When enemy spies steal a magical prototype, Tory thwarts them, recovers the prototype, and thinks of it as nothing more than routine spywork. However, once she traces the spies back to Mr. Bradburn–her superior at the Intelligence Ministry–she is alarmed. Has she blundered into some sort of elaborate mission? Or is Bradburn a double-agent? As she races to uncover the truth, Bradburn uses his authority to make her the target of a citywide manhunt. Soon, Tory’s dodging pursuers like ladies evade louts at a ball. Among them is a corrupt police officer who would love to lock her away in his jail, for reasons upon which Tory would rather not speculate. When all of her pursuers start working together, Tory begins to think she’s doomed.

~*~

Influences

I wrote A SPY AND A LADY out of a slightly malicious desire to place a character who might have come out of a Jane Austen novel into a harrowing spy setting. I had just finished up Forging a Legend and needed a complete change of mood. I think I succeeded! It was great fun to write.

The original idea came from baby babble. My own daughter, in fact. She was trying to put random syllables together and came up with “starcaster.” I immediately envisioned a system of magic based on starlight, and I said, “Vicky, what a great idea!”

It took a couple of years to refine the idea, during which time I wrote Forging a Legend. When I came back to Starcaster, which was my title until recently, I tried a few openings without much success until I tried it in first person. It was exactly what I needed. I wrote the first draft in about six months.

The main inspiration for the rest was, of course, Jane Austen. It was based on an old-fashioned what-if question: What if someone like Elizabeth Bennett was a spy? It sounded so fun, and that’s exactly what I tried to make it.

I was also inspired by steampunk. A SPY AND A LADY has some steampunk-like elements, but all of the science in the novel is real. Technology like speaking tubes really did exist.

And lastly, I was inspired by James Bond movies. I tried to keep the action nonstop, and I drafted according to a “what’s the worst thing that can happen?” philosophy. I then proceeded to tangle the plot into a knot and I left it up to Tory to untangle it.

I hope she succeeded.