I wish I could do a drum roll because...

The Fashions of Regency England Colouring Book is now available!

It feels so great to be able to announce that. I'm delighted and thrilled and proud. If you would like to view further details and purchase a copy, please visit my CafePress store--Regency Fancies.

The colouring book has a long history. As some of you may know, artist Shakoriel has been doing my covers from the earliest days. When I wanted some extra Regency pictures for promotion, I went to her. Then I realized that people might enjoy colouring her black and white illustrations of Regency people. I, even as an adult, love colouring--Dover colouring books are one of my favourite things.

I asked Shakoriel what she thought, and she was enthusiastic. So we started putting colouring pictures on my website one at a time. Her skill progressed, her style evolved, and we realized--at some point--that we could do a bunch of illustrations and publish a colouring book.

We took five of the illustrations from the on line colouring book, but the other seven drawings in the printed colouring book are brand-new, never before seen. She drew, and I wrote costume descriptions and then, because her illustrations have so much personality, we decided to name each character. There was a lot of laughter over that. Below is Miss Phoebe Churcham.

Then Shakoriel learned how to format the pages for CafePress publication, and I designed the back cover and wrote the text, together we structured the copyright page and we sent the file off. We were scared to open the package that contained the proof, but it was fine--better than fine--it was awesome. And it was real; we were holding our Regency colouring book in our hands.

And now we're presenting it to the Regency world. You're the first to know. It will be announced on my webpage on June 30--next Tuesday.

All the work was worth it. My Regency World has shape and form and some fascinating people. I wonder if they know the characters that populate my books?

I can hardly wait to start colouring my copy!

Til next time,

Lesley-Anne

A new bi-monthly contest

It was April 30 the other day--and that meant I did a contest drawing. Debby from the U.S.A. won the blank journal from Regency Fancies. The prize for May and June is a packet of 10 blank notecards-with Shakoriel art--from Regency Fancies. Go here to read about the contest and view the prize.


I have done some updates to my website. I added new pictures to the Transportation page

to the Childhood and Education page

and to the Regency colouring book

I hope you will visit my website and explore the additions! Also I am just getting started on Twitter. I will be posting soon at http://twitter.com/lesleyannemc

That's all the news for now,

Lesley-Anne

Announcing 'Regency Fancies'

I have to use today's blog for advertising because I am very excited about a totally new venture that I have undertaken with my artist Shakoriel. We have developed a CafePress store offering Shakoriel's wonderful Regency costume art on a variety of products.

We have three different designs of Regency ladies on products at present--they are all from the Regency Colouring Book and lend themselves very well to product decoration. We have T-shirts, totebags, notecards and journals available as well as one or two novelties. Eventually the Regency Colouring Book will be available through CafePress also.

As we have worked on the Regency Colouring Book, Shakoriel has produced some beautiful artwork. I realized that it was a shame to own this fabulous art and not make it more widely available. We decided that CafePress would give us a venue for product design and hopefully we have chosen products you will enjoy. If you would like to see Shakoriel's art on some specific item, please let us know, and we will see if we can accommodate you.

Please visit our store at http://www.cafepress.com/regencyfancies and let us know what you think!

Til next time,
Lesley-Anne