The story of the brutal rivalry between two of history’s most fascinating power women: Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, celebrated in her own lifetime as “The First Lady of the World,” and Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of the infamous Pope Alexander VI and one of the most maligned women in history.
I'm pleased to welcome author Karen Essex to The Writing Desk:
Tell us about your latest book.
Renaissance Rivals is a novel about Isabella d’Este and Lucrezia Borgia, two of the most formidable women of the Italian Renaissance. Isabella was celebrated as the First Lady of the World in her own time, while Lucrezia was vilified as a poisoner, seductress, and dangerous daughter of a corrupt pope. When Lucrezia married Isabella’s brother, Alfonso d’Este, the two women became sisters-in-law and rivals for influence within one of Europe’s most powerful families.
Their struggle unfolds through art, fashion, jewels, letters, political alliances, marriage, motherhood, and the affections of powerful men. Beneath the rivalry lies a deeper story about two women determined to shape their own lives in a world that expected them to serve dynastic ambitions.
The novel is also a standalone sequel to Leonardo’s Swans, which introduces Isabella as a young woman and explores her relationship—and rivalry—with her sister, Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Milan.
What is your preferred writing routine?
I do not write like a normal human being. When I feel I have truly found a story, I tend to work obsessively until I have completed at least a first draft.
A young writer once asked whether I wrote on weekends. I told her that when I am deeply immersed in a project, I take the work with me everywhere, including the bathroom. That answer was only partly a joke.
I have often wished I could develop a calmer and more orderly method. After publishing steadily and also writing extensively for film and television, I have come to accept that intense periods of concentration are part of my process. Sustaining a long career requires discipline. Obsession occasionally proves useful too.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Write something undeniable and make sure it offers something beyond your own experience. Personal material can be powerful, though it still needs shape, insight, conflict, and relevance for the reader.
Be honest about what you are writing and whom you hope to reach. Studying the conventions of your genre is not selling out. It is part of learning the craft, even when you are writing literary fiction.
Revise rigorously. Seek opinions from trusted readers who understand what you are trying to accomplish. Give the work the time it needs. There is no advantage in rushing toward publication before a manuscript is polished and ready to withstand professional scrutiny.
The publishing world receives an enormous amount of material. A strong first impression matters. It is rare for a rejected manuscript to receive a second chance after a rewrite. It can happen, but do not count on it.
What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?
Writers have to be willing to use every reasonable avenue available to them. That may include speaking engagements, interviews, podcasts, newsletters, social media, book clubs, festivals, direct outreach, partnerships, and personal appearances.
Millions of books are competing for attention. Publishing a book and hoping readers simply discover it is rarely enough.
Authors should decide what success means to them and then act accordingly. A writer who wants a wide audience must be prepared to participate actively in building that audience. Promotion can feel uncomfortable, especially for those of us who would rather be writing, though I have learned to regard it as presenting work I believe in and allowing readers to decide whether it is for them.
Finally, invest in yourself. If you do not take your own work seriously, others are unlikely to do so. When you commit time, effort, and resources to your growth, people are far more inclined to support you.
Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research.
I began the project firmly on Team Isabella. I had researched and written about her for Leonardo’s Swans, admired her brilliance, and remained fascinated by her long after finishing that novel.
What surprised me was the depth of compassion I developed for Lucrezia Borgia. The woman behind the legend endured an extraordinary series of political marriages, family betrayals, public humiliations, and personal losses. She was repeatedly used as an instrument of her father’s and brother’s ambitions, yet she survived and eventually established herself as a respected duchess, administrator, patron, and mother.
The more I learned, the less interested I became in choosing a simple heroine and villain. Both women were intelligent, ambitious, vulnerable, and capable of hurting one another. That complexity became far more compelling than the legends surrounding them.
What was the hardest scene you remember writing?
The scenes involving difficult childbirth and the loss of children were the hardest for me to write. Women of that era faced pregnancy and childbirth with a level of danger that is difficult for modern readers to imagine. A dynastic marriage placed enormous pressure on a woman to produce heirs, yet every pregnancy carried the possibility of death for both mother and child.
As a mother, I found those scenes emotionally devastating. Writing them required me to remain close to the historical reality without exploiting the suffering. They tore me to shreds, which may be why they carry so much emotional weight in the novel.
What are you planning to write next?
My next major project is The Silk Rebellion, a six-book epic dystopian romantasy series set in an alternate world where Kleopatra and Marcus Antonius won at Actium and created an empire that survived for two thousand years.
In that world, fashion is power, beauty is law, and a vast information network called The Loom controls public life. The series follows Elissa Valeria, a celebrated designer to the empress, who gradually discovers that the magnificent society she helps sustain is built upon control, surveillance, and fear.
The first book, The Empress’s Cape, begins with Elissa at the height of her influence. She has millions of followers, dresses the most powerful woman in the empire, and believes she understands the system she serves. Then the system turns upon the people she loves. The series combines political intrigue, romance, rebellion, fashion, family conflict, and the question that drives much of my work: how does a woman claim power in a world determined to define her role? It debuts January 10, 2027, and I am eager to get it into readers’ hands.
Karen Essex
# # #
About the Author
