At a mystery conference probably twenty years ago, I met a woman known in the industry for being successful but also waspish. When I told her I'd signed with a traditional publisher to produce my Elizabethan mystery, Her Highness' First Murder, she dismissed me with a contemptuous, two-prong comment. First, I'd signed with the "wrong" people. She could have helped me, but I'd thrown that chance away by choosing elsewhere. Then she announced that the Tudors were "done" anyway.

First, I hadn't asked her to help me with anything. Second, I think we can all agree that in the last twenty years, the Tudors have been fairly popular subjects for fiction. Just ask that Gregory woman.

Luckily, my first book Macbeth's Niece was successful enough that my publisher was willing to take on my historical mystery featuring a young Elizabeth Tudor. My plan was to do four books, each with a title containing a term applied to her at a given stage of her life. As Henry's daughter she was Her Highness. When he died, she became Her Grace under Edward and then Lady Elizabeth under Mary.  Finally, of course, she was Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

My publisher, like many at that time, struggled to stay financially viable. The company declared bankruptcy somewhere in the four-book series. I learned that it didn't matter much to most authors, since they never "sold through," meaning they never made enough money for the company to pay back the advances we were paid. I had, so bankruptcy meant I lost a significant sum. We also learned that in the bankruptcy process, the authors would be the last parties paid. After a year when I got no royalties and a few more years of pathetically small ones, the company closed its mystery section down completely. I got my rights to the books back. They said I could purchase the covers they had designed, but I saw no reason to pay them for not paying me, so I learned to make my own covers. This one doesn't exactly thrill me, but there it is.

Her Highness' First Murder - Elizabeth Tudor is a young teen, living in a household paid for by her father Henry VIII but removed from his presence. When one of her ladies is found dead in the garden, Elizabeth wants to know what happened. She teams up with Simon, the slightly unwillling son of a local doctor, and Hugh, a very unwilling yeoman of the King's Guard. Not only do they chance that the killer will turn on them, but they all must worry about what will happen if the king finds out what they're up to. This book can be found here for free.