C. P. ODOM, A COVENANT OF MARRIAGE - GUEST POST, EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY

The Marriage of Georgiana Darcy and Charles Bingley

I suppose I ought to warn readers that there are spoilers in this guest post about one of the situations from my new Pride and Prejudice variation, A Covenant of Marriage, but I’ve probably already let the cat out of the bag by the title of this post. This particular variation on Jane Austen’s signature work revolves around the summer holiday planned by Elizabeth Bennet’s aunt and uncle, who invited her to accompany them. In P&P, the original plan was for an excursion to the Lake District for six weeks in June, but the tour had to be delayed and shortened to four weeks because of Mr. Gardiner’s business. So, instead of journeying to the Lakes, they decided on a shorter vacation to Derbyshire, with the result that Elizabeth coincidentally meets Darcy when her party is visiting his estate of Pemberley, which leads to events critical to the happy ending of the novel. My thought was to allow the original tour to take place as planned and see what develops.

PERILOUS SIEGE BLOG TOUR - PRIDE & PREJUDICE IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

A new awesome blog tour for Meryton Press starts today here at My Jane Austen Book Club. Are you ready for some more fun? Read what author C.P. Odom has written to introduce us to the alternate universe of his new Pride and Prejudice original retelling.  Good luck in the giveaway contest!  M.G.

Good day, Maria Grazia. It's a pleasure to be with your readers today to launch the tour for my latest release from Meryton Press, Perilous Siege: Pride & Prejudice in an Alternate Universe. Today I am sharing an insiders' look at the artwork behind this story because not only am I the author of this story, I am the illustrator of this 3-D art too!

I thought it would be fun to share this exclusive look inside my new book as a way for your readers to a sneak peek at this story and learn some more about this illustration process. Thank you for welcoming me to your blog and supporting authors, such as myself. 

"PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND SECRETS" BLOG TOUR - GUEST POST BY AUTHOR C.P. ODOM

I want to thank Maria Grazia for hosting me on her blog for my new book, “Pride, Prejudice, and Secrets,” as she did last year for “Consequences.”  To begin with, this novel is a variation on “Pride and Prejudice,” as were my previous two efforts, in that I try to portray what might have happened if a particular decision or even happened differently.  After that point, I try to keep the characters as true to those Austen portrayed as possible.  For example, I would have difficulty writing a variation in which Elizabeth Bennet married George Wickham; it just wouldn’t work for me, for my inner characterization of her would make such an event impossible.  If she would refuse both Mr. Collins and Darcy, then I can conceive of no way she would ever marry Wickham.  I know other authors have taken that path, and, if they made it work, they’re better writers than I am.

BLOG TOUR - CONSEQUENCES BY C.P. ODOM, A NEW VARIATION OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY MERITON PRESS

Hello,  Janeite friends! 

I hope that you're fine and merry wherever you are and , especially, that you are ready to join today's guest at My Jane Austen Book Club, C.P. Odom. Let's discuss his new variation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Consequences. Looking forward to reading your comments to the guest post and to the excerpt from Consequences!

C. P. Odom

My second novel, Consequences, was recently published by Meryton Press, and Maria Grazia has been gracious enough to invite me to talk about it.  Both it and my first novel, A Most Civil Proposal, are variations on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  Essentially, they are “what if” stories, which look at how things might have turned out if some element of the story went in a different direction.  A Most Civil Proposal pivoted around Darcy making a more civil proposal at Hunsford rather than the proud and arrogant proposal as in the book.  Would that really lead the story in a different direction and, if so, how would events transpire?  The critical point in Consequences is Elizabeth Bennet’s angry and vituperative rejection of Darcy’s proposal.  The book has two parts resulting from differing consequences resulting from that critical decision.

I’ve read most of Austen’s other novels, but Pride and Prejudice is the one that continues to call to me.  Both my two novels came into the world as fan-fiction postings on the old Hyacinth Gardens website.  I kind of stumbled into reading and then writing Jane Austen fan-fiction by accident, resulting from reading my first wife’s beloved Jane Austen’s books following her untimely passing almost twenty years ago.  I’m continually surprised to find myself writing in this arena—after all, as a long-time left-brained engineer by training and a former Marine by inclination, one would think my writing efforts would be in something other than Jane Austen’s world.  But life is always full of surprises, isn’t it?