Happy New Year! 2020 was a very difficult year for everyone, so I think it’s important for us to celebrate the achievement of all the authors who were somehow able to make their way through writing a book (or more than one, as it so happens!). It is no mean feat, I can tell you, …
Category: Joana Starnes
Advent Calendar Day 11 ~ The Christmas Bough
Hello, everyone! Today’s treat is some time under the Christmas Bough. Even in Jane Austen’s time, the Christmas Bough was an old tradition. It had made an appearance in the 14th century as an effigy of the Holy Family surrounded by a couple of hoops festooned with greenery – holy, ivy, mistletoe, bay, rosemary or …
Advent Calendar Day 4 ~ A Festive Dish
Hi! Today’s Advent treats are a brass band, a vignette and a virtual bite of Christmas pudding and the festive dish that went before it. Did you know that the Sunday before last (22 Nov) was Stir-up Sunday? That’s when families (those who still make their own Christmas pudding instead of buying it from the shop) …
Sailing Ships and Nutty Wish-Lists
Hello again! Soo, I’ve been hiding under the bonnet for a while, caught in a tug-of-war between two stories that want to be written: one short and happy, with pretty much all of Elizabeth’s reasons to dislike Mr Darcy cleared at the drop of a hat – and a longer one, where our favourite …
Darcy and Elizabeth: Their Wedding Night, Their Private Haven
For my After the Wedding post, I thought I’d choose Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding night from The Journey Home to Pemberley. If you haven’t read the book yet, you might be surprised to find that, in this scenario, they marry at Pemberley (because that’s where their sweet reunion was: at Pemberley, in Mr Darcy’s private …
A Timely Elopement ~ Audiobook Launch
Good morning! I’m thrilled to announce that the review of my latest audiobook is finally completed, and A Timely Elopement, exquisitely narrated by Stevie Zimmerman, is now available on Audible, Amazon and iTunes. Would you like to listen to the sample? Actually, I’m not just celebrating this release today, but also the ever-so-kind nudge …
Looking Back, Looking Forward ~ People of Colour in Georgian England
As Maria Grace’s and Lucy Marin’s posts have shown, Georgian England was far from a monochromatic tapestry. People from a variety of backgrounds could be found in different walks of life. Among them, several Black Britons stand out – remarkable people who left their mark on the world around them, on the social and cultural …
Austen Variations Recipe Roundup!
Hi, friends! As some of you may know, we’ve been celebrating all things food over the past couple of months here at Austen Variations. With everything that’s going on in the world, it seems like many of us have been turning to cooking and baking for comfort–whether it’s dusting off our favorite recipes, or branching …
A Timely Elopement Launch Day
And… they’re off! The runaways are speeding away from Rosings as we speak, with Mr Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam in hot pursuit. If you’d like to follow them, now I believe you can. I hope that something good comes out of these troubled and distressing times. Stay safe and strong, and see you …
More from ‘A Timely Elopement’
Good morning! Thanks for stopping by last Monday for a peek at my upcoming book. If you missed that post, you can find it here. But in a nutshell, this is the premise: “What if Mr Darcy’s first proposal was interrupted by a bearer of ill tidings? The worst tidings: an elopement! Ah, but whose elopement …
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