How zombies hooked me on Jane Austen – and what I’m doing about it by Evie Cotton

Today’s post is by reader Evie Cotton, whom many of you know through her Reader’s Perspective posts or as the maker of Pride & Prejudice themed soaps. Today she tells us about her new project with her P&P soaps. Welcome back, Evie!  News flash: Evie has added a special pledge level for Austen Variations readers. Pledge $25 to her Kickstarter and receive 2 exclusive Lizzy and Darcy soap sets!

Evie CottonI have a confession to make… Pride and Prejudice was not always my favorite novel; in fact, my favorite wasn’t even a Jane Austen story. I was a die hard Jane Eyre fan since the seventh grade. I skimmed through the JA novels periodically but had the impression that her work was much better on the big screen than the small page. Boy was I wrong!

The first time I heard about Seth Grahame-Smith’s “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”, I was getting ready for my morning, eating a quick breakfast in front of the news. When the newscaster brought out a copy of PP&Z using words like “phenomenon”, “craze” and “disturbingly fun” to describe it, I knew that I had to get my hands on a copy. To my surprise PP&Z had such a long waiting list at the library there was no chance that I would be able to check it out anytime in the next six months. Soooo, off to Amazon I went.

After devouring PP&Z, I checked out my recommendations and to my blissful surprise found that the Pride & Prejudice stories were not finished yet!  Thus, my obsession began. Next on my list was “The Phantom of Pemberley” by Regina Jeffers (Readers, if you are looking for a ghost story, do not get this book. If you are looking for an exceptional read with twists and turns and surprise endings, this is the one for you!). After that I read “The Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice” by Abigail Reynolds, and I found a completely different, modern tale of Pride and Prejudice. It was lusty and delicious, filled with heartache and passion and at the end a happily ever after.

Since that time, I have read over 300 different variations of Pride and Prejudice. Not only are these variations a great diversion, but the Jane Austen community is as strong and diverse as the characters in Jane Austen’s novels. While Jane Austen wrote personalities and character traits so perfectly, she did also leave a little to the imagination. The 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice created Colin Firth devotees the world over but did Mr. Darcy really look like Colin? What about that other Darcy? You know, the one who played opposite Keira Knightly (I’m sure you can guess where my loyalties lie). Whoever your ideal Mr. Darcy is, one thing is certain; while reading our novels we want to be enveloped in the experience.

Through my hand-made soaps, I’ve developed a way for you to experience your beloved characters in a new way. We all know that Lizzy’s signature scent is lavender and Jane’s is rose, but what did Colonel Fitzwilliam smell like? I have an idea. What we know is that he was a military man. He lived with his men, sometimes in a tent on the battlefield. He would have been surrounded with tobacco smoke and English tea but because of his family’s status in the world he would have also had access to some more exotic teas. He is the essence of masculinity. What about Georgie? She wants so much to emulate Elizabeth but she is also a young playful girl so a combination of lavender and citrus seems fitting for her.

lizzy's Lavender

Lizzy’s Lavender soap

I compiled all of the descriptions of Pride and Prejudice’s personalities and created a soap for each character, including Austen Variations’s Theo Darcy. You now have the ability to read your novels and smell Fitzwilliam Darcy in the room with you (in case you were wondering, he smells of sandalwood and lemongrass).

My line of Pride and Prejudice inspired soaps is slowly starting to gain in popularity. They have found their way to England, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil and the US. I have sold them at several conferences and craft fairs as well as maintaining a booth at White’s Farm in Brookville, IN. You can purchase these soaps off of my Etsy page and they’ll be for sale at the JASNA AGM in October (Check out the Edmonton Region’s booth). Next year, I hope to take them to the 8th annual Jane Austen Festival in Louisville, KY. Or you can get them by donating to my Kickstarter.

Now I have a special opportunity to turn this into a real business. I’ve been invited to sell my soaps at the Johnny Appleseed Festival in Ft. Wayne, IN this September. This is an exciting prospect which will provide me with the ability to reach a larger audience and may even provide me with enough income to sustain a permanent store front in my own community. Although it eliminates much of my travel expenses while enabling me to better provide for my family (as Jane herself said in Mansfield Park, “A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of”) it requires more up front money than I currently have on hand.

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Jane Bennet’s Rose soap

At the suggestion of several friends and family members, I decided to try a crowdfunding experience with Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a company that allows people to donate to various projects with the understanding that if the funding goal is not reached within a small amount of time, no money will change hands. This puts me in a tenuous position; I’m running on faith that the wonderful people in my community will come together to help me on my way.  We only have 24 days to raise the funds, so the urgency is very real. Please Please give to my kickstarter. Donors will receive my soaps as well as my thanks!

For more information about me, how I got started making soap, my kickstarter goals and to donate, please visit my Kickstarter page. You can visit the webpage for my business Shirley’s Handicrafts (named after my grandmother) here.

colonel fitzwilliam

20 comments

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    • Debraperrin on July 27, 2014 at 12:15 am
    • Reply

    It’s amazing how fan fiction draws you in isn’t it. I can’t remember what got me hooked, but hooked I am. Good luck with your business

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:41 pm
      • Reply

      Thanks for the well wishes Debra! I hope you have the chance to try out some of these delicious soaps!

  1. Great Blog post, Evie! I adore the P&P soaps I have and wish you every success with your enterprise!

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:39 pm
      • Reply

      Thanks Cassandra. I’m always a mess right before my posts go live, wondering if I sound stupid and wishing I could delete them and start over.

      It really makes me happy to hear so many people tell me how much they love my soaps. Thanks for the encouragement.

  2. It’s lovely how reading JAFF could lead to starting a new business, and such a fragrant one, too. Who would have thought if of zombies? [I love my Theo soap!]

    Wishing you tons of success, Evie!!!

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:37 pm
      • Reply

      I’m so glad you love your Theo! The zombies are an odd beginning, but what a start I have had! Thanks be to zombies for introducing me to this world!

    • Deborah on July 27, 2014 at 8:21 am
    • Reply

    Love your soaps Evie, especially Lizzy & Theo. Enjoyed learning more about you and truly hope you are successful in your endeavor. 🙂

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:35 pm
      • Reply

      Thanks Deborah, Lizzy and Theo are two of my favorites as well.

  3. Love our soaps! Good luck with the kick starter!

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:33 pm
      • Reply

      I’m so glad you love them Maria!

    • Kara Louise on July 27, 2014 at 9:02 am
    • Reply

    Two lovely combinations! Soap and Jane Austen! Good luck on Kickstarter and your endeavor!

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:33 pm
      • Reply

      Thank you Kara! Here’s to hoping there will be many more Jane Austen inspired soaps in my future!

    • Sheila L. M. on July 27, 2014 at 9:19 am
    • Reply

    OK, I’m in – for a worthy cause. Interesting tale. I too loved Jane Eyre from 7th grade, on as it was required summer reading. Didn’t discover JA until Colin Firth hit the screen. I have not read any of the ghosts, zombies nor vampire stories but I have enjoyed the comments between you and Dave on Darcy Brothers. Good Luck

      • Evie Cotton on July 27, 2014 at 1:31 pm
      • Reply

      Thanks for your support Sheila! I also LOVED writing with Dave on Darcy Brothers. There has been such a void since the end of that series. Can’t wait for book two to begin! The void however is being filled more than amply with all these lovely soaps!

    • TLeighF on July 27, 2014 at 10:09 pm
    • Reply

    I haven’t read that zombie one yet, but you make it seem tempting…. Good luck with the Kickstarter campaign!

      • TLeighF on July 27, 2014 at 10:18 pm
      • Reply

      Question for you Evie – are all the pledge gifts (full sized and trial sized) that are offered on your Kickstarter page from the P&P collection? Sometimes you explicitly say what the fragrance will be and other times it is “an assortment” or “bar of soap” but it doesn’t say if those are from that collection or from all the soaps you make. Thanks for the clarification.

      1. Unless it explicitly says trial sized it will always be a full sized bar and to be honest will most likely be a full sized bar anyway. If it doesn’t say that it is a Pride and Prejudice soap then it could be anything however I like taking direction so if you request particular bars I will comply with your wishes. Pretty much I’m easy going and will do whatever is requested. At this point I’m pretty panicked and will sign my life away!

    • Jane Odiwe on July 28, 2014 at 6:30 am
    • Reply

    Congratulations, Evie-wishing you luck and success in all you do!

  4. All the best in your business venture, Evie. I have stopped using soap for some time now but I do appreciate handicraft work like yours.

    I’m sorry I could not be of help because I don’t live in US and the pledge level for shipment outside US is very expensive and more than I could afford after conversion to US dollars. I hope the others might help make your dream a reality.

    1. This is true that shipment out of the US is very expensive. Especially for weighty soaps. I have found that the charges to ship very so greatly that I’m a bit afraid to leave it open for the entire world. Since kickstarter won’t let me be choosy about the counties that I will ship to I had to make the executive decision to either include EVERYONE or no one. Thanks anyway though!

  1. […] How zombies hooked me on Jane Austen – and what I’m doing about it by Evie Cotton […]

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