TALKING JANE AUSTEN AND SANDITON WITH AUTHOR KATE RIORDAN

Have you seen ITV Sanditon?  Have you rewatched it countless times on ITV Hub and started longing for series two? We have a cure for your withdrawal symptoms:  a novelisation of Andrew Davies' script, which will gratify your wish to discover  more about the characters and the story you love.

If you are you still watching it - in Australia or South Africa,  for instance - you maybe want to wait on to avoid spoilers or ... maybe not. 
If you are in the States, you must be patient because Sanditon is coming soon: it will premiere on PBS Masterpiece on 12 January  2020!

Kate Riordan is the brilliant historical fiction writer who accepted to work on Andrew Davies' (and Justin Young's!) script and to follow in Jane Austen's footsteps to tell the rest of the story.

Kate kindly accepted to answer a few questions and be my guest at My Jane Austen Book Club today and I want to thank her very much indeed for a great interview.  Read on!

SPOTLIGHT ON ... GRAVITY BY P.O.DIXON: EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY

From the Author

Thank you so much, Maria Grazia, for this opportunity to visit My Jane Austen Book Club and talk about my new release, Gravity. It’s such a great pleasure to be here.

When I can, I always like to include a Jane Austen quote as the epigraph in my books. I was amazed to find one so ideally suited to my new release as the following words from Sense and Sensibility:

“What have wealth or grandeur to do with happiness?”

In Gravity, Mr. Darcy is about to find out.

P.O. Dixon

THE WORLD OF SANDITON: BOOK REVIEW & GIVEAWAY

This post offers you the chance to win an ebook copy of the book described, The World of Sanditon, The Official Companion to the ITV series.Thanks to Orion Books for providing a free copy to give away.  Scroll down and take your chances to win. The giveaway contest ends on 12th November and it is open internationally. Good luck! 

The World of Sanditon, the official companion to the ITV series, published by Orion Books,  delves behind the scenes giving you the inside scoop on Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s last, unfinished work.

The book allows you to go behind the scenes with the cast and crew, exploring the world that Austen created and offering fascinating insights about a period and the real – life heartbreak behind her final story.

The book will be a gorgeous addition to your Austen or period drama shelf: good-sized, beautifully designed, loads of pictures and the best information on every Regency and Sanditon related subject you can imagine.

You will also have access to location guides, interviews with the cast, beautiful photography from the series and in-depth historical information by esteemed author Sara Sheridan.

THE BRIDE OF NORTHANGER BY DIANA BIRCHALL: BLOG TOUR LAUNCH

Hello #Janeites and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club! I'm so glad  to be opening a new great event here at our online club. Aren't you thrilled too? There aren't so many Northanger Abbey-inspired novels out there so this is a truly special event. 

The Doyenne of Austenesque fiction, Diana Birchall, tours the blogosphere starting today October 28 through November 15 to share her latest release, The Bride of Northanger. I'm in truly good company in this adventure: thirty popular bloggers specializing in historical and Austenesque fiction will feature guest blogs, interviews, excerpts, and book reviews of this acclaimed continuation of Jane Austen’s Gothic parody, Northanger Abbey.  

INTERVIEW WITH DIANA BIRCHALL

Hello Diana and welcome back to My Jane Austen Book Club. You were one the first Jane Austen Fan Fiction writers in the 1990s. Can you share your inspiration to become an Austenesque writer and your career journey so far?

“Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure,” as Elizabeth told Darcy, and it does give me pleasure, Maria Grazia, for you to invite me to talk about the past! My Jane Austen adventure began when I won a contest in the JASNA journal Persuasions, as long ago as 1984, writing Austen style dialogue, a little sketch of the chatter of Miss Bates, in Emma. It was so much fun, and I was so pleased at winning, that I decided to do more. Over the next few years I wrote lots of what I thought of as pastiche (the terms Austenesque and fan fic hadn’t yet been invented!), and this led to my writing a full-length novel: Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma was written in 1992. At the time there had not been a Pride and Prejudice sequel since the 1940s, and I thought it was an idea whose time had come. Two other authors had the same brain wave simultaneously, and there was a fierce competition. I had an excited New York literary agent and was told to expect a bidding war – but no. The others (Emma Tennant with Pemberley and Julia Barrett with Presumption) were better known, I was as yet unpublished, and the publishing world decreed that there was no ROOM for a third Pride and Prejudice sequel, if you can believe that, in a world where there are now hundreds!

THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN BY JULIE COOPER: BLOG TOUR LAUNCH & GIVEAWAY

Hello everyone and welcome to a new great event. The Perfect Gentleman Blog Tour starts here at My Jane Austen Book Club today. Author Julie Cooper introduces you to the world of her novel with a lovely excerpt and offers you the chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card from Quills & Quartos Publishing!

By the way, it's time to reveal the winner of the giveaway of a $20 Amazon gift card from Quills & Quartos Publishing attached to our previous cover reveal post! 

BLOG TOUR - ELIZA SHEARER, MISS PRICE'S DECISION: AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

Finding Inspiration in Jane Austen: Introducing Miss Price’s Decision

Thank you, Maria Grazia, for having me today! It is a pleasure to be amongst Janeites to present Miss Price’s Decision, my latest novel in the Austeniana series.

Jane Austen’s novels have accompanied me since my teens. To me, they are a source of solace, amusement and hope. But my favourite thing about Jane Austen is that, no matter how many times I re-read her novels, I always discover something new.

At times the finding is about me. Austen’s stories connect with my inner world in a way few other books do, and as a result, immersing myself in them is different every time, depending on my circumstances and what I am experiencing in life.

On other occasions, however, I notice elements in the novel that were always there, but I had not seen before. And sometimes, these nuggets of new information will develop into full-blown ideas for my own stories.

This is precisely what happened two summers ago, upon re-reading Mansfield Park, when I came across a particular sentence that inspired a great deal of Miss Price’s Decision.

THE WORLD OF SANDITON: INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SARA SHERIDAN.

JANE AUSTEN’S SANDITON

When Jane Austen was chronically ill with a mysterious disease in early 1817, she turned her thoughts to a happier subject. She started work on a witty and delightful novel set in a seaside town, Sanditon.  She never finished it. She just left us 11 chapters, about 60 pages.

Sanditon tells the story of Tom Parker, who is obsessed with turning the sleepy seaside village of Sanditon into a fashionable health resort. He enlists the backing of local bigwig Lady Denham. Through a mishap, Tom makes the acquaintance of the Heywoods and invites their eldest daughter, Charlotte for an extended stay at Sanditon.

COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY! THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN BY JULIE COOPER

Greetings to all My Jane Austen Book Club followers, and thanks to Maria Grazia for hosting my cover reveal for The Perfect Gentleman!

This cover was kismet, or at least it feels so to me. When cover discussions began, the excellent publishers at Quills and Quartos sent over some book cover sites to surf for ideas. A few evenings later, I was browsing one of those suggested sites, www.londonmontgomerycovers.com, when I found one I loved. It showed the hero (albeit of the wrong historic period) pictured with just enough specifics to pique the imagination. I don’t know about you, but I don’t care to have my cover heroes depicted in too much detail…they invariably have the wrong nose, eyes, or hair, are too young or too old, are Matthew Macfadyen when you prefer Colin Firth (or vice versa—I don’t judge!). And since this story starts out with a most unusual Regency Road Trip, the sample cover’s prominent speeding carriage seemed especially appropriate.

MARIA GRACE, FINE EYES AND PERT OPINIONS

Hello, Maria Grazia! It’s so good to visit with you again at My Jane Austen Book Club. I’m really excited to share with you my latest project, Fine Eyes and Pert Opinions. This has been an odd project for me—I started it, handwritten in 2014 and then set it aside when something shiny and urgent crossed my path. Recently I found the old notebooks and realized I had to finish to tale. I didn’t know how it ended and I just had to find out!

 In Fine Eyes and Pert Opinions Vicar’s daughter, Elizabeth has grown up in the shades of Pemberley, a great friend to Darcy and his sister Georgiana. A baronet’s elegant daughter distracts Darcy from his duties, leaving the Darcy family on the brink of disaster. Elizabeth holds the key to their restoration, but she has fled Pemberley, unable to tolerate another day there. Will Darcy relinquish his pride and prejudice to seek out a woman below his notice before his family is irreparably ruined?

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER IN PEMBERLEY WOODS - BLOG TOUR: AUTHOR GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

Thank you, Maria Grazia, for hosting me today! I am honored to be visiting My Jane Austen Book Club. For my post today, I wanted to share some of what I learned while working on A Chance Encounter in Pemberley Woods.

I confess I never paid much attention to the travel times in my favorite author’s books. Working with the lovely folks at Meryton Press, however, has opened my eyes to the intricacy of travel during Regency England.

At one point in my novel, Mr. Darcy undertakes a journey from Pemberley to London. I thought it might be interesting to examine his travel options!

BLOG TOUR - KAY BEA, LETTERS FROM THE HEART: GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

Geetings to Austen lovers everywhere and thank you for hosting me at My Jane Austen Book Club and allowing me to talk about my debut publication, Letters from the Heart!

I don’t think I can talk about this story without talking about the online Jane Austen experience. I am so incredibly thankful to the Jane Austen community. It has welcomed me, challenged me, and absolutely pushed me to do more than I thought I could. I still have a little trouble believing that a series of letters I wrote almost on a whim has grown into this!

NEW RELEASE! A SISTER'S CURSE BY JAYNE BAMBER: GUEST POST, EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY

Hello, it’s good to be back at My Jane Austen Book Club!

I am so excited to share an excerpt with you from my new release, A Sister’s Curse. The story is another high-angst tale, with Elizabeth meeting Fitzwilliam Darcy – and his entire extended family – much earlier on. In fact, she finds herself a part of his extended family long before they ever fall in love – it’s complicated!

A LADY’S REPUTATION BLOG TOUR: EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY

About the Book

“Mr. Darcy, I am eager to hear your explanation for the fact that quite a few people believe we are engaged.”

It starts with a bit of well-meant advice. Colonel Fitzwilliam suggests to his cousin Darcy that, before he proposes to Elizabeth Bennet in Kent, perhaps he ought to discuss his plans with their families first. 

What neither man could have predicted however was that Lord Matlock would write the news to his sister or Viscount Saye would overhear, and tell his friends, or that his friends might slip a little and let their friends know as well. The news spreads just as quickly through Hertfordshire once Mrs Bennet opens the express Mr Bennet receives from Mr Darcy, and in a matter of days, it seems like everyone knows that Mr Darcy has proposed marriage to Elizabeth Bennet. 

Everyone, that is, except Elizabeth herself. 

Her refusal is quick and definite—until matters of reputation, hers as well as Jane’s, are considered. Then Mr Darcy makes another offer: summer at Pemberley, so that Jane can be reunited with Mr Bingley and so that he can prove to Elizabeth he is not what she thinks of him. Falling in love with him is naturally impossible…but once she knows the man he truly is, will she be able to help herself?

BOOK UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY: DEAR JANE BY ALLIE CRESSWELL

Dear Jane - Book Blurb

The final instalment of the Highbury trilogy, Dear Jane narrates the history of Jane Fairfax, recounting the events hinted at but never actually described in Jane Austen’s Emma.

Orphaned Jane seems likely to be brought up in parochial Highbury until adoption by her papa’s old friend Colonel Campbell opens to her all the excitement and opportunities of London. The velvet path of her early years is finite, however and tarnished by the knowledge that she must earn her own independence one day.

Frank Weston is also transplanted from Highbury, adopted as heir to the wealthy Churchills and taken to their drear and inhospitable Yorkshire estate. The glimmer of the prize which will one day be his is all but obliterated by the stony path he must walk to claim it.

Their paths meet at Weymouth, and readers of Emma will be familiar with the finale of Jane and Frank’s story. Dear Jane pulls back the veil which Jane Austen drew over their early lives, their meeting in Weymouth and the agony of their secret engagement.

Read an excerpt 

One of the joys and the challenges of writing Dear Jane has been regressing the characters of Jane and Frank to find out what formative influences made them into the young people who met at Weymouth and embarked on their foolhardy secret engagement.

Enscombe is imagined - by people who have never been there - as a very grand and superior house, equivalent, perhaps, to Rosings Park or even Pemberley. My Enscombe is quite different, a place of chill stone passageways and shrouded rooms. Its inhospitable accommodations and drear surroundings, together with Mrs Churchill’s utterly selfish sway over every aspect of Frank’s life, were my starting point in trying to understand the young man we meet in ‘Emma’.

UNEXPECTED FRIENDS & RELATIONS - BLOG TOUR WITH AUTHOR JAYNE BAMBER

 The Faults in Austen’s Stars: Flawed Heroines

By Jayne Bamber, author of the Friends & Relations Series

In all the facets of Jane Austen’s genius, perhaps the most delightful is the reality she imbues in all her characters. No one is quite perfect, making them all the more relatable. We can easily imagine ourselves as one or other of her heroines, not because they are as perfect as we might wish to be, but because they, like us, are not. Elizabeth Bennet, the paragon every Janeites wishes to be, is prejudiced and faulty in her judgement. Anne Eliot is too easily persuaded, and Fanny Price rather a bore and a prude. Each of the Dashwood sisters lacks one of the titular traits, while experiencing rather too much of the other, and Catherine Morland literally accuses her future father-in-law of murder (yikes.)

BE MORE JANE BY SOPHIE ANDREWS - REVIEW & GIVEAWAY

There are books that change our lives dramatically when we happen to find them. They become a treasure we guard jealously so that we can resort on them when we find ourselves in need.  

Sophie Andrews found her treasure book very early in life. She was nine when her mother sat her down to watch a new movie, the 2005 adaptation of Pride ad Prejudice. Little did either of them realize then how meaningful Jane Austen would be in Sophie’s life. A few years later, aged 16 she would start a blog, Laughing with Lizzie,  after studying Jane Austen’s novel at school.

Since that moment she has become a very active, enthusiastic and creative Janeite: she organizes events such as picnics, balls and house parties for other Austenites and she was even featured in the BBC documentary, My Friend Jane, which focused on the fun and friendship she has found with fellow Janeites.

Now Sophie owns 100 different editions of Pride and Prejudice and has just released her first Austen-inpired book, Be More Jane, with which she tries to help us bring out our inner Austen to meet our lives’ challenges.  

This book is first of all an object of beauty, especially so thanks to the lovely illustrations by Jane Odiwe . Then it is a precious handbook in which Sophie searches and finds significative connections between Jane Austen’s work and real life. What can we learn from such a beloved writer which can be helpful in our every day predicaments?

NEW RELEASE! THE FLIGHT LESS TRAVELED: AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY

Leigh Dreyer is a huge fan of Jane Austen variations and the JAFF community I had the pleasure to host with an interview about a year ago (HERE) when she released The Best Laid Flight Plans. But  I had so many other questions I wanted to ask her about her love for JAFF and  about 2nd Lieutenant Elizabeth Bennet and Captain William Darcy. That's why I've proposed her a few more questions to promote the sequel to her modernization of Pride and Prejudice: The Flight Path Less Traveled. 

In this modern Pride and Prejudice continuation and sequel to The Best Laid Flight Plans, 2nd Lieutenant Elizabeth Bennet and Captain William Darcy are facing trials after the events of Elizabeth’s last flight. Darcy’s proposal lingers between them as Elizabeth becomes almost single sighted to her rehabilitation and her return to pilot training. A secret is revealed to Elizabeth about Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s past that throws all she has known to be true into a tail spin. The romance between our hero and heroine begins to blossom through military separations, sisterly pranks, and miscommunications.  

Are you ready to discover more about Leigh and her version of Elizabeth and Darcy? Go on reading. And, by the way, don't miss the chance to win your own copy of The Flight Path Less Traveled in our giveaway contest!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND PERSONAL STATEMENTS - AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY

(Image from Clueless - 1995)

Mary Pagones is a New Jersey-based writer, horseback rider (she says with more enthusiasm than talent), and Shakespeare and Jane Austen fanatic. Mary's our guest author with a Q/A post and a book giveaway contest. Her Pride and Prejudice and Personal Statements is a lovely YA Austen-inspired novel which reminds the lively world of Clueless. Ready to read the interview, welcome Mary in the comment section and try your luck in the giveway? (Sorry, US only)

How did the idea of writing a YA modernization of Pride and Prejudice come to your mind?

         For the past eighteen years, I’ve worked for a private college consulant. She’s quite a bit like Ms. Desborough, the Lady Catherine character in the novel. It occurred to me that the competition and social wrangling over getting in to top colleges was very similar to the warring over men of large fortunes in the Regency marriage market of Pride and Prejudice.

LOVE WITHOUT TIME BY ELAINE JEREMIAH - AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

Hello and welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Elaine! Let’s start from your book, 'Love Without Time’.  Is it a variation/modern day retelling of one of Austen’s works or something different? Could you tell us more about it?

‘Love Without Time’ is my own original story about a Jane Austen-mad girl called Cassie Taylor who accidentally walks into Regency England. It’s best described as a Jane Austen-inspired time travel romance. It’s the first in a trilogy and I’ve nearly finished the first draft of the second book, ‘By Time Divided’.

My heroine Cassie is in the grounds of a hospital when she finds herself walking into Regency England. The reason she’s at a hospital is that the man who she only just met that day, and who saved her life, has been badly hurt and she’s waiting for news of him. I won’t give anything else away, except to say that once in Regency England, she has to learn to fend for herself in a world that’s very different from the twenty-first century one she’s been used to.

Do you have a best favourite among Austen’s novels? Why do you like it more than others?

I know nearly everyone lists ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as their favourite Austen novel, but it’s mine too! It’s just so witty and fun and Elizabeth Bennet is the kind of person I’d love to be. She’s feisty, intelligent and confident and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. She won’t settle for anything less than true love and that’s why she refuses Mr Darcy the first time. She doesn’t love him – in fact at that point she can’t stand him. And Mr Darcy – the archetypal hero. Tall, handsome and brooding, what’s not to like?

Another aspect of it that I love is how it goes deeper than just a formulaic love story. Both Elizabeth and Darcy are forced to examine themselves and their behaviour. The fact that they’re both willing to change, to admit they were wrong is a sign of their integrity as people. They feel like such real characters and I think that’s why they’re so loved.

BOOK UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: GEORGIANA DARCY, A SEQUEL TO PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, BY ALICE ISAKOVA

From the book blurb

With her temptingly large dowry, the beautiful and talented Georgiana Darcy catches the eye of numerous suitors, not all of whom wish to marry purely for love. As Georgiana navigates the treacherous waters of courtship, her story becomes intertwined with that of Anne de Bourgh, her wealthy but painfully awkward cousin, who stirs up trouble when she sets her sights on a young gentleman with a rank far below her own. In so doing, Anne encounters the opposition of her proud and domineering mother, the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and sets in motion a chain of events that brings a damaging secret to light and threatens to destroy Georgiana's dreams of happiness. Intrigues, gossip, and elopements further complicate Georgiana's efforts to find love and avoid the snares of fortune-hunters.

Written in a sparkling, witty, humorous style on par with Jane Austen's own in Pride and Prejudice, Alice Isakova's Georgiana Darcy continues the tale that has delighted readers for over two centuries.