SUDDENLY MRS DARCY BLOG TOUR - JENETTA JAMES, THE BIRTHING OF A JAFF FAN GIRL. WIN AN EBOOK COPY (INTERNATIONAL)

2 years ago I hadn’t even heard of fan fiction, let alone Jane Austen fan fiction. If I had seen the acronym JAFF written down, I might have thought it was one of those error messages I don’t understand that pop up on my computer screen from time to time. I had always been a voracious reader, but somehow this was a landscape that had passed me by, a path that I didn’t even know was there.

Then I found myself pregnant with our second child when our first was only 7 months old and somehow, as well as making me feel pretty sick, it stirred up the old romantic in me. Up went the feet and out came the self-pity chocolates. On a whim, I dusted off my DVD of the old 1995 Pride & Prejudice mini-series. It wasn’t long before I was as hooked as I had been when it was first broadcast, aged 14. It occurred to me that it wouldn’t hurt to re-read the novel, and so I did that as well.

Before I knew where I was, I was living with Lizzy and Darcy. I just couldn’t get them out of my head. What happened next? What became of them? The possibilities danced around my mind. Jane Austen is famous for having written perfectly of “two inches of ivory”, so what about the rest of the fabric? What about the character’s lives behind closed doors? What about the world below stairs? What about the male friendships which go unexamined in the original? The permutations seemed endless.

AERENDGAST BLOG TOUR - THE LOST HISTORY OF JANE AUSTEN: READ AN EXCERPT & WIN A PAPERBACK COPY

About the Book

Violet Desmond has just learned from her dying grandmother that the life she’s been living is a lie.

Left with only a locket, a newspaper clipping, and a name–Atherton–Violet sets off to discover her hidden personal history.  Simultaneously, the London academic begins to have vivid dreams in which a woman from the past narrates her life story involving the same locket, a secret marriage, and a child. A story intimately connected to Jane Austen.

Violet reluctantly agrees to receive help from cavalier treasure hunter, Peter Knighton. Blacklisted from his profession, Knighton can almost taste the money and accolades he’d receive for digging up something good on Austen; the locket alone is unique enough to be worth plenty to the right collector. It would be enough to get his foot back in the door.

The unlikely pair begin a quest for answers that leads them to Aerendgast Hallows. Knee-deep in hidden crypts, perilous pursuits, and centuries-old riddles, Violet must put her literary expertise to the test as she battles to uncover the secret that her loved ones died trying to reveal, before an unknown enemy silences her as well.

About the author

Rachel was born and raised in Los Angeles, which naturally resulted in a deep love of the UK from an early age. Reading and writing have been favorite pastimes for as long as she can remember. 

Rachel has a BA in English Literature from Scripps College and an MA in London Studies from Queen Mary, University of London. Her focus is 19th century British Literature. She enjoys hiking, musical theatre, fancy water, pilates, vegan baking, good tv and movies, and researching new book ideas!

Jane Austen has always been an author near and dear to Rachel's heart for her ability to tell a story so compelling, it remains relevant hundreds of years later. And for creating Henry Tilney.

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Read an excerpt 

Violet walked over the threshold into Winchester Cathedral and instantly recognised it from her many dreams. She could see everything from her visions coming to vivid life around her. The
quiet joy of the secret wedding that happened so long ago still hung in the air, along with the sorrow that Violet knew had almost immediately followed. The building’s beauty and age were awe-inspiring. Violet moved through an arch and into a narrow section off the centre aisle. She put her hand on the ancient walls and let herself feel the cold stone. The room illuminated with images from her visions. She saw Jane and Edward in all stages of their lives floating around her: the wedding,

BOOK BLITZ! FINDING MR DARCY: HIGH SCHOOL EDITION - DISCOVER MORE & WIN AMAZON GIFT CARD

Finding Mr. Darcy: High School Edition

by Erin Butler

Release Date: 09/16/14

Summary from Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Liza Johnson takes fangirl to a whole new level of crazy when she decides to take dating advice from her literary hero: Jane Austen.

With the help of her best friends, Liza sheds her ancient-speak and complete Austen wardrobe for something a bit more modern in an attempt at finding her very own Mr. Darcy.

Enter Will, the new kid and Liza's Darcy incarnate. Add her BFF's ex to mix and the sexy Brit who kisses with an accent, and Liza is in trouble.

So, what's a girl to do? Without her mom to go to relationship advice, Liza turns to the only person she can truly trust with matters of the heart via her mother's copy of COMPLETED WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN.

SPOTLIGHT ON ... 'JANE AUSTEN AND NAMES' BY MAGGIE LANE + GIVEAWAY

"They say his name is Henry. A proof of how unequally the gifts of Fortune are bestowed — I have seen many a John & Thomas much more agreeable. " (from J. Austen,  Letters)

What's in a name? According to William Shakespeare - or better his Juliet -  not so much, "That which we call a rose. by any other name would smell as sweet". But Maggie Lane thinks otherwise and has researched the importance given to names by Jane Austen, especially in her mature work. That means Ms Lane focuses her analysis on the major six novels: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. 
In the six sections of the book, the author proposes interesting reflections, comparisons and analysis related to the use of names in history, in Jane Austen's time and in Jane Austen's most famous novels: A Brief History of Names, Naming Patterns and Practices, The Use of Christian Names, Jane Austen's Feeling For Names, Names in the Novels of Jane Austen: An Alphabetical Index.
Take your chances to win 1 of the 5 ebook copies I was kindly granted  to give away among you readers. It's a precious addition to any Austenite's collection! Check out the giveaway contest in the rafflecopter form below this post.

MR DARCY'S PROMISE - BLOG HOP & GIVEAWAY

Hello and welcome to Mr Darcy's Promise Blog Hop! I hope you remember Jeanna Ellsworth and her P&P - inspired book. "Both" were my guests here at My Jane Austen Book Club not long ago (check out my interview HERE). Jeanna has now invited me to join the fun of a Valentine's Blog Hop to give you all,  dear readers, the chance to buy her novel at an extraordinarily cheap price or  to win and read her Mr Darcy's Promise. 

Here are your chances:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! REGINA JEFFERS, WRITER

What would my life have been without Jane Austen? Regina Jeffers answers: 

If Jane Austen had not quietly crept into my world when I was but twelve, I would have developed a liking for Edith Wharton, and a recent New Yorker article summed it that possibility: “Nobody Likes Edith Wharton.” In 1929, Janet Flanner described Wharton as: “On the whole she finds herself living in a generation in which conversation is lost. She is a dignified little woman set down in the middle of her past. She says that to the greener growths of her day, she must seem like a taffeta sofa under a gas-lit chandelier. Certainly she is old-fashioned in that she reserves her magnanimity for special occasions. In belief she is still nothing of an iconoclast but has become liberal through reflection.”
 Now, I ask you what kind of role model would that have been for an impressionable young girl, who was inflicted at birth with the “Cinderella” gene? A girl who craves her “Happily Ever After”? I prefer my characters to learn to love intelligently, as well as to have the weak and the powerless protected by a formal code of behavior. I also prefer the “sound” of Austen’s slightly biting voice in my head rather than the sound of wealth and disdain found in Wharton’s novels. I was raised on the ideals of duty to society, the want for education and extensive reading, religious seriousness, and the need for manners. I required an author who would speak to those issues and provide them importance. So, without Austen, I would go to sleep with images of Selden discovering Lily’s overdosed body or of Zeena tending to Mattie after Ethan Frome’s death. I am much more inclined toward the delicious Mr. Darcy, the honorable Captain Wentworth, and excessively understanding Mr. Knightley to the “reality” of Wharton’s works. In truth, there is already too much reality in my life; I require my HEA to know hope for a brighter tomorrow. That is Jane Austen’s place in my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! ALYSSA GOODNIGHT, WRITER

“What would my life have been like without Jane Austen?” 

Life without Jane Austen wouldn't be nearly as cozy, charming, witty, or wry. Technology is wonderful, but it comes at a price. Jane lets us remember a time when precious minutes were set aside to pen a heartfelt letter. A time when afternoon tea was a quiet, daily ritual. A time when a visit from the right gentleman was a thrill and his fleeting smile the stuff of young ladies' daydreams. Jane wrote of romance and love and trust, and all the nuances of getting it right versus getting it wrong. She wrote happily ever afters, full of wit and laughter and hope. In short, Jane wrote of all the best things, and I delight in visiting the world she created as much as possible. The influence of Jane's continued popularity in our modern world can only be a good thing.

Alyssa

TESS QUINN, ‘TIS THE SEASON! …for COOKIES! AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

Thanksgiving being later this year, the whole holiday season has seemed to just suddenly appear out of nowhere!  It hit me yesterday – attending first Sunday of advent services and coming home to open the inaugural box on that Advent calendar that has been sitting on my counter for weeks calling to me – that it’s time to break out the holiday cards and start baking and planning menus and decorations and renewing all the wonderful family traditions that this season brings.   If I close my eyes, I can smell the spice-laden kitchen and the welcome heat of the oven that receives a continually rotating array of goods for baking. 

Cookies are my specialty – I generally make anywhere from sixteen to twenty different varieties every year at this time, and I have a tradition for that as well.   I pore over my recipe files and books for a week or two, picking out the family favorites that simply must be made, and finding several more new ones to try.  Then I go through them all to make up a grocery list, purchase the supplies and spread them all out on my kitchen table within easy reach.   The measuring cups and spoons and whisks and mixers and all the paraphernalia of baking line up on the counter ready for duty.   I start on a Friday evening right after work, making up several different batches of dough that can be refrigerated for baking later.  Then I rinse out the mixing bowl to start on another right away.  Early on Saturday morning I am back at it, baking the previous night’s efforts while I make up more batches of dough.  The extra warmth of the kitchen at this time is always welcome.  And the smells – ah! the smells!  Chocolate, of course.  Cinnamon.  Raspberry jam.  Vanilla extract, and toasted almonds or hazelnuts. Coconut, and caramel and… sugar.  They all merge together into a welcoming balm that brings contentment even in the bustle of activity – aromatherapy at its best!

JANE AUSTEN'S BIRTHDAY - WHAT WOULD OUR LIVES HAVE BEEN WITHOUT JANE AUSTEN?

Dear friends,

Jane Austen's birthday is coming soon, in two weeks,  and, as we did in the past few years, we would like to celebrate the occasion here at My Jane Austen Book Club. Let's  share our love and esteem for our beloved author! You are all invited.  Don't forget it, write it down in your agenda and, on 16 December, drop in from time to time: I'll be posting all day long.

You  readers will have the occasion to meet again old Janeite friends and,  maybe,  make new ones. Moreover,  there will be prizes to win in a great giveaway. Does it sound fun enough?

I've asked many friends to share their love answering  the question: "What would my life have been without Jane Austen"? 

I'll be the first to answer in a short post which will open the event at 0.01 a.m. GMT on Monday night, 16 December 2013.

Lots of other contributions will ensue for 24 hours,  along with a great giveaway contest that will end on 23 December and will be open internationally. Will you join us? Will  you answer the question yourself? You can do it in the comments you'll leave below the posts you'll like the most here at My Jane Austen Book Club or you can decide to post about the event on your own blog. Write to me if you want to join the fun or use our graphics on your site. 

I hope everything's clear but, if it isn't, just remember to stay tuned and check up My Jane Austen Book Club facebook page for updatings.

Credits to talented Cecilia Latella for the lovely banners of the event. She is also the designer of the graphics of my blog. Have a look at her page.

DARCY'S TALE - MEET AUTHOR STAN HURD, INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY

First of all Stan, let me welcome you to our online book club. I’m really glad you’re here to introduce yourself and present your new book to our readers.

Thank you very much for having me. I think yours is one of the most appealing and impressive websites devoted to the works of Jane Austen, and I marvel at how you manage to keep it up with all your other jobs: wife and mother, teacher, and two other blogs! Well done!

Well, thank you very much, Stan. Blogging is a very engaging but very rewarding hobby for me. Now let’s focus on you, instead and of course, my first question is:  “How did it come that you decided to write your own version of Pride and Prejudice”?

My introduction to Jane Austen was the Keira Knightly / Matthew Macfadyen movie in 2005; I was in my 50’s then. I was caught immediately, even though most Austen fans think it one of the worst versions ever made; I began reading all her novels, followed by the rest of the movie and TV productions. When I ran out of those, a friend introduced me to another trilogy. While I was at first delighted simply to be back in the world created by Jane Austen, subsequent readings left me unsatisfied (I should say that I wolf down new books like a starving man at his first meal; then, once sated, I go back to savour it with a more discriminating palate). The Darcy in that series, while certainly well-written, bothered me enough that I felt the need to attempt it myself; I almost felt as if someone of my acquaintance had come off badly in the press, and that I needed to correct it. The one thing that troubled me most was that this Darcy did not, to my mind, act the way a man really would. Then I went back to P & P and asked myself if Austen’s Darcy could be more fully imagined in the way I would expect a man to act; and, to no one’s surprise, I’m sure, I found that he could. Over time, what had started off as a purely personal quest to fill in the gaps Austen left for us, turned into a larger project.

SPOTLIGHT ON ..." HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR DARCY" BY VICTORIA CONNELLY + E-BOOK GIVEAWAY

Happy Birthday Mr. Darcy" is the fifth installment in the Austen Addicts series by Victoria Connelly. I've read and loved them all, could I miss this new one? 
A delightful novella set in the magnificent Purley Hall,  where two of the lovely characters we met first time in "A Weekend with Mr Darcy" are going to get married: Katherine Roberts and Warwick Lawton. 

It's been great to join all the familiar characters again and follow them while preparing themselves to take part in the wedding celebrations. Dame Pamela, Robyn and Dan, Higgins, Doris Noris, Mrs Soames, Mia Castle, Shelley Quantock, Gabe and Pie are excited to take part in a real Regency-style celebration. 

It is not only a great moment for Katherine and Warwick, but also Mr Darcy's birthday! And can the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice not influence the cheerful atmosphere at the Hall and the festive plans of such enthusiastic Austen fans? 

This is a fast paced, light-hearted novella you can plan to read on a rainy autumn day, in order to lit it up with romance, comedy and a lot of Austen quotes and references. 

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... JEANNA ELLSWORTH + GIVEAWAY OF MR DARCY'S PROMISE

Hello,  Jeanna, and welcome at My Jane Austen Book Club. My first question for you is: When and How did your lucky encounter with Jane Austen take place?

My very first encounter was at a garage sale at least 10 years ago where I picked up my first copy of Pride and Prejudice (couldn’t tell you where that copy went since then). My reintroduction was with the 2005 movie, of which I loved and bought a copy immediately. But it wasn’t until my sister, KaraLynne Mackrory, started writing JAFF books and sending me the chapters as she wrote them that I went from liking the book, to loving the story, to obsessing over it and becoming a badge-wearing-fully-fledged-hopeless addict.  That was January 2012. I remember it well because my divorce had been final for just over a year and I hadn’t ventured into the dating world yet. Darcy looked pretty darn good to a romance-starved single mother of three daughters.

How did it change your life?

It has changed my life in so many ways. First, I started reading every JAFF book I could find on Amazon.com, at the library, loaned from my fellow JAFF addict sister, and those I researched online. I currently have about 6 JAFF books on my kindle waiting for me to read, a few more on my wish list on Amazon, and I just ordered another that will be coming in the mail.  I get a little jittery when I don’t have a “to be read next” list. But it is more than that. It changed the way I look at life. I wish I could be more like Elizabeth Bennet. My bad marriage and good divorce (let’s face it, a good divorce is better than any bad marriage) left me with a lack of faith in men in general and a sense of I-can-do-it-on-my-own-I-don’t-need-a-man attitude. I also went from repressing my inner Lizzy due to shell shock, to being a little impertinent at times, more so than before I fell in love with Elizabeth Bennet. It changed my vocabulary which now has affected my daughters’ vocabulary as well, whose affirmative answer to me when I ask them a question is now “Indeed”. It made me push myself outside of my very comfortable (and single) life into one where I risk loving and being loved, all because now I believe there are real Mr. Darcys out there, and let’s face it, I kind of would like to find a Mr. Darcy. And of course, it changed the fact that now I am an author, a title I never thought I wanted for myself.

AUTHOR GUEST POST - JANE LARK: JANE AUSTEN & ILLICIT LOVE - BLOG TOUR + HUGE GIVEAWAY

Jane Austen’s Visit To Her Ancestral Home and How It Inspired Her To Write By Jane Lark                                               Everyone knows Jane Austen had a family home at Chawton, few people know she was the descendent of an aristocratic family who had an amazing stately home called Stoneleigh Abbey, near Warwick. Jane’s mother had in fact married beneath her when she married a vicar and although she was happily married she regularly bragged about her aristocratic relations, and had brought Jane and her siblings up on tales of her ancestral family achievements. One of Jane’s ancestors had been the Lord Major of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was a family joke that Jane’s mother had an aristocratic nose that she was very proud of. So can you imagine, after Jane had experienced the worst time of her life; through the period of her father’s illness and death, as her mother ran out of money, sending them firstly into cheap lodgings in Bath, and then to hit the height of humbleness and accept that they must live on the benefit of relations; how Jane felt to have an opportunity to visit the luxury of her ancestral home. It happened unexpectedly. 

MY OWN MR DARCY BY KAREY WHITE - COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY

After being dragged to the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice by her mother, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth’s life changes when Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy appears on the screen. Lizzie falls hard and makes a promise to herself that she will settle for nothing less than her own Mr. Darcy. This ill-advised pledge threatens to ruin any chance of finding true love. During the six intervening years, she has refused to give any interested suitors a chance. They weren’t Mr. Darcy enough.

Coerced by her roommate, Elizabeth agrees to give the next interested guy ten dates before she dumps him. That guy is Chad, a kind and thoughtful science teacher and swim coach. While she’s dating Chad, her dream comes true in the form of a wealthy bookstore owner named Matt Dawson, who looks and acts like her Mr. Darcy. Of course she has to follow her dream. But as Elizabeth simultaneously dates a regular guy and the dazzling Mr. Dawson, she’s forced to re-evaluate what it was she loved about Mr. Darcy in the first place.

EMMA, MR KNIGHTLEY AND CHILI-SLAW DOGS - INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR MARY JANE HATHAWAY + DOUBLE GIVEWAY

Mary Jane Hathaway is the pen name of an award-nominated writer who spends the majority of her literary energy on subjects un-related to Jane Austen. A homeschooling mother of six young children who rarely wear shoes, she’s madly in love with a man who has never read Pride and Prejudice. She holds degrees in Religious Studies and Theoretical Linguistics, and has a Jane Austen quote on the back of her van. She can be reached on facebook at her regular author page of Virginia Carmichael (which is another pen name, because she’s just that cool). She is here today to meet the readers of My Jane Austen Book Club and present her new " Emma, Mr Knightley and Chili-Slaw Dogs" . She has kindly accepted to answer some of my questions and to grant you a paperback of  Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits or an e-book copy of her new Emma - inspired novel! (check the giveaway details below the interview)

Hello and welcome back to my little corner in the blogosphere! Here's my fist question for you: you seem to be rather appreciative of both Jane Austen and typical Southern  dishes,  Mary Jane. How does this odd pair came to your mind for a series of book?

AUTHOR GUEST POST - P. O. DIXON, FRIENDSHIP AND THE PANGS OF DISAPPOINTED LOVE + GIVEAWAY OF "LOVE WILL GROW"

I'm very glad to welcome P.O. Dixon back to My Jane Austen Book Club. Her new book has just been released and she's here with a new great post to give the you the chance to win your own kindle copy of Love Will Grow. Read P.O.'s piece and take your chances in the rafflecopter form below. The giveaway is open internationally and ends on 27th March. 

“Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.”

This quotation from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey aptly illustrates the theme of Love Will Grow. The premise of the story is one of love’s disappointments and the lengths one is willing to go to remedy said sufferings in service of a friend. Love Will Grow begins with Miss Elizabeth and her intimate friend Charlotte Collins. In keeping with Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte is just the sort of friend one can always count on to speak the unvarnished truth. Who would not benefit from wise counsel from time to time? Of course, Elizabeth tends to trust her own opinion over that of others. She considers her friend Charlotte merely intends to tease her by implying that Mr. Darcy admires her.

Then there is the matter of Mr. Darcy and his particular friends. As regards Darcy’s relationship with Colonel Fitzwilliam, I like to suppose the two are more than cousins but rather the best of friends. Although, I must admit the colonel’s boasting of Darcy’s role in separating his friend Bingley from a young lady in Hertfordshire gives me pause. Surely he must have had some inkling that Elizabeth might know the family of the young lady whom Darcy found objectionable. What was he thinking? Without calling his motives into question, I find the colonel’s verbosity is not exactly the truest indication of a friend.

AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY - ALEXA ADAMS, SECOND GLANCES: A TALE OF LESS PRIDE AND PREJUDICE CONTINUES

I’m so excited to be once again at My Jane Austen Book Club, especially to discuss my new book, Second Glances: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice Continues. I thank my always gracious hostess, just as warm and welcoming as she was almost four years ago when we first became known to one another online. At the time, I had just completed my first novel, and I had no idea what to do with it. The very writing of First Impressions: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice came as something of a surprise. The idea arrived suddenly - what would have happened if Darcy and Elizabeth danced at the Meryton Assembly? - and in a month I had written the first draft. I intended the story as a purely selfish entertainment, but after reading it to my husband and listening to his outbursts of appreciative laughter, I had to know if others might find the same joy in my work.  Few things in my life have ever given me the satisfaction I discovered in learning that I could make others laugh. In Second Glances, I’ve tried to replicate the comic tone of the first novel, but its writing was a very different process. I began the book in 2010 and struggled with it for two years before deleting nearly everything I had written and starting over again from scratch.

MARILYN BRANT, PRIDE PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH - AUTHOR GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

I've had the pleasure of being a guest on one of Maria Grazia's blogs before and, always, it's been a delightful experience! About 2 years ago, we did a Q&A about my debut novel, According to Jane, which was the story of a woman who had the ghost of Jane Austen in her head giving her dating advice. (To read Maria Grazia's post, just click HERE  and, if you'd like, you can find an excerpt from that novel HERE ).

 

My debut came out back in October 2009 and several other books followed it, but this new book -- my seventh novel, Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match -- is the first one since then that was an Austen-inspired story. I had a lot of fun writing this it! It's a short, contemporary romantic comedy about two people who don't believe they're really right for each other. Love has a way of changing their minds, though! Here's the premise:

 

A single mother and an ER doctor meet on an Internet dating site—each for reasons that have little to do with finding their perfect match—in this modern, Austen-inspired story. It’s a tribute to the power of both “pride” and “prejudice” in bringing two people romantically together, despite their mutual insistence that they should stay apart…

SPOTLIGHT ON ... JESSICA GREY, ATTEMPTING ELIZABETH + GIVEAWAY

The Book

Kelsey Edmundson is a geek and proud of it. She makes no secret of her love for TV, movies, and, most especially, books. After a bad breakup, she retreats into her favorite novel, Pride and Prejudice, wishing she had some of the wit and spirit of Elizabeth Bennett.

One night at a party Kelsey meets handsome Australian bartender Mark Barnes. From then on, she always seems to run into him when she least expects it. No matter how Kelsey tries, she always seems to say the wrong thing.

After a particularly gaffe-filled evening around Mark, Kelsey is in desperate need of inspiration from Jane Austen. She falls asleep reading Darcy’s letter to Lizzy and awakens to find herself in an unfamiliar place that looks and sounds suspiciously like her favorite book. Has she somehow been transported into Pride and Prejudice, or is it just a dream?

As Kelsey tries to discover what’s happening to her, she must also discover her own heart. Is Mark Barnes destined to be her Mr. Darcy? In the end, she must decide whether attempting to become Elizabeth is worth the risk or if being Kelsey Edmundson is enough.

AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: MARY JANE HATHAWAY, "PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND CHEESE GRITS"

Mary Jane Hathaway is the pen name of an award-nominated writer who spends the majority of her literary energy on subjects un-related to Jane Austen. A homeschooling mother of six young children who rarely wear shoes, she’s madly in love with a man who has never read Pride and Prejudice. She holds degrees in Religious Studies and Theoretical Linguistics, and has a Jane Austen quote on the back of her van. She can be reached on facebook at her regular author page of Virginia Carmichael (which is another pen name, because she’s just that cool). She is here today to meet the readers of My Jane Austen Book Club and present her new "Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits!"  Read her guest post and take your chances in the rafflecopter form below to win an e-book copy!

Hello, fellow friends of Miss Jane! I’m so excited to be talking about my new book, “Pride, Prejudice and Cheese Grits”!

Wait, did the blogger reader count just slip? I think I heard the sound of hundreds of people quietly clicking past this post. But why, dear ones??

I hear a brave soul in the back yelling out something about that title… I can’t quite catch it…

Blasphemy? How can cheese grits, that so lowly of the Southern dishes, possibly occur in the same title with Austen’s wit and genius?

 Oh. I see. Well, let me explain.