May 7, 2025 • 29 mins
Welcome to this special episode of the Historical Romance Sampler podcast! This week, I (Katherine Grant) celebrate my latest release, IN THE WIDE OPEN LIGHT, with guest host Andrea Jenelle. We talk about themes of long-term relationships, working-class struggles, and the fight for civil liberties in historical contexts.
00:00 Introduction to the Historical Romance Sampler
00:34 Special Episode: Celebrating 'In the Wide Open Light'
03:01 Reading Excerpt from 'In the Wide Open Light'
14:01 Discussion on Marriage Dynamics in Historical Romance 17:56 Exploring Working Class and Suffragette Themes
26:04 Upcoming Releases and Inspirations
28:54 Conclusion and Farewell
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to the historicalromance sampler podcast.
I'm your host, Katherine Grant, andeach week I introduce you to another
amazing historical romance author.
My guest reads a little sampleof their work, and then we move
into a free ranging interview.
If you like these episodes, don'tforget to subscribe to the historical
(00:24):
romance sampler, wherever youlisten to podcasts and follow us
on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode.
All right.
I am here this week for a veryspecial episode celebrating my latest
release in the wide open light.
And to help me celebrate isguest host Andrea Jenelle.
(00:46):
We first heard from Andrea in Aprilwhen she was telling us about Spine
of Steel, which is the first bookin the suffragette Uprising series.
And now Andrea is joining me asguest host because in the Wide open
light is book two in that series.
Andrea, thank you so muchfor being my guest host.
(01:07):
Thank you so much.
I can't wait to hear you read an excerpt.
Yes.
So the Suffragette Uprising series isan interconnected series of stories
that focus on women fighting fortheir rights across various eras.
So Andrea's story, spine of Steel, tookplace in the Victorian American period.
(01:28):
I guess maybe we could call thatlike post Civil War America.
And when you first put out this prompt forSuffragette Uprising, I was kind of like,
I write Regency, how would I do this?
And my first reaction was, no.
And then I was on a train and Iremember looking out the train
window, just thinking like,how would I make this happen?
(01:48):
And all of a sudden I was like, I'vealways wanted to write about Peterloo.
Is this my chance?
And I went home and I Googledwomen at Peterloo, and it turned
out there were many scholarlyarticles because they played a
huge role at the Peterloo massacre,which I can talk about more later.
But that is the framing for this story.
(02:10):
It is a Northfield Hall novella aswell, which means that my characters
live and work at the estate thatI invented called Northfield Hall.
And so Julia is the wife wholives at Northfield Hall.
She arranged their familylife at Northfield Hall.
Samuel is her husband.
They've been married for a longtime, but they were separated for
(02:31):
11 years of that marriage because hewas press ganged into the Navy and
was fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.
Now he's been back, they've expandedtheir family and Julia has said,
I want to go to Manchester becausethere's a really big speech and I
wanna be a part of this movement.
And so this scene is the day before,actually, it's the morning that she leaves
(02:52):
and it's from Samuel's point of view.
And we see how he's kind ofprocessing the fact that Julia
is going off to Manchester.
The morning Julia would leave him,samuel woke before the babies.
He broke free from a nightmare,the usual one about being trapped
beneath a cannon while the shipcaught fire and sink faster and faster
(03:14):
into the cold Mediterranean sea.
Sometimes his fearful moans woke julia.
But this morning she snored onbeside him, her lips curled in
something that resembled a smile.
She was looking forward to her time away.
He didn't know what to make oftheir tryst the previous evening.
(03:34):
Ordinarily, that was the type of thinghe tried not to think too hard about.
If his wife wanted to make love to him,then who was he to second guess it?
But Samuel wished it had felt more likelovemaking and less like a tourniquet
on the wound bleeding between them.
Julia had not stopped tolisten to his concerns.
(03:54):
And had he given her a fair shot?
Samuel now couldn't rememberwhat they had discussed.
His only memory from the conversationwas of the emotions that had
swept over him and which hoveredsomewhere in the same corner of
his soul as that blasted nightmare.
Whatever they had said last night,julia was still leaving in a matter of
(04:15):
hours, even though he wished it weren't.
So Samuel had to resign himself to fate.
Well, he had done that plenty oftimes throughout his life, and
this time it was temporary, Juliawas leaving for a fortnight.
Surely he could handle that farbetter than when he had truly awoken
in a nightmare on HMS Scipion anddiscovered he would spend the rest
(04:38):
of his life without a left calf.
He started the long processof easing out of bed.
The first step was tofind his peg in the dark.
He groped along the wallwhere it was supposed to be.
Nothing.
He bent farther, bracinghimself against the mattress,
and felt around on the floor.
(04:59):
Finally, when he had almost fallen offthe bed, he found it nestled against the
baseboard of the wall and arms reach awaywhere it had apparently rolled overnight.
Fine.
Even with Julia in bed besidehim, he didn't need her help
to get his unruly peg in order.
Now sitting up, he reached into thelittle wooden chest beside the bed
(05:20):
that held his leather strap and salve.
The strap kept his pegleg in place all day.
The salve kept the strapfrom rubbing his thigh raw.
Ordinarily, he looked at these littleinstruments of his day and felt nothing.
This morning rage bubbled up old rage.
Rage that had been born the daythe press gang punched him to
(05:42):
the ground in Liverpool beforemarching him to Old Glory.
What had Samuel done to earn that?
Why had he been born to lose hisliberty, lose his leg, lose his life
as he knew it when other men were
were born to eat roast beefevery day off golden plates?
Why was his wife abandoning himfor a bigger dream when all the
(06:04):
other wives of Northfield Hallwere remaining with their husbands?
A stupid, selfish,petty rage to give into.
Samuel threw down the strap and disgust.
He knew better than tolet such emotions breathe.
He would not turn into one of those bitterold men who had nothing to do except
rail against every unfair turn of life.
(06:26):
He had a family of adorable children.
He had a wife who was smarter than anyonehe knew, who had once seen him across
a church service and deemed him worthy,and who would come back to him after
she finished her mission in Manchester.
Startling back to reality, he discoveredJulia was awake and curling her warm
(06:47):
body around the curve of his back.
"Do you need help?" Her voicewas tender and raw from sleep.
Samuel hadn't meant to wake herup and if she had to awaken, he
wished it wasn't now when he wasleast like the man she had married.
"No," he said trying to push her away.
"Go back to sleep." Julia draped her legsaround either side of him from behind
(07:12):
and took the pot of salve from his hand.
"Let me." She was so warm at hisback, even though the day would
be hot, the bedroom was cool andhis wife's body comforted him.
The rage subsided like a waveretreating from the beach.
He watched Julia's fingersdip into the salve.
(07:32):
She warmed it between her two palmsbefore bringing her hands to his
leg, leaning around him now stillwith her legs spread around his back.
She soothed the salve into his barethigh with gentle practiced strokes.
She eased the lotion onto his stumptoo, and lingered there, caressing
it with all the love in the world.
(07:52):
Samuel had been soashamed for her to see it.
When he first came to Northfield Hallfor a whole year, he had refused to
disrobe in front of her, much less,let her see him minister to his leg.
Even now, the rage inside him hatedthat she was touching it, but Samuel
had learned not to listen to it.
He had resigned himself tothis fate, which meant he
(08:14):
could welcome his wife's touch.
"Do you promise you'll take good careof this old thing while I'm gone?"
Julia asked, her cheek rested lazilyagainst his shoulder, and the movement
of her lips rustled his night shirt.
"I won't fall apart without you.""Good." Her fingers, no longer slick
with salve, wandered faster now awayfrom his injury and up towards his groin.
(08:39):
"What about this old thing? Willyou take care of it too while I'm
gone?" But Samuel caught her wristbefore she reached his Roger.
He didn't want that.
Not right now.
If they were going to be awake together,he wanted to actually say something,
not erase all hope of words withanother confusing roll on the mattress.
(09:00):
"I want to give you something,Jules." Her eyes dark in the
dawning light widened with surprise.
"You don't need to be spendingany money on me." "I didn't." Not
releasing her wrist, samuel reachedunder his pillow with his other
hand and retrieved his locket.
He tucked it into her palm.
"I want you to have this." Julia'sfingers tightened around it
(09:22):
before she could even look at it.
"But it's yours."
Samuel had done his best to clean it up.
He had polished the brass and putsome oil on the tiny hinges, but
from looking at it, a person couldsee the difficult life it had led.
Its cover was scratched,tarnished, and a little dented.
Inside, the miniature oil paintinghad suffered a water stain from
(09:44):
the 1811 hurricane that soakedSamuel's entire sea chest.
To Samuel's eyes,
it was still beautiful.
"For all those years, this was the sumtotal of what I had of you, a tiny little
painting done by an artist who never metyou, made from the description I gave
her." Samuel had been on shore leave inCadiz, hadn't seen so much as the English
(10:07):
channel for four years, and the miniatureartist had been rushing through paintings
to service all the homesick sailors.
"What does your wife look like?" Theartist had asked and stilted English.
Samuel had pictured Julia's face asif she were right there before him.
Smiling, eager, vigorous.
But how did he put that into words?
(10:27):
How did he make the painter catchthe correct angle of her nose, which
was neither straight nor crooked?
How did he explain the exactdistance between her eyes and
how her irises were such a fleckbrown, that they were almost honey?
How did he describe the soft sweep ofher lips and the way they were always
one joke away from an easy smile?
(10:48):
"It's not a perfect portrait of you,"he said to Julia with a chuckle.
The woman in the locket had jet blackhair instead of the light mud color
of Julia's, and she didn't smile atall as she stared out of the locket,
her lips, instead, a firm pink line.
But her eyes, how they shone,even though they were composed
of the tiniest dots of oil paint.
(11:11):
Her hair though too dark, sprangin magical curls across the small
canvas, just as it did in real life.
And most of all, the artist had somehowmanaged to capture Julia's essence
in her posture, full of hope, fullof plans, full of an unwillingness
to let life dictate its terms to her.
As if the portrait of Julia was runningoff to find Samuel in real life.
(11:35):
"If a stranger had only this likenessto go off, they might not find you,"
samuel continued.
"Especially now that my hair is mostlygray." He reached out and threaded his
fingers through the mess of hair that hadhis escaped from beneath her night cap.
Then he pointed to the locket.
"Do you know how I described you tothe artist? What made her paint you
like this?" Julia's lips twitched.
(11:56):
"Stubborn and willful?"
"A woman who shapes the world aroundher, who doesn't let fate sweep
her one way or another, who is sointelligent that when she doesn't know
something, she knows the questions toask to find it out." And he paused.
Remembering how the miniaturisthad stared at him, trying to
make sense of his descriptions.
(12:17):
"A woman whom I love more deeplythan I ever thought possible." Julia
wrapped her fingers around his.
They were smooth from thesalve, warm and strong.
"Why are you giving this to me?""I want you to take it with you.
I want you to remember..."he cleared his throat.
This type of talk was difficult, awkward,and his instincts surged forward to try
(12:40):
to steer him away from speaking his heart
so clearly.
He stayed the course "...that I loveyou, this version of you as well as
the version of you that is my wifeand the mother of my children. I wish
that you weren't called to join thisfight. But I love that you always do
what is right." He waited, watching herexamine the locket again, memorizing
(13:03):
the curve of her lips as she smiled down
at his token.
He hoped she might say something inreturn about how much she loved him.
Perhaps she would even promise him thatnothing would ever come between them.
She said no such words, but it wasenough for him that she took the locket
and that, on this last morning they hadtogether, she kissed him on the lips
(13:27):
and whispered she would never forget.
Beautiful.
Thank you.
Hey, audiobook listeners!
Have you checked out the officialHistorical Romance Sampler
Season 1 playlist on Libro.
fm? On the playlist, you'll findhistorical romances you heard here first
that are available to listen to on Libro.
(13:48):
fm. Plus, if you're not yet a Libro.
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Head on over to the Historical RomanceSampler link tree to learn more.
I had the privilege of, reading ofdoing a beta read of this novella.
And one of the things that really struckme is is how poignantly you portray
(14:12):
the dynamics of a marriage and, and thecommunication that happens in a marriage.
Can you do you kind of talk to us alittle bit about what inspired that?
I don't think I've ever read and I'veread a lot of historical romance.
I don't think I've ever read like such arealistic depiction depiction of how that
changes the longer you're in a marriage.
(14:34):
Yeah, I think I. I think it'ssomething that I, as a reader,
am always interested in.
At the end of a story, I, Ireally like to know how does their
relationship change and epiloguestend to show us a rosy picture.
Mm-hmm.
But I, you know, I've alwaysbeen interested, well,
(14:56):
what does that look like?
How do you love someone but also, youknow, be in a very long relationship
and have days where you don't like them.
That's always something that I'mjust like, how does that work?
So I think part of my inspiration isthat I've always been interested in that.
And then I'm married.
I've been with my husband 10 years.
(15:18):
A few years ago he was going throughsome really intense mental health
struggles, and we were not havingbig conflict or anything like that.
We just both kind of recognized thatwe were having trouble supporting
each other through this really
big thing that he was going through.
And so we did some couplestherapy, which was fantastic.
(15:40):
I highly recommend couples therapy whenyou don't think you need it because
it helps you not need it at the end.
Right, right.
But I think that really tuned the fictionwriter part of me into, oh, the therapist
is noticing all these tiny dynamics.
And some of it was as simple aswe did an exercise where she asked
him, , okay, when he's feeling upset,how do you comfort him physically?
(16:03):
Like do you touch him?
Do you hug him?
Whatever.
And I started like rubbing his arm.
That's what I do as kind oflike petting a dog or something.
And then she asked him how hefelt and he said he really doesn't
like being rubbed that way.
He wants to be touched withjust like a still palm.
And then we flipped that.
And she prompted him to put hishand at the back of my head,
(16:26):
which he had really liked.
And I was like, that's terrible.
Do not do that to me.
And so that clued me into the factthat everyone has these very different
reactions and ways that we communicateand ways that we get comforted and it's
all so minute and yet it makes such abig difference because when we did this
(16:48):
therapy focusing in on these really tinythings, it shifted our relationship,
it made it stronger, it made it sothat we could communicate better.
And so I think that was where Istarted being like really creatively
inspired and interested in that.
And yeah, I mean I also think thereare a lot of romance readers who
are also in long-term relationships.
(17:09):
Yes.
Or have that life experience.
And so love does not endwhen you commit to somebody.
It needs a lot more than that.
And my husband and I have beentogether 27 years, so Congratulations.
Thank you.
So
it's, yeah, so, so I hope that readersare, feel, seen or feel that it's,
(17:31):
you know, adding a layer to romance.
Very much so.
I mean, I definitely felt seen and as Isaid, like, you know, that's something
you don't see a lot right at all in theromance genre period, not just, not
just, not just historical, you don'tsee a contemporary either, really.
Yeah.
I think there's, I think I've onlyread one contemporary book that was
(17:52):
like that and it was one by Chloe Lees.
But so that struck me.
The other, the other thing, I knowwe've talked about this before, but do
you just wanna talk about how differentit is to center your characters in the
working class or the rising middle classas opposed to writing about nobility?
And why you chose to do that andwhat, what you, what additional things
(18:13):
you think it brings to the reader.
So I started writing some working classcharacters as my Northfield Hall novellas,
which are a spinoff from the Prestons.
So I have this established nobility thatI write about, and then these are the
people who live and work on their estateand, it is slightly different and it,
it's also funny to go between them becauselike you're like changing your worldview.
(18:37):
But I think one thing is comfort thatyou can give the characters, especially
writing this book, which is tackling laborrights and the franchise, and this is
1819, the industrial revolution has beengoing on long enough, maybe like 50 years.
(18:58):
Mm-hmm.
That there are factories, thereare children, there's already
backlash to children in factories.
There are all sorts of.
There's such poverty inBritain at this time.
So when you're writing working class,you have to engage with that, even
if your characters are miraculouslynot impoverished, which my characters
(19:20):
at Northfield Hall, the whole conceptof Northfield Hall is anyone who
works there they live off the land.
They make their own linens, andthey also get a share of the profits
of the estate, which it's not thatprofitable, but they're getting more
money than the average person, right?
So they're living in a state ofcomfort, but they have to engage
with these family members who aren't,and they have to engage with the
(19:41):
realities that they, they might have
been living in that impoverished state.
And so I think with this novella inparticular, I found myself engaging
with that and trying to think, okay,how do I get this on the page without
it being a really depressing story?
Mm-hmm.
Because romance, I feel overallneeds to be a joyful story.
(20:04):
It has room for not joy, but likethe story overall needs to leave
the reader feeling happy, not like,
wow, that was depressing.
So that's, I think the creative challengethat It gives me, but also it, it then
allows me to get rid of a lot of thingslike the, I don't have to, there's
(20:25):
not as much like status obsession.
There's not as much.
Right.
The, the commoners, the workingclass, they didn't have as much of a,
an emphasis even on legal marriage.
Mm-hmm.
There were a lot of likecommon law marriages.
Mm-hmm.
And so, so then you get tolike, explore these different.
Dynamics of people exploringdifferent communities and,
(20:45):
and navigating all of that.
Yeah, I just, I, you know, that's oneof the things that really stands out
to me about your writing is that youexplore that, and as we talked about
a minute ago, just the dynamics ofmarriage beyond, we're standing at
the altar, what happens after, right?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, and I think for this storyin particular with the suffragette
(21:06):
uprising prompt, my first thoughtwas like, okay, so suffragette.
I think of that as beingan unmarried woman.
Mm-hmm.
And so she's gonna like, meet aman and they're gonna tame each
other in these different ways.
And I was just like, I mean,that's a very interesting story,
but I also just wasn't, it wasn'tspeaking to me in a, in that way.
(21:27):
And then when I was like, okay,but what if this is a couple who
are happy together, but she shiftshow she's orienting to the world
and then he has to react to that.
Right?
Which I think whenever I'm writinga story, I also have questions that
I'm hoping it will help me explore.
(21:47):
Not really get.
Clear answers on, because these arelike, you know how they're existential?
Yeah, they're existential questions.
But I think I needed to find,to be creatively inspired.
I needed to be like, well, whatquestion am I looking to explore here?
And it was, you know, what happens whenyou are privileged in a certain way, but
(22:09):
you see that there are terrible thingsgoing on and you feel connected to it.
How connected do you need tofeel before you participate?
What sacrifices do you make for that?
And then also as I started working withit, I was like, this marriage is actually
a really good metaphor for how whenyou're in an entrenched society that has
(22:30):
specific dynamics, and it's changing.
And so you have to figureout how to renegotiate.
And that's Peterloo was all aboutthe working class, speaking up
for themselves, trying to say,can we renegotiate this contract?
Like their literal MagnaCarta contract, right.
And being oppressed because of it.
And eventually there wasprogress, but, but yeah.
(22:51):
Yeah, so,
so metaphorically it worked as well.
It did.
And, and you know, that's what I amreally looking forward to is that the,
you know, the stories in this seriesall explore that in a different way.
Right.
Like how and that's why I kind,that's why I'm so glad that like.
You interpreted suffrage to meanlike, because a, a suffragist
isn't someone, they weren't justfor women's right to vote, they
(23:14):
were for civil liberties period.
Right?
Yeah.
For any and all and most suffragists andsuffragettes were believed in fighting
for all those other things as well.
Right.
Like labor rights and theright to education mm-hmm.
Et cetera.
So so I'm really glad youexplored that because I think
it'll give readers a much betterunderstanding of what the term means.
(23:35):
And also understand, as you said, whatthat means when you are in an entrenched
situation and the dynamics change.
You know, how connected shouldyou be, how unconnected, how
disconnected should you be.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and also suffrage, meaningthe right to vote, like mm-hmm.
Peterloo was about the workingclass asking for the right to vote
(23:57):
because in Britain at that time,right, not everyone had the vote.
And it took I think until 1891for all men to have a vote.
And then, I think it was before the USbut not that far before, that the women
got the vote in the United Kingdom.
And yeah, so, so to think aboutwriting about Peterloo was actually
(24:20):
kind of a, a mind trip for me ifthat's the saying because mm-hmm.
Like there they were being shutdown because they didn't have the
freedom to assemble and the presseswere being shut down 'cause they
didn't have the freedom of speech.
And I kept being like, but these freedoms.
And I was like, oh, but this is Britain.
They didn't have that.
Mm-hmm.
(24:40):
This is the tyranny thatthe Americans overthrew.
But people still had to live like that.
And it was just, yeah.
You know, obviously these werethings I knew, but I hadn't
lived it with my characters.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and it, and it kind of like, I mean,it kind of brings home why these things
are so important to Americans too, right?
(25:01):
Like, yes.
And when we feel there's things beingthreatened, like why we have the
reaction we have, you know why I waslike, oh, we need to write this series.
Yes, because we currently have thefreedom of expression, which means
freedom of speech to say what we wantand freedom to receive the materials
so that romance readers can receivethe romance books that they like.
Yes.
And hopefully by the time this ispublished, that doesn't change.
(25:25):
Yes.
I wanted this to be like a subversiveform of resistance, if that makes sense.
And I, I think we're doing that,so that makes me very happy.
Yes.
And I thank you for leading us inthis because this was not on my radar
as something that I wanted to write.
And then, like I said, I was on thistrain and I had this epiphany and
then I started doing the research.
And research always inspires me too.
(25:46):
Yeah, me too.
And then when I started writing,these characters just came out
like they had been living insideof me and I didn't know it.
So on a very personal level, thank you.
And also on a like, you know,romance community level.
Thank you for starting the series.
Oh, of course.
Well.
Thank you so much forbeing my guest host today.
(26:08):
Just to recap, so thisseries is seven installments.
Mm-hmm.
Installment one Spine of Steel byAndrea Jenelle is out now on Kindle
Unlimited, installment two in theWide Open Light by Your Truly is
out this week on Kindle Unlimited.
And then in June, Misty Urban iscoming out with Miss Gregoire's
beginning in Kindle Unlimited again.
(26:31):
And I've read that one and itis beautiful and wonderful.
Yes.
So definitely recommend it.
And then we have stories fromRamona Elmes Elizabeth Everett,
Steffy Smith and Hillary Bow,and coming out later in the year.
So just be sure you stay tuned.
Also, we haven't mentioned this yet, buteach author got to choose their own title,
(26:52):
but many of us drew inspiration from thelyrics, from the musical Suffs, which
is all about the US Suffragist mission.
So it, so listen along to thosesongs as you're reading the books.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Mine, mine came from that.
And I know yours did as well, so Yes.
Yeah.
Actually, I'll say it in thewide open light is a lyric from
(27:14):
Finish the Fight, which is mm-hmm.
A song that shows up in the musicalat the beginning and at the end.
And it's about how the youngestgeneration that is picking up the fight
for the first time is like, this is thegeneration we're gonna see it happen.
The lesson at the end of the musicalis like the fight never ends.
And also you might not see what you'refighting for, come to fruition in
(27:40):
your generation, but that doesn'tmean it's not worth fighting.
And I thought that was really appropriatefor this story of Peterloo because
60,000 people showed up to demand reformto parliament, among other things,
and they were brutally oppressed.
Mm-hmm.
And then they got some parliamentaryreform in 1830s and fuller
(28:04):
parliamentary form reform in 1890s.
And, you know, women didn't get thevote, the right to vote until the 1900s.
So that was a fight that took a longtime, but it was still worth doing.
And Peterloo was an importantmoment that people drew inspiration
from to continue fighting.
So I think that's something that Ithink about when feeling hopeless.
(28:28):
Yes.
And, and, you know it kind ofties back into our theme, right?
Yes.
Well, Andrea, thank youagain for being my host.
Of course, Andrea's booksare available widely.
My books are available widely.
Listeners, I'll put links inthe show notes so you can find
both of our websites and that.
(28:49):
Yeah, I'll see you around and let'sall read the suffrage Uprising series.
That's it for this week!
Don't forget to subscribe to theHistorical Romance Sampler wherever
you listen, and follow us onInstagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Until next week, happy reading!
Welcome to the historicalromance sampler podcast.
I'm your host, Katherine Grant, andeach week I introduce you to another
amazing historical romance author.
My guest reads a little sampleof their work, and then we move
into a free ranging interview.
If you like these episodes, don'tforget to subscribe to the historical
(00:24):
romance sampler, wherever youlisten to podcasts and follow us
on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode.
All right.
I am here this week for a veryspecial episode celebrating my latest
release in the wide open light.
And to help me celebrate isguest host Andrea Jenelle.
(00:46):
We first heard from Andrea in Aprilwhen she was telling us about Spine
of Steel, which is the first bookin the suffragette Uprising series.
And now Andrea is joining me asguest host because in the Wide open
light is book two in that series.
Andrea, thank you so muchfor being my guest host.
(01:07):
Thank you so much.
I can't wait to hear you read an excerpt.
Yes.
So the Suffragette Uprising series isan interconnected series of stories
that focus on women fighting fortheir rights across various eras.
So Andrea's story, spine of Steel, tookplace in the Victorian American period.
(01:28):
I guess maybe we could call thatlike post Civil War America.
And when you first put out this prompt forSuffragette Uprising, I was kind of like,
I write Regency, how would I do this?
And my first reaction was, no.
And then I was on a train and Iremember looking out the train
window, just thinking like,how would I make this happen?
(01:48):
And all of a sudden I was like, I'vealways wanted to write about Peterloo.
Is this my chance?
And I went home and I Googledwomen at Peterloo, and it turned
out there were many scholarlyarticles because they played a
huge role at the Peterloo massacre,which I can talk about more later.
But that is the framing for this story.
(02:10):
It is a Northfield Hall novella aswell, which means that my characters
live and work at the estate thatI invented called Northfield Hall.
And so Julia is the wife wholives at Northfield Hall.
She arranged their familylife at Northfield Hall.
Samuel is her husband.
They've been married for a longtime, but they were separated for
(02:31):
11 years of that marriage because hewas press ganged into the Navy and
was fighting in the Napoleonic Wars.
Now he's been back, they've expandedtheir family and Julia has said,
I want to go to Manchester becausethere's a really big speech and I
wanna be a part of this movement.
And so this scene is the day before,actually, it's the morning that she leaves
(02:52):
and it's from Samuel's point of view.
And we see how he's kind ofprocessing the fact that Julia
is going off to Manchester.
The morning Julia would leave him,samuel woke before the babies.
He broke free from a nightmare,the usual one about being trapped
beneath a cannon while the shipcaught fire and sink faster and faster
(03:14):
into the cold Mediterranean sea.
Sometimes his fearful moans woke julia.
But this morning she snored onbeside him, her lips curled in
something that resembled a smile.
She was looking forward to her time away.
He didn't know what to make oftheir tryst the previous evening.
(03:34):
Ordinarily, that was the type of thinghe tried not to think too hard about.
If his wife wanted to make love to him,then who was he to second guess it?
But Samuel wished it had felt more likelovemaking and less like a tourniquet
on the wound bleeding between them.
Julia had not stopped tolisten to his concerns.
(03:54):
And had he given her a fair shot?
Samuel now couldn't rememberwhat they had discussed.
His only memory from the conversationwas of the emotions that had
swept over him and which hoveredsomewhere in the same corner of
his soul as that blasted nightmare.
Whatever they had said last night,julia was still leaving in a matter of
(04:15):
hours, even though he wished it weren't.
So Samuel had to resign himself to fate.
Well, he had done that plenty oftimes throughout his life, and
this time it was temporary, Juliawas leaving for a fortnight.
Surely he could handle that farbetter than when he had truly awoken
in a nightmare on HMS Scipion anddiscovered he would spend the rest
(04:38):
of his life without a left calf.
He started the long processof easing out of bed.
The first step was tofind his peg in the dark.
He groped along the wallwhere it was supposed to be.
Nothing.
He bent farther, bracinghimself against the mattress,
and felt around on the floor.
(04:59):
Finally, when he had almost fallen offthe bed, he found it nestled against the
baseboard of the wall and arms reach awaywhere it had apparently rolled overnight.
Fine.
Even with Julia in bed besidehim, he didn't need her help
to get his unruly peg in order.
Now sitting up, he reached into thelittle wooden chest beside the bed
(05:20):
that held his leather strap and salve.
The strap kept his pegleg in place all day.
The salve kept the strapfrom rubbing his thigh raw.
Ordinarily, he looked at these littleinstruments of his day and felt nothing.
This morning rage bubbled up old rage.
Rage that had been born the daythe press gang punched him to
(05:42):
the ground in Liverpool beforemarching him to Old Glory.
What had Samuel done to earn that?
Why had he been born to lose hisliberty, lose his leg, lose his life
as he knew it when other men were
were born to eat roast beefevery day off golden plates?
Why was his wife abandoning himfor a bigger dream when all the
(06:04):
other wives of Northfield Hallwere remaining with their husbands?
A stupid, selfish,petty rage to give into.
Samuel threw down the strap and disgust.
He knew better than tolet such emotions breathe.
He would not turn into one of those bitterold men who had nothing to do except
rail against every unfair turn of life.
(06:26):
He had a family of adorable children.
He had a wife who was smarter than anyonehe knew, who had once seen him across
a church service and deemed him worthy,and who would come back to him after
she finished her mission in Manchester.
Startling back to reality, he discoveredJulia was awake and curling her warm
(06:47):
body around the curve of his back.
"Do you need help?" Her voicewas tender and raw from sleep.
Samuel hadn't meant to wake herup and if she had to awaken, he
wished it wasn't now when he wasleast like the man she had married.
"No," he said trying to push her away.
"Go back to sleep." Julia draped her legsaround either side of him from behind
(07:12):
and took the pot of salve from his hand.
"Let me." She was so warm at hisback, even though the day would
be hot, the bedroom was cool andhis wife's body comforted him.
The rage subsided like a waveretreating from the beach.
He watched Julia's fingersdip into the salve.
(07:32):
She warmed it between her two palmsbefore bringing her hands to his
leg, leaning around him now stillwith her legs spread around his back.
She soothed the salve into his barethigh with gentle practiced strokes.
She eased the lotion onto his stumptoo, and lingered there, caressing
it with all the love in the world.
(07:52):
Samuel had been soashamed for her to see it.
When he first came to Northfield Hallfor a whole year, he had refused to
disrobe in front of her, much less,let her see him minister to his leg.
Even now, the rage inside him hatedthat she was touching it, but Samuel
had learned not to listen to it.
He had resigned himself tothis fate, which meant he
(08:14):
could welcome his wife's touch.
"Do you promise you'll take good careof this old thing while I'm gone?"
Julia asked, her cheek rested lazilyagainst his shoulder, and the movement
of her lips rustled his night shirt.
"I won't fall apart without you.""Good." Her fingers, no longer slick
with salve, wandered faster now awayfrom his injury and up towards his groin.
(08:39):
"What about this old thing? Willyou take care of it too while I'm
gone?" But Samuel caught her wristbefore she reached his Roger.
He didn't want that.
Not right now.
If they were going to be awake together,he wanted to actually say something,
not erase all hope of words withanother confusing roll on the mattress.
(09:00):
"I want to give you something,Jules." Her eyes dark in the
dawning light widened with surprise.
"You don't need to be spendingany money on me." "I didn't." Not
releasing her wrist, samuel reachedunder his pillow with his other
hand and retrieved his locket.
He tucked it into her palm.
"I want you to have this." Julia'sfingers tightened around it
(09:22):
before she could even look at it.
"But it's yours."
Samuel had done his best to clean it up.
He had polished the brass and putsome oil on the tiny hinges, but
from looking at it, a person couldsee the difficult life it had led.
Its cover was scratched,tarnished, and a little dented.
Inside, the miniature oil paintinghad suffered a water stain from
(09:44):
the 1811 hurricane that soakedSamuel's entire sea chest.
To Samuel's eyes,
it was still beautiful.
"For all those years, this was the sumtotal of what I had of you, a tiny little
painting done by an artist who never metyou, made from the description I gave
her." Samuel had been on shore leave inCadiz, hadn't seen so much as the English
(10:07):
channel for four years, and the miniatureartist had been rushing through paintings
to service all the homesick sailors.
"What does your wife look like?" Theartist had asked and stilted English.
Samuel had pictured Julia's face asif she were right there before him.
Smiling, eager, vigorous.
But how did he put that into words?
(10:27):
How did he make the painter catchthe correct angle of her nose, which
was neither straight nor crooked?
How did he explain the exactdistance between her eyes and
how her irises were such a fleckbrown, that they were almost honey?
How did he describe the soft sweep ofher lips and the way they were always
one joke away from an easy smile?
(10:48):
"It's not a perfect portrait of you,"he said to Julia with a chuckle.
The woman in the locket had jet blackhair instead of the light mud color
of Julia's, and she didn't smile atall as she stared out of the locket,
her lips, instead, a firm pink line.
But her eyes, how they shone,even though they were composed
of the tiniest dots of oil paint.
(11:11):
Her hair though too dark, sprangin magical curls across the small
canvas, just as it did in real life.
And most of all, the artist had somehowmanaged to capture Julia's essence
in her posture, full of hope, fullof plans, full of an unwillingness
to let life dictate its terms to her.
As if the portrait of Julia was runningoff to find Samuel in real life.
(11:35):
"If a stranger had only this likenessto go off, they might not find you,"
samuel continued.
"Especially now that my hair is mostlygray." He reached out and threaded his
fingers through the mess of hair that hadhis escaped from beneath her night cap.
Then he pointed to the locket.
"Do you know how I described you tothe artist? What made her paint you
like this?" Julia's lips twitched.
(11:56):
"Stubborn and willful?"
"A woman who shapes the world aroundher, who doesn't let fate sweep
her one way or another, who is sointelligent that when she doesn't know
something, she knows the questions toask to find it out." And he paused.
Remembering how the miniaturisthad stared at him, trying to
make sense of his descriptions.
(12:17):
"A woman whom I love more deeplythan I ever thought possible." Julia
wrapped her fingers around his.
They were smooth from thesalve, warm and strong.
"Why are you giving this to me?""I want you to take it with you.
I want you to remember..."he cleared his throat.
This type of talk was difficult, awkward,and his instincts surged forward to try
(12:40):
to steer him away from speaking his heart
so clearly.
He stayed the course "...that I loveyou, this version of you as well as
the version of you that is my wifeand the mother of my children. I wish
that you weren't called to join thisfight. But I love that you always do
what is right." He waited, watching herexamine the locket again, memorizing
(13:03):
the curve of her lips as she smiled down
at his token.
He hoped she might say something inreturn about how much she loved him.
Perhaps she would even promise him thatnothing would ever come between them.
She said no such words, but it wasenough for him that she took the locket
and that, on this last morning they hadtogether, she kissed him on the lips
(13:27):
and whispered she would never forget.
Beautiful.
Thank you.
Hey, audiobook listeners!
Have you checked out the officialHistorical Romance Sampler
Season 1 playlist on Libro.
fm? On the playlist, you'll findhistorical romances you heard here first
that are available to listen to on Libro.
(13:48):
fm. Plus, if you're not yet a Libro.
fm subscriber, use code HISTORICAL toget extra credits in your first month.
Head on over to the Historical RomanceSampler link tree to learn more.
I had the privilege of, reading ofdoing a beta read of this novella.
And one of the things that really struckme is is how poignantly you portray
(14:12):
the dynamics of a marriage and, and thecommunication that happens in a marriage.
Can you do you kind of talk to us alittle bit about what inspired that?
I don't think I've ever read and I'veread a lot of historical romance.
I don't think I've ever read like such arealistic depiction depiction of how that
changes the longer you're in a marriage.
(14:34):
Yeah, I think I. I think it'ssomething that I, as a reader,
am always interested in.
At the end of a story, I, Ireally like to know how does their
relationship change and epiloguestend to show us a rosy picture.
Mm-hmm.
But I, you know, I've alwaysbeen interested, well,
(14:56):
what does that look like?
How do you love someone but also, youknow, be in a very long relationship
and have days where you don't like them.
That's always something that I'mjust like, how does that work?
So I think part of my inspiration isthat I've always been interested in that.
And then I'm married.
I've been with my husband 10 years.
(15:18):
A few years ago he was going throughsome really intense mental health
struggles, and we were not havingbig conflict or anything like that.
We just both kind of recognized thatwe were having trouble supporting
each other through this really
big thing that he was going through.
And so we did some couplestherapy, which was fantastic.
(15:40):
I highly recommend couples therapy whenyou don't think you need it because
it helps you not need it at the end.
Right, right.
But I think that really tuned the fictionwriter part of me into, oh, the therapist
is noticing all these tiny dynamics.
And some of it was as simple aswe did an exercise where she asked
him, , okay, when he's feeling upset,how do you comfort him physically?
(16:03):
Like do you touch him?
Do you hug him?
Whatever.
And I started like rubbing his arm.
That's what I do as kind oflike petting a dog or something.
And then she asked him how hefelt and he said he really doesn't
like being rubbed that way.
He wants to be touched withjust like a still palm.
And then we flipped that.
And she prompted him to put hishand at the back of my head,
(16:26):
which he had really liked.
And I was like, that's terrible.
Do not do that to me.
And so that clued me into the factthat everyone has these very different
reactions and ways that we communicateand ways that we get comforted and it's
all so minute and yet it makes such abig difference because when we did this
(16:48):
therapy focusing in on these really tinythings, it shifted our relationship,
it made it stronger, it made it sothat we could communicate better.
And so I think that was where Istarted being like really creatively
inspired and interested in that.
And yeah, I mean I also think thereare a lot of romance readers who
are also in long-term relationships.
(17:09):
Yes.
Or have that life experience.
And so love does not endwhen you commit to somebody.
It needs a lot more than that.
And my husband and I have beentogether 27 years, so Congratulations.
Thank you.
So
it's, yeah, so, so I hope that readersare, feel, seen or feel that it's,
(17:31):
you know, adding a layer to romance.
Very much so.
I mean, I definitely felt seen and as Isaid, like, you know, that's something
you don't see a lot right at all in theromance genre period, not just, not
just, not just historical, you don'tsee a contemporary either, really.
Yeah.
I think there's, I think I've onlyread one contemporary book that was
(17:52):
like that and it was one by Chloe Lees.
But so that struck me.
The other, the other thing, I knowwe've talked about this before, but do
you just wanna talk about how differentit is to center your characters in the
working class or the rising middle classas opposed to writing about nobility?
And why you chose to do that andwhat, what you, what additional things
(18:13):
you think it brings to the reader.
So I started writing some working classcharacters as my Northfield Hall novellas,
which are a spinoff from the Prestons.
So I have this established nobility thatI write about, and then these are the
people who live and work on their estateand, it is slightly different and it,
it's also funny to go between them becauselike you're like changing your worldview.
(18:37):
But I think one thing is comfort thatyou can give the characters, especially
writing this book, which is tackling laborrights and the franchise, and this is
1819, the industrial revolution has beengoing on long enough, maybe like 50 years.
(18:58):
Mm-hmm.
That there are factories, thereare children, there's already
backlash to children in factories.
There are all sorts of.
There's such poverty inBritain at this time.
So when you're writing working class,you have to engage with that, even
if your characters are miraculouslynot impoverished, which my characters
(19:20):
at Northfield Hall, the whole conceptof Northfield Hall is anyone who
works there they live off the land.
They make their own linens, andthey also get a share of the profits
of the estate, which it's not thatprofitable, but they're getting more
money than the average person, right?
So they're living in a state ofcomfort, but they have to engage
with these family members who aren't,and they have to engage with the
(19:41):
realities that they, they might have
been living in that impoverished state.
And so I think with this novella inparticular, I found myself engaging
with that and trying to think, okay,how do I get this on the page without
it being a really depressing story?
Mm-hmm.
Because romance, I feel overallneeds to be a joyful story.
(20:04):
It has room for not joy, but likethe story overall needs to leave
the reader feeling happy, not like,
wow, that was depressing.
So that's, I think the creative challengethat It gives me, but also it, it then
allows me to get rid of a lot of thingslike the, I don't have to, there's
(20:25):
not as much like status obsession.
There's not as much.
Right.
The, the commoners, the workingclass, they didn't have as much of a,
an emphasis even on legal marriage.
Mm-hmm.
There were a lot of likecommon law marriages.
Mm-hmm.
And so, so then you get tolike, explore these different.
Dynamics of people exploringdifferent communities and,
(20:45):
and navigating all of that.
Yeah, I just, I, you know, that's oneof the things that really stands out
to me about your writing is that youexplore that, and as we talked about
a minute ago, just the dynamics ofmarriage beyond, we're standing at
the altar, what happens after, right?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, and I think for this storyin particular with the suffragette
(21:06):
uprising prompt, my first thoughtwas like, okay, so suffragette.
I think of that as beingan unmarried woman.
Mm-hmm.
And so she's gonna like, meet aman and they're gonna tame each
other in these different ways.
And I was just like, I mean,that's a very interesting story,
but I also just wasn't, it wasn'tspeaking to me in a, in that way.
(21:27):
And then when I was like, okay,but what if this is a couple who
are happy together, but she shiftshow she's orienting to the world
and then he has to react to that.
Right?
Which I think whenever I'm writinga story, I also have questions that
I'm hoping it will help me explore.
(21:47):
Not really get.
Clear answers on, because these arelike, you know how they're existential?
Yeah, they're existential questions.
But I think I needed to find,to be creatively inspired.
I needed to be like, well, whatquestion am I looking to explore here?
And it was, you know, what happens whenyou are privileged in a certain way, but
(22:09):
you see that there are terrible thingsgoing on and you feel connected to it.
How connected do you need tofeel before you participate?
What sacrifices do you make for that?
And then also as I started working withit, I was like, this marriage is actually
a really good metaphor for how whenyou're in an entrenched society that has
(22:30):
specific dynamics, and it's changing.
And so you have to figureout how to renegotiate.
And that's Peterloo was all aboutthe working class, speaking up
for themselves, trying to say,can we renegotiate this contract?
Like their literal MagnaCarta contract, right.
And being oppressed because of it.
And eventually there wasprogress, but, but yeah.
(22:51):
Yeah, so,
so metaphorically it worked as well.
It did.
And, and you know, that's what I amreally looking forward to is that the,
you know, the stories in this seriesall explore that in a different way.
Right.
Like how and that's why I kind,that's why I'm so glad that like.
You interpreted suffrage to meanlike, because a, a suffragist
isn't someone, they weren't justfor women's right to vote, they
(23:14):
were for civil liberties period.
Right?
Yeah.
For any and all and most suffragists andsuffragettes were believed in fighting
for all those other things as well.
Right.
Like labor rights and theright to education mm-hmm.
Et cetera.
So so I'm really glad youexplored that because I think
it'll give readers a much betterunderstanding of what the term means.
(23:35):
And also understand, as you said, whatthat means when you are in an entrenched
situation and the dynamics change.
You know, how connected shouldyou be, how unconnected, how
disconnected should you be.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and also suffrage, meaningthe right to vote, like mm-hmm.
Peterloo was about the workingclass asking for the right to vote
(23:57):
because in Britain at that time,right, not everyone had the vote.
And it took I think until 1891for all men to have a vote.
And then, I think it was before the USbut not that far before, that the women
got the vote in the United Kingdom.
And yeah, so, so to think aboutwriting about Peterloo was actually
(24:20):
kind of a, a mind trip for me ifthat's the saying because mm-hmm.
Like there they were being shutdown because they didn't have the
freedom to assemble and the presseswere being shut down 'cause they
didn't have the freedom of speech.
And I kept being like, but these freedoms.
And I was like, oh, but this is Britain.
They didn't have that.
Mm-hmm.
(24:40):
This is the tyranny thatthe Americans overthrew.
But people still had to live like that.
And it was just, yeah.
You know, obviously these werethings I knew, but I hadn't
lived it with my characters.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and it, and it kind of like, I mean,it kind of brings home why these things
are so important to Americans too, right?
(25:01):
Like, yes.
And when we feel there's things beingthreatened, like why we have the
reaction we have, you know why I waslike, oh, we need to write this series.
Yes, because we currently have thefreedom of expression, which means
freedom of speech to say what we wantand freedom to receive the materials
so that romance readers can receivethe romance books that they like.
Yes.
And hopefully by the time this ispublished, that doesn't change.
(25:25):
Yes.
I wanted this to be like a subversiveform of resistance, if that makes sense.
And I, I think we're doing that,so that makes me very happy.
Yes.
And I thank you for leading us inthis because this was not on my radar
as something that I wanted to write.
And then, like I said, I was on thistrain and I had this epiphany and
then I started doing the research.
And research always inspires me too.
(25:46):
Yeah, me too.
And then when I started writing,these characters just came out
like they had been living insideof me and I didn't know it.
So on a very personal level, thank you.
And also on a like, you know,romance community level.
Thank you for starting the series.
Oh, of course.
Well.
Thank you so much forbeing my guest host today.
(26:08):
Just to recap, so thisseries is seven installments.
Mm-hmm.
Installment one Spine of Steel byAndrea Jenelle is out now on Kindle
Unlimited, installment two in theWide Open Light by Your Truly is
out this week on Kindle Unlimited.
And then in June, Misty Urban iscoming out with Miss Gregoire's
beginning in Kindle Unlimited again.
(26:31):
And I've read that one and itis beautiful and wonderful.
Yes.
So definitely recommend it.
And then we have stories fromRamona Elmes Elizabeth Everett,
Steffy Smith and Hillary Bow,and coming out later in the year.
So just be sure you stay tuned.
Also, we haven't mentioned this yet, buteach author got to choose their own title,
(26:52):
but many of us drew inspiration from thelyrics, from the musical Suffs, which
is all about the US Suffragist mission.
So it, so listen along to thosesongs as you're reading the books.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Mine, mine came from that.
And I know yours did as well, so Yes.
Yeah.
Actually, I'll say it in thewide open light is a lyric from
(27:14):
Finish the Fight, which is mm-hmm.
A song that shows up in the musicalat the beginning and at the end.
And it's about how the youngestgeneration that is picking up the fight
for the first time is like, this is thegeneration we're gonna see it happen.
The lesson at the end of the musicalis like the fight never ends.
And also you might not see what you'refighting for, come to fruition in
(27:40):
your generation, but that doesn'tmean it's not worth fighting.
And I thought that was really appropriatefor this story of Peterloo because
60,000 people showed up to demand reformto parliament, among other things,
and they were brutally oppressed.
Mm-hmm.
And then they got some parliamentaryreform in 1830s and fuller
(28:04):
parliamentary form reform in 1890s.
And, you know, women didn't get thevote, the right to vote until the 1900s.
So that was a fight that took a longtime, but it was still worth doing.
And Peterloo was an importantmoment that people drew inspiration
from to continue fighting.
So I think that's something that Ithink about when feeling hopeless.
(28:28):
Yes.
And, and, you know it kind ofties back into our theme, right?
Yes.
Well, Andrea, thank youagain for being my host.
Of course, Andrea's booksare available widely.
My books are available widely.
Listeners, I'll put links inthe show notes so you can find
both of our websites and that.
(28:49):
Yeah, I'll see you around and let'sall read the suffrage Uprising series.
That's it for this week!
Don't forget to subscribe to theHistorical Romance Sampler wherever
you listen, and follow us onInstagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Until next week, happy reading!
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