GUEST AUTHOR, KAREN WASYLOWSKI - DARCY AND FITZWILLIAM

I want to thank Maria Grazia for inviting me to contribute to her lovely site and also for this opportunity to introduce myself to you all.   My name is Karen V. Wasylowski and I am a new author; my first book, Darcy and Fitzwilliam is being published by Sourcebooks Landmark and will reach stores by February 1, 2011.

As a retired accountant now living in Florida, I had been busying my life with volunteer work, when, about five years ago, the seeds of a book began germinating within me during numerous viewings of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie.  God bless cable television - I love Pride and Prejudice.  I fell in love with Laurence Olivier when I first saw him as Darcy, then years later I fell madly in love again, with Colin Firth as mini-series Darcy.  By the end of 2005 – well you can guess the rest – non-stop viewing of Matthew Macfadyen’s movie Darcy.  Have Mercy.  Do you sense a trend here?   

My husband did.  He said, “You know, you should write something yourself.  You have read Pride and Prejudice so often and you own how many sequel books?  You always say you want to write, so start.  You can do it!”  God bless the man, I think he would have done or said anything to get the remote back and watch uninterrupted basketball for one night.  Twenty-seven viewings of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is far beyond the duty of any mortal man, and I salute him for it.  He is my Mr. Darcy.

So I began

The original version of my sequel was very serious.  Everyone was gazing at everyone else, there were harlots and wastrels and all the wonderful things that make your heart zoom and dip as you read.  But I wasn’t happy with it at all - I don’t do serious very well truth be told.  And Jane Austen herself was a hoot.  Who doesn’t appreciate that sly humor lurking everywhere within her writing, especially her earlier stories and letters?  How could it hurt to lighten up my story just a bit?  A joke slipped in somehow, then another.  

Now writing Darcy and Lizzy is very easy.  Those characters breathe and live on, I swear to it, are so well defined and iconic that they speak their own words, are so human that they lend themselves easily to both humor and drama.  Lady Catherine, however, was harder, rather imposing and dark – so I started playing with the character and found a lot of humor there, then on to her always sickly daughter, Anne.  For some reason Anne de Bourgh irritated me in the original book and in the movies.  I began to toy with poor ailing Anne like a cat with a bug.

At last the colonel arrived and everything went out of my control.  Now here was an underused character just waiting to be let loose.  He was described as a very amiable fellow – Lizzy loved his humor and enjoyed so much his visits.  Fitzwilliam grabbed my heart and ran away with it; I felt at times I was not writing the book - he was.

So, I hope you enjoy my first born.  Unable to let go of my boys as I call them I created a short video here below; about Darcy and Fitzwilliam and their friendship.  Thanks, again.

  www.karenwasylowski.com You can find Karen also at www.AustenAuthors.com Darcy and Fitzilliam is due to release February 2011 You can pre-order it at Amazon.com