Special Guest Post by Stephanie Kline, The Tudor Enthusiast

Thank you so much, Tony, for inviting me to share a little bit about The Tudor Enthusiast here today! It’s an exciting time for me and my Tudor Enthusiast community, as today marks 10 years maintaining this blog and website and keeping up with this ever-growing community of likeminded sixteenth-century fans! I’m thrilled to be sharing the story of The Tudor Enthusiast, as well as my plans for the future, with you and your readers today in celebration.

It’s been a fun road getting here! It started as a simple online journal of sorts (because I, a Tudor enthusiast myself for 5+ years at the time, couldn’t seem to find enough people with whom to discuss the fascinating Tudor period!). I thought that writing a blog would be fun – a place to ask my own questions about the period, initiate my own research, and talk about virtually anything and everything to do with the Tudor figures, places, and events that interested me most. 

This led to the creation of a Tudor Enthusiast Facebook page, which (much to my pleasant surprise) gained followers and fans quickly (now up to around 4,400)! In time, I was sharing book recommendations and writing reviews on Tudor fiction and nonfiction – which attracted the attention of a number of authors and publishing companies, all of whom began generously sending me books to review. (To date, my “Book Recommendations” tab remains one of the most visited pages of my website.)

Today, The Tudor Enthusiast has expanded to three social media platforms – creating active communities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. My popular “On this day in Tudor history…” posts are shared most days, and I try to write more extensive blog posts at least weekly. Of course, I continue my book reviews, with a goal of posting at least one per month (which always involves both a full book review blog post, as well as a shorter synopsis of my thoughts on the “Book Recommendations” page). Excitingly, I’ve also been able to share a number of exclusive author interviews, which prove to be some of my most popular posts. Adding authors and fellow historians to The Tudor Enthusiast community is truly one of the best parts of running this website!

My most exciting Tudor Enthusiast update to date is the book deal I signed in February with Pen & Sword Books UK. They kindly asked me if I would be interested in writing an updated biography of King Edward VI for them, and I have been busily working on the manuscript for the last five months. 

This will be my first traditionally-published book, and while the research and writing of it has been a challenge (I am a full-time employee, wife, and mother living in the US – far from any primary sources held in the UK, and prohibited from travelling during the pandemic!), I am nevertheless finding it incredibly fun and fulfilling. It’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to publish history books (both fiction and nonfiction), so my work-in-progress on Edward VI is well worth the challenge. 

In addition, I’ve been working on a fun side project for the past several months, and though I hesitate to share too much (as I can’t be sure how it’ll turn out at this point), it is my first real attempt at Tudor fiction. I have chosen to create a fictional Tudor midwife as my main character, who’s called to attend the new Queen of England, Anne Boleyn, as she delivers King Henry VIII’s child in 1533. 

What will ensue from there is an account of Anne’s time as queen, her struggle to provide the long-awaited son and heir, and my character’s view of her ultimate downfall. Of course, there is much left to write (as of now, I have only around 30,000 sloppy words), but this is a project that has been great fun to explore in my free time. I’m excited to see what comes of it, and of course I’ll keep my readers updated! 

It’s been a whirlwind 10 years of writing The Tudor Enthusiast and engaging with my incredibly supportive, enthusiastic, and intelligent readers. It’s amazing to look back at the simple origins of this website and to think how far it’s come – culminating in thousands of readers, a book deal, and the demand to keep churning out blog posts and social media content! 

I’m thrilled to be able to share my thoughts and writing with my Tudor Enthusiast community, and to have so much to look forward to in the future. With any luck, this website will continue growing in the years to come, and I’ll have plenty more exciting updates and opportunities to share. Here’s to another 10 years!

Stephanie Kline

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About the Author

Stephanie (The Tudor Enthusiast) is a historian and author based in Northern Virginia, USA. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from George Mason University (2014), as well as a Master of Studies degree in Modern British and European History from Mansfield College, University of Oxford (2015). Her post-graduate dissertation topic of research explored the posthumous reputations of late-Plantagenet kings during the Tudor period, and their influences on sixteenth-century England.  When not writing, Stephanie can be found reading, riding horses, or spending time with her husband, Jason, and son, Henry. Find out more at The Tudor Enthusiast and on Facebook and Twitter @TudorEnthusiast