JANE AUSTEN SOIREE - A CELEBRATION OF JANE AUSTEN'S BIRTHDAY. JOIN THE FUN!

In a month it will be Jane Austen's 237th birthday,  since she was born in Steventon on 16th December 1775. Just like last year I'd love to celebrate this special occasion here at My Jane Austen Book Club inviting all Janeite bloggers to join me in the event. Let's spread the love for our beloved Jane.

I thought that the best thing we can do to demonstrate our admiration and reverence for her talent is to post Jane Austen's special pages. Special to us.

So,  what do you have to do to join the party? 

- Subscribe your blog through the linky tool below (deadline 10th December 

  2012) N.B. Link title: name of the blog (you don't have to say which  
   passage you  are going to choose nor what novel, there can be similar posts
   if we have similar tastes)

- Prepare your post including your favourite Austen page from your favourite      

   Austen novel (with pictures, videos, links, whatever else your wish to add to
   make  your happy birthday post more attractive)

- Add the graphics of the event (you can copy  from this announcement post) 

  or ask me to send them to you via e-mail writing to 

  learnonline.mgs@gmail.com

- What about a  giveaway contest to win something Austen-related? (books, 

   bookmarks, DVDs, gadgets,  etc.)

- Your post must be ready and posted by/at 00.01 a.m. 16th December 2012 

  (your local time) and the giveaway contest must be closed after 2 days, 

   that is 18th December 2012 (you can choose the time)

- Each blog will have one or more winners and will post the results of its own

   giveaway contest

- Your post should show the list of the blogs participating in the event which 

   I'll send to you  once the subscriptions are closed (10th December 2012)

"One cannot have too large a party".

JANE AUSTEN, Emma

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... ANTONIA AND NOEL, THE BOX TALE SOUP

Antonia Christophers and Noel Byrne are the Box Tale Soup, a two-actor company on stage these days with a very special adaptation of Northanger Abbey. Welcome them to our online club and discover more about them and their work.

Welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club,  Antonia  and Noel thanks for accepting my invitation to talk Jane Austen with me.

First question is ... Where does your name come from? 

Antonia: It actually took us rather a long time to come up with a name for the company that we are happy with. We wanted the name to encompass the various things that make us unique. One of our aims is to fit all the necessary props, costume and set for out shows into our vintage trunk so we wanted to have something luggage related in the name. And then Noel ended up coming up with a pun on the traditional English Soup ‘Oxtail Soup’ thus ending up with Box Tale Soup. We spell the ‘Tale’ that way to refer to the fact that we create adaptations of classic literature.

Noel: Yeah, it was a joke at first, but then the name grew on us!

ENID WILSON AND HER MARTIAN DARCY - AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

Welcome back to My Jane Austen Book Club, Enid! 

Thank you Maria for hosting me again.

Well, where can we start from?  You know I love Jane Austen and period drama. Honestly, what is this book about Martians doing in my blog?

Haha, Maria, I confess that I had a ball when you hosted my co-authors Aimée Avery, June Williams and I in July about our Jane Austen-inspired short stories, Honor and Integrity (HERE). I itch to find another excuse to appear in your blog again.

My latest novella Close Encounters with a MartianHunk is a romantic science fiction. It definitely doesn’t have a Mr. Darcy in it. But believe it or not, when I first wrote the story five years ago, it was a fun piece I posted at a JAFF forum, featuring a Martian Darcy.

A Martian Darcy?  How can you put Jane Austen’s characters in Space?

Sometimes I think my imagination has a life of its own, especially with my obsession with Jane Austen’s novels. Pride and Prejudice highlights the social division in Regency England. I took this theme and developed the story around it, with Martians being more superior to Earthlings. When Martian Darcy met Earthling Elizabeth, their views clashed even though they were attracted to each other. But in this published version, I no long use Jane Austen’s characters. My hero and heroine become Eric Dark and Sophia Wilkinson. Dark still slighted Sophia and they still had to overcome some obstacles to gain their marital bliss.

MEET REBECCA SMITH, JANE AUSTEN'S GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT NIECE - GIVEAWAY OF HER MISS JANE AUSTEN'S LIFE'S DILEMMAS

Rebecca Smith at Jane Austen's House Museum.
 Photo by Isabel Snowden

My guest today is really special to me and I hope you'll be ready to welcome her and make her feel at home here at My Jane Austen Book Club.

Rebecca Smith is the author of three novels published by Bloomsbury: The Bluebird Café (2001) Happy Birthday and All That (2003) and A Bit ofEarth (2006). Barbara Trapido called her “the perfect English miniaturist”.

Rebecca studied History at the University of Southampton and is now a Teaching Fellow in English and Creative Writing there. From autumn 2009 until summer 2010, Rebecca was the Writer in Residence at Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire; she continues to work closely with the Museum. Her first work of non-fiction,Jane Austen’s Guide to Modern Life’s Dilemmas, has just been published in North America and the UK. Rebecca is Jane Austen’s great great great great great niece.

Rebecca’s first novel for children, Shadow Eyes, was shortlisted for The 2012 Kelpies Prize and will be published sometime in 2013. She is currently working on another novel.

Here are her answers to a few  questions about her Austen-inspired book and her writing. Check the giveaway details below this post and take your chances to win in the rafflecopter form. Good luck!

While researching Miss Jane Austen’s Guide to Modern Life’s Dilemmas, you immersed yourself in Jane Austen’s books as well as her letters and early writings. What were some of the most surprising things you learned about Austen in the process?

I found that I could answer every single dilemma with advice from Jane’s work or letters! Dozens and dozens of different dilemmas were suggested by family, friends and my students – there were too many to fit into the book – but all of them could have been answered. The more I read, the more I saw answers.  I kept thinking of extra dilemmas that I’d like to include. I found that Jane’s wit and wisdom could be applied to anything.

GOODLY CREATURES, A PRIDE AND PREJUDICE DEVIATION BY BETH MASSEY - GIVEAWAY WINNERS

The Book

A life altering event inextricably links a fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Bennet to Fitzwilliam Darcy while simultaneously creating an almost insurmountable divide. This Pride and Prejudice deviation takes the reader on a journey through a labyrinth filled with misunderstandings, bias, guilt and fear--not to mention, laughter, animal magnetism and waltzing. As Elizabeth says, 'she shed enough tears to float one of Lord Nelson's frigates' but as she also observes 'unhappiness does, indeed, have comic aspects one should never underestimate.' Though the path for our protagonists is much more ardurous than canon the benefit remains the same, a very happy Janeite ending for these two soul-mates. Along the way there is retribution, redemption and reward for other characters--including a few that recall players in Ms Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility.' While reading her first published novel, I came across grievances so unjust that they called out to this long-time struggler for women's rights. With this novel, I became determined to give them some vindication. A sampling of comments left for this story at an online Jane Austen fan fiction site: Thank you for bringing this amazing, complex, heart-wrenching, story to a beautiful conclusion.

Before revealing the names of the 4 winners I want to thank Beth Massey for being such a kind and generous  guest as well as all the commenters who entered the giveaway contest.

YOURS AFFECTIONATELY, JANE AUSTEN BY SALLY SMITH O'ROURKE - WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

The Book (from amazon.com)

Was Mr. Darcy real? Is time travel really possible? For pragmatic Manhattan artist Eliza Knight the answer to both questions is absolutely, Yes! And Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley Farms, Virginia is the reason why!

His tale of love and romance in Regency England leaves Eliza in no doubt that Fitz Darcy is the embodiment of Jane Austen’s legendary hero. And she’s falling in love with him. But can the man who loved the inimitable Jane Austen ever love average, ordinary Eliza Knight?

Eliza’s doubts grow, perhaps out of proportion, when things start to happen in the quiet hamlet of Chawton, England; events that could change everything. Will the beloved author become the wedge that divides Fitz and Eliza or the tie that binds them?

Congratulation to Gayle Mills! She's the winner in this giveaway contest. Many thanks to Sally Smith O'Rourke for granting us a free copy of her new book.

CHRISTMAS WITH MR DARCY BY VICTORIA CONNELLY - BOOK REVIEW

Christmas is a time to spend with the people we love, a time for shameless  sentimentalism and bittersweet   memories, a time for caring and sympathy.  Can it also be the right time for romance? The answer is yes, if you’ve found your Mr Darcy.

I know, I’m definitely turning into an incurable romantic while growing old. Is that the reason why I swiftly went through the little more than two hundred pages of Christmas with Mr Darcy with a blissed smile printed on my face?

Christmas with Mr Darcy is a light-hearted, delightful  novella, Victoria Connelly has recenlty published as a  sequel to  her A Weekend With Mr Darcy , The Perfect Hero (or Dreaming of Mr Darcy in the US version) and Mr Darcy Forever . I read the three of them with the same foolish grin mentioned above,  it means I simply loved them all. They are all brilliant Austen-inpired modern romances full of references to Austen beloved works and all the dreamy places connected to her life and novels. Delightfully written with a light touch on reality, irony,  and skillful characterization, they find a proper sequel in Christmaswith Mr Darcy

.

In  Victoria Connelly’s latest indie publication  all the heroes and heroines of her  Austen Addicts’ Trilogy gather together to celebrate Christmas as well as their favourite author, Jane Austen. The great reunion takes place  at Purley Hall in Hampshire because renowned actress, Dame Pamela Harcourt, is holding a special Jane Austen Conference.

GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT - COLETTE SAUCIER, PULSE AND PREJUDICE

Book description

When the haughty and wealthy Fitzwilliam Darcy arrives in the rural county of Hertfordshire, he finds he cannot control his attraction to Elizabeth Bennet – a horrifying thought because, as she is too far below his social standing to ignite his heart, he fears she must appeal to the dark impulses he struggles to suppress.

Set against the vivid backdrop of historical Regency England, this adaptation of Pride and Prejudice follows the cursed Mr. Darcy as he endeavours to overcome both his love and his bloodlust for Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Although Pulse and Prejudice adheres to the original plot and style of the Jane Austen classic, it is not a “mash-up” but an imaginative, thrilling variation told primarily from Darcy’s point of view as he descends into the seedier side of London and introduces Elizabeth to a world of passion and the paranormal she never knew existed.

Have you read Colette Saucier's answers to my 5 vampire questions? (HERE) If you left your comment + your e-mail address below that post you may have won her debut novel, Pulse and Prejudice.

ROUND CHARACTERS AND FLAT CHARACTERS IN JANE AUSTEN'S WORK

My students listening to one of their mates' lessons

I've been working on Jane Austen's novels with my students these days and you can only imagine what bliss that can be for me. Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion are the novels we've been reading extracts from and working on. Now in one of the two class groups, they are going to read Emma - the whole novel - with their Italian teacher and, of course, we will discuss it in English together in my lessons after they finish. (You can find some of the materials and videos we used at my other blog LEARN ON LINE: 
1. My Students give their lessons: Persuasion by Jane Austen, 2.  Pride and Prejudice Part I  3. Pride and Prejudice Part II 4. Born to Be a Heroine: Watching Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey ) 

We discussed several issues like marriage, propriety and decorum, money and power, education of men and women in the Regency   but we also learnt something about irony and characterization in fiction.

This is what I wanted to share here tonight, something about characterization:  flat characters and round characters.

The difference was stated by the novelist E. M. Forster (I love all his novels!)  in his work Aspects of the Novel (1927)

AUTHOR GUEST POST AND GREAT GIVEAWAY: BETH MASSEY, WILLOUGHBY MADE ME DO IT

Beth Massey lives in Chicago with her husband of forty plus years. Her first love as a child was the theatre. A voracious reader, she devoured plays and novels with an eye toward imagining how she would play certain characters. Beth was recruited to the Chattanooga Little Theatre's youth troupe at age eight. At Barnard College in NYC, Beth threw herself into the struggle against war, racism, the emerging women's liberation movement and the Columbia University student strike of 1968. While there, she met her husband Bill. Together they have devoted their lives to political activism.

Now that both are retired from their day jobs, Ms Massey spends her days in the company of her well-informed best friend and the two are free to engage in a great deal of conversation. Jane Austen would approve, and Beth is quite certain that like Dawsey and Juliet they have had a discussion that encompassed Jonathan Swift, pigs and the Nuremberg trials.

Beth may have left a life in the theatre behind, but the desire for a creative outlet and a need to sketch the human character is still fervent.

Please welcome Beth on My Jane Austen Book Club and check out the giveaway details below to win her 

Goodly Creatures, a Pride and Prejudice Deviation

I am an oddity in the world of Jane Austen inspired literature.  To me, my favorite author neither wrote nor began the genre of romance novels.  Yes, she felt the need to provide a happy ending for her women protagonists.  Happy, if you assume marriage is the most fortuitous life for gently-bred females.  In real life, Jane did the unthinkable and followed a different drummer and has been inspiring many for the last 200 years to take another path—even when it was so very difficult.  Still I am no fool.  It is a truth universally acknowledged that the majority of her female devotees spend their time repining for Mr. Darcy and his many film iterations and pay scant attention to her literary legacy.

INTERVIEW WITH SALLY SMITH O' ROURKE + GIVEAWAY OF YOURS AFFECTIONATELY, JANE AUSTEN

Sally Smith O'Rourke is my guest today to present her new book, Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen. There's a giveaway for an e-book copy to giveaway in a contest open internationally (US readers can choose between e-book and paperback) Leave your comment + e-mail address to be entered. Deadline 2 November. 

Now it's time to welcome Sally Smith O'Rourke at My Jane Austen Book Club!

Hello and welcome, Sally! How would you introduce your new book in about 50 words?

Was Mr. Darcy real? Is time travel really possible? Eliza Knight thinks so. But can Fitz Darcy, The Man Who Loved Jane Austen love ordinary Eliza Knight? Things begin to happen in Chawton, England that could change everything. Will the beloved author be the wedge that divides or the tie that binds Eliza Knight and Fitz Darcy?

Why did you decide to give your “The Man Who loved Jane Austen” a sequel?

It wasn’t so much a decision as a kind of accident. I planned on a companion piece, a journal ostensibly written by Jane Austen. It would be her impressions and perception of the five days the American Darcy was in Chawton in the spring of 1810 from The Man Who Loved Jane Austen. I began feeling terribly presumptuous writing as Jane Austen and then one day I wrote an entry ending with “I wonder what Mr. Darcy is doing right now.” I found myself writing just that¸ what the tall Virginian was doing at that moment and Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen grew from there.

 How difficult was it to write Jane Austen as a character? Where did you draw your portrait of her from? Her work or her letters?

The answer to both of these questions is a complete immersion into everything I could find written by and about Jane Austen. I studied biographies, family memoirs, travel guides to the English countryside, books of etiquette of the era. I even read cookbooks and books on housekeeping. I wanted to capture her spirit and essence so read her letters many, many times. All the research in the world didn’t allow me to feel as though I could write as Jane but I definitely developed my own interpretation of who she was and how she lived and that’s what I wrote. All the research made it exceedingly enjoyable to write Jane and her story flowed naturally. It was not difficult at all but was a lot of fun.

AUTHOR GUEST POST: ALEXA ADAMS, EMMA AND ELTON: SOMETHING TRULY HORRID

Alexa Adams, author of First Impressions: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice has planned something in honor of Halloween. It is a short story, posted in instalments over 8 days, beginning today October 24th and concluding on the 31st. She is my guest today to invite you to join her at her site for some fun. 

I adore the fall, “that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness.” My daughter and I, just steady on her feat, stomp through leaf piles and collect acorns, glorying in the mild temperatures. The air is scented with decay, always a surprisingly refreshing aroma, and the neighborhood decked with pumpkins and gourds, witches and ghouls. As we walk along, the spirit of the season overtakes me, and my imagination begins to run into realms most demented. 

It should come as no surprise to those who know me that I often inhabit something of an Austen dreamland. I have been currently sharing some of my most farfetched imaginings on my blog under the appellation Mixed Up Matchup, when

WINNER OF MATTER OF TRUST BY P.O. DIXON

Quick posting to announce the winner of  an  e-book copy of Matter of Trust, The Shades of Pemberley. 

Congratulations to Vesper Meikle!

Many thanks to all participants and to the author for granting the free copy.

 Matter of Trust is available at Amazon Kindle Store

It is also available as a paperaback

GIVEAWAY WINNERS FOR MY DEAR SOPHY & SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Four winners for two great Austenesque reads!

Faith Hope and Cherrytea & Kaewink win Kimberley Truesdale's My Dear Sophy

Anna (paperback) and AoBibliophile (e-book) are the winners of Karen Wasylowski's Sons and Daughters

Thanks to all of you who entered the contest and grateful thanks to both authors for granting the copies of their books to give away.

THE JANE AUSTEN GIVEAWAY HOP

A great event linking 79 blogs in a Giveaway Hop which will give you lots of chances to win new Austenesque reads for your shelves and e-readers. The Jane Austen Giveaway Hop  is hosted by I Am a Reader Not a Writer  and vvb32reads  and  will go on until October   24 th. Get ready to visit all the sites involved ( see the list of links at the end of this post), have a lot of fun, meet other Austen fans from all over the world and, of course,  good luck on winning your favourite books!

Above my gifts for one lucky winner:  Victoria Connelly's Mr Darcy's Forever in the kindle edition, one of my favourite Austen - inspired modern romances (see my review) + a set of 3 Jane Austen bookmarks I bought in Bath - where the novel is set - last summer. The contest is open worldwide.

NEW BOOK UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: P.O. DIXON, MATTER OF TRUST. THE SHADES OF PEMBERLEY. GIVEAWAY!

The book

Matter of Trust: The Shades of Pemberley

A young bride he recently married to prevent a scandal. A mysterious, wayward aunt he never really knew. A woefully misguided sister he removed from harm’s way. Undermining Darcy’s relationships with the three women in his life is a most disturbing bombshell about his nemesis, George Wickham.

Scandal, secrets, deceptions—this story has it all. Its premise is what if George Wickham was not the son of old Mr. Darcy’s steward? What if he is of Darcy lineage?

 The Author says ...

A father’s dying words. A long lost relative from the past. What lies and deceptions promise disruption of all he once knew to be right and wrong?

Fitzwilliam Darcy has a history of cleaning up after George Wickham—the person whom he despises more than anyone in the world. First, he acted to save his sister from the villain when he set out to elope with her while she was only fifteen. Not long thereafter, Darcy impetuously declared his intention to marry a charming young woman from Hertfordshire, whom he secretly admired, to save her from scandal and ruination at the hands of his nemesis.

FIVE VAMPIRE QUESTIONS FOR COLETTE L. SAUCIER & GIVEAWAY

Colette Saucier first book is a paranormal version of Pride and Prejudice in which Mr Darcy just happen to be a vampire: Pulse and Prejudice.  Do you want to discover more about  Colette’s  fondness for vampires? Read my 5 vampire questions and, especially, her answers to them. Finally,  try to win a signed paperback copy of her  novel, a new perfect Austen Halloween gift for you! Leave your comment and add your e-mail address to enter the giveaway contest. It is open internationally and will end on October 31^st.

Welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Colette. Here's my first question for you: it seems the world has gone vampire crazy! (Meyer’s Twilight Saga and related films, TV series like True Blood and Vampire Diaries,  best – selling authors attempting their own vampire story) Have you got your own  interpretation of this phenomenon? Why is our world so attracted by this kind of supernatural characters?

At least now most of the vampires have been relegated to novels, films, and television (although an active vampire subculture thrives today). Myths surrounding demons and revenants who drink human blood go back to anitiquity, but the craze really took off in Eastern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Just earlier this year, “vampire” graves were discovered in Bulgaria – skeletons with rods driven through their chests to prevent them from rising from the dead and feasting on the living. The desecration of graves in this manner became such a problem in the 1700s that the Empress of Austria finally had the claims of vampires investigated and declared they did not exist. These vampires, of course, bore little resemblance to those found in popular culture today. They were monsters – demons, witches, or the evil dead risen from the grave – who terrorized villages.

Why have vampires, in some form or another, always been part of the human psyche? Probably due to a fear of our own mortality and the dark unknown – death. Even in Christianity, believers drink “blood” to gain eternal life.  The current brood of vampires have the added appeal of being sensual, dark, mysterious, and complicated. Often

they are romanticized as fighting the temptation of succumbing to their desires but ultimately finding the object of that desire, typically a woman, irresistable. Sound familiar? Those are some of the same qualities that have caused women to fall in love with the enigmatic Mr. Darcy for two hundred years even though we learn so little about him on the few pages he inhabits in Pride and Prejudice.

Whether vampires exist or not, their mythology is immortal.

JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA: A PERFECT READ FOR COLLEGE-AGED LADIES BY GUEST BLOGGER NADIA JONES

Did you enjoy the movie Clueless? If so, you will also enjoy reading Jane Austen’s novel Emma. That’s because Clueless was actually loosely based on the novel. There are obvious differences; the movie is set in modern-day Beverly Hills, California, and the novel is set in Surrey County, England, during the Regency era. However, the underlying theme is the same.

The character of Cher (played by Alicia Silverstone) in Clueless is based on the character of Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist in Austen’s novel. Like Cher, Emma is young, beautiful and free of financial concern, thanks to her rich father and likely inheritance. However, Emma is 20 years old and unconcerned with higher education, since she’s pretty much set for life financially.

To fill up her time, Emma enjoys socializing with the people in her neighborhood, along with her friend, Harriet Smith, a pretty yet unsophisticated girl. Although the ways of the upper class are quite entrenched in Emma’s character, she is still compassionate towards everyone in all social classes. Recognizing Harriet’s potential in high society, Emma insists on playing matchmaker to find her friend a favorable husband. Emma is able to use her charm and self-confidence to convince Harriet that she is correct in her matchmaking efforts, leading to some pretty interesting events that create quite a dilemma for everyone involved.

FIND WONDER IN ALL THINGS BY KAREN M. COX - GIVEAWAY WINNER

Jesse Kimmel-Freeman is the name I picked up through random.org. So, congratulations to her on winning this modern romance inspired to Jane Austen's PERSUASION: Find Wonder in All Things!

Many thanks to Karen M. Cox for being my guest and talking Jane Austen with me!

NEW RELEASE: KAREN WASYLOWSKI, SONS AND DAUGHTERS. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE CONTINUES... PRESENTATION & GIVEAWAY

SONS AND DAUGHTERS, a sequel to Karen V. Wasylowski’s 'DARCY AND FITZWILLIAM' (which was itself a continuation of Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), again follows the iconic Fitzwilliam Darcy and his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam.  Now we see the two battling best friends as loving husbands and doting fathers, older and a bit wiser, making the sacrifices, the difficult (and frequently unpopular) decisions that men must make for the good of their families and we see their large brood of offspring - the ‘Fitzwilliam Mob’ - grow from childhood to adolescence then on into adulthood.  Along the way, Darcy and Fitzwilliam are viewed by their children first as heroes, then as the enemy, but eventually as mortal human beings and the children’s adored champions once again. 

Of her new book,  Karen Wasylowski says:

SONS AND DAUGHTERS (Book Two of Darcy and Fitzwilliam) was published October 2012 and I was able to continue my family saga.  It begins five years after the ending of DARCY AND FITZWILLIAM.  The men are in their thirties and have young children now, their marriages are older and more settled, familiar.  And, like all married men, their responsibilities have doubled.  Every decision they make now affects many lives; people they love deeply depend upon them to choose what is best for their futures – each man faces unique challenges to his character.