Maxima Book Center Presents QUEEN BESS: A Tudor Comes to Save America

–In-conversation event with novelist Maria Vetrano features Melissa Ludtke, pioneer in sports journalism and author of Locker Room Talk

What’s the best way to rescue American democracy? Imagine a near future in which a female tech billionaire with a social conscience launches an audacious plan to rescue America—and her company—from the despotic president of the United States, and you have Maria Vetrano’s debut novel, QUEEN BESS: A Tudor Comes to Save America (10/15/24 by Regalo Press). Sounds so implausible, right? Except that some of the plot points in QUEEN BESS have already come true.

Vetrano will explore her satirical Sci-Fi fantasy with Melissa Ludtke, an award-winning journalist and author of Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside (8/16/24 Rutgers University Press), on May 13, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. at Maxima Book Center in Lexington, Mass.

QUEEN BESS introduces readers to Dakota Wynfred, a tech billionaire with a social conscience who lives in Cambridge and works in Charlestown. Dakota is convinced that the only way to save American democracy—and her cybersecurity company—from the US president who is setting fire to the Constitution is to enlist a time-traveling Elizabeth Tudor. The action races ahead as Dakota and her hand-picked cohorts prepare Elizabeth for a 2028 presidential run.

“What if a brilliant, battle-tested, and socially astute leader—who just happens to have lived more than four centuries ago—were our best candidate for president because she could view twenty-first-century US politics from a completely fresh perspective?” said Maria Vetrano. “That person would be Elizabeth Tudor, who ruled England for forty-five years by masterfully managing conflicting religious and political interests.

“In our near future, Elizabeth would rely on her experience to govern capably, despite the maelstrom of partisan politics in which she would find herself. That premise—as well as Elizabeth’s drive to improve the quality of life for her people, so they would love her above all the presidents in history—makes her a formidable power-player unlike any other,” Vetrano said.

“With deft storytelling, novelist Maria Vetrano beckons us to suspend our skepticism about time travel as she transports us into Tudor England, and then, in the delightful company of the time-traveled Queen Elizabeth, aka ‘Bess,’ she sweeps us into the swirl of our 2027 presidential campaign,” said author Melissa Ludtke. “While our current political reality in America is fraught with peril, Vetrano’s political commentary is bold, funny, and ultimately optimistic.”

About Maxima Book Center

Founded in 2021, Maxima Book Center is located at 1717 Mass. Ave., Lexington, Mass. For more information, visit https://www.maximacenter.com/ or call: (781) 457-6185.

About QUEEN BESS: A Tudor Comes to Save America

QUEEN BESS is published in print and eBook versions by Regalo Press, a firm that unites philanthropy with the business of book publishing, by making a donation to a charity of the author’s choice on every deal. At Vetrano’s request, Regalo Press has made a charitable donation to Massachusetts-based Silent Spring Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to uncovering the environmental causes of breast cancer.

The audiobook version of QUEEN BESS is published by Tantor Audio. For more information, visit: https://www.queen-bess.com