A historical romance study guide
When my first historical romance came out earlier this year, I was often asked how much research I had done, and the answer was a big fat zero. Battling imposter syndrome is something I have to do at the best of times, but entering a genre known for its librarian-like dedication to research while, let’s be honest, arriving decades late with Starbucks, ramped it up to the max.
But A Gentleman’s Gentleman wasn’t trying to make the argument that we had always been here AS PROVEN by my extensive research and bona fides. That book is about something else, and it takes trans existence as read from the start. In A Lady For All Seasons, however, I had no choice but to cram some knowledge. For those of you who love a bibliography, consider this my works cited for the sapphic-ish, genderfluid Regency romance of your dreams, out March 10.
Some behind the scenes: I knew finishing up the editing process on Gentleman that there was a side character who was pinging my editor’s main character radar. Verbena Montrose is a show-stealer, no doubt about it. So when my editor asked if I might have a pitch in me about Verbena’s story, I said OF COURSE I did.
I just didn’t know what it was yet.
At the time, I was doing press events prior to the 2023 release of Second Chances in New Port Stephen, which should give you an idea of exactly how long it takes for stuff to happen in publishing. I had had my first two-book year (next year will be my second) and I was tapped out. I knew I needed to find Verbena a love interest, but I had no idea who it should be. For a moment, I even considered giving her a cis man, which shows you how exhausted I was.
Then I got a text from a friend asking if I had listened to a two-part episode of The Allusionist podcast on the origin of the name Fiona. This introduced me to the Victorian poet Fiona Macleod, who was also writing as William Sharp. Oh shit, I thought. This is the book. This is Verbena’s match. Well, this was the inspiration for the person she should fall for. Thus was born Flora Witcombe, the romantic poet who is also William Forsyth, gothic novelist.
Knowing that our characters would be dabbling in the artistic world, I saw an opportunity to drag in The Ladies of Llangollen for some flavor. The Ladies were real life gal pals who ran away from their engagements to live together in the Welsh countryside. For the book, I took some cues from the Ladies and created a fictionalized version of them, which was necessary for plot reasons. One bit I kept, though, was the Ladies’ friendship with Lord Byron.
Oh, Byron. I’ve complained about it the whole time I was writing this book, but I REALLY didn’t expect him to become a load-bearing character. I spoke a bit about this in a recent video where I probably misremember a lot of historical facts, but when someone is as wild as good ol’ George, it’s hard to keep the truth and the myths straight. I promise that prior to writing I did actually read a lot about Byron, including a lot of biographies I will not name that tried to tell me he was Definitely Not Queer In Any Way. Like, come on. There is a way in which academia will pretend to be so progressive that it loops all the way back to homophobia. Maintaining that a man who was in love with and slept with other men in the Regency era shouldn’t be considered queer because, uh, (checks notes), queerness as we understand it was invented in the late 1990s by Ellen DeGeneres? Bullshit. Look, I don’t WANT the guy on my team, but Byron was bisexual and there’s nothing any of us can do about that. Jesus.
The one title I read that I would recommend is Byron’s Travels by Fiona (heyyyyyy) Stafford, a collection of his actual letters. Thank you, Random House backlist. Now, my version of research is finding one or two tidbits that bolster the story I want to tell, so is my fictional Lord Byron character going to be super in-line with the historical record? Absolutely not. But the guy hated waltzing and loved fucking, and those bits certainly do make it into the text.
Lastly, I read Mad and Bad: Real Heroines of the Regency by Bea Koch, one of the owners of the venerated Ripped Bodice. Most of the women profiled in this book were extremely well-known, rich, and powerful—which makes sense, because the letters by and about those people are the ones that tend to survive. Verbena and Flora-William are not super rich or powerful, though they do circulate in society, so this research was less about fleshing them out and more about getting some background flavor. Some of the tidbits from here likely made their way into side characters like the dowager countess. There were also some cool ladies who I simply enjoyed learning about, even if none of that made it into the book. Would recommend if you are looking for a quick read about the Regency era.
So that’s it! Some titles and podcasts for you to dive into while you’re waiting on A Lady to be released. Hope you enjoy!
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For fun:
For thought:
history shows this is who ‘we’ are
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