The Royal We and Her Maj

We ducked into Hamleys -- the giant seven-story toy store, which was my FAVORITE place as a kid and yet I now understand why my parents dreaded setting foot in it as IT IS A MADHOUSE -- because it appears in the book briefly. And then we remembered the Lego Royalty that are dotted around the store, and could not resist giving QEII a little reading material. (When we saw the ACTUAL Queen at Windsor, we debated chucking the book at her car, or under her tires, but decided that a photo of the book IN JAIL with us was not as desirable for us personally.)

The Royal We and Wills and Kate

These pillows are among several on this bench at Kensington Palace. William appears to be pondering whether Nick has as much, more, or less hair than he does, while Kate is curious to know when she got bodysnatched by Kristen Stewart. In all seriousness, I LOVE these throw pillow portraits, even though several are ragingly inaccurate. They're just great.

The Royal We and The Tower

This was us celebrating that nobody chucked us INTO the Tower for anything to do with the writing of this novel.

The Royal We and The Royal They

Back at Hamleys: Jessica cheerfully waves the book under Lego Kate's nose. Lego Kate pretends nothing out of the ordinary is happening.

The Royal We and Harry

Whereas I went to Lego Harry and started reading him the saucy bits. He was ENGROSSED.

The Royal We at Liberty

Which wallet would YOU carry?

(If you are not familiar with Liberty, it's a very tranquil and SUPER expensive store. It sells all manner of things, but is known for its proprietary patterns. In my day they were paisleys and florals and things, and in some cases they still are, but the purses and leather goods have gone in this direction. They have some black and white ones right now with neon interiors and they are SO CUTE but I am not made of money WHY AM I NOT MADE OF MONEY.)

The Royal We and H.P.

You'd better BELIEVE we visited this when we went to King's Cross Station. You'd also better believe I had Jessica Snapchat me running straight at the wall with my suitcase and bouncing off of it, but it is lost to the sands of time because this turned out to be was Day One of The Great Snapchat Deletion Scandale: All my saved snaps -- they store offline until I can get to a Wifi connection -- totally vanished forever, which means we lost that, the entire train ride to Edinburgh, and most of Holyroodhouse, including our fantastic tea there with adorable hourglass tea timers and my oh so modern Days Of Our Lives joke. I weep for those lost bits of insanity.

Also, here, my hair was wet and in the awkward middle stage of air-drying (which is kind of like puberty: nothing is doing what you want it to and you just have to ride it out and assume things will look as they should when it's all done).

The Royal We and Hedge Maze

The book tried to bury itself in the Hampton Court Palace hedge maze. NICE TRY, BOOK.

The Royal We and Gaz's Street

Gaz, early on, lives on this street near the V&A Museum and the South Kensington Tube stop. So, on our way back from the V&A, we obviously had to pause and document this for posterity.

The Royal We and LIES

This is where we realized that the words "Thurloe Place" did not survive into the actual book. It turned out to be one of those details that was expendable because including it meant nothing to anyone but a small handful of people, and cutting it didn't hurt the narrative, nor the scene-setting. But of corse neither of us remembered that we'd sliced it out until I tried to find the actual page. "No one will KNOW if you're on the actual page," Jessica pointed out, which I ... had not thought of, which speaks highly of my mental function.

The Royal We and Holyroodhouse

This is the monarchy's official residence in Scotland. (Balmoral is owned by The Queen herself.) It's a GREAT old pile in the vein of Kensington Palace -- very lived-in-feeling, less opulent than Buck House and its ilk. We loved it, and there's a dynamite fashion exhibit there right now, which you'll hear more about soon.

The Royal We and Hampton Court, Part 2

Jessica obviously just got to a juicy bit.

The Royal We and Hampton Court

Am I waving to my subjects or giving a dramatic reading? OR BOTH? The answer: just hanging out the window of a prop carriage, like a loon, with a book I wrote. And making other tourists roll their eyes.

The Royal We and St. Salvatore's

Well. My purse was bigger, so I was The Keeper of The Novel. And what did I do on the day we went to St. Andrews? I LEFT IT AT THE HOTEL. Jessica had to call it up on her phone. I HAD ONE(ish) JOB. Also, some really friendly Americans offered to take our photo together, but I won't show it to you because I'm vain. Wait, what's that you say? I deserve to show it to you because I blew bringing the book? FINE.

The Royal We and The Royal Standard

And finally, we have the book with The Royal Standard in the background, which is the flag that flies when the Queen is in residence somewhere (it's the Union Jack when she isn't). This is from our day at Windsor; the Waterloo room, which is VERY SIGNIFICANT, was closed because the Obamas were popping by the next day for lunch (as one does) and they don't allow photography in the castle ANYWAY so it was a no-go getting anything inside it. Please do not ask why we didn't get something of us in front of the actual awesome edifice, rather than this No Entry road sign. We are not good planners.

The Royal We and The Goring

We ate lunch at the hotel where Kate stayed on her last night as a single lady. We did not do the Single Ladies dance.

The Royal We and a Statue

So THAT'S what becomes of Clive.

THE ROYAL WE Paperback Is Here!

As you may know from our many references to it, and also the fact that we've been blanketing our various social media feeds with photos, we were just in the UK -- on the grace and favor of Visit Britain -- for the Queen's birthday. And the trip dates could not have been timed better, because it was the week preceding the birth of our book's paperback format, so we carted it along with us and photographed it in various places of import (and some of frivolity). We'll be posting more pictures from the trip, which was absurdly scenic and full of good rugs, but for now please enjoy The Royal We gamboling about the country. The all-new bonus chapter assures me that it had a wonderful time. As of today, the paperback is available everywhere you might expect it to be -- and there's a new place where you can pick up a copy: Your local Target, which will never stop being thrilling. I am going to visit it there myself today, and every other day that I walk into a Target (which is a lot). You can also get it from Barnes & Noble stores or hopefully your favorite local indie bookseller (Kramerbooks in D.C. tweeted us a photo of the VERY awesome placement they gave us), or order it it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound. And while I've got you: You can still get it on Kindle. You can still order it for your Nook. You can still order it on iBooks. You can still order it on Kobo. Not sure what The Royal We is? First, I shall direct you to this page, which includes a synopsis and a variety of lovely blurbs, from People to The New York Times. Then I shall note with no shortage of glee that Lauren Graham (!) optioned it and is developing it as a movie that would star Mae Whitman (!!). (And, that's as much as we know; we're not involved at this point, although you'd better believe that if it gets to the casting stage, we will beg and plead our way into that room.) And finally: If you bought the hardback, I am so sorry we can't go back in time and give you the bonus chapter, too. (The ebook will automatically update.) We appreciate your support immeasurably -- and that goes for all of you. Whether you bought it tangibly or electronically, or checked it out from your local library, or borrowed your friend's copy, your faith in the book has meant more to us than we could possibly express. THANK YOU. We love you all.