Painter of the Revolution
Date Published: January 13, 2026
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
The daughter of Parisian shopkeepers, Adélaïde dreams not of marriage or titles but of earning a place among the masters of French art. With Queen Marie Antoinette on the throne and a spirit of change in the air, anything seems possible. But as revolution brews and powerful forces conspire to deny her success, Adélaïde faces an impossible choice: protect her life—or fight for a legacy that will outlast her.
Inspired by the true story of one of the first women admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, Adélaïde: Painter of the Revolution is a sweeping, evocative portrait of ambition, courage, and resilience in the face of history’s fiercest storm.
Is There a Message in Your Novel That You Want Readers to Grasp?
I think if there is one thematic message, it is
to never give up, no matter how dark or hopeless a situation is; there is
always a grander reason to continue to fight for what’s right.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Finding time to write is my most difficult
challenge. I am a tax executive for a hotel chain who is also responsible for
US payroll for that chain, and that takes a lot of energy. So I spend my
weekends and holidays writing or doing 15-minute writing sprints when I can.
How many books have you written and which is your favorite?
This is my first full length novel, but sort of
my third book. I wrote 150 pages of a story when I was thirteen, then gave it
away when I got stuck in the middle. I don’t even remember what it was about.
The second book was the precursor to this one, and I ended up splitting the
story into three stories. So far, this is my favorite, but I am going to keep on
writing, so we will see!
If You had the chance to cast your main character from
Florence Pugh. I think the roles that she has
played in various period pieces and movies with controlling men and her
performance in them makes her an ideal candidate to play Adélaïde.
When did you begin writing?
I have been writing as long as I can remember
and worked on the school newspaper and edited the literary magazine both in
high school and college but did not feel I really had something to write about
or become serious about it until I was in my forties.
How long did it take to complete your first book?
Literally, forever! I first began researching
this era and plotting a story about three artists sometime in 2012. In 2017, I
got some advice about the story and then went to Greece and wrote the first
version of this novel in five weeks. But the editing and rewriting, and learning
to tell a good story, took a bit longer. All in all, with the rewrites,
editing, time “sitting in a drawer”, the process took about five years. In
terms of real time, after the research was done, I think it took about 18
months to write. Clearly, it’s a long way past 2012, but in that same time,
I’ve written another manuscript, I blog, and my poetry, essays and memoir have appeared
in various publications.
Did you have an author who inspired you to become a writer?
As a teenager, I loved Phyllis A. Whitney, and I think I probably wanted
to write just like her at that time in my life. I was one of those kids with my
nose in a book. I think that the books called me perhaps more than the writers
did, because I wanted to live and breathe books, and what better way to do that
than to create them?
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
I think my favorite part is when I get an
epiphany as a writer, those times when the words seem to come from nowhere and
appear as if by magic on the page. This does not happen just because I want it
to, but it happens when I am in an intense writing mode, and I feel some type
of flow or connection with the universe and time loses all meaning. It is
almost as if I travel somewhere else during that time.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
Woman fights with everything.
Can you share a little bit about your current work or what is in the future for your writing?
I have two full
projects on my plate. One, a memoir about growing
up as an adoptee in the sixties, as a child searching for belonging, and the
other, my second work of fiction, on one of the characters in Adélaïde: Painter of the
Revolution whose life I am drawn to and
want to explore further.
About the Author
Janell Strube makes a mean barbecue sauce. She’s also a world traveler, a baker, and a bicyclist. But when she writes, her identity as an adoptee often steers her attention to topics of alienation, erased history, and displacement.
In 2024, a personal essay of hers was published in the anthology Adoption and Suicidality. Her work has also appeared in Shaking the Tree: brazen. short. memoir and A Year in Ink. Her short memoir, “Taking my Blonde Daughter to a Black Lives Matter Rally,” was selected for the 2020 San Diego Memoir Showcase, an annual live storytelling event.
While much of her writing is personal, she enjoys the freedom that comes with crafting fiction. Her desire to learn about forgotten female artists who shaped the French revolutionary period motivated her to write Adélaïde: Painter of the Revolution.
When not crunching numbers as a tax executive for a hotel chain, she can be found hanging out with Shiloh the Wheaten and plotting her second book.
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