Category: Diana Birchall

Adventures at the AGM, Part 2

As Shannon Winslow said yesterday, in her delightful post about her own adventures at the JASNA AGM in Victoria, B.C.: “Frequent attendees say that every AGM has its own personality and flavor, and there will be something uniquely special about each one.”  I am nothing if not a frequent attendee, having attended my first Annual …

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Finery and Folly: a Lydia Story by Diana Birchall

“When Lydia went away, she promised to write very often and very minutely to her mother and Kitty; but her letters were always long expected, and always very short. Those to her mother contained little else than that they were just returned from the library, where such and such officers had attended them, and where …

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Flights of Fancy in Jane Austen by Diana Birchall

“Flights of Fancy” is our theme this month, so let us take a flight into seeing how Jane Austen used the concept of fancy in her novels. The meaning of the word itself is not so much changed since her day as many words are; we might still say that we fancy something (or someone!) …

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Any Excuse Will Do – or, Procrastination

Come to think of it, Procrastination is not a bad title for a pseudo Jane Austen novel, is it? Starting a fashion for one word titles with her own Persuasion, Jane Austen also wrote to her niece Anna, approving of the one-word title of her work in progress, Enthusiasm. She wrote, “Enthusiasm is such an …

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A Double Cameo for Ukraine by Diana Birchall

  In our Austen Variations fundraiser for Ukraine, our authors offered cameos in their forthcoming novels in exchange for donations to the cause. My first cameo was written for donor Michelle d’Arcy (a most fortuitous name to work with!), to be included in my next novel The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice, and it …

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JAFF Loves Ukraine update

Wow! Our Austenesque community is so amazing!!! Between 35 authors and hundreds of readers, we’ve already raised over $7000  $8000 $9000 for humanitarian aid to Ukraine on our original fundraiser post! Give yourselves a big hand! But the need is far too great to rest on our laurels, so our authors have pulled out even …

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JAFF Loves Ukraine Fundraiser

New: There’s a new post with updates! Like most of the world,  we’ve been feeling heart-heavy over the tragedy in Ukraine, even more so as Elizabeth Adams, one of our authors, lived in Ukraine and is married to a Ukrainian.  We want to do what we can to help out, so we’re turning to you, …

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Jane Austen Unmasked – Diana Birchall

I’ve been thinking about returning to a story I posted here, and  finally finishing it – there’s a novel concept for you! Some may remember it as “The Darcys and Lord Byron in Venice,” and I posted twelve episodes sporadically over a year and a half, with the first episode on December 30, 2017, and …

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Joking with Jane in January, Part Two, by Diana Birchall

There is always something to learn from Jane Austen. Even when you sit down to write a light piece picking out some of your favorites among her infinite jests, you notice things you never saw before, and come to new observations, new conclusions. Last week, when I divided her books into the first three last …

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2021 Deck the Shelves in the Closet Book Sale

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! The Holiday season is in full swing. We’ve finished Thanksgiving (in the US) and Chanukkah, and Christmas Day is here. Our halls are decked and presents opened. How about something for those gift cards to tide you over in your quiet hours as you await New Year’s Day 2022? Like a great …

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