She was a medieval scholar at a conference in London when the whole thing got canceled, leaving her alone in a hotel room with no agenda, no family obligations, and—as it turned out—just enough unscheduled time to accidentally start a book. She opened her laptop and started writing. No outline. No plan. Just a story that seemed to already know where it wanted to go.

That week in London became the first third of The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton—a dual timeline murder mystery that moves between Tudor England and a modern-day researcher who stumbles onto a centuries-old secret. It publishes April 14, 2026 through St. Martin's Press, and the way Jennifer got there is worth talking about.

She Didn't Outline. And It Worked.

Jennifer describes her writing process as play. Not the Instagram version of writing (candles, coffee, new aesthetic journal) but actual play. Following a thread because it was interesting. Writing a scene