Welcome to Author Chat Night with Juliet Grey, author of Becoming Marie Antoinette!


Good evening and welcome everyone to the Live Author Chat Night with the fabulous Juliet Grey, author of Becoming Marie Antoinette!

I am thrilled to have you all here to discuss the fabulous first book in what is sure to be THE trilogy on Marie Antoinette!

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HOW CHAT NIGHT WORKS
 
The chat will take place in the comments section of THIS post. I will start off the Chat Night with a welcome message and a question or two to get the ball rolling and then the floor is open to whomever has a question for Juliet.

If you have any questions during the chat you can email me at passagestothepast(at)gmail(dot)com.

GIVEAWAY INFO

Thanks to the generosity of Juliet Grey, one lucky participant of the chat night will receive a signed copy of Becoming Marie Antoinette AND the cutest fleur-de-lis tote bag!

ABOUT THE BOOK

SYNOPSIS

This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.

Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

 BOOK TRAILER


Again, thanks to all of you who are participating and to Juliet Grey for spending time with us, it's going to be a fabulous chat!  I can't wait to see where this chat takes us!


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166 comments:

  1. Ok, I'm here! I had to sign off of AOL and back on thru Internet Explorer!

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  2. I love your video. Except for the guillotining part, what do you think it would have been like to be the Queen of France?

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  3. Good evening readers and bonjour, Juliet! Thank you all for coming together to talk about Juliet's new novel Becoming Marie Antoinette!

    I shall start off with a question of my own if that's okay! Juliet - what inspired you to write a trilogy on Marie Antoinette's life?

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  4. First of all, beaucoup de bisous (many kisses) to Amy for hosting this chat!! When you sign on, can you let me know how much you know about Marie Antoinette, and whether you've read BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE, or are reading the book (or plan to, hee-hee), because I don't want to discuss "spoilers" that might be in this novel (yes, we all know how her life ends that might take away from the discovery process for other readers.

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  5. Hi you guys! I am so excited to hear the answers to these two questions...

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  6. I am buying the book this week but it is not in my hands yet.

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  7. It's not in my hands yet, either. So no spoilers, please!

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  8. Thank you for being here Juliet, I loved Becoming Marie Antoinette and am very eager for the next two books!

    Hey there Christy! So glad you made it!

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  9. Hi, ladies! Christine, I think, apart from the fabulous clothes, it would have been pretty dreadful being queen of France. They were xenophobic for one thing, and almost all queens of France were foreigners; so you started your life there on the wrong foot. Plus, France was under Salic Law, which meant that only males could inherit the throne, so not onlt was the pressure to have heirs enormous, but daughters didn't count, except as pawns in the political marriage game. So a queen HAD to give birth to a son.

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  10. Hi Amy! I am so happy to be here with two of my favorite authors, Christine and Juliet :)

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  11. The clothes would be a very positive factor, but not enough to make a woman happy I suspect...

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  12. There's one scene in the 2nd book in the trilogy (based on fact) where the king (Louis XVI by then) offerered the accoucheur (essentially a male midwife) 50,000 livres (I think it was) if he delivered MA of a son, but only 10,000 if she had a girl -- as if it was in this guy's power!

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  13. I wouldn't have been able to handle all of their strict rules and protocols, I would have gone crazy!

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  14. So there was actually really good reason for the whole court to be present at a royal birth. They really needed to make sure that the kid coming out was not a changeling

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  15. I'm here!!!!!!!! Hi everybody! I am so excited to see what questions everyone comes up with!

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  16. Hooray! I am here. I will be in and out - making a cheese.

    I have read and reviewed Becoming Marie Antoinette and several other books about her in the course of my reading life.

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  17. Hey Colleen :) Have you read Becoming Marie Antoinette yet?

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  18. Hi Priscilla...I can not wait to read this version of MA's life :)

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  19. I've been thinking a lot about the clothes, Christy. MA ordered twelve of everything per season (but I'm wondering exactly how long a "season" was -- I'm making myself giggle about cruisewear and shoulder seasons). Twelve gala gowns, formal gowns (not gala), day dresses, walking dresses, informal gowns, deshabille ... and things did get repeated because you could switch out stomachers, for example, but obviously you couldn't clean these silks, taffetas, velvets, so they'd be pretty rank by the end of the season no matter how much perfume you bought from Monsieur Fargeon.

    And the pressure to produce a son, keep up with the rigid court etiquette and the internecine backstage squabbles of the ministers and the courtiers ... not all that glamorous.

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  20. Goat's milk cheddar
    Hi Amy. Glad I could get here

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  21. I think it would just plain suck to be a woman back then.

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  22. Juliet, I have always wondered...is there any historical evidence that MA had an affair? I like to think that she never did, that it is all slander...What do you think?

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  23. Hi Christy of the beautiful book covers. :)

    OK, can you imagine a hundred people in a room staring at your giving birth? Ugh. No, the clothes wouldn't make up for it.

    Juliet, the first book of the trilogy takes us up to what point in Marie Antoinette's life?

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  24. I haven't read the book yet but I am SO excited to do so! I don't know very much about Marie's early life so this is particularly intriguing to me. Please no spoilers, I like a surprise :).

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  25. Your descriptions of all the clothes sounds amazing, Juliet. And Priscilla so does your cheese :)

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  26. I am sure you are going to love it Colleen, I couldn't put it down! Marie is so charming, I fell in love with her right away!

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  27. Only surpassed by the ice cream....

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  28. Hi, Colleen and Pricilla!! You are MAKING a cheese??? Ambitious!

    Good point about the changeling, Christy. And when MA delivered her first child the crowd was so enormous and the room so hot that things didn't go well (I have to be careful about spoilers in the 2nd book!). SHE changed the rules after that to limit the # of people who could be present to immediate family and not a 3-ring circus.

    Amy, the courtiers and bitchy members of the royal family just WAITED for newcomers to make a misstep in the etiquette. It was so nuanced. MA considers at some point in my novel, in essence, to keep a "cheat sheet" in a pocket until she can memorize it all.

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  29. It is good that Marie (and other women from history) are getting a re-telling.

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  30. Christine, your covers are gorgeous too! Love them! Yes, giving birth in a room full of people who despise you...not a good scene.

    Juliet, what did you find out about royal births in your research? The whole thing is fascinating yet horrifying to me.

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  31. Hi Juliet! Hi everyone! I imagine researching the life of Marie Antoinette must be a very daunting task. She seems so colourful. I was wondering when you were researching what were some areas you were interesting in knowing? (For example, her childhood, her friends, her lifestyle).

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  32. Amen, Pricilla. I am glad Juliet is bringing MA back to life...

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  33. Hi, Juliet! I am reading the book now - about halfway through - and I'm loving it!

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  34. Patty - you are so right and especially the more misunderstood queens are getting their stories out there and Marie Antoinette definitely qualifies as misunderstood!

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  35. Christy -- re an affair (and the only one who was her real passion was the Swedish Count Axel von Fersen) ... let's put it this way: a lawyer would say she had both motive and opportunity. I think it's extremely possible and justifiable on a number of counts. Keep an open mind. :)

    And think what it would cost someone emotionally who has always considered themselves so moral and righteous to become what they have always abhorred in others! One never knows what the heart has in store and there are many kinds of love.

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  36. Hi Na & Amy, so glad you could join the chat!

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  37. Ooohhh...that is a really good point! You intrigue me with your info on Axel...I like to think on a personal level that she had a little happiness in her life. Louis XVI was a good man, but no Axel...

    I will do as you say and keep an open mind and try not to be like her mother, waving a finger at her...

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  38. Hmmm...interesting last sentence there Juliet, I am dying for the 2nd book already :)

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  39. I wouldn't be able to stand the incredible invasion of privacy you had to live with, day in and day out. And always having to make sure you were on your best behavior to avoid scandal...no thank you!

    I do love the clothes though. I wonder how long it would take to put it all on, start to finish? That in itself seems like a full time job!

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  40. Her mother basically spent her childhood telling her she was not good enough. What the hell kind of mother is that?

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  41. So true, Colleen...and I love the idea of MA having a "cheat sheet" to help her with the court protocol...genius

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  42. Have you watched the book trailer, Colleen? Juliet demonstrates the whole process and phew, it's a big one!

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  43. I hope MA had some happiness with Axel - I've read that poor Louis was no lover... :-)

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  44. Juliet, what was your favorite part of researching this book? And as Amy mentioned (I'm sorry if I missed this) what drew you to MA?

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  45. Amy, I realized I never answered your first question about what inspired me to write a novel (or 3) about MA's life: I was researching her marriage to Louis for a nonfiction book and the more I read about the pair of them, the more I came to acknowledge that they were both extremely maligned figures in history. They were so young when they were thrust into circumstances not of their making and became involved in events that were so much greater than they were. I wanted to correct so many of the errors that have been handed down about her because history is written by the winners and they were the 2 biggest victims of the French Revolution. They were NOT responsible as a couple for the French Revolution; The obstructionist Parlements (the judicial bodies comprised of nobility and clergy) refused to ratify many of Louis's progressive edicts.

    MA did not bankrupt France by shopping. France's treasury was already broke when she got there. Her husband deepened the problem when his gov't funded, of all things, the AMERICAN Revolution. So, we wouldn't be here without them.

    And of course she never said "Let them eat cake."

    She was also not blonde. She was a redhead. Strawberry blonde, to be precise.

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  46. Let's hope that we'll find out in the first book that Marie Antoinette at least had a pleasant childhood, given how so much went wrong when she crossed the border!! Or is her story truly heartbreaking from beginning to end?

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  47. I read, I think it was Antonia Fraser's book on MA years ago - my brain is very bad - and she did not leave Louis in a good light if I recall

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  48. Good point, Amy B...poor Louis...but even more so Poor MA!

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  49. She was very harsh, Patty, but I think she was trying to toughen her up because she knew what was in store for her at the French court.

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  50. I have always said - being a student of history - that history is written by the victors and it is THEIR vision of what happened that we read. Not what really happened but what they want us to believe happened

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  52. I never knew she was a red head...and Amy that's a good point about her mother trying to toughen her up.

    Juliet, is it true that MA got shipped to France at the age of 14? Or is my brain confusing her with someone else? I do that...

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  53. Pricilla, her mother was a piece of work! But to command the respect she did in her day (and the Hapsburg Empire) she would have to have been I suppose.

    Christine, the first book takes us from the day (at age 10) when MA learns she is to wed the dauphin of France (Louis Auguste, 1 year her senior) to May 10, 1774, the day Louis XV died and Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI ascended the throne.

    Book 2, DAYS OF SPLENDOR, DAYS OF SORROW, picks up with the aftermath of Louis XV's death and takes us through the aftermath of the fall of the Bastille in July 1789; and book 3 (title still under discussion) goes from July 1789 to that horrible day -- October 16, 1793, when MA was executed.

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  54. Oh that third book is going to be so hard to write for you Juliet! I know I'm not looking forward to it either :(

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  55. Juliet, I am getting chills as you describe the books to come. I can't wait!

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  56. Juliet, I was really surprised at how you described some of the nastier aspects of Versailles, did people really tinkle in the hallways?

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  57. I think it is hard to compare parenting practices of old to what we considered good parenting now. I think if you didn't harden your girls a little bit, they would never make it through the kind of life they would have. It wasn't sweet or positive necessarily, but better to prepare someone for what is to come then to shelter them and throw them to the wolves!

    Christie, I didn't know M. had a cheat sheet! Ingenous! If someone stated that here, so sorry I missed it! It is hard to keep up with the posting :)

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  58. I can't imagine what it would be like being shipped to another country where I was not that familiar with the language, knowing I'd probably never see my mother or sisters again, to marry some stranger...

    I think some people judge MA way to harshly.

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  59. Yes, Christy, MA was sent to France at the age of 14. She never saw her family again.

    I love Louis (the dauphin). I have a tremendous soft spot for him and I think he has always gotten a bum rap, not just in history books but in other fiction and certainly in the movies. He wasn't stupid. He was nearsighted, so he bumped into things because -- get this -- it was not comme il faut for the king to be seen wearing spectacles!!!

    Anyway, I see him as sort of the fat kid in school who always gets bullied by the other kids. Although Louis was tremendously strong (he loved to cart stones around with the palace masons -- and of course he was teased for liking things peasants liked); but he was a tremendous hunter and equestrian as well. However he was also a tremendous gourmand and fat ran in the Bourbon family. But I kept wanting to put my arms around him and hug him.

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  60. Got to go put the curds in the press. I'll be back in a bit

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  61. Juliet, I especially loved the part about MA's braces. Was that factual?

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  62. Colleen and Amy, it must have been hard on parents who loved their children to send them away, bascially throwing them to the wolves. Harder for the children, though, I'll bet.

    Peeing in the halls of a royal palace really is gross. They sure won't let you get away with that nowadays ...or course, it's all peasants like myself visiting there now...

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  63. Oh, wow, books two and three sounds really good too! Knowing what will happen in book three will make it chilling to read. I can only imagine, as Amy said, how hard it will be to write it, liking killing off a friend.

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  64. They did tinkly behind potted plants and such, so my scene wasn't such a fictional stretch.

    Maria Theresa was harsh on MA -- more so that she was on some of her other children. She's on record scolding her for being flighty and frivolous. BUT she also had NO understanding of what it was like to live in a foreign court, let alone the court of Versailles, and what was expected of people there.

    Amy, the third book is going to be impossible. I broke down in hysterical sobs writing the last pages of the synopsis for my editor last month. I was crying so hard that my husband came over and had to hold me. And I don't know if my editor had read it yet, but I know my agent was so moved that she said she needed a drink after reading it.

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  65. I know I will have some tissues ready and be reading away from my husband - he likes to make fun of me when I cry at books...which is kinda often! The HF genre doesn't have too many happy endings :)

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  66. Oh Juliet, you poor thing! I'll be sure to have a drink ready too!

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  67. I can't imagine. The facts are one thing but writing with the emotions of the people involved has to be impossibly draining.

    It's hard enough to read but to create - no thank you

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  68. Juliet, thank you for setting the record straight about Louis. You make me love him just talking about him here.

    The third book is going to make us all cry...I don't know how you're going to write it, but it is probably the most important part to set the record straight, the part of her life that really needs to be told.

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  69. Oops; typo. That was supposed to be "tinkle."

    With specific regard to MT and MA, I think part of the issue with them was that Maria Theresa really was pragmatic to the point of being cold hearted. She really had no idea how bad things were (and would become) for MA at Versailles, though she makes a couple of chilling predictions in some of her letters. There surely were some royal mothers who had a very hard time letting go, but Maria Theresa was not one of them, except when it came to one of her older daughters (Maria Christina, maybe?? -- I can't recall which one at the moment, but it was the one who married beneath her socially and really pissed off her mother).

    But MT sent Charlotte (Maria Carolina) off with no tears shed and did the same with MA.

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  70. Tinkling in the hallways...peep-show birthing.....methinks the French court was not quite as elegant as it is portrayed in the movies!

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  71. Yes, Amy, not only are the braces factual, but the dentist who did the orthodontia in the novel, Pierre Laveran, is indeed the man who came to Vienna to do the work on MA's teeth. And I researched what 18th c. braces would have been like and found the technique I discuss in the book. I feel safe in saying that those braces ("Fauchard's Bandeau") is likely what she would have had.

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  72. From a perspective of a daughter, I woud be devasted to never see my parents again. I imagine it would also be hard for the parents. Never is a very long time.

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  73. Thanks for the braces info, Juliet. My husband and I were arguing about it and you've claimed me the winner.

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  74. I never knew she had braces...how cool is that? I can NOT wait to read this book!!

    Na, I agree, never is hard to fathom...poor little thing

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  75. I am with you, Na! She had to leave everything and everyone she had ever known for her entire life and that has got to be devastating. MA had more strength than people gave her credit for!

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  76. Gah - that description about did me in. The braces

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  77. I'm just hoping my readers will follow me, not only into book 2, but into book 3. I've been seeing comments online from readers saying that they're not sure they want to read BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE because of how she ends her life (as in tragically). Well, yes. But of course with ALL HF about dead queens, we know the ending. In fact with any HF about real people, we already know they're, um, all dead by now!

    But I guess some readers don't want to read a book that will make them cry any more than I would willingly watch a slasher movie. :)

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  78. Ha Christine! It would be quite the experience to be able to go back and see just how different the times were from now...stinky!

    Oh, Juliet, now I KNOW I am going to cry! I will have tissues and some wine to calm my nerves :).

    Amy, my husband teases me too :). I was reading a book one time where a child dies and the mom has to come to terms with what happens, and I was hysterically crying. My husband came home from work to find me sobbing uncontrollably. He thought someone must have died! When I started to hiccup what I had read he got almost mad at first since he thought someone was hurt. Then he got over it and has teased me about it ever since!

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  79. I am so glad you're writing the third one, Juliet. We will all shout about it from the rooftops...all of her life is important. All of it is worth remembering...and honoring, as you are doing with these novels.

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  80. Hi, Na,

    I agree with you -- "never is a very long time"! And MA wasn't supposed to be devastated that she was leaving her family forever (and there are other farewells in BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE as well). She was supposed to hold her head high and swallow her tears with dignity. Could any of us have done that at 14, no matter how much we had been schooled from the cradle to accept our destiny?

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  81. Well, you are read. They are all dead. The point is in reliving their lives with a new perspective. I said in my review that in reading your book and because of your writing style that even though I KNEW what was going to happen I was still turning the pages as if I did not.

    It's those little tidbits of info or the dialog an author puts into the characters mouths that makes these books so fascinating

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  82. Just made it...time zone thing. Julia, I just got my ebook today. Hope to start it soon!!

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  83. Oh there is no way in hell that I am not reading books two and three! I'm chomping at the bit right now, even if I do know how it ends. I love trilogies so I say bring it on!

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  84. That seems silly to me, not to want to read a book because you know it will be sad! I personally like a little crying fit with my reading :). But really, if we tried to cut everything out of our life that was sad, what would we learn? I cannot wait to read all three books!

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  85. Amy I agree! I want them all in my hands right now!

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  86. colleen, that is so true. If a writer makes me cry, she's made me step into the world she's created and made it real. It is a good thing.

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  87. "because of your writing style that even though I KNEW what was going to happen I was still turning the pages as if I did not."...I completely agree, Patty! I am so attached to MA already and that's because of how you have written her Juliet.

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  88. Hi Juliet!

    Your books sound amazing. I don't know much about MA's early life. How many siblings did she have? Was her mother still alive when MA died? Does your third book cover any family reactions?

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  89. Oh, I keep forgetting to mention the book trailer video! Even with help, it takes me 1.5 hours to get dressed. It takes me almost 45 minutes just to pin up all my hair under the wig and to get the wig on.

    Now, in MA's day women didn't wear wigs anymore; they powdered their own hair and added false tresses, made from human or horsehair, piled up or braided, with horsehair pads to add height, or the woman's hair was pomaded and ratted with a comb and teased over a wire cage. A fancy coiffure could take 4 hours just for the styling. And they got dressed a few times a day, depending on where they were going.

    They got dressed in public, too. A queen (or king, or royal mistress, or other royals) held two "toilettes" -- a private one for friends and family where they'd shoot the breeze and drink coffee or hot chocolate, and a public one where they would greet ministers and courtiers and people with petitions for one thing or another.

    You were always "on" at Court. It was fatiguing. And if you've ever seen Versailles, it's so vast, you'd get exhausted getting from one end of the place to the next.

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  90. There is nothing I love more than a book that when I put it down I have to shake my head and wonder where I am.

    I am reading one now that I read a page. I put it down. I read another page and I put it down. I'll get it read but I'm not sucked in. I want to get so lost in a story that I have to be shaken out.

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  91. You got it Christy!

    Juliet, I am curious. Did you come upon anything in your research that really shocked you? Or, anything that you didn't want to include? I am always curious about what authors leave on the cutting room floor.

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  92. I am actually drawn to books that make me cry. I both dread it and want that emotional connection. Now, ironically why does this feel like a "LOL" moment>

    Juliet, no matter how trained to hold my head high, I would be bawling. It seems it wasn't just the waistline society had a tight rein on, it was on emotions as well.

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  93. I remember Versailles. It was exhausting just taking the tour....

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  94. Hi Ashley and Kathleen, so happy to have you join us!

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  95. I am dying to go on a castle tour in France, that is my dream vacation! Anyone with me? :)

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  96. The book trailer for this novel is very cool...I posted it on Twitter...

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  97. Oh I am with you Priscilla! I want my six year old to be yelling at me to pay attention and I don't even hear him because I am so wrapped up in the story!

    Ashley, great question about any family members being alive when MA died and if any of their reactions are recorded.

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  98. Christy - I love Amy's chats. I live in the middle of nowhere and this lets me "talk" with people who love HF as much as I do.

    My goats only eat my books. They are not conversationalists

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  99. Patty - love your last comment, I am the same way!! It's not Calgon, take me away it's Books, take me away!

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  100. A castle tour in France! I am there!! And we can have a fancy lunch with Celtic Lady :)

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  101. Thank you Pricilla!!

    Hi, Ashley! Marie Antoinette had 15 siblings, but she was the next to youngest (she was the youngest daughter) and several of her siblings were practically a generation older than she was. Her olderst brother, who became Emperor Joseph II was 15 years older than she was, for example. Her mother, Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, died in 1780 (book 2). For all the woman's long-distance scolding and tough-love parenting, MA was utterly devastated at her death. Can't put any spoilers in here, though.

    Re: crying at books. I remember reading THE LOVELY BONES when I was working a secretarial job and I would keep it in my bag and take it out to read on the subway to and from work, and I would find myself crying hysterically in the middle of the subway car. I cry at the end of Jodi Picoult books, too.

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  102. I am with you Amy! Do I hear a road trip...wait, more like a plane trip :)? I would LOVE to go to France!

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  103. Pricilla, your goats appreciate you, they just don't know how to say so :) I love gatherings of HF lovers..I feel so at home among my own kind. :)

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  104. Amy - I went once and fell in love. I would love to go back.

    I had this freaky experience in Chennonceau - walked in, saw lots of people dancing in big ball gowns and promptly passed out. Scared every one. And myself

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  105. Haha, your goats are too cute, Patty! The book I'm reading now has tiny kitten teeth holes in the cover, so I can relate :)

    Colleen - my husband yells at me all the time because I never listen to him when he talks, but he should know better than to try to talk to me when I'm reading! Duh!

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  106. Juliet, i cried at the Lovely Bones too...luckily I did not read it on the subway. of course, I imagine no one would have noticed.

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  107. Oh geez, The Lovely Bones...a total sob fest for me! And funny enough the end of Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz had me bawling too, wasn't expecting that!

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  108. All The Numbers by Judy Merrill Larson is the book that did me in! Now that was one emotional release, I don't think I had a tear left in my head!

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  109. Wow Pricilla, that is so wild! What an amazing experience, but one you probably do NOT want to repeat...

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  110. My husband always looks at me like I lost my mind when I cry over a book. I have to read alone too!

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  111. Right on, that would be one kick ass trip with all of you girls!

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  112. Just watched the video..awesome..can you imagine having to go through all that to get dressed everyday??

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  113. I am so glad MA has you to speak for her, Juliet.

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  114. Even time I read about a real historical site and place I want to visit there and pretend I am that character. My list of places to visit is growing only slightly slower than my to be read books.

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  115. That is freaky, Patty! I just got the heebie-jeebies!

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  116. Ugh, I have enough trouble putting on sweat pants and a t-shirt

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  117. Speaking of visiting places - Juliet, did you do any in-person visiting for the series?

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  118. It was very weird. Would love to go back and see if it happens again...
    Would like to know what era I saw

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  119. Oh my gosh, Priscilla, that is really quite an experience you had at Chennonceau! Did anyone else see the dancers?

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  120. I would love to go through Versailles with someone who knows the place in and out (I'm talking to you, Juliet!).
    :-)

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  121. I had to cut a lot out, I think. My editor wanted more, and then after I wrote all this stuff (about how MA behaved at the Opera, for instance -- she stood up and cheered and applauded, not knowing that NO ONE did that in France), it ended up on the cutting room floor.

    One thing I learned as I did my research, and which surprised me, because everything I learned back in high school was the propaganda about the bubblebrain who went from heedless to headless, was just how generous she was -- SUCH a far cry from terrible things that have been written about her, then and now. She was always opening her purse: when a hospital burned to the ground in Paris, when the royal hunt trampled a peasant's fields, etc. She was also much stronger (of sterner stuff) than I had anticipated. She might have looked like she was made of gossamer, but she had a tensile core, sometimes to the point of utter stubbornness. Her mother's daughter after all -- which is something that catches HER by surprise!

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  122. Ahahaha, you are killing me tonight, Patty! Too funny, I would live in sweat pants if I could, I'm like George Constanza!

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  123. Good question, Ashely...Pricilla that is really wild!

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  124. It almost sounds like the book I am reading now Priscilla with the shifting of era's... would be cool though>.

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  125. "My goats only eat my books. They are not conversationalists." - LOL Priscilla!

    Now I'm worried about bawling my way through the trilogy, yet I suspect it will make the reading experience that much richer.

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  126. Juliet, how cool that she was so generous. I am sorry the opera scene didn't make it into the book...

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  127. It's not all sad, Christine! There are some really funny parts, Juliet's humor really shines through!

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  128. I wish that history was taught by historical fiction writers instead of my high school teachers. It would so much more interesting and human!

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  129. Christy, I am SO up for that castle tour in France!!

    Speaking of which -- I did visit Versailles in 2009 while I was writing the book and walked my little tootsies off (I want them to sell BMA in their giftshop!) And I walked through the Paris that MA would have known. You want tears? You should have been with me in the Conciergerie! I was so angry I was shaking. And THEIR giftshop had the nerve to sell busts of MA! They beheaded her and now they sell faux plaster busts of her for something like $60! The sick irony of it! Making money off of the fact that they killed her. I wanted to buy it just to throw against the wall in front of them.

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  130. I second that, Ashley! I might have stayed awake :)

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  131. Too funny, Priscilla!

    Juliet, are there any nonfiction books about MA you recommend? To go along with your novels? I like to read up on a subject as much as possible to really feel like I am there!

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  132. I love, love, love, these gatherings of HF lovers, too! It's like singing a favorite song right in my best key!

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  133. The Conciergerie is an insult to their memory. Such an awful place.

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  134. Juliet - NOW that would make a book trailer scene

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  135. I've heard the NF book on MA by Antoinia Fraser was good, but I haven't read it yet. Did you read that one Juliet?

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  136. We love that you're here Juliet! And that you've written these books!

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  137. That is the one I read Amy and it was good. Her writing is easy to read for non fiction and I have read several of her books

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  138. I also just love this HF chats! I want to go to one of the conventions I keep hearing about but so far they are too far away for me to go :(. Too bad we don't all live closer together...I bet we are pretty spread out!

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  139. Hubby just got in so I must go cook dinner. This time zone difference....

    and then the goats must go to the barn. They rule my life.

    Amy - THANK YOU.
    Juliet - THANK YOU

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  140. I read the Evelyne Lever bio. It was pretty good. I'll have to read the Fraser one. SOON.

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  141. Thanks guys! I will pick up the Antonia Frasier book too! It is actually already on my wishlist..along with like 200 more!

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  142. I wish we lived closer too, Colleen! It would great to have a local HF book club.

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  143. Meanwhile, I tend to live in yoga pants, but I miss excuses to wear nice dresses and heels!

    All right, Amy -- plane trip! I actually did the Versailles Glide (that's the fully little walk you see me doing at the end of the book trailer) AT Versailles. My very supportive husband did, however, raise his hand to the side of his face and pretend he didn't know me.

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  144. Thank you for coming, Patty! Have a great night and tell the goats I said hello :)

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  145. Thanks Amy! I haven't heard of Evelyne Lever before so I will look that one up too!

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  146. Juliet- I loved the book. I tend to stick to English history as that's where all of my ancestors came from so I'm drawn to it

    (Side note: Christy, I'm so excited to read your book To Be Queen as I just found out that Eleanor of Aquitaine was my great-great.... grandmother.)

    So, I was really excited to delve into a little French history. It is a bit difficult to read and fall in love with this girl knowing how it all turns out for her. I developed a soft spot for Louis as well. They just seem like two sweet kids who ended up way in over their heads.

    I can't imagine being a woman back then, let alone a queen. I live in yoga pants, t-shirts and my hair in a pony tail. I wouldn't survive.

    Can't wait for the next book.

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  147. I know I'm too late to chat, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading over the comments! I loved the book, and can't wait for the next two!

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  148. darn, I missed the chat, so mad, as I just received the novel thru NetGalley! Are you planning to post some of the chat?
    By the way, for once, I hated the book trailer, and really if I didn't know about the book and the author, it would not encourage me to read it, there's so much more in the book! Bad marketing, I think
    Emma @ Words And Peace

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  149. Hi Emma,

    The chat is actually in the comments section of this post. I actually really enjoyed the trailer as I had never seen the dressing process enacted before so that was pretty cool.

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  150. Sorry I missed the chat, being on the other side of the world, I got the timing mixed up LOL

    I can't wait to read Becoming Marie Antoinette, I didn't realise she had 15 siblings. The only novel I have read about her was The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson and I enjoyed that. She was certainly misunderstood and I'm so looking forward to learning more

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  151. To explain the premise of the video -- it was not intended to be a traditional book trailer and tell the story of the novel but to show me literally "becoming" Marie Antoinette, as I dress, layer by layer, in the period accurate undergarments and then the garments she might have worn then, and applying the enormous circles of rouge that were mandated by Frenc court etiquette for the highest ranking women at court, and then demonstrating the Versailles Glide -- the unique walk that the noblewomen at Versailles performed to ambulate through the halls.

    The point of the video was to give people an idea of how much of a transformation was necessary to "become Marie Antoinette." Sorry it didn't meet your expectations of a book trailer, World.

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  152. Ooops, my last comment was to Emma; I meant to type Words and it came out World.

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