Jane in January: Interview with a Janeite—Special Guest Laurie Drinon McClain

Happy January, Janeites!

We had the opportunity to sit down with Laurie Drinon McClain for a little heart to heart about inspirations, Jane Austen, and new beginnings. Her special host this month is Jack Caldwell, and I hope you will be as touched by their chat as I was.

Hello, Laurie! Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I was born in Bangor, Maine, but after my parents divorced when I was five, and my mother apparently having some gypsy blood, she moved my brother and I to Florida, then California, and then Wyoming within a few years’ time. After marrying an Air Force Sergeant with four children of his own, they had another son together, and we were stationed in Japan for about three years until I was 13. They split up over there, so mom moved her three kids to Colorado for a couple of years. Unfortunately, her alcoholism was taking firm hold by then and she deserted us children when I was just shy of fifteen, and moved to Omaha with another Air Force Sergeant she had met in a bar. I had no idea what happened to her until I turned 18, but always hoped she was at least still alive and I would see her again someday. Our stepfather was now back from Japan himself, so he moved us kids down to Austin with the rest of the family and that is where I attended high school. Unfortunately, I inherited Mom’s addictive personality, and I spent the years from approximately 16 to 21 often in a drugged and drunken haze. I consider it a true miracle that I survived those years at all, and that I managed to get good grades in high school, mainly because I loved learning, even while suffering from a hangover.

When I was 18, mom used the Worldwide Locator Service and found out where the family was living. That same year, I found my father in Bangor by remembering that mom said he’d been a fireman, and writing the fire chief in Bangor to inquire if he knew where my father might be. He gave the letter to Dad, who was still a fireman working under him, and he wrote me immediately, not having known my whereabouts in many years. Both parents invited me to come visit them the summer after I graduated high school, mom in Topeka where she now resided with yet another baby son, and Dad in Bangor with his wife and their son, another half brother. I wound up taking the bus to Colorado Springs first to visit all my old friends, another bus to see Mom in KS for a few weeks, then flew to Bangor to spend the rest of the summer with Dad’s family. I think that was the best summer of my entire life as I loved Bangor beyond measure, I felt carefree and secure in the love of this “new” family, and my older brother Danny joined us up there. We just had a wonderful time meeting cousins, aunts, uncles, and grand parents, hanging out at Pushaw Lake during the week and going to concerts and the State Fair in Bangor on weekends. It was the only time during my five year “wild child” phase that I didn’t yearn to be on a mind altering substance every night.

At the end of that summer (1970) I moved to Topeka for a year, then Austen again for a couple of years, then back to Topeka because I hated the Texas heat. By this time I was 20 and fell in love with a boy and moved to Tucson with him and some other friends. We had some fun party times, and the weather was certainly gorgeous that winter and the scenery superb, but overall it was not a good experience, thanks to the drugs I was using and some trouble I got into. I wound up back in Topeka for a third time, yearning for some stability to my life. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but I actually had a “street corner” conversion in which a long haired man led me to accepting Christ as my Savior in 1970, but it wasn’t until 1974 in Topeka that I really came to know Him in a meaningful way. I was sick of the way I was living, my health was so bad I could barely hold down a job, and relationships had tanked due to the type of people I was hanging around with and the party life style. We all needed God to straighten us out, and a few of us actually had that experience, thanks to my brother Danny and his friend Davy, who quit playing in their successful rock band when they had had their own conversions. We started having Bible studies at each other’s houses, and going to church together in a van we had painted up in big letters saying, Jesus Saves and John 3:16, etc. It was a fun year or two, and we held each other accountable to stay off the drugs and close to the Lord.

In 1976 several of us moved to Kansas City to go to a Bible College we had heard good things about, and all wound up marrying people we met there and living in different parts of the country, but we still keep in touch. I stayed right here as my husband was from Kansas City. My life has been pretty solid and non-eventful since then, except for a divorce in 2002 and a bout with cancer in 2016. My husband was a spelunker and decided to go live in the sinkhole of a cave on his buddy’s property in Arkansas. No phone, no running water, no electricity. I declined, and nobody blamed me, not even his family. The events of September 11, 2001 seemed to completely unhinge him, but he still lives there to this day.

Books, movies, or otherwise, when did you first discover Jane Austen?

I tried reading Pride and Prejudice as a sophomore in high school after having it highly recommended to me by friends. I read the first chapter and thought, “ugh, I can’t read this stuff.” I hated the stilted language and the whole vibe of the book and didn’t finish it, apparently considering myself too cool for such old-fashioned reading. I loved other classics, though, like Dickens and the Brontes and GWTW, and even things like In Cold Blood which I read as a young teenager when it was first released. When I got married at 25, and my husband wanted me to stay home and not work for awhile, I found in a library book a list of 100 must-read classics to work my way through, and P&P was somewhere on this list. I decided to give it another chance as I was 10 years older and much wiser, and lo and behold, I thought it was the most brilliant book I had ever read! I read the rest of Ms. Austen’s books in short order, then discovered there were a few sequels out there as well, and read every one I could find in the library system.

Can you think of a particularly favorite scene in any of Jane Austen‘s books or the movie adaptations? What is it about that scene that touches you?

The scene in Sense and Sensibility where Edward finally comes to declare his love for Elinor gets me every time, whether in the book or the movies. Emma Thompson and Hattie Morahan as Elinor, and Dan Stevens and Hugh Grant as Edward, all did wonderful jobs in those scenes, in my opinion.

What brought you into the world of Jane Austen fan-fiction?

The first one I read was New Friends and Old Fancies, which was written about 100 years ago now, I think. Over the decades I found many others in the library, and bought a few on Amazon, but they were so pricey I couldn’t afford to purchase many. It wasn’t until my dear friend Pam Hunter, whom I met on a pop singer’s fan board of all places, told me that she loved the variations as well and I joined the JAFF groups, that I got to read these variations to my heart’s desire. I had just been diagnosed with cancer, and Pam told the group about me, and many of the authors donated their books to me to read on my Kindle during my week-long hospital stays every months. And since then I have purchased many others for the reasonable prices our dear authors sell them for, and taking advantage of freebies and $.99 sales as well. I’m sure I must own at least 300 variations by now, and will probably never get them all read in this lifetime! Such an abundance of riches! I also own every movie version of JA ever released, and pull them out to watch frequently.

Jane Austen had to be careful and delicate as she wrote, because as a woman writing in Regency times her reputation was rather fragile. However, she seems to express her opinions on people and her worldview between the lines. What have you noticed about her writing that stands out to you?

I think she did an amazing job of describing some of the seamier side of life without having to go into all the gory details like writers do today. I appreciate her wit and sarcasm also as she gets her point across without ever getting really nasty. In my opinion she is the best writer that ever lived, as never before nor since have so many been so enthralled with another author’s characters to write thousands of variations and sequels, and so many readers to love them and clamor for more.

Just for fun, pick one or two of Jane Austen’s characters and give them some new years resolutions. (Collins could resolve to talk less… nah, he would never!)

Mrs. Norris resolves to stop being so vicious to Fanny Price, and to stop being such a nosy, managing busybody.

Kitty Bennet resolves to have just one rational thought so that her papa will finally take her to a revue.

This month we have been celebrating Jane Austen and inspiration. What inspires your heart?

Honestly, the Bible inspires my heart more than anything else in my life. It is good, pure, holy and inspirational. It makes me want to be what God wishes me to be, more like Him.

How do you take your variations? Spicy or sweet, Angsty or smooth, regency or re-imagination?

I pretty much like them any way I can get them, with one exception. I don’t care for the more pornographic ones though I did try one once, and it was very well done. However, I had a bit of a guilty conscience afterward and never read another.

Is there anything you would like to see more of here on the Austen Variations blog?

Can’t think of a thing. You seem to have it covered!

And now, Laurie turns the tables on Jack!

1. Why JAFF?

Thanks for asking, Laurie. All my work is influenced by Miss Austen, but I write a combination of Historical Fiction and JA Fiction. I use Miss Austen to write about history because she lived in an interesting time: the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, the Regency, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Also, her characters are so very real, they are a shortcut into my plots.

2. Have you written other types of books?

Not yet. My western, PEMBERLEY RANCH, is a retelling of P&P. Even my Louisiana series, CRESCENT CITY, has elements of JA in them. Future CRESCENT CITY books will be further away from JA, though.

3. How many books have you written?

To date, I have nine published novels, two traditionally and seven self-published under the White Soup Press label.

4. When will ROSINGS PARK come out?

A timely question, Laurie! I have just completed the first draft of ROSINGS PARK. This puppy is over 118,000 words; that translates to 410 published pages. We now start the editing process. Depending on what gets cut, this book may be the longest single novel I’ve released to date.

Meanwhile, I’m also working on finishing PERSUADED TO SAIL, the 3rd book in my JANE AUSTEN’S FIGHTING MEN series. It’s a companion novel to THE THREE COLONELS (Book 1) and THE LAST ADVENTURE OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (Book 2).

5. Hold on a second. What is a “companion novel”?

“Companion Novel” is a term I’ve coined to describe a series of novels that are interconnected and happen at about the same time, but the plots are independent and can be read separately.

For example, THE THREE COLONELS is a sequel to P&P and S&S and features characters from those books. THE LAST ADVENTURE OF THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, a mash-up of Northanger Abbey and The Scarlet Pimpernel, stars Captain Tilney, who is friends with Colonel Buford, Colonel Brandon, and Major Denny from THE THREE COLONELS. PERSUADED TO SAIL, a sequel to Persuasion, features characters from S&S and Mansfield Park. The events in all three novels occur during the Hundred Days Crisis of 1815—when Napoleon escaped from exile on Elba, forcing Britain back to war, and ended near a little town called Waterloo.

ROSINGS PARK (Book 4) is the grand sequel to these three novels, set in the late Regency, focusing mainly on THE THREE COLONELS.

6. Does your wife enjoy JAFF as much as you do?

Yep. In fact, she is one of my editors, a lovely batch of ladies called The Beta Babes.

Laurie has been a rabid Jane Austen addict for over 40 years now. Originally from Bangor, Maine, she has been a resident of the Kansas City area since she moved there for Bible College in 1976. . Once an avid walker, weight trainer and aerobics class aficionado, she has had to curtail most physical activity in the past year due to health issues. Now she mostly works on redecorating her apartment, watching good movies and series, listening to true crime podcasts (particularly wrongful conviction stories), playing trivia games online and reading (mostly Austen variations).

Jack Caldwell is an author, amateur historian, professional economic developer, playwright, and like many Cajuns, a darn good cook. Born and raised in the Bayou County of Louisiana, Jack and his wife, Barbara, are Hurricane Katrina victims, and now make the upper Midwest their home. Always a history buff, Jack found and fell in love with Jane Austen in his twenties, struck by her innate understanding of the human condition.

Jack uses his work to share his knowledge of history. Through his characters, he hopes the reader gains a better understanding of what went on before, developing an appreciation for our ancestors’ trials and tribulations. A devout convert to Roman Catholicism, Jack is married with three grown sons.