Marian's Christmas Wish

Carla Kelly · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 179

I'm pleased to see that Marian's Christmas Wish is now available on Kindle. I think the next thing of mine out on ebook will be a Christmas Collection of four of my previously published Signet short stories: "Make a Joyful Noise," "The Christmas Ornament," "The Three Kings," and "An Object of Charity."

This is certainly an interesting time for readers and writers. It's given me a lot of pleasure recently to turn on the Kindle and find Georgette Heyer there, not to mention Jane Austin and other total goodies. Will I always have lots of books? Certainly. But there is room for ebooks now, and I like that, too.

ChrisReader · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 685

Carla Kelly said

merryweather · Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 531 Location: Encinitas, CA

I just finished this book and loved it--thank you so much, Carla! Marian and Gilbert were just adorable (even if she was a bit young--I know that's how things went back then, but my daughter is 17 and I just can't picture handing her over to a 28 year old Wink

Times have changed!)

Looking forward to the short stories.
_________________
For the first time in her life, she saw exactly what she’d thrown away when she decided to have him by means fair or foul……that she’d not saved him but wronged him by consigning to him all the ability of a box turtle to make his own choices. ~Gigi

Carla Kelly · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 179

Yes, Marian was young, but the way all that unfolded was precisely as it might have been. When I used to teach history on the university level, I always begain my first lecture, whatever the period, by writing Zeitgeist on the board and asking my students to define it. I explained that it roughly translated as "the mind of the times." I encouraged them to look through 19th century eyes, rather than their own - at the time - twentieth century eyes.

The only thing that would ever have bothered Gilbert's contemporaries was that Marian did not have a fortune to match his own.

Would I want that era back? Well, no. And that would lead to my next comment to my students: "There is no such thing as good history, or bad history; there is only history."

I think that way when I write of earlier eras; I honestly do. I hope it shows. I think this is one reason I'm having some fun writing stories set in the early twentieth centory. In many ways, Americans were becoming more the way we think of ourselves now - still not totally like us, but closer.

merryweather · Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 531 Location: Encinitas, CA

Carla Kelly · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 179

Got some more good news last week. I hope this isn't hush hush, but Signet is going to be ebooking a lot of those old beloved regency trads, starting in January. If there is enough interest among readers, there will also be more Regency and other good fiction from a line that sort vanished a few years back. I'm tickled. Eventually, all my books, including the uber hard to find Daughter of Fortune, will be in ebook. Signet was always a good home for good books.

willaful · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 1468

I just finished this and Marian's age really didn't bother me; she was so convincingly intelligent and, I thought, quite emotionally mature. I've seen a lot of other reviewers say she seemed even younger than her age, which really baffles me. I guess they mean because she's impulsive and participates in some pranks at the beginning.
_________________
"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_

merryweather · Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 531 Location: Encinitas, CA

Nana · Joined: 02 Apr 2007 Posts: 890

willaful · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 1468

Carla Kelly · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 179

I think Signet's smart to re-launch those old trad Regencies. Signet was the leader in the bidness, I think, and suspect they will be again. Hope so, anyway. In addition to the three titles mentioned, I'll probably release The Wedding Journey to Signet, too. That will be four ebooks for Signet. Cedar Fort has 4 or 5 other ones, and let's not forget that Japanese manga of "Mrs. Drew" and "Lord Ragsdale" that'll be coming out sometime in 2012. I think my savvy daughters are more interested in manga than anything else. Crazy woild we live in.

ck

Jane A · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 715 Location: So Cal

Will this be released as an epub?

Carla Kelly · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 179

Jane A, sorry to be slow getting back to you.

Apparently the two books will first appear as "paperback comic novel," as it says in the contract. Then it states this: "...exclusive license to sell e-books of the Comicbook in the Japanse language, whch will be distributed through the Internet and/or cell phones (including online viewing), to be commenced within one year of the initial Comicbook publication date."

So, sometime within the next year and a half, the ebook in Japanese of the paperback manga will appear. The way there is such a push on to turn everything into ebook, I suspect it might be sooner.

I'm tickled by the idea of getting 6 copies. My daughters are already salivating...