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QUEEN OF FURY is Available Everywhere!
Yes, yes. I’m aware this was news last week, but I’ve been traveling for the holidays and then traveling for work, and I really haven’t had a moment other than to shoot off various social media posts. (Also, BlueSky is awesome. If you’re not already following me there, please do!) Queen of Fury was written, mostly, in 2021, but then had a rather unconventional little trip afterward, wherein I didn’t think the story would ever see the light of day. When the series was acquired by Solaris Books in 2023, that meant that the book wouldn’t be out for another (nearly) two years. Which was fine. I had plenty of…
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Thread Talk | Cloaks and Capes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_(clothing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaperon_(headgear) MICKLEWRIGHT, NANCY. “CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN.” Ars Orientalis 47 (2017): 6–17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45238929. KARL, BARBARA. “EARLY MODERN EUROPEAN COURT FASHION GOES GLOBAL: Embroidered Spanish Capes from Bengal.” Ars Orientalis 47 (2017): 69–90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45238932. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupinambá_cape https://huntington.org/verso/stunning-and-sacred-cape How Paris Became Paris – Joan DeJean –https://www.amazon.com/How-Paris-Became-Invention-Modern/dp/162040768X
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Queen of Fury Review Round-up!
Somehow, inexplicably, it is almost December and Queen of Fury is one week out from publication. I have so very many feelings about this book, this series, and this relationship in particular, but the biggest joy/relief is to see how many people are just enjoying and really getting the story. This book took a long time to get here, and there was a whole period where I thought Hwyfar and Gawain’s story might never come to be. But now we’re here. And it’s nearly Christmas, which is exciting because Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is, technically, a Christmas tale. The timing is lovely. Booklist comes first, and they said:…
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Thread Talk | Rhapsody in Blue
Bibliography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isatis_tinctoria https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/gw-researcher-identifies-oldest-textile-dyed-indigo#:~:text=The indigo-blue cloth found,to be 6%2C200 years old.&text=If it weren’t for,jeans as a wardrobe staple. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/17/colour-blue-rich-divine-ancient-egyptians-virgin-mary https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255151?searchText=blue+dye&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dblue%2Bdye%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A90e7d5ec7ef715158152fdf9ff9d6eff https://www.jstor.org/stable/24097672?read-now=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://www.jstor.org/stable/277679?read-now=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1f8853c.12?searchText=blue+pigment&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dblue%2Bpigment%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A9a9dda4b3dcc2dc4a078b1b95c09a7de https://www.jstor.org/stable/24760385?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents https://www.jstor.org/stable/42616178?read-now=1#page_scan_tab_contents Blue gauntlets – 1690–1710 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/157532 Robe a la francais – 1765 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/83094 Corset – 1770 https://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/objects/48635/corset?ctx=6e39d3035e674c37cd695909636d7d827cbb650d&idx=21 Man’s pants – 1840 https://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/objects/96500/mans-pants?ctx=f75ca6631e0bd3e5911dfb111747e42cf33958c7&idx=68 Women’s jacket – 1850 https://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/objects/97239/jacket?ctx=15129086ecc433eb395bd34f50762b53243ce21e&idx=80 1400-1500 – Towel https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O15355/towel-unknown late 14th century | Tartan Velvet https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O109657/textile-fragment-unknown Mantle – Spanish – 1804-07 https://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/80029364?img=0 Suit – French – 1740s https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/84428 Banyan – Chinese – 1760 – 1770 https://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/80077351?img=1 Blue silk brocade bodice – 1750 – 1770 https://augusta-auction.com/list-of-past-auctions-by-date/auction?view=lot&id=10611&auction_file_id=22 Women’s working clothes – late 19th century – China https://collections.mfa.org/objects/8048/womans-domestic-semiformal-robe-pao?ctx=5e0f233a-8cd8-4690-8857-80b90105af3b&idx=5 Women’s tunic – 19th century https://collections.mfa.org/objects/73417/womans-tunic?ctx=d91a2cda-827a-4ed3-88fc-2683c9f4eb52&idx=347 Child’s tunic with ducks…
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Thread Talk | All That Glitters – Gold in Fashion
1 – Welcome to #ThreadTalk Get ready for #fashionhistory – it’s been a while, but I’m back. Today’s topic is All That Glitters – we’re talking about fashioning fabric with gold and metal, but especially real gold. Below, 1610-1620 – Dress of Electress Magdalena Syblla of Saxony. 2 – To understand how we make fabric out of gold, let’s chat about my favorite element: Au. Gold isn’t just shiny & beautiful, it also resists corrosion & is extremely malleable. Also? Gold is alien. Scientists posit it came to earth via massive moon and meteor collisions billions of years ago. 3 – I am a geology nerd, so I could go…
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Netherford Hall is here!
It’s always a bit of an emotional situation when you finally publish a book. I mean, all my books are special to me, but they are all their own journeys in terms of the process and who I was when I was first writing the book. To get to the beginning of Edith and Poppy’s love story, we go back to the pandemic times. A lot was going on for me during that time, in addition to all the just existing. I was diagnosed with ADHD. The house felt like a pressure cooker. The news, every day, felt like I was progressively living in some dystopian nightmare (still haven’t ruled…
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Is Netherford Hall a Cozy Romantasy?
We are now deep in the throes of ARC reviews for Netherford Hall, and while I try not to throw myself on the mercy of reviews, one observation from some readers has made me rethink this book a little. (The people who love this book really love this book and this post is not for them.) The end of the book is certainly fast-paced, but the majority of the book is not. Like the world of Jane Austen, from which it was inspired, the focus isn’t on high action, complex plotting, or angst and danger. It’s about relationships between characters, establishing their connections, demonstrating their problems, and seeing what happens…
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What is a gentlewitch?
We are quickly approaching the release date for Netherford Hall, and I’m currently busy working on the third installment, The Game of Hearts, right now, so my brain is thinking about all things gentlewitch. (Which is available to pre-order in paperback and in ebook–and soon in audiobook.) Now, this is a term I’m very familiar with. In fact, I’ve been writing so much about gentlewitches that I forgot it’s a term I made up. So, I wrote a little backstory about said magical beings, a la Tolkien’s “Concerning Hobbits.” What is a gentlewitch? To understand the Love in Netherford series, one must first become acquainted with the role of a gentlewitch in…
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Queen of None is Now Available Everywhere!
No, this is not a repeat from 2020. Well, that’s not entirely the truth. As you may remember, the Queens of Fate series was picked up by Solaris books early last year, and Queen of None has officially been re-issued with a brand new cover, updated text, and new acknowledgements. This truly is the little book that could. This morning, I sat in my car to get some celebratory coffee, and listened to the beginning of the book narrated by the amazing Deborah Balm. She just absolutely inhabits Anna’s spirit in a way that made me quite emotional. As an audiobook nerd myself, I was thrilled when her voice sample first…
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Presenting The Portraits of Fate: Anna Pendragon and Sir Bedevere, Art by Mae Morrison
I am a massively visual person. Part of this comes from having a fine arts background, but part of it is just the way my brain is wired. I have hyperphantasia, which means when I read a book I can see, hear, smell, and feel things in vivid detail. So it’s not surprising that I’ve dreamed a long time of having my characters rendered in beautiful art. And with the increasing challenges with AI everywhere, I decided that for Queen of None–and all the books in the series–I wanted to hire an artist to make project come to life. I took to social media for this project, and for one for Netherford…
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Netherford Hall Series Picked up by Solaris Books Imprint Solaris Nova!
Publishing moves slow, until it doesn’t! I’m so happy to announce that Solaris Books, via their new imprint Solaris Nova, has acquired Netherford Hall and its two sequels (currently titled The Viscount St. Albans and The Game of Hearts). The pitch is fast and furious: a sapphic Bridgerton with witches. And werewolves, vampires, Fae, and a motley crew of characters. It’s light, romantic, silly, sexy, and joyous, with magic, politics, and of course, lots of fashion. So much fashion, in fact, that it’s the book that inspired ThreadTalk in the first place! Yes, indeed. It was Viola’s chintz dress that got me going on my first research project, and look where we are now.…
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The New Cover for QUEEN OF NONE is Here! (Plus Release Info!)
Most books and series don’t get a second chance at life. Indeed, when my publisher closed, not long after I submitted Queen of Fury, I despaired a little. This Arthurian adventure, the family saga, of the Queens of Fate, might never really come to a conclusion. Thankfully, I was lucky and that didn’t happen. Not only that, but I’ve been involved in the discussion of the re-branding of the cover and look of all three books coming out from Solaris next year and in 2024. I wanted something medieval, eye-catching, and representative of the Pre-Raphaelite inspired aesthetic. Thankfully, the publisher was on the same page! So when I got to see…
