Just a little visual present for Christmas and a glimpse of what I’ve been working on.  The next two books will be published by Kensington Publishing, and set in the domain of Parisian chocolate.  The research has been a lot of delicious fun, and since I have permission from both of the top chocolatiers who helped me with it to show the photos they allowed me to take here on my blog, I’m going to try to show you bits and pieces of that research.  Over the next eighteen months (things are so slow in publishing) before the next book comes out…  (At the pace at which I blog anymore, that is probably how much time I need…)

Here is a box of Jacques Genin’s chocolates, from my visit to his laboratoire and salon.  Jacques Genin is considered by many to be the best chocolatier in the world.  I’m still trying to taste all the chocolatiers in the world, so I can’t yet confirm with absolute certainty that question of the best, but I do have to say that his chocolate is extraordinary.  And his salon de thé un vrai délice, visually as well as via the palate.

Jacques Genin

133, rue de Turenne, Paris.  This is in the 3rd arrondissement, but right off République, an unusual and intriguing spot to find one of the best chocolatiers in Paris.  Tél: 01 45 77 29 01.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Enjoy good food and good times and snuggle up with a good book or two when the weather outside gets frightful.   Thanks as always to everyone for all the emails and for reading!

I’m trying to get organized to start sharing once or twice a month some updates on the next book and the delicious research involved, but in the meantime, I just had to share this: the French meal named by UNESCO as a patrimony of humanity.  One of humanity’s world treasures.  I love it!

Of course, this means I’ve been on the receiving end of comments today such as:

Sébastien, when I first shared the news, an embarrassed, self-deprecating:  “Well, it is true that the French cuisine is the best in the world…but, I don’t know if we need to show off that way.”

Sébastien, later, over the baguette I picked up at a grocery store (I know, I know, but I’m too busy to drive an hour to get the only good baguettes we can around here).  Snickering:  “Well, we can tell whose cuisine won’t ever be named a global patrimony…”

Sébastien, sighing, reflecting on his patrimony:  “You know, I really miss France.”

Me, I definitely miss its CHOCOLATE.  More on that research to share just as soon as I can get this next proposal together and finish up at a conference!

THANK YOU to everyone who has continued to check in via email from time to time to see what’s going on and when there might be a new book.  Summer 2012 is when.  More later!

It’s here!  The mass market of Blame It on Paris hits the shelves today.  For anyone not familiar with publishing lingo, “mass market” means the smaller paperback that is, conveniently, a lot cheaper.   It also becomes available in electronic format.

Thanks so much to all of you who read it and recommended it to friends and even random strangers!  Actually, I have 5 secret tips on how to win friends and influence people, and ONE of them is to give them a copy of Blame It on Paris.  I will tell you the other four later.

If you haven’t read it yet, don’t miss this comic and romantic true story about falling in love with a place, a culture, and a person.