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I used to live on the same peninsula as this breeding colony of royal albatrosses, (I lived nearly 20 kilometres away at the city end). What amazing birds they are. Pairs return to the place of their choice every two years to lay a single egg and take turns in keeping the egg warm and in feeding the fledgling. It’s a long process. Up to two and a half months from laying the egg to hatching, a further eight to nine months before the juvenile bird takes flight. The young birds will be gone for six years, flying up to 1800 kilometres in 24 hours, never touching land in all that time.

When they do come back to a breeding colony, it’ll be several years before they are ready to breed. They spend a couple of years socialising in groups, in a dance like form of communication. Over time, they’ll show a preference for one partner, and the dance will become unique to each couple. They don’t stay together when at sea, but every two years, they go home, reconnect, mate, hatch out an egg, and raise a chick. For life. Only if one of the pair dies will they choose another mate.

Albatrosses have traditionally been regarded as harbingers of storm, but also good luck, a guide out of the storm to shelter. Another reason why they’re a good symbol for the Bluestocking Belles’ latest project, Storm & Shelter, which took flight yesterday. Like the albatross, it was around two and a half months in the egg, from signing the group contract to delivery of story for first beta in mid August (unlike the albatross, it has eight parents, including Grace Burrowes, Alina K. Field and Mary Lancaster, who joined us for the project).

Like the albatross — it took a lot of hard work on the part of its parents, and substantial practice, before it took flight eight to nine months after hatching. Yesterday, in fact. It is currently soaring, far from land, to the rarified levels of the book market.

It’s doing well. It has dozens of reviews, has scored well on Amazon for weeks, even edging up to #1 a few days ago, won a Crowned Heart for Excellence from InDTale Magazine, and is on a couple of Listopia lists at Goodreads. It looks like we might just miss lists like the top ten on USA Today or Publisher Weekly (unless we pick up quite a few hundred sales in the next few days, particularly on Apple and Barnes & Noble). But our little fledgling has spread its wings and is on its way. It’s out of our hands, now. It’s over to you, its readers.

Fly, little albatross.

When a storm blows off the North Sea and slams into the village of Fenwick on Sea, the villagers prepare for the inevitable: shipwreck, flood, land slips, and stranded travelers. The Queen’s Barque Inn quickly fills with the injured, the devious, and the lonely—lords, ladies, and simple folk; spies, pirates, and smugglers all trapped together. Intrigue crackles through the village, and passion lights up the hotel.