Look at me, squeaking in the April update under the wire! It’s still April for a whopping 13-ish hours, as of this posting, and the reason I’m posting so late in the month is because of what a crowded month it was.

I began the month with a long-needed outpatient surgery; nothing major, but it kicked my energy to the curb for a while as I recovered. I’m still not back to 100%, but I have the hope of being more than 100% (at least, what my 100% has been for a while) in the long term. We shall see.

Last week, my mom and I drove to Louisiana—about 800 miles—to visit my grandmother and other relatives in the area. We’d been planning to wait until the end of the school year, which is another month away, but one of my aunts had cancer surgery in mid-April and we thought she might need a hand. I did help her with an organization project (and play with her adorable parrots), but she’s actually doing really well! What good news.

And my grandmother, at age 92, has bounced back from a number of health issues and is currently doing well too. She’s sharp enough to complete destroy my mom and me at progressive rummy—which is pretty much a family tradition, because she has ALWAYS completely destroyed EVERYONE at progressive rummy. “Just lucky,” she excuses. Hmm. Funny how the same person is always lucky. 😉

I brought a virus home with me and am currently sore-throated and scratchy-voiced. But! My typing fingers are doing fine, and I have lots of fun book news to share.

First of all, four of my backlist novellas are being bundled into a box set—so if you’d like to collect them all, you can get them much more cheaply than buying each one individually. This bundle is creatively called A Novella Collection, and the cover is quite lovely, don’t you think?

Soon after that, How to Ruin a Duke will be published! This novella duo by Grace Burrowes and me tells two linked stories about a scandalous novel and its impact on a couple in trade (that’s my story—the heroine builds stringed instruments) and the unfortunate ducal subject of the novel (that’s Grace’s story—which I absolutely love, and I think you all will too).

And finally, Shana Galen and I are running the first-ever sale on our duo, Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. For just one more day, you can get the ebook for 99 cents, down from its regular price of $3.99.

Our Mrs. Brodie stories can stand on their own, but we also had fun connecting them to other books. My novella, “The Way to a Gentleman’s Heart,” features a cook heroine and a second chance with her first love, and it introduces some characters who will play a big part in His Wayward Bride–the last Romance of the Turf book, out this fall.

And…that’s it for April. Whew! What has this month been like for you?