bestsellers Eloisa James & Sarah MacLean!
Join Eloisa and me for a live chat…send in questions through the Avon Facebook page. We will be signing books as part of this webstreamed event! Order yours from WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn!

More events below!

NORTHAMPTON, MA
Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 4:30pm
Neilson Library Browsing Room
Smith College
Panel on the Romance Industry and the evolving romance genre, with Stephanie Dray, Judith Arnold, & May Chen
**Open to the public
***
NEW YORK CITY
Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 7:30pm
author of Cloudy With A Chance of Marriage
WORD Bookstore
126 Franklin St., Brooklyn, New York
(G Train to Greenpoint Avenue)
**Ladyfingers and Champagne, anyone?
***
PROVIDENCE, RI
Friday, May 6, 2011 – 7pm
471 Angell Street
(401) 331-9097
**Bring your friends for cupcakes, champagne and a girls’ night out to celebrate the release of Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart!
***
NEW YORK CITY
Monday, June 27, 2011 – 7pm
Lady Jane’s Salon – Special RWA Extravaganza
Madame X
94 W. Houston, New York, NY
(F, M, B or D to Broadway Lafayette)
**Reading from Eleven Scandals!
***
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 – 5:30 – 7:30pm
Romance Writers of America Annual Conference, 2011
Literacy for Life Signing!
Marriott Marquis Hotel
1535 Broadway
**Sarah will participate in the annual romance signing for RWA. Hundreds of authors will be there…don’t miss this one!

3 comments | posted in 11 scandals, readings and visitations, sneak peek

July 26, 2010

RWA, News and Goodies…

By Sarah MacLean

It’s about 900 degrees in Brooklyn and I’m trying to avoid a much-needed, long-overdue trip to the post office…with much-needed, long-overdue blogging!

So much going on this week, I don’t know what to do with myself!

I’ll start with the biggest…I’m right now packing for the Romance Writers of America convention, which begins Wednesday in Orlando at the Disney Swan & Dolphin Resort (Or is it Dolphin & Swan?)…I’ve never been to Disney World, and I’m told Epcot is awesomesauce…AND my publisher, Avon, is having a party over there, so I’m pretty excited.

If you’re an Orlandinian…or Orlandan…or Orlandoite…or whatever…please come to the 2010 Readers for Life Literacy Autographing (open to the public!) and say hi! I’ll be signing both Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake and The Season thanks to the generous donations of Avon & Scholastic. For the record, the literacy autographing is AMAZING…500 Romance Authors all in one place, along with their books! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s AWESOME and worth every second of waiting in line.

Still not convinced? How about I sweeten the deal? Stop by my table, pick up a brand-spanking-new Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord bookmark, and put your name in the pot for a chance to win a Nine Rules totebag (see above)! I’ll pick the winner at random, using the “close your eyes and point” method, right after the signing!

Not going to Orlando? No worries…I’ll be hosting another giveaway on the blog starting on Wednesday, so make sure to come back and check it out!

Other than that…I’m up to my eyeballs in Juliana’s book, which I’m really loving right now…she’s such a fun character to hang out with, and every time she says something crazy and Italian, I think of my insane Italian family, so she keeps me laughing! As I’m writing her book, it’s hard to even consider the next project, but I hope you’ll be happy to knowthat there will be a next project!

This announcement was made today:

NYT and USA Today bestseller Sarah MacLean’s next four Regency romances, to Carrie Feron at Avon, in a significant deal, by Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media Group (World).

I’m still pinching myself! There will, of course, be more news on those books and Juliana’s to come…so stay tuned!

.

16 comments | posted in 9 rules, contests and giveaways, give back, in the news, meet someone cool, new project, on romance, readings and visitations, the season, things that are awesome

July 23, 2010

Fabulous Romance Panel – Achieved!

By Sarah MacLean

Last night, I was thrilled to moderate a panel of romance experts in honor of the opening of the fabulous WORD Brooklyn bookstore’s brand-spankin’-new romance section…and y’all…it was AWESOME.

A little history:  A few months back, Stephanie Anderson, the lovely and talented manager of WORD (which is, quite possibly, the most charming indie I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit) made the big mistake of suggesting on Twitter that I come out and talk to her about romances…as she was considering adding a romance section to the store.  And, of course, as a romance fanatic, I went.  And, much to Stephanie’s dismay, I think, I stayed.  And so the bookstore launched a romance section, I think in the hopes that I would go away.  But now it’s a cozy, fab indie in the equally cozy, equally fab Greenpoint, Brooklyn, WITH a romance section! So…yeah. I’m not going anywhere.

As part of the launch of the section yesterday, WORD hosted an amazing panel of romance experts, including: Sarah Wendell, co-founder of SmartBitchesTrashyBooks.com and author of Beyond Heaving Bosoms; Hope Tarr, author and co-founder of NYC’s monthly romance reading series, Lady Jane’s Salon; Lauren Willig, the author of the Pink Carnation Series; Tessa Woodward, the brilliantly talented, brilliantly funny Associate Editor at Avon Books; and Stephanie Klose, Senior Editor at RT Magazine (who just might have the best job, ever). I got to moderate the panel discussion for a roomful of NYC romance stars (Leanna Renee Hieber & Ron Hogan from Lady Jane’s, Stacy Boyd from Harlequin, and Rachel Kramer Bussel of In the Flesh fame, among others), romance readers (who came from far a-field to celebrate their favorite genre!), and curious Greenpointers.

The conversation covered a lot of ground–from the popularity of the romance genre to the “reputation” of romance and of romance readers (you know what I’m talking about), from the clinch cover to happily ever afters, from feminism in romance to “the mighty wang.” Panelists offered up their thoughts on the most surprising thing about romance novels for those in the audience who were new to the genre, and readers in the audience chimed in about their love for love stories…and it was a terrific time!

There’s nothing better than getting a group of romance lovers together to talk about their favorite books.  Nothing.  Except, maybe, Tessa Woodward’s choice for “must read” romance.  

Maybe the best part of the night came after the discussion, though, when a woman approached me to say that she’d been reading romance for years and had never had anyone to talk to about it…she’d come out to Greenpoint from the Upper East Side (which, for those of you not from NYC, is no small feat) because she read about the event in the NYTimes, and now that she’s found the NYC romance community, I’m hoping to see her at Lady Jane’s and In the Flesh and RWA 2011 excitements!

If you missed the discussion, don’t fret!  We recorded it just for you!

4 comments | posted in bookshelf, gotham city, on romance, readings and visitations, things that are awesome

October 22, 2009

What do Goethe, Dostoyevsky & Austen have in common?

By Sarah MacLean

At first glance, not much…but when you see what the Pawling Book Cove has scheduled for the afternoon of November 14th in Pawling, New York, it all becomes awesomely clear!

I’m super excited to announce that I’ll be signing with the hilariously awesome Michael Northrop and the incredibly talented Dina & Daniel Nayeri at that very place at that very time! I will say that Gentlemen and Another Faust were two of my favorite 2009 books…and I’m honored that the Book Cove has included me in this sure-to-be terrific event!

Michael says that Pawling is a great little town…and I believe everything he says. Also, I know for a fact that upstate New York in mid-November can be gorgeous (as long as it’s not rainy and frigid)…so if you’re in the area, please consider a trip up on Metro-North (or down, left or right via other modes of transportation) and come hang out with us for the afternoon!

Leave a comment | posted in bookshelf, meet someone cool, readings and visitations, the season, why ya is awesome