Special issue #2
Hello true believers!
Last issue, I promised you a deeper look at my next historical romance, and mama didn’t raise a liar. Here’s what I can tell you about A Lady For All Seasons, out in spring 2026.
We begin in the middle of the 1820 London season. The main characters are (drum roll) Miss Verbena Montrose, who you know and love from her role as London’s preeminent gossip in A Gentleman’s Gentleman. The other main character is a newcomer: a genderfluid poetess/novelist with she/he pronouns. (Poetess and novelist being, of course, the two genders.) As Miss Flora Witcombe, she’s made a splash in the poetry world by writing witty allusions to the gossip of the day. As Mr. William Forsyth, he’s a struggling author of tawdry crime fiction.
Verbena, who still needs a husband to save her from her family’s financial downfall, concocts a fake marriage plot involving another beloved former side character from Book 1. Everything seems perfect…until Flora publishes a poem that puts the whole scheme in jeopardy. Infuriated, Verbena confronts Flora and—whoopsie doodle—finds herself falling for the mysterious and intriguing poetess. She can’t be normal about it, so instead she hatches an extremely complicated scheme to woo her. Meanwhile, Flora devises her own scheme to woo Verbena the only way she can: as William. It’s a wild ride that will take them through fake marriage plots, the London poetry scene, a Welsh artists’ commune, and back to the Eden estate itself.
Lord Byron is also there.
(To those Byronites asking “How can Lord Byron be in England in 1820 when he was CLEARLY in Ravenna schtuping a countess??”: Open your mind to the possibility, nay, the near certainty, that Byron may have done something really, really ill-advised. I know it’s a stretch. Also this is fiction. If the ghost of Lord Byron wants to fight me, let him come.)
As already indicated by Lord Byron’s role, this book takes more inspiration from actual historical figures than AG’sG. Flora is based on real life Victorian poetess Fiona Macleod. Here is the first episode of a 2-parter from the Allusionist podcast that my friend Lauren (shoutout to Lauren) texted me about in 2023 while I was stuck on a train from Rhode Island with several hours to kill. Listening to this changed the entire pitch for the book, and I’m so happy it did.