This is the 237th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and the official end of the Riskies’ Jane Austen celebration….’til next time!
But it’s not the end of our giveaways. You have until midnight tonight to comment on each of our blogs for a chance to win each of our prizes, and for a chance to win the grand prize– a $50 Amazon gift certificate.
So work your way back and make sure you leave a comment on each blog!
The winners will be announced tomorrow (Monday).
The Riskies
I recently read THE IMMORTAL DINNER, by Penelope Hughes-Hallett, subtitled “A Famous Evening of Genius and Laughter in Literary London”. The book centers around a dinner party held by painter Robert Haydon whose guest list included John Keats, William Wordsworth and Charles Lamb. There’s lots of interesting background information on the participants and their contemporaries.
For example, there’s an account of Coleridge composing poetry “in walking over uneven ground, or breaking through the straggling branches of a copse-wood” while Wordsworth preferred “walking up and down a straight gravel-walk, or in some spot where the continuity of his verse met with no collateral interruption.”
Maybe it’s presumptuous, but I love it when I read about famous writers with similar habits to mine. “Thinking walks” are part of my own writing process. I’m more like Wordsworth–I like a reasonably level path, to keep my mind free to focus on my story–which is a good thing as copse-woods are scarce in my neighborhood.
Another account that made me smile was this one by Marianne Knight, one of Jane Austen’s nieces. “I also remember how Aunt Jane would sit quietly working (which meant sewing) beside the fire in the library, saying nothing for a good while, and then would suddenly burst out laughing, jump up and run across the room to a table where pens and paper were lying, write something down, and then come back across to the fire and go on quietly working as before.”
I always keep a writing pad in my purse, one by my bedside, and one on the kitchen counter for just that reason. Ideas don’t always come while I’m actively writing–perversely, some of the best ones come when I’m doing something else. Perhaps it’s because sewing and walking, both rhythmic activities, loosen up the creative process for me as they do for other artists I know.
Do you have any favorite accounts of famous writers’ processes? Are there any quirky habits you use that help you be creative, whatever your field of endeavor?
And to anyone who sees a woman striding through a neighborhood muttering to herself, remember she may not be crazy. She may just be a writer. 🙂
Elena
www.elenagreene.com
Does anyone want to discuss Roger Michell’s film PERSUASION? (It was released as a television film in the U.K., and as a theatrical release in the U.S. — which may make it unique!) I call it “Roger Michell’s PERSUASION” because he was the director — but of course screenwriter Nick Dear deserves as much credit as Michell for this understated, heartfelt adaptation.
I think Ciaran Hinds is very real as Wentworth — and a swoony romantic hero at the same time. Amanda Root is so true and so subtle as Anne that I don’t think I could ever picture anyone else in the part.
The silences in the film are amazingly powerful. This is an incredibly internal film.
The supporting performances are also great. I particularly adore Simon Russell Beale as Anne’s cheerful (but perhaps not too bright) brother-in-law Charles Musgrove, and Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft, the Admiral’s resourceful wife. (I once saw Simon Russell Beale portray Guildenstern in Stoppard’s ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, and Fiona Shaw play King Richard II in Shakespeare’s play, but I assure you I am quite unbiased!)
So, which were your favorite parts of the film? Or what didn’t work for you?
Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05
Jane Austen was born Dec 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England, a day for us all to celebrate; however, we Riskies are celebrating Jane Austen ALL week.
We want you to celebrate with us. There will be prizes. We’ve managed to scrape up Jane Austen-related prizes to send to one lucky commenter chosen at random next Sunday after Amanda’s Saturday blog finishes our week.
What was your first introduction to Jane Austen?
I first read Pride and Prejudice in college, but I cannot say my love of Austen hit me then. At the time, I loved everything about English Literature, enough to focus on English Lit as an English major. The real impact of Jane Austen came later for me and not through her books but through a movie.
Shortly after I’d first started writing, my critique group went to see Persuasion in the movie theatre, the Amanda Root-Ciaran Hinds version. There on the big screen the world of the Regency came alive in front of my very eyes. I’d just started reading traditional Regencies at the time and the beautiful houses, the clothing, the lush countryside, the sea coast, Bath, were all before me to experience as if I were really there. I loved the performances in the movie. I loved how Amanda Root as Anne began the movie looking like a dowdy spinster and ended up beautiful when the love she’d lost came back to her. I loved how Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth was not movie-star handsome, but seemed like a real man from that era. All the characters in the movie seemed perfectly cast and the scenery was unsurpassed. Look here for the movie trailer and you will see what I mean.
I still didn’t return to reading Austen at that time. That came later when I decided to try writing a Regency Historical. To help me develop a “Regency Voice” I listened to Jane Austen’s novels in audio book form over and over. Persuasion was still my favorite. I loved the “second chance” aspect of it.
You can hear a sample of that audio recording here.
Through the audio versions of Jane Austen’s novels, I truly began to appreciate her storytelling mastery. It is no wonder that librarians chose Pride and Prejudice as their number one favorite novel of all time…and Persuasion as number 82.
For more about Persuasion look here
For Cara’s Jane Austen Movie Club discussion of the 1995 movie Persuasion look here.
Tell us, did you love Jane Austen at your first exposure or did it happen later? Did you start with a movie or a book?
Don’t forget, we’re giving away Jane Austen-related prizes in honor of her birthday, so make a comment today and all week.
Come visit my website and enter my contest by Dec 20 for a chance to win Mistletoe Kisses.
Oh, by the way, here’s a photo of my son’s graduation. He really did it!!
The little arrow is pointing to him. If you can see a bearded face, my son is right behind him.
Today we welcome guest Abigail Reynolds, who’s here to talk about her latest in The Pemberley Variations, Mr. Darcy’s Obsession and give away a signed copy.
What if Mr. Darcy never had the opportunity to propose to Elizabeth Bennet at Hunsford, and did not meet her again until her circumstances were reduced? In Mr. Darcy’s Obsession, Mr. Darcy has an even greater social distance to bridge if he wishes to marry Elizabeth. Add in some Fitzwilliam relations with links to the Prince Regent and the loose morals typical of Regency high society who feel that Elizabeth is the material of which mistresses, not wives, are made, and Mr. Darcy has to make a painful choice between the demands of a decadent society and his personal moral sense. The background of this novel is the morally bankrupt ton which Jane Austen knew well, but did not describe in detail in her novels, perhaps because it was a given to her and her contemporaneous readers. Against this backdrop, the characters of Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet shine brightly as they seek to find an alternative to the bounds of decorum that constrain Darcy’s usual marital prospects.
Readers who can’t get enough of Darcy and Elizabeth will find that Reynolds does an admirable job of capturing the feel of the period in this entertaining diversion. – Booklist
Mr. Darcy’s Obsession is an adventurous variation that explores a different route with our beloved Pride and Prejudice. In my opinion, it is one of Ms. Reynolds’s more exciting novels complete with a street urchin spy, libertine uncle, eccentric aunt, many damsels in distress, and an honorable and praiseworthy hero! I most emphatically recommend! – Austenesque Reviews
For those that have been chomping at the bit for another Reynolds’ novel, Mr. Darcy’s Obsession does not disappoint! And to Darcy & Elizabeth lovers who have yet to discover her works, you must put this at the front of the queue! – Austenprose
Abigail, that’s a gorgeous cover. Congratulations on the new release and welcome to the Riskies. Tell us your publishing story. I believe you started off self-published?
Yes, I took a very odd route to publication. My first books were posted for free on the internet in serial form. I couldn’t see Austen variations ever being published. I made an brief effort to secure an agent for my modern Austen-related novel, The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice, but that left me with a collection of rejection letters from agents who said they liked it, but that there was no market for Austen-related fiction. That was in 2003, and I don’t think I’d hear that today! Then some of my on-line readers said they’d like to get my stories in book form, so I self-published them, not expecting to sell more than a dozen, since who would buy a book that was available for free on the internet? Quite a few people, apparently. I sold several thousand, and was noticed by Deb Werksman at Sourcebooks, who made me a book offer.
What is it about P&P specifically and Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship that lends itself to such wonderful creative riffs?
P&P is a writer’s dream because Darcy and Elizabeth are such strong characters, yet Jane Austen leaves a great deal about them unsaid. We actually know very little about them or their history. That’s part of why so many people can identify with them, and also why writers can’t resist the chance to fill in some of those blanks. They’re such passionate characters that it’s easy for modern readers to relate to them, and they’re both simultaneously very admirable yet flawed in ways that aren’t threatening to us. The spirit of P&P is so bright and sparkly that readers long to return to its world.
Do you feel intimidated by “borrowing” Austen’s characters? She is a pretty tough act to follow!
She’s definitely a tough act to follow, but actually, I don’t feel intimidated because there’s no comparison. I know I’ll never be able to write them anywhere near as well as she did. It’s like if I were learning to play cello, I wouldn’t find Yo-Yo Ma intimidating, because he’s so far beyond what I could hope to achieve.
Do Austen purists approve? Can you tell us what sort of reactions you’ve had from readers?
Many Austen lovers are open-minded and willing to give anything a try, and others disapprove heartily. Oddly, though, many of the ones who swear they’d never read an Austenesque novel seem to know surprisingly well what happens in my books! Part of the problem with purists is that people read P&P so differently. Some people think it portrays a simpler, more innocent, more moral time. Others see the incisive wit and the implied criticism of society, and realize the Regency was an era of moral decadence. I’ve had astonishing conversations with people who insist that Darcy was a virgin when he met Elizabeth, which to my mind is about as likely as him being born in China. He would be such an incredible oddball for the time if he were. I’ve had an easier time with the purists lately, though, because my books seem positively mainstream to them compared to Pride & Prejudice & Zombies or Mr. Darcy, Vampyre!
Reader reactions are all over the map. Apparently Mr. Darcy’s Obsession is either my best book because it doesn’t include intimate scenes, or it’s a complete letdown for the very same reason! Some readers are so happy to have anything more of Lizzy and Darcy that I could write whatever I like, and others can’t stand having their images shattered.
What sort of research do you do and which books about Austen would you recommend?
I do a lot of online research since there’s a lot of excellent material about the time period available there. I tend to get caught up in researching odd historical details, most of which never make it into my books, but I need to know the details, like what kind of pommel a regency sidesaddle would have, to picture the scene accurately in my head. As for books about Austen, the most important thing to read is her letters. You see new sides of her in them and get a real feel for her thought process. I’d also recomment Emily Auerbach’s Searching for Jane Austen, a very readable and insightful analysis of Austen’s character and the development of the myth of “dear old Aunt Jane.”
Is there another Austen that inspires you to dream of sequels?
I’ve written a modern version of Persuasion, but publishers are much less interested in anything that’s not P&P. Sense & Sensibility also tempts me.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on another Pride & Prejudice variation, and sequels to both Mr. Darcy’s Obsession and The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice.
Thanks for inviting me! It’s been a pleasure to visit with you.
Let’s chat! Abigail will drop by to respond to questions and comments and we’ll be giving away a signed copy of her book.