Margaret on Milsom Street

Oh, happy day, I have finished the rough draft of the next installment of my Hapgoods of Bramleigh series! Four years have passed since the events of the first three books (because I can't marry Margaret off at age 15-16), but only one year in my writing time, which must be something of a record for me. This is what a nearly-empty nest and COVID remoteness have done for me! Cover design for Matchless Margaret is underway, and I'm starting to kick around launch plans.

But first,

Question: What do I, as an author, have in common with J. K. Rowling?

If you answered mind-boggling book sales; untold wealth; side hustles of amusement parks, movie adaptations and merchandise; or red hair, you're wrong.

Correct Answer: My books get longer and longer.

Yes, folks, so far Margaret's story is clocking in at 115,838 words, which is about 25,000 words longer than School for Love, which was longer than A Very Plain Young Man, which was a whopping 25,000 words longer than The Naturalist. In brief:

Margaret............................115,838

School.................................93,121

Young Man.........................91,805

Naturalist............................66,263

However, unlike Rowling, I am putting out my own books and really cannot afford to be so prolix when the word count determines how many pages the paper book will be and how wide the spine and how much the darned thing will cost to print. (If I could get all my readers to move to Kindle or reading on their phones/tablets, I could give Gone With the Wind a run for its word-count money if I felt like it, but not so with physical books.)

I love Margaret's story. I hate to think of cutting any of it, so I'm giving myself a couple days to let it sit before I start hacking away. Maybe I'll even keep a copy of the original for my e-book readers who might be interested in the "director's cut" later--although I've often thought director's cuts aren't as good as the theater versions. It never hurts writing to be gone over and gone over and pared down for economy and elegance.

While I ponder, I've been drinking my "Jane Austen Blend" tea that I bought in Carmel (delicious) at the charming Jane Austen at Home shop.

Speaking of Jane Austen at Home, I've also been re-reading Lucy Worsley's bio of Amazing Jane that happens to have the same title.

I actually have no memory of having read it before, but Goodreads tells me I gave it a star rating in 2017, and Goodreads never lies.

Much of Matchless Margaret takes place in the beautiful city of Bath, England, and the husband and I had planned to visit again this fall on an empty-nest, hooray-COVID-is-over trip. I'd even picked out the hotel I wanted to stay this time, just a hop, skip, and a jump from where Margaret lodges in Henrietta Street. 

[Pardon me while I weep a little while...]

Well, as long as the U.S. requires a (negative) COVID test before flying home, this trip is off the table. We both work, and his is the kind of job (pastor) that does not allow him to get stuck in foreign countries for weeks at a time. 

Which makes me think that, when I launch Margaret on the world, the launch parties (both the in-person one and the Zoom one) will include a virtual "walk through early 19th century Bath"! After I've spent all that time poring over old maps and peering at old engravings and reading excerpts from odd little random books, I'm taking you readers with me.

So mark your calendars for sometime in November or January and we'll go for a stroll on Milsom Street:

and grab tea and a scone at the Pump Room:

More to come. Thank you, dear readers.

Setting Up My 1-800-Psychic Number

So I was reading Paula Byrne's wonderful new biography of Jane Austen, The Real Jane Austen: a Life in Small Things, and received the startling reminder that l'aimable Jane once penned a piece of juvenalia entitled "Frederic and Elfrida." Not that startling to you, perhaps, but since the lovers in my forthcoming Regency romance bear the names Frederick (with a K, mind you) and Elfrida, I was delighted with the cosmic connection. I hadn't read any Austen juvenalia since college, so I wonder if I tucked that morsel away deep in my subconscious! And here I thought I named my Elfrida after the Elfride in Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes.

I must be guilty of a lot of Austen-related morsel-tucking because I made a similar discovery after launching my Austen-retelling The Beresfords on the world. It turns out there is a Colonel Beresford in her unfinished novel The Watsons.

No matter where I go, clearly, it all comes back to Jane. Yikes. But not a bad thing, by any means. Better than discovering all my writing derives from V. C. Andrews or Sweet Valley High books. Oh--wait--my character Caroline Grant in The Beresfords references Sweet Valley High. Scratch that literary dig.

Speaking of my newest venture, A Very Plain Young Man, second in the Hapgoods of Bramleigh series, is heading to production! Check back for cover art, when fabulous Kathy Campbell works her magic. (Seriously--click on that link, and you'll see two of my covers! She's done them ALL.) So Frederick and Elfrida's tale will launch in early May, perhaps?

In the meantime, I am thrilled to announce Austenprose's review of The Naturalist, the first book in the series.

Recognize those eyes from Austenprose's header?

Austen aficionado and published editor Laurel Ann Nattress declares it "a literary feast for any Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer fan" and urges, "If you read one Traditional Regency this year let it be The Naturalist," citing its "original, quirky characters, witty repartee, layered secrets, blundering misunderstandings, and laugh-out-loud humor."

Aahh...music to the author's ears. Really, that's all any writer wants--to tell a story to someone and have them be entertained, moved, amused. Funny that Austenprose suggested a fifth book in the series about a "pedantic Hapgood cousin." He isn't too pedantic, I hope, but I was thinking a new cousin character I introduce in A Very Plain Young Man might deserve his own book before I move on to third sister Margaret...

John, Anne, Jane, and Michael

Hearty thanks to Marianne and her book club for hosting me and Everliving last night. Loved the questions, the conversation, and the "turtle fondue" of chocolate, caramel and pecans!

For those of you always on the lookout for new book club best practices, Marianne's group copies discussion questions (from the book or online), cuts them out, puts them in a bowl, and has everyone draw one. Kinda fun! But even funner was the meeting they had for Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, where everyone was assigned a character to dress up as. Brilliant idea, and one I'll suggest to my own book club when we meet tonight. We are tackling Watership Down soon, after all, and what better revenge for me to take than to make everyone dress up as talking rabbits?

Of course, my favorite discussion question, as I've mentioned before, is to have the readers "cast" the book. Marianne's group gets points for originality because they picked John Corbett (thank you, IMDB) for Ben

Hmm...I can picture it.

and Anne Hathaway for Daphne.

Especially perfect for a musical version of EVERLIVING

 Lovely! I'll have to check out this John Corbett, but I do think Anne Hathaway would be every bit as haunting a Daphne as another frequent choice, Emily Blunt.

It was great to revisit Everliving for another reason because I've been buried in Jane Austen lately, prepping for a "Jane Austen book club" a friend and I auctioned off for Eastside Academy and also my upcoming side session for the Seattle University Search for Meaning Book Festival. Check out my Jane slide:

Exciting stuff. Had to figure out how to flip Jane's pic in Microsoft Paint because I wanted her facing inward to the presentation like she actually wanted to be there.

And finally I promised you a Michael. One of the gals at the book club last night was married to a band promoter who had done stints working in a record store and playing in a band. Perfect segue to Mr. Chabon's new novel Telegraph Avenue, which he'll be talking about at the Search for Meaning keynote.

Do hope you can join us on Saturday, March 9! I've got an early bird session at 9:00-9:45, which I much prefer to the slot I had last time, post keynote, after everyone has heard the Big Star and headed off to find lunch. They do require you print tickets at home, and big Michael is supposedly already "Sold Out," but they encourage us to come anyhow, given the high proportion of flake-hood in our culture. Hope to see you!

Ms. Links-a-Lot

Yesterday I had a blast visiting the MOPS group of University Presbyterian Church to give a talk on "Raising Book Lovers." If you've got munchkins at home and want a few book ideas, you can listen to the talk on their blog. Hmmm...don't see the handout of favorite kid reads attached, but send me a message and I can email it to you. During the discussion time I got a great new recommendation from one of the mentor moms--a Carol Ryrie Brink (think Caddie Woodlawn) book I'd never heard of but which my oldest would love, about two girls being shipwrecked on an island where they had to take care of lots of babies. Awesome!


In other news, I can't seem to get a hold of the original contact I had for the Seattle University Book Festival coming up in March, but a new gal sent me this "publicity" dealie, so I guess it's still a go!

 

If you can't read the blurb, you're not missing much, because there was a second paragraph to what I sent them that didn't make it onto the flyer. Oh, well. Basically I'll be talking on "Prayer and Prejudice: the Validity of Faith in Jane Austen." The book festival is free--even including Michael Chabon--but you have to get advance tickets.

And finally, just to prove that high-brow (Austen) meets middle-brow (children's literature) meets low-brow (see below) in a unibrow on this blog, here's a link to the the church announcement video that our very creative Joanna put together a couple weeks ago. Enjoy!

Fandom Acts of Kindness

AKA Mr. Baldwin

So last night the entire fam sat down to watch The King's Speech, which, apart from wondering if I will now hear my eight-year-old's stuffed animals spouting strings of British curses, was enjoyed by all. It was the second time through for the hub and me, which meant I was able to tear my eyes from Colin Firth and notice the actor playing Mr. Baldwin. "Who?" you ask. Doesn't matter. Another character in the movie. Sink me if that wasn't Anthony Andrews! "Who?" you ask again, growing impatient. Allow me to explain.

In 6th grade, Ivanhoe aired on network television and created a sensation among us pre-adolescent girls unrivaled by anyone or anything since the bygone days of Leif Garrett or Shaun Cassidy. Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe! Despite his wretched first name and unfathomable attachment to the insipid Rowena, he set our hearts beating and we talked of little else for days.

In a fit of fandom, I bought a copy of Sir Walter Scott's masterpiece and prepared to time travel to the age of chivalry, Anthony Andrews, and Olivia Hussey once more. Finding a cozy corner where I wouldn't be interrupted, I held my breath and plunged in!

Only to bog down in the dullest, slowest opening to a novel that I'd encountered in my twelve years. Good heavens! Some wandering pilgrim and some yokel meeting in the road and talking and talking and--yawn!--talking. (Think opening of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, only not quite that awful.) Had my 40+-year-old self met such a beginning, I would have cast the book aside by page fifteen, but as it was, I slogged away. After all, hadn't my beloved Betsy Ray from my beloved Betsy-Tacy series adored Ivanhoe? (And hadn't her classmates all hated it?)

Perseverance paid off. The book is a thrill. Still one of my favorites which I re-read occasionally, after skimming the first twenty pages. And I've put the 1982 production in the Netflix queue, to see how well it's held up.

As for Anthony Andrews, he went from triumph to triumph. 1982 also saw the airing of The Scarlet Pimpernel, based on a novel by Baroness Orczy. Sink me, if I didn't run right out and read that book, too. Anthony Andrews could have sold my 6th-grade self anything. Had the man starred in War and Peace, that novel would not still be languishing on my to-read list.

True fans climb every mountain. After all, what is my upcoming novel The Beresfords except fan fiction, of sorts? I read my first Jane Austen in high school (P&P, of course) and Mansfield Park when I was twenty or so. Nowadays, if you love something, you not only read the book and buy the action figures, you start a fake Twitter account and write spin-offs. It's all good.

I'd love to hear from some of you. Anything inspire you to "read the book" when you were younger? How about more recently?

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

Recently discovered portrait? She only looks 70, tops!

Despite a million things on the to-do list (of which I have only crossed off two), I'm in danger of sinking happily into a Jane Austen binge. Some months ago, a friend and I sold a "Jane Austen Book Club Tea" at a charity auction for the estimable Eastside Academy. And tomorrow morning, on Jane Austen's very 236th birthday (December 16, 1775), the happy purchasers will enjoy:

• tea and scones,
• orange-pomegranate salad, 
• a make-your-own-Regency-hat craft, and 
• a discussion of the ever-beloved Pride and Prejudice. 

What a lovely way to spend a December morning! I suspect not everyone will have found time in this busy season to (re-)read the book, but--for Pete's sake--is there a single literate woman on the planet remaining who hasn't seen the Colin Firth production?

This man loves my scones

I've had Jane Austen on the brain for months, of course, being somewhat hard at work on my Mansfield Parkish novel, but it had been a while since I looked over some of her correspondence. Her letters are homey, funny, delightful. Full of nuggets for both fans and aspiring writers.

Consider this quote, which might very well be a modern author complaining about pirated books and e-lending: "People are more ready to borrow and praise, than to buy -- which I cannot wonder at; but tho' I like praise as well as anybody, I like what Edward calls Pewter too."

Speaking of pewter, Austen reaped L680 from her books during her lifetime, a not insignificant sum for a dependent, unmarried woman. But compare that to Darcy's annual income of L10,000! Yes, clearly Pride and Prejudice's hero was the "subject of schoolgirl fantasy," as Sting would put it.

Elsewhere Austen records that her brother Henry is reading Mansfield Park and "his approbation has not lessened." Moreover he "admires H[enry] Crawford -- I mean properly, as a clever pleasant man." I, too, admire the tricky characters of Henry and Mary Crawford and how fine a line their creator walks between making them delightful and dreadful. So far I have no idea if I'm achieving success with my versions of the Crawfords, but I can hope...

Nice to know too that, apart from drafts of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice composed in her early years, Austen didn't get down to the nitty-gritty of cranking out, polishing and publishing novels until her mid-thirties. And by your mid-thirties in the 19th century you already had one toe in the grave, if not a whole foot. Austen didn't even reach her 42nd birthday, after all. (If you ever needed a reminder that, really, you haven't managed to do much with your life, spend time meditating on what Jesus managed to accomplish by 33 and Jane Austen by 41. Kind of demoralizing.)

Take a brief time-out from the Christmas rush in honor of dear Jane. Curl up with a cup of tea and a chapter from one of her novels. Look up the alternate proposal scene between Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot. Weigh in on the debate over Austen's newly discovered "portrait." Try to picture Emma Stone in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Watch my favorite "about Jane" movie Becoming Jane. (Yeah, it's pretty much made up, but there are some nice touches. Tom LeFroy really was "a very great admirer of Tom Jones" and James McAvoy is lovely playing him.)

Happy birthday to Jane!