Laurel Ann Nattress, blogger extraordinaire of Austenprose, is the happy editor of a new Jane Austen fan fiction anthology entitled Jane Austen Made Me Do It, to be published by Ballantine Books in October, 2011. (Now THERE'S a reason to ring in the New Year.) She already has twenty-two submissions from known Austenesque writers--I've contributed a story featuring the late, lamented Lord Harold Trowbridge entitled "Jane and the Gentleman Rogue," for instance--but she's Looking For Just One More.
It could be yours.
The short story contest winner will be published in the anthology. Entries will be posted at the Republic of Pemberley, where readers can vote for their favorites! FOR COMPLETE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES, CONTEST DATES, AND RULES, FOLLOW THE LINK to Austenprose.
And good luck, Janeites!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
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Dear Ms/Miss Stephanie Barron,
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Munich, Germany and A Very Happy Jane Austen's Birfday to you, along with many Happy Returns.
Hopefully you may not remember me, but if you do, I'm that impertinent fellow that, (a little roughly 6 months before September of that year of the events I'm about to describe), inadvertently disrupted your Book Signing in February of 2001, at Silicon Valley's landmark Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, CA.
I'd like to take this opportunity to express to you just how deeply sorry I am for that incident.
You totally didn't deserve that.
It's weighed heavily on me since that time and I want to offer you a most sincere apology for that egregious breach of Public Decorum.
My bad.
ZOMG.
I was Enlisted in the United State Marine Corps under Presidents Reagan/Bush I, (I got lucky, timing wise. My Service Time in Uniform was bracketed exactly between just after Beirut and right during Desert Shield, which means that my time in was even *more* undistinguished than CBS TV News Anchor Dan Rather's was), and I gotta tell ya, Lady, that was easily one of the worst s**t-storms I've ever been in in my life.
I can't remember ever being in a room that got that hot that quickly, before or since, and really, a person like you is absolutely the last one earth I'd want to put in the middle of a volatile and hostile situation like that.
What was truly mortifying about it is that I was the cause of all that needless distress.
Oops.
My face is still red in shame and embarrassment just thinking about it.
In my defense, number one, the 2 glasses of wine I had had with my dinner next door at Borrone's an hour previously had completely worn off, so no excuse there, and, secondly, my questions to you about your previous employer, that you had before you turned to your writing career, that caused all that ruckus, were in *no way* premeditated.
Had I known in advance that it was going to have had lit such a powder keg of TNT, believe you me, I'da kept my big mouf sealed shut and not said a word.
Honestly, though the big Rex Stout Nero Wolfe aficionado that I am, (btw, Wolfe's idea of the most perfect novel is Austen's 'Emma', in case you didn't already know), I had never even heard of you before prior to stepping into Kepler's Main Reading Room and your Q&A that evening.
Wish I had, because I find the very idea of yours to cast Austen as a Private Detective to be a brilliant conceit.
So again, I'd like to offer you my deepest apology and wish you a most Happy Birfday to your most kindest Benefactress and Muse.
Here's to you and yours having the best of Holiday's this year.
Best Regards,
Nyc Labrets
München, DE
16-12-2010