Poor Edward

On this day in history, Edward VI, after battling a mysterious illness for several months, died at Greenwich Castle at the tender age of sixteen.  He left behind a divided country and a very surprised also-sixteen-year-old girl on the throne of England. His cousin, Lady Jane Grey, became an impromptu queen almost overnight, and she'd go on to rule England . . . for approximately nine days.

A nine day reign. Yep. It's got to be some kind of record for the shortest rule EVER.

History is a huge downer in this regard, but we Lady Janies want to take this time to celebrate Jane's nine day stint on the throne. We're going to be hosting an event starting this week called JANE'S REIGN, where every day of Lady Jane Grey's reign of England, from July 9 to July 18, we'll present some exclusive Jane-related content, a contest, and a giveaway.

Here's some of the good stuff we have planned:

A liveTweet watching of THE PRINCESS BRIDE

A contest to make Edward's poisoned blackberry pie

The Janies competing to see who has the best English accent

Jane's library: Come up with more silly titles for Jane's books

A lesson in Tudor fashion

The real Guildford Dudley versus our very own G

A liveTweet of the old 80s movie with a very young and hot Cary Elwes, LADY JANE

A scavenger hunt for easter eggs from our favorite fantasies


and much more!

So check back on July 9 for Jane's Reign, and tell your friends! And come back EVERY DAY until July 18 to see what goodies we have in store for you!

On This Day: Cynthia's birthday!

Today is Lady Janie Cynthia’s birthday! In the tradition of celebrating things that happened today but years ago, Brodi and I thought we’d discuss how much we love Cynthia.

Jodi: Oh gosh. Where to start! There are so many wonderful things about Cynthia, but I think what I’m most grateful for right now is that she brought us together as a writing group with the idea for MY LADY JANE. Obviously we’d have all been friends and done some traveling together even without MLJ, but her decision to include us in her mad idea to make a comedy out of a tragedy really cemented our friendship.

Brodi: It truly was a mad--but ultimately insanely awesome--idea. And it has only strengthened our friendship… because now we’re contractually obligated to stay friends. Cynthia is the motivating force behind our projects, I think. She kicks our butts at research and developing a passion for the people and places we are writing about. She cares more about historical accuracy and her chapters show the rich fabric of that research. Whenever we get an idea about a character, she will inevitably buy a book about that person and send it to the one of us writing about that person.*

*Previous sentence brought to you by the generous people and the Clunky Extra Long Sentences Club.

Jodi: You know what else is great about Cynthia? Her instinct to care for people. It’s basically Cynthia’s doing that we don’t starve to death on our writing retreats. Not only does she remember that we’re supposed to eat at least a couple times a day, but she’s also the one to do the actual cooking.

Brodi: And she is an incredible history geek. She bought each of us a hat that our characters would’ve worn in that era, and we wear them at events and act out a scene from the book. These moments always get the biggest laughs.  

Jodi: Visiting England with Cynthia was an experience. Not just because she (incredibly) planned our activities (again, taking care of us), but because we got to see another side of her. I mean, sure, we knew Cynthia was into history, but I will never forget her delightfully nerdy joy at visiting the Tower of London, or Hampton Court, or Stonehenge.

Brodi: And her laugh. She has the most contagious chuckle. Whenever I use the word “chuckle” in a sentence, I hear her laugh in my head! And she can’t contain her joy. When she heard I’d bought a PS4 and could now play Elder Scrolls Online with them, I could feel her bouncing in anticipation from 600 miles away.

Jodi: Another thing -- when we talk about what we each bring to writing our books together, I always say that Cynthia brings the emotional depth. There’s such a thoughtfulness to her writing . . . because there’s such a thoughtfulness to Cynthia. She’s so perceptive, and she always considers other people before herself. She’s incredibly selfless.

Happy Birthday, Cynthia! We love you! (Sorry this was late. See how we fall apart without you?)

MY LADY JANE tour stops!

Friends! Readers! E∂ians!

We have some exciting news, and that news is book tour! That's right, the three of us will be on the road (actually, we'll be in the air, since we're turning into majestic eagles and flying) in just a few weeks, and we're excited to see you! 

Here's a complete list of our stops:

June 7, 2016 - 7pm
The King's English in Salt Lake City, Utah

June 8, 2016 - 7pm
Redwood City Downtown Public Library (books sold by Kepler's) in Redwood City, California

June 9, 2016 - 6pm
Barnes and Noble in Idaho Falls, Idaho

June 10, 2016 - 7pm
Anderson's Books in Chicago, Illinois

June 11, 2016 - 4pm
Teen Book Fest at Barnes and Noble in Skokie, Illinois

June 13, 2016 - 7pm
Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas

June 14, 2016 - 6pm
Books of Wonder in New York City, New York

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IMPORTANT: Please make sure you click through to the store's website for more information. All events are free, but some want you to RSVP, and many require a book purchase at the store to enter the signing line.

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If we're not coming near you (boo, sorry!), you can still order signed books. Many of these stores will ship both domestically and internationally, so click to their websites and see if they can help! There's a good chance the stores will also have our backlists, so if your collections are missing any of our books, check to see whether the stores will have those in stock as well.

A couple other small notes:

Photos: We are happy to take photos with our readers, but sometimes, due to time and space, it isn't possible. We leave it up to individual bookstores as to whether or not we will be able to do this.

Gifts: Sometimes our sweet (adorable, thoughtful, smart, strong, other positive adjectives) readers want to bring gifts for us. Thank you! We love presents. We only ask that you keep in mind our limited luggage space. Small, squishable items are great. (We all knit. Just sayin'.)

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And that's it! Let us know if you have any questions!

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!!!

Big News

We're one month away from MY LADY JANE hitting the shelves! This is always the part of the publishing process that's the toughest (UGH the waiting), but it's also the part where a bunch of super exciting stuff happens. We have some big news! Warning: this post is going to have a lot of exclamation points!!!!

News Item #1

MY LADY JANE is going to be printed in England! We consider this to be something of a miracle, since we're talking about messing with English history here, but it's happening! It will be released on September 1, 2016, with this cover:

We are totally and completely charmed by this cover! We giggled for hours after we saw it-- Gifford with a horse head! The eye-rolling Jane! The way "not entirely" is scribbled into the title! We are so happy that our readers in the U. K. will get to read this book!

News Item #2

MY LADY JANE is going to be an audio book! It will be released on June 7--the same day as the hardcover. It's narrated by Katherine Kellgren, who we picked specifically because we loved the way she narrated Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It will be the coolest thing ever to hear this proper British voice telling our little Jane story. We can't wait to hear it!

News Item #3 (You might want to sit down for this one. . .)

MY LADY JANE is on its way to being made into a movie!

Now everybody take a deep breath, because we have to clarify that the book is in the very beginning stages of this process, and having your book being made into a film is a long and difficult road. It could be a really long time. Or it could be never.

But still. . .

Ridley Scott's company, Scott Free, is currently working on the development of MY LADY JANE for the big screen.

This is crazy exciting news to us. We love Ridley Scott's films so much, and we're completely thrilled and honored to have his name attached to our book!

News Item #4

We're going on tour! We can't announce the wheres and whens just yet, but the Lady Janies will be traveling all over the country in June, signing and meeting our readers and having a veritable blast. Check back soon on our Events page for the details.


And. . . that's all our news!

On This Day: Jodi's Birthday!

All hail Queen Jodi!

It's Lady Janie Jodi's birthday today! So Brodi and I wanted to take a moment to talk about how very much we love and appreciate our bestie and fellow co-author, Jodi Meadows.

Cynthia: We have a running joke with the Janies that Jodi Meadows is the one who grates the cheese --not CUTS the cheese, just to be clear, this is not a fart joke. Ahem. Every morning when we are working at one of our little writing retreats, we make breakfast together. I scramble the eggs, Brodi cuts the tomatoes, and Jodi grates the cheese. And in our talks about who-does-what in the writing of our books, Jodi loves to say that all she really does is grate the cheese.

But she does SO MUCH MORE than that.

Brodi: Yeah! She also maintains the peace and the calm and the positivity. And she also finds the coffee.

Exhibit A of how Jodi loves coffee

Cynthia: She does! I have a growing collection of pictures that I am someday going to collect into an album called JODI-LOVES-COFFEE.

But seriously, though, Jodi is a huge part of why the Lady Janies work. Brodi and I have had so many conversations about how Jodi is actually the most essential part of our group--she wrote the point of view of JANE, after all--she's like the sparkly purple glue that holds the Lady Janies together. If it were up to just Brodi and I, we'd be a total mess. But Jodi is like the gravity that keeps us on the ground (and corrects our grammar, without being judgy about it).

Jodi's also known as "the quiet one," the one standing silently in the background while Brodi cracks jokes and I blabber on about history.

Brodi: But if you get her talking about the right subjects, such as knitting or grammar or the proper placement of a period, or world building, or unicorns, she will talk your ear off. I have always admired her for being able to fly under the radar and then bob her head up for just a second to say something absolutely brilliant, leaving me wondering why I'm talking at all in the first place.

Cynthia: I liked Jodi the minute I met her. It was clear from the very start that she was an ultra smart, super sweet, completely awesome human being. And my opinion of her has only gotten stronger every day I've been around her since we met. I feel so unbelievably blessed to have Jodi as one of my friends--she is the very best kind of friend, the kind who is always there cheering for you no matter what, the kind of friend who will tell you what she really thinks but will always be kind about it, the kind of friend who inspires you to be a better person yourself.

Jodi writing in one of her many notebooks

Brodi: Not to mention that she is just an amazing writer! The first time I met her was on my first book tour. Harper put me with Jodi and Cynthia, and it was magic. I introduced myself to Jodi, and she shoved a pair of hand-spun/hand-knitted mitts into my hands. A gift. Little did I know that four years later, we'd all be knitting together with a passion! And writing. With a passion.

Cynthia: Jodi is also one of the hardest working writers I've ever met, which has been so inspiring for me to witness. She is just a great example of a writer who does the work, day in and day out, no excuses. And that's how we get her beautiful, intricately-woven novels. Jodi is such a thoughtful person--and I think that thoughtfulness is part of why her books are so rich in wonderful, imaginative details. She's kind of my writing hero.

Brodi: She is my human hero. I want to be the kind of human she is. This past weekend, at Y'allwest, a participant who had met all the authors said Jodi was "hands down" the nicest. And she was right.

So happy birthday, dearest Jodi! We both love you so much, and we're so glad to be writing books with you!

Jane and Jodi, just hanging out

One Year Ago Today, We Were in England!

One year ago today, the LadyJanies were at Jane Grey's home of Bradgate! It's now a park. Please enjoy our video, in which Brodi has her hand down her pants twice.

Happy Book Birthday to The Mirror King

Hello, Lady Janie Cynthia Hand here. It's a special day today! Our fellow Janie, Jodi Meadows, has a new book that is hitting the shelves today! It's the second (and final) book in the Orphan Queen series, and it is (this kind of goes without saying) FANTASTIC, so we thought we'd take the time to tell you about it (in case you didn't already know. . .)

Here's some info on the first book of the series, THE ORPHAN QUEEN.

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities.

She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne.

She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone.

She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.

Jodi Meadows introduces a vivid new fantasy full of intrigue, romance, dangerous magic, and one girl’s battle to reclaim her place in the world.

I feel extra fond of OQ because I have a wonderful memory of driving around Virginia with Jodi Meadows, back when we were first conceiving of MY LADY JANE, and the three of us each reading from our works-in-progress. I read a little from the draft of my book, THE LAST TIME WE SAY GOODBYE, Brodi read from a hilarious book about a teen who runs a poker ring that she was working on (that I'm going to be poking at her to finish until my dying day), and Jodi read from THE ORPHAN QUEEN. And it was just. so. freaking. good.

And now you all can read it too, and it ends on a doozy of a cliffhanger, so you'll want to move right on to THE MIRROR KING to see how it ends.

Wilhelmina has a hundred enemies.

Her friends have turned. After her identity is revealed during the Inundation, Princess Wilhelmina is kept prisoner by the Indigo Kingdom, with the Ospreys lost somewhere in the devastated city. When the Ospreys’ leader emerges at the worst possible moment, leaving Wil’s biggest ally on his deathbed, she must become Black Knife to set things right.

Her magic is uncontrollable. Wil’s power is to animate, not to give true life, but in the wraithland she commanded a cloud of wraith mist to save herself, and later ordered it solid. Now there is a living boy made of wraith—destructive and deadly, and willing to do anything for her.

Her heart is torn. Though she’s ready for her crown, declaring herself queen means war. Caught between what she wants and what is right, Wilhelmina realizes the throne might not even matter. Everyone thought the wraith was years off, but already it’s destroying Indigo Kingdom villages. If she can’t protect both kingdoms, soon there won’t be a land to rule.

In this stunning conclusion to THE ORPHAN QUEEN, Jodi Meadows follows Wilhelmina’s breathtaking and brave journey from orphaned criminal on the streets to magic-wielding queen.

I can't wait to read it. . .

via GIPHY