This three hour BBC miniseries is just precious. It’s lighthearted, humorous, and perfect. Pride and Prejudice is revisited and reintroduced. Lost in Austen pays homage to Jane Austen’s original masterpiece while reinventing it. My friend, who is not a Pride and Prejudice fan—blasphemous I know!—loved this film. My other friend, who is a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice, to the point of being a purist, loved it also. Two endorsements right there! Make that three as it has mine also!
It starts with the heroine, a representative for all modern women, reading the classic tale. She has read it so many times, she can say it by heart, practically see herself there at Pemberley running to Darcy—wait hold up!
Amanda Price thinks she’s going crazy what with Elizabeth Bennet showing up in her bathroom and all. It is just one more sign of impending institutionalization. Really, how could a fictional character appear in her bathroom? The lives of those in Georgian England are made up after all… right?
When a wall opens up in Amanda’s bathroom and Elizabeth affirms it is her house on the other side, Amanda can’t resist stepping through. Like Alice, Amanda has gone through the rabbit hole and is trapped in Wonderland. The door swings shut behind her, but Amanda is filled with only a slight trepidation as she descends into the madness that is the Bennet house right at the beginning of the story.
What follows is a fabulous, wonderful, delicious story of a modern girl trying to make the story happen only to mess it up. Every time Amanda attempts to fix things, it gets worse. Some end up married to the wrong person, new background on characters is revealed, and more. Who could imagine blustering Mrs. Bennett as a ball-buster? One of the things that I loved was how Wickham is redeemed in this version. How? Watch and find out!
I’ve been told that the American version is missing a scene where Amanda is singing. I noticed a jerky transition where it should have occurred. There are also a few minor things left out, so I’ve been told. I wish they hadn’t taken it out, I mean once you’re at three hours, what’s another fifteen or so minutes right? Anyway, it was marvelous. Get it from your library or buy a copy – you’ll love it!
PS: Elliot Cowan, who plays Mr. Darcy, in looks is a cross between Colin Firth and Heath Ledger. Yum! His wet white shirt scene... double yum! Take a look:
Here's the situation succinctly: Avon stuck its foot in its mouth.
Lynn S.: In our 2002 interview, you felt that the online world didn't have much of an impact on sales. Much has changed in the intervening years, and more and more people - including more women - are online now and use reviews as a helpful guide to the buying process. Has Avon changed its thinking in this area? Avon, also, seems not to include many online reviews in books. Are there any plans to change that policy?
May Chen: In my opinion, the online world still doesn’t have much impact on sales as, anecdotally, I’ve seen books get horrible online reviews but have done well. As far as I know, we still don’t include online reviews on our books, but that can certainly change if we see them start making a difference. Right now, the best endorsements for us still seem to be from NYT bestselling authors and from major traditional print reviewers.
Lucia Macro: Do the consumers recognize the source of the quote? I'm not sure that the vast majority of readers recognize all the online sites. When checking their rankings I'm often surprised at how little traffic they really get. We are all very plugged in, but many casual readers are just picking up a book at their local Walmart and barely have time to watch tv, much less wrestle the computer away from their kids. So an author quote might carry more weight with them.
The whole thing as Jane notes is ironic and is summed up quite nicely by Amy of My Friend Amy in this Twitter message.
Pamela Jafee of Avon responds to the backlash with this comment on Lynn's post. She responds to the accusations in another comment stating that the quotes are direct without editing.
Right below Pamela's comment is one by Katie Mack linking to Jennifer Crusie's thoughts about author quotes on books and if I had any confidence in them before it's completely gone now.
What gets me most is that they assume because bloggers don't have corporate search engine ranks that we don't have power and additionally the assumption that was made about online versus offline. Before I started blogging, I did research online for books that I bought, yes I still made impulse buys, but I often gravitate toward books reviewed around the romance community. I don't really put faith in newspaper ratings for books or movies because oftentimes the reviewer is somebody who clearly doesn't share any similar tastes with me. They give it a 2 I give it a 4, they give it a 4, I'd never pick it up/go watch it even if you paid me.
As for the rankings... Alexa is complete bunk as most bloggers who blog about blogging say and they take it with a pinch of salt. Google Page Rank used to be highly sought after and now it's kind of a "well that's cool, I guess," rank. Alexa confuses me, but I do know a bit about Google PR. It's based on Log Base 10 mathematics. To jump one point you must be ten times more powerful than you were in terms of many things that are hard to quantify like: content relevancy, search relevancy, traffic, bounce rate, internal/external links, backlinks, etc. To jump two numbers you have to be hundred times more powerful; three numbers equals a thousand times more powerful, and so on.
Smart Bitches and Dear Author last I knew were both Google PR 5 (out of 10). Love Romance Passion is a 3 and I'm not quite a year old as a blog.
Think about that... that's a load of people and community sharing to build those numbers. We might not have the numbers of a corporate giant, and we certainly don't have the capital to push a book, but we're innovative and the numbers we do have shows just how big the romance community is online.
Google doesn't think we're bottom of the food chain, Avon shouldn't either.
Not too long ago, Dakota Fanning talked about the possibility of signing on as Jane of the Volturi. The Volturi as readers will know are the evil group of vampires that live in Italy. They are the police force of vampires if you will, similar to the Council found in Anita Blake novels. Jane was a young girl when she was turned into a vampire and her innate power is the ability to induce in others unbelievable mental anguish. Her ire could incapacitate you in a nanosecond. Learn more below or here:
Vanessa Hudgens for Leah Clearwater?
Vanessa Hudgens is the star from High School Musical and she has auditioned for the part of the bitter shewolf. Leah Clearwater used to be Sam's girlfriend until he imprinted on Emily, his new fiance. Sam is the alpha male of the Quileute pack. She has not been hired for the part yet, but rumors are flying that she may especially with the endorsements from the cast such as:
“I think she’d be great,” Ashley Greene, who plays Alice Cullen in the film series, told MTV.com.
Lautner has bulked up 20 pounds! He's got biceps, abs, and is planning to gain more weight and more muscle for the part. The widget isn't working but here is the link to the video to see him.
Here's the situation succinctly: Avon stuck its foot in its mouth.
and she has auditioned for the part of the bitter shewolf. Leah Clearwater used to be Sam's girlfriend until he imprinted on Emily, his new fiance. Sam is the alpha male of the Quileute pack. She has not been hired for the part yet, but rumors are flying that she may especially with the endorsements from the cast such as:
