REGINA JEFFERS, HONOR AND HOPE - GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

Jane Austen’s works are often classified as “romances.” The assumption comes from the premise that if the heroine meets a handsome man in Chapter One, he must be the hero. Fitzwilliam Darcy is the romantic hero of Pride and Prejudice, and although he does not appear in Chapter One, he does make an appearance by Chapter Three, and Austen’s chapters are short in comparison to contemporary writers. However, if you know nothing of the story line nor do you have sweet dreams of Colin Firth emerging dripping wet from a placid lake (Sigh!) or of Matthew Macfadyen walking through the morning mist with an open shirt and lots of chest hair (Sigh!), you may not think much of the infamous Mr. Darcy.

Quite frankly, upon our first meeting of this wonderful character, he is a jerk. He makes a horrendous “first impression.” But that is the thing with Austen. Her original title of the novel and her theme are one and the same: first impressions are misleading.

From the first line of Pride and Prejudice, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife,” Austen plays a merry game with her readers. “First impressions” are misleading: Darcy does not come to Hertfordshire seeking a wife; Wickham is not the perfect mate for Elizabeth; Jane might be more beautiful than Elizabeth, but she lacks her sister’s depth of character; Darcy’s best quality is not his wealth, nor is his worst quality his pride. Austen’s theme permeates every line, and, generally, the reader does not recognize that our favorite author hits us over the head with it. Readers simply sense the resonance found within Austen’s works.

P.O. DIXON , CAN YOU DIE OF A BROKEN HEART? AUTHOR GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

“Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then he will be sorry for what he has done.” Mrs. Bennet opines to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.

And so begins Bewitched, Body and Soul: Miss Elizabeth Bennet. The Bennets’ third born daughter Mary posits the notion of one dying from a broken heart to Elizabeth when writing to her of their eldest sister Jane’s relentless malaise. 

A broken heart, heartbreak, both are figures of speech used when describing the intense emotional distress, pain, or suffering one feels after losing a loved one, be it the result of death, divorce, breakup or even physical separation. Constant anxiety and romantic rejection also bring about this malady.

PRIDE AND PYRAMIDS BY AMANDA GRANGE & JACQUELINE WEBB - GIVEAWAY WINNER

Thanks to all of you who showed their interest in this book both on our facebook page or here on blog. Among the commenters to my interview with Amanda Grange, I've picked up the name of the lucky winner of a paperback copy of Pride and Pyramids provided by Sourcebooks for the giveaway contest. The winner is ...

Margaret


Congratulations and thanks for taking part!

Many thanks to Amanda Grange for granting me the interview and to her publishers for the free copy to give away

Read my interview with Amanda Grange about Pride and Pyramids

Read my review of the book

AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY - AIMEE AVERY, HONOR AND INTEGRITY

My Jane Austen Book Club welcomes Aimée Avery, co-author of the book Honor and Integrity: A Collection of Pride and Prejudice-Inspired Short Stories. Thanks for coming by today, Aimee.

Thank you for having me.

What made the three of you decide to write a book together?

Enid thought it would be fun to challenge June and me to write stories that contained the words “honor” and “integrity.” It seemed an easy idea since those two words are the perfect words to describe Mr. Darcy.

Is this the first time the three of you have written anything together?

More or less. The three of us have belonged to the online JAFF community for years and read each other’s stories and comment. But other than scribing drabbles/flash fiction with the same theme, this is our first attempt at a joint publishing project.

Did you find it difficult to work together?

Not at all. I think because we’ve known each other within the community for so long and read each other’s works that this was just an extension of that. Our biggest problem was the time difference between California and Sydney.  If you ever get to California, Maria, we’d love meet and visit with you.

JANE AUSTEN AND THE ARCHANGEL - INTERVIEW WITH PAMELA AARES & GIVEAWAY

First of all, welcome to My Jane Austen Book Club, Pamela. I'm very glad to introduce you to all the friends and Janeites who visit here. As a start I have to ask:  How’d you come to write about Jane Austen?

I have always loved Austen’s work-she’s a genius! But I have to admit that I didn’t set out to write a book about Jane Austen. Moments after sending my first book, The Lady and the Patriot (coming Fall 2012), off to my editor, I got waylaid by an angel. Yup, an angel. And not just any angel, but the archangel who had fallen in love with Jane Austen. And heaven’s bad boy wouldn’t let go until his love story was told. And so, JANE AUSTEN AND THE ARCHANGEL  came to life. The tagline is “Every Life deserves one great love…” I think Jane fans will find it to be an intriguing and uplifting story.

Michael Grace, the archangel who falls in love with Jane Austen, and his sidekick, Lord Gabriel, put a fun and charming spin on angels. They bring a dimension to the angelic that includes humor and uncertainty, and a very sexy charm.

And I’m giving away a copy of the book to one lucky reader who comments on this blog post!

PRIDE AND PYRAMIDS BLOG TOUR - INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA GRANGE & GIVEAWAY

Do you want to get a chance to win a papeback copy of Pride and Pyramids (my review's here)? Read my interview with Amanda Grange, leave your comment + e-mail address and ... fingers crossed for you! This giveaway contest is open internationally and will end on July 16 when the winner is announced. Good luck!

First of all welcome back to My Jane Austen Book Club, Amanda. It’s an honour and a pleasure to feature such a talented writer and a fond  Janeite here at my blog.

Hi, it’s good to be back!

My first question is: your story in Pride and Pyramids takes place after 15 years from Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage. What is their menage like after all those years?

Darcy and Elizabeth have six children, all with very different personalities. The oldest, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth – who is always called Beth – is like her aunt Jane in temperament, being calm and seeing the good in others. The second child is William, who takes after his father. He’s honourable and serious, inclined to be arrogant and haughty at times, but the other children don’t let him get away with it! Then comes John – names after Mr Bennet -  who takes after Col Fitzwilliam and longs to join the army. After John come the terrible twosome of Laurence and Jane, who are both inclined to wild behaviour and take after their aunt Lydia. Last, but not least, is little Meg, who at six years old is the youngest.

DATING IN COLLEGE? WHAT JANE AUSTEN'S NOVELS CAN TEACH US ABOUT COURTING - GUEST POST BY ANGELITA WILLIAMS

As one of the most famous female novelists of all time, Jane Austen is ardently admired and adored by women, both young and old, throughout the world. Her poetically written novels have firmly tugged at the heartstrings of millions since her books' first appearances in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and her societal and cultural influences only continue to grow as the years pass.

Thousands of books have been written about the modern wisdom the antiquated Jane can impart to those ladies who long to be romanced, wined, dined, and wooed like the leading ladies in her novels. We live in a time – however – when men would rather text a silly heart icon than handwrite a letter; where subtle romantic gestures have been replaced by obnoxious proclamations on Facebook; where men are pressured to believe that scoring on the first date makes them as suave as Johnny Depp; and where patiently waiting for love to mature and blossom is a thing of the past.

PRIDE AND PYRAMIDS BY AMANDA GRANGE AND JACQUELINE WEBB - MY REVIEW

Fast paced and with the exotic charm of Egypt added to the appeal of the Regency world, Pride and Pyramids is a delightful surprise.

Mystery, legends, superstitions enter the lives of the pleasing and proper Darcy family on visiting the land of the Pharaohs.

Defying a magician’s wrath as well as the legend saying magical plagues affect archaeologists , the Darcys  seek the tomb of Hammon and Husn to uncover its hidden treasure.

Elizabeth and Darcy have been married 15 years now and have 6 children. Their life at Pemberley is quiet and comfortable but lacks adventure. This is why they can’t resist the proposal of Edward Fitzwilliam, Colonel Fitzwilliam’s younger brother, and join him in his intriguing expedition to the exotic land of the Sphinx with their family and friends. Not only immeasurable riches await them but also danger and betrayal.

Familiar characters from Pride and Prejudice and new lovely ones enliven this novel, which  is the result of the combined efforts of Amanda Grange - best-selling

COMPULSIVELY MR. DARCY BY NINA BENNETON - BOOK REVIEW

It is always the same old story between them.  At first glance things never work properly between Darcy and Elizabeth. They never hit it off in fact, neither when he is a wealthy British philanthropist and she is an  idealist American doctor volunteering in a poor country like Vietnam.

In Nina Benneton's story, Elizabeth can’t understand the reason for the reverence Darcy gets from all the people around him:

 “It ‘s hard to be intimidated by a guy who faints at the sight of blood” ,  she thinks at first, after their awkward, catastrophic meeting in the emergency room  of the hospital where she’s been asked to treat injured Charles Bingley, Darcy’s best friend .

Furthermore, why is this Darcy so hysterically worried for his friend? And why are the two men  keenly supporting Mr and Mrs Hurst’s application for an adoption, when the married couple themselves don’t seem so truly interested ? 

Elizabeth has her own suspicions. All funnily wrong, actually. Nonetheless,  that is what gives start to an amusing series of misconceptions,  misunderstandings and misadventures which will lead the reader, fatally as well as predictably,  to the highly longed for  rewarding happy ending.

LOVELY JANEITES - ELI MURTON, ON BECOMING JANE

Eli Murton worked at both the Leicester Haymarket and Pheonix Theatre before training at GSA. After graduating she toured with Quantum Theatre and played Mrs Nightingale in Nightingale the Musical. Eli took a break from acting in 2002 when she had her first baby. She now has 3 boys but crow bars her work around them. She is a regular actor for Lynchpin’s Scriptease events. Eli has also recently finished filming a short film for L7 productions entitled The Volunteers. For Artifice: Mrs Bellmour in The Way to Keep Him & Jane Austen in Reading Histories & Drawing Pullets.




Reading Histories and Drawing Pullets (the play by Kate Napier in which I play Jane Austen) was originally meant to be an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of its publication. However, Kate, never one to opt for the easy route, began to work through Jane’s early writings and a wholly different play emerged and instead Jane takes the audience on through almost a Masterclass on writing the perfect Austen novel.  I was cast as Jane fairly early on and once in receipt of the script, and I’m being totally honest here, I was scared witless! A lot of my lines are taken directly from Jane’s letters and you begin to see that she was a far cry from the demure, bonneted spinster, popular culture would have you believe. She had a biting wit and, in some of her surviving letters to Cassandra and Anna the sarcasm and cattiness is hilarious. Despite this, I went into the early rehearsals, back straight, doing

FIFTH ANNUAL JANE AUSTEN FESTIVAL, LOUISVILLE, KY - YOU'VE GOT AN INVITATION!

The 5^th Annual Jane Austen Festival will take place July 21 & 22, 2012 at Historic Locust Grove, a circa 1790 Georgian home and farm just six miles from downtown Louisville, KY.

FALLING FOR MR DARCY BY KARALYNNE MACKRORY - GIVEAWAY WINNER

Posting just briefly to make one of the readers of My Jane Austen Book Club very happy. Who's going to win this lovely adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?

The lucky winner of Falling for Mr Darcy, picked via random.org,  is Mariam!

Many thanks to Karalynne Mackrory and her publishers for the interview and the copy to give away!

LOVELY JANEITES - ALEXA SCHNEE, REDISCOVERING AUSTEN

Alexa Schnee is a young, very young, talented writer. She has recently re-discovered Jane Austen and wants to share her new enthusiasm. Alexa has always wanted to be a writer. She loves the smell of the bookstore, because nothing in the world smells exactly like it. When she isn’t writing, she’s murdering some musical instrument or hitting the road. She will never, ever like maths and will always love dancing in the Montana rain. She is currently attending Sarah Lawrence College near New York City.

I took a Jane Austen course at my school, Sarah Lawrence College, this last semester. I loved diving into Austen’s work—mostly Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and, of course, Pride and Prejudice. But when we came to the Minor Works, I found I was a bit unprepared to discuss these writings. We get a glimpse at a young Austen—an Austen uncolored by life experience and publication. We can almost imagine her standing in front of her family in her parlor acting out scenes and skits she had written. We can see her parents laughing at her satirical wit, her early observances of the ridiculous, her

ALL ROADS LEAD TO AUSTEN BY AMY ELIZABETH SMITH - GIVEAWAY WINNER

This is the book you should take with you on holiday for the right fix of Austen - inspired non fiction. A travel book full of amusing anecdotes, real experiences, interesting meetings and a lot of Jane Austen! Amy Elizabeth Smith has given Janeites a new perspective on their beloved writer's novels and a cross-cultural approach to those familiar tales.

LET'S PLAY THE GAME! JANE AUSTEN'S ROGUES & ROMANCE ON FACEBOOK

You read about its forthcoming release here at My Jane Austen Book Club when they published a Press Pack in February. At first it was due to release in March but, evidently,  it took longer.  Now it is here! BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment & Legacy Games have brought Jane Austen and her famously social world to Facebook for the first time with Jane Austen’s Rogues and Romance, a new hidden-object social game. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy have escaped from the pages of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and live again in this fantastical romp through Austen’s six novels.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY - KARALYNNE MACKRORY, FALLING FOR MR DARCY

Karalynne MacKrory

Dear friends and Janeites, 

I'm glad to introduce a new Austen-inspired author and her recently published variation of Pride and Prejudice: Karalynne Mackrory and "Falling for Mr Darcy". Have a look at the giveaway details below this post if you want  a chance to win the book!

If I say Mr. Darcy, what is the first image that comes to your mind? Colin Firth? Matthew MacFadyen? Laurence Olivier?

Would you understand what I meant if I said Colin MacFadyen?  Or Matthew Firth?  I don’t know about Laurence Olivier.  He was before I even knew about Jane Austen.  I am one of those people who read her books before actually seeing any of the movies.  But when I did see the movies I could not help but love Colin Firth in his gold-hued clingy pants at Pemberley – walking with Elizabeth after their surprise encounter – or Matthew MacFadyen in his heated, angry almost-kiss during the proposal scene.  Hmm... scrumptious.

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... AMY ELIZABETH SMITH - GIVEAWAY OF "ALL ROADS LEAD TO AUSTEN"

Amy Elizabeth Smith has an undergraduate degree in music and a masters and PhD in English. She teaches writing and literature (including a course on Jane Austen) at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She loves travelling, dancing, classic cinema, and watching squirrel videos on YouTube.

With a suitcase full of Jane Austen novels in Spanish, Amy Elizabeth Smith set off on a yearlong Latin American adventure: a travelling book club with Jane. In six unique, unforgettable countries, she gathered book-loving new friends— taxi drivers and teachers, poets and politicians— to read Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice.

All Roads lead to Austen is an interesting account of those experiences and of how she met her “Seῆor Darcy”...

Leave your comment + your e-mail address, add the country you live in and you can have a chance to win this new interesting Austen-dedicated travel book. The giveaway is open worldwide and ends  on June  16th.

CHARLOTTE BY KAREN AMINADRA - GIVEAWAY WINNER

Another lovely meeting here at My Jane Austen Book Club, with a  new Austen author: Karen Aminadra. She was my guest last week and kindly answered some questions for an interview (HERE). Are you ready to discover who the lucky winner of her just released continuation of Pride and Prejudice, CHARLOTTE?

WINNERS OF THE MAN WHO LOVED JANE AUSTEN BY SALLY SMITH O'ROURKE

Happy to be here with you, though just quickly, to announce the names of the two lucky winners of The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O'Rourke. This giveaway contest was linked to the author guest post, Jane Austen & Romance.

MEET KAREN AMINADRA AND GET A CHANCE TO WIN HER "CHARLOTTE" , A CONTINUATION OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Karen Aminadra (pronounced Amin-ah-dra) is an author and an English language teacher who lives in Northamptonshire, England with her husband. She was born in London and grew up in Hertfordshire 'the land of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice'. She has travelled and worked all over the world including South America, Russia and Europe. 

She writes Jane Austen Continuation Novels, and other Fiction Novels with a good helping of historical romance, crime and mystery. She loves to read, loves English history, and Georgian architecture. Meet her and get a chance to win an e-book copy of her Pride and Prejudice continuation: Charlotte.

Hello Karen and welcome to My JA  Book Club! I’m glad to have you as my guest both as a colleague ( a teacher like me!) and as a Janeite. My first question is : How did you come to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice focused  on Charlotte’s married life to Mr Collins?