Congratulations! It’s a book!

As Marie-Thérése gave birth to her first child, Louis XIV was so filled with joy that he apparently opened the windows wide and shouted at the crowd outside ‘The Queen gave birth to an heir!’. Some years later that heir kissed all ladies present in the room as his wife gave birth to an heir. I shall make a bit less of a fuss and just say that in hard labour, the minds of Jules Harper and myself gave birth to what turned out to be a book. A book that will be published by the lovely people of Pen and Swords.

What is it about? It’s a small biography of Louis XIV. We tried our best to bring you all the info you need on the Sun King. It’s filled with all sort of things, from his birth to his death, his wars, his loves, his passions, his health, and those little tidbits you would normally need to read a couple of books for. We collected them and put them all into one. It is a brief account on his life, yet long enough to give you a idea what he was all about, without being boring.

If you are new to the whole topic, you will find lots of interesting things about Louis XIV. If you have already read some things on him, you might be surprised to read things you did not know before.

That being said, a big thank you to Pen and Swords for giving us the chance to publish with them. We first had the idea for the book in late spring of last year. Like the phrase says, good ideas make an appearance at unexpected moments. It was around 2 o’clock in the morning and I was supposed to go to bed as the idea dawned on us. The scribbling started the very next day and over the course of the next months, page after page was filled. For Jules and me it was the first time we ventured into this department. (Jules is published under a different name already, but non-fiction was new to her as well.) Pen and Swords did assist us and helped us through the process of collecting everything necessary. (Getting the rights for images is a nightmare, let me tell you.)

Our little book will be available to pre-order towards the end of the year. I will keep you updated on it… and work on the next project in the meanwhile. It might have something to do with the château de Versailles.