Carmella Lowkis: Ignore the Voice of Your Self-Editor
In this interview, author Carmella Lowkis discusses the biography that inspired her new historical gothic romance, A Slow and Secret Poison.
Carmella Lowkis grew up in Wiltshire, U.K., and has a degree in English literature and creative writing from the University of Warwick, where she was mentored by Sunday Times (London) bestselling author Sarah Moss. After graduating, she worked in libraries before moving into book marketing. Carmella lives in London with her girlfriend. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.
In this interview, Carmella discusses the biography that inspired her new historical gothic romance, A Slow and Secret Poison, her advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Carmella Lowkis
Literary agent: Rachel Neely, Mushens Entertainment / Ginger Clark, Ginger Clark Literary
Book title: A Slow and Secret Poison
Publisher: Atria Books
Release date: February 10, 2026
Genre/category: Historical, Gothic Romance
Previous titles: Spitting Gold
Elevator pitch: A gothic thriller set in 1920s England, as a gardener at a lush manor house falls for her employer—the mysterious, reclusive Lady Lascy—whose past is shadowed by a deadly curse.
What prompted you to write this book?
It started with an interest in the Bright Young Things—a flamboyant group of British aristocrats, socialites, and artists from the 1920s—and a chain of their biographies, which led me to the brilliantly entertaining Serious Pleasures: The Life of Stephen Tennant by Philip Hoare. Tennant was once part of this glitterati, but later in life turned into an eccentric recluse, living in stately squalor on a countryside estate not far from where I grew up. I thought that Tennant would make an excellent model for a character in a gothic novel, and so Lady Arabella Lascy was born, swiftly followed by the setting and plot of A Slow and Secret Poison.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I read Serious Pleasures in 2018 but didn’t start writing a very early first draft of A Slow and Secret Poison until 2019. The book is publishing this year (2026), so that’s seven or eight years, depending on how you want to count it.
In that first draft, the main events of the novel took place much later in the 20th century, with Arabella’s deterioration happening over a longer period of time—more in line with Tennant’s life. However, after picking up the abandoned, half-finished first draft to develop it for publication, I realized that it was the 1920s that had inspired me, and I wanted to spend more time within that era. I shifted everything earlier and had to do an extensive rewrite and lots more research, but I’m so much happier with the historical world-building as it now stands.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
For my first novel, Spitting Gold, I had all the time in the world for dilly-dallying and procrastination while refining my first draft for submission. However, with A Slow and Secret Poison, I was suddenly under a contractual deadline, with the expectation that I would have a publishable novel ready at the end. I was surprised by how much focus that obligation gave me, and how much smoother my writing process was as a result. As it turns you, you can force creativity!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I was surprised by how much I came to love the main point-of-view character, Vee. At first, it was Arabella who really interested me—she was the one modelled on Stephen Tennant, after all, with the gothic past that caused the main mystery and tension of the novel. However, Vee evolved heavily over the course of my writing, acquiring a unique narrative voice, strong personal convictions, and a complicated backstory of her own. I’d go so far as to say that she’s now my favorite character that I’ve written.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Most of all, I want to treat readers to a twisty, atmospheric story that they have fun unravelling! But alongside that, A Slow and Secret Poison raises many questions about justice, responsibility and redemption. What can we forgive, and what can we not? Who should we punish, and who should we treat with clemency? I don’t intend for the book to provide clear answers to these—I hope that readers will come away with their own reflections.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
It’s very tempting to get bogged down in a point of detail or to draft and redraft that last sentence until it reads perfectly, and before you know it, you haven’t written anything new in a day’s work. Sometimes you just have to power through and ignore the voice of your self-editor. You can make it good later; first of all, you just have to make it exist.
