May 4th, 2009 — A-C, Author Interviews, Jane Austen
Keira: I noticed that the title What Would Jane Austen Do?
appeared a few times in the book. Was this your original title? If not, what was it? What were some other titles that were possibilities?
Laurie: Yes, that was the original title. I don't think any others were considered.
Keira: What was your inspiration for WWJAD?
Laurie: I was having coffee with several writer friends when the topic of conversation turned to "If time travel were possible, would you go?" I really had to think about that. Aside from missing my family and friends, there are so many things not available in the Regency that I consider absolute necessities. Although tempted, I realized I'm a modern woman through and through. I'd like to go for short time, like going on a camping trip, but for the rest of my life? I don't know. And so the idea of a heroine who loves Jane Austen's books and the fashions of the Regency gets a chance to go back in time where (among other things which I hadn't figured out at the time) she has to come to term with her modern-ness.
Keira: How did you come up with the names for your characters?
Laurie: Characters names seem to pop into my head in all different sorts of ways. Sometimes, I can see them, or hear them and their name seems obvious. If not, I have a number of name books that I flip through until the right name jumps out at me. I wanted the heroine in WWJAD to feel a bond to JA, so I named her Eleanor after Elinor Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility
. I changed the spelling in case I wanted to use a quote from Elinor later in the book.
Keira: Speaking of characters, did you draw their appearances based on anybody in particular and do you have pictures?
Laurie: I don't have pictures of them except in my head, and I don't consciously model them after anyone in particular. Though I admit that occasionally there must be a subconscious association. My hero in Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake
looked suspiciously like Hugh Jackman in a high crowned hat, snowy cravat, buff riding breeches, and tall Hessian boots.
Keira: When you started writing WWJAD did you know anything about the JAFF (Jane Austen Fanfiction) community? How do you think the community will receive your offshoot?
Laurie: Actually I didn't know much about it. After I sold the book I got an inkling of the enormity of the fan base and the variety of fiction that is out there, but by then I couldn't read any of it for fear that someone else's vision might color mine. I've added a few titles to my TBR pile but I haven't had much reading time lately.
I sincerely hope the members of the community will enjoy reading my story even though it's not technically fan fiction. None of JA's famous characters are characters in the book. It's more fiction that incorporates a real life person into the story. The heroine recalls bits of her favorite JA stories to help her survive culture shock when she travels back in time to 1814. And she gets to meet Jane Austen in person.
Keira: What are some challenges in writing Austen based romance?
Laurie: When Eleanor meets the real Jane Austen, I had to be careful to remain true to historical fact. For instance, my description of JA's dress is based on her own words when she describes her dress in a letter to her sister Cassandra. When JA mentions having been in Bath the previous April, she really was in Bath then.
In 1814, Jane Austen was nearing forty, had had two books published, and another soon to be released. My heroine wants to ask her where she got the inspiration for Mr. Darcy, hoping he was based on a real person, and that she will get to meet him at the ball. But because JA had not publicly admitted she was the author, Eleanor had to be circumspect in her questioning, and I had to be very careful constructing that scene.
Keira: What's one of your favorite Jane Austen inspired novels?
Laurie: I have Pemberley Manor
and The Darcys & the Bingleys
in my TBR pile. I'm looking forward to the Sept. release of Marilyn Brant's According To Jane
.
Keira: Who are your favorite authors besides Jane Austen?
Laurie: I'm going to take a pass on that question because I'd like to list all my friends who are writers. And if I missed one I'd never forgive myself.
Keira: How do you define love?
Laurie: Love is being the wind beneath each other's wings.
Keira: What makes a great (written) bedroom scene?
Laurie: I personally like the characters to have some doubts going into the situation. Not necessarily performance issues but questions about the wisdom of continuing. I like female characters with some doubts about their bodies/attractiveness when naked, male characters who second guess their decision/motivation. I'd like the characters to know beforehand that making love will change the relationship, then make the decision to go ahead anyway. I want them to be swept away physically and emotionally like never before. Along the way I like a bit of humor here and there. When it's over, I want to see that making love has changed everything.
I just reread that paragraph and it sounds rather dry. Maybe I should have just said, I want a love scene to make me smile and leave me breathless.
Keira: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?
Laurie: Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to tell you about my new book. It's been fun. One last plug: What Would Jane Austen Do? May 2009. Hope you enjoy reading it.
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April 11th, 2009 — 3 Stars, Book Review, Children, Clumsy Heroine, Contemporary, Pregnant, Stephenie Meyer, United States of America, Vampire, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine, Werewolf, Young Adult
I was very excited to get my Breaking Dawn in the mail from Amazon. They managed to get it to me one day before they told me that it would arrive on my doorstep and I devoured the novel, all 700+ pages, in two days, which is consistent with how I’ve read the other three that came before.
The novel did many things I did not expect, and one thing in particular that I did expect. This review will contain spoilers, so read at your own risk. Suffice it to say I give Breaking Dawn four stars.
The wedding, surprisingly takes place within the first hundred pages. I thought that it would happen at the end after Jacob did something to delay it so he could win Bella for his own. This is not the case. The wedding is lovely and Bella gets through it just fine and afterwards can’t believe how uptight she was about the whole thing.
On their honeymoon, Bella and Edward make love successfully; unfortunately the scene fades to black, which annoyed me. The morning after Bella stirs and is blissfully happy but sore, Edward is composed and staring blankly at the ceiling and ruins her buzz by killing the mood. He won’t make love to her again, claims that she’s lying when she says she’s feeling fine—no great, all because he can see how rough he was with her. Bella only recalls that he held her tighter when she wanted him to, etc. Edward is sickened by how much of her skin is covered in bruises that match his hands.
Luckily, Bella manages to break him out of his funk through the use of sexy lingerie Alice packed for her and some innocent seduction. The second and third and so on times, Edward manages to ruin furniture instead of Bella’s skin, making him extremely satisfied… Bella too.
Meanwhile, I started to think about how much food Bella was consuming and came to the conclusion before it was revealed that she was pregnant. Her pregnancy is ridiculously accelerated and Edward freaks out. Bella knowing something is up, makes plans of her own to protect the life inside her and calls Rosalie for help, making the female vampire happy for the first time with her decisions.
From here the novel switches from Bella’s point of view to Jacob’s, which made me call up my friend and ask for some spoilers because I just don’t like the werewolf. During this part of the novel we witness Bella’s pregnancy, a break in the werewolf tribe as Jacob takes partial leadership, and Bella becoming very attached to Jacob’s presence.
The pregnancy takes a lot out of Bella until they realize that because the child is part vampire Bella’s diet needs to change from human food to a liquid diet of blood. Drinking blood immediately affects Bella’s health for the better, but also that of the baby’s. Every time the child moves inside Bella it leaves bruises on her skin and potentially breaks a rib in the process.
Edward is seriously going crazy and blames himself at this point and goes as far as offering Bella to Jacob if she really wanted a child as long as she’d be willing to give their child up as it was hurting her so much. Of course Jacob thinks on the idea and manages to bring it up to Bella who denies that its children she wants so much as her and Edward’s child that she wants.
Bella dies during birth, but luckily Edward manages to successfully turn her into a vampire while Jacob does CPR to keep the venomous blood flowing through her veins before it activates. Jacob leaves when he thinks it’s failed and goes downstairs where he intends to kill the child, now in Rosalie’s care. He never does, because once he lays eyes on their baby girl he bonds with her. This ends Jacob’s point of view in the story and switches back to Bella’s viewpoint.
The rest of the story deals with what I thought would happen to postpone the wedding—the Volturi are coming and they plan to execute the Cullen family for their Immortal Child (which is not what Edward and Bella’s child is per se, the term refers to something else). Alice and Jasper leave after Alice gives some very stern instructions to the family. The whole Western hemisphere is being herded together to witness the growth and humanity of the child.
It ends happily and Bella has amazing control on her thirst and on her special gift. I love the last few scenes between her and Edward. I am looking forward to reading the series again from Edward’s point of view, starting with Midnight Sun.
What did you think of the series ending?
Rating: 3 Stars
Originally posted 2008-08-13 05:03:13. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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