Back from Paris

I’m back from my work trip to Paris, a whirlwind week if ever there was one. In my just six days in the city (one day spent in travel), I toured the offices of three French publishers: J’ai Lu, Bragelonne, and LeDuc, met with the senior editors at each house as well as their art and marketing staff, and had multiple meetups with a bevy of lovely and enthusiastic French bloggers including those from Au Boudoir Ecarlate and Onirik.

The meetups were held at the J’ai Lu offices and coordinated with help from the French romance review site and webzine, Les Romantiques. Merci a tous!

A dinner at La Fresque, a charming laid-back bistro situated on the site of a former open air market in the first arrondissement, followed the Monday meetup. Delicious wine, food, and conversation — e.g., the romance industry in France vs. America — kept us at the table well into the night.

As some of you may remember, J’ai Lu bought the French print rights to my Men of Roxbury House trilogy. Vanquished, renamed La Rose de Mayfair, released last spring with the publisher’s Aventures & Passions romance line. The lovely translator, Viviane Ascain, with whom I also met, will soon be hard at work translating books #2 and 3, Enslaved and Untamed, into the French as well. Bon courage, Viviane!

I also gathered photos and information for my upcoming travel articles for EuropeUpClose, including one focused on Bastille Day or, more properly, La Fete Nationale as it’s referred to in France. Viewing the shimmering spectacle of a light-bedecked Eiffel Tower and later the fireworks display from a rooftop restaurant in Monmartre was a rare and special moment, a memory for a lifetime, as well as research for my travel tips piece.

Now it’s nose to the grindstone time, or at least posterior planted in the office chair, as I finish up edits on Operation Cinderella, Book #1 in my new contemporary romance series with Entangled Publishing, complete my travel articles–and occasionally take time to dream of my next trip to Paris.

Many thanks–un grand merci–to my new French friends for making this American (romance author) in Paris feel utterly welcomed and at home.

Hope