What's Up With The Janies, May Edition

We haven't checked in for a while, so here's the latest on what's been happening with the Lady Janies:

1. We went to England! For two whole weeks in April, the three of us explored the UK, singing our theme song: "We see London, we see France, we have no clean underpants!" (Okay, so the washer/dryer  in the flat we were renting was all mildew-gross and didn't so much dry as it mocked us.  But we survived with the help of some heated towel racks. Clean underpants were achieved, and all was right with the world. . .)

Jodi gazes in despair at the washing machine / dryer.

Still, in spite of a few minor bumps, we had a fantastic time. We met with some of our fans and ate our weight in chocolate and saw a lifetime's supply of castles. We took about a thousand photos and hours upon hours of video, which we promise we will show you later. (After one of us figures out how to use a movie editing software.) And best of all, we really felt our characters come alive as we walked in the footsteps of the people who really lived the story of Lady Jane Grey. It was a trip of a lifetime.

The Janies outside of the Tower of London

2. We finished Draft #2 of MY LADY JANE! This was the big-changes draft, so we may have, I don't know, completely rewritten the ending. (Trust us, it's better this way.)  Since we were together when we did most of these revisions (in England!) there was some bartering involved: "Okay, I'll make your training montage scene funny if you rewrite the Jane-gets-injured scene." "You throw in a piece of marshmallow fudge, you have a deal."

We loved our book before, but now we love it even more. And it's that much closer to being ready to print.

3. We're starting to get all the book-business work done. We wrote the bio that goes on the book jacket, selected our author photo, and got to see some of the work that our cover designer is doing on THE COVER. We can't show you what it's going to look like yet, but the concept is AWESOME. Our book is becoming a real book!

4. We miss each other already, so we're packing up to meet each other at the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, which will be May 12-17 in Dallas, TX. Click here for details.

And that's all the news for now.  I'll leave you with one last England picture. :)

Hanging with Henry VIII. Yep, we're wearing costumes and crowns. We embraced our inner dorks.