Writing fiction is a continual learning experience. This month my muse has deluged me with ideas too good to ignore, so instead of my usual two works in progress, I have no less than four. I was going to give you an excerpt from the WIP that I’m trying to focus on, but then my …
Category: Abigail Reynolds
A Visit to the 19th Century
Middlethorpe Hall at dusk I’m travelling through England as I write this, finding inspiration and learning lots of useful information for future books. I now know how to recognize coaching inns, market towns, moors, and much more; I understand better about parsons and parsonages and why Mr. Collins’ first duty was to collect tithes. I …
Ratafia is not for Sissies!
This post is a follow-up on the Jane Austen Happy Hour workshop at last weekend’s RT convention where fellow Austen Authors Karen Doornebos, Marilyn Brant, Sharon Lathan, C. Allyn Pierson and I discussed regency-era alcoholic beverages, complete with taste-testing. I provided ratafia, and since I’d forgotten to bring the recipe cards, I volunteered to post …
Jane Austen in Woods Hole
In my little writing world, I live two different lives: one in Regency England for my Pemberley Variations series and the other on modern-day Cape Cod where my Woods Hole novels, The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice (aka Pemberley by the Sea) and Morning Light, take place. For contemporary novel month, I’m going to …
Changing Views of Pride & Prejudice
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me in Jane Austen’s writing is how many different ways I can view the characters. Developing different sides of a character is part of the fun of writing Austen variations, but I’ve also found that my opinions of the original characters has changed over the years …
Pride, Prejudice, and Coincidence
I’ve been learning some surprising things from rewriting scenes from Pride & Prejudice from a different point of view for the P&P200 project, where a group of us are following the course of Pride & Prejudice in real time exactly 200 years after the events of the book. Here’s one example of something I see …
Peeps & Prejudice
Some years ago a group of Austen fanfiction writers and readers who really ought to remain anonymous gathered in upstate New York at Heather Lynn Rigaud’s house. It was about this time of year, and between watching all the adaptations of Pride & Prejudice, significant silliness occurred. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you …
In the Footsteps of Pride & Prejudice
by Abigail Reynolds Picture: Jane Odiwe, Abigail Reynolds, and Monica Fairview in Regents Park How lucky can a girl get? Last week I unexpectedly found myself with several days to kill in London and Bath, and almost no plans. It was a little strange, I grant you, to have no idea what I was going …
It’s All in the Point of View!
A few days ago I received one of those notorious “edit memos.” That’s when an editor tells the writer everything that’s wrong with her books, sometimes with useful suggestions about what might fix these problems, sometimes with rather vague instructions like, “Tighten it up” or “You need to make this the best book you’ve ever …
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