Unashamed plug for pal's fun new novel! Pirates, queens, Ireland, battles!

My dear friend, mentor, and stellar writer Robin Maxwell, author of the bestselling page-turner The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, has a great new book out, The Wild Irish. This is a fun blast of a novel about the real-life Irish pirate queen Grace O'Malley, her adventures, her husbands, and her relationship and rivalry with the most powerful woman of her age, Queen Elizabeth I. Robin ingeniously connects the two women - who were amazing and charismatic - through a young man, Robert Dudley, who touched both their lives. Robin will be at the 3515 California St. Books, Inc. in San Francisco at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 5; also in Southern California, at the Sherman Oaks Borders (14651 Ventura Blvd.) Thursday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Dutton's Brentwood (11975 San Vincente Blvd.) Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. If you're in California, go see her and have some fun!