Julie Anne Long

Rebecca La Rebelle, and your Monday French lesson

Hello, darlings. I thought I'd rise up from my swoon couch (ha! (you know, because that's where I landed right after I finished my revisions for LIKE NO OTHER LOVER, which my editor pronounced "wonderful," and that's where I've been, cool damp cloth over my forehead, shades drawn, tinkly New Age music playing, slave boys murmuring soothing, flattering things to me to help me regain my strength) to share something fun with you.  As I've said before, one of the best parts of being an author is connecting with people all over the world via stories, and over there to the left is THE RUNAWAY DUKE -- translated into French!!  Rebecca La Rebelle  (that's the Amazon France link)-- Rebecca the Rebel -- good title, eh?? It's really a trip to flip through the foreign versions of my books.  Connor is "Conrad" in this version, and instead of Roarke (which is Connor's real name in the English version—he was Roarke Edward Connor Riordan Blackburn) they've called him "Harry," for inscrutable French reasons. And because I'm really just a snickering teenager deep down, I paged to the love scenes to see if I could discover the French word for "erection." I do know some French (I read it better than I speak it), and I can usually guess the meaning of a French sentence pretty accurately if I have a few other sentences around it for context, or if I at least know one or two words in it. Anyway, I do believe the word—well, actually, it turned out to be wordS—are "membre dressé ."  I'm sure you can guess the meaning of the first word, and the second one is descriptive of the first word's condition. :) So there's your Monday French lesson. LOL. You're quite welcome. :) I have to tell you though, when I read those particular kinds of scenes (say, pages 216-220 or so in THE RUNAWAY DUKE) aloud in French, they're sexy as all get out.  I'm dying to hone my French by working my way through the whole story. And the French translation of TO LOVE A THIEF —Pickpocket en jupons—will be out in April in France, and a beautiful online French magazine called Les Romantiques featured an interview with me this month, too, if you haven't had a chance to check it out. The German translation of BEAUTY AND THE SPY, I'm told, will be out in September, and it will be called GARDEN OF DESIRE. Isn't this fun?? I'll post more foreign covers with you as I have them. I have the Polish version of Beauty and the Spy, and it's beautiful, but I have to scan it.

How is everyone?? I'm busy with various little projects, all of which I'll tell you about you if they turn out the way I want them to. :) Did you have a nice Easter? We're having beautiful weather—clear, sunny, very windy and ferociously cold if you're walking against the wind. Also, I wanted to point something out to you—in my list of blogs/websites over to the right is The Hunger Site, and if you visit it once a day and just click on the various tabs—just click, that's all you need to do—they'll donate a certain amount of money to Hunger, Rainforest, Animal Rescue, Breast Cancer, Child Health and Literacy causes. You'll see what I mean—there are different tabs. It's fast and easy and it feels good to do it!!

A guest blog at Romantic Inks and "A Celebration"...

[Note: the link to RI's blog was wrong a little earlier; I just corrected it. It's right now!] Happy Tuesday, ladies, from the land of Spring!! At least that's how it feels here in San Francisco this week. Smells, looks, feels like spring, what with a bluejay scouting nest locations in the backyard, the lavender bush in such extravagant bloom that my cat was tempted to burrow into it and I had to dig him out and we both ended up disheveled and smelling fabulous, and the brilliant blue skies. Our friend Haven from Romantic Inks invited me for a blog interview today and asked some good questions (check 'em out and comment if you're game!), one of which prompted me to track down the following video—and Haven, darling, I have to thank you, because MAN, I'd forgotten how much I loved this song!! What led to this? She specifically asked about my band days, and which songs I enjoyed playing the most. This one suddenly popped into my head—we used to cover it. I should specify that this band isn't, um, actually us. But that might become apparent as you watch. LOL. You might sort of recognize them. This song is a rarity of theirs—I can't even remember how my band first got our hands on it—but man it's a great song, and it sounds even better when played very LOUD (live or recorded). These guys look like wee babies in this video! Who would have dreamed that the guy with the tiny heinie in the tight red pants would one day be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?? These boys have come a long way. :)

Anyway: any day I get to sit in my ratty old hoody sweater and jeans working on revision for my next book while I chat with cool gals on my blog and the city of San Francisco goes about the business of looking beautiful outside my window is cause for a celebration. :)  How's your week going??