An Invitation, Dear Readers
Earlier this summer, fellow Crown author Miranda Beverly-Whittemore invited me to participate in two TwitterChats about beach reads and her novel Bittersweet. It was a blast chatting about books with readers, bloggers, booksellers, authors… When I started thinking about ways to celebrate the paperback release of I Shall Be Near To You, ways that would include as many of the people who have championed Rosetta and Jeremiah as possible and also feel really fun, a TwitterChat rose to the top of my list.
And so, I’m thrilled to announce and invite you to a TwitterChat about all things historical fiction:
When:
Tuesday, September 2nd
6:00-7:00 p.m. PST (9:00-10:00 p.m. EST)
Where:
#IShall
Who:
Eagerly and enthusiastically co-hosted by book bloggers extraordinaire Cassie (Cass With Books), Hannah (So Obsessed With), Kelly (Belle of the Literati), and Ellice (Paper Riot), there’s NO WAY we won’t have tons of fun with these four gals on board. Seriously. They are the best!
I’m also beyond humbled to announce that five (5!!) historical fiction authors have agreed to lend their knowledge and talents to the discussion. Ariel Lawhon (The Wife, The Maid, The Mistress), Lois Leveen (Juliet’s Nurse, forthcoming 9/26/14; The Secrets of Mary Bowswer), Ariel MacArran (Another Man’s Bride), Alex Myers (Revolutionary), and Mary Volmer (Crown of Dust), have all written books that I love to recommend because they embody so many of the qualities that I enjoy most in reading historical fiction (What to know what I think those qualities are? That’s one of the things we’ll chat about on Tuesday!).
I hope you’ll find your way over to Twitter–or better yet, use TweetChat; it’s a super simple way to organize the chat and make sure you get that all-important hash tag (#IShall) added onto every tweet (which is truly the hardest part)– and join us for the discussion. Feel free to invite anyone you know who might enjoy participating– because in addition to stimulating conversation, there will be giveaways! Five paperback copies of I Shall Be Near To You up for grabs during the course of the hour, and copies of Mary Volmer’s Crown of Dust too!
Hallo, Hallo Ms. McCabe!!
I finally made it over to your site — either Twitter was gaining a lot of traffic tonight, or Opera (the browser) was acting up – either way, I am here to RSVP that I will be attending the #IShall tweetchat! The platform I like to use at the moment is this one: tchat.io which also adds the tag automatically per tweet! I use it when I host my weekly Romance novel chat!
The wicked sweet part is that I started to talk to Alex Meyers (Revolutionary author) very recently about his novel *because* of your novel — I had no idea the connection of Meyers & the Missive Maven, and was over the moon happy when I realised what the connection was as it was simply serendipitous to have the fuller story. Next to historical fiction, my next main passion (outside of reading stories in general!) is the art of letter-writing and sending letters by postal mail.
I am always honoured and blessed when I get to interact with writers on Twitter, and this event is being writ on my calendar as I type this note to you to confirm my presence!
I cannot wait to ‘meet’ the other writers, the book bloggers, and of course, celebrate all the positive love we all have for *history!* and *historical fiction!* 
Two weeks later, on Tuesday the 16th I happily will be hosting you for the #IShall blog tour! What a beautiful kick-off event! 
Oh thank you so much for your lovely note! And for joining in on the chat!
Funny enough, I “met” Alex Myers because our books were both featured in the same column in ELLE. When I saw the subject of his book, I knew I had to read it, and I also figured I needed to know this author! We’re hoping to get to do some joint events at some point– have feelers out for several venues, so we’ll see if it happens. I’d love to meet for real. Meanwhile, Twitter is fabulous!
I used to be an avid letter writer myself– I do so love to get real mail and I love writing letters too, which is one of the reasons I think the real Rosetta’s story appealed to me, and also one of the reasons I love historical fiction. And I loved getting to write the letters that are included in the novel…