Hello Readers!

Welcome to my newsletter! This is the first issue, so let’s see how it goes. I’d like to give a glimpse of my writing journey, but since I was a reader long before I was a writer, I also hope to showcase some of my favorite books and authors. If you’d like to see more of what I’m reading, or are looking for book recommendations, check out my book blog.

First things first: My full name is Susan Carol Coventry. I write biographical historical fiction (fictionalized life stories of real historical figures) as Susan Coventry. For my historical romances, I plucked out my middle name to write as Carol Coventry. I hope this makes it easier for those who enjoy the different genres to keep my books straight. Of course, I’d also love readers to explore both of my favorite genres.

Because this is my initial newsletter, I’ll start at the beginning. I’ve always been a voracious reader. Although I read anything and everything, eventually I gravitated toward historical fiction—all of its subgenres—because when I read, I want to be transported to different times and places, while still being grounded in this world.

My initial exposure to historical fiction was through the quasi-historical and largely-fantastical world of King Arthur. I loved everything to do with knights, ladies, troubadours, kings and queens, jousts and quests. When I gave in to the urge to try my hand at writing, I started in the Middle Ages. This led to a 10-15 year odyssey: learning how to write fiction, the exhilarating rabbit hole of historical research, the importance of critique groups, how to query agents, and how the traditional publishing process works (or worked back in 2008). I’ll delve into that more in future newsletters, along with my insights into the changes over the past 20 years.

I’d written a few “practice” novels (maybe more than a few) when I stumbled across Joan, the youngest daughter of the medieval queen of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine. To me, Joan’s life story—what little we know of it—was every bit as fascinating as her mother’s. The fact that there was so little detail known left a lot of gaps to be filled, which meant license for storytelling.

I wrote Joan’s story, workshopped it with a critique group, and came up with a novel of over 600 pages! A wonderful agent, Irene Kraas, now retired, saw promise in the book, but warned me it needed to be shortened. I’d shaved off about 10% of it when she sold it to Henry Holt (Macmillan) as a young adult novel. My editor bought it with the understanding I would chop it in half. Nothing motivates aggressive editing like a book deal!

And so, in June of 2010, I first became a published author, full of excitement and unrealistic expectations. It was to be another 14 years before my second book came out.

For more insight into my motivation for The Queen’s Daughter, you can read my blog post here.

One of my all-time favorite historical novels is set the Middle Ages, Great Maria by Cecelia Holland. The best schooling for novelists is to read and read and read. Holland’s immersive settings and nuanced characters have always entertained and inspired me. My full review is here.

I’ll be back with another newsletter at the end of February.

Thanks for reading!

S.C.C.