Welcome to My JA Book Club, Linda ! Welcome back at My
Jane Austen Book Club and thanks for accepting to talk Jane Austen with me.
You are very welcome, Maria.
Thank you for being the very first stop on the Longbourn to London Blog Tour.
This is my first question for you: Longbourn to London is
not your first Austenesque novel, it comes after The Red Chrysanthemum. But when and how you came to think of
writing a Jane Austen – inspired book?
Actually, Longbourn to London came
first. When I discovered Jane Austen Fan Fiction, in September 2011, I
positively devoured every book I could get my hands on. I started with my local
library, then on to Amazon and at Powell’s City of Books here in Portland (they
also sell online). Through it all, I had no idea about the whole universe of
blogs and posting sites like A Happy Assembly. Anyway, operating in something
of a vacuum, I decided to try my hand. The sequels were probably my least
favourite sub-genre, and I didn’t have a plausible what-if in mind at first, so
I decided to look into Pride and
Prejudice itself and was drawn to that great gulf Jane Austen left at the
very end, rushing us through Elizabeth and Darcy’s betrothal with merely a couple
of conversations. Hence, I expanded on the journey of discover Darcy and
Elizabeth embarked upon when they became engaged.
If you read Longbourn to London carefully, you’ll find the exact question
Elizabeth asks Darcy that ending up being the inspiration point for The Red Chrysanthemum. By January 2013,
both books were essentially complete.
