Debut Novelist Rachel Gates Unveils Sparkling Regency Mystery,
“A Brilliant Convergence”
Debut novelist Rachel Gates and WordCrafts Press are thrilled to announce the release of A Brilliant Convergence, which released to retail on January 8, 2025, in hardback, trade paperback, and all major ebook formats. Set during the British Regency period in the early 19th century, Rachel’s tale follows the exploits of ex-pat English nobleman, Henry Rockcliff, who has been content to live in self-imposed exile in France for nearly a decade until his former army commander asks him to investigate a series of mysterious shipwrecks in his native England. During his undercover investigations, Henry encounters Emelia Seaton, an unconventional young lady who prefers physics and archery over dancing and fashion. Together they must join forces if they are to solve this sparkling Regency mystery!
Emelia Seaton has lived a quiet life in the seaside hamlet of Collington, England. She’s anything but a conventional young lady; studying physics and mathematics for fun, and spending hours practicing her archery skills in every weather condition.
Her carefully-constructed world is thrown into chaos, however, when two handsome men arrive in town. Edwin, her childhood best friend, has come home, and is making her blush in ways he never did when they were children. And Henry, the mysterious stranger, who wants to install a Fresnel lens in the town lighthouse.
“I worked as a journalist, freelance writer, and copy editor on and off for years, but I’d always wanted to try writing what I most love reading: historical fiction,” explains first time novelist, Rachel Gates. “While listening to a Rick Steves Radio interview of Theresa Levitt about her book A Short, Bright Flash, on the invention of the revolutionary Fresnel lighthouse lens, I finally knew what I wanted to write about. I quickly ordered the book and devoured it, highlighter in hand, learning all about how Augustin Fresnel and his somewhat miraculous lens changed history. It was this rapidly changing world that I wanted to set my mystery in, and from there, I was hooked.”
From the Novel
Emelia glanced out the tower’s small window at the darkening sky. By the time she’d fitted the arrowheads onto the arrows and made a few minor adjustments to her bow, the sky was growing darker. Tossing her quiver over one shoulder, she dashed out of the shed.
Strong breezes pulled at her dress and whisked hairs away from her braid, but the rumbling thunder was still quite a ways off in the distance. The geese were restless in the tall, spring-green grass. She’d have another goose to send to the Appletons within minutes. Her first few shots fell close to their mark, but she heard no telltale honking or flapping, so Emelia took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and listened for rustling in the grass. There. Right on top of that little hill.
Opening her eyes, she let an arrow fly towards the noise—just as a tall, gray beaver hat came into view over the grassy knoll.
Emelia’s stomach dropped. “Look out! Get down!”
But of course, it was too late. Any arrow had long since met its mark. Dropping her bow and quiver, she ran through the long grass towards the unfortunate visitor, praying he was still alive. She reached the knoll at a dead run, but what Emelia saw brought her to a quick halt.
There stood Mr. Rockcliff, their new acquaintance from last week, very much alive, but staring at her with a look of utter astonishment. Fresh blood was dripping down his cheek from a sizable gash that could only have been made by her arrow.
“What just…who—you shot me!”
“The writing process took me quite a while—nearly three years—because I had never written fiction before and I had no idea what I was doing. Regency and Victorian-era fiction have always been my favorite genres to read, so I had a lot of background knowledge on the time period already, but I still had to do a lot of research. I’m an enneagram 5, so I love research, and I learned more than I could possibly need to know about lighthouse lenses, shipping, and smuggling in the early 1800s. Even though the process was a bit daunting, and I was learning about fiction writing, story outlines, and the publishing process as I went, I was having so much fun doing it. I hope my readers will have as much fun reading the book. It’s a fun and lighthearted mystery in the spirit of Georgette Heyer,” Rachel adds, “one that’s not meant to take itself too seriously. But I also hope that they might learn a little bit about themselves in the process.”
“There is something quite intriguing about the Regency period that Americans can’t seem to get enough of,” muses WordCrafts Press publisher, Mike Parker. “The pomp and circumstance, the nobility and the common folk, the traditions and pageantry that evolved over centuries offer endless fascination. Throw into the mix a healthy dose of romance, skullduggery, and humor along with a ruggedly handsome main character with a mysterious sixth sense and a feisty young noblewoman with a mind of her own and a penchant for adventure, and what’s not to love?”
“Within the pages of a good book you can live an entire lifetime; you can travel to places you may never be able to step foot onto physically,” Rachel says. “A Brilliant Convergence is a novel about a soldier and a young debutante fighting a murderous band of smugglers in 1825, but it’s also a novel about these monumental shifts in technology and society, about being yourself even when that doesn’t fit into a neat little box of societal acceptance. Can I see a little bit of myself in these characters? Would I make the same choices as they do, or completely opposite choices? How would I react if I were faced with a similar situation? We don’t even realize that we’re evaluating these things as we read, but we are, even if only subconsciously.”
About Rachel Gates
“Rachel Gates is a writer, entrepreneur, and life-long Francophile. She spends her time writing historical fiction set in France and England, planning trips to Europe (both real and aspirational), and curating vintage fashion. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband, two boys, and Murphy the big red dog. You can find her online at:
thefauxfrenchgirl.com
“I’m currently about halfway through writing my next novel, a cozy Victorian murder mystery that I hope will be the start of another series. When that is finished, I’ll head back to the world and characters of A Brilliant Convergence to write its sequel. I hope each series will eventually contain several books each, and that this book is just the beginning of a beautiful literary friendship.”
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