Despite arguing vervently against the use of gen-AI in creative fields, I’ve realised that I can’t just release books in 2026 without readers assuming that gen-AI was part of the process. Which is annoying as hell because I like the weird way my brain works. Why would I outsource that to a computer and end up with something bland with all the sharp edges scrubbed off into mediocre slop?
So I’m going to talk more about what inspired each book.
An Earl’s Bet releases in about ten days. This was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s crush of Charles Dickens and how he refused to leave his house after being invited for a visit.
I read about the visit here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/10/charles-dickens-hans-christian-andersen-letters-correspondence-auction
Basically the two had corresponded for a while and in July 1857, Hans Christian Andersen embarked on a five-week stay at Dickens’s abode. Dickens wrote a letter to former prime minister Lord John Russell about the visit, complaining in depth about Andersen’s terrible behaviour.
The letter sold at auction for £4,600 in 2017.
In An Earl’s Bet, Earnest is a chaotic bisexual who makes a scene after Lord Horden tosses him out, and he’s vaguely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fangirling over Dickens.
SIR EARNEST PASHLEY has abandonment issues thanks to be sent to an orphanage when he was ten. He falls in love (lust) easily and always makes sure he is the first to leave before the fun ends. Except once, when Lord Horden threw him out, and he disgraced himself by camping on Horden’s lawn in a dramatic gesture that went ignored. After a drunken dinner when he wakes up in Horden’s bed, by accident, he decides to get his … revenge? This time he’ll be the one to leave first.
From Lord Horden’s side there was some inspiration from F1 driver Max Verstappen and a story he told about his father making him walk home after a loss.