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It took Jennifer Rizzo 115 “nos” before she finally got a “maybe.“ But she didn’t give up. She kept going until she turned that maybe into a full-fledged yes.
And now Rizzo is looking not only at her first published novel, “Uprising,” but at being longlisted for the 2026 Chaucer Prize for Historical Fiction.
“Fingers crossed that it will make the shortlist and beyond,” Rizzo said, in an email to the Marblehead Independent.
“Uprising” was published Sept. 1 and is the first in the Fitzjohn duology. The second book is currently being tweaked by both Rizzo and her editor.
The Marblehead resident recently sat down to talk about her book and the whirlwind that’s followed.
“When I saw the actual book, it was like a wow moment for me,” Rizzo said. “What was really surreal was when I opened it up and saw what was inside. The first word? I wrote that. I looked through the pages and thought, ‘I wrote that!’ Then I looked at the first page and saw the ISBN number and thought, “I have an ISBN number!’”
It took her kids to point out how magical the process truly is, something that can be hard for Rizzo.
“I feel like I’ve done something to be proud of, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of other things I want to do,” she said. “But, I really try to take a step back and enjoy these moments.”
How it started
Rizzo has been in Marblehead with her husband and two kids for the past 14 years. During the day, she works in human resources.
But by night, Rizzo lives in the Middle Ages.
She writes every night before bed, sometimes setting up goals for a word count. Other times, she freestyles how much she writes, looking at characters and scenes instead of hardcore numbers or timeframes.
Rizzo said she’s always been creative, but hasn’t always wanted to be a writer. In fact, it was music that was her initial love.
Rizzo grew up moving around because her father was in the military. She spent the most time of her childhood in Oklahoma and finally arrived in Boston in 2005 while seeking a masters at the New England Conservatory of Music in opera singing.
Opera?
“I was always a writer,” Rizzo said. “I come from a family of writers, but I had learning disabilities so I was a late bloomer and writing was a challenge for me.
“In second grade, I finally learned to write,” she continued. “I wrote plays and short stories, but what I was really involved with was music. I was also a painter and a visual artist, I did sculptures, but I was never that kid with the notebook. Music took over my life.”
It wasn’t until 2019 that Rizzo got back into writing. It took a few freelance writing turns in Vanity Fair, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, and Ultra Running Magazine, among others, and a blog on running for her to buckle down into historical fiction.
“I knew I wanted to write because I was a lifelong, avid reader, especially of historical fiction,” she said. “I knew that space. I love history so much and I also had an interest in the Middle Ages.”
The first book
“Uprising,” the story of Blanche Fitzjohn, a neurodivergent heroine, takes place in 1381 during the Peasants’ Revolt. The duology will span what happens to Blanche and her brother, the future Henry V, during the rebellion and afterwards.
But it wasn’t Rizzo’s first book. That was a book about Blanche’s grandmother, Queen Philippa of England.
The book wasn’t purchased. It’s sitting in Rizzo’s drawer.
“But I learned a lot during that process,” she said. “And I kept going.”
That lead her to Blanche, the real illegitimate daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Rizzo said all that’s known of Blanche is her name, and that she married the constable of the Tower of London.
“I read this one sentence that [John] had his first child at 17 and that she was illegitimate,” Rizzo said. “Who was she? Why didn’t we know about her? I found that strange so I delved deeper. I was just fascinated with the idea of an illegitimate child because it really put her on the fringes of society, but she was also the daughter of the most powerful man in the world at that time so she did have access to certain things.”
With so little known about the real Blanche, Rizzo felt this footnote in history deserved more. But how to tell her story?
As the parent of neurodivergent kids, Rizzo said she wondered what life would have been like for a challenged person during the Middle Ages. What if she made Blanche neurodivergent, but essential in the life and future of her brother, Henry V?
The ideas started burbling. And from June 2023 to June 2024, Rizzo wrote and wrote until she had a manuscript.
“From my first novel, I had done a lot of research into the 14th century,” she said. “I had that base so I was able to produce a draft pretty quickly.”
For the next nine months, Rizzo shopped her book. She called the process “brutal.”
And then, a small press in Colorado said maybe. But that maybe came with a lot of suggestions, including splitting the book into a duology and a total re-write.
“Once I split it into two books, I found I had way more freedom to tell the story,” Rizzo said. “I was able to put a lot more detail into it.”
Rizzo said everyone told her not to follow this editor’s suggestions and to keep sending out her manuscript.
“She had a lot of things to say, but I felt like she understood what I was trying to do,” Rizzo said. “I felt in my gut that this was something I needed to do.”
The second draft, with all the suggested changes, was sent to the editor in July 2025. Six weeks later, a contract arrived in her email.
“When I saw the contract, I was overwhelmed,” Rizzo said, of her reaction. “I read it alone in my office and I just started to scream. I called my husband and I was crying. He asked me what was wrong and when I told him I got the contract for Fitzjohn, he said, ‘You believed in yourself when no one else did. You did this all on your own.’”
What now?
With “Uprising” on the shelves at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course, Saltwater Bookstore in Marblehead, Rizzo still has to get out there and market the novel.
“It’s a different skill set,” she said, of the marketing and public relations involved in getting the word out on the novel. “I’d say I struggle with the sales-related part. I practice the pitch a lot. I feel like I owe it to my characters. They’re like my children now!”
Rizzo will be at the Marblehead holiday market this Saturday, Nov. 14, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., signing and selling books.
On Sunday, Nov. 15, Rizzo will be at Jolie Tea in Beverly for a ticketed event at 3 p.m. She said she will give an author talk while patrons enjoy tea and treats.
And on Dec. 12, you can catch Rizzo at the Abbot Public Library at 2 p.m. for an author talk.
Asked what advice she would give others looking to write their own novel, Rizzo shakes her head.
“I can’t believe I’m in a place to give advice!” she said, with a laugh. “Honestly, I would tell people to write every day and keep working on the craft. It’s a skill you can learn and even the most naturally talented writers need to hone their craft.”
And join a writers’ group, she added, because sometimes it’s important to get feedback, even though it’s stressful. Plus, with Zoom and other online forums, Rizzo said it’s easier than ever to find a group that fits you.
So what’s next for Rizzo? In between, tweaking the second Blanche Fitzjohn novel, she is at hard at work on yet another novel, a multi-generational novel of three women that takes place from 1945 to 2008.
“It’s very different from Blanche,” she said. “But, I have a couple of other books in me about characters in her universe.”
A deep breath and Rizzo is asked one more question: Is she excited about her very first published book, despite everything she’s got on her plate at the moment?
“I am a very focused person,” she said. “But like I said, sometimes I have to take a step back and say this is so very exciting.
“My daughter, who has bedazzled a few of my books, said, ‘Mom, you are a published author and I told all my friends and they think that’s so cool’” Rizzo continued. “I thought that was very sweet. But, it’s true. Once you are a published author, no one can ever take that away from you and I’m a published author!”
Watch: “John of Gaunt’s Children: Roots of the Wars of the Roses” has a short mention of the real Blanche, John of Gaunt’s daughter.
Nell Escobar Coakley has been a journalist for more than 30 years. She is co-founder and publisher of Gotta Know Medford and editor of Winchester News.
