Twisted Austen Starts Tomorrow!

Tomorrow the fun begins! Please check in everyday to read the entire story for free before it disappears. It will become available for purchase on Halloween at Amazon. You still have an opportunity to win I am Lady Catherine plus all three other Twisted Austen tales at AustenAuthors.net, but the giveaway ends tomorrow so hurry up and enter if you're interested. Happy Halloween my fellow Janeites!

Posey and Parody

My 7/14/17 post for Austen Authors! Check out the original to join the conversation:  http://austenauthors.net/poesy-and-parody/

My new book, Darcy in Wonderland, come out tomorrow! Well, the ebook does (paperbacks to follow soon). Next month we'll have a giveaway and release party, but today I just want to step back and reflect on how much fun I had writing this book! Though the book is both a Pride and Prejudice sequel and an Alice in Wonderland mashup, I've filled it with references to other Austen novels, some more obvious than others. In particular, I had an amazing time taking the poems that occur throughout Alice in Wonderland and parodying them with a twist of Austen thrown in. Lewis Carroll's poems are parodies themselves of verses that would have been quite familiar to his Victorian audience, so it felt like a very natural place to go a bit wild. Here is a couple of my favorite. Do you recognize the references? Also get a glimpse of some of the original illustrations by K. Wiedemann featured in the book. Share your thoughts and insights on both in the comments!

‘Tis the voice of the Lobster: In tones not muted,
‘Take no pleasure in novels? Intolerably stupid!’
Like a lady when shopping for muslins and lace,
Our minds shout agreement, even as our hearts race.
‘Little boys and girls should be tormented,’ he said,
But only so long as it is good for their heads:
‘To torment or instruct: words found synonymous.’
All precision of language has now simply gone amiss.

I passed by his garden, and to my surprise,
Something shocking indeed was happening inside.
‘Indeed! Of what nature!’ The questions were fret.
‘More horrible than anything we’ve met with yet.’
‘Good heaven! A riot? Give me peace of mind!’
‘I expect murder and everything of that kind.’
 Laughing, ‘The riot is only in your own brain!
The confusion there might drive anyone insane.’

Know the scene and place? Well this one is a bit more tricky:

They told me you had writ to her
And mentioned me to say,
Good things about my character:
That she should hear me play.

She then sent word that I should come
And be her governess.
The offer like a cherry plum.
Refusal, stubbornness.

I gave her one, and then two more,
And yet three more in time,
Excuses, each that she ignored,
And yet I still opined.

We learned through hearsay, during tea,
Just after I gave in,
A sickly woman ceased to be   
To no one’s great chagrin.

This obstacle now done away,
He only needed come,
To Mrs. Suckling’s great dismay,
I passed the cherry plum.

In wedded bliss I soon shall bask,
At Enscombe, a few miles hence.
Not of you shall I ever ask,
Nor give you recompense.

And let's wrap up with an easy one. Everyone should get this:

“You are old, Lady Catherine,” the young girl said,
“And your hair has become very white;
Yet you improved Rosings alone, you swellhead!
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Lady Catherine said to the girl,
“I’d command someone else to do it;
But since the first time that I gave it a whirl
I know no one more equal to it.”

“You are old,” said the girl, “as I mentioned before,
And your bones have become quite brittle,
Yet you goad your relations, prompting uproar —
Don’t you fear it will end in committal?”

“In my youth,” said her ladyship, a frown on her face,
“I’d lambaste you for speaking so shrill;
But now that death and I shall so soon embrace
I’ll simply write you out of the will.”

“You are old,” said the girl, “and your jaws are too weak
For little else other than pudding
Yet you told off the Rector, the Cook, and a Sheik —
Why so disagreeable, woman?”

“In my youth,” said the Dame, “I knew it my call,
And argued with all and sundry.
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw
Allows me to keep speaking bluntly.”

For more fun, order the book from Amazon today: https://www.amazon.com/Darcy-Wonderland.

And check out more of my sister's amazing artwork as www.wiedemannillustrations.com and katywiedemann.com.

Two Months in a Row!

I have had a story voted one of the five best completed at Jaff Recs! The Madness of Mr. Darcy was voted one of the best completed stories in November (it seems an edit at some point skewed the month it was completed), and Becoming Mrs. Norris was honored in October! Here is the really cool thing: the short continuing vignette I just wrote, Mr. Darcy's Christmas Present: The Madness of Mr. Darcy Continues, is up for nomination in the month of December. Voting runs through the end of the month, and there is more competition than in the previous two, but your vote might out me over the type! Cast your vote here: http://www.jaffrecs.com/?page_id=379. Some of my fellow Austen Authors are represented as well.

I just started posting a revised version of Being Mrs. Bennet last week. Sorry I never completed the tale here, but I got disgruntled when I lost half my Pemberley visit. If I can complete draft two in January, I might have a chance of winning four months in a row! Fingers crossed.

Speaking of Austen Authors, a preliminary, teaser post went up yesterday in which several of us share some of our favorite recent posts. Please check it out, and don't forget to enter the grand reopening, mystery prize giveaway! http://austenauthors.net/favorite-blogs/

Fitzwilliam Darcy: An Honourable Man by Brenda J. Webb

My then Facebook friend and now also fellow Austen Author Brenda J. Webb asked if I would like to read one of her books last year, and I eagerly accepted a copy. According to the guidelines I imposed on myself in 2014, I let her know I would only post a review if I could write a glowing one, and I am very pleased to be able to do so today.

It was really rather ironic reading this book while still gathering reactions to The Madness of Mr. Darcy. I imagine if I got on Amazon and looked through Ms. Webb's reviews that I would find a lot of comments akin to those I have received. Like my book, Fitzwilliam Darcy: An Honourable Man has a very difficult beginning. We come upon an Elizabeth horrifically traumatized: mute and unresponsive. So hard to read! Our beloved heroine, reduced to such state by the machinations of a vile mother (Mrs. Bennet is a true villain in this story) and an unscrupulous husband (an Italian count, no less, right out of Radcliffe), is a nauseating spectacle. It's painful, which it should be, for it allows you to fully enter into Darcy's feelings when he returns to Netherfield, two years after being rejected at Hunsford, to learn the woman he thought he had expunged from his heart was dead (a lie spread by the Binlgeys to protect Elizabeth from her mother), yet to then come upon her in her disordered state! It is a heart wrenching moment as we learn the full sordid details of what happened to Elizabeth through Jane and Charles, but it also the beginning of the healing process, for though apart Darcy and Elizabeth prove so vulnerable, together they will overcome all that stands in their path to happiness.

One of my favorite aspects of this variation was that it positioned our meek and mild Jane to become a protective lioness in regards to her sister, even when that means cutting ties with her mother. I was very proud of this Mr. and Mrs. Bingley as I read the book. I really wanted to quote the passage in which it happened, or the one when Jane and Bingley first tell Darcy about Elizabeth, but all the passages considered seem to give too much away. The story holds so many surprises, and I would hate to reveal them. Rest assured Ms. Webbs prose are clear and artistically crafted.

The story ends very happily, but the road there is filled with machinations and impediments. There is a lot going on in this book with multiple layers of villains, all pursuing their own vicious ends, making things difficult for our beloved couple. Further, there are vivid portraits of the Darcy and Fitzwilliam families, complete with complex family skeletons, emotional trauma, and romance. I was impressed by Ms. Webb's ability to weave such a complicated tale while maintaining the personal, emotional connection between the main characters and the readers. Fitzwilliam Darcy is a rich and captivating story. A hard read for the feint hearted, but worth the effort. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Webb's work.

Happy New Year!

Where did the last several weeks go? 2014 was a wild ride for my family and I, and it went out par for the course when we buried my beloved grandfather. I started the year with a full contingent of grandparents and now I have one. Sad as that is, it was also an amazing year in many ways, and first and foremost in my mind stands the writing, publishing, and warm reception of The Madness of Mr. Darcy. It was book so unlike anything else I have ever even attempted to write. It demanded so much of me emotionally. It was a remarkable experience, but I am looking forward to concentrating on more lighthearted subjects in 2015 with my first children's book, The Prodigal Husband, Being Mrs. Bennet, and The Importance of Being Darcy. More on all these projects to come.

Some of the great treats of my holiday season came in the form of recognition for my writing. It is with pride and excitement I am announcing my inclusion in the new, re-born AustenAuthors.net. My next post will be on that subject. I was delighted to find myself the recipient of a wonderful review of Holidays at Pemberley by Jody at A Spoonful of Happy Endings (read it here). I was even more than delighted to then find myself included in her "Top 10 New To Me Authors" list for 2014. What an honor! Next, Becoming Mrs. Norris was voted one of the top five completed stories on A Happy Assembly in the month of November at jaffrecs.com! So cool, especially as it is Mrs. Norris we are talking about and reader nominated. Last but not least, I received a long coveted place on Meredith at Austenesque Reviews best of 2014 list, when The Madness of Mr. Darcy tied with KaraLynne Mackrory's Haunting Mr. Darcy for favorite Pride and Prejudice variation. Thank you, Meredith! It's absolutely thrilling.

As I look forward to a fresh new year, I have a ton of writing I plan on doing, but I also want to start doing more reviews again. One of the best things about 2014 is a started reading at my regular pace again for the first time since becoming a mother. I hope to now figure out how to balance reading, writing about, and writing books all at the same time. If I can master that by 2016, it will be time for another kid.

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and happy New Years celebrations. Here's to 2015!