The Update: March
A proofread, a first draft, and a short story - it's been a busy month!
It’s that time of year where it seems from the outside like nothing much is happening but, here at writing HQ, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes!
What I’m Up To Right Now
I just finished proofreading the Australian edition of The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard. It’s now officially my favourite book. You can even see the last line of the book in the pic below – I hope it has you intrigued!
I’ve seen the early cover ideas for the North American edition of The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard and they are so, so, so good!! It’s like they saw inside my mind to what I wanted and then somehow managed to capture it exactly. When it’s ready, I’ll be showing it off, I promise! And we’re working on the Australian cover too, so I’ll have more on that soon as well. It also gave me a great idea to do a post for my paid subscribers showing you some cover rejects from my books over the last few years. That is going to be super fun and it’ll be coming in the first week of May.
New Writing to Look Forward to!
I’m writing a new book! First drafts are nothing but a slog. There are patches where you totally get into the flow and think it’s the most wonderful thing you’ve ever written but, most of the time, you’re convinced it’s terrible and no one will want to read it. And then the Eureka moment comes! Thankfully that happened a couple of weeks ago and I’m flying along now. Of course it meant rewriting the first 30,000 words completely but, as I’ve often said, writing a book should actually be called “rewriting a book” because that’s what you spend most of your time doing. So the first draft is done (yay!) and now I need to do some serious structural organising and cutting because it is, as usual, way too long!
I’m also writing a short story! My Norwegian publisher asked me for something for a Christmas anthology, which I’ll be appearing in alongside Jojo Moyes(!). I haven’t written a short story in ages so I was a bit terrified initially. But then I thought about who are my favourite secondary characters from my books, the ones that deserve a little story all of their own and one name jumped to the top – Esmée, from The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre. For something a bit different for my Norwegian readers, who’ll be in the thick of winter when it’s published, I’ve decided to set it in Australia, against the backdrop of our summery Christmases. Now I just have to work out a way to get Esmée to Australia! What do you think?
Offers, News, Events etc
Don’t forget, if you’re in North America, you can get a signed bookplate (which is a sticker I’ve signed for you to affix to the inside of your book) for your copy of The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre just by sending in details of your purchase receipt. The bookplates have one of my fashion illustrations of Alix on them and they are quite pretty if I do say so myself! This offer ends in just a couple of days so don’t wait too long!
I won an award for The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre! I previously won this award back in 2020 for The French Photographer/The Paris Orphan so now I think I should update my bio to say “multi-award winning author.” Good idea, no?!
Dior’s latest fashion show was billed as a tribute to Catherine Dior, both in the design of the clothes and the setting for the show. Some of you might remember that Catherine, Dior’s resistance heroine sister, was a character in my novel The Paris Secret. I’m not sure I see a lot of Catherine in either the designs or the sets, but it’s wonderful to know she’s still inspiring people decades later. And in this Instagram post from the House of Dior about the collection, there are a couple of great pictures of Catherine that I haven’t seen before, and which I loved!
Catch me on Chenee Marrapodi’s fabulous podcast, Writers Off the Page. This episode features both me and Emily Gale from one of my fave Substacks
and we’re talking about the business elements of being writer – of which there are many! It’s all the stuff that goes on behind the words. You can listen here.And, as you can see in the pic below, those amazing Canadian readers made sure the The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre hit the Top 10 again so I’m basically in love with all Canadians right now. A big thank you!
Book Recommendations
I’m currently reading a book by Karina May of
. It's called Duck à l’Orange For Breakfast and has just been published in Australia. And next up, I have Vanessa McCausland’s forthcoming novel, Dreaming in French. Both of these have a French theme so c’est justement ce que j’aime!But my top recommendation is Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt. This will definitely be in my Top 10 reads for 2023. I’ve never read anything quite like it – it’s a remarkably special book!
Some Fashion to Finish With …
Vintage Vibes
Charlotte Dallison from
recently interviewed me for her podcast (I'll link to the episode when it goes live in a month or so) and one of the questions she asked me was what’s been my favourite vintage fashion purchase. I’ve spoken about this particular piece on social media ages ago, but this Substack is new so I thought there might be many of you out there who haven’t heard the story.Perhaps you’ve seen my author headshots before – image below – but not known that the dress I’m wearing is actually more than 70 years old. It’s a 1950s dress by American designer Claire McCardell, who I’ve written about briefly in my novel, The Paris Seamstress. McCardell was a pioneer of ready-to-wear fashion long before prêt-à-porter was a concept that people even understood. I adore her designs, her creative spirit and her use of Vionnet’s draping techniques to make clothes that required very little in the way of fastenings.
So when this dress came up for purchase, I grabbed it! And I love it because it’s a wearable piece of history and a tribute to a brilliant woman who ought to be better known by the world, which fits the themes of my books perfectly. So when choosing something to wear for my photo shoot, this 1950s frock was one of the first things that I thought of.
Couture Extravagance
I’ll usually end these newsletters with a fabulous fashion pic from my archives. So for today, given I’ve just spoken a little about The Paris Seamstress, I thought I’d choose a pic that ties into that book. I captured these images back in 2016 at the Met’s Manus x Machina exhibition and I think it’s still one of my favourite wedding dresses (Chanel 2005). The second image shows those Chanel camellias in more detail. If you’ve read The Paris Seamstress, you might remember that main character Estella works in a Parisian atelier making the silk flowers for couture gowns, exactly like the ones on this dress. Magnifique!
That’s it for March! Thanks for being here. Hit me up in the comments with any questions or just pop in and say hello! In the meantime, have a very Bijoux kind of week!
Thank you SO much for finding time to read Duck in your *very* busy month (and Jojo Moyes - wowie!) You're such an inspiration. I feel so honoured x
Multi-award winning author. Definitely! I also love the blue dress. Stunning and gorgeous.
Natasha, I spent all my paid professional life as a teacher and uni lecturer, encouraging my students to unashamedly celebrate the gifts they have. It lifts my spirit to see you modeling that behaviour. Bless you.
Your B Comments are special. Delightful. Playfull. Honest. Authentic. All these special character traits play out in your characters. As I previously said: You take us there.
I am loaning my collection of your books (one at a time), to an 84 year old widower (dear) friend of mine and he is also now "hooked on Natasha Lester." He says the stories bring tears; I assure him that is OK!
It is a monthly joy to receive your musings and news. Can't thank you enough. Stay well. And free in
your spirit.