Dear Readers, Friends,

It's been a while since I wrote to you last and that's because I'm knee-deep — actually up-to-my-neck in work, writing my new novel and, as always, I can think of little else. This story is set in a small hotel and involves a missing husband — murder — and romance. And it's set in one of my favorite locations — the Côte d'Azur. I'm just at the point where it's all action and the plotting has to be crafted carefully to make it flow smooth-as-silk for you, my readers. And since, I'm a critical editor of my own work, once I've written a chapter, I need to go over every word, to make sure every word counts and that I have the essence of the location, the characters and the plot. Hope you're going to like it — I certainly do. But then I would, wouldn't I?

What I am sure you are going to enjoy is THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS which will be published by St. Martin's Press in its paperback version this June, which means it will be in bookstores at the end of this month.

If you haven't already read it in hardcover this is a double opportunity because my LAST TIME I SAW PARIS Website will also be up and running at the end of the month. On it, you can travel vicariously to Paris and through France via the Dordogne and Provençe all the way to the Côte d'Azur, because all the places I mention in the novel are REAL. I've been there, stayed in those hotels, dined in those restaurants, people-watched in those cafés, shopped in those boutiques and country markets, admired those Provençal sunsets, and heard a nightingale sing at midnight when half-asleep in an old hotel on the Dordogne river. I've gotten lost in those airports and fought and made-up with my guy on those long car journeys — not that you'll want to do that, but just so as you know! So, travel with Lara and Dan — and enjoy a personal view of France that is really my own.

Next up is my latest novel SUMMER IN TUSCANY to be published in July, again on St. Martin's Press. Of course this is set in Italy and follows the adventures — romantic and otherwise — of Gemma Jerico, an overworked New York emergency-room doctor with a secret in her past; a handful of a teenaged daughter; and a mother who worries that she has no life. When her mother, Nonna, receives a mysterious letter telling her about an even more mysterious inheritance in Tuscany, the three of them throw caution to the winds and leave for Italy. What they encounter is a crumbling old villa and a town divided. Half believe the villa belongs to Ben Raphael, an unnervingly handsome American. As cultures clash, gossip soars, and intrigue unfolds, Gemma is caught in the most disturbing and delicious trouble she's ever had. And her summer in Tuscany will change her outlook — and her life — forever.

I so loved writing Gemma Jerico, a woman pressured by her too time-consuming, all too-responsible job and her responsibilities as a mother — to say nothing of being a daughter to the daunting Nonna. It's a role I believe many of you can identify with, as well as with her reluctance to let go of the routine, of what she knows and understands, for the hedonistic delights of life in a small Tuscan village.

Ah, if only I had the opportunity, you might say. Well you might not be able to live there, but perhaps you could go for a week or two, find one of those villages like Bella Piacere — the one I invented for the book, enjoy the pleasures of a tiny hotel or a rented villa.

As well as Tuscany in this book, I also take you to Rome and a couple of my favorite restaurants, and to the Amalfi Coast and the village of Positano, and one of my all-time favorite hotels.

Soon, dear readers, I'll be putting up a SUMMER IN TUSCANY Website where you will again be able to indulge your dreams in the real cities, the real hotels, cafés, restaurants, shops and markets in Rome and Florence, Positano and the island of Capri.

As always, I wrote the novels for your enjoyment — and now I've created the Websites to enhance your pleasure and to enable you to plan your own special trip to France or Italy, based on my own personal travels.

Enjoy.

Meanwhile, when my current novel is complete — and oh that time seems so far away right now — I'll be returning to England for my High School Reunion. Of course I'll tell you all about that when I get back. Plus we'll be heading back to France in September to stay with my friends in their lovely converted barn set in a hundred acres in the Dordogne countryside. And then on to Provençe and to the Côte d'Azur, alone with my guy, for a little nostalgic mooch around the places we love so much.

But first it's head down and back to work.

My best to you,