After the extended rumination in my last newsletter, I made the momentous decision to switch to a pen name for all of my fiction: Lena Cole. (I had been pondering “Leona Cole” for a while, Leona being my great-grandmother’s sister’s name, but it does sound like the name of someone born in 1906 and I worried that that would turn readers away. Lena is at least a generation more modern.) I’m hoping that those of you who got this in their inbox are not confused by the shift! I angsted more than was merited about whether readers would think this was spam for a mailing list they didn’t sign up for.

My real name isn’t a secret to be guarded or anything — I just think that things will be simpler if all of my fiction can be attached to Lena Cole going forward. Mary Marchbanks is going to be by Lena Cole. I’ve reissued The Happy Secret of It All so that it has “Lena Cole” on the cover. I also have a new BlueSky specifically for my fiction.

It actually feels very freeing … In fact, I have just set up the first chapter of Mary Marchbanks to post on August 1 and the second on August 15! (Which will be my posting schedule going forward.) I’ve also set up a Ko-fi membership where you can pay $5 a month in order to get these chapters printed and physically mailed to you as they come out, for a special treat. I’ve done a test one and it looks lovely.

I haven’t shown you pictures of Bonnie and Clyde in a while. They took a few days to get used to the new house (mostly spent hiding in the basement, Clyde tucked under the bottom step and Bonnie facing into a corner because she blamed Clyde for all of it) but now are very happy with its advantages. They particularly like the patio!

Clyde has always been too scared to go outside, but the fence seems to make the great big world feel more manageable to him.

While Clyde likes to poke around in the garden or sun himself on the boards, Bonnie prefers to nap on a chair.

Because Mary Marchbanks is about to start airing, I’ll do another portrait from around the time period of the novel:

This unknown woman is dressed in a white silk evening gown — taffeta, I think, as it has a light crispness. The front and probably back is pleated into the shoulder seam, which is topped with a little self-fabric tab. It fits her corseted body very smoothly, descending into a point at the center front, which is a result of the interest in Gothic (medieval, shading into early modern) design coming about in the 1820s and 1830s. The lower edge of the bodice is piped, and the skirt is pleated to it.

The sleeves are very full and don’t appear to be shaped very much. They’re pleated into the armscye (which is low on the upper arm, not giving much range of motion), and unfortunately the details of what happens with them lower down are indistinct. They do seem to be pleated or ruched into a fluffy shape, accentuated with embroidered muslin ruffles (hearkening back to eighteenth century dress) and with white silk ribbon bows.

The woman’s hair is arranged in a very common style for the late 1830s: long curls on either side of the face, covering the ears, and the back discreetly tucked away in a bun. Something that is rather different here, however, are the gold ornaments worn above her curls. I do wonder if these were multipurpose pieces that could be worn as earrings when the hair was dressed higher and hooked into the hair if the current fashionable style didn’t allow earrings to be seen.

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