The twelfth and final Pink book comes out tomorrow!

All the feels, all the feels.

I started the first Pink Carnation book fourteen years ago, in the spring of 2001, at my rickety desk in a tumbledown house in Somerville that I shared with three other grad students. I took that manuscript with me (on floppy disk!) to my basement flat in London, and finished it up in the spring of 2003, in the final weeks of being twenty-five.

It is very, very strange to me now to look back at that time and realize that I had absolutely no idea that just a few months later that manuscript would be in the hands of an editor, or, even stranger, that twelve years on, in 2015, the Pink Carnation’s story would be seeing the light of day. It wouldn’t have computed. The date “2015” would have sounded like something straight out of sci fi. As for twelve Pink books…. No. At the time, I thought I would be extremely lucky to write three.

So, basically, I’ve been extremely lucky times four. And then some. Thank you all, so much, for coming along on the Pink Carnation’s journey with me. I hope this story, when it arrives tomorrow, hits the spot and rings true to what we’ve seen of Jane over the past eleven books. I’ve tried to keep her both true to what she was and true to what she has become, over so many and years and so many missions.

We’ve grown up together, the Pink Carnation and I.

One thing I can tell you: the end certainly isn’t the end for the Pink Carnation. She has many adventures still to come. And I hope to have many more stories to share with you– Pink Carnation or no!

Special thanks to Ashley and her merry band of guest bloggers at the Bubblebath Reader for the amazing year long read-along of all the Pink books. It’s been a privilege getting to see the books through your eyes. (And through Miss Eliza’s dream casting!)

Thanks also to Christine for letting us all experience the Pink books in another way: through baked goods! You can find the full list of Pink recipes, including one for The Lure of the Moonflower, by clicking here.

As for what comes next…. I’ll post more about that in the fall, once I’ve recovered from this summer’s back to back book releases!