Welcome Sally Smith O'Rourke!
One of 28--Yes 28, Including Laurel Ann Nattress--Authors Participating in the Upcoming Decatur Book Festival
To Darcyholic Diversions...
One of 28--Yes 28, Including Laurel Ann Nattress--Authors Participating in the Upcoming Decatur Book Festival
To Darcyholic Diversions...
10 Days to Go till Decatur Book Festival!)
Hi,
Darcyholics! Today, we have Sally Smith O'Rourke with us. Sally is one of our remote authors for the upcoming Decatur Book Festival. I am very happy to welcome her here to Darcyholic Diversions
today!
The
information on Decatur Book Festival was updated Today! It now Includes the Social Events planned AROUND the festival! So check it out at the link below! If you are planning on
attending and are not one of our authors, please send me an email to
barbaratillercole@gmail.com so I can send you information out our social
events during the festival weekend.
I am also announcing initial plans for a Darcyholic Holiday eBook Festival.
More Information to come, but send me an email at
barbaratillercole@gmail.com if you are an author and would like to
participate!!
Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:
August 24--Pamela Aidan
August 26--Reposting Decatur Book Festival Author Links!
August 28--Jack Caldwell
August 31--Decatur Book Festival Eve!
September 2--Live from the Decatur Book Festival
September 4--Fun Stories from the DBF
September 7--Jack Caldwell's Experiences at the DBF
September 11--Karen Cox's Experiences at the DBF
September 14--Mary Simonsen
September 18--Amber G.
September 18--Amber G.
September 21--Moira B.
November 2--Amy Patterson
November 13--Karen Doornebos
And Many more to come!
Sally is giving away a copy of The Man Who Loved Jane Austen and a future copy of Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen! Comments count as entries, but additional chances
will be given for joining this site, tweeting this post, joining this site as a member via Google Friend Connect (GFC) (See the left hand column on the blog to join!), sharing this on Facebook or your blog, Friend Barbara Tiller Cole on Facebook, clicking 'like’ on Barbara Tiller Cole, Author's Facebook page, Join Darcyholic Diversions Facebook Page or following BarbTCole on Twitter.
Who was Mr. Darcy?
In reading biographies of Jane Austen it becomes apparent
that the famed author based virtually all of the characters in her books on the
people in her life. Some, like friends and family, were people with whom she
was very close, some were neighbors, others were merely passing acquaintances
and very likely there were people she had never met but had observed.
In Pride and Prejudice
for example Mr. Bennet seems to have been based on Jane’s father, most
particularly her relationship with him. So, too, the close bond Jane had with
her sister Cassandra is reflected in Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth and
Jane’s intimate friendship.
The one character that most Austen biographers have never
been able to identify is Mr. Darcy. There are many theories, of course, but
unlike virtually all her other characters Mr. Darcy remains an enigma.
To me Mr. Darcy always seemed more a modern man than a
Regency aristocrat. Here was a man whose offer of marriage was rejected, and
none too gently, by a woman he deemed inferior. Later admitting to anger,
certainly a natural human reaction he still looks into himself and decides she
was right. He is a jerk. Determining that she isn’t inferior at all he sets out
to change that part of him that made Elizabeth Bennet, a woman worth pleasing,
not at all pleased with him and does so with no expectation of any kind other
than to better himself.
In an era when women were second class citizens, to be used
by rich and powerful men as bargaining chips, chattel to bear
heirs to keep the wealth and power in the family, Jane Austen’s men where
exceedingly unusual; the men in her books and in her life. Her father and
brothers encouraged and supported her writing. Her heroes loved women who were
strong and intelligent.
Mr. Darcy was different in 1813 when the literary world met
him for the first time and he is different today. Even among Austen’s own
heroes he is different. A man of his stature and wealth would very likely, even
today, have simply walked away from a rejection such as Elizabeth’s. But he is
dissatisfied with himself and makes a concerted effort to change. Quite frankly
there aren’t that many modern men who would do that. Darcy is the ultimate
romantic leading man because he altered his perceptions and won the woman he
loved. How Austen came to write so uncommon a man for any time intrigued me and
sent me on the journey that brought about the creation of The Man Who Loved Jane Austen.
In the late 1990s my late husband and I vacated our home at
the recommendation of the Health Department because the house was harboring
toxic mold. In an attempt to redirect what had become an obsession with the
house and resulting law suit, we sat down one night and watched the wonderful
Andrew Davies adaptation of Pride and Prejudice;
all six hours of it in one sitting. (One of the advantages of having grown
children… no interruptions). Somehow this wonderful interpretation of Pride and Prejudice made it easier to
not obsess about toxic mold.
In continuing our non-obsession plan I re-read Pride and Prejudice and then all of
Austen’s other writings and became fascinated with the author herself. Not only
had she created the inimitable Mr. Darcy but six strong, independent
(particularly for their time) women and men who loved them for those qualities
and not in spite of them.
By the time I had finished reading all six of Austen’s
novels and three biographies Mike was ready to start a new project and
suggested that we resurrect a time travel story I’d started a few years before
but never finished. Just couldn’t decide where I wanted the story to go. So I
suggested something else entirely and The
Man Who Loved Jane Austen was born.
I wanted to do a ‘what-if’ story about who Mr. Darcy really
was; a 21st century man who accidentally slips through a rip in the
fabric of time and wakes up in Jane Austen’s bed. Unbeknownst to him, he
becomes her muse, the embodiment of one of the most quixotic heroes in English
literature.
In our hands Darcy became a Virginia horse breeder whose
family history stretches back to the revolution. On a trip to England to
purchase, Lord Nelson, a champion jumper, Darcy is injured when thrown from the
horse. So begins his journey to 1810.
Even though a lot of people like a love story to end
unhappily, like The Way We Were or tragically, like Message in a Bottle, I
wanted our story to have a happy ending and a happy ending needed a modern
woman.
Meet Eliza Knight, successful New York artist (because we
didn’t want another Cinderella). Eliza triggers the story in The Man Who Loved Jane Austen when she
finds two letters behind an antique vanity mirror. One is an open letter from
an F. Darcy to Jane Austen and the other a sealed letter to Fitzwilliam Darcy
from Jane Austen.
Even though Mike was a published author (dark fiction as
Michael O’Rourke and political thrillers as F.M. O’Rourke) we made no attempt
to get the book published and I can’t really tell you why. I don’t know if time
has stripped me of the memory or if it just wasn’t important. We had written
the book for us. Mike called it the ultimate valentine because it came out of
the love we had for each other. So after completing the manuscript, we
type-set, printed and hand-bound copies of it and gave them as gifts to family
and friends. Then my world crashed and burned. In November 2001, two weeks
before his sixtieth birthday Mike died suddenly; we had not gotten out of the
house soon enough.
The Man Who Loved Jane
Austen sat on the shelf for several years while I struggled through the
grief and worked at putting my life back together. Once I was thinking straight
again I realized that I didn’t want our little story to die with Mike.
The Man Who Loved Jane
Austen was published in 2006. The publisher didn’t want two names on the
cover (which was how I had presented it) and preferred the one name be mine as
I would be doing revisions and promotions. So only my name appears on the cover
of the book. I often regret not insisting that Mike’s name be used as a tribute
to him. But regret serves no useful purpose and people from all over the world
have read and enjoyed his work and that had been my objective.
One of the things I’ve always considered odd is that no
journals or diaries written by Jane Austen have survived. Did she not keep any
because she was busy writing fiction or were they destroyed, like so many of
her letters, by her family’s misguided attempt to protect her legacy?
Whatever the reason, I thought it might be fun to create a
journal chronicling the Spring of 1810 when Jane met Fitz Darcy, from her point
of view. But who was I to write as though I was Jane Austen?!?
Instead I decided to write a story that takes place for
Jane, the summer of 1813 after the successful publication of Pride and Prejudice and for Darcy the
week following his heritage Rose Ball from the end of The Man Who Loved Jane Austen.
When New York artist Eliza Knight buys an old vanity table
one lazy Sunday afternoon, she has no idea of its history. Tucked away behind
the mirror are two letters. One is sealed; the other, dated May 1810, is
addressed to 'Dearest Jane' from 'F. Darcy' - as in Fitzwilliam Darcy, the
fictional hero of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Could one of
literature's most compelling characters been a real person? More intriguing
still, scientific research testing proves that the second, sealed letter was
written by Jane herself. Caught between the routine of her present life and
these incredible discoveries from the past, Eliza decides to look deeper and is
drawn to a majestic, 200-year-old estate in Virginia's breathtaking Shenandoah
Valley. There she meets the man who may hold the answer to this extraordinary
puzzle. Now, as the real story of Fitzwilliam Darcy unfolds, Eliza finds her
life has become a modern-day romance, one that perhaps only Jane herself could
have written.
YOURS AFFECTIONATELY, JANE AUSTEN
Releasing September 29, 2012
Was Mr. Darcy real? Is time travel really possible? For
pragmatic Manhattan artist Eliza Knight the answer to both questions is
absolutely Yes! And Fitzwilliam Darcy of Pemberley Farms, Virginia is the
reason why!
His tale of love and romance in Regency England leaves Eliza
in no doubt that Fitz Darcy is the embodiment of Jane Austen’s legendary hero.
And she’s falling in love with him. But can the man who loved the inimitable
Jane Austen ever love average, ordinary Eliza Knight?
Eliza’s doubts grow, perhaps out of proportion, when things
start to happen in the quiet hamlet of Chawton, England; events that could
change everything. Will the beloved author become the wedge that divides Fitz
and Eliza or the tie that binds them?
Nestled in a coastal inlet a few miles north of Newport,
Rhode Island, Freedman's Cove is known for its superb seafood, its
postcard-pretty waterfront, and its exquisite Victorian homes - a legacy of the
town's past as a summer resort for wealthy families. Manhattan antiques
appraiser Susan Marks inherited one of these ornate mansions from her great
aunt. After suffering a devastating loss, she retreats to Freedman's Cove to
nurse her grief.Three months have passed since the corporate plane piloted by
Susan's lover, Bobby Hayward, disappeared at sea, but still Susan dreams nightly
of his safe return. Her days are filled with memories of Bobby's mischievous
blue eyes, his sensual touch, and the sheer zest for living that he imparted to
every moment of their time together.Amid the bracing sea air and familiar
surroundings of the town where she spent happy childhood summers, Susan starts
to recover her peace of mind - until she awakens one night to see an ethereal
figure standing at her window. More curious than afraid, Susan is immediately
intrigued by the ghost of this sad and beautiful young girl who gazes out at
"The Maidenstone Lighthouse". Delving into the story of her
ancestor's tragic death brings Susan into contact with Dan Freedman, a local
historian and famed artist who was once the town's teenage rebel. But even as
the hours spent with Dan awaken Susan's hope that she could someday find love
again, the startling truth behind a century-old mystery emerges to shed a
beacon of light on dangerous shadows in Susan's own past...and in her present.
With its rough gray shingles and weathered slate roof, Sea
Pines cottage seems, at first glance, past its prime. But inside this remote
fisherman's house, a driftwood fire crackles in the fireplace, brightly colored
rugs cover the floor, and cozy cushions dot the worn, welcoming furniture. A
young man named Robert has retreated after the war, planning to spend his days
writing, tending to the local lighthouse, and nursing his injuries. For
company, he adopts a young Golden Retriever puppy named Meteor.
Robert and Meteor spend months in quiet companionship, until
the day Robert rescues a young woman from a storm at sea. Strong-willed and
intelligent, Laura sees past Robert's injuries to the proud, passionate man
beneath, and--with some matchmaking help from Meteor--they begin a new life
together at the cottage. But even Meteor's tireless devotion can't protect his
cherished family from all of life's unexpected challenges--hurdles that will
teach each of them lessons of courage, faith, friendship, and the enduring love
that can sustain us through life's coldest seasons.
Visit Sally Smith O'Rourke at the Following Sites:
This is a wonderful idea for a story. I have always wished that Jane Austen had a true love of her own, someone who was *her* Mr Darcy in real life. Thank you for writing this, and I'm glad you and Mike had fun writing this together.
ReplyDeletePS to Barb - Barb, I follow you on Twitter and Facebook and in real life. You are so lucky that you'll be meeting all these authors in person!
I am friends on facebook
ReplyDeleteI like authors page on facebook
ReplyDeleteI follow on twitter
ReplyDeleteI like Darcgjolics Diversions facebook page
ReplyDeleteI tweeted this post
ReplyDeleteI am so looking forward to your new book! I read the man who loved jane austen within a couple days!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story and inspiration behind writing The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, Sally. This book has been added to my wish list.
ReplyDeleteGFC follower: Lúthien84
Share on blog: http://forloveofausten.blogspot.com/2012/08/austenesque-book-giveaways-for-20-26.html
Friend Barbara on FB: Sylvia Claire Chan
Like Barbara's FB page: Sylvia Claire Chan
Join DD FB group: Sylvia Claire Chan
Thank you so much, Sally, for sharing the birth of "The Man Who Loved Jane Austen". What an inspiring story.
ReplyDeleteI love time travel and the ideas behind the books. Thank you so much for the giveaway!
Barbara, I am following your Twitter, subscribed to your personal and author FB pages (as Lori Johnston Hedgpeth) and requested to join the DD FB group.
Happy Wednesday!
wonderful gifts of writing! TY for sharing with us both story and background... and entirely pleased you "wanted our story to have a happy ending"!
ReplyDeleteI follow on Twitter @asoftheday
ReplyDeleteI like you on FB.
ReplyDeleteI follow on GFC.
ReplyDeleteI like your author page on FB.
ReplyDeleteThe "ultimate valentine". Wow!
ReplyDeleteThe books sound interesting, especially the time travel aspect. When I watch shows on H.G.T.V. and there is a house with a terrible mold problem, they have to rip out a lot of stuff.
ReplyDeleteI like the puppy on the Sea Pines book. I'm a cat lover but I like any kind of animal in a book.
spookycat72(at)gmail(dot)com
GFC - Michelle Fidler
Twitter - MichelleFidler1
I have done all the Facebook stuff.