BY A LADY, by universal acclaim

Well, Crown's judges have weighed in, and unanimously accepted my suggestion for retitling the-novel-formerly-known-as-SENSE AND SENSUALITY. This work of literary historical fiction will be published under the title BY A LADY (which is how Jane Austen's books were first published -- a lady scribbler being anathema in her day), with the new subtitle "Being the Adventures of An Englightened American in Jane Austen's England." Look for it to appear in trade paperback in the spring of 2006.

Meanwhile, the back cover copy for my 2006 Avon Trade release, DISPARATE HOUSEWIVES, is finally entertaining and punchy thanks to major rewrites done by my editor and me. It boggles the mind that a publisher's copy department can deliver blurbs so boring (about a really fun book!) that not even the author's mother would be interested in purchasing it. Go figure. Isn't the point of the exercise to write a back cover blurb that is so mind-grabbing that the reader can't possibly leave the book on the shelf? Sales, people. Sales!