Redlands author Tracy Wise launches second book, ‘Manufacturing a Duchess’

Tracy Wise writes university communications in her day job, but historical fiction is her passion. The Redlands author debuted her second book, Manufacturing a Duchess, at the Contemporary Club on Sept. 22.

The Regency-era novel follows characters navigating love, duty and a society being transformed by the Industrial Revolution.

Wise said the novel began as a draft years ago before she returned to it with a different approach.

“I returned to the story with a new perspective; let the characters themselves push the story forward,” she said.

Writing became a larger part of Wise’s life after she took early retirement to care for her mother, who had dementia and has since died.

“Writing on my own projects as close to full time only happened as a corollary to taking early retirement to caring for my mother,” Wise said.

She dedicated Manufacturing a Duchess to her mother, an avid reader of authors Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen.

Wise said Heyer, whose work helped establish the Regency romance genre in the 20th century, was a particular influence on the new novel.

“This book is as much as anything an homage to Georgette Heyer,” Wise said.

But Wise wanted her story to reflect more of what was happening in Britain during the period, including the Industrial Revolution.

“Most Regency novels pretend the Industrial Revolution is not going on, but the Industrial Revolution is well underway, and so I touch on that,” she said.

The novel is set roughly in the 1820s. Wise said she researched the period as she worked to portray its social restrictions, particularly those placed on women, while avoiding familiar tropes of the genre.

“It was a very different society. It was very rigid,” she said. “I was trying to stay away from all of the clichés.”

Wise also discussed her writing process with the roughly 40 people who attended the launch. She said she does not write every day, but when she has time to sit down, she can typically complete five or six pages.

Her editor ultimately asked her to expand the novel with additional scenes and an epilogue.

“I got asked to add,” Wise said with a smile.

Wise hopes Manufacturing a Duchess will eventually become a trilogy.

The Sept. 22 event was hosted by the Friends of the A.K. Smiley Public Library, where Wise serves on the board and volunteers in the Friends bookstore. The organization also hosted the 2025 launch of her first book, the novella Madame Sorel’s Lodger.

That book is now a finalist in the American Fiction category of the Bridge Book Award. The winner is expected to be announced in December and will have their work translated into Italian.

“The cool thing is, the winner gets translated into Italian,” Wise said.

The Frugal Frigate bookstore sold copies of Manufacturing a Duchess at the event, giving Wise another chance to reflect on seeing her work on the shelves of the longtime Redlands bookstore.

“Frugal Frigate provided me with the thrill of a lifetime a few months back,” Wise said. “There was my book on the shelf right next to the novels of Virginia Woolf. And I said, a lifetime of being last in line with the last name starting with ‘W’ has just been redeemed.”

Manufacturing a Duchess is published by Southern California independent publisher Type Eighteen Books. Print and audiobook editions are available now.

Learn more about Wise at twisewriter.com. More information about Type Eighteen Books is available at typeeighteenbooks.com, and information about the Friends of the A.K. Smiley Public Library is available at friendsofsmileylibrary.org.