Audio Book for WHEN MAIDENS MOURN

I've received the cover for the audio version of When Maidens Mourn. They weren't allowed to use the same image, so simply took the idea as an inspiration, which is nice since it gives a consistent look. The cover copy reads, "Tales of King Arthur and the Lady of Shalott provide inspiration for this latest gripping installment in the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, as the aristocratic sleuth and his fiercely independent bride, Hero Jarvis, investigate the murder of Gabrielle Tennyson at the site of a long vanished castle once known as Camelot."

Obviously audio books work to a much tighter production schedule than paper books. I've had the cover image and cover copy for the print version for months and months, but this was only finalized last week.

Booklist Reviews WHEN MAIDENS MOURN

From Booklist...

When Maidens Mourn.
Harris, C. S. (Author)

Just days after Hero Jarvis and Sebastian St. Cyr are married in 1812 in London, Hero’s close friend Gabrielle Tennyson is found murdered, and the two young cousins staying with her are missing. An antiquarian who stirred controversy over identifying the location of Camelot, Gabrielle was, like Hero, an independent and unconventional woman who eschewed the traditional female role. So while Sebastian is asked by local authorities to help investigate, Hero takes her own path in pursuit of the killer, sometimes at cross-purposes with her husband, on a course that adds to the distrust between the pair despite their mutual passion. In an atmosphere charged with deceit and danger, plus the burgeoning popular belief in the possible return of King Arthur, the pair uncovers Gabrielle’s hidden life and the family secrets that led to her death. Impeccable historical research underlies this seventh in the St. Cyr series (after Where Shadows Dance, 2011), an absorbing mystery that leaves intriguing questions—about the marriage and Hero’s unborn child, as well as Sebastian’s true parentage—to be answered in future entries.

— Michele Leber

Bits and Pieces

First, you'll be happy to know that I finally sent What Darkness Brings to my editor today. Steve and I went out to dinner to celebrate, and of course spent the entire time brainstorming ideas for book number nine. It's starting to come together, but I still have a long ways to go.

Next, some booksignings: I'll be signing When Maidens Mourn at the Garden District Bookstore in New Orleans on March 10, from 2 to 4. And I'll be flying to Houston on March 31st, for a signing at Murder by the Book, at 4:30.

And lastly, some people were asking about the brass table visible in the last post, so here's a better picture of it:



My parents bought the table in Morocco in the late fifties or early sixties when we were living in Spain. Here's a close up of the legs:



Like almost everything else in my office, it went under a foot of water in Katrina and looked awful. But some denatured alcohol followed by shellac brought it right back.

The Method to My Madness...Or Do I Mean the Madness to My Method?

My last post provoked some questions about why I divide my manuscript into four parts. I haven't always organized my WIP (Work in Progress) this way. When I first started writing (back in the Dark Ages, with a computer that had to go through DOS and used two five-inch floppy disks), I saved each chapter on my computer in a separate file. It was a royal pain, because chapters are artificial, fluid things, and I was always having to shift scenes from one file to the next.

And then, about fifteen years ago, I started reading books on screenwriting (this has since become popular, but at the time no one was advocating it). Screenwriters trained in the process popularized by Syd Field divide their stories into three parts: Beginning (first quarter), Middle (second and third quarters) and End. The Middle is bisected by what Field called the Midpoint, where typically something BIG happens to change the direction of the story. Something significant should also happen at the end of Part One and of course at the end of Part Three, to provoke the Climax.

So, since my books are usually around 400 manuscript pages long, it made sense to start dividing them into four, 100-page chunks that roughly corresponded to this way of looking at a story. It's basically a tangible way for me to assess how my story is developing. It's also a lot easier to handle a book both physically and on the computer in 100-page chunks, since 400 pages can get pretty unwieldy.

Lately, younger screenwriters have adopted a system that divides stories into EIGHT segments, with something significant happening at the end of each segment. I've actually started using this system, too, when I lay out my plotting cards. But I still stick to my old four-part scheme when it comes to the actual writing.

An added benefit to approaching a book this way is that as I'm writing, I get a nice sense of accomplishment when I get to move on to the next "part". It's an artificial milepost, but when you're slogging through a process that can take up to a year, it helps.

And yes, that is a copy of When Maidens Mourn! It arrived on my doorstep yesterday, hot off the press.

Finished! (well, almost...)

I've been a bad blogger lately, I know. My elder daughter got married at the end of December, several of us have been battling health issues, and I've been pushing hard to finish my next Sebastian book. It isn't due until 1 March, but it is finished. Almost.

Why almost? Well, I've done all the major revisions and the line edits, too, and printed off a clean copy. Now I'm just going to let it sit there for a few weeks, then come back and read it one last time with fresher eyes. I also haven't written the last few paragraphs of the final scene yet, either, because I want to wait until after I do that final read. So almost finished. But this breathing space is a rare luxury for me; normally I'm pushing SEND at 4:00 p.m. the day it's due.

I thought some of you might enjoy this glimpse into how I write. I divide the book into four parts, and keep each part in a separate file. As I print the book off, I also keep the parts separate, each with its own variously colored title page. I use the title pages to write notes to myself--the spelling of the names of people or places that I find myself forgetting or (especially at the beginning) even character descriptions. Why do I do it this way? Hmmm, maybe that would make a good blog post in itself!

In the meantime, what I am doing now? Why, plotting book number nine, of course! Can't tell you much, yet, except that it will be set in late January/early February 1813.