Novel Manuscripts

These are my two latest novel manuscripts. Both are unpublished, as I am currently seeking representation.

The Months of Payne: September

The Months of Payne: September is an 80,000-word, upmarket spin on a Regency romance that combines the bookishness and banter of an Emily Henry novel with the emotional core and sweep of Bridgerton and a dash of diversity reminiscent of Lex Croucher’s Reputation. The manuscript is both a metanarrative of and intertextual between Pride and Prejudice and Much Ado About Nothing.

Headstrong September longs to crawl out from beneath her father’s velvet glove and take control of her life. She has just the plan to do it, too: marry and quickly become a widow. Too bad someone will have to die, namely the elderly Earl-next-door. Her father forbids September from interacting with the Earl, but she has access to his library and continues flirting with him by exchanging letters in books. Unfortunately, his infuriating second son, Roderick, has returned from the war and is sequestering himself in the library, complicating their correspondence. In spite of herself, September is drawn to the soul-wounded soldier, and they slowly connect over dancing at balls and bookish banter. On a break from rehearsals for an in-home production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Earl’s estate, September slips into a hidden passageway where she discovers Roderick, and in a moment of weakness, kisses him. She has handed him control of her destiny, and he may force her hand into marriage. Happily, she learns that the clandestine letters were from Roderick, not his father, and that he is her longed-for Librarian. If she can learn to trust this brooding, well-read man, she might just write herself a happy ending.

Planned to be the first book in the Months of Payne series. Book Two will be Augusta.

Cover art “Temptresses” by Charles Haigh-Wood