Hear ye! News, Audiobooks, & More!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your 2020 has started well. Our house has been plagued with one bad cold after another (and I’ve been coughing like mad for over a month!). Well, lots of things are going on at the moment. I’ve been scheduling several new posts: guest writers, book reviews, and new history articles. Also, I am finalising the last edits of my book, Sex and Sexuality in Stuart Britain, but it has really been so very hard to get the time to devote to my writing these days. I know many of you have preordered, and I am so grateful and humbled by that, but please bear with me. I have very much enjoyed working on my various projects, but I always wish there was more time.

I’m the main carer of my very active 3-year-old (we do lots of classes and I’m homeschooling and I’m enjoying it) and once she’s asleep, I scramble to sort the house and end up working on my research and books until 1 or 2 am, which is not healthy and I have been paying for it. My immune system is totally out of whack and I’m tired quite often, but I feel this huge pressure to get it done NOW. I have had to say no to many projects – including one job that I *really* wanted to do, but that’s something I’m learning to say: “no”. As it stands, I’m scheduled to speak at the Restoration 360 event later this year (and I’ll make sure to get that info on here asap). I’m quite excited about that, and hopefully, my in-law’s will be able to babysit while I participate in that event (my mother-in-law had a bad fall in October, and broke her leg, hip, and arm so it’s been quite a blow).

Some of you know that back in Autumn 2019, I released the audiobook of the third edition of The Stuart Vampire. I narrated it myself (which is, I know, sometimes frowned upon by some who think authors shouldn’t read their own work). Happily, however, listener feedback has been great and really heartening. So much so, I decided to open up an ACX narrator account. I successfully auditioned for the job of narrating A.R. Conti Fulwell’s An Angel in the Distance, which is set in Renaissance Italy. It took a few months to record and master with Orland Media Ltd, and is now available to purchase:

Following this, I have been introduced to the team at Gibson Square Publishing, who offered me another project. My current recording project is for Rajid Bolt’s book of limericks, which I will do once SSSB is published and my voice is no longer hoarse:

Last year, I was also part of BBC 4’s television series Charles I: Downfall of a King, which many of you told me you’d seen and enjoyed. It was lovely to have been able to talk about the Caroline court and, in particular, Lucy Hay and Henrietta Maria. I still haven’t seen the episodes myself, as I do not have a TV license! I’m amazed that I’m now on the IMDB as a result(!) It was an amazing highlight of 2019 for me to be in a programme with the likes of Lisa Hilton, Leanda de Lisle, Charles Spencer, Jessie Childs, and more. I still can’t believe it.

Who knows what this year will bring? I sure don’t know, and it’s always a bit daunting, but I guess that’s just part of the ride. I really hope you will enjoy my offerings this year, including the weekly #StuartsSaturday posts on Twitter.

With best wishes to you for a happy and healthy 2020!

Andrea, The Seventeenth Century Lady