How was everyone’s Thanksgiving?? Did you eat wonderful food and spend time with friends and relatives? Did you do any Black Friday shopping? (I did all my weekend shopping online…). Did you read any good books??? I have been writing, reading (The Night Circus, which is terrific), and getting out Christmas decorations. But today I’m taking time out to show you my new covers!! I am so excited about them.

They’re the first two books in my new Laurel McKee series for Grand Central, the Victorian-set “The Scandalous St. Claires,” about a notorious underworld family of gamesters, actors, and rakes, and their centuries-old feud with a ducal family (begun by a romance gone bad, and now ended by new romances):



They will be out in June and December of next year! You can pre-order One Naughty Night here…

I also wanted to say Happy Anniversary to William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, who were (possibly) married on November 28 in 1582. At the time Anne was 26 and Will was 18 (below the age of consent, scandal!), and Anne was pregnant (not uncommon–it’s estimated that 1/3 of Tudor era brides were pregnant before the wedding). On Nov. 28, two husbandmen of Stratford called Sandells and Richardson were sureties for 40 pounds in the consistory court of Worcester so the marriage of “William Shagspeare and Anne Hathwey” could go forward with only one publication of the banns. They were married at St. Andrew’s Church at Temple Grafton, about 5 miles from Stratford (possibly–see this link for more info…). The couple moved in with Shakespeare’s family and 6 months later their daughter Susanna was born. No details are known about the clothes or music, it was probably very quiet.

More wedding info can be found here

And some Elizabethan wedding customs here…

What historical wedding would you like to attend? What are some wedding customs you especially enjoy (or think we could so without)???