Julianne Donaldson's Blog, page 4

Thank You! A Winner! And a CLUE!

You guys are so over-the-top awesome! I can't believe how many great comments I received to help me with my project. It was so much fun to read what scenes you liked best. In fact, it really made me feel again how much fun it was to write Edenbrooke. How fun it was to write about Mr. Whittles and the scenes in the library and the twirling and the love letter and the ball. Since I've been working on my next book, my mind hasn't been actively visiting Edenbrooke for awhile. You brought me so much joy and so many smiles. Thank you!!

And according to the random number generator, the winner of the giveaway is "meems." Congratulations! Please send me an email at donaldson(dot)julianne(at)gmail.com and let me know if you would like a signed version of the audio book or the book. You can also choose your inscription, as long as it doesn't say something like, "I wish Marianne was dead so you could marry Philip instead." I could never be disloyal to my characters. :) And of course include your mailing address.

 Now, I really, really wish that my secret project was a movie deal. That would be a DREAM. But movie deals, if they happen, usually take years, and Edenbrooke is only three months old. She's still a baby, and no movie deals are currently in the works. :(

BUT I still think you will squeal over this project, and I'm going to give you a little tiny clue. (scroll down)


















Anyone want to take a guess??

A Call for Help and a Great Video

Hello all!

I have a really fun project in the works, which I am SO excited to share with you...later this summer. I can only give you a few hints right now. It's about Edenbrooke, and...um...okay, that's the only hint I can give you. But I am telling you right now, you will squeal over this project.

But, before it can all happen, I need a little help. I need to choose a few scenes from the book that kind of tell the story without actually giving away the whole story. (And one of them should involve Mr. Whittles's spittle.) So tell me in the comments what scenes YOU would choose, if you could only choose three or four.

And to thank you all for your participation, I have a giveaway. Yes, a giveaway! I will choose a random winner from everyone who comments and send you your choice of gifts--either a signed copy of Edenbrooke the book or a signed copy of Edenbrooke the AUDIObook. I will sign it with whatever message you want (as long as it's not indecent) and send it anywhere in the U.S. So comment away!

Now you must watch this very funny video for Jane Austen fans. My favorite line: "If we lived in the time our favorite show is, we probably would have died of tuberculosis." It's clever, funny, and it even mentions Edenbrooke! My kids have been singing the song for days, and even dressed up and practiced their fine manners. It's tremendously gratifying to see my Jane Austen love rubbing off on them. So check it out!

BEA 2012 Highlights

I had such a good time at my first BEA (BookExpo America). It was really fun to hang out with other book-lovers and meet so many great librarians, book bloggers, book sellers, and authors. Highlights for me:

1. My big sign at the entryway. (I'm making a weird face because I was in the middle of telling my mom to 'hurry and take the picture'. There were a lot of people trying to walk by.)



2. The cozy booth at Shadow Mountain, where I signed books and handed out proper tea. 

3. Meeting Jane Seymour and giving her a copy of Edenbrooke. She was so pretty and gracious.




4. Picking up an ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) of The Dark Unwinding. I was looking forward to getting my hands on this book, and it has not disappointed me. It's Steampunk Victorian Young Adult with a splash of fantasy set in the moors in England. It was singing my name! And isn't the cover gorgeous? I met the author there (Sharon Cameron), and I have to say, there is a difference between first-time and veteran authors at BEA. She was so grateful. (First-timer. I could relate.) I loved her. I'll let you know what I think when I finish it. So far, I'm impressed.



In addition, to that one, I also brought home at least a dozen books that I can't wait to dig into. What are you reading this summer? Any fun beach reads?

Proper Tea at BEA

I am getting SO excited about BEA! Meeting other authors, hanging out with my agent, rubbing elbows with the movers and shakers of the publishing biz...it's all so exciting. And here's one more exciting thing: I'll be signing at my publisher's booth at BEA.

So if you go, stop by the Shadow Mountain booth (#3039) to have "tea" with me. (I'll be handing out Proper tea, but I'm not too clear on if we'll actually be drinking tea together.) Come by the booth on Tuesday between 10:30 a.m. and noon, and Wednesday between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m, get some delicious non-caffeinated chamomile tea (which is packaged SO cute), chat with me, and we'll be new friends. Doesn't that sound so...proper?

Three Fun Facts

ONE: I made my second ever TV appearance. My first TV appearance was when I was 11 and went on the news with my gymnastics coach for winning first place in all the events at a competition. (Don't be too impressed. It was kind of a ghetto gymnastics place. I wasn't THAT good.) For my second appearance, I was interviewed with KUTV's Fresh Living and got to talk about Edenbrooke. I was nervous, but it was only three minutes long, and so I didn't have too much of an opportunity to make a total idiot of myself. If you'd like to watch it, click on over.

TWO: I recently got some national press at a USA Today book blog called Happy Ever After. (Thanks, Joyce!) In that interview I answer questions about why readers are ready for clean romance, what books influenced Edenbrooke the most, and why exactly I can't read reviews.

THREE: I get to go to New York to attend BEA (Book Expo America) in less than two weeks! I'll be going with the lovely people from Shadow Mountain and signing books and meeting other authors. I'll also get to hang out with my brilliant agent Laurie, which I'm excited about. And--how cool is this--my mom is going with me. We already bought tickets to see Wicked and Once on Broadway. (!!!!!!) I'm going to chop my hair tomorrow and make myself look stylish before I go. So if you see me there, be prepared for a new me. :)

I Still Love England

I finally overcame my abhorrence of iPhoto enough to post pictures of my last day in England. Hopefully this was just one of many trips to England, because I just can't get enough of that place. It's all of my English and Scottish blood, calling me back to the Mother land. 

At Castle Howard, another great estate.
An old-fashioned writing desk, which I believe dates back to the Regency period, if not earlier. I love how it all folds up so neatly. This was obviously a man's desk.
Marla and me at Castle Howard from the back side of the house. Everything is so grand in scale and design.
Inside the domed entryway at Castle Howard. I'm standing on the second floor balcony that overlooks the main floor.
More red-roofed houses in Whitby. I loved the look of this sea-side town.

Some FAQ's

I'm interrupting my drawn-out summary of my England trip to answer some frequently asked questions.

First of all, though, I want to thank everyone who has read and loved Edenbrooke! It is wonderful to know that there are kindred spirits around the world who love the same things I do. A special thank you to everyone who has left comments or sent me emails. I have had to stop reading reviews, because the things I read do crazy things to my brain when I sit down to work on my new book. So the only reviews I read are the ones you send to me, and I value each and every kind word. Thank you, thank you! Now, on to the questions...

Q:  Is Edenbrooke part of a series? / Are you going to write a sequel?

A:  I have loved living in the imaginary world of Edenbrooke the past few years, as I dreamed up and wrote my first book. I would love to live at a real version of Edenbrooke forever, if I could. But Marianne and Philip's story is complete. You can all rest easy with the knowledge that their happy ending WILL last forever. They will get married and have children and meet for secret kisses in the orchard and Meg will eventually beat Philip's horse, and Marianne will eventually get that library organized, and Philip will tease her and make her blush while they grow old together. So, no, I'm not going to write a sequel for them. I MAY write the story of another character in Edenbrooke (like Cecily), but not right now.

Q:  Are you writing another book? When will it be released?

A:  My next book will be called Blackmoore, and it is slated to be released next spring. Of course, that release date depends on my ability to write quickly and well. If I'm blogging less, it means I'm writing more. So good things are happening, and I hope to have something finished this summer. (Send your positive thoughts my way as I try to juggle being a full-time mom and a writer.)

Q:  Can you come to our book group?

A:  You are so awesome to invite me! And thank you for spreading the word about Edenbrooke to your friends and fellow readers. Unfortunately, I have a busy family and a book deadline to meet, so I can't accept invitations to attend book groups. But if you want, you can send me an email about skyping with your book group. If it works out with my schedule, I am happy to make a skype visit for fifteen minutes during your meeting.

Q:  Is Philip real, and if so, can I marry him?

A:  Sorry, no. But I am sure your own Philip is somewhere out there.

Okay, that's all for now. But next week I will finish my posting about England, and after that I should have some fun things to tell you about--trips and events and giveaways and fun stuff like that. For now, I'm off to dream of Blackmoore!

(Not really. I'm really off to welcome my kids home from school, stop the dog from chewing up a pencil, fold laundry, bake banana bread, and pull weeds in the yard. But later, tonight, I will be visiting Blackmoore.)

England Adventure Day 5 & 6

{{Disclaimer: My dinosaur computer, iPhoto, and the new Blogger format have engineered the perfect storm designed to drive me bonkers. I can't waste any more hours trying to upload photos that won't load after a whole lot of spinning rainbow wheels. Sorry. Maybe down the road I'll put more photos up. For now, this is what I've got.}}

Driving was blissfully uneventful during our trip until the fifth day. On that day our GPS (or sat-nav, as they call it) led us astray when we traveled from York to Haworth, home of the Bronte sisters. Instead of telling us when we turned a wrong way, it simply thought, "Okay, you want to go off-roading. Fine by me." And then it sent us into unchartered territory. One road we found by accident took us over sheep-studded moorland and was aptly called "Black Moore Road." When I saw the sign, I yelled, "Blackmoore! That's the name of my next book!"

But name coincidences aside, frustrations got the better of us, and we only found our lodgings with the gracious help of a receptionist at a medical clinic in Haworth. (Thank heaven for nice English people!) After settling into our B&B, we walked up the narrow cobblestone road to the top of the hill where the Brontes lived in all of their gloomy glory. It was dusk, and there was fog, and a super creepy graveyard, and loud black birds cawing in the skeletal trees overhead, and a black cat that followed us through the graveyard and rubbed itself against my legs when I stopped to peer at weathered headstones. I was in writer's heaven. Atmosphere galore!
The next day we toured the Bronte museum and learned all about their terrible, gloomy lives that led them to write such gloomy books. Then I said, "I've had enough of the fog and gloom. Let's head to the coast." 
I was excited to get to Scarborough, where I had booked a room at the Grand Scarborough hotel for two nights. I thought it would be a great home base for exploring the coast. But the grand, elegant, old-world exterior of the hotel belied the truth--it was a mini Las Vegas for old people. There were hundreds of them, dressed up, gambling, drinking, smoking, and listening to a bad lounge singer. To make matters worse, our room was located in the BASEMENT. The window looked out onto...nothing. A stone wall was in front of it. We could hear the drunken roar of other guests through the walls. It was wrong in every way possible. This was my tour into history! And how could I immerse myself in history when I was in the midst of so much modernity?

The Grand Scarborough Hotel


We settled into our room then found the stairs to the beach, where we discovered neon lights, arcades, and waffle and hot dog stands. It was too late to see anything historical, and we weren't in the mood for arcades. We definitely didn't want to go back to our dingy hotel room. So we saw The Hunger Games movie. It was awesome, except for the part where, right while Katniss is being chased by fire bombs, the screen turned red with the words "intermission" and people got up and walked around. What the...? It kind of killed the dramatic tension.

We did NOT stay the second night, as we intended, but instead made our way to Robin Hood's Bay, which I was very excited about. It was a famous smuggling town for over a hundred years. It was perfectly quaint in a red-roofed, steep cobbled streets, chilly north sea way. Walking along the beach, I found a real, legitimate fossil (a belemnite), which I brought home for my husband, who thinks it was the coolest part of my trip.

Finding my fossil on the beach at Robin Hood's Bay Robin Hood's Bay--the tide was out, and people were playing all over this marshy beach.
Then we drove up the coast to Whitby. In the daylight hours, Whitby has a busy, touristy feel to it. This is, I gathered, a favorite weekend diversion for locals. But when the sun sunk low in the sky, we made our way up the 200 or so stone steps to the cliff overlooking the bay, where an old church and a ruined abbey stood guard over the bay.

Whitby from the east.

The church at the top of the hill in Whitby. The daffodils!
It was lovely and peaceful and ancient. These were the sites I loved the best. These were the places where the ghosts of the past mixed with the ghosts of my imagination and gave them stone and brick, grass and hill, sky and wind. Things got fleshed out for me--important things, that can't be observed through an online photo, but must be imbibed personally. It was the chilly coastal wind and the sun glinting off the water and the crowded angles of red roofs and chimneys. It was the daffodils that grew everywhere and the absolute quiet of the ruined abbey. These were the sources of inspiration that imprinted on my imagination and fed my creativity. These were the reasons I came to England.

England Adventure Days 3 & 4

Day 3 of my England adventure began in Harrogate, which was a popular resort/spa town in the Victorian era. Now it's a place with lovely, high-end shops that featured designer dresses and famous chocolates. I tried to take a picture of one of the dresses I saw in a shop and the French shopkeeper stopped me with a "tsk" and a finger shake and a very snooty, "I do not zink ze designer would like zat." Okay, then. On to the free stuff.
I snapped this photo after being shooed out of the store. Can't stop me from taking pictures outside, right?
We toured the Royal Hall, visited some antique shops, and stopped at the Mercer Art Gallery, which was very nice. Then we walked along the Valley Gardens, which made me want to move there. Valley Gardens is a lovely remnant of the Victorian era that is still very popular today. This is where moms take their kids in strollers for their daily outing and old people meet at the outdoor cafe for brunch. I had the yummiest hot chocolate there, and afterward met some friendly older men who were happy to give us advice about what to see next. Biggest local draw? Fountains Abbey. They insisted it was absolutely worth our time, and I believed them.



The best hot chocolate ever. Sipped at a lovely wrought-iron table outside in Valley Gardens.Fountains Abbey was probably my second favorite place to visit on my entire trip, the first being Chatsworth House. It's an enormous old, ruined abbey that was built in the early 1100s. The scale and fine craftsmanship of it elicited a sense of awe and wonder in me that I could not find an end to. And it felt so nice to be there, as far as ruined old places go. Very friendly ghosts, and all. There were hundreds of acres surrounding the abbey that are part of the monument. There was a manicured Georgian water garden that was lovely. And plenty of trails to walk and fine prospects to enjoy.

Inside Fountains Abbey
Another part of the Abbey, this one with the roof intact
One angle of the Abbey, but the perspective does not do the size of it justice. Another angle of the Abbey, ditto on size distortion. It's enormous.
After Fountains Abbey, we headed to York, which is a city rich in history. It was dark by the time we got checked in to our hotel, so we found a nearby pub (called The Hole in the Wall) and had some dinner. The burger I ordered looked appealing, in a carnivorous way, but about halfway through, I realized the meat was not quite the same as the meat we eat in burgers here. It seemed to be from a different part of the cow. That realization killed my appetite, and I spent the rest of the evening regretting that burger.

The next morning we set out to explore York. Our first stop was York Minster, an enormous old gothic cathedral with soaring stained glass windows, flying buttresses, and lots of history. We paid to climb the tower, which consisted of 275 uneven and narrow stone steps up a tight, winding tower. The view from the top allowed us to see all of York, which might have looked a little better if it had not been so hazy.

York Minster, from halfway up the tower.After Minster, we found the Shambles, which is a series of old cobblestone streets which have been blocked off from traffic. The old houses have been preserved and turned into nice shops, and you have a fairly glamorous outdoor shopping experience in the midst of hundreds of years of history. I found it strange, this combination of history and commercialism, and finally had to settle on the idea that history is something Europeans live among, because there is so much to be had of it. In comparison, our historical sites in America (especially here in the west) are so paltry and few that we memorialize them and set them apart, shrine-like. In England, they just keep living in and using the same old buildings and the same ancient walls and streets. It's one of the things I love about England.
Shops in the Shambles.
Oh, finally, some good food! I ate the most decadent chocolate filled croissant, with the chocolate dripping down my chin and the croissant perfectly flaky. It was heavenly.
A perfect chocolate croissant
Walking along the Roman walls.

 And, of course, no trip to York is complete without a walk along the old Roman walls that surround the city. Daffodils were in bloom everywhere! I loved the bright yellows. Highlights of York: the croissants, the hike up the tower, the quaint homes turned into shops, the wonderfully helpful shopkeeper who superglued my broken sunglasses for me, and the croissants. Oh, wait. I already mentioned them.

Next up: Haworth and the moors!

A Few Announcements

1. Edenbrooke has officially launched! Let me know where you see it. I've had people tell me it's at Costco in Utah. It should be on the shelves of Deseret Book and Seagull Book. Barnes & Noble ordered a lot of copies, so you should be able to find it there. And, of course, you can order it online.

2. I had internet problems in England, as well as computer/camera problems. I'm hoping to get the rest of my photos uploaded soon so I can share my trip with you all. It was, in a word, glorious.

3. My first two book signings are this weekend. Check out the events page to find out when and where.

I have a lot to catch up on here at home--kids to squeeze and a husband to kiss and laundry to fold and bills to pay. But soon I will catch up on blogging stuff too. Until then, have a wonderful day and enjoy the pre-spring weather!