Shannon Winslow claims she was minding her own business – raising two sons and pursuing a very sensible career – when an ordinary trip to Costco about a dozen years ago changed her life. That was the day a copy of the ’95 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice fairly leapt off the shelf and into her oversized shopping cart. After watching the mini-series, Shannon was hopelessly hooked on the story, Colin Firth’s Darcy, and all things Jane Austen. One may guess what followed – compulsive reading, late-night trips to the library and video store, secret rendezvous with Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley. Finally, only one thing remained. Her dedication (or obsession, as it could more rightly be described) ultimately inspired her to begin writing her own stories a la Austen.

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Author's posts

Cover Reveal for “Murder at Northanger Abbey” by Shannon Winslow

TA DA! Here it is: Murder at Northanger Abbey. Isn’t the cover luscious? And what fun I had writing this book! I’d never written a murder mystery before, but that seemed the only choice for a sequel to Northanger Abbey. So I went for it, taking an unconventional approach. You see, unlike most writers of the …

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Double Dessert – or – What to Do With a Dozen Eggs

Welcome to May! Everybody hoped we’d be past this pandemic by now, but that’s not the case for most of us. We’re still living a “new normal” – missing some things we’ve lost, at least temporarily, but learning to rediscover enjoyment in others, especially in simple things like family time, reading a good book (of …

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A Proposal Scene by Shannon Winslow

I thought at first that a theme like “proposals,” would be easy. After all, there’s at least one proposal in all my books, just as in Jane Austen’s. Right? And if I wrote P&P variations, there would be no difficulty (or mystery). The proposals would be between Darcy and Elizabeth and we would all know …

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The Power of a Well-Written Austen Letter

  “Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.” Okay, so this line isn’t strictly a Jane Austen quote… but it certainly could have been. She must have subscribed to this policy (as I do) because she often allowed her characters to explain themselves and express their innermost feelings in letter form. Case in point: …

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Bonus Leap into Love

I already did one post on this month’s theme, but I just couldn’t let LEAP into LOVE slip by without tying it to my novel LEAP of HOPE. The two were practically made for each other. The colors even match! Besides, February 29th is kind of a bonus day, so I figured it deserved a bonus …

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Leap into Love – D&E Excerpt by Shannon Winslow

With Valentine’s Day, love is in the air. And it’s a Leap Year besides! So we’re celebrating all this month with romantic excerpts and special giveaways! Today it’s my turn, and I have a romantic ‘Darcy and Elizabeth’ chapter from The Darcys of Pemberley, my first (and still most popular) novel.  Even if you’ve read …

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Sanditon Group Read: Fabulous Followup!

Although most of us have only seen the combined episodes 1 & 2 of Sanditon so far, that’s all we need to go ahead with our Followup. These Sanditon Group Read posts have focused on Jane Austen’s 12 chapters, and the show has already breezed through that material. Swish! If you nodded off for a …

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Sanditon Group Read: Chapters 10 – 12

It’s time to look at the last section of Jane Austen’s final, incomplete novel: Sanditon. (If you’re just joining the Group Read today, you may want to review the Introduction here and Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here to get caught up.) Chapter 10 I had just been wondering what was really going on …

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12 Days of Christmas, Day 10, & Sanditon Group Read: Chapters 7 – 9

I trust you’ve been enjoying our 12-Days-of-Christmas posts with all the excellent giveaways! Here’s day 10, followed by the next installment of the Sanditon Group Read. You may have taken down your tree and moved on. But it’s still Christmas here at Austen Variations! We’re up to day ten, marked in the song by TEN …

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12 Days of Christmas, Day 3, & Sanditon Group Read: Chapters 4-6

  As you can see from the title of this post, I’m doing double duty here today! We’ll get to our Sanditon discussion in a moment, but let’s talk Christmas first! In the famous old song, the third day gift is (sing it with me) “…three French hens…” But I’m not sure what the Austen …

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