Happy 2024, everyone!

It is with TREMENDOUS delight that I can announce the pub date for my next novel, By Any Other Name: 8/20 in the US/Canada; 10/10 for UK. (Yes, I will be on tour. No, I don’t know where yet. That will be in a future newsletter!)

To say I am excited is an understatement. This is my 29th novel, but this one may very well be the “book of my heart” – the one I kind of feel I was destined to write, so that everyone knows the name EMILIA BASSANO.

I know what you’re saying: “Who?”

Emilia Bassano. The real-life subject of half of By Any Other Name. As I’ve mentioned in earlier newsletters, the book is about gender discrimination in theater and publishing – and it starts 400 years ago in Elizabethan England, with a woman who – I believe – may well have been the author of some of Shakespeare’s plays.

I’m not the first to believe that Shakespeare might not be the true author of the plays attributed to him. There have been other Anti-Stratfordians (as they are called) – including people like SCOTUS Justice John Paul Stevens, Helen Keller, Mark Twain, Malcolm X, Sigmund Freud, and Orson Welles. Most of the time, if you even breathe a whisper of the thought that, gee, maybe it’s weird Shakespeare was the ONLY playwright of his time to not collaborate; or that he was not formally educated nor apparently self-taught, as he did not own a single book at the time of his death; or that although there are many historical documents showing him as a producer and actor, there’s not a single one that confirms him as a writer of plays; or that upon his death no other writers of the time bemoaned his loss as one of their peers; or that it’s odd that someone who was so well-known in his field would have written multiple sonnets about dying poor and forgotten…well, the Stratfordians who believe Shakespeare is inviolable will call you a crackpot for thinking these thoughts. Why? Well, there are entire academic careers built on the premise that Shakespeare was the most remarkable writer of all time. Pull the rug out from beneath that premise, and lots of careers topple. To wit, my novel hasn’t even been published, and already on social media I’ve had some men tell me I’m an idiot for subscribing to the possibility that Shakespeare may not have written all 38 plays and long poems and sonnets by himself.

Stay tuned for more notes on my research for By Any Other Name.

Have I whetted your interest? You can preorder By Any Other Name by clicking here.

Let’s make this the Year of Emilia. 

XO,

Jodi 

BY ANY OTHER NAME: Available Later This Year!



In 1581, Emilia Bassano—like most young women of her day—is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theater in England, and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history.

In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina—like Emilia—be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed?

Told in intertwining narratives, this sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on—even if it means they will be forgotten.

Available:

US/Canada: 8/20

UK: 10/10

Make Sure You’re Following Me On TikTok And Threads

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Q: What are you listening to?

JP: Noah Kahan.

Q: What are you reading?

JP: Gillian McAllister’s next novel, Inside Story, Swept Away by Beth O’Leary (also upcoming) and House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas.

Q: What Books Would You Recommend?

JP: Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren.

Q: What are you watching?

JP: Fool Me Once on Netflix

Have You Seen...

Thank you to GMA for revealing the cover of By Any Other Name.

Facebook Post Of The Month #1: Bernadette

What a beautiful cover! Oh my! Can't wait to indulge in this story (By Any Other Name) and your creativity! Thank you for giving us a new story! You always help to open my mind on new topics and to become more understanding of how others think/feel due to your research. So excited. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 😊❤️

Need A Good Paperback To Read This Winter?

Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, and Leaving Time are all available in paperback.

You can read summaries and purchase the books via the links below.

Win A Signed Edition Of WISH YOU WERE HERE

Congratulations to Karen, this month's free signed book winner.

Each month, one person will be chosen from my newsletter subscribers or Facebook fans as a winner of a free signed edition of Wish You Were Here.

Facebook Post Of The Month #2: JoEllen

OMG!! Can hardly wait (for By Any Other Name). Every single book is so amazing. Thank you for sharing your incredible words with us. I always set aside a full day with no interruptions when a new book comes out.