Your Latest London Dispatch for February 2024
Football, Taylor Swift, and new fiction
I’m tired, but for once it’s not because I’m on deadline! In fact, I’ve just passed some pretty significant milestones on my current WIPs (see Book News below), and I’m happily bopping along in this lovely, creative place as I think ahead to pitching my next books.
I’m tired because of the Super Bowl.
When I moved to the UK, I found that there was a lot I really wanted to embrace about living in London but there were some “American” things I wanted to hold onto as well. One of those was football, or as I’ve retrained my brain to call it “American Football.”
It’s fairly common for an expat to want a connection back to the familiar of their home country, but I have a strong personal reason for wanting to keep on top of the NFL season. I have been watching sports with Dad since I was an infant,1 and it’s one of the many ways I enjoy spending time with him. Even when I was living in New York City and my parents were in Los Angeles and then London, we would FaceTime or text during big games. When I moved to London, suddenly it became possible to watch together—in the same time zone!—and enjoy all of the sport, food, and pageantry around the big game.
That is why my side of the family gathered at my parents’ house this past weekend to watch the Super Bowl, eat a pretty incredible spread of food catered by Mum, and play “Who is in the suite with Taylor Swift?”2 I’m proud to say that almost all of us made it to the end of the game, and that is how I found myself going to bed at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning.
Worth it.
Book News
Evelyne Redfern Series
Good news for readers who have kindly been asking when the second Evelyne Redfern mystery will be out! As I write this, I’m working my way through the copy edit of Betrayal at Blackthorn Park. That means that I’m one step closer to the book coming out on October 1, 2024!
Betrayal at Blackthorn Park picks up six weeks after A Traitor in Whitehall ends and sees a newly trained Evelyne Redfern eager for her first assignment as a field agent. However, when she learns her first task is performing a simple security test at Blackthorn Park, a requisitioned manor house in the sleepy Sussex countryside, she can’t help her initial disappointment. All that changes when she finds the chief engineer dead in his office and she must use all of her—and David’s—detection skills to root out who is responsible and uncover layers of deception that could change the course of the war.
I will be releasing more information about Betrayal at Blackthorn Park including exclusive excerpts as we get closer to October 1st. In the meantime, you can preorder the book at your favorite book retailer including:
And don’t forget that if you are looking to pick up the paperback of A Traitor in Whitehall, that book comes out on September 10th! You can put in your preorder now or, if you can’t wait, you can start reading the hardcover, ebook, or audiobook today!
Historical Fiction
While February is about my mystery novels, January was all about historical fiction! When I wasn’t doing work to support the paperback release of The Lost English Girl, I was working on developmental edits for The Dressmaker Book.3 This is the stage of the book when I’m working through my editor’s notes and suggestions for improving my first draft. I find it a really satisfying process because this is where the book really takes shape and I get to add all of those lovely details that really make historical novels shine.
Keep an eye out for more updates about The Dressmaker Book in the coming months!
Links & Things
A few things from around the internet:
A Traitor in Whitehall was named one of Oprah Daily’s New Mysteries for the New Year. (#3 on the list!)
Over on my for-fun knitting Substack, I wrote about knowing when to give up on a project that isn’t working for you
I’m on the The History Quill Podcast interviewing Katherine Clements about writing compelling characters
I will never not be fascinated by other people’s No Buy months (mine went up in flames around January 15th, but we won’t talk about that)
This month I also launched my paid subscription feature this February. Free subscribers will continue to get this monthly Your Latest London Dispatch newsletter, while paid subscribers will get additional content from me like weekly Friday essays and short stories.
Speaking of short stories… It's time to let me know which of my characters you would like to see a little more from.
Giveaway
Good news! I’ve decided to run a rare giveaway this month! I’ll be giving away signed copies of my books in a random drawing for my Substack and newsletter readers! To enter, just click the button below and fill out the form.
Good luck!
I was born less than a week before the Super Bowl that year when the Super Bowl was played in January. Remember those days?
We are firmly a Swiftie family. In fact, four out of the six of us watching on Sunday will be going to Wembley for the Eras Tour. And yes, there have already been conversations about what Assistant Mark (my brother-in-law) wants to wear to express his deep love of Folklore.
My working title for my novel due out in 2025.
I voted for Louise but actually I think it might be fun to see something from the POV of a different or side character in your books.
Busy, busy! BTW who was in the box with Taylor? I guess I could look it up -- I just forgot all about it until I saw it in your post. xoxoxo