So This Arrived in Today's Mail...

Yes, it's a copy of WHO BURIES THE DEAD, hot off the press.

This time of year is always oddly unsettling because I'm dealing with three Sebastian books at once. This morning, I was busy plotting out Book # 12 (Where the Dead Lie), when my editor called to talk about the edits and cover conference for Book #11 (When Falcons Fall). Then the doorbell rings and it's the postman with boxes and boxes of #10, Who Buries the Dead, which is scheduled to be released the first Tuesday of next month.

I tend to get a little confused.

The good news is that my editor loves When Falcons Fall. She's the first person apart from my husband, Steve, who has read it, and he thinks it's the best book in the series so far (I think my own favorite is still Why Mermaids Sing....). But my editor agrees with him, so maybe he was on to something. And I'm sorry if that comes off sounding like teasing since y'all won't be seeing that book for another thirteen months, but it's such a wonderful feeling to know that the book works, and the Powers That Be are happy, and I'm not looking at a huge rewrite (which would be difficult given that I am gearing up to go on tour for Who Buries the Dead).

On other fronts, it's been so cold that we haven't been able to deal with our bee problem yet. And it's Mardi Gras time here in New Orleans again, so you know what that means.

Looking Ahead

Whenever I finish a book, I try to spend some time doing all the things I put off while I was caught up in the throes of writing. I clean my office, work in my garden, tackle some of the house repair projects I'm always putting off, etc. In the process of reorganizing my files this past week, I found some notes I'd written back in 2003, outlining my vision for the future of the Sebastian St. Cyr series. I was stunned to realize that I am now starting book #12 and I STILL haven't done some of the things I'd envisioned happening by the end of book #5! Which made me laugh--and also caused me to give some thought to what lies ahead.

Someone suggested recently that I add to my website a peek at what lies ahead, so I thought I'd do that here. As you know, I've just finished #11, and it now has a title: WHEN FALCONS FALL. Not my first choice (I wanted When Doves Fall), but I'm getting used to it. And the nice thing is that I already have approval for the title of #12, which is still only in the beginnings of the outline stage: Where the Dead Lie. 

How many more books will there be? I honestly don't know. But sales are still growing, my publisher is more strongly behind me than ever, and I have a lot of Sebastian and Hero stories I still want to tell.

In addition to dealing with my ever-growing To Do list, I'll be spending the next month plotting out #12, writing guest blogs for a number of sites that will be featuring Who Buries the Dead next month, and getting ready for my book tour the first week in March. I'm really looking forward to meeting my readers in Houston, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle, and wish I could be going to even more cities.

I'm also planning a redo of my website, although that won't happen until April. My webmistress recently reminded me that it's been eight years now since she first did my site and pointed out that sites are much wider now than when my current one was made. So I'm going to be giving lots of thought to that and welcome any ideas for improvements.

There's a bunch of other stuff going on--I should be able to show you the cover for the audio book of Who Buries the Dead soon. And I may finally be officially getting the rights back for my first seven historical romances so that I can do something with them. But today I'm dealing with a swarm of bees that seems to have decided to make my home their home. I have a bee keeper coming this morning, so wish me luck!

Another Great Review, This One from Publishers Weekly

In Harris’s satisfying 10th whodunit set in Regency England (after 2014’s Why Kings Confess), Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy asks aristocratic sleuth Sebastian St. Cyr to help solve the grisly murder of Stanley Preston, cousin to the Home Secretary. After severing Preston’s head, the killer perched it on an old London bridge known as Bloody Bridge. Sebastian discovers a metal strap near the bridge that’s inscribed “King Charles, 1648,” a clue that may connect with Preston’s macabre collection of the heads of historical figures. The presence in London of Stanley Oliphant, Sebastian’s longtime nemesis, whom he blames for the slaughter of innocents in Portugal, complicates the inquiry. The detective’s capable wife, Hero, assists him in unraveling the twisted truth as more bloodshed ensues. The solution, one of Harris’s trickiest, will appeal both to fair-play fans and those interested in a vivid evocation of the period. 

BOOKLIST Gives WHO BURIES THE DEAD a Starred Review!

A wonderful starred review from Booklist:

When Stanley Preston, a wealthy merchant with family political ties, is found beheaded, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is called to help. While he's repelled that Preston's wealth came from slave labor on Jamaican plantations, Devlin is more concerned about such a murderer on the loose in London in 1813. Subsequent murders, including another beheading, appear linked to Preston's. Among the suspects is Sinclair, Lord Oliphant, former governor in Jamaica, who made Devlin the unwilling catalyst in the brutal murder of innocent women and children years earlier during the Napoleonic Wars, an incident that still haunts Devlin and makes Oliphant his sworn enemy. Another suspect is Preston's banker, Henry Austen, whose spinster sister, Jane, while helping to care for her gravely ill sister-in-law, displays her keen observations and wry wit to Devlin. As Devlin's personal life has become richer and fuller, with his deepening love for wife Hero and infant son Simon, so has this novel, the tenth in the series featuring St. Cyr. With such well-developed characters, intriguing plot lines, graceful prose, and keen sense of time and place based on solid research, this is historical mystery at its best. --Michele Leber

Finished!

Finally, finally, finally finished Sebastian Book #11.

That's right; it STILL doesn't have a proper title. I came up with one I liked, but the Powers That Be didn't like it, and I must admit I wasn't wild about it myself. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with anything they like any better, and I'm terrified that I'm going to get stuck with something awful.

I already have the idea for #12 swirling around in my head, but it's going on the back burner while I take care of all the things I had to shove to the side during the last final push to get this thing done. This one ran a little long for reasons I will never quite understand. You'd think after writing eleven Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries--and more than twenty books all together--I'd be able to gauge a manuscript's length better, but obviously not.

And now I'm off to play with a kitten--who isn't so little any more!