PROMISED BLOG TOUR - LEAH GARRIOTT ON HOW MUCH JANE AUSTEN INFLUENCED HER WRITING

A new awesome blog tour starts at My Jane Austen Book Club! Let's welcome Leah Garriot and her newly released Promised to our online club and wish her all the best on the rest of the tour.   

Debut novelist Leah Garriott tours the blogosphere February 17 through March 15, 2020 to share her new historical romance, Promised. Forty popular book bloggers specializing in historical romance, inspirational fiction, and Austenesque fiction will feature guest blogs, interviews, exclusive excerpts, and book reviews of this acclaimed Regency romance novel. 

Hello everyone! Thanks to Maria Grazia for hosting my first stop on the blog tour for my novel Promised, a Proper Romance set in the Regency England world of 1812. Since the Georgian and Regency periods have become somewhat synonymous with romance thanks to the great romantic satirist Jane Austen, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a little about Jane Austen’s influence on my writing.

NEW RELEASE! ELAINE JEREMIAH, BY TIME DIVIDED: EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY

 A year ago, in October 2018, Elaine Jeremiah was my guest here at My Jane Austen Book Club and we discussed time travel fiction, Jane Austen fanfiction and other Austen-related topics. The occasion was the release of her debut novel, Love Without Time. (Read the post HERE).

Today I'm thrilled to celebrate with you all the release of her second novel, By Time Divided, with a lovely excerpt and a double giveaway! 

DARCY IN HOLLYWOOD BY VICTORIA KINCAID - EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY

Hello everyone! New release under the spotlight for your consideration. It's a contemporary variation of Pride and Prejudice by Victoria Kincaid. Here's her message + an excerpt + giveaway open internationally. Enjoy and ... good luck!  Maria Grazia

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.

CAROLYN MILLER, A SNAPSHOT OF ART IN REGENCY TIMES - GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

Hello My Jane Austen Book Club readers, 

I’ve always enjoyed art, both the appreciation for the artist’s skill and patience involved, and as a form of creativity that (despite my poor attempts at painting) I find oddly soothing. Elinor Dashwood is one of Jane Austen’s heroines who is recognised for her artistic ability. Indeed, for young ladies of this time, skill with sketching or watercolours was considered an important accomplishment. For my latest inspirational Regency romance, Miss Serena’s Secret, I wanted to explore what it might be like for a young woman of artistic sensibilities in a time when young women were often seen as little more than a baby breeding machine.

SHANNON WINSLOW PRESENTS LEAP OF HOPE FROM HER NEW CROSSROADS COLLECTION

Leap of Hope: Write What You Love

Who hasn’t wondered at least once how life would have changed by making an alternate choice at some crucial moment in the past? Where would you be today if you’d turned right instead of left at an important crossroads or been able to sidestep a particular misfortune? Or perhaps you’ve daydreamed about a different life altogether, in a different place and time.

That’s what the stories of my new Crossroads Collection are all about: turning points, possibilities, and second chances. Each book features a new hero/heroine who’s given the extraordinary gift of a second chance at life, the chance to answer for themselves the intriguing question “what if?” The first two books feature Ben Lewis (a struggling minor-league baseball player) and Hope O’Neil (an Austen-obsessed college student). Their contrasting personalities and choices take them on radically different adventures. 

Maria Grazia has graciously offered to host both these new novels on blog tour today – Leap of Hope here, and Leap of Faith over at FLY HIGH!

SPOTLIGHT ON ... FINDING THE RAINBOW BY TRACI BORUM

Life seems nothing more than a quick succession of busy nothings.  ~Jane Austen 

   

This is precisely how Holly Newbury would sum up her life. At twenty-eight, she lives in a charming Cotswold village, serving as caretaker to three younger sisters—a rewarding job, but a tedious one. 

Soon, news of a Jane Austen movie filming nearby creates a snap of change in the air.  The villagers become involved as movie extras, and Holly starts up an Emma book club in honor of the film.  At the same time, Holly's own family drama plays out—her sisters experience heartaches and growing pains, while her widowed father finds new love in an unexpected place. 

Most importantly, the film brings with it an American screenwriter named Fletcher Hays, who ends up becoming Holly's very own Mr. Knightley.  But will she realize it too late?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Traci Borum is a writing teacher and native Texan. She's also an avid reader of women's fiction, most especially Elin Hilderbrand and Rosamunde Pilcher novels. Since the age of 12, she's written poetry, short stories, magazine articles, and novels.

Traci also adores all things British. She even owns a British dog (Corgi) and is completely addicted to Masterpiece Theater---must be all those dreamy accents! Aside from having big dreams of getting a book published, it's the little things that make her the happiest: deep talks with friends, a strong cup of hot chocolate, a hearty game of fetch with her Corgi, and puffy white Texas clouds always reminding her to "look up, slow down, enjoy your life." 

Website - Facebook page - Twitter - Goodreads page - Amazon link 

READ AN EXCERPT 

KATIE OLIVER, JANE AUSTEN - REGENCY SHOPAHOLIC? AUTHOR GUEST POST & GREAT GIVEAWAY!

"Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. Although it sometimes includes romantic elements, chick lit is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because the heroine's relationship with her family or friends is often just as important as her romantic relationships." - Goodreads

"[Romance] books are about the celebration of falling in love and emotion and commitment, and all of those things we really want." - Nora Roberts

Jane Austen blazed the trail that every writer of romance and chick lit ever after has followed. Her popularity is still strong after 250 years. Numerous film adaptations of her novels, including the recent Austen-meets-horror film mashup, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, continue to be produced, watched, and admired, and discussed. 

GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY - MADELINE COURTNEY PRESENTS ABHORRENCE AND AFFECTION

Hello, I'm Madeline Courtney and I write Jane Austen inspired romances. My first novel, Abhorrence and Affection, has just been published on Kindle and is going through some minor editing, so it can be ready for print within the next month! (Which is super exciting and super nerve wracking at the same time).

Abhorrence and Affection is a relatively short read (only 51K words long or 144 Kindle pages) about a silly, young woman forced into marrying her childhood rivalry to save her family from their debt...

This, of course, leads to silly arguments and hilarious insults between the two main characters; a Mr. Nicholas Oakley and a Mrs. Bethany Benedicts Oakley... But there are some serious scenes as well...

"How dare you make such suggestions when you have no idea what it is your talking about? Of course you've always been this way; conceited, arrogant, rude to others when they don't match up to your ridiculously high standards. Why do you think you had no suitors? It definitely wasn't because you're not beautiful. It was because you insist on treating people like dirt beneath your feet and no one wants to be in your presences for longer than five minutes. If it wasn't for me you would have surely died an old maid." -Abhorrence and Affection, Chapter Six

The story really shows that sometimes life just doesn't turn out the you would expect it to... but that's not always a bad thing... even if you are too stubborn to see it at first.

It's definitely something I would suggest to anyone who has read all the Austen novels and can't help searching for more. Even I, the writer, want to curl up on the sofa with a cup of tea on a rainy day and just lose myself in the story all over again.

If you're interested in reading Abhorrence and Affection... you can purchase the Kindle version  or  read the first chapter for free   

Giveaway Time! Yes, I'm having a small giveaway. As soon as I reach 10K followers on Twitter, I'll be giving out 10 free copies of the novel (Kindle and Print)... So be sure to follow me on Twitter at @MaddieC123 for a chance to win!

Madeline Courtney

SUN-KISSED BLOG TOUR - LINDA BEUTLER ON HER DARCY TALE INCLUDED IN THE ANTHOLOGY + WIN A PAPERBACK COPY!

“So each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in…” —Thomas Hardy

If you desire a little heat, a summer flirtation, or an escape to bask in your own private sun, this whimsical collection of original short stories is inspired by all things summer. In collaboration with some of Meryton Press’s most popular and award-winning authors, this anthology debuts other promising and emerging talent.

·         In KaraLynne Mackrory’s “Shades of Pemberley,” Mr. Darcy, with some fantastic assistance, discovers Elizabeth Bennet in a most unlikely place.

·         Karen M. Cox’s “Northanger Revisited” modernizes Northanger Abbey at a fictionalized Georgia seaside.

SUMMER LOVIN' - MERYTON PRESS SHORT STORY CONTEST

BEGINS – 9:00 a.m. Feb 1, 2015 (US Pacific time)

ENDS – 11:59 p.m. March 15, 2015 (US Pacific Time)

Meryton Press is conducting a contest to find the best short stories.

The theme of the contest, “Summer Lovin’,” represents the summer season. The interpretation of the theme is left to the writer’s imagination; the story may have summer as a backdrop or may convey a sense of happiness and light. It might be a romantic comedy set in the South Pacific, a thriller in the everglades of Florida, a romance in Queen Victoria’s summer court, an ode to the ocean and Elizabeth Bennet, or a mail -order bride in the Old West—anything your summer muse suggests.

Any genre is acceptable as long as there is ROMANCE. Austenesque is a plus, but is not required. In other words, so long as there is a commonly accepted or acceptable interpretation of the theme embedded in the plot, it works for us. However, this contest is not for children’s stories. Our target audience is readers over 18 years old.

The contest will be judged by a panel of independent judges, and the results will be announced by mid-April 2015.

A long list of entries will be selected for final judging by a panel of expert editors and reviewers. The long list will consist of at least eight quality entries. All entries on the long list will receive a letter with constructive criticism on how the story could have been improved. Four winners will be selected from the long list and will be awarded prizes as detailed in the guidelines below (see “Contest Prizes”).

SPOTLIGHT ON ... PRIDE, PREJUDICE & THE PERFECT BET BY MARILYN BRANT + GIVEAWAY

Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet

The course of true love doesn’t always run smooth… 

Everyone thought Beth Ann Bennet and Dr. Will Darcy had an unexpected romance in Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match (Perfect #1, January 2013). Now, Beth’s best friend, Jane Henderson, and Will’s first cousin, Bingley McNamara, begin their own unlikely love story in Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet (Perfect #2), which starts at the Darcy/Bennet wedding when they find themselves in the roles of maid of honor and best man for the newlyweds. 

Jane is an interning school psychologist and a woman who wears an angelic mask in public, but she’s not as sweet tempered as she’d like everyone to believe. Turns out, she may have just crossed paths with the one person who’ll unnerve her enough to get her to reveal her true self. 

As for Bingley, he’s a wealthy, flirtatious and compulsively social guru of finance, who likes to wager on stocks and, let’s face it, on just about anything that strikes his fancy. But this dedicated ladies’ man may have finally met the woman who’ll challenge his bachelor ways! 

Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet…where life’s biggest gamble is the game of love. 

**Note to Readers: Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Bet is part of the "Perfect" series, but it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel.**

BLOG TOUR: SPOTLIGHT ON ... JAN HAHN, THE SECRET BETROTHAL + DOUBLE BOOK GIVEAWAY

  

Why would a gentleman ask a lady to conceal their betrothal?

Jane Austen writes of secret engagements in more than one of her novels, and in The Secret Betrothal, author Jan Hahn explores the question of what would happen if Austen’s most famous heroine from Pride and Prejudice reluctantly agrees to accept such a proposal.

When Fitzwilliam Darcy learns that Elizabeth Bennet has committed herself to such an arrangement, his hopes of winning her hand are shattered.  After circumstances continue to bring the two together—from Hertfordshire to Rosings Park to the seaside town of Brighton―he finds he is unable to tame his desire for the woman who has stolen his heart.

Will Darcy’s efforts to win Elizabeth succeed, or will his sworn enemy lead her to the altar?