New story out!

[catherineldf]

The latest installment of my f/f pirate and spy adventures in the 17th century Caribbean is out at Heather Rose Jones's LHMPodcast! "The Adventuress" is about a chance meeting between spy Celeste Adele Girard and pirate Jacquotte Delahaye and Aphra Behn, bisexual playwright and spy, the first woman known to have made a living from her writing, in a short-lived English quasi-utopian experiment, Willoughbyland. Willoughbyland was founded by Royalists attempting to evade Cromwell's Parliamentarian government and was ruled by a council of landowners. They granted religious freedom to everyone, thus drawing in a largish community of Jews from Brazil, but were also slaveholders and had both indigenous and African slaves. Aphra Behn spent a few months there when she was employed as a spy for Charles II and had opinions about the leadership, namely William Byam who managed to displace Lord Willoughby as governor for a time. All of this figures into the story. And if you would like to learn more about Aphra Behn herself, check out Janet Todd's excellent book, The Secret Life of Aphra Behn.

If you want to read and/or listen to the previous stories in order, here they are with links:

• "The Letter of Marque"
• "One Night in Saint-Martin"
• "Cardinal's Gambit"

I am beginning to contemplate doing either linked short stories or novel with these characters. Check them out and let me know what you think?