WELCOME TO RACHEL’S FICTION WRITING AND REVIEWS BLOG
This is where Rachel keeps you up to date with her novels and stories and also shares reviews, highlights and extracts from other authors.
🎧 Lady of Lincoln Is Now Available on Audible
There are some stories that were amazing when heard, and I’m delighted to share that Lady of Lincoln is now available in audiobook on Audible.
And the narrator, Sarah Kempton (already award-nominated), is fabulous!
Nicola de la Haye’s story: a woman who inherited a castle, defied expectation, and refused to fail her people or surrender what was hers, can now be experienced in a new way: spoken aloud, as the sounds of her world unfold around you.
This is the first book in the trilogy following the remarkable true story of the woman sometimes remembered as “the woman who saved England.” In this opening volume, we meet Nicola as a young heiress navigating loyalty, ambition, and survival in a world that doubts her capacity to lead.
Listening brings a different intimacy. The cadence of medieval names. The weight of oaths. The quiet resolve in moments when no one else sees.
If you love immersive historical fiction, I hope you’ll enjoy hearing Nicola’s story.
🎧 You can find Lady of Lincoln now on Audible. Listen to the sample for free.
Universal book link: https://books2read.com/u/4980nW
Big News: Lady of the Castle Shortlisted for the HNS First Chapter Competition
Lady of the Castle has been shortlisted for the Historical Novel Society's First Chapter Competition before it’s even been published, and and I'm still doing a happy dance about it! 🥳
This is my second Nicola de la Haye novel, still unpublished, still being polished, but somehow its opening chapter caught the attention of the HNS judges in the competitive 11th–16th Century Category. 😀
The competition honours exactly what makes historical fiction electric: that first page that drops you into another century and refuses to let go. Nicola de la Haye - castellan, survivor, one of medieval England's most remarkable women - has a story worth telling, and it’s wonderful that Lady of Lincoln has already won so many awards, but also that Lady of the Castle is being credited even before the book even exists in final form!
Lady of the Castle continues where Lady of Lincoln left off, following Nicola through the treacherous politics and passions of the late 12th century. I'm deep in final revisions. You can track my writing and publishing progress here.
Stay tuned!
She Was Almost Written Out of History, But Today, She Takes Back Her Story
Lady of Lincoln is officially here, and the woman history almost forgot is ready to be remembered.
Today is publication day for Lady of Lincoln, and I won't pretend I'm not emotional. This book, and this woman, has lived in my heart for years.
Nicola de la Haye was real. She inherited Lincoln Castle, commanded a garrison, defied kings, and at nearly seventy years old, held her fortress against the forces of Prince Louis of France in a siege and then a battle that may have changed the course of English history. Without her, England might be speaking French today.
And yet, until now, you've almost certainly never heard her name.
I hope that ends today.
