Free speech is important and so very hard to define...

give me a month to organize and you shall see tortoises and boobies and lotsa rocks. ;)

thank you for the additional input! My poor American hero knows the consequences of delayed news in the War of 1812. ;)

thank you! The 3rd book should go up for pre-order any day now. These aren't easy to write!

I agree there is a lot of hysteria over school libraries, some justified, some not. But these days we don't have a warning about X or Facebook posts or IG posts sliding through our devices. And really, unless one Googles, it may be hard to tell what side our newspapers fall on since we now, theoretically, have objective journalism.

I think we can all agree on that. These things seem to come in cycles. Remember Bowdler cutting out all the "unseemly" parts of Shakespeare? That was in the Regency era--as it moved toward the uptight Victorian era.

oh wow, that sounds ideal! Hear that Wenches? We could do a barge tour through France... wine, castles, wine... ;)

Mary Jo is cruising the Hudson right now and one of the downsides of cruises is really bad WiFi. So the rest of the wenches are stepping in until she can. The Danube cruise is like a step back into a fairy tale, although these days, the lower part tends to run dry, unfortunately. One does have to plan two years ahead for those French cruises though!

ah, one of the hard parts of learning to write is that writing is easy, all the rest is tough! Keep us posted...

It's hard to break the habit of reading the news, but there are days when it's equally hard to read it!

oh my on the 9/11. That brought tears to my eyes. Your experience makes the reaction very valid. Life goes on even if we think it's coming to an end, thank you. I think I may be more concerned about reader reaction and the effect of celebration as an ending. But I may be overthinking it!

LOL on the cinnamon rolls! If you're free to do so, give us a link to your website or your books. These sound like books right up our alley!

oh wow, I can tell you're a writer! I'm glad I hit the right buttons for you. ;)

and that's such a teeny tiny piece of insanity!

yeah, but now I've thrown a sticky wicket into the court and the hero's mother is sailing across the Atlantic as we speak...

Thanks, Annette! I do try to please all the readers some of the time. :)

Glad you had a chance to read Wycliffe! I have the Willis book in my reader, saving it for a special occasion. I love her books!

as always, I'm in awe and impressed by the wide variety of books you tackle and slay in a month! This is an incredible list, thank you! And Lucy Parker is a wench favorite...

I'm glad you're enjoying them! I'm definitely not abandoning the series. I just need this particular story to gel a little more, and I think the hero is the problem. So... thinking.

Hugs and much sympathy on the weather! It's been the same here in what used to be sunny southern California. Foggy and cool the whole blamed summer. But we finally got a break and are seeing real August weather. Maybe you will too. SAD is terribly depressing. I've had one of those UV phototherapy lamps for years. You may need to look into them. And thank you on the covers! I keep telling my designer she's a genius.

LOL, I do try. One never knows what will connect. But it's the truth!

ooo, a head start would be lovely! but I'm already cannibalizing bits and pieces, so I may have to knit it all together first!

I have a brother in Florida so I'm keeping an eye on your storm! At least you know how to handle it. Here in CA, they haven't a clue. Welcome to the writing world! I just decided the time in the series timeline wasn't working with this particular story. And the hero just hadn't developed enough story to make him interesting. So he's sitting in the sidelines while I work around Waterloo. ;)