HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! KAELYN CALDWELL, WRITER

Without Jane Austen, I would not have become captivated by all things Pride and Prejudice – especially Austen’s literate language and Elizabeth Bennet’s enlightened lifestyle, both of which inspire me to be more thoughtful about the way I speak and live. Reading Pride and Prejudice attuned my ear to a more inventive and entertaining use of conversation; it also helped me see that everyday activities can be life enhancing – a walk in the woods or a quiet cup of tea with a friend. Reading Jane Austen reminds me to slow down … to choose my words carefully and to appreciate the simple pleasures that define my daily life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! KAREN DOORNEBOS, WRITER

What would my life have been like without Jane Austen?

I never would have met Colin Firth…

…at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London! And I never would have set one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever written with the waxen Firth in my just-released book UNDRESSING MR. DARCY. Nor would I have had the fun of writing about an English “Mr. Darcy” who travels to America to promote his book by taking off his historical clothing at Jane Austen festivals. Consequently my American heroine wouldn’t have run off to England chasing after him, and she never would have visited London, Chawton and Bath. I can’t imagine!

Really, if it weren’t for Jane Austen, I don’t think I would have had a lifelong crush on Mr. Darcy, Mr. Tilney, and England itself.

Bless you, Jane Austen on your 238^th birthday! Your writing keeps inspiring, 200 years down the pea-gravel road!

 Karen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! KARA LOUISE, WRITER

What would my life have been without Jane Austen?

In thinking about how to answer this question, what came to mind first were the thingsI now had since first becoming acquainted with Jane Austen and her writings. She is the first author that struck such a harmonious chord in me that I can pick up any of her books, open it, and read, knowing I will love it no matter how long or how short the passage. I love her way with words, her characters, and have come to love the Regency era.

I have become acquainted with so many others who feel the same way. I have met several because of our mutual affection for this lady who lived 200 years ago. I have made new friends who live nearby, as well as those who live across the country. And there are many more (including Maria!) who live in other countries and whom I would love to meet!

And of course there is the path I began to tread in writing my own novels, something that I had a passing interest in earlier in my life, but never felt I could ever do. Now I have published eight!

To get back to the original question – what would my life have been without Jane Austen? Not having a Jane Austen community, perhaps I would have found another that captured my fancy(cat lovers maybe?). Or perhaps I would be up to my neck in crafts, as I used to do a lot of crafts before I began to write.

Some other things I wouldn’t have: my English Springer Spaniel named Reggie after the dog I wrote about in “Master Under Good Regulation;” half of the books I now own that pertain to Jane

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! KAREN M. COX, WRITER

What Would My Life Have Been Like Without Jane Austen? Less—my life would have been less, for a variety of reasons.

First of all, Jane Austen taught me the thrill of delayed gratification in fiction. I’m not saying she was the only author who made me wait for a satisfying ending to a story. But I believe she was the first author whose writing made the wait a joy rather than a chore. Her 18^th Century sentence structure and vocabulary slowed my reading WAY down as I tried to parse her unfamiliar style. That slower pace meant I could watch Jane elicit nuances of character that were by turns amusing (the willful stubbornness of Emma Woodhouse) and delightful (the bright, sparkling wit of Elizabeth Bennet) and poignant (the dual natures of Mary and Henry Crawford) and moving (the agony and joy of Anne Eliot as she finds the life she truly wants.)

I first began reading Austen as a graduate student, and the frenetic pace of devouring journal articles for class work or in search of theories for literature reviews was wearing on me. Reading Jane was a fun way to step back from that for a while. Surprisingly though, I began to notice that the patience I’d developed by reading Austen was spilling over into my other reading—into my nonfiction reading. Then that patience began to show itself in my research writing too.

Many years later, when I began writing fiction, that lesson spilled over into my stories as well. And as any author knows, patience is the Big Virtue—the quality that carries you through to the end of writing a novel. Jane provided not only the lesson of patience, but she became a mentor of sorts while I dissected her characters and plots and extrapolated them into Austenesque stories set in other times and places.

So profound was her influence on me that I’m not sure I would have been an author without her, and that twist of fate made a huge difference in my life—it became the part of me that wasn’t defined by my work, or my friends, or my husband and children. It was a part of me that was truly my own.

If there had been no Jane Austen, I still could have had a happy life—a good one—but I can’t help but think that it might have been significantly…less. 

— Karen M Cox

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! AUSTEN IN BOSTON

Austen in Boston has been existence since April 2010. We meet once a month (or occasionally more) to discuss Jane Austen, Jane Austen Fan Fiction, and sometimes authors/books that have nothing to do with Jane Austen! We meet in various locations in the Boston area. We have met on a harbor island (Civil War fort for "Gone with the Wind"), various parks from Easton to Salem, an Abbey twice, the World's End(a park in Hingham), we throw a wicked good Christmas/Jane Austen birthday bash, and local coffeehouses/restaurants. Some members attend JASNA MA meetings.   

From one of our founding members:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a world without Jane Austen is in want of an authoress who can properly represent the joining, nay the marriage of the heart and head of a man and a woman. How they meet, converse, hate, loathe, grow and change. How they dance, thrust and parry, bantering their way into love and marriage. And a world without Jane would mean a world without Darcy...God forbid!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! LINDA BEUTLER, WRITER

If I’ve Told You Once…

The Importance of Jane Austen

By Linda Beutler, author, The Red Chrysanthemum

“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you one hundred times…”* we would all be a lot less clever but for the innovative use of Regency slang by that undisputed goddess of English belles lettres, Jane Austen. With her irrepressible* spirit and elasticity* of mind, Jane set a new standard for—brace yourself*—common usage in the romance novel. What we assume are colorful turns of phrase that have always been at our disposal as fiction writers, came into being through the sculpted nib of this remarkable, if sober-looking* spinster. Jane Austen continues to be the excitor* (exciter in American English) of our imaginations as the obtrusive* old maid aunt with unmodulated* mirth and a love of pink-faced* shopboys*, forever on the gad* at fashionable watering-places*. So gather your fragmented* phrases and stand your chance* in the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction, taking palliation* in the knowledge that dear Jane volunteered* to play high* with the language,  that her success might chaperon* generations of future scribes to greatness, or at least the ambition to it.

   If you don’t believe me, shut up*.

   So happy birthday, Dear Author, I look forward to your attendance at my next dinner-party*. Just ring the door-bell* and let yourself in.

  

*First coined by, attributed to, or used with a new connotation by Jane Austen. Information source, Oxford English Dictionary, online edition.

Linda 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! MARIA GRACE, WRITER

 I was late in discovering Jane Austen—I blame high school. Unlike Jane Austen, our English department thought it good to linger upon pens that dwelt upon guilt and misery, so I did not get to read Jane Austen in high school. I placed out of college English, so it was after grad school and three children that I discovered Jane Austen through Emma Thompson’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.

After that, I devoured her works and wanted more, which led me into the realms of fan fiction. Consuming that at a break neck pace led me a step further, into rediscovering my own writing.

I started writing at nine years old and wrote six novels in high school. But college and life pulled me away from my early authorial dreams. Jane Austen helped me rediscover my fondest hope—to be a writer when I grew up.  I’m still not sure about the being grown up part, but I just released my fourth book—so I have and will continue to be a writer thanks to Jane Austen and the Austen community.

 Maria Grace

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! MARY LYDON SIMONSEN, WRITER

What would my life have been like without Jane Austen?

I can answer that question in one word: poorer, both literally and figuratively. Long before I became a writer of Jane Austen re-imaginings, I was devotee of her work. I first met Jane Austen while reading Pride and Prejudice in my senior high-school English class. Although required reading, I thought it was the best book I had ever read, and I kept looking around the class to see if everyone was as enthusiastic as I was. They weren’t, but I hope that has changed. (I once had a professor tell me that his favorite novel was Silas Marner: “It is a fantastic novel if you aren’t exposed to it too young.”) I am sure that was the same difficulty for my classmates who, at seventeen, were thinking of other things, like what to wear to the prom or getting their driver’s license.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! MONICA FAIRVIEW, WRITER

A Serene Place like Jane

Facebook, twitter,

cell phones bicker

Noises, images,

videos flicker

Streams of data

Flowing by

Everything happening

My, oh, my

No time to pause

No time to think

No time to fill your pen

With ink

Sound bites frommy life

come tumblingpast

Jumbled impressions

Nothing can last.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! P.O. DIXON, WRITER

What would my life have been like without Jane Austen? 

My life is nothing at all as it was before I started immersing myself in Jane Austen’s novels. Because of Jane Austen’s legacy, I am an aspiring writer, and because I have effectively organized my life around my writing, I find myself asking the question every day of what would my life be if not for Jane Austen. I’d like to think my priorities have changed for the better. Even though I have long desired the freedom to do what I want to do when I want to do it, I now work more hours than ever before. But, here's the thing: I love it.

I often say that I arrived late to the game, for my initial exposure to Jane Austen was in 2007. For the first time in my decidedly career-centric life, I saw the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film. Finding it too spellbinding for a single viewing, I watched it over and over again. I needed to know much more about the brooding hero. I then read the novel, along with several excellent 'what-if' books that told the story from Mr. Darcy's perspective. One day, I came across a link to the online Jane Austen fan fiction community. From that point on, my life has never been quite the same.

My love of Jane Austen and Jane Austen fan fiction rekindled my passion for writing and sharing stories, which was a favorite pastime when I was in high school. Then I went off to college and save an occasional poem, my writing passion faded. It would be several decades where writing and even reading held not the least bit of interest to me. Not that I didn’t read. Give me a technical manual or a financially themed book, and I would devour it cover to cover. I loved that sort of thing. I rarely allowed myself the time to read for pleasure. Even today, I have shelves of technical books (which I plan to

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! SALLY SMITH O'ROURKE, WRITER

My mother was somewhat disappointed that I wasn’t a reader. I was a true tom boy, hanging by my knees from the swing set, climbing trees, playing ball, riding bikes. Sitting around reading seemed such a waste of time. In an attempt to change that mom gave me ‘Forever Amber’ by Kathleen Winsor. She thought I might like it because I enjoyed history. Set in Restoration England the book covered politics and fashion as well as the black plague and the Great London Fire.

I enjoyed Forever Amber but it didn’t really spark my interest in reading more. My mother’s next attempt came on my fifteenth birthday when she gave me a beautifully bound copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! NATALIE RICHARDS, BLOGGER

What would your life have been without Jane Austen? 

I can honestly say that my life would be completely different if Jane Austen was not a part of it. I wouldn’t be a book blogger, for one, since I started just so I could review Austenesque novels (though I now review everything). Without my blog, I wouldn’t have met so many amazing people, some of whom have become good friends and many of whom share a common love of all things Jane Austen. Aside from blogging, Jane Austen has never failed to make me smile, even on the most difficult of days.

Trying to imagine my life without Jane Austen is like trying to imagine a life where I’m not me. She is directly to blame for my overly-developed romantic streak, my love of ballroom dancing and my obsession with polisyllabic words and flowery phrases. So many of my memories of the past seven years, since the first time I watched the Pride & Prejudice mini-series, have involved her works in some way. Mr. Darcy was my first love, and Captain Wentworth was my second, embodying all of the romantic ideals a teenage girl could wish for.

So, what would life be like without Jane Austen? Dull, very dull indeed. It hardly bears thinking of, don’t you agree?

Natalie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! VALERIE LAWS, WRITER

MY LIFE WITHOUT JANE AUSTEN  

If the ‘Men in Black’ popped in and zapped Jane Austen and her books out of my brain, it would be like having a large number of friends torn out of my address book, or unfriending me on Facebook. I’ve read her books so many times, her characters are real to me, like friends, relatives, or even annoying workmates or neighbours you can at least laugh at or gossip about. Though she’s very much of her time and class, Austen’s books are populated with people we can recognise in any age. And to lose my knowledge of her language, her use of comedy, beautifully crafted words of wisdom, that would be tragic indeed. For Jane herself is like a friend, who enjoys a goss about the people down the road, sees and enjoys absurdities, and the problems we all face - particularly women. It’s always good to re-read her novels and remember that ‘the past’ wasn’t all tight-laced Victorians, but that before them were the Georgians, lustier, earthier, despite their formal manners: cheeky, demanding, daring, sinful and knowing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE AUSTEN! WHAT WOULD OUR LIVES BE LIKE WITHOUT YOU? A 24 HOURS' CELEBRATION & GREAT GIVEAWAY

Are you ready for a great celebration? Jane Austen's 238th birthday deserves a really grand event so here we are, ready to enjoy the fun for 24 hours!  A real marathon filled with lovely guests and brilliant posts. Last but not least, you'll have the chance to win several amazing Austen - related prizes in a giveaway contest that will be running until December 23rd and will be open internationally.

I've asked quite a few Janeite friends to contribute their answer to a simple question: What would our lives have been like without Jane Austen? 

I hope you also want to contribute your own answer in the comments or if you prefer, just wish dear Jane your personal "Happy Birthday!". The more posts you comment,  the more chances you'll have to win one of the wonderful gifts in the rafflecopter form below. 

TALKING JANE AUSTEN WITH ... MELANIE KERR, AUTHOR OF FOLLIES PAST + GIVEAWAY

First of all Melanie, welcome to our online book club. Would you mind to introduce yourself to our readers?

Thank-you, I am thrilled to have this chance to talk with you. I am a long-time Austenite as well as a lawyer and a mother of two little boys. I make my own Regency costumes and force my friends to drink tea out of china cups.  I have just released my first novel, Follies Past: a Prequel to Pride and Prejudice.

Of course, my first question is:  “When was your first encounter with Jane Austen and how was that?

A friend gave me Pride and Prejudice in university, about 15 years ago. She had read it in a literature class and thought I would like it. She was right -  I couldn’t put it down. When I look back on it, I remember sort of imagining it in a modern setting, because I didn’t have any references for the aesthetic of the period. I hadn’t seen any of the movies and didn’t know what anything would have looked like. I have, over time, come to love all Jane Austen’s work, and to develop a fascination for the period, which is consistent with my lifelong love of petticoats and pastoral imagery, but my first encounter with Jane Austen didn’t involve any of that, and I loved it anyway.

“Follies Past: A Prequel to Pride and Prejudice”  has just been released.  How would you invite our Janeite friends to grab their copy and read it in about 50 words?

Before Darcy came to Netherfield, refused to dance at Meryton or laid eyes on Elizabeth, he rescued his sister from certain peril at the hands of the infamous Mr. Wickham. This is that story, knitted together with characters and histories of my own invention and all told with love and reverence.

 What was your intent at rewriting Wickham and Georgiana’s story?

One of the great things about Jane Austen’s storytelling is the way she ties everything up into a deeply satisfying ending. We all want the books to go on and on, but extending the characters and the plot after the final chapter felt to me like interfering with that perfect ending. And it would all  have to be speculative. Nobody knows what happens after the close of a book, but Jane Austen herself tells

VIDEO INTERVIEW: JOANNA TROLLOPE, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY? A NOVEL ABOUT MONEY

Shot on occasion of the first event in the series Hidden Prologues at Radisson Blu Edwardian Bloomsbury Street, this video features Joanna Trollope. The English author analizes Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility after publishing a rewriting of the novel in a contemporary setting. Do you agree with her when she says that Sense and Sensibility  is about love but also about money? I do, honestly. What about her analysis of Marianne? Isn't it interesting? Marianne is a typically Romantic character and I agree with Ms Trollope when she recognizes Rousseau's influence in Austen's characterization of the younger Dashwood sister. But I don't want to give away too much.  Now it's time to watch the video. Looking forward to your comments. 

Read a chapter from Joanna Trollope's Sense and Sensibility
Debating The Austen Project (podcast)

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!

MEET AUTHOR KATHERINE REAY AND HER "DEAR MR KNIGHTLEY" - GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY

Dear readers of My Jane Austen Book Club,

I’m so delighted to be here and to share a bit about Dear Mr. Knightley. This story is the compilation of Samantha Moore’s letters to an anonymous sponsor (Mr. Knightley) who has awarded her a grant to journalism graduate school. And while Sam studies fact, she must lay down fiction – her hiding place.

While we love reading Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Jane Eyre, Daddy Long Legs and other favorite classics, Sam lives within them. Growing up in the foster care system, Sam learned to avoid pain, strife and loneliness by “hiding” behind her best friends – Elizabeth Bennet, Charlotte Lucas, Jane Eyre... But now this habit is beginning to hurt her and others (as all hiding does), including another young foster kid, Kyle. And that shocks Sam – that she could be an adult who hurts a child.

So the journey begins… And we are invited along through Sam’s increasingly private letters to Mr. Knightley. And believe me, these letters take us on quite a ride. Nothing comes easily to Sam. She struggles to find her own voice, wondering if she has one at all. And the letters almost make us believe we’ve got a first person view to into her world, but we don’t. It’s even better. There’s a delicious layer we see that Sam can’t – there is what she is willing to tell Mr. Knightley, what she tries to withhold and how she interprets events – any or all of which can look to different to us than to her. The epistolary format allowed me to really explore Sam’s limited perspective and twist it about occasionally. I especially loved playing with Mr. Knightley’s anonymity, Josh’s subtle selfishness and Professor Muir’s feistiness.

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.

THE AUSTEN PROJECT: JOANNA TROLLOPE DEBATES HER "SENSE & SENSIBILITY" IN LONDON

Joanna Trollope will be the first in a series of leading authors to unveil the hidden back story to their latest book, with the launch of a new monthly literary salon curated by Radisson Blu Edwardian.

Held at the group’s Bloomsbury Street hotel in London, a literary hangout throughout its history, the evening event on 4^thDecember will see Joanna unpick the literary DNA of her new novel, a reworking of Sense and Sensibility. 

Joanna Trollope's reimagining of Jane Austen's novel (1811) is part of The Austen Project, which pairs six bestselling contemporary authors with Jane Austen’s six complete works: Sense & Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion and Mansfield Park. Taking these well-loved stories as their base, each author will write their own unique take on Jane Austen’s novels. The Austen Project will continue with Val McDermid’s reworking of Northanger Abbey in Spring 2014 and Curtis Sittenfeld’s Pride & Prejudice in Autumn 2014. 

The event curated by the Radisson Blu Edwardian will be hosted by writer and journalist Sam Leith, the Hidden Prologues salon will welcome up to 30 guests to hear authors read from their own work and from another book that inspired them, before joining a discussion about the issues that emerge.