Welcome summer!

Wow, has it been over a year since I was here???  It's been a crazy one (for all of us!).  But I have a new book out next week  I'm so excited about, and so much to share about life here in Santa Fe. 

The new book (and new author me!  I'll be writing as Eliza Casey as well as my other pen names) is the second in The Danby Hall Edwardian Mystery series, Lady Rights a Wrong, which centers around a historical subject very dear to my heart--the fight for women's suffrage.  Watch for a new Heroine of the Weekend tomorrow!  In the meantime, here's a little synopsis:

As the suffragette movement sweeps England in 1912, Lady Cecilia Bates wants to march but ends up trailing a killer instead in the latest entry to the Manor Cat Mysteries.

Lady Cecilia of Danby Hall feels adrift. She couldn’t be less interested in helping to plan the church's upcoming bazaar. Instead, what excites her most is the Woman’s Suffrage Union meeting she has just attended.

Inspired by the famous and charismatic leader of the group, Mrs. Amelia Price, Cecilia is eager to join the Union—if she can hide it from her parents, that is. But when Mrs. Price is found dead at the foot of the stairs of her home, her Votes for Women sash torn away, Cecilia knows she must attend to a more urgent matter: finding the killer. With the help of her lady’s maid Jane and intelligent cat Jack, she hopes to play her part in earning women’s equality by stopping the Union’s dangerous foe.

You can buy Lady Rights a Wrong here....

I'm Back!!!

My goodness, has it really been almost a year since I posted here???  Time does fly, and it's been a busy few months here, filled with snow, sinus infections (fun!!), a new niece to spoil, and books to write.  I'm aiming to post here at least once a week from now on, updating everyone on what I'm writing, reading, and just generally doing in my life here in Santa Fe now that spring is finally upon us.  (And Abigail will be doing more patio reviews!)

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, and see you in a few days!

(My "baby" brother, who now has a daughter of his own, on Easter in years gone by...)

Contest time!

I have been a BAD BLOGGER lately, but deadlines and life have conspired against me!!  To make up for it, I am having a little giveaway this weekend--I recently received an extra audio book of my 1920s Santa mystery, Santa Fe Mourning, and I'd love to find it a home.  (I'd also love feedback on how it sounds!).  To enter, just go to my Amanda Allen website, click on the sign up for newsletter link, and you're entered.  (if you're already on my newsletter list, just shoot me an email at amccabe7551 AT yahoo.com and let me know, and I will put you in the drawing.  (book two, A Moment in Crime, is out this winter!  I just saw a sneak peek at the mock-up for the cover, and it's gorgeous, can't wait to be able to share it)

Hope you are having a wonderful summer!

New (Again!) Books

I am so proud to say that my very first 4 books are out again, finding new life in the world!!  Scandal in Venice, The Spanish Bride, Lady Rogue, and The Star of India, the stories of 4 families connected by art and scandal are now The Regency Rebels Series, and I am so pleased to re-visit them.  The first book, Scandal in Venice, is .99 for a short time....

You can see more/buy it here

Royal Weddings

The Big Royal Wedding Day is only 3 weeks away!!!  I have checked my local TV listings, and realized I have to get up at 2:30 am.  (or, y'know, just stay awake all night eating cake and waiting for a glimpse of the dress).  In the meantime, I'm taking a look at another royal wedding in history (or rather, royal adjacent), that of Deborah Mitford to Lord Andrew Cavendish on April 19, 1941.

Debo Mitford was the youngest of the famously fabulous Mitford clan (I'm obviously a big fan!), and Lord Andrew the younger son of the Duke of Devonshire.  They met at a dinner party in 1938, and "we never stopped talking."  The rest of the Season they met at house parties, balls, dinners, races, and nightclubs like the Cafe de Paris and the 400.  Her mother warned her "I should give up seeing him if I were you, he's unreliable," and his mother told him "You either have to marry that girl or stop asking her here."  Marriage it was.  By then it was 1941, and the wedding was held in the midst of the Blitz.

The Mitfords' house, the site of the reception, was hit two days before the wedding, and all the windows blown out.  Muv made improvised window curtains from rolls of gray and gold wallpaper, took all the champagne stock she could find, and ordered a cake sans icing (there was no sugar to be had after rationing, so the icing was a cardboard casing taken off to cut the actual cake).  The ceremony was at St. Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, and there were no bridesmaids or pages, though the bride had a Victor Stiebel gown of eighty yards of tulle (just a few weeks before fabric rationing).  There were 6 days of honeymoon before Andrew left to join the Coldstream Guards.  His older brother was killed in the war, leaving the couple to eventually become the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

They had a sometimes rocky marriage, but a successeful partnership in bring the great house of Chatsworth back to life.  Andrew died in 2004, Debo in 2014.

The Duchess of Devonshire has lots of books, all of them worth reading, but I found the wedding info on Wait for Me! (2010) and The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters (2007)

Book winners!

The winner of the Amanda Allen/Dorothy McFalls drawing is--Bookluver88!  Please email me at amccabe7551 AT yahoo, and let me know your snail mail address....

Book Signing!

If you happen to be in the Albuquerque, NM area, I will be signing Santa Fe Mourning at Page One Bookstore tomorrow at 3:00!  Come by and say "hi"--there will be bisochitos (though probably not quite as good as Juanita's...)

Info here!