Monday 29 March 2021

A MOST CLEVER GIRL BLOG TOUR: TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... JASMINE A. STIRLING

 


Hello Jasmine and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club! My first question for you is “When was your first encounter with Jane Austen”?

I first fell in love with Jane Austen while reading Persuasion at age nineteen while studying abroad as an associate member of Keble College at the University of Oxford.

Soon thereafter, I read Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. In all three instances, I was struck by Austen’s realistic heroines. It was the first time I had ever encountered female characters in any novel that seemed so relatable—so like me, in fact! I loved seeing complicated, bookish, outspoken, flawed women change and grow through the course of each novel.

Monday 15 March 2021

DANGEROUS MAGIC, MONICA FAIRVIEW ANSWERS A FEW QUESTIONS + GIVEAWAY


Hello everyone and welcome to our blog! What's new today? On release day, Monica Fairview answers a few questions about her "magical" Pride and Prejdice Variation: Dangerous Magic. Check our post and good luck in the giveaway contest! MG

How did you find inspiration for your new Pride and Prejudice variation, Dangerous Magic?      

I’m a long-time reader of fantasy, and for some time now I’ve been imagining Mr. Darcy wearing a swirling cloak [I know, I know…😊) And as Maria Grazia knows already from my interview last year, I like to imagine him as Henry Cavill from ‘The Witcher’ (but without any of the gore, because I’m squeamish, and I don’t think Jane Austen would have approved).Once I started imagining Mr. Darcy as a mage (a mage is a wizard who doesn’t use a wand], I started imagining what kind of a world he would inhabit. I knew it was going to be solidly rooted in Jane Austen’s, just with the addition of magic. I quickly began to see how his relationship with Elizabeth would shape up.  From there, Before I knew it, I had planned the whole thing out. It was so exciting to start writing the novel – but also a bit nerve-racking [Mrs. Bennet’s nerves come to mind] because you have to get all the details of the world-building to fit together. Once I got past that point, the novel sort of wrote itself, which is unusual for me. I loved returning again and again to that fantasy world, especially during the dark days of the pandemic. It provided a perfect escape to an enchanted version of Jane Austen’s England that I would love to live in!Some of my early reviewers have compared DANGEROUSMAGIC to Harry Potter. I’m flattered, of course, because I think J.K. Rowling is amazing, but my novel doesn’t have any fantasy creatures, and the world-building is much simpler.

Saturday 13 March 2021

INSIGHT & SUITABILITY: INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR JAMES WOLLAK + GIVEAWAY

 


Hello and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, James. Let’s start talking Jane Austen. When was your first encounter with her work?

I first encountered her work as a college freshman.  I was attracted to a Signet paperback compilation in my college bookstore that included Pride and Prejudice, along with Silas Marner, and I think Jane Eyre.  I liked the idea of reading such classics, which I’d heard of, and as a lover of history and dates, I really liked Pride and Prejudice’s original publication date of 1813. 

Friday 5 March 2021

AMAZING GIVEAWAY: JAYNE BAMBER'S AUDIOBOOKS


Hello, dear Janeites! It is a delight to be back at My Jane Austen Book Club. I am hard at work on my eighth book, Five Daughters Out At Once, and I will be back later this month to share an excerpt from this novel after it is available on Kindle. For now, at least, I am happy to share other good tidings pertaining to the number five: my fifth audiobook is now available on Audible!

To celebrate the accomplishment, I am hosting my biggest giveaway ever, and raffling off five copies of each of my audiobooks. The newest release is NorthFanger, narrated by the fabulous Amanda S. Brown, who also narrated Madness in Meryton. These, and all my other novels, are still available on KU of course, and I hope to have all of my JAFF novels available as audiobooks by summer time.

For those of you that may have missed my newest release, NorthFanger, last fall, it is a short gothic parody that merges Pride & Prejudice with Northanger Abbey as Elizabeth Bennet leads the charge against a horde of vampires and their dastardly leader – a villain we all know and loathe.

I have included descriptions of all the audiobooks below, and raffle winners will be given their choice from among the five audiobooks. I always say happy reading, but for now, Happy Listening!

JAYNE BAMBER


Thursday 4 March 2021

INTERRUPTED PLANS BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY


Hello everyone! A new blog tour takes off right here right now. Interrupted Plans is Brigid Huey's Pride and Prejudice Variation we are going to introduce to you today. Are you ready to discover more? Scroll down and you'll find the author's greetings, a super cute excerpt, info about the book and its writer, and, of course, a giveway contest to get your chance to win an ebook copy of Interrupted Plans. Enjoy reading and good luck! MG


Monday 1 March 2021

A CAPTAIN FOR CAROLINE GRAY BLOG TOUR - READ AN EXCERPT

 



Join the virtual blog tour of A CAPTAIN FOR CAROLINE GRAY (Proper Romance Regency), Julie Wright’s highly acclaimed historical romance novel March 1 – 28, 2021. Over forty popular blogs specializing in historical romance, inspirational fiction, and Austenesque fiction will join in the celebration of its release with excerpts, spotlights, and reviews of this new Regency-era novel set aboard an English ship bound for India.