Rhys celebrates pub day for GOD REST YE ROYAL GENTLEMEN.

 RHYS BOWEN:  Hooray, hooray, today is publication day!

A week late but never mind, GOD REST YE ROYAL GENTLEMEN is finally in a bookstore near you or arriving on your Kindle or audio. I’ve just been doing a couple of weeks of podcasts, interviews, Zoom events with bookstores as well as signing boxes and boxes of books!

But now I’m excited that the book has been released into the wild in good time for the upcoming holidays. It’s the second Christmas book in this series and I’ve pulled out all the stops to make this the Olde English Christmas to remember (complete with a body or two, naturally). 

Georgie’s family is there is force, all the characters you love or hate. AND the royal family is also there, spending Christmas at Sandringham where something strange and creepy might be happening… enough said. You’ll have to read the book to find out why Georgie might be summoned to the queen. Oh and Queenie is in evidence. What possible disaster can she cause this time. (hint: it’s a big one)

So Jenn and Hank were gracious enough to interview me for various bookstores last week and now my Jungle Red sisters are out in force to pepper me with questions. 

HANK:  How much fun was it to remember your childhood holiday traditions while writing this book?Did any of the escapades come from real life?

RHYS: Hank, first thank you for the fabulous interview questions. I so much enjoyed our chat and you made it so relaxing and fun.

I have to confess that this book is a chance to relive the holidays of my childhood.  I remember it as a magical time, completely uncommercial, with lots of feasting and fun. My school madrigal group went carol singing in a posh neighborhood and we got invited in for mince pies and wassail bowl. The house was decorated with greenery. The feast ended with flaming Christmas pudding containing secret silver charms that foretold your future, and we played lots of silly games, including sardines (which is reverse hide and seek with everyone seeking the hidden person, then cramming in with him when he’s found until you are packed in like sardines!)

All of the above appear in the book.

HALLIE: Rhys, this is the fifteenth Royal Spyness series novel and yet it keeps feeling fresh. Each time out, you reveal something new about Lady Georgie. This time you’ve put her in a particularly ticklish situation, and I’m wondering if she surprised you as much as I suspect she’s going to surprise some of your readers? 

RHYS: Hallie, thank you. I’m glad you still find the series fresh. I try never to put Georgie in similar situations and more importantly, I want the reader to watch her grow. She’s obviously matured during 15 books, gained confidence since being married, and has become more than an accidental sleuth. I have to say that my characters continually surprise me. They do and say things I hadn’t expected and then my plots go off in directions I hadn’t planned. I’ve learned to go with the flow and just follow along.  If I’m surprised then you are surprised.

LUCY BURDETTE: I am a huge fan of this series and can’t wait for next week! Just reading the first chapter about the holiday houseparty that Georgie’s planning to throw makes me worry… I’m wondering whether these are the easiest books to write because you have the voice down so perfectly?

RHYS: IN a way they are easy to write because I do know the characters so well now. It is an ensemble cast and each time it’s like coming to a family reunion. It’s really one long life-story gradually unfolding. Georgie’s voice came to me perfectly in the first pages of Her Royal Spyness and she still dictates perfectly. The books are a joy to write because they are funny. I love to laugh and I’m always calling out to John to tell him what awful thing Queenie has just done, or Mummy has said.

JENN McKINLAY: Lady Georgie is my role model. I want to be her when I grow up! I love that this book is set against the holidays. Does writing about Christmas make you nostalgic for the holiday season across the pond or did you bring your traditions with you?

RHYS: Jenn--fabulous interview yesterday! It went so smoothly and everyone loved it.

And it makes me very nostalgic, Jenn, although it’s for a time and not a place. Christmas in England now has the same commericial hype as it does here. I’m nostalgic for a simpler time: walking through the snow to midnight mass,  smaller gifts, emphasis on family interactions. I have tried to recreate some of the traditions: my mum always baked sausage rolls and mince pies as our Christmas snacks and I do that. I serve Christmas pudding (although nobody likes it except John and me) We do play charades and other silly games.  One year we tried home made gifts (it wasn’t a great success).

DEBS: Rhys, I would love your Christmas pudding!

RHYS: I'll mail you a slice if you like!

JULIA: I am so excited for this book!!! I love all the Lady Georgie novels, but I have a well-known soft spot for Christmas mysteries and romances. Speaking of which, now that Georgie has landed her Darcy (or was it vice versa?) how are you keeping the spirit of romance alive in the series? It can be hard to transition a will-they-won’t-they couple into matrimony without things getting a little less bubbly.

RHYS: Good question, Julia. Obviously I loved the will they/won’t they stories in the earlier books. That delicious romantic tension is so appealing but it can’t go on forever. Neither can Georgie not entirely trusting Darcy to be faithful. But I think readers are ready for the next chapter in their lives and we’ve had romantic episodes with Georgie’s friend Belinda, Georgie’s Mummy to keep a little spice going.

DEBS: Rhys, I think up until now THE TWELVE CLUES OF CHRISTMAS has been my favorite Georgie book--so clever and so funny--so I am especially looking forward to this one! I adore all the British Christmas traditions and we celebrate with some of them even here in Texas (it’s not Christmas without crackers!)

The Royal Spyness books have always had great covers, but this one knocks it out of the box. It is gorgeous!  Were you thrilled when you saw it? Did it go through more than one iteration?

RHYS: It is a lovely cover. My only concern is that the man behind Georgie looks a little too suave and elegant to be Darcy. I picture him a little wilder, don’t you? And hunkier.

Who else is ready for a simple, calm and nostalgic Christmas? Are there any questions you'd like to ask me?