My Richard III Tour and The Sunne in Splendour

As many of you know, I am leading a tour to England this September, following in the Footsteps of Richard III, visiting all of the places that were important to Richard during his lifetime and brief reign.  The tour sold out in two days, showing that Richard has rock star appeal even after 500 years!  Some of my British readers had indicated they’d love to meet me during the course of the tour.  I discussed this with Academic Travel and they explained they normally do not permit non-tour members to take part in the scheduled events.   But they understood that these were unusual circumstances and they knew I did not want to disappoint my readers.  So I was very pleased when they came up with this option.  They have scheduled a special event in York that will be open to the public.  It will take place on the evening of September 10th at Mansion House in York.  But because seating is limited, anyone wanting to attend must purchase a ticket in advance and sooner rather than later would probably be better.   Here is the information below, as well as links to the Mansion House and Barley Hall, where the reception afterward will be held.  My publisher has assured me that we will have copies of the new hardcover edition of The Sunne in Splendour available for purchase and of course I’d be delighted to sign them.  (Writers love doing that!) 
Tuesday September 10th, Mansion House, York at 6:30 pm.
Ticket price £25
Join Sharon Kay Penman for a short preview reading of A King’s Ransom, to be published in 2014.
A buffet reception with live music inspired by the Middle Ages follows at Barley Hall.
Sharon will also be available for book signing.
Pre-booking is essential as capacity is strictly limited. For more information or to make a booking please call +44 01904 615505 or at jorvikbookings.com
 http://www.mansionhouseyork.com/ 
http://barleyhall.co.uk/about-barley-hall/
 Our Eleanor tour was a magical experience and many friendships were formed, which I suspect does not usually occur on tours.   If this one goes as well, we will give serious consideration to another Richard III tour next year, perhaps in time to visit his new tomb.  We are still planning another Eleanor tour, but we continue to be stymied by the renovations at the Abbaye Royale hotel on the grounds of Fontevrault Abbey, and so we would not be able to schedule the Eleanor tour until 2015.    
 This has been such a good year for Richard—and therefore, for Sunne.  I am very happy to report that Sunne is back on Amazon.com.UK’s Kindle historical fiction bestseller list.  I was puzzled at first by the sudden bump in sales, but then I realized I probably have Philippa Gregory to thank for that!  It makes sense that viewers of her television series being shown in the UK this summer might be motivated to find out more about the Wars of the Roses.  
 I will try again to get my blog to allow me to insert the new Sunne book jacket, which I love.  (This has been an on-going problem, which will not be surprising to any of my friends and readers who’ve been following my computer woes on Facebook. Several of them even suggested that I have my very own “dead zone” hovering over me at all times.)    But in case it balks again, I am including the Amazon.com.UK link for those who have not seen the new cover yet.
This rebirth of Sunne gave me a rare opportunity.  I was able to rewrite some of the dialogue from the original edition of Sunne thirty years ago—and yes that makes me feel very old.   I have also written a new Author’s Note to reflect the amazing discovery of Richard’s lost grave.  Unfortunately, space constraints compelled us to cut some of the new AN for the hardcover edition.  But the AN will appear in its entirety in the new Kindle edition of Sunne, which will be released at the same time as the hardcover, September 12th.  And I will post it on my website, too, once the book is published.   Many of my American readers have expressed their disappointment at missing out, but they can still buy the new hardcover edition; the wonderful folks at Book Depository will ship worldwide for free.     They cannot buy the new Kindle e-book, of course, thanks to the restrictions that drive writers and readers to drink.   But one of my American publishers, St Martin’s Press, will be bringing out a new Kindle e-book edition of Sunne that will mirror the British one, even as to the British spelling.  American spelling really jars a minority of my British readers, but I’ve never had any American readers complain about British spelling.  I rather fancy it myself, and managed to get the British spelling of grey approved for all of my books because Elizabeth Woodville’s first husband was named Grey.
 Anyway, here is the Amazon link.   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sunne-Splendour-Sharon-Penman/dp/0230768695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373755647&sr=1-2 And here is the Book Depository link.  Apparently they are not taking pre-orders, but they do have a Notify Me feature to alert readers when it becomes available for sale.  Ignore the icon saying the paperback edition will also be published on September 12th.  That is not so; it will be published in the UK next spring.  http://www.bookdepository.com/search/advanced?page=1&searchRefined=1&searchAddedTerm=&searchTitle=The+Sunne+in+Splendour&searchAuthor=Sharon+Penman&searchPublisher=Macmillan&searchIsbn=&searchLang=&submit=%3CSPAN%3E%3CEM%3ESearch%3C%2FEM%3E%3C%2FSPAN%3E 
 These are exciting times to be a Ricardian!
July 30, 2014