Hello readers, The second part of Children of Liberty is coming out on December 5th.  Gina and Harry have a lot ahead of them, and I hope you’ll feel for their joys and griefs as much as I did while writing about them. Here’s the cover — isn’t it lovely? Here’s a link to it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Hello readers, I know you have all been asking me for updates on any news with the film. I have a little I can tell you about the screenplay.  Over the summer I did what I thought was an impossible task: I cut a 220 page script to 150 pages, to make our Bronze Horseman movie 2.5 hours long. I managed to do this while leaving most of the things I love about the story in it. And then the best thing happened after the producer and director read the new version. They both said, that was good, but you’ve cut too much.  Have any words been sweeter to a writer? We now need you to put stuff back, they said, and to write a new scene here and a new scene there, and reinsert this joke and this line and this character. Well, if you insist, I said. So that’s what I’m doing now.  Once I’m done, the plan is to go into pre-pre-production in December and into pre-production in March.

Hi everyone, In honor of Valentine’s Day yesterday,  I am having another little giveaway of five signed books, this time for Children of Liberty. Here’s what you do to enter: Just complete the sentence “[Blank] makes me happy” and tell me why. It could be a person, a place, or, for you readers out there,  a book! Send your entries to the email address paullinasimonscontest@gmail.com. The contest starts today, and closes next Friday. We will announce the winners picked at random the following Monday, February 25th. And for those of you who don’t end up winning, Children of Liberty goes on-sale in the US on February 26th! Good luck, and as always,

My devoted readers and friends, I’m thrilled to tell you that our mutual dream of seeing The Bronze Horseman on the big screen is one step closer to reality.  ITA Productions, a British company, has optioned the rights to my book. The producer, Martyn Hall, and the director, Sash Andranikian, love Tatiana and Alexander, and want nothing more than to make it into an emotional visual spectacle of a film. Sash, from a long line of animators and movie-makers, is Russian-American like me. He has read all three TBH books, and tells me that he loves them all.  Martyn says The Bronze Horseman is the only book that has made him cry. They are looking to go into pre-production by the end of 2013, and to begin shooting early in 2014. So perhaps by the end of 2014, with a healthy dose of luck, we might have our movie. We are going to be working from a script I wrote, which is fantastic, though it does mean that I have to rewrite it, which inevitably means I have to cut it. As you all know from my books, brevity is hardly my strong suit. My editing process always results in my books becoming twenty percent longer, not thirty percent shorter, which is what Martyn would like. The good news is, the producers are promising that I will be on set to revise and add scenes as needed during filming, so at least we are going to have participation and some small measure of control in the creation of this magical thing called The Bronze Horseman, a movie. I welcome your comments, questions, concerns, and of course, casting suggestions. No, the film will not be in Russian.

I wrote a little blog post over at USA Today about Children of Liberty,  and about two of my favorite movies, Love Story and The Great Gatsby.I wanted to talk about a deep and central part of Children of Liberty,  which is,  of course, Gina and her experience moving to America.

Dear Everyone, Thank you for your glorious recollections of romantic places. What a delight it was to read them all, to imagine worlds other than my own. There were hardly two that were the same. Beaches in Argentina and castles in Italy. Paris and Prague. London. St. Petersburg. Achill Island and Amelia Island. Minnesota, Michigan, Mexico, Merano’s Gardens. Italy, Italy, Italy, Italy. Venice and Florence and Verona and Rome. Cabins and mountains, balconies, Lebanon, Jordan, Portugal, Thailand. Did I mention Rome? Oh, and Chicago, and Hoboken New Jersey, and even a golf course in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  I smiled in puzzlement, and then read that the girl and her lover were skiing on the golf course and said, ah, okay. It was all beautiful.  It made me see your vivid hearts all over this great earth. I wish I could send a book to each and every one of you. My most romantic place is a piano suite at the top of the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, where the windows are floor to ceiling and the entire of Manhattan Island glitters beyond, where I play the piano while hubby sleeps and every once in a while wakes up and says, that was really good, Plink. Where we sit and have afternoon tea, and drink anniversary champagne, and revel in the thirty-two years we’ve been the mates of each other’s souls. Here are the ten winners of a signed copy of Bellagrand, and one for Tatiana’s Table. Jennifer Mengel who saw the Northern Lights in Iceland. Tina Cruz who had a life that novels are made of and dreamed of Cozumel, Mexico. Julie Lowe whose husband took her to Tasmania for their 10th wedding anniversary so they could spend two days alone without five children. Amedeo Soliman, biking through Potsdam. Tina Gaser, skiing through golf courses in Deer Hunter country. Claudia Araujo, who quoted Lord Byron in verse about Sintra, Portugal. Amanda Odendahl who danced in her backyard under the moonlight. Rachel Flynn who made Kylemore Abbey in Ireland come alive. Rosa Bianca who traveled to the magical Valley of Aosta and returned with two children. Carah Walker who waxed poetic about Glendhu Bay in New Zealand. And one signed copy of Tatiana’s Table to: Kristen DeSiena, who healed on Amelia Island in Florida.  God bless you all, thank you, be well, winners please email me your address so I can get the books to you before Christmas, and the rest, keep reading, keeping coming back, keep writing, take some joy, give some joy. You’ve all given me more joy than I ever hoped for.