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 …
Morals of the Story
I can’t remember now who it was that first asked the question, just that I remember being surprised by it. I was at an author event — a book club, where According to Jane was the novel being discussed — when someone there asked me why I liked Pride and Prejudice so much. At first …
Music and the men of Austen by C. Allyn Pierson
The Piano Lesson by Edmund Blair Leighton Jane Austen’s continued popularity almost 200 years after her death is a testament to the universal themes found in her books, which are as relevant today as they were in Regency England. One of the devices she uses to round out and illustrate her characters is music. In …
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 …
London Calling
For 15 years, I’ve dreamed of getting to return to Europe. I even wrote a whole book (known these days as A Summer in Europe) about a woman spending several weeks there, visiting cities from Rome to London and drinking in the amazing atmosphere of every fabulous site. I wistfully daydreamed my way through the …
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 and Prejudice Bookshelf
Pride and Prejudice Bookshelf Reading and books have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My parents and grandparents read to me all the time. I clearly recall the day, riding in the car, when I first realized I knew what the street signs said! I even remember which street …
On Friendship in the Age of Social Networking
Every once in a while something happens in my day-to-day life – or someone tells me a story about an incident in his or hers – that makes me think about how we develop and maintain friendships. That happened again this past week when I got an email from an old friend. In our modern …
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 …
Recent Comments