new books, new look!

this spring i have four publications, including my new hardcover LITTLE NIGHT, and to celebrate, we have redone the website.   i'm so thankful to adrian kinloch, photographer and web designer, and andrew duncan, marketing manager at viking, for working so hard and making the site so beautiful (and easy for me to use, so i can share lots of writing, photos, and videos with you.)  lindsay prevette, publicity manager at viking/penguin, and meghan fallon, of viking publicity, have been wonderful in providing material for the new site and getting the word out about  all our news.  ted o'gorman continues to be amazing, both as writer of his own fiction and in keeping my site and facebook running well.

tomorrow, april 17,  BLUE MOON will be available as an e-book for the first time ever--the novel was first published in 1993, and was based on a true-life fishing boat incident off the connecticut and rhode island coastlines.  the novel has been out in paperback, and was made into a cbs movie of the week, but this is it's e-debut.

THE SILVER BOAT comes out in trade paperback on may 29--the novel is very dear to me, and i must admit i love the cover and its shingled beach house.  it's set on martha's vineyard, one of my favorite places, and deals with three sisters visiting their beloved summer cottage for the last time.

HOW WE STARTED is an e-special--  two short stories linked to LITTLE NIGHT and THE SILVER BOAT.   the first story, "miss martha's vineyard", visits the characters harrison and rory of the silver boat, back when they were young and trying not to be in love.  the second, "paul and clare," is a prequel to little night, and tells about their dreams of love, nature, new york city, and how they're destined to be both so right and so wrong.

i hope you'll enjoy the changes on my website, and i can't wait for you to read these four new releases.

on another, thrilling note, there was a starred review of LITTLE NIGHT in today's publisher's weekly.

Dear Readers...

Dear Readers,  

Happy April!  I hope this note finds you well.  My windows are open to the sounds of birds flying north, and I am so ready to kick off my shoes and take a long walk on the beach.  My new novel, The Silver Boat, comes out on April 5, and I'm really excited to be telling you about it.

It's about three sisters who reunite for the first time since their mother’s death.  They gather on Martha’s Vineyard, at their beloved childhood home, each of them facing big decisions.  I write about the sisters' relationships, their complicated love, and a family secret that will send them to Ireland in search of their father.

http://luannerice.net/2011/02/the-silver-boat/

I would love if you visited my website for news, stories, blog posts, or just to say hello.

You'll find The Silver Boat at your local bookseller...and it is available for pre-order now:

Barnes and Noble:   http://bit.ly/fhsnqr

Amazon.com:   http://amzn.to/fvPKRP

Indiebound: http://bit.ly/gqYt6j

I'm very thankful for all your support, and send wishes for a wonderful spring to you and your family.

Love,

Luanne

PS. That's Maisie, my youngest cat, proofreading the letter.

The Silver Boat: out on 4/5

The Silver Boat comes out on April 5, in just a few days, and this is a busy, exciting time.

I've had pleasure of giving interviews for radio, print, and blogs, talking to many wonderful  people about writing, sisters, inspiration, family secrets, and Martha's Vineyard...the novel's setting.  After the solitude of writing The Silver Boat, it feels so good to share the story.  Here's a Q+A I did with Pat Grandjean of Connecticut Magazine.

Travel plans are shaping up--my first book tour in a few years.  I'm so looking forward to visiting bookstores and libraries, and to meeting as many of you as possible...

My kick-off event will be 3/8, R J Julia in Madison CT,(shown in the drawing above) followed by 3/11 Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side, NYC.  (I haven't read in NY in ages--I hope you'll come out to see me!)  I'll update with other dates/stops as well.

Martha's Vineyard

With The Silver Boat coming out April 5th,I've been thinking a lot about the novel's settings, particularly Martha's Vineyard.

A forty-five minute ferry ride from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the island is magical, romantic, filled with amazing history and secret places.  Narrow lanes lined with beach roses, fishing boats at the dock, salt-silvered shingle houses, lichen-covered stone walls, beautiful ocean beaches, red-clay cliffs, sailboats in the harbors, bright gardens behind picket fences, stately sea-captains' houses, winding roads, shady glens, hilltops overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and Vineyard Sound...

As a child I spent much time there with family friends.  Later I found summer jobs, ways of staying on the island for blissful summers while writing about my experience.  My go-to positions were babysitting and being a chambermaid.

My favorite times were spent on Lucy Vincent Beach, playing or swimming with the kids, or riding my bike there on my days off.

I was fourteen.  Beach nights were secret and wonderful.  Older kids would build a bonfire.  Someone always had a guitar.  We would surfcast and swim; one July  night I felt the the scrape of something cold on my leg, and I had no doubt I'd just been touched by a passing shark.

On rainy days I'd take the kids to the Flying Horses in Oak Bluffs, the oldest platform carousel in America.  It arrived on the island in 1884.  I'd ride the merry-go-round with the kids and feel free and happy and somehow nostalgic in a way I hadn't yet understood.

All of these experiences went in deep.  When I wrote The Silver Boat, about three sisters who return to their island home, the only place they've ever been happy together, I drew on memories, dreams, that elusive nostalgia, and love of my own private Martha's Vineyard.

The character of Harrison--the sisters' best childhood friend--seems to be a favorite of early readers of the novel.  I can't wait to introduce you to him--and the real-life best friend who inspired him.

The novel continues in Ireland, home of the sister's long-gone father, and the site of a family secret, but that's another blog post...  (and so is Harrison!)

First Copy of The Silver Boat (out April 5)

Today at Shutters I received the first copy of The Silver Boat, and I am thrilled, and it seems so appropriate to have had my first look right here, because this is a place I really enjoy writing.

So many thanks to Pamela Dorman Books/Viking and the wonderful team that created my book.  Many talented people are involved in every aspect of production.

Pam is a genius publisher and editor.  Not only that, she is a close friend.  We started off together long ago; she was my editor for Crazy in Love and several other titles, and we are overjoyed to be working together again.  When I somehow managed to e-mail her my thanks while jumping for joy, she wrote back: "I love it, too, and for us all, it has been a labor of pure pleasure."

Pam and her team have made the hardcover truly beautiful; it feels like a gift, turning the pages, seeing another new and wonderful thing.  The typeset, the frontispiece,the title page, the luminous cover.

How fitting to be seeing this at Shutters.  This is my favorite hotel, and I often come here to write.  The Silver Boat is set on Martha's Vineyard and in Ireland, connected by the Atlantic Ocean.  It is wonderful to be seeing the first copy while gazing out the window at the Pacific.

Sometimes I write in the lobby, other times on the balcony.  When in the sun I wear my lucky cap with this logo:

Right now, because the sun is just starting to go down, I think I'll put on my cap and read The Silver Boat outside, in a cozy wicker chair...