While I knew for years that I wanted to explore what happened to Charlotte after she entered a marriage that looked more like penance than romance, this novel was born on a soft night in Ireland at the prompting of my fellow authors and co-erotica writers, Sarah Lotz and Paige Nick. I was grieving at the time, and Sarah encouraged me to express myself in the form of a novel. I immediately knew I wanted to tell Charlotte Lucas’s story, and as a knowledgeable Austen reader, Sarah jumped at the idea. We spent hours plotting, and the next day, Paige cloistered me in my room and made me write up all the notes (complete with red wine splashes) made the night before. Both subsequently badgered me for chapters, thrashed through plot wildernesses, accompanied me on research trips, loaned me their homes in which to write, and more. Sarah made me cups of tea and offered tissues as I wrote the most painful scenes. My first readers, they were always brutally (often hilariously) honest, and mercilessly insistent that I finish the book.

My day job involves editing the fiction of others, and the authors I’ve worked with over decades have all taught me not only how to write, but how to live with imaginary people in one’s head. I wish there was space to list all of them. I am particularly indebted to Ben Williams and the rest of the BookSA/BooksLive tribe for ongoing encouragement and witty online company. I learned a great deal about writing historical fiction and the courage it takes to approach a great classic from working on Tom Eaton’s exquisite ‘Night’s Candles’, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. I owe Lauren Beukes for her understanding of those ‘my gold shoes pinch’ days. Thanks to Karina Szczurek Brink and Joanne Hichens (fellow members of the Two and a Half Widows’ Club) for insights on writing as survival. Rachel Zadok, Nick Mulgrew, and Colleen Higgs provided vital cheerleading, as did Diane Awerbuck. Elinor Sisulu, with whom I bonded over Austen (also a penchant for Colin Firth), began urging me to write this book fifteen years ago, and has been a stalwart source of encouragement and support.

Beta readers included the writers Fiona Snyckers (also my birth scene coach) and Petina Gappah, whose excitement was fuel to my writing fire, and psychologist Sally Swartz, who insisted that I stop hiding in the margins of other authors’ books. I am very, very thankful.

I was greatly inspired by Jo Baker’s Longbourn, and have hidden several Easter eggs from it within the pages of Charlotte. I am grateful to Jo for her permission to do so.