Big Announcement

I've never been so nervous about a project.

Marguerite Audoux, source: Bibliothéque Nationale de France

I wrote a novel! I’ve actually written four—one that took forever and was bad, one that was okay, and two that I love. Of those two I love, I finished the first one about a year ago. I spent last year asking people to read it, revising based on their feedback, and getting it ready to pitch to agents. In the meantime, I wrote the fourth novel, the second one that I love. That’s the one I want to talk about.

Since I started trying to write novels in 2015, almost everything has been character-driven contemporary women’s fiction. I like to write about characters who make problems for themselves. But after reading In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust a few years ago, I became obsessed with the Belle Époque period in Paris and started reading other books set there. The women in Proust’s books fascinated me, and the more I learned, the more interested I became.

The Belle Époque started after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and ended at the beginning of World War I in 1914. So that roughly corresponds with the Gilded Age in America. This was a time of prosperity and rapid technological advancement. In France, the people in this era were some of the first generations to benefit from public education, and for the first time, most people in France were literate. Paris, much of which had been destroyed by decades of revolutions and war, was rebuilt with the future in mind. The city hosted world fairs that drew people from all over, including lots of American tourists. And it was the cultural center of the modern world.

Although they didn’t have equal rights yet, women for the first time in France had some opportunities. Women worked as secretaries, seamstresses in the fashion houses, and as clerks in shops. The working conditions probably weren’t great for anyone, but having an income and an independent life was a new possibility for women. And so learning about all this, story ideas started coming together. In this case, I knew the themes I wanted to explore and what I wanted to say with the story, and so I had to plan the characters and the story around those ideas.

While researching, I found an academic book called A ‘Belle Epoque’? Women in French Society and Culture 1890-1914, which profiles several women of note and thoroughly investigates what life was like for women back then. And that’s where I read about a woman named Marguerite Audoux. Audoux is famous for winning the Prix Femina literary award in 1910 for her autobiographical novel Marie Claire. The book is about how, when she was three, her mother died and her father abandoned her and her sister with an aunt. The aunt sent the girls to an orphanage, but Audoux ended up working as a shepherdess at a small farm. Marie Claire was the first of three novels that tell the story of how she came from those humble beginnings to Paris to work as a seamstress and eventually began writing.

Marie Claire, which I found on Kindle for free, is gripping because it’s written in the first-person point of view from a child’s perspective. She is optimistic, but also very naive. And so meanwhile, as a parent and reader, I was freaking out because her life seems to be in constant peril. There are adults with confusing motives and even wolves stealing the lambs from her flock. It’s also a quick hundred pages. I have not yet found the other two in translation or had the guts to attempt the French versions. But Marie Claire is a good book.

What’s most revolutionary about the work and Audoux is precisely that she rose from those humble beginnings to write about it in such a beautiful and thoughtful way. Before her, the writers of literary merit were all from the upper classes, writing about upper-class concerns. And so Audoux is remembered today for being the first working-class girl to make it big and be taken seriously.

As soon as I read about her, I knew that the perfect protagonist for my story would be someone who’d done something as cool as that. And so I started writing.

The story, unlike some others I’ve worked on, came together quickly, and working on it was a lot of fun. But the whole time I was writing it, I knew that I probably wouldn’t be able to pitch it to agents or get a publishing contract. The idea ballooned into a series, which I have no idea how to pitch or sell. So far, I haven’t proven to know how to pitch or sell much of anything, let alone six books at once. Plus, I have the other novel that I’m pitching right now. I thought about serializing it on Substack, but I think they’re weird about posting sex scenes. Yes, it is a romance novel, and there is kissing and one on-page sex scene. (Sorry, Mom and Dad!) It’s what the romance readers call a slow burn. Rather than risk getting in trouble on this platform for my illicit prose, I am publishing the book myself. Goodness knows the folks at Kindle Unlimited won’t bat an eye at a few pages of open-door sex.

So my big announcement is that my novel, Love and the Downfall of Society, will be released on October 1, 2024!

Of course, I’m super nervous about it. So far, readers have liked it. And the cover, I think, is a stunner. I used the money I’ve made from newsletter subscriptions to hire an artist. So first: thank you, thank you, thank you, readers! And second: I cannot wait for you to see the beautiful cover! I have a picture of it saved on my phone, and I keep staring in awe at it. As soon as I have everything set up for publishing, I’ll start showing it off. As pretty as the cover is, publishing a book feels like such a big step for me. So I’m nervous, but also very excited.

If historical romance novels written as metaphors about class aren’t your thing, then don’t worry. This newsletter won’t change much. If historical romance novels written as metaphors about class are your thing, then I will be regularly shouting updates into the Instagram void. I will also send an excerpt for my October newsletter on release day.

In the meantime, here’s the book’s blurb:

After turning society upside down with her debut story, provincial Charlotte Deveraux arrives in Paris poised for literary stardom. She’s not sure where her next rent payment will come from, but she’s determined to make a name for herself as a respected writer in the cultural capital of the world.

Antoine de Larminet is the last surviving son of an aristocratic family. In line to inherit a title, he has promised his parents that he’ll marry a peer and carry on the centuries-old tradition. He was raised in an antiquated world where love was often found outside of arranged society marriages. Even as the French aristocracy is losing relevance to modernity, Antoine never questioned this commitment to this family legacy--until his chance meeting with clever and beautiful Charlotte.

Their attraction is immediate, and the more they bump into each other at the clubs and salons of Paris, the stronger their attachment grows. But Antoine can’t marry Charlotte because she’s as proletarian as they come. And Charlotte will lose all credibility as a writer and social critic if she becomes the mistress of an aristocrat.

The world around them is changing, but if love is to win, one of them will have to give up everything they stand for.

As always, thank you for reading!

Melinda