Wednesday 24 September 2014

AUTHOR GUEST POST: BARBARA SILKSTONE, MR DARCY'S DOGS - WIN EBOOK OR SIGNED PAPERBACK!

My love affair with writing began in childhood but didn’t blossom until my midlife crisis. At the age of forty-something, I traveled the country interviewing men for what I thought would be a serious book on how men really felt about women and relationships. That adventure turned into a bittersweet dark comedy novel titled The Adventures of a Love Investigator. Emotionally spent from interviewing over five hundred men, I turned to writing a series of riffs on classic fairytales. Novels like The Secret Diary of Alice in Wonderland, Age 42 and Three-Quarters, were loosely based on some of my misadventures.

Enter Wendy Darlin: Spun from the essence of Peter Pan, Wendy became my alter-ego. She did things I would never dare, and things I did and regretted. She is a blending of Lucille Ball and Indiana Jones. After finishing five books in her screwball series I wondered: what next?

JAFF author Elizabeth Ann West suggested I bring my quirky sense of humor to Jane Austen’s timeless stories. I hesitated. It would be like wearing tennis shoes under a ball gown. My sense of screwball inserted in the ballrooms of Jane Austen? Could I do this?

I began the first in my Mister Darcy series – Mister Darcy’s Dogs – this summer. I discovered Elizabeth Bennet had much in common with Wendy Darlin and yours truly. We share an insubordinate sense of humor and a talent for mumbling under our breaths. We are attracted to and irritated by gorgeous men with chocolate-colored eyes and quirky personalities. We rarely hesitate leaping in to help a friend and occasionally regret it. 

Tuesday 16 September 2014

BOOK BLITZ! FINDING MR DARCY: HIGH SCHOOL EDITION - DISCOVER MORE & WIN AMAZON GIFT CARD


Finding Mr. Darcy: High School Edition
Release Date: 09/16/14

Summary from Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Liza Johnson takes fangirl to a whole new level of crazy when she decides to take dating advice from her literary hero: Jane Austen.


With the help of her best friends, Liza sheds her ancient-speak and complete Austen wardrobe for something a bit more modern in an attempt at finding her very own Mr. Darcy.



Enter Will, the new kid and Liza's Darcy incarnate. Add her BFF's ex to mix and the sexy Brit who kisses with an accent, and Liza is in trouble.



So, what's a girl to do? Without her mom to go to relationship advice, Liza turns to the only person she can truly trust with matters of the heart via her mother's copy of COMPLETED WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN.


Wednesday 3 September 2014

SPOTLIGHT ON ... MRS DARCY'S DIAMONDS - A JANE AUSTEN JEWEL BOX NOVELLA BY JANE ODIWE. NEW RELEASE!


Mrs Darcy's Diamonds

Elizabeth is newly married to Fitzwilliam Darcy, the richest man in Derbyshire, landowner of a vast estate, and master of Pemberley House. Her new role is daunting at first, and having to deal with Mr Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is a daily challenge. But, Elizabeth is deeply in love and determined to rise to every test and trial she is forced to endure. When her husband presents her with a diamond ring, part of the precious and irreplaceable Darcy suite of jewels, she feels not only honoured and secure in her husband’s love, but also ready to accept her new responsibilities and position.

Elizabeth knows she will face exacting scrutiny at the approaching Christmas Ball, but it will be her chance to prove that she is a worthy mistress, and she is excited to be playing hostess to the Bennets, the Bingleys, and the gentry families of Derbyshire, as well as Mr Darcy’s French cousins. Antoine de Valois and his sister Louise have arrived at the invitation of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Elizabeth is delighted that this young and lively couple are helping to bring Miss Georgiana Darcy out of her shell. However, when her ring goes missing before the ball, Elizabeth is distraught, and her dilemma further increased by the threat of a scandal that appears to involve the French cousins. 
 

Read an excerpt from the book

Longbourn House, Hertfordshire - 11th December 1812
 
‘My dear, you are determined to vex me at every turn,’ said Mrs Bennet to her husband on the day before they were to travel to Pemberley House in Derbyshire. ‘I simply must know your opinion.’

Tuesday 2 September 2014

THE PERSUASION OF MISS JANE AUSTEN BLOG TOUR - GUEST POST BY SHANNON WINSLOW


Many thanks to Maria for inviting me to visit as part of my virtual book tour for my new novel, The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen! For today’s post, Maria challenged me to devise a “top ten” list of some kind. I decided to go with my top ten personal favorite quotes from the book – excerpts I’ve never shared before. It’s a collaborative effort between Jane Austen and myself, as you will see.

The Persuasion of Miss Jane Austen represents the private journal the great authoress wrote alongside the novel Persuasion, documenting the story behind the story – her real, life-long romance with a sea captain of her own. She’s reflecting back on their early days of exquisite felicity, their painful parting, and what became of their second chance years later – the events which inspired what she wrote in her final, most-poignant novel.

Jane’s relationship with her captain didn’t influence only Persuasion, though, but all her other books as well. She says…