Friday Interviews-Austen Admirers-An Interview with Angie Kroll

Today we interview the developer of the new Austen Admirers App, now out for your tablets and phones. A place to get all the latest news of those writing in the Austen sub genre or Regency genre. (Such as I)

So tell us a little bit about Angie and Austen first. How did you come to Jane Austen. What keeps you invovled.

Last year for Mother’s Day, my then 8 year-old daughter, Joey, had a school assignment where she had to describe her mom. She drew an indian chief. Underneath of her drawing she wrote, ‘My mom is an indian chief because she has ideas, and she likes to be in charge.’ I thought I was going to die laughing. Never before have I been described so well, so succinctly.

Liking Austen turned into devotion after my total hysterectomy in November 2009. Adjusting to the loss of hormones felt like I had become manic-depressive. While recovering from surgery, I watched ‘Lost in Austen’ on Netflix. For 3 hours, I forgot about any pain and was absorbed in the story. Soon after, I discovered JAFF (Jane Austen Fan Fiction) authors in my local library.

2) Now tell us a little about the project. What made you decide that we all needed this excellent work, and why you wanted to do it.

This brings me back to ANOTHER surgery. Last year at this time, I had an MRI done that showed two herniated discs and bone spurs in my neck. Sitting at a computer was excruciating. I could still hold my iPad for a time, but got very tired searching for JAFF blog posts. I wanted something that could do it for me. Since I have some web/graphic design/app experience, I decided to try.

The first thing I did was to estimate the cost of getting it built – since this would be a mobile app, there are high hosting charges versus a normal website’s hosting charges. I know that I couldn’t float it alone. The next thing I did was a small amount of market research with JAFF bloggers and authors. Would they be willing to pay a subscription fee a year? What was reasonable?

One of the most surprising things I have learned since reading JAFF is how little most authors make. A subscription based system wouldn’t fly. The next option was Kickstarter. The risk was that I knew I would have to do a tremendous amount of work, including building a scaled-down version of the app ahead of time, with no guarantee that it would all be for naught. Thankfully, the JAFF community has been so supportive!

3) So A new person with just a little bit of an Austen Fandom awakening finds the APP, what do you think they will do with it, or get from it?

It’s hard to describe what a new person to JAFF will think about it. I modeled the app to the needs of the biggest JAFF fan I know – me. There are many things I ‘geek’ out over, but the ‘geeking’ always takes the same course. Give me the posts, authors, and blogs immediately, and in the easiest way possible. I’m hoping that other new JAFF fans will enjoy discovering new stories and authors just as much as I have!

4) And now, where do you think we will be with Austen Admirers a year from now? What new additions do you envision adding to it?

After the implementation of the new API, the first thing I want to do is to be able to put it into Kindle and Windows stores. After that, I’ll add a twitter feed tab. This fall, I’ll dive into some code to see if I can teach myself how to star blog posts and save them offline. The influence of a 200 year-old author continues to inspire this indian chief!

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Karen Aminadra Interview-Rosings

Today I am joined on The Things That Catch My Eye by Karen Aminadra.

Karen has just released her Rosings.

Our regular posts will return, but now, our interview:

Today we are fortunate to have with us Karen Aminadra who writes in Historical Fiction genres. Though we want to hear of her historical work in the Regency.

1)What moved you to become an author?

I’ve always made up little stories and had a very fertile imagination. Even as a child, I found it extremely easy to invent worlds, or new identities and write little stories. I also inherited a love of books and reading from my father. I especially love historical novels as they spark my imagination more than contemporary fiction. I suppose that being an author is the natural ‘grown up’ progression of who I was as a child.

2) Tell us about your current novel.

I’ve just finished and published the second in my Pride and Prejudice series – Rosings. In my series, I take the secondary or lesser characters and write about what might have happened next. I always do that when I read too. I love the main characters and how it all turns out, but I cannot stop my mind from asking what happened to so-and-so? Rosings is about Anne de Bourgh and obviously, her mother Lady Catherine from Jane Austen’s much loved book – Pride and Prejudice.

3) How did the story begin to develop in your mind?

Firstly, I’ve always wondered if Anne was really sickly, or is she just down-trodden from having such an overbearing mother. Secondly, the premise for the book was sparked off by something that I had Lady Catherine say in book one of the series – Charlotte. She said that after being let down by Mr Darcy with regards to him marrying Anne, that she’d have to invite a party of gentlemen to stay for Anne to choose a husband from. As you can imagine, that’s not the best way to gain a husband.

4) What did you find most challenging about this book?

Overcoming Lady Catherine’s stubbornness was the hardest thing to do. No matter what Anne and I wanted to do, Lady Catherine had other ideas. She is a difficult woman, you know. So, I had to give her a good healthy dose of reality. You’ll have to read the book to see if it did the trick.

5) How did you choose your publishing method?

I am a hybrid author – I have signed with a small press publishing company recently, but with my Pride and Prejudice series, I wanted to keep self-published. This is because of some excellent advice I received from some other Austen authors out there. Jane Austen Fiction as it’s called, has quite a niche audience and although it sells and JAF readers have voracious appetites, most publishing houses just aren’t interested I am afraid. For me, self-publishing works well. I like the flexibility involved.

6) Tell us a little about yourself?

Well, I’m English and I can usually be found with my head in the clouds and muttering inanely to myself. I mostly reside in my writing cave, but I am occasionally permitted to come out to eat. I’ve travelled to and lived in many countries, not just in my imagination. Although today, with my feet firmly back in England, I travel the world, the universe and in time through my novels only.

7) What is your next work, and beyond that, what do you want to work on.

Right now, I am working on a contemporary novel that sprung into my head last summer. It’s been nagging me for attention so I have knuckled down and I am about one third of the way through it. After that, I intend to write a novel set during the Scottish war of independence.

8) In the current work, is there an excerpt to share?

This is one of my favorite scenes from Rosings as it shows Lady Catherine to be quite human and prone to being a ninny from time to time, just like the rest of us mere mortals.

Meanwhile, Lady Catherine had other things on her mind. She was surprised to learn of the recovery of Mr Collins and, even more so, the news that he was to vacate his position at Hunsford in favor of the living offered to him by Mr Darcy at Pemberley in Derbyshire. Lady Catherine felt her nerves become frayed more than ever by the news. She was sure that Mr Collins would die, and the sight of him walking into the drawing room at Rosings that morning and being presented made her feel quite faint. Lady Catherine tried to pull herself together; however, she was convinced that she was seeing an apparition and that the ghost of Mr Collins had come to haunt her. Her screams and cries for help brought Anne and Mrs Jenkinson scurrying in from the music room, where Anne was covertly being taught to play.

“Mama, what is it? What has happened?” Anne cried, her annoyance with her mother momentarily forgotten.

Lady Catherine could only manage to whimper and screech whilst pointing her finger at Mr Collins, who was hopping from foot to foot in his distress.

“My dear Lady Catherine, please do forgive me if I have caused you any distress by my presence in your gracious home this morning,” Mr Collins pleaded. He looked up at Anne. “I cannot imagine what I have done to effect such a change in your mother.”

It seemed the more Mr Collins spoke, the more Lady Catherine grew distressed, and so it was deemed better for him to remain out of her line of sight until she recovered. After being brought her smelling salts and drinking a cup of tea laced with brandy – for medicinal purposes, they assured her – Lady Catherine was finally able to gather and calm herself.

Anne remained by her mother’s side and whispered, “Mother, what happened?”

Lady Catherine looked at her daughter, wide-eyed, and whispered back, “I thought he was dead!”

“Mr Collins? You thought him an apparition?” Lady Catherine looked at Anne incredulously. Anne was stifling a giggle and that enraged her.

Her Ladyship took in a sharp breath through her nose and straightened up in the chair. Now that she thought about it, the notion was beyond ridiculous and she looked very foolish. “Do not mock me, child!” she snapped.

“Well, I see you are returned to your old self. I shall leave you to it,” Anne snapped, stood, and left the room without a rearward glance.

Lady Catherine barely noticed her daughter leave, or what she said in parting. She was staring fixedly, and with suspicion, at Mr Collins, who was nervously playing with the rim of his hat. She watched him creep towards her.

“Your Ladyship, I do apologize for distressing you so. If I had known that my presence here would have discomfited you, I would have sent a note ahead of me.” He simpered reassuringly.

Lady Catherine found her voice at last. “I am pleased, Mr Collins, to see you recovered. We were concerned that you would not be long for this world.”

“Thank you, Your Ladyship. I believe it was touch-and-go there for a while, however, I…”

Lady Catherine waved her hand and stopped him in mid sentence. “Yes, yes! But what vexes me is why my nephew and his wife were at the parsonage with you, and in your bedchamber, of all places!” She took another sip of her tea to calm her frayed nerves.

Mr Collins drew himself up to his full height. “That is what I have come to speak to you about, Your Ladyship.”

9) Who do you think influenced your writing, this work, and who do you think you write like?

Of course I have to say Jane Austen inspires me, as does Charles Dickens, the Bronte’s and Elizabeth Gaskell. However, if I wanted to mention people in my life who have influenced me then I’d have to credit, my dad, granny and mother-in-law. All three of them introduced me to books that I otherwise might not have been able to get my hands on. It’s because of them that I am the bookworm I am today. As to whom I write like, I cannot answer that, I really don’t know. What do you think?

10) Who do you read?

Of course I read the classics as I mentioned in the last question, they are my favorites. However, I am a huge supporter of independent, self-published authors. I believe that there is a lot of talent out there and I love to read those books and discover new authors too.

11) When writing, what is your routine?

I have to have silence, that is hard for my poor husband. I think that he always needs to talk to me once I start writing. Haha. What I usually do is make myself a very large cup of tea. While I am making it, I set my mind to work. I travel back in time and to the scene that I am writing. I play it out in my head and sometimes even act out the dialogue. Goodness knows what my neighbors think of me! For me that’s how I get into my ‘zone’. If I don’t do this routine or if I’m disturbed, then it’s gone – the muse is a fragile thing.

12) Do you think of yourself as an artist, or as a craftsman, a blend of both?

I don’t think I think of myself as either, but I like the thought though. I’ve only been published for a year and I still find it hard to get my head around the idea that I am a published, internationally selling author. Sometimes that seems like such a pompous title to attach to oneself. However, I do call myself creative and a storyteller. So, in answer to your question, I guess that I am a creative and imaginative story-craftswoman.

13) Where should we look for your work.

Amazon US for your kindle -Rosings

Amazon UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CM4QZ4W

Amazon Canada – http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00CM4QZ4W

Xinxii – http://www.xinxii.com/en/rosings-p-343468.html

You can connect with me on twitter @kaminadra, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/karenaminadra and of course, through her blog http://kaminadra.blogspot.co.uk/

Rosings is currently available for your Kindle at Amazon

Rosings

Trapped and cloistered in her own home.

Anne de Bourgh, wealthy heiress daughter of the inimitable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, yearns to be set free from her luxurious prison, Rosings Park.

Her life stretches out before her, ordered and planned, but it is a life she does not want. She wants more. She wants to be free. She wants to do everything that has been forbidden her, and she wants more than anything to fall in love with whom she chooses.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh has other plans for Anne.

Will Lady Catherine have her own way as always?

Will Anne succeed?

Can she break through the barriers of wealth, rank and duty?

From the award-winning author of Charlotte ~ Pride & Prejudice Continues and Relative Deceit comes ROSINGS ~ Pride & Prejudice Continues Book Two!

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RAP looking for Cover and Interior artists-Can you draw like CE Brock?

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

a

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RAP looking for Cover and Interior artists-Can you draw like CE Brock?

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

a

Read Full Post »

RAP looking for Cover and Interior artists-Can you draw like CE Brock?

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

Read Full Post »

RAP looking for Cover and Interior artists-Can you draw like CE Brock?

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

Read Full Post »

RAP looking for Cover and Interior artists-Can you draw like CE Brock?

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

Read Full Post »

RAP looking for Cover and Interior artists-Can you draw like CE Brock?

Having finished editing another of our fantasy books, I have started to lean to the idea that perhaps a professional artist might be better than my own renditions, of Trolls, warriors and Dragons.

If anyone knows of someone who would like to discuss designing a cover for RAP, please get in contact with us.

Otherwise we may end up with this

For our many other works, one of the things we would like to see is having pen & ink or pencil illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. Can you draw like CE Brock? He did amazing work for the books and stories of Jane Austen in the early 1900s.

Read Full Post »

Maria Grace Interview-All the Appearance of Goodness

Today I am joined on The Things That Catch My Eye by Maria Grace.

Maria has just released her All the Appearance of Goodness.

Our regular posts will return, but now, our interview:

Thanks for hosting me David. I’m more used to interviewing authors and its fun to have the shoe on the other foot.

What moved you to become an author?

It’s not something I ever really decided, I think. Like most things in my life, I kinds of walked into it and looked around and realized it was happening.

I have been writing and making up stories as long as I can remember. But, on reflection, I think my third grade teacher had the biggest influence on me. We had just moved into the school district and I was the new kid in class. I wrote my first poem and short story about that time and showed them to her. She encouraged me to continue writing and even helped me to format some of my pencil scrawl correctly. So I just kept at it from there.

In middle school I wrote a short story anthology and two novels that I shared with friends. They were enthusiastic about them. In high school I added another standalone novel and a six book series to the mix, again written mostly for the entertainment of my friends. So, I suppose my friends who read those early efforts also had a big influence as well. I still have those old scribbles, hidden in a box in my office, they remind me I’m just getting back to one of my first loves.

Tell us about your novels.

My latest novel is the third in a series of Jane Austen inspired novels. I have two additional manuscripts in this genre sitting in the drawer waiting to be edited.

My novels are unique in that I like to explore the ‘what if’ aspects of the characters. In my current series, I explore what might have happened if a mentor had been present to influence the main character’s lives. Would there still have been a story to tell? In this case, the answer was happily, yes.

Though I have borrowed Jane Austen’s characters, their new situations makes for a very different story. I strive to keep true to her character’s personalities while exploring how they might have realistically been different due to changed circumstances.

I have several other projects in various states of completion. One day I was at the gym lifting weights with my sons—always fodder for creativity—and the thought winged by ‘what would the social structure and culture of Regency England look like in an advanced/space faring technological society? True, it was an odd thought for the gym, but, it gave birth to a trilogy that is also sitting in the drawer waiting for the attentions of a developmental editor later this month.

My academic training is in sociology, psychology and education more than straight history, so I love to explore the person in the context of their society both in the large sense of a nation and the smaller sense of a community. That’s where I tend to find my plots.

How did the story begin to develop in your mind?

In the series I just published, the inspiration was very personal. I found myself caught in the midst of a situation where someone, actually several people, who knew how to behave better and should have, but did not. I ended up being the brunt of their ‘stuff’. It was exceedingly painful and left me with a lot of junk to work through.

Around that time, I reread Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the line “as a child, I was given good principles, but left to follow them in vanity and conceit” jumped out at me. At the time it described what I had been on the receiving end so well I could hardly believe it. That got me thinking, what would have happened, both in my situation and in Jane Austen’s, if people would have followed their ‘good principles’ and how that might have happened. One thought led to another and a series was born.

The real key to all of this was trying to figure out how it might have happened realistically, with people you would want to be with, not simply a ‘know it all’ who shows up and tells everyone what to do. Thus my character, the curate and later vicar, Mr. Bradley was born. He gives very few answers to the characters, but he challenges them with his own hard-won insights and then allows them to wrestle with their choices. Sometimes, the characters stomp off in a huff, sometimes, they get quite upset that he will not give them a straight answer, but always they are offered the opportunity to grow.

What did you find most challenging about this book?

Without a doubt, the most challenging part of the process for me is the editing and proofreading stages. Doing the research and putting together the basic story is the easy and fun part for me. Polishing it and making it beautiful is hard.

Part of the challenge is that there are so many levels of the process. Once the story is roughed out, the developmental editing process insures that the story hits all the right notes in the right places and that the characters are active participants, not just passive players that things happen to. Pacing and subplots have to be balanced to fill out the story enough so it is satisfying, but not bloated.

Elements of developmental editing can actually be fun and creative, but the line edits and proofing, for me are as challenging as piping the icing on a wedding cake—which I have actually done. In cake decorating, every stroke, every dot, every line has to be perfect both on its own and in relation to everything else on the cake. In the same way, each paragraph, each sentence, each word, each comma has to be right and when there are eighty thousand of them to review individually and in relation to one another, the process is pretty daunting.
How did you choose your publishing method?

After considerable study of the industry, I chose to self-publish. Being a closet control freak, I balked as the lack of control many publishing houses offer authors. I just could not bring myself to turn my ‘babies’ over to someone else. I liked the control and flexibility offered by doing it myself, though it has meant over a year of very intensive study, not just on research for the books, but on everything from graphic design and learning to use photoshop to copyrights and estate planning. I do not regret a moment of it though.

Now I am with a small publishing imprint, White Soup Press. I love it because it offers all the control of self-publishing while giving me a small community of expertise and support from which to draw in the process.
Tell us a little about yourself?

I have always done things in an odd and round-about sort of way. My parents convinced me from early on that I was supposed to be an engineer. That lasted one semester in college before I realized that while I could do it, it would drive me crazy. I ended up with a quadruple major (yes really and in four years) of economics/sociology/managerial studies/behavioral sciences. From there I did a master’s degree in counseling and a doctorate in education psychology. All the while I took nary an English nor a history course, having placed out of them one way or another. Perfect fodder for being an author of historical fiction—right?

I ended up marrying an engineer and producing three strapping sons who are also destined to be engineers. Said strapping sons have dragged me kicking and screaming into their activities, which among other things, led to me earning two black belts along the way. Surprisingly, these have been pretty useful in relation to writing as I can block out a terrific fight scene!

All in all, I think these experiences give me a singular basis from which to write. I have a distinctive perspective on culture and what makes people tick and why. Living with so much testosterone give me some insight into my male characters and I regularly check with my resident experts to make sure my male ‘voices’ are accurate and authentic. All of this together gives my work a unique voice and perspective—and a bit of quirky humor that is some fun along the way.

What is your next work, and beyond that, what do you want to work on.

I have several directions for a ‘next’ work really. I have an Austenesque manuscript in the drawer screaming for editing time. It features a physically disabled character whose condition is the basis of the ‘what-if’. I love that story and want to get it out. But then my Regency-cum-sci-fi trilogy is also begging for attention. In another stack, I have a novella calling out to me that is the bridge to a new, original Regency series that will focus on the people of a parish between two smallish towns. So I’m not entirely certain which one will be calling the loudest.
Who do you think influenced your writing, this work, and who do you think you write like.

I think everyone I have ever read has influenced my writing though I try to be true to my own voice and write like me. People have compared my writing to Asimov, Orson Scott Card and Jane Austen, which is about as desperate a group as you could name. I honestly do not know what to make of that.
When writing, what is your routine for the day, for crafting a scene, for the entire cycle of first work to published copy?

I usually start my day with dealing with the ‘business’ side of things, correspondence, blog, marketing and other chores. About mid-morning I get to the fun stuff.

My favorite part of the process is rough drafting everything. I often strap on my running shoes and it the trails and just let my characters loose in my head. Running has a meditative quality to me and I can really set creativity free then. When I come back, I’ll clean up and either hit the keyboard or grab my pen and paper and let the characters speak. Once they have had their turn, I need to clean up the mess they leave behind. And they are a messy lot.

They leave it to me to rewrite their conversations into properly constructed scenes with goals, conflict and motivation, with properly established points of view and resolutions. Sometimes the process is fairly simple, more often, it requires hours of shaping and revising. My work typically goes through four to five drafts, a different focus for each one. Each scene is drafted, then edited and added to the manuscript, then I work on it all at the story level, then down at the word and sentence level. The entire process takes on the order of fifteen hundred hours to complete. Oooh, I really did not want to think about that!
Where should we look for your work.

My books are available in paper back and ebook on Amazon right now. I will be adding Barnes and Noble (Nook) and Kobo versions in the next few weeks.

I also write for two group blogs, English Historical Fiction Authors and Austen Authors as well as at my own site Random Bits of Fascination.

You can find me:
email: author.MariaGrace@gmail.com.
Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorMariaGrace
Visit her website Random Bits of Fascination (AuthorMariaGrace.com)
On Twitter @WriteMariaGrace
On Pinterest : http://pinterest.com/mariagrace423/
English Historical Fiction Authors (EnglshHistoryAuthors.blogspot.com) (DWW-Which I blog at as well)
Austen Authors (AustenAuthors.net) (DWW-I got to get me into this group also.

You can click on the images below to find Maria’s books or at amazon.com/author/mariagrace

Darcy’s Decision

Six months after his father’s passing, Fitzwilliam Darcy still finds solace in his morning reflections at his parents’ graves. Only in the quiet solitude of the churchyard does he indulge his grief. None but his unlikely mentor recognize the heartache and insecurity plaguing him as he shoulders the enormous burden of being Master of Pemberley. Not all are pleased with his choice of adviser. Lady Catherine complains Darcy allows him too much influence. Lord Matlock argues, “Who is he to question the God-appointed social order?” But the compassionate wisdom Darcy finds in his counselor keeps him returning for guidance even though it causes him to doubt everything he has been taught. In the midst of his struggles to reinvent himself, his school chum, Charles Bingley, arrives. Darcy hopes the visit will offer some respite from the uproar in his life. Instead of relief, Darcy discovers his father’s darkest secret staring him in the face. Pushed to his limits, Darcy must overcome the issues that ruined his father and, with his friends and mentor at his side, restore his tarnished birthright.

The Future Mrs. Darcy

With the regiment come to camp in Meryton, many young ladies are pleased. Not all share their enthusiasm. Among them, Mr. Carver, who removes his family from Meryton’s savage society. He blames, not on the militia officers, but the Bennet family. The flirtations and boisterous ways of the youngest sisters are too much to be borne. Not even Jane’s renowned beauty and charm can make up for them.   Elizabeth denies the allegations at first, but rapidly uncovers the shocking truth. The Carvers are not the only family to cut the Bennets from their acquaintance. Their reputations materially damaged, the family borders on social ruin.   The news is too much for Mrs. Bennet who collapses from the shock. So, Elizabeth and her sisters must manage the estate until she recovers, a task for which none of them is prepared.   Warned by Mr. Pierce, the local curate, that several of the officers have unsavory designs on the local girls, Elizabeth must find a way to honor her father, rein in her sister and salvage the family’s reputation, all in the most ladylike way possible.

All the Appearance of Goodness

What is a young woman to do? One handsome young man has all the goodness, while the other the appearance of it. How is she to separate the gentleman from the cad?

When Darcy joins his friend, Bingley on a trip to Meryton, the last thing on his mind is finding a wife. Meeting Elizabeth Bennet changes all that, but a rival for his affections appears from a most unlikely quarter. He must overcome his naturally reticent disposition if he is to have a chance of winning her favor.

Elizabeth’s thoughts turn to love and marriage after her sister, Mary’s, engagement. In a few short weeks she goes from knowing no eligible young men, to being courted by two. Both are handsome gentleman, but one conceals secrets and the other conceals his regard. Will she determine which is which before she commits to the wrong one?

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RAP writing update

It has been some months since I have done an update on the work in progress writing I am doing. Well a few minutes ago I finished the first draft of a project I call Steamy Suasion, though I hope for a better title then that during the second draft or prior to publication. If you can think of one, let me know.

As with other works, we have published Jane Austen themed work before. The first was our Colonel Fitzwilliam’s Correspondence. This is the tale of what happens after Pride and Prejudice.

This was followed by another Austen themed book. Jane Austen and Ghosts. This is a tale that has nothing to do much with Jane’s work so much as the recent books that have twisted and tortured Jane’s works.

But recently the idea came to me that Persuasion lent itself to a little steampunkery. Making the ships that all the naval heroes commanded, Dirigibles, instead of sea going vessels. And then moving the squadron and Admiral Croft to take over Kellynch-hall. The nucleus of the tale came to me. But to aid me, I delved into Shapard’s Annotated Persuasion. It is well worth getting if you are serious about Jane scholarship.

Here then are the first few pages of the first draft.

Chapter 1

There are many truths in a man or woman’s life. They change as do the seasons, or the courses of the tide. One truth you hold when the tide is in, may be reversed as the water itself, when the tide has gone out. When circumstances change. Such is the case that happened to Sir Walter Elliot, when he found himself a widower. The truth that he had known, had adhered to when married and his wife, Lady Elliot, had been there to provide an anchor on habits that in other men, he had found abhorrent, was now reversed. Without a wife, he was without his rudder. He floundered and found solace only in the comforts he had when he was young and all acknowledged him beautiful.

A remembrance that age finds fault with all who spend enough time to argue with it. Those either blessed or unfortunate that do not remain to argue the point can only but look in a mirror and see that she makes no judgement but send the affliction of time upon all.

That Sir Walter, without the close guidance that his wife provided found no true course to hold to would have been evident from those who knew him from before that state of wedded bliss he had known for twenty years. Perhaps even one who was willing to bestow an allowance would say that the loss of Lady Elliot gave the man cause to return to a state of mind that was less than it had been when he had been partnered by a spouse that could challenge him to the best of his qualities.

But with Lady Elliot’s passing, Sir Walter was able to indulge upon himself all manner of pleasures and folderol that appeased his vanity. And allowed that quality, as he perceived it, to grow and eclipse his other intentions. While he had grounds that were extensive at Kellynch-hall, he seldom chose to walk about them as the sun might cause his complexion to darken. His library was perhaps the greatest in all Somerset, yet the only book that excited his fancy and that he could be counted upon to peruse, aside from the bible, was the Baronetage. And here he would but look at the page that bore his family name, and the entries therein.

Such perusal might take him a mere minute, as he had memorized each line, each comma that had to do with his branch of the Elliot tree. Though often he would look at other entries, for there were many of families much younger than his, and here one might notice the curve of his lips as he might smile when reflecting on the longevity of his line. Or, seldom, he might look upon those few families mentioned that were listed in the rolls of the Baronetage that had history a few years more than his own family. But, he took pride that there were but a handful of those, and seeing the current descendants of those named, he could tell at a glance that their blood must have been tainted in some way as none could put forth a leg or a visage that would in any way be classed in the same circle from which he could exhibit.

But to Sir Walter’s mind, there was little wrong with this. He was from a great and illustrious family that had been in England long before the conqueror thought to row over from Normandy. As supporters of the Restoration of the second Charles, the Elliot’s had been rewarded with their title and so it was recorded in Dugdale’s tome, The Antient Usage of Bearing of such Ensigns of Honour as are commonly call’d Arms.

Yet Sir Walter had responsibilities left to him when his wife died. Three girls of various ages were left for him to sort out. A task that was made hard to bear for they each, in their way to his mind’s eye, took after Lady Elliot. Further, he had not undertaken the study of rearing of children and would promptly admit, should anyone ever venture to broach the topic, that he was the least qualified man in the world to handle such a task.

Miss Elliot, the eldest child Elizabeth was at an early age made mistress of the great estate of Kellynch-hall. Next was Miss Anne Elliot and last Miss Mary Elliot. The latter perhaps too young to understand all that encompassed in the death of one’s mother. The eldest so involved in deciding and managing a great estate at such an early age left her with little time for feeling any emotion whatsoever upon the death of her mother. This left only the middle child, Anne, to have the time, understanding, and inclination to realize what truly had taken place with the death of her mother.

Anne knew that such feelings must be contained, for many children her age lost their parents to death and they found some manner in which to proceed. Anne did as well, but it did not mean she did not note her loss, or did her best to find a way to resolve the emotions that came of it.

She was aided, though never with word, by Lady Elliot’s close friend, Lady Russell. Lady Russell lived in Kellynch, the widow of a knight. Her bond with Lady Elliot had ensured that Lady Russell would do her best, not as a substitute mother, but as an interested party, to see to what little she could in aid of her friend’s children.

While Elizabeth, with her own firm notions of what was required of her as mistress of Kellynch-hall unless circumstances changed and her father, Sir Walter remarried, did not brook any helpful guidance, the younger two girls were quite pleased to seek what passed for care from Lady Russell. Elizabeth, perhaps, took some very slight offense that another woman would choose to have say at Kellynch-hall, but Sir Walter never saw this as an affront to his own sensibilities. He did seem to recognize that there were issues and events where a woman’s touch was needed to help guide him, and cognizant of the great friendship that had persisted between his wife and Lady Russell thought it natural, as he had no other close female relation of such an age, to seek her counsel.

Thus Lady Russell who had been often an fixture about the drawing room at Kellynch-hall prior to Lady Elliot’s sickness, was after her death, seen at the manor house near each day. And held in such high regard by Sir Walter, that Miss Elliot, Elizabeth the eldest of the daughters of Sir Walter, found that though she needn’t listen to all that Lady Russell advised, following much of what Lady Russell advised was a way to keep peace and all calm in the waters that lay about the estate.

A study of her father by Anne, and also that of Lady Russell along the paths of why neither sought solace in another spouse, came to the conclusion that Lady Russell had been provided with enough of a fortune by her late husband that she might live out her life quite comfortably. Her husband had been bright enough to invent the outlet installed upon the wall that converted the new electricity that was carried through the cables to homes, become knighted, marry, and then sell his invention for a quite tidy sum. Able to live the life of a gentleman.

In the case of Sir Walter, Anne concluded that though he might wish for some form of companionship besides she and her sisters, Sir Walter had an aesthetic of beauty that he was searching for. One that was balanced that could never be as beautiful as he perceived himself, yet had to be more beautiful than he found in all others. This was further hampered by some credence that the woman would have to be a great heiress, for he knew that Kellynch-hall needed some little additional income, as he understood it, to maintain it’s glory. A fortune had been spent to keep the manor on a footing that all the new inventions that came were installed in the house.

Then last, Anne understood what her sisters and Lady Russell might also understand but certainly would never say aloud. Sir Walter had lived through three young people underfoot as they grew in the nursery, and then the schoolroom. He had Lady Elliot at that time to smooth his feathers and do her best to steer him to calm waters when he was upset by the antics that Anne and her sisters displayed in their youth. Faced though with such events once more with a new wife desiring her own children, Sir Walter would never consent to it. Rather would he remain unmarried, and live with all that came of not having a son to be his heir, and not having a companion in his twilight years, then to live with a new wife and new babes. Further, for companionship, he may not have wished to renew his marital state, but he did have Lady Russell to act as a companion for all else, for she was at Kellynch-hall at least five days of each week and more often than not, all seven.

Anne reflected that Lady Russell was not a companion of her father in the sense that she was looked to be the lady of Kellynch-hall. That would have taken from Elizabeth. And Elizabeth, who had been on the cusp of coming out when their mother died, and forfeited her first season in London instead remaining in the country wearing mourning. Whilst doing so, as Sir Walter’s eldest, she asserted herself and took the place in household matters that their mothers death had laid vacant.

The two younger girls were consoled by Lady Russell, as Lady Elliot had designed when news of the fatality of her illness was brought to light. Anne had some bond with Lady Russell before this event, but it was made stronger after. Lady Russell had more education than most in the near country and she shared this with Anne.

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