Book signing event

Just a quick note to let people know I’ll be at this year’s American Library Association Conference in Philadelphia. I’ll be signing copies of my books at the Amazon Business booth (#1717) in the Exhibition Hall inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center at 1pm on Sunday, June 29th. Because who doesn’t love librarians?

This is a HUGE event. If you’re planning on being there, stop by and say hello!

“The ALA is a nonprofit organization that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.”

There's More to the Story...

First, thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed The Golden Age of Magic so far while it’s an Amazon Prime Member First Reads selection! The book’s official release date is July 1, 2025 for everyone else.

And, yes, the story continues! Those familiar with my novels probably already know that since writing The Vine Witch trilogy, my follow-up books have all been set up as duologies. I try to write the first one as a stand alone as far as the main plot goes, but leave certain situations still pending resolution for the second installment.

The second book in The Golden Age of Magic series is titled The Gilded City of Dreams. It is set in New York City and will be out spring of 2026. If you’re left feeling like something in the first book wasn’t resolved satisfactorily, it just might get more attention in the next story. Hint: Don’t give up on Nick just yet! Sometimes a girl just has to take care of business before pleasure.

Thank you again for reading!

-Luanne

A First Reads Selection FOR JUNE!

I’m happy to announce that The Golden Age of Magic is a First Reads choice for June! If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can read the book one month before its official release on July 1st at no additional cost to you.

I had so much fun writing this novel about fairy godmothers in 1920s Hollywood (be sure to check out my previous post about my research trip to L.A.). As with all my books, there’s magic, mischief, and murder wrapped up in a bit of mystery. I hope you enjoy the story!

Happy Reading!

Luanne

Synopsis:

Against the backdrop of 1920s Hollywood, a young fairy godmother on a mission is embroiled in malicious magic, mystery, and murder in a thrilling historical fantasy by the bestselling author of The Vine Witch.

Celeste is about to become one of the thirteen Fées Gardiennes, a centuries-old sisterhood of fairy godmothers. To be granted full status, she must usher her first protégé onto their path of destiny. Where better to find a starry-eyed ward than in the land of magic and illusion called Hollywood?

It’s 1927. The moviemaking business is booming when Celeste befriends a young studio seamstress whose dreams outshine everyone else’s. Rose is talented and underappreciated and could use some enchanted intervention in her life. Plans proceed swimmingly, and Celeste even catches the eye of a handsome producer. But after a series of unexplained accidents on the studio lot stir up rumors of a curse, Celeste fears the trouble is more personal—the spiteful meddling of a fellow Gardienne out to thwart Celeste’s success.

But the sabotage turns sinister when a starlet is murdered and it’s Rose who stands accused. As vengeance, dark magic, and betrayal wreak havoc, Celeste must come into her full power to save her innocent protégé and secure her own future in a cherished, ancient, and now threatened sisterhood.

LET THE GLAMOUR BEGIN!

The Golden Age of Hollywood

My soon-to-be-released novel, The Golden Age of Magic, is set in Hollywood, 1927. It is about the movie business but mostly focuses on a seamstress who works in the costume department of a fictional Hollywood studio. I was fortunate enough to travel out to California to do some research for the story. Mostly studio tours and museums, although I did maybe spend a night or two at The Beverly Hills Hotel, since my character—a fairy godmother in training—sets herself up in one of their bungalows for her stay. Research!

I’d been to Los Angeles and the surrounding area a few times before, but this was the first chance I got to indulge my movie buff side. I love the movies. I have since I was a young child. In fact, I was that weird girl who stayed in on Saturday mornings in the summer to watch old black and white movies featuring Jean Harlow, Mae West, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Abbot & Costello, and my favorite: Errol Flynn as Robin Hood. Really, I’d watch whatever came on our local Channel 2 in Denver (this was way before anyone had cable television and abundant choices), and I would sit there transfixed until it was over. I had it bad. I remember one night when I was about ten-years old my family tried to get me to go outside to watch an incredibly rare eclipse of the moon. I said, “Nah, I’m good. I’m watching my cliffhangers right now.”

I think my obsession with movie watching at such a young age was just an early phase of my growing addiction to stories. Movies were a quick fix for someone who hadn’t yet learned to read books on her own. And these movies had drama, acting, and costumes! It was all very alluring to a developing mind that craved the language of story, something I believe is innate to most humans. It’s just that some of us get a bigger high off of storytelling than others.

Below are a few photos I took on my trip last year. So much of The Golden Age of Magic was inspired by the things I saw and read about while I was in L.A.. And while the tours and museums were fascinating and indispensable to the writing of the novel, what I really loved was that everywhere I went I was surrounded by fellow movie buffs who couldn’t get enough. My people!

The Hollywood Museum on Highland Ave.

THE director’s chair.

Who doesn’t love Claudette Colbert?

The Bronson Gate — Sunset Boulevard, anyone?

Costume props at Paramount Studios.

An Edith Head drawing. She was part inspiration for the character Rose.

Warner Bros studio head’s phone book. Look at all the famous names on one page!

Had to do it.

Not Your Mother's Fairy Godmothers

My upcoming novel, The Golden Age of Magic, plays with the trope of fairy godmothers. In The Annotated Brothers Grimm by Maria Tatar, the Sleeping Beauty tale mentions thirteen Wise Women who were invited to the christening of Princess Aurora, the king’s daughter. It’s that line that kicked off the idea for the story. In that tale, they are called Wise Women, a term that conjures images of healers, midwives, and herb workers tucked away in a cottage deep in the woods. A sisterhood of women who were bestowers of the magical gifts of health and good fortune.

We also know that one of the thirteen has a less than stellar reputation in the kingdom after cursing the child and leaving her for dead. If not for the intervention of the final Wise Woman who had one last gift to give, the king’s child would have been doomed. Instead, the Wise Woman chose to temper the curse with the prospect of sleep.

At some point in time, the Wise Women in the tale were reimagined as fairy godmothers, but I always liked the more rustic idea of a group of women who lived in the woods brewing their elixirs and studying their magic somewhere on the outskirts of the kingdom. Minding their own business until called upon for a favor. But kingdoms fall. Wars break out. Time marches on. So what happened to the women in the woods, who’d come to be known as fairy godmothers, once the world they’d been created in no longer existed?

Imagining that the sisterhood of thirteen continued through to the twentieth century posed a fun question for me. What would they do in the age of airplanes and automobiles, movie theaters and skyscrapers? What would happen if one was sent to Hollywood in 1927? Well, in the novel they’re not stuck in the woods anymore. Just like any other modern woman, they’re exploring their freedom in the roaring twenties. Maybe a little more so since, you know, magic.

Art by Louis Icart