Cover Reveal! Plus the Bijoux List For May

The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard has a cover! And it's my favourite cover out of all my books. Plus a book giveaway, and all the usual Bijoux List goodness!

Time for one of the most fun and exciting parts of a writer’s life – the cover reveal! You’ve probably seen in previous newsletters that my next book is called THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASTRID BRICARD. It’s available in Australia/NZ from September 27, in North America from January 30, and in the UK in Spring 2024.

While I don’t yet have the Australian or UK covers to show you, I do have the North American one and it is fabulous! What do you think?!

The Blurb …

Here’s what it’s about …

Three generations. One chance to prove themselves. Can the women of the Bricard fashion dynasty finally rewrite their history?

French countryside, Present Day: Blythe Bricard is the daughter of famous fashion muses but that doesn't mean she wants to be one. She turned her back on that world, and her dreams, years ago. Fate, however, has a different plan, and Blythe will discover there is more to her iconic mother and grandmother than she ever knew.

New York, 1970: Designer Astrid Bricard arrives in bohemian Chelsea determined to change the fashion world forever. And she does―cast as muse to her lover, Hawk Jones. And when they're both invited to compete in the fashion event of the century―the Battle of Versailles―Astrid sacrifices everything to showcase her talent. But then, just as her career is about to take off, she mysteriously vanishes, leaving behind only a white silk dress.

Paris, 1917: Parentless sixteen-year-old Mizza Bricard has made a vow: to be remembered on her own terms. Her promise sustains her through turbulent decades and volatile couture houses until, finally, her name is remembered and a legend is born―one that proves impossible for Astrid and Blythe to distance themselves from.

Preorder Links & Playlist!

And yes, you can preorder ASTRID BRICARD now, but only in North America, where it will be published first in hardcover and ebook, and then in paperback a few months later. (Preorder links for Australia coming very soon).

Here are the preorder links that I have – there are more to come and, as always, you will be able to preorder this at your local independent bookstore:

• Barnes & Noble

• Amazon

• Bookshop.org

• Books-a-million

• Walmart

• Add the book on Goodreads

To really get you in the mood, load up the ASTRID BRICARD Playlist and groove along to some of the music featured in the book while you wait for it to be published!

A Book Giveaway

To celebrate the beautiful cover, I’m doing a giveaway. I have one signed proof or advance reading copy of The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre to give away as well as one signed small format paperback of The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre.

To enter, you have to be a subscriber to this newsletter and leave a comment in the comments section below. I’ll draw two winners at random on May 30 and get in touch with them via the comments section. Good luck!

Onto the Bijoux List!

The Bijoux List is a monthly post with a whole lot of regular features designed to keep you creatively inspired. I’ve hijacked the top section today for my cover reveal. So let’s move onto the list-proper, starting with my Highlight of the Month.

1. May’s Best Moment

I was at a function on the weekend – not book related – where I chatted to a husband and wife for ten minutes or so, as you do at these kinds of events. A short time later, the woman approached me again and said, ‘I’ve just realised who you are. I knew you looked familiar, and then I remembered your photograph in the back of your books.’

My daughter loves it when people recognise me and she was there on this night too, so she started grinning, whereas I started blushing, which is my usual response!

But the next thing this lovely woman said was, ‘This might sound dramatic, but last year, your books saved me.’

She went on to explain that she’d received some tragic news about her mother and was deeply upset for a period of many months. She found it difficult to sleep at night and, at first, those long, midnight hours were slow and sad and awful. But one night she began reading one of my books.

Two hours later she looked up, unable to believe how much time had passed. And she hadn’t felt lonely or sad or awful, but as if she lived in an entirely different world, one that she could simply enjoy because whatever pain the characters felt would end with the closing of the book covers.

The next night when she couldn’t sleep, she picked the book up again and continued reading. She did this with all of my books over a period of a few months.

‘I would never have got through that year without your books,’ she said to me. ‘I needed to feel something other than pure pain. I needed to feel love and joy and happiness and tenderness and peace and pleasure. Your books gave me all of that. Thank you.’

It was an incredibly touching moment. Readers have told me similar stories before, but usually in messages and emails. Even if they tell me these kinds of stories at the signing table at an event, the time I have to spend with them is usually limited and it’s difficult to have a proper conversation. But on this night, I could.

And it reminded me why I’d wanted to become a writer from the time I first understood that books were written by authors. I loved the way I felt whenever I read a book, as if the real world had been paused and I could step out of it and into another world for as long as I chose. The real world always be ready and waiting for me whenever I decided to leave whatever lovely, complicated, absorbing, fascinating, inspiring, heartbreaking, imaginary world I’d ventured into.

Some days, when you’re writing, it’s easy to forget why you’re doing it because you’re so focused on trying to get the plot to work, trying to cut 10,000 words or solve any of a number of problems. So that woman’s words were worth more to me than any media review, prize or accolade.

It’s such an honour, I thought later that evening, to touch someone. I feel so very blessed that I was able to do it for her. And I feel incredibly lucky that in the future, my words might touch other readers too. Being an author is such a privilege and I hope that my readers continue to feel inspired, enchanted, absorbed and touched for many years to come.

2. Amazing Woman of the Month - Martha Gellhorn

Martha Gellhorn was one of history’s greatest war correspondents. She started reporting from the Spanish Civil War when she was just twenty-nine years old and subsequently reported on almost all of the twentieth century’s most pivotal armed conflicts. She also fought ceaselessly for justice – and for the real story to be told. Her phrases were never flatly journalistic – she wrote powerful, beautiful prose.

Consider this from one of her 1946 reports on the Nuremberg trials:

“War is a crime against peace. War is the silver bombers, with the young men in them, who never wanted to kill anyone, flying in the morning sun over Germany and not coming back.… War is casualty lists and bombed ruins and refugees, frightened and homeless and tired to death, on all the roads. War is everything you remember from those long ugly years. And its heritage is what we have now, this maimed and tormented world which we must somehow restore.”

She was also one of Ernest Hemingway’s wives, a mistake she came to regret very much once the romance faded. She married him in 1940 and he strongly objected to her going to Europe to report on WWII asking her, ‘Are you a war correspondent, or a wife in my bed?’, as if she could only be one, but not the other.

Martha Gellhorn. Image via the New Yorker

All of the reports she published during WWII while she was married to Ernest carried the byline, standard at the time, Mrs Ernest Hemingway. How she must have hated that. Just as she hated and fought against the many ridiculous rules that were put in place in Europe during WWII, rules supposedly designed to “protect” female war correspondents – rules that actually stopped them from doing their job.

For example, the female correspondents were not allowed to go across to mainland Europe to report on D-Day and the invasion. Only the male correspondents were permitted to do so. But how could you be a war correspondent and not be permitted to go where the action was?

Once Collier’s, the news magazine Martha worked for, heard about this prohibition, they decided to employ someone else to do Martha’s job. They chose Ernest Hemingway — Martha’s husband. And they didn’t have the balls to tell her; they asked Ernest to break the news to Martha instead.

A lesser woman might have been felled by that. Martha wasn’t. She stowed away in the bathroom of a hospital ship going across to Normandy and became the first woman correspondent to land on French soil post-invasion. She got her story. Ernest didn’t. He was stuck in a boat out on the water.

But when Martha returned to London, she was locked up in a nurses’ training camp. Her passport and accreditation papers were taken from her. She was just a woman who went to Normandy to do her job but in doing so, she’d broken the terms of her accreditation. None of the male reporters were locked up for doing exactly the same thing.

Thankfully Martha was amazingly resilient. She escaped from the training camp – of course she did! – and, without a passport or papers, hitched a ride on a ship going to Italy. She spent a few months reporting from the Italian front until she was finally allowed back to the main theatre of war where she reported right through to the Nuremberg Trials.

Whenever I think about someone not giving up in the face of adversity, I think of Martha. Sadly, at 89 years of age, stricken with cancer and almost blind, Martha decided to end her own life. She did everything on her own terms, and this was no different. She left behind an incredible body of work and a legacy that inspires me many decades later.

3. From My Travel Diary - Provençal Markets

The markets in Aix-en-Provence are spectacular. They’re authentic, very French, crammed with deliciousness, and a morning spent there is often more fun than visiting one of the more touristique sights in the region. Think Marseille soap, scoop-able cheese (check out the gorgonzola in the pic below!), vast arrays of herbs, teas and spices, and general sensual overwhelm.

I was in Aix-en-Provence for research last year and while the markets won’t feature in the book I’m writing, they feature in my memory as a French standout.

4. Behind the Scenes

There is a LOT happening behind the scenes including some very exciting news that I can’t share with you yet but stay tuned! I’m having a hard time keeping it to myself but hopefully I’ll be able to share soon before I burst!

5. Fashion History/Vintage Fashion

Let’s take a look at some Halston from the 1970s, a gown that inspired one of the dresses in THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASTRID BRICARD. Many people think of ABBA when they think of 70s fashion but let me assure you there was so much more to the decade than that. These 30s inspired evening gowns are just one example. Believe me, I’ll have converted you to 70s fashion by the time you’ve finished ASTRID!

6. Quick Bites

I’m going to summarise my usual Top 5 booklist and What I Bought sections into the Quick Bites this month because this newsletter is already very long!!

• Top Five (actually 6 this month!) 70s-Set Novels. Let’s keep to the theme of the month. If you want some 70s-set fiction to get you in the mood try:

  • Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

  • Ursa Major by Emma Brodie (technically 1969, but close enough!)

  • When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

  • Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

  • Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

  • The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

• What I Bought: an electric car! I’ve had a big diesel-guzzler for 15 years and it was time to change that. It’s my new favourite thing, and I’m not usually a car personal at all!

• What I’m Reading: Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr. If you’ve read my book, The Riviera House, you’ll know I’m interested in the heart-wrenching stories of the Nazi art thefts in Europe during WWII. This backdrops the book, which is also a pacy thriller.

• What I’m Watching: Yellowstone, and I can’t decide if I like it or not. I’m not sure if it glamourises the myth of the violent man, who’s really a good guy deep down because he loves his family. Hmmm - what do you think?

• Links: if you’re a writer, you might find this post with a royalties calculator interesting. Royalties, advances and earning out are all very complicated so I’m sure this will be a welcome creation for many. I haven’t tried it but all reports say it’s reasonably accurate.

• More links: I love what George Saunders says in this post about how writers have to charm readers with phrases. It’s very true!

Over to you! What do you think of my gorgeous cover? I hope you love it as much as I do! Or is there anything else in this month’s Bijoux List that you wanted to chat about in the comments - your 70s-set book recommendations, for instance? And don’t forget to comment below to be entered into the draw to win one of those two books that I’m giving away.