I’m extremely proud to have my upcoming book SCARLET included in this sweepstake! (US only, sorry.)

https://sites.prh.com/enchantedreadssweepfeb23

Just a quick note to say that The Burning Page ebook is currently just $1.99 via BookBub, for the next few days. Check it out at https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-burning-page-by-genevieve-cogman-2019-02-19 – though of course, if you already have it, I can only compliment your good taste.

Other than that, things are quiet, life is busy, the weather is cool and grey, and I’m looking forward to the Spring Quilt Festival in Harrogate next week. I’ll be trying not to bring home too much new fabric, as heaven knows I’ve already got way too much in my stash, but you know how these things go . . .

Calling all Canadian readers! I’m excited to share that SCARLET has been included in @chaptersindigo’s Most Anticipated Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books offer, running this week only. Until February 5, you can get 30% off when you pre-order online.

Check it out here:

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/scarlet/9780593638286-item.html

The holidays are over, and I’m back to working on book 2 in the Scarlet Revolution trilogy, and undergoing the normal torments of nerves while waiting for book 1 (SCARLET) to come out.

Incidentally, if you want to follow me on Bookbub and catch any upcoming alerts here, here’s a link:

(I’m told I get free promotion benefits if I have multiple followers there, so in the interests of growing more readers, I will shamelessly suggest that you check it out.)

(Oh, and if anyone’s curious about the title of this blog, I have fond memories of all the Molesworth books by Willans and Searle…)

And I’m now delighted to be able to share the US cover for SCARLET, which is also scheduled to be released in the US in May 2023.

As they say – vampires bite back . . .

I’m delighted to share the UK cover for SCARLET, the first book in the Scarlet Revolution trilogy. You can also read the prologue and the first chapter at the following link.

See how generous and merciful your vampire nobility is? We definitely don’t deserve to be sent to the guillotine, or anything like that . . .

The current planned publication date, for both the UK and US (as far as I know) is May 2023. However, as we have had demonstrated to us in the last few years, everything is subject to fate, so let’s just all cross our fingers and hope for the best.

I had a fantastic time in Rome. Got there safely, got back safely, saw the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums and many other cool things, had excellent meals, enjoyed the lovely weather.

I’m currently neck-deep in the copy-edit for the US edition of SCARLET, and the proofs for the UK edition of SCARLET. (And the US proofs for SCARLET are looming in the future, too.) Hopefully back to book 2 soon.

There should be something interesting in the near future which I look forward to sharing. (Sorry, can’t say more than that for the moment.)

Thought Bubble this weekend in Harrogate, and the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate next weekend. While I’d have preferred them a little bit more spaced out, this will be a lot of fun.

I’m about to have a few days in Rome; fingers crossed for a smooth journey. It’ll be the first time I’ve been out of the country for over two years. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s mostly for pleasure, though I’ll be doing a bit of research. (I’ll certainly be putting it on my tax expenses as research.)

I’ll probably come back to the copy-edits for book one (SCARLET) of what is tentatively being dubbed the SCARLET REVOLUTION trilogy. I’m also working on book two. Sadly the process of an author getting the words on the page boils down to “chain yourself to your desk and write” and is not very interesting to the outside viewer. The proof of the pudding will be in reading the end product.

Nothing really else to report; my Government are idiots, my country is in trouble, and I will just have to hope it improves, and take whatever steps are within my personal power to make it so. Take care and stay safe.

I have yet to be able to think of a good title for this post. It comes of looking at too many paintings set in the decade before the French revolution, while trying to get an idea of clothing, costumes, hair and wigs, and so on and so forth. (Upcoming trilogy set during the French Revolution and involving vampires and the Scarlet Pimpernel, first book SCARLET, you know the drill.)

The figures stare out with faint smiles or thoughtful expressions – genuine? Or added by the artist because that was what was wanted and the subject was paying the fee? – well, we can’t tell now. Their gloved hands or white fingers are so very fragile. The silks or muslins of their clothing are rich, expensive, fashionable, beautiful. Were the paintings intended as gifts for lovers, or heirlooms for families, or simply the joy of the artist? Did that pretty Fragonard painting of a young girl on a swing, kicking off her slipper in a flurry of petticoats so that her reclining lover (one assumes) could catch it, mean anything? Or was it . . . just art? (Okay, that one’s 1767, so a little earlier, but . . .)

Very shortly it won’t matter. The paintings may remain, but the subjects will be exiled or executed. The whole of the ancien regime is about to come crashing down like an expensive vase. (Or would it be more appropriate to compare it to one of those “one of a kind” commemoration pieces of china which look so gilded at the time, but so tacky afterwards?) Marie Antoinette’s belongings will be sold off at public auction. The Law of Suspects will make suspicion sufficient for execution. The King himself will go to the guillotine. Notre-Dame will have its ancient statues beheaded. But the pictures will remain, like fractions of light caught in a stained glass window and somehow preserved there. Faces which don’t see the future coming.

I think the feeling which has grown on me, painting after painting, is that nobody sees the future coming. We talk about Revolutions and Collapses of Empire and so on as though the paths leading there were obvious at the time, and the pictures which come down to us should display some sort of foreshadowing.. It’s easy for an author to write in foreshadowing when she knows what the end of the story is; she can go back and add it to make the whole thing a complete work of art. But at the Point Before, we don’t know. Artists don’t know. Writers don’t know.

The influencer stares into the camera and smiles. The media focuses on the latest show business divorce trial. We don’t know, we can’t know – or at least, we can’t be certain – what the future may bring, even if after the fact people may say that “the oncoming X was obvious”. They may even be right. But all those paintings stare back at me in their expensive clothing and their fashionable hairstyles, and they know nothing of the oncoming Revolution and the guillotine.

I was interviewed (virtually) recently by Cobourg Public Library, and the interview is now available on Youtube. Many thanks to Cobourg Public Library, and to Laura MacCourt who did the interviewing.

All quiet otherwise – waiting for edits on SCARLET, working on the next book, getting on with things.

And still wearing a mask when I’m indoors in shops or similar, because the COVID figures don’t look good. Please be sensible, and stay safe.