A Rose by Any Other Name

Official cover reveal and preorder launch!

Twelfth night has come and gone. Imbolc is coming. It’s winter. As we enjoy the winter weather—or wait patiently for the weather to change—I have exciting news to share.

A Rose by Any Other Name has an official release date. The novel will be available wherever books are sold on July 16, 2024!

Today is the official cover reveal and preorder launch, so I am sharing with you here. Please feast your eyes on this stunning design. I am a very, very lucky author:

Design by Lisa Marie Pompilio, cover photos by Blake Marrow/Shannon Associates (IG/X @shootblake)

Isn't it stunning? My publisher involved me very closely in the cover design and every single element evokes details from the story. The rose, candle, and jar of dried herbs are components in spells that Rose finds in her mother’s grimoire. The celestial details evoke Rose’s astrology business, and the spherical object in the foreground is a ring Rose’s father gives her before he dies. Armillary sphere finger rings like this one, which unfold into a miniature model of the heavens, were status symbols for 16th century astrologers. They were associated with instrument maker Gemma Frisius, one of the teachers of the famous occultist John Dee, who is a character in the novel along with his wife Jane. My editor was obsessed with the ring and wanted to put it on the cover so much she had my publisher buy a replica to shoot in studio!

In all respects, it’s the perfect cover for a witchy novel with three entangled love stories. If you’re familiar with the sonnets, the gothic, romantic vibe shouldn’t surprise you. If you’re not…

Shakespeare’s sonnets address two characters: a beautiful young man called the Fair Youth, and a mysterious woman called the Dark Lady. There is a centuries-long debate over whether these characters are fictional or inspired by real people, and the majority of modern critics insist they’re made up. But that hasn’t stopped many famous readers and critics from wondering. There are theories that the Fair Youth was Henry Wriothesley Earl of Southampton or William Herbert Earl of Pembroke, that the Dark Lady was poet Aemilia Bassano or a brothel owner named Luce Morgan.

The first seventeen poems encourage the Fair Youth to marry and produce an heir, a theme so different from the hundred-plus poems that follow, many critics think they were written on commission. Something changes at sonnet eighteen. Shakespeare starts writing the Fair Youth gorgeous, passionate love poems—over a hundred of them.

There are only twenty-six sonnets about or addressed to Shakespeare’s infamous mistress. Some of those poems praise her dark beauty and declare the speaker’s love for her, but others are more ambiguous, and many have deep veins of bitterness and misogyny running through them. The speaker blames his mistress for stealing the Fair Youth away from him, accuses her of giving them venereal disease, and even insinuates that she might have made a pact with the devil…

This novel was born of my fascination with the woman who might have inspired those poems.

Here is the official jacket copy:

From the author of The Book of Gothel comes the lush, magical story behind Shakespeare's sonnets, as told by one of his most famous subjects—the incendiary and mysterious Dark Lady.

My name has only been whispered, heretofore…

England, 1591. Rose Rushe’s passion for life runs deep—she loves mead and music, meddles with astrology, and laughs at her mother’s warnings to guard her reputation. When Rose’s father dies and a noble accuses her and her dear friend Cecely of witchcraft, they flee to the household of respected alchemists in London. But as their bond deepens, their sanctuary begins to feel more like a cage. To escape, they turn to the occult, secretly casting charms and selling astrological advice in the hopes of building a life together. This thriving underground business leads Rose to fair young noble Henry and playwright Will Shakespeare, and so begins a brief, tempestuous, and powerful romance—one filled with secret longings and deep betrayals. 

In this world of dazzling masques and decadent feasts, where the stars decide futures, Rose will write her own fate instead. 

If you pre-order the novel, you will receive my endless gratitude, a signed bookplate to put in your copy, and a limited edition bookmark featuring gorgeous historical portraits I’ve chosen to represent the four main characters:

Image credits, left to right: Cecely Weaver as La Bella (Woman in a Blue Dress) by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, 1536); Henry Wriothesley as painted by Nicholas Hilliard (1594); Rose Rushe as Self-portrait at the Virginal with a Servant by Lavinia Fontana; and William Shakespeare in Hombres y Mujeres Celebres (1877).

Preordering early will help support the book and me as author; the more copies sell early, the better the book’s print run will be, and the more publicity the book will have. It will also help my prospects at selling another book. (Yes, I’m working on one, but it’s very new, too new to talk about yet—more on that later!)

Pre-order incentives will be mailed when the campaign closes on Saturday, July 20. You can participate in the campaign by preordering and filling out this form!

If you have any questions about the novel or preorder campaign, I’d love to answer them. Just drop a reply on Substack in the comments or shoot me a reply in email!

I am, as always, deeply grateful for your support!

Warmly,

Mary