Presenting The Royal We

Way back in November 2013, we started work on The Royal We, our new novel (and our first aimed at adults). It’s been more than a year of research and typing and reading and trimming and tweaking and re-reading and fussing about fonts, but at long last, we are delighted to be able to bring you a chance to win an advance copy before it comes out everywhere in April. The Royal We was a real labor of love, but also of time: from the first words we typed, to our research trip to England last January (the details of which you can read about here), to this past Monday, when we finally mailed in the completed final final final draft. Between that and our GFY postings, we barely left the house last year. So we must thank you all for your good-natured understanding when we were clearly totally fried or made ridiculous mistakes or published posts with just “WORDS” in it in it, all of which happened more than we’d care to recall. We think it was all worth it, and we hope you will agree.

When we get closer to April, we’ll have more news about how and where to download free preview chapters — oh, yes, there will be free preview chapters — but today is Giveaway Day, as well as a look at the final book jacket. Behold:

Our baby doesn’t officially arrive until April 7 (you can pre-order it, though, at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite indie bookseller), which makes this the book equivalent of posting an ultrasound photo on Facebook. The finished product is going to be a matte finish with an embossed title, which ought to be very pretty and tactile and fun. We hope you like its outsides, of course, but most of all we REALLY hope you love the words that are inside The Royal We as much as we do. On that tip, some really talented women have said some lovely things about it.

“The Royal We is full of love and humor, and delicious in too many ways to mention in one little blurb. I read this novel as quickly as I could, relishing any few minutes I had to turn back to its pages. An absolute delight.”

— Emma Straub, author of the New York Times bestseller The Vacationers

“A joy from start to finish. The Royal We is that rare novel that makes you think, makes you cry, and is such fun to read that you’ll want to clear your schedule until you’ve turned the final page. But be warned–Cocks and Morgan have created a world so rich, a romance so compelling, and characters so funny and alive, that you’ll be terribly sad to see them go.”

— J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times Bestselling author of The Engagements, Maine and Commencement

“The Royal We is as engrossing and deeply satisfying as any royal wedding documentary, and it’s a thousand times more fun, from the fairy tale to the inevitable foibles. You will want Bex Porter to be your best friend. You will feel the same way about Cocks and Morgan, who are warm, witty, hilarious, and moving in their depiction of a very complicated relationship indeed.”

— Jen Doll, author of Save the Date

“A heartfelt exploration of a life lived in the spotlight, The Royal We balances dishy decadence with an honest look at the sacrifices required to stay princess to Prince Charming.“

— Courtney Maum, author of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

We’re huge admirers of all of those authors, and we’re so grateful to them not only for taking the time to read the book — over the holidays, and/or while writing their own new works — but for embracing The Royal We so wholly. It’s an honor, ladies.

Although the book is obviously fictional, our inspiration for The Royal We stemmed from a high level of sympathy for the Duchess of Cambridge as she made the transition from Kate Middleton into the future queen consort. Whatever you believe about her, the fact remains that she’s a civilian who fell in love with a guy who is destined to be king, and presumably at some point had to decide whether a future with him was worth everything she’d have to sacrifice. It’s easy to imagine the advantages in that relationship but what of the difficulties? We packed as much humor and heart into this thing as we could; at one point, we cut about a book’s worth of words out of it, and it’s STILL full. We are beyond excited to share it with Fug Nation at last.

After the jump: the jacket copy and details about how YOU yes YOU could win one of THREE autographed advance copies.

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Goodreads!

A quick and dirty reminder that there is a Go Fug Yourself book club over at Goodreads! We’re not running it ourselves but it’s full of Fug Nationals and like-minded folk, so definitely check it out and join! August’s book is Code Name Verity.

Insert Excited Gif Here

Heather and I turned in the first draft of THE ROYAL WE last Monday (which also happened to be GFY’s 10th birthday, AND Canada Day AND Princess Diana’s birthday, so there’s a lot going on there)! My feelings about having actually written the words “THE END” can best be encapsulated by the best dancer of a generation, Elaine Benes, spasmodically jerking around with joy in a “full-body dry heave.”

We have plenty of work ahead of us, I am sure — we’re currently waiting for notes, which is always nerve-wracking,  because you know people are reading your work and you’re hoping SO HARD that they like it — but it’s exciting to have met the first milestone. I can’t wait for you guys to get to read the darn thing.

Mid-Draft Reading Break

Heather and I are DEEP in the Writing Bunker at the moment — we’ve turned in 3/5ths of our first draft of THE ROYAL WE, but the rest of it is due on July 1st, and it’s been crazy over at GFY as well the last few weeks — but after months of starting books and them putting them down again (which I never do), I’m delighted to report that, thanks to readers’ recommendations, I am reading an awesome new book: The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince, by Jane Ridley. It’s JUICY, too, full of affairs and meddlesome parents and people really freaking out about other people losing their virginity to prostitutes and also wars. Plus, of course, it’s all true and meticulously researched. Ridley got to spend like a year in this tower at Windsor Castle, reading private correspondence between all manner of royals and other interesting Victorian personages, which basically sounds like the best year ever. It’s fascinating, and I totally recommend it.

Are you reading anything good? (Due to the design of this theme, it’s so annoyingly hard to find out to comment from the homepage; you can click here!)

SPOILED and MESSY

There are a LOT of people who find this blog searching for the answer to the question, “is there a sequel to Spoiled?” I am going to make it easy for you: Yes, dear reader! THERE IS. The sequel to Spoiled is called Messy. It’s even in paperback right now! You can buy it anywhere books are sold. If you want it right now, you could buy it on Amazon! NOW YOU KNOW.

(All kinds of info about our current and future books is available here, and you can ALWAYS ask us questions on Twitter.)

Here’s a cute picture of Prince George to thank you for caring:

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St. George’s Hall, Windsor

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We use this room in The Royal We, and it’s one of my absolute favorites at Windsor Castle, made even dreamier because of this state dinner. The best bit is that all the crests on the ceiling belong to the Garter Knights, and are numbered so you can look up to whom it belongs. If someone is disgraced, the crest is covered or removed, but the number remains so that their ignominy is preserved. In other words, TAKE THAT, jerks.

Mug Shots: My Obsession With Commemorative Royal Mugs

So, I love royal swag. I LOVE it. When I was a little girl, I had the Chuck and Diana paper dolls  and it’s only gotten worse from there. When Heather and I were in England in January researching The Royal We, we both bought so much stuff that we literally had to pack additional bags home. You are welcome, British tourist industry! We have NO SELF CONTROL. I bought a Buckingham Palace soap dish, people. (In fairness, who could resist having a soap dish from Buckingham Palace? Not me.) Anyway, this has all culminated over the past few years into my collecting Royal Mugs. The rules for my collection are very specific. Although I appreciate both extremely beautiful and super cheesy mugs, they have to commemorate something or, as far as I am concerned, they do not count.So far, I have one mug for every day of the week. I have been putting them on my Instagram, but then I decided that I need these things chronicled for posterity.

(Click on each picture if you want more steaming-hot mug info SEE WHAT I DID THERE.)

This mug commemorates William and Kate’s engagement and I LOVE IT. Heather bought it for me for Christmas and it is probably my favorite of my mugs, although really that’s like asking me which of my children is my favorite. Perhaps salient note: I have no actual children.

This is not vintage, but it is the official tankard commemorating the Queen’s coronation. I got it at Buckingham Palace.

This mug commemorates the birth of Prince George: aren’t the cupids subtle? Heather brought this back for me from a trip she took to England with her family because she’s the best and also because I think I commanded that she bring me back some mugs or else.

She ALSO brought me back this mug commemorating Prince George’s birth.

This one I bought for myself on Etsy, where people who collect royal commemorative mugs spend all their money. It celebrates Charles’s investiture in 1969 as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle and I’m pretty sure the beautiful gold trim will one day give me blood poisoning.

This was the official Diamond Jubilee china. I bought one of these for myself and for myself in a frenzied Christmas late-night online shopping spree.

And this one is also a delight. My friend Eliza brought it back to me from a trip to England purposely because it is such a hilariously poor rendering of the Queen.

Very Subtle, Windsor

This is my favorite photo from January’s jaunt to Windsor Castle. There’s something extremely Monty Python about how precisely the light is shooting out of the cloud — like, every time I see it, I hotly anticipate a cartoon Redeemer to pop up and shout counsel at King Arthur. Henry VIII, tossed in a tomb at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor, would have approved. In fact, maybe he orchestrated it. He did love drama.

The Royal We Research Trip: A Sneak Peek

Heather and I went to England for a week at the start of 2014 on a research trip for The Royal We, our new book. Here’s the Publisher’s Weekly blurb about it, in case you missed it:

Creators of GoFugYourself.com Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s first adult novel THE ROYAL WE, about a young American woman who spends a semester abroad in England and falls in love with the man of her dreams — who happens to be the future King of England, a tale loosely inspired by the real-life courtship and marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William.

We’re super-excited about the book, and we thought you might enjoy seeing some of the pictures I took on the trip. The book takes place (in part) at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace and Oxford and London — that’s vague enough not to be spoiler-y, I think! — and we had a fabulous time kicking around England getting eyes on the places we’ll be writing about. We would have stayed even longer if we hadn’t needed to get back to cover the Golden Globes; it was really inspirational.

Click on each photo to read about what we saw, did, and might be writing about!

We spent a day at Windsor, which is where the Queen spends a lot of her time. While we were there, we got to take a special tour of the kitchens — which have been in use since the middle ages, and which boasts a still-in-use stove dating from Victoria’s reign. Unfortunately, they don’t allow photos inside. It was very fancy. You can imagine.

Buttresses! I just want to work the word “buttress” into essentially everything I write. This is St George’s Chapel, which a variety of Interesting Historical Figures are buried, including old Henry VIII, with Jane Seymour, AKA the Wife Who Died Before He Needed To Get Rid of Her. Ah, true love.

Speaking of, here’s Henry’s portrait — rather familiar looking, no? — hanging in the dining hall at Christ Church in Oxford. This is the dining hall on which the one at Hogwarts is based, but it does NOT have an enchanted ceiling.

Here we all, all bundled up for Oxford in January. You can tell how beautiful the building is, though.

It’s hard not to feel inspired thinking about going to school at a place as beautiful as this.

This is the nave of Christ Church Cathedral.

This greets you basically just as you exit the train at Windsor. There is NOT a scene in our book where anyone sits for a portrait on the side of a phone booth. Not yet, anyway.

Not that this isn’t inspiring.

A trip to London obviously isn’t complete unless you spend at least an hour and way too many pounds loitering in the Harrods food hall. LOOK AT ALL THIS CHOCOLATE.

We had TWO champagne teas, including this one at Sketch. It was delicious. Why don’t we get to eat tiny sandwiches every day?

But the most noteworthy part of Sketch are its bathrooms — you may remember them from a noteworthy episode of Real Housewives of NY. They are pods. You get your own personal pod in which to pee. Honestly, I kind of loved it. The pods are so private!

Heather and I also go to go on a tour of Buckingham Palace — no pics there, either. You’ll have to read the book to hear all about it, but suffice to say, it’s FANCY. At the end of the tour, they lead you out of this gate — the front gate — and it’s very exciting. We were the last two to leave and were escorted out alone. I’m sure all the tourists standing outside were wondering who we were.

Because it’s not a slideshow if there isn’t sexy Idris Elba involved. This is from an exhibit at the National Gallery, where we popped by to see the portrait of William and Harry (delightful) and the more questionable one of Kate, which was (surely temporarily) NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.

We also popped by Kensington Palace to say hi to Prince George.

Call it “research materials.”

Ah, London. You’re the best. We can’t wait to come back.

The Royal We

We have some exciting news that we are thrilled to share with you. We have a new book coming your way, tentatively scheduled for spring of ’15. In the words of this morning’s announcement in Publishers’ Marketplace:

Creators of GoFugYourself.com Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan’s first adult novel THE ROYAL WE, about a young American woman who spends a semester abroad in England and falls in love with the man of her dreams — who happens to be the future King of England, a tale loosely inspired by the real-life courtship and marriage of Kate Middleton and Prince William, to Sara Weiss at Grand Central, by Brettne Bloom at Kneerim, Williams & Bloom (NA). Foreign rights: Danny Baror and Heather Baror; Dramatic Rights: Joe Veltre at Gersh.

More details to come as we know them, of course, but we’re having a great time writing THE ROYAL WE, and we hope you will all love reading it.