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Thanks!

Stephanie

For the Needlewoman: An Image of Jane

One of the more enjoyable aspects (or the most vexed, depending upon circumstances) of publishing a novel is the serendipitous nature of cover art.  Authors are rarely consulted about the images that grace their books; nor, quite often, does the Editorial side of a publishing house have a great deal of input.  Cover art is produced by the Art department, and in the heady days of publishing, when houses were flush with funds (the 1990s), images were often commissioned from artists.

Now they seem to be mostly produced by computers, and instead of images, often feature merely words.

My favorite cover in the Jane Austen Mystery Series is, hands-down, Jane and the Prisoner of Wool House.  It depicts a windswept Austen standing upon the quay at Southampton with some Royal Navy ships in the background, beneath a stormy sky. Fabulous.

The scene was painted by Kinuko Craft (www.kycraft.com), and the cover produced from her art.

Others appear to like this image of Jane just as much.  I learned today that it's even available in a cross stitch pattern.

So for the masterful needlewomen among you--a challenging winter project!  The chart may be found at:   

http://heavenandearthdesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=160_134&products_id=2483

Enjoy!

Stephanie

Austenland

I am so happy in my friends, as to count several Janeites among them; and it was one of these who  charitably conveyed me to an advance screening of the film Austenland last evening.  We were conscious of appearing well, of being surrounded by a numerous acquaintance, and of living in every expectation of present enjoyment, and future satisfaction; so much so, that the term guilty pleasure only thrice passed our lips.

Seriously.  We had a great time. 

Yes, the movie has received only 3 out of 10 tomatoes on Rotten Tomatoes; it has been girlishly and gigglingly reviewed on NPR, panned outright by the New York Times--but if you've ever signed up enthusiastically for a Jane Austen Society Annual General Meeting, specifically for the hat-trimming, dance-training, or dressmaking breakout sessions; or if you're one of the founding members of the official Colin Firth online fanclub, Austenland is not a bad way to pass a couple of hours.

Make no mistake:  This is not a Heritage Adapation of one of the Divine Jane's Sacred Works.  We all have our favorites among those perennial staples of BBC funding, and Austenland will never be in the running for the most passionate arguments true Janeites know: Henry Tilney or John Knightley?  Frederick Wentworth or Fitzwilliam Darcy?  Colin Firth, or any other actor who attempts to fill his...um...?

What Austenland does explore is the unfortunate gap between fantasy and reality, between the desire to enter the pages of Pride and Prejudice, and the actual tedium of finding oneself eternally in a role that has no foundation in emotion or personal history.  It follows a young woman, Jane Hayes (the ingenuous and charming Carrie Russell) as she spends her life savings to return to Regency England on a great estate tricked out with period actors, intentionally conspiring to provide a romantic episode for her life.  Yes, there are slapstick moments--several of her colleagues deliberately lampoon the conventions of Regency dramas--and some of the humor is broad.  Austenland is a spoof on terminal fandom, and some of us may have suffered the malady enough to find it amusing or painful. But at base, the film offers a glimpse of a woman discovering that fakes--even beautifully clothed in an idyllic landscape--are no substitute for the real thing.  And that is a journey most of us will recognize.

As an author myself, I abhor spoilers.  Without disclosing the ending, therefore, I will say only that I found it a clever inversion of both the film's concept, and the expectation of most Janeites.  Guilty pleasure?  Why not.  It won't kill you.  It might even make you laugh.  Go see Austenland.

Stephanie

Edward's Dilemma: Part III

Lucy's Steele's Sense--and Jane Austen's Sensibility

Wednesday, 24^th April, 1811

No. 64 Sloane Street, London

The mail coach was incommodious and distressingly full; she was quite crushed against Anne, her ugly ill-favoured and elderly sister, as the poorly-sprung equipage lurched over the ruts in an attempt to gain Exeter; but such misfortunes must be immaterial to Miss Lucy Steele, in her eagerness to attack her zealous regard for duty.  Intelligence of the Miss Dashwoods’ removal from Norland to the environs of Barton Park having lately reached her ears, by the extraordinary good luck simple expedient of Mr. Edward Ferrars’  most recent letter missive—alarmingly replete with phrases of unconcealed admiration for the eldest Miss Dashwood—she was determined to scrape an acquaintance with such appalling delightful young ladies by any means possible.  A moment only was required, to seize upon consider of her relation Mrs. Jennings, an intimate of the Park—and so desirous, too, of being of use, to every young lady of passable merit!  To use, Lucy Steele should certainly put her; for Lucy detected a danger in Mr. Ferrars’ flowing periods of praise; and having endured with agonies admirable patience the spectre of his formidable mother’s nastiness displeasure these four years at least, she was most unwilling to allow any harpy to sink her claws give pride of place to a girl who could claim a mere cottage as domicile, and so paltry a sum as a third-share of three thousand pounds, as inducement to marriage.

“Jane!”

I started, and set down my pen.  

My sister Eliza stood in the bedchamber doorway, almost entirely obscured by a quantity of linen freshly supplied by her housekeeper, Madame Bigeon—who is so burdened in years, that she may no longer ascend the stairs without grasping the handrail, rendering such tasks as the disposition of linen, entirely beyond her powers.

“Only say that you are not writing, dear one!”

The expression of horror suffusing Eliza’s countenance might well have been ridiculous, did not a healthy respect for pounds and pence inspire it.  I glanced away, conscious of the debt I owed my brother—who has franked the publication of my dearest child, my romantickal romp of Elinor and Marianne, my cautionary fable of gentlemen’s wiles—my Sense and Sensibility.  I am come to London in the spring of 1811 on purpose to proof Mr. Thomas Egerton’s type-set pages—and having seen my plaintive words in print, cannot restrain myself from constantly amending them.

“It is only a very little writing,” I offered hurriedly.  “A scene, perhaps, to elucidate the terms under which poor Edward committed his lamentable folly, of engaging the affections of Miss Lucy Steele.”

“Conniving little beast,” Eliza replied dispassionately.  “She ought to be whipped.  Perhaps Colonel Brandon might supply the office.  But Jane, you are aware that Mr. Egerton has expressly forbidden you to change another word, without you incur the severest charges on Henry’s purse!  Dearest, do not say that you have struck out the type!”

I had.  The evidence was visible to every eye, in my firm blue scrawl.  I did the only thing possible—I seized the laundress’s bill from Eliza’s grasp.

“The charges on linen are extortionate in London,” I mourned.  “We cannot contrive to spend a quarter of this sum in Chawton village.” 

“--Which is why I am forever bringing my own sheets, dearest, when I chuse to visit your mother.”

I slipped the laundress’s bill over my errant pages, but not swiftly enough for Eliza’s eagle eye.  In high dudgeon, she deposited her pile of linen on my writing table.

“How am I to tell Henry that you have altered the text again?  He shall be wild with disapproval!”

“Henry is never wild.”

“That is an utter falsehood, Jane.  He is by far the most whimsical and intemperate of your brothers.  He should never have granted the Prince a loan, else--for you know we cannot hope to see a farthing of that silver back again; it is all gone in gambling and waistcoats.  And I have set my heart on the most charming jockey bonnet of leghorn straw, with eglantine ribbons-- and it must be impossible if you are to break Henry’s bank with paying Mr. Egerton for fresh type!”

“Eliza,” I said with remorse, “I assure you that I shall endeavour to mend my vicious habits.  Not a penny more shall Mr. Egerton have, to repair my misshapen prose; and you may have a score of jockey bonnets…provided I may save Edward from Lucy Steele’s toils.”

“I am excessively tired of Edward,” Eliza declared.  “He lacks all charm, address, and common sense, too—for how else should such a man be taken in by a vulgar chit with the name of Lucy?  I am out of all patience with him and his love.  Let Willoughby seduce Miss Steele--and there is an end to it!”

All speech was suspended by the appearance of Manon, Eliza’s personal maid; she frowned her disapproval, for Eliza’s hair had not yet been dressed and she was looking most unwell, from the effects of a persistent cold and exasperation with my spendthrift ways.  Manon seized the clean linen, and with a muttered imprecation of disapproval, departed for Eliza’s bedchamber.

“Willoughby cannot always be seducing everybody,” I retorted crossly. 
 “You know so little of the World, Jane.”

“Surely you must apprehend that Edward’s actions are...entirely honourable,” I attempted.  “That he must pursue the only course of action open to a gentleman, and pursue it in stoical silence.  That every reader of sense must admire his steadfast scruples, and his breaking heart--”

“—But every reader of sensibility would wish him to throw Lucy Steele in the Serpentine, and clutch Elinor to his bosom!”  Eliza threw up her hands.  “It is as I declared—you know so little of the World!”

“Hence the altered text,” I said flatly.  “It is intended to provide some verisimilitude to Edward’s motives.  A greater appreciation of his sorry dilemma.”

“His sorry backbone, you would mean,” Eliza muttered.  “Very well—let me see what you have set down.”

I turned to my writing table.

But the type-set pages were gone.

“Manon,” Eliza whispered.   Her countenance was all apprehension.

I moved swiftly to the door, to be met by the French maid.

“You have need of me, mademoiselle?”

“Of the pages you secured,” I said, “on the writing table.  They were obscured by the linen.”

“Ah,” she said wisely.  “The laundress’s bill.  But madame is never to be oppressed by such trifles.  They make her ill.  She is forever thinking of all the bonnets she could buy, did she content herself with soiled sheets.  It is as well to cast such things on the fire.”

“And that is what you have done,” I observed.

“Mais, oui, mademoiselle--What else would you?  She is not to be oppressed, madame.  On the fire it goes. ”

She made her curtsey and moved away along the passage, serene in the happy performance of duty. 

“Poor Jane,” Eliza murmured.  Already she had an idea of her leghorn straw, and how becomingly she should appear in it.

“Poor Edward,” I replied.  “Yet another scene lost.” 

And returned to my lamentable prose.

*   *   *

I hope you enjoyed Part Three of Austenesque Extravaganza's Touring Thursday!  Readers familiar with my Jane Austen Mysteries probably found themselves on familiar ground in the fantasia printed above--from the timing, Jane was in the thick of events recounted in Jane and the Barque of Frailty, not to mention her Sense and Sensibility page proofs from Mr. Egerton.

If you've missed the earlier parts of this "lost scene," by all means stop by these talented authors' websites:

Part One - Edward Visits Barton Cottage - Susan Mason-Milks

Part Two - Flashback! Edward and Lucy Reach an Understanding - Amanda Grange

Thanks for reading!

Stephanie

And Suddenly, Autumn

I opened the French doors to the terrace this morning and a wave of cold air gusted in off the lawn.
That suddenly, it's September in Colorado.
Naturally, the temperature will climb into the 90s in a few hours, but as the dogs step tentatively into the seven a.m. dew, it's all of 55, and the promise of snow and woodsmoke are on the air.

I spent most of the summer traveling and talking about my latest Francine Mathews spy novel, JACK 1939, a World War II-era adventure featuring Jack Kennedy as a 22 year-old Harvard junior researching his senior thesis all over Europe--while Hitler mobilizes to invade Poland.  It was quite a shift from discussing all things Austen, but with the change of seasons I'm thinking like a Barron again.


At the moment, I'm putting the finishing touches on my segment of a lost vignette from one of Austen's novels--as imagined by Susan Mason-Milks, Amanda Grange, and me, in that order--which will be up on the website here in a week's time (check back Thursday, September 13th, for our contribution to the AUSTENESQUE EXTRAVAGANZA--something we're calling "Edward's Dilemma.")  Susan kicks it off on her website; Mandy follows with the all-too-vital middle; and I attempt to match their greatness with the final few paragraphs.  I hope you'll enjoy.

And then: what next?

The original publisher of the Jane Austen Mysteries appears unenthused with continuing the series.  It's possible Jane will find a new home; but at the moment, I'm researching something I've tentatively titled THE WATERLOO ARCHIVE.  The bicentenary of the Great Battle in 2015 fast approaches, and I want to be there with a story.  It's a great excuse to refresh my understanding of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Wellington's life, the nature of the Prussian army.  All good subjects as the weather turns cool, and I stack the wood by the library fire.

Happy Autumn!

Stephanie

Reading For a Too-Sudden Spring: The Enchanted April

It's May as I write this, and the dust of this drought-stricken state is already rising in little puffs about my feet as I walk my dog along the parched canal.  When breaking out the shorts and the sunblock, it seems wise to cherish what has already been: The most beautiful April in recent memory.  Everything came into flower at once at my house--the crab apple trees shown in the picture at left, the plum trees out back, the lilac and the tiny white stars of red-twig dogwood.  Unusually for Colorado, no sudden fall of snow struck spring dumb.  The kindness of the season has an ominous undertone--we all know that it's not normal, but as my younger son observed just last night, "It's hard to view sunny days as a natural disaster."  His tone seemed to imply that if anybody could do so, however, it would be his mother.

He reminded me, in those few words, of a character straight out of Elizabeth Von Arnim.  Just so did she  skewer her most lovable people--with a comment that revealed far too much of their souls.

She's an author most people no longer recognize, although some would recall the 1992 movie made from her best-known book, The Enchanted April.  I sat through it in a dream of sun-kissed scent, but I'm not going to talk about the movie here--the book is so much more rewarding in its acute celebration of human foibles, human hope, and the terribly human need to be loved.  The time is the early 1920s; the subject is the dreariness of post-war England and the compulsion to escape; and the alternative is a remote and lovely castle on the Italian coast.  Von Arnim sends four women of varying ages and degrees of personal desperation there for a month.  Having got them under her writer's eye, she turns each of them inside-out, with a delicacy and finesse unequaled since Jane Austen.

If summer arrived too soon in your town, too, this year--try The Enchanted April.  Short of buying a ticket on impulse for Portofino, it's the most delicious escape I know.

Stephanie

Friday's Child: The REACH Literacy Conference

So as my sons head off for their final exams this week, I'm thinking about the teachers I'll be talking to on Friday at the 2012 REACH Literacy Conference here in Denver.  The conference is intended for "educators, administrators, parents, middle and high school students, and literacy advocates who want to explore and understand the value of early reading readiness; embrace culturally relevant literature; and gain knowledge, insight and access to useful curriculum resources to create a richer learning experience."  It's being held over two days--May 31 and June 1--at the Kenneth King Academics & Performing Arts Center, on the Auraria Campus.

I'm a bit terrified.  I'm not a trained teacher.  I write novels for adults, not kids.  I know next to nothing about the challenges of literacy in the United States.  All I can do, therefore, is talk about how writers become writers--by starting life as readers.  We're all the sum of our stories, both the ones we read as kids and the ones we write every day.  And we're the end result of a lifetime of teachers, too--both bad and good.  I watch my own boys grow, and know how critical stories are in their lives.  Stories are maps discarded on the road by those who've walked ahead, clues to the terrain, routes for navigating existence.  We'd be lost without them.

Think of me Friday morning.  Introduce yourself, if you're there.  We'll swap a few tales.

Stephanie