Evie Dunmore: On Exploring the Suffrage Movement from Different Angles

Evie Dunmore is the USA Today bestselling author of Bringing Down the Duke. Her League of Extraordinary Women series is inspired by her passion for romance, women pioneers, and all things Victorian.

In her civilian life, she is a consultant with a master of science in Diplomacy from Oxford. Evie lives in Berlin and pours her fascination with 19th-century Britain into her writing. She is a member of the British Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA). Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

In this post, Evie discusses how prioritizing her mental health helped her write her new historical romance, The Gentleman’s Gambit, her hope for readers, and more!

Name: Evie Dunmore
Literary agent: Kevan Lyon
Book title: The Gentleman’s Gambit
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Release date: December 5, 2023
Genre/category: Historical Romance, Women’s fiction
Previous titles: Bringing Down the Duke; A Rogue of One’s Own; Portrait of a Scotsman
Elevator pitch: England, 1882. Introverted academic and suffragist Catriona Campbell inconveniently falls in love with Elias Khoury, a scholar from the Middle East who is to assist her professor father with some artefacts at Oxford. Soon however it becomes clear that Elias’s motives are not what they seem, and Catriona faces the decision to do the right thing or to stay out of all sorts of trouble.

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What prompted you to write this book?

There wasn’t one specific prompt that sparked the whole plot. But I was missing Lebanon a lot at the time; a visit to the country and my relatives was long overdue, so I think that moved me into the direction of writing a Lebanese hero. It was a way of feeling close to the country when I couldn’t physically be there.

I also wanted to expand the socio-political focus of the novels from local to global in the last installment, partly because the vote for women was only won in Europe in the wake of WWI. Each book in the series explores the suffrage movement and the Victorian setting at the time from a different angle. For example, Bringing Down the Duke looks at the state of higher education for women, Portrait of a Scotsman explores the intersection of female labor movements and the suffrage movement.

In the 1880s, Britain was at the height of her colonial ambitions, and the language used to justify the oppression of foreigners reminded me a lot of the rhetoric and arguments that were used to keep women “in their place”. The father of the heroine was a professor of archaeology. So somehow, all these aspects came together in a love story about a Victorian woman’s rights activist who meets a Middle Eastern man who wants to repatriate stolen artefacts from his homeland at all costs.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

It took over three years from idea to pub date. That’s because TGG is part of a series, and I had the idea for the plot while I was starting the previous book in the series. It then took me two years to write the novel. It’s my pandemic novel, then the port in Beirut exploded; I was creatively burned out and had to push through some personal challenges to get to The End. The idea didn’t change throughout the process.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Berkley was unconditionally supportive when it became clear that I needed to take a break from writing and move the original pub date not once but twice. That did surprise me because normally businesses don’t walk the walk when it comes to protecting mental health.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

My biggest learning moment was not to start a novel when my creative well is running low. I write faster and with more joy when I’m inspired, so negotiating a proper break before starting TGG instead of halfway through would have saved me a bumpy stretch.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Escapism, some swoons and giggles, and a slice of hope. Also, I personally love learning about history through entertainment, so I hope the book finds readers who enjoy picking up some interesting historical insights in their romance novels.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

If you can, cut out all the noise, and focus only on the wonderful words.