A Tea Time Chat with Brigid Huey

A Tea Time Chat with Brigid Huey

by Barbara Tiller Cole and Brigid Huey

It is always a delight for me to get to know a new Austen inspired Author.  I was very grateful to have the opportunity to chat over virtual tea with Brigid Huey, author of the recently released A Chance Encounter in Pemberley Woods, during her blog tour. Discovering a fresh new author with an intriguing variation has been a treat!  And even more is that we now live just about an hour from each other and hope to make our virtual tea a real one soon!  Take time to read the post below.  Comment below and don’t forget to enter the rafflecopter drawings!  

Grab a Fresh Cup of Tea and a Scone and Join Us For Our Chat

Cole:  Hi Brigid. I’m glad to have the opportunity to get to know you today. It’s always a pleasure to meet any Jane Austen enthusiast. But even more so a new author.

Huey:  Hello Barbara and thank you for having me!

Cole:  You are from Cincinnati I understand. Have you lived there all of your life.

Huey:  I have lived here since I was 7 years old, so it feels like it's been all my life. I was born in New York and lived in New Jersey until we moved here. My husband and I did live in St. Louis, MO for three years, but decided to move back after we graduated from college.

Cole:  So you are a true Cincinnati native!  I am an born and bred Atlanta girl but met my husband while in grad school in Louisville. And we just moved to Crestwood, KY (outside of Louisville) in April.

So somewhere along the line we should get together for a real cup of tea.

Huey:  Oh wow! So you're new to the area. I've been in Cincinnati now for over twenty years.
Well over 20 actually!

Cole:  My husband is a Louisville native. He’s very excited to be back home. And has family here. So I’ve spent a good bit of time here. In fact I drove through Cincinnati a month ago to help a friend get home whose car died.

I have eaten at Skyline Chili!  And I have been to a Reds game. Lol! 

Huey:  Haha. Good, you've hit up some classic Cincinnati things then.

Cole:  Absolutely. So tell me a bit about your family.

Huey:  My husband and I met when I was in high school. He was a freshman in college. We got married ridiculously young (I was 22!) while still in college. Now we have two kids, Evy is 9 and Tris is 5. We also have two chickens!

Cole:  Are they pets? The chickens I mean. Lol. Do you get fresh eggs regularly

Huey:  Yes, they are very much pets. Two bantam hens, Cookies and Chicky. They have just started laying! It's pretty exciting. My kids will come running in the house with the egg to show me! Actually, I just ordered three more birds to add to our little flock. So we'll have chicks soon! I love them.

Cole:  Very nice. Our neighbors two doors down have chickens. I just have a dog. But our property has deer, a ground hog, bunnies and a feral cat.

So how did you first discover Jane Austen’s books?

Huey:  Back in 1995 my dad heard about the BBC adaptation and made a point to have us all watch it. Both my parents were already fans of Jane Austen, but I had never seen or heard anything about her. We all sat down to watch an episode each night. I was hooked. I was 13, so I don't think I read the book right away. I've read Pride and Prejudice so many times now, I can't remember the first time!

I also fell in love with Emma when that movie came out. My parents took me to see it in the theater. Swoon!

Cole:  I love Jeremy Northam!  Not as much as much as Colin Firth!  But there are days when Darcy betas Mr Knightley just by a nose. Lol.

So when did you discover Austen fan fiction ?

Huey:  A couple of years ago I was searching for Jane Austen on my library's e-reader app. A few variations came up and I was intrigued. I borrowed one because I was currious, and I was hooked. The library really only had about ten or so though. So I went online in search of more, and discovered a whole new world!

That favorite story is "Yours Forevermore, Darcy" by Kara Lynn Mackrory, by the way.  I am a fan of all four of her books.

Cole:  Yes! It is a whole new world indeed. Did you post your story online first ?

Huey:  No, I didn't. One of my favorite Austen variations was published by Meryton Press. After I had written my story, I thought, "Why not try?"

Cole:  Oo. Interesting. Originally all of Merytons books were originally posted on their site.  Exciting that they are expanding.

Well, I am very glad that you did try reaching out to Meryton.  I saw your lovely cover recently!  It’s gorgeous!

Huey:  Thank you! Janet Taylor did such an amazing job! It was so wonderful working with her.

Cole:  Janet does do an amazing job!  And she just keeps getting better and better!!

So what was your inspiration for your book.

Huey:  It’s kind of strange. It just popped into my head. So I was at a friend's house watching my son climb a pine tree. It was a grey, blustery day. Kind of drizzly. And I just started daydreaming about Mr. Darcy (you know, the way we do). I could picture him flying off his horse in concern for Elizabeth.

The rest came from there!

Cole:  Well it was a surprising and intriguing beginning to Elizabeth At Pemberley. I don’t officially review other authors works being another author. But I enjoyed your book a great deal.  I won’t give away any spoilers, but I enjoyed the first chapter set up!

What specifically would you like readers to know about your story before they read it. Or to tease them to do so.

Huey:  I'm going to answer this as a reader of romance. I would like my readers to know that after a little trouble, happiness abounds!

Cole:  Always good to let people know that!

I understand you also home school your children. Do the book keeping for your husbands chiropractic practice. Make jewelry and still have time to write. A most accomplished woman.

Are you Wonder Woman ? Lol

Huey:  Haha! No, not at all! I think I am able to do all this because my husband and I work very much as a team. The jewelry business started as an artistic outlet after my daughter was born. Also, my husband understands that as an introvert, I need quiet alone time to recharge.

So every Thursday he takes over the homeschool lessons and I head to the coffee house to write.

I do it because I enjoy it so much! And I can be in my own little world.

Cole:  A friend of mine home schooled her daughter and she wrote a P&P variation about Lydia when she was 15.

Nice that your husband supports you like that. I was unable to have children of my own but have had many who call me their ideal mom.

I loved your jewelry. I saw a Cinderella piece. Have you thought about doing Jane Austen themed pieces.

Huey:  Yes! I do have several in the shop right now. There is a necklace for Miss Darcy, hair pins for Jane Bennet, and I believe a pair of earrings for Mrs. Darcy. I create jewelry based on characters from literature. It's so much fun to imagine what a character might like.

I actually do craft fairs and shows locally, so I have a lot more inventory than what's online. The challenging part for me is taking all the pictures and uploading everything. Too much computer work!

Cole:  Yes I can imagine that can be a challenge.  I am going to include a link to your Etsy shop so people can visit and find your Jane Austen inspired pieces like ‘Miss Bennett’ and Miss Croft’ !  (Link:  Brigid Huey’s Etsy Jewelry Shop)

Do you have any upcoming writing projects you would like to hint at?

Huey:  I am currently working on a couple of projects actually! I just finished the first round of edits for a romance novel set in the near future. Not Jane Austen based, but still a lot of fun to write. I do have a story in my head that marries Pride and Prejudice and the classic Cinderella story. I actually wrote my senior thesis on fairy tales in Jane Austen works! So I'd like to write a more obvious Cinderella version of P&P.

Oh! And I want to expand the vignette I wrote this summer for the Meryton Press Summer Blog series into a novel. I have some good ideas for mystery and intrigue

Cole:  That’s exciting! I love the Cinderella story. And have enjoyed movie versions. From the Rogers and Hammerstein musical. To Ever After and some of the Disney ones.

Huey:  I love Ever After!!

Cole:  By the way can I refill your virtual tea cup?

Huey:  Yes, please! And an extra scone, if I may.

Cole:  Of course.  Tell me more about the vignette you wrote and how you might expand that.

Huey:  The vignette is about Darcy and Elizabeth traveling to an idyllic place in England, Rydal Mount. It's a beautiful home surrounded by gardens. They go and enjoy the scenery and each other's company. But I would like to expand it into a story involving espionage and family secrets!

Cole:  Sounds very intriguing indeed. I have enjoyed some of the mystery Austen variations!  Anything else you would like our readers to know ?

Huey:  I would just like to extend my gratitude for the warm welcome I have received from my fellow readers and writers. It has been such a pleasure getting to know so many new friends!

Cole:  It’s been a pleasure to get to know you. I look forward to a face to face visit in the hopefully not too distant future.

Huey:  Thank you! Me too!

Cole:  Thanks again for visiting. And I thank Meryton and Janet for asking me to be a part of this.

To all of you who have enjoyed this interview, please check out Brigid’s links.  Be sure and comment below!  And please link my author page and join this blog!  And lastly, don’t forget to follow the rafflecopter link to enter the drawings for this blog tour event! 

Blurb:

A surprise meeting

A baby alone in the woods

And a second chance at love

Fitzwilliam Darcy returns to his beloved Pemberley with one thing on his mind ̶ to forget Elizabeth Bennet. Riding ahead of his party and racing a storm, he happens upon the very woman he wants to avoid. To his astonishment, she is holding a baby whose name and parentage are unknown.

Elizabeth Bennet never dreamed she had wandered into Pemberley’s Woods on her afternoon walk. But when she finds an infant alone in the storm, she turns to the last man in the world she wants to see ̶ and the only one who can help them both.

As the mystery of the baby’s identity intensifies, Elizabeth finds Mr. Darcy to be quite the reverse of what she expected. But when the child’s family is discovered, will the truth bring them together, or tear them apart?

Author Bio:

Brigid has been in love with Jane Austen since first seeing the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice as a young girl. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two kids, and spends her free time reading and writing. This is her first Pride and Prejudice variation, though many others live in her imagination.

Contact Info:

Website:  https://brigidhuey.com/

Facebook Author Page:  https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBrigidHuey/ 

Email:  brigidhueywrites@gmail.com

Instagram:  @brigidhueywrites

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/BrigidHuey

Buy:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Blog Tour Schedule

September 9   – So little time…

September 10 – Darcyholic Diversions

September 11 – Interests of a Jane Austen Girl

September 12 – Savvy Verse & Wit

September 13 – Babblings of a Bookworm

September 14 – My Love for Jane Austen

September 15 – My Life Journey

September 16 – Austenesque Reviews

September 17 – Half Agony, Half Hope

September 18 – Diary of an Eccentric

September 19 – From Pemberley to Milton   

September 20 – My Jane Austen Book Club

September 21 – My Vices and Weaknesses

Rafflecopter Giveaway link

Heart To Heart With Heather

Heart to Heart With Heather

By Heather Moll and Barbara Tiller Cole

It is my pleasure to host heather on her current blog tour.  I remember first reading Heather’s newest book when she was posting it on the Austen boards. It is always a treat to have one of the authors I have come to know publish!  I am very happy for her and hope you will enjoy our conversation. Be sure to read the entire interview and go to the bottom for more information about winning one of Heathers book!  Extra points for joining my blog, and/or commenting on this interview.

BTC:  Hi Heather.  I am so glad to be visiting with you!  And that is what I like to do with my interviews.   It is much more fun to read if sound like we just sat down to chat over tea and biscuits.

Heather: I love the idea of having more of a conversation than filling out a bunch of answers in a questionnaire. I'm happy to start here.  

BTC:  I remember reading your story ‘way back in the day’ in my first couple years on the JAFF boards and enjoyed it then!  And I enjoyed reading the not published version.  Seeing a finished product after living with a story a week at a time is very exciting for the author and for the reader.  Did I read it at Hyancith Gardens or AHA?

Heather: I'm flattered you remember reading my story. I posted it 8 years ago on AHA, a few years after I discovered both Jane Austen and fan fiction. So, I haven't quite been in the Austen fanfic world long enough to have been at HG, but close. This publishing project has been fun for me in a lot of ways, but particularly because I hadn't thought about this story in a long time even though it means a lot to me. It's the first piece of fiction I ever wrote.

BTC:  I know that feeling of birthing your book and that freedom to think about doing something else!  Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Heather: Telling you a little bit about me will begin to answer about how I found Austen and started writing. I live in a suburb in upstate New York, the same town I grew up in.

BTC:  Upstate New York has a very special place in my heart as my husband found THE center of excellence for his cancer in Rochester.  Now, did you always plan to go to school and return to your home town?

Heather:  I didn't plan it that way, but as I was finishing graduate school in archives and records management and planning on what city I wanted to move to, I met and married my husband.

BTC:  Well returning home for the love of your life makes a LOT of sense.  Were you high school sweethearts?

Heather:  No, we met when I was away at school.   But he had a house two miles from my parents' home and he's in a narrow career field: there isn't exactly a need for nuclear engineers or nuclear physicists in every town in America. We liked the area, he had a great job, I could find work nearby; it just made sense to stay. That was in 2006. I worked in newspaper preservation at the NYS library and then worked in a small-town library until I decided to stay home with my son in 2010. Since he's started elementary school I volunteer at the school library a few days a week.

BTC:  I am always curious how people find Jane Austen’s books in the first place.  I found my first variation back when I was in high school. I don’t remember what it was but my mom found it and brought it to me, so excited that she had found a Pride and Prejudice Part 2!  I wish I could have talked to her about it and when I was first writing.    My Mom passed in 2005 and was gone before I started writing myself.  It was part of my therapy to start with.  I can’t remember when I found my first JAFF story online but I know it was between 2001 when I had surgery and my friend loaned me her P&P VHS tapes and when I spent many hours helping my husband recovery from his cancer surgeries. I was hooked by then and that was 2005.   I actually saw the 2005 P&P while my husband was still in the hospital in Rochester.  So Heather, tell me your story of how you found Austen and variations. 

Heather:  Even though I was a European history major, a librarian, an avid reader, and Anglophile, I didn't read Austen until 2005. I know, it's a crime. I had no idea what I was missing. And whenever I'm happily deep down in the Austen rabbit hole (writing, Elizabeth Bennet England tour with a friend, ordering a regency gown, researching, JASNA, being on AHA, etc) and my husband either teases or tries to get me to do other things, I can say it's his fault.   

BTC:  Thanks, by the way, for sharing some of the pictures from your Austen tour of England which are weaved in and out of this entire post!   And we will talk more about that in just a bit.   But go back. I want to know how you can blame your husband for your Jane Austen obsession.

Heather:  Here's why--He thought he'd earn some points in 2005 by taking me to see Pride and Prejudice because it seemed like a romantic date movie, but I wasn't about to see a movie that was based on a book without reading it first. I think they teach you that day 1 of librarian school ;).  I got a copy from the library and that was the beginning. I fell in love with the clever dialogue, the humorous secondary characters, as well as the two good but flawed characters who become better people and deserve one another. It was a slippery slope from there!  (No, I didn’t like the movie.  Beautiful imagery, but too many things were different from the book.  Give me the 95 version any day of the week!)

BTC:  Now you are not going to get an argument from me!  As I am a Colin Firth Darcy fan!  But then again, I did once begin a war!  Maybe we could begin it again! 

Heather: I think I'd even take David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie over 2005. But if that's too inflammatory for your readers we don't have to print that ;). No need to start a brawl.)

BTC:  As you can see Heather, I did include your comments!  Now if you had been on the other side of the Darcy war I may not have!  :)

Heather:  It's interesting to me that writing was a way for you to grieve for and connect with your memories of your mom, and I started writing to find an identity outside of my role as mom. I do think that our personal lives, our families, can't help but have an impact on how and what we write. I suspect most people in this fandom can remember either the story or the situation that drew them in. 

BTC:  I suspect that you are correct about that.  That there is something that drew the majority of us in and healed something within us.

Heather:  I know it's only been a few paragraphs, but I feel like I've been chattering about myself FOREVER. I'm an introvert and I'm not used to yet confessing that I write Austen fanfic, so if we were at a party, you would have gotten my name, my husband's job, my kid's age, and that I'm a stay at home mom. And I would have asked all about you and you would have left without knowing anything about my loving Jane Austen or writing a book or that I'm perpetually stuck halfway through a couch to 5k training app. 

BTC:  Well, I personally think that making an interview into a conversation makes an author feel more comfortable.  So I personally am glad that you are chattering!  Additionally, I admire anyone who is committed to training for a 5k!  You mentioned Austen’s secondary characters.  Any particular favorites amongst them?

Heather:  Each novel has their own character or two that I just have to laugh at because they add so much humor through their absurdities. Not the villains or the plot devices, but the sort of characters where readers can really get their personalities through just a few lines.  I guess Miss Bates might be my favorite, the 'great talker on little matters'. I love how Austen just lets her loose on the narrative from beginning to end. She's a bore, and we're all made uncomfortable by how she goes on, but her monologues show us what's going on behind the scenes in Emma. I think that's brilliant writing and I can't help hate Emma a little bit for the way that she treats Miss Bates while she's on her road to self-discovery. 

BTCole:  Do you want to tell us anything more about where you live in upstate New York? 

Heather:  I live near Albany, about 3 or 4 hours east of Rochester. Northwest New York is a lovely area, but I can't imagine is has many happy memories for you. Two months is a very long time to uproot your life and be a care giver. I'm so pleased to hear that the team in Rochester were able to save your husband. I'm always cheered to hear stories of survivors. 

I was a history major in college, so I spent a lot of time with the research librarians, and I decided that I wanted to be the one to find and catalog and preserve those original materials to make them available to researchers. But I don't have any regrets as to staying where we did. I'm close to my parents, and my son gets to know his grandparents. At the time, I didn't want to go through the stress of finishing my degree, getting married, and selling my husband's house and both of us moving across the country to find new jobs all within a few months of each other. After we were married, my husband always said we could move if I found a job. I had a list of cities where he would be able to find work and there certainly were libraries or archives nearby. But I realized I was happy where I was, and moving away just to prove a point that I could move away and be an archivist seemed ridiculous. 

BTC:  Well, there is a wonderful part of coming back home.  I am now living in Louisville KY which is my husband’s home.  He is thrilled to be back here and it is beautiful so I am grateful to be here!

BTC:  Do you forsee reentering the work field at some point?  Or do you have the writers bug and want to just do that?

Heather:  I get a variant of this question a lot: "Now that your son is in school all day, are you going to get a real job"? I sigh and smile politely. Sometimes the tone behind the question (and I don't mean to imply it all in your case, Barb!) is that I have done no work for the past 9 years, but now I'm free to finally DO something. That raising my son doesn't have the same value as if I worked and got a paycheck. I want to be the one to put my son on the school bus, and I want to be the one here when he gets home. I like volunteering in the school to see all the kids and so the teachers know me (his school has 600 students, the district as a whole 10,000). And, I like having a few days a week free between 8 and 2 in order to write. So, I'm content to let the masters degree hang on the wall while I re-teach myself how to add fractions to get through math homework and write happy endings for Darcy and Elizabeth. 

BTC:  Well, I am glad I didn’t offend you.  I am not like Carolyn Bingley!  I certainly don’t want something in the manner of my speaking to offend anyone!  Anything particular you would like to let us know about the book itself?

Heather:  I can honestly say that Mrs. Bennet in the book has not inspired by my attitudes toward an identity beyond parenting! I think she's irrational and willfully disregards the feelings of others. Not that she deserves to be mocked by her husband or has no a reason to fear for her daughters' futures. Both she and her concerns are cruelly dismissed by Mr. Bennet. But that doesn't change the fact that she misbehaves, she won't save money for her children, she openly prefers some of her children over the others, and she's self-absorbed.

What did inspire me to write was being at home with a new baby after quitting my library job and wanting something outside the feed-clean-play-nap routine. I thought that I could write a little drabble to post on AHA, and I always liked those quicker resolution after Hunsford short stories. The one problem with those for me was you never got to see the hard work Darcy and Elizabeth had to do after that to get to the happy ever after. It was implied that it would happen, but I wanted to see those discussions and know their thought processes. I thought I would spend a few nap times setting up how they could get to Longbourn after Kent, something cute and fun and short. But after several thousand words they were still in London! I really wanted to get right how Darcy and Elizabeth would have to both reform and see the other in a better light to get a realistic and faster HEA. From there I quickly saw possible implications for trouble with Lydia's trip to Brighton if Darcy and Elizabeth had begun to reconcile, and what started as project for a day or two turned into something much more.

BTC:  Ok back to the Regency gown you mentioned!  I have been looking at patterns myself!  Now that I live in Louisville I need to have one for the annual Jane Austen Festival here!

Heather:  I don't have my regency gown yet. The picture on the cover of His Choice of a Wife is by a woman with a store called RegencyCouture and she is going to make me one. I should be all set for an AGM promenade. Or, maybe just around the house. I do have pictures of me in a gown from my trip to England in June, but that one wasn't made for me (it's way too short!). Lyme Park (P&P 95 exterior) had a costume department and you could dress up complete with gloves, bonnet, reticule, and shawl.

BTC: Well it is a lovely picture of you!  I envy you your trip!  I was in England in the late 80’s but it was before my Austen obsession started!  I was based in York while my husband was working there for several weeks and had a BritRail pass I will I had utilized more!  But I did see some lovely things! Tell us more about your tour.

Heather:  What my dear friend has called the Elizabeth Bennet Tour was our attempt to see "all the celebrated beauties of Matlock, Chatsworth, Dovedale (and) the Peak." We spent five days in Derbyshire and visited Dovedale, Lyme Park, Matlock Bath, Chatsworth, and Haddon Hall. We stayed in Bakewell, a possible inspiration for Lambton, and everything was absolutely stunning. Not to mention all the inspiration for future stories! I would go back tomorrow if I could. I attached a few pictures (I have hundreds!). You can include any that you think readers will be interested in.

BTC:  I think some of my favorite scenes in your book were when Darcy interacted with the Gardiner children.

Heather:  It caught my interest that you mentioned Darcy's interactions with the Gardiner children because I hadn't thought about it before. In fact, there's an extra scene that I wrote during editing that included the Gardiner children, so taken altogether Darcy does have quite a few discussions with them. Children are guileless, and Darcy can be so honest and resentful of deception that it does seem like a good fit.

BTC:  Any other hobbies you would like to share?

Heather:  Beyond researching regency era carriages or what certain words mean now versus what they meant in 1812? Beyond writing and editing? Like, hobbies that people outside this fandom could understand? I'm perpetually behind in scrapbooking, my bowling average is 160, and I 'jog' on the treadmill, which means I briskly walk while I wonder if I'll ever be able to run 5k. 

BTC:  Anything else you would like to tell us about your book?

Heather: Aside from writing a unique variation that came from the desire to see a quicker resolution after Hunsford, I think another theme is how women then, and even now, bear the consequences of anything deemed to be misconduct whereas the man involved moves on without having to take any responsibility. Lydia is thought to have 'come upon the town' and her entire family is on the brink of scandal when she runs off with Wickham, but his reputation for gambling and womanizing doesn't bar him from anything. Maria Rushworth runs off with Henry Crawford and ends up being hidden away for the rest of her life, but Henry can still flit around town. Willoughby seduces Eliza Williams, gets her pregnant, and abandons her, and even though his aunt and Colonel Brandon hold him accountable, he's still allowed to move in polite society. Women bear any and all repercussions, be isolated and bring scandal to their entire families, whereas the men can do as they please and are welcome almost anywhere. His Choice of a Wife touches on this double standard and I think in some ways it shows how much things have improved and yet how that double standard is still very much relevant in our culture today 200 years later.

BTC:  Heather I think that is a fascinating subject!  I would like for you to come back and visit with me again and we can have more of a general discussion about Jane Austen then and now and the role of women in her stories.  She, herself, was a successful unmarried writer.  And while her true success was not until after her death, I think she did a great deal to former the rights of women. 

Thank you so much for visiting with us today!

His Choice of a Wife Blog Tour Media Kit

Front cover photograph of Heather Moll’s book courtesy and copyright RegencyCouture, Regency fashion for today's Jane Austenista!

Blurb:

When a man’s honor is at stake, what is he willing to risk for the woman he loves?

After a disastrous marriage proposal and the delivery of an illuminating letter, Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet hope never to lay eyes on one another again. When a chance meeting in Hunsford immediately throws them in each other’s way, Darcy realizes his behavior needs correcting, and Elizabeth starts to appreciate his redeeming qualities. But is it enough to forgive the past and overcome their prejudices?

Jane and Bingley’s possible reconciliation and Lydia’s ill-conceived trip to Brighton pose their own challenges for two people struggling to find their way to love. When scandalous news threatens their chance at happiness, will Darcy and Elizabeth’s new bond be shattered, or will their growing affection hold steadfast?

Author Bio:

Heather Moll is an avid reader with a B.A. in European history and a M.A. in library science, so it is astonishing that she did not discover Jane Austen until her late-twenties. Making up for lost time, she devoured all of Austen’s novels, her letters, and unpublished works, joined JASNA, and spent far too much time researching the Regency era. She is thrilled to have found fellow Janeites and the JAFF community, if only to prove that her interests aren’t so strange after all. Heather is a former librarian turned stay-at-home mother who struggles to find time for all of the important things, like reading and writing.

Contact Info:

Facebook Author Page:  https://www.facebook.com/HeatherMollAuthor/

Twitter Author Page:  https://twitter.com/HMollAuthor?lang=en

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/Heather-Moll/e/B07V5KLGB8/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Goodreads Page: https://www.goodreads.com/HeatherMoll 

Buy:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Blog Tour Schedule

July 25 More Agreeably Engaged

July 26 Babblings of a Bookworm

July 27 My Love for Jane Austen

July 28 Half Agony, Half Hope

July 29 Austenesque Reviews

July 30 From Pemberley to Milton

July 31 Savvy Verse & Wit

Aug. 1 Darcyholic Diversions

Aug. 2 Diary of an Eccentric

Aug. 3 Margie’s Must Reads

Aug. 5 So Little Time…

Aug. 6 My Vices and Weaknesses

Giveaway

Meryton Press is giving away 8 eBooks of Heather Moll’s His Choice of a Wife.

Rafflecopter:

Use the link below to go to rafflecopter on website.

Rafflecopter Link For Entering the Blog Tour Drawings!

A Very Austen Valentine Interview with Robin Helm and Wendi Sotis

A Very Austen Valentine Interview with Robin Helm and Wendi Sotis

by Barbara Tiller Cole

Please help me welcome Robin Helm and Wendi Sotis to Darcyholic Diversions today as we get to know them and their stories in the newest Austen Anthology, A Very Austen Valentine.  Be sure to comment and follow the rafflecopter link at the end of the post for a chance to win the give aways that are a part of the Blog Tour.

And now to visit with Robin and Wendi:

BTCOLE:  Wendi and Robin, I am so excited that you and Robin are visiting with us here at
Darcyholic Diversions today to chat a bit and talk about A Very Austen Valentine.  Let’s start with you Wendi.  Remind me where you are from and a little bit about your family.

Wendi Sotis

WS:  Hi Barbara! I’m thrilled to be here!  I grew up on Long Island, New York, USA, and have a BA in Psychology. I married my Mr. Darcy… goodness, it will be 30 years in April! We have triplets who just entered college this past fall. When they were very young and I needed a bit of mommy-time, I’d read. However, with
three toddlers, most times I would be only be able to get through a few sentences at a time before being interrupted, so I stuck with books that I knew very well, like re-reading Jane Austen’s novels.
BTCOLE:  Triplets! It is the first thing I remember about you!  Have you written a story where our couple has triplets yet?

WS:  I came this close to doing it once, but I decided to limit it to twins instead. Maybe someday!

BTCOLE:  Robin, let’s hear from you.  I understand that where you were born has a historical story in
itself.  Tell us about that.

RHELM:  I was born in Monroe, North Carolina, but lived five miles out of the small town of Pageland, South Carolina, until I was twenty-two. The house was part of what had been the tiny burg of Hornesboro during the
pre-Civil War era. General Sherman marched through there during that war, burning everything but the house. He used it to quarter his troops.

I went away to college in Winston-Salem, NC when I was eighteen, but I
always returned to the one hundred fifty year old plantation-style
farmhouse my family owned and renovated.
BTCOLE:  Wendi, How did you discover Jane Austen inspired writings?

WS:  I became interested in Jane Austen-Inspired fiction when a fellow mom of multiples, also a Janeite, told me she’d read a version of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s point-of-view, and I went online to search
for it. I struck gold by coming across a forum where people shared their stories. I was hooked instantly!
My story is similar yet completely different!  That feeling of striking gold though I certainly remember!  What was your initial inspiration to write Jane Austen inspired books? While reading Austen-inspired stories, I had a lot of ideas for stories of my own, but for a long time, I lacked the confidence to try writing one. One morning I woke up from an especially good story-idea-dream and decided I HAD to write it, so I did. It took a great deal of courage to actually post that story on the forum. To my surprise, people liked it! :-) I haven't stopped writing since. 

Robin Helm

BTCOLE:  Robin, How did you meet your own Austen man?

RH:  He’s from Michigan, and I’m a Southern girl. We met our freshman year at college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I actually remember the very first time I saw him, and I can’t say that about any other man.
He was sitting on a low wall with his girlfriend. I looked at that handsome, kind face and thought, “The good ones are always taken.” When we were twenty-two, we married, living in Winston-Salem for a year before we moved to Fort Lauderdale, taking a position at the first church we ministered in full-time.  At that time, he was a Music
Minister. Now, he’s a Senior Adult Pastor.

BTCOLE:  Attending the seminary myself I know that there are many things expected from the spouse of a minister.  What have your done for a living besides the responsibilities that are attached to being the
wife of a minister?

RH:  We lived in Fort Lauderdale for six years where I worked in a bank and for Holiday Inns. Larry and I then moved to Palatka (Florida) for eight years. I taught in two different Christian schools in Palatka. For the past twenty-seven years, we’ve been at the same church in Lancaster, South Carolina, about twenty-five miles from where I grew up. For seventeen of those years, I taught in a Christian school in my hometown.

I was a full-time schoolteacher for twenty-five years before I started writing. I taught music part-time in a charter school for eight years after I left the classroom. I founded a Music Academy at our church nine years ago, and I teach piano, flute, and (occasionally) organ. I’m also Associate in Music at our church.

BTCOLE:  Wendi, I haven’t had time to be active on forums for awhile now, but I do
remember reading the first story you posted online!  What inspired the
particular story you are writing about for this anthology?

WS:  When we decided the theme of this anthology to be Valentine’s Day, I started researching Valentine’s Day in Regency times. I found two “Valentine Writer” books that had been reprinted, one from 1780 and the other from 1794. Each has many verses to give young ladies and gentlemen ideas as to what they could write to their valentines. Everything else just filled in around the idea of using some of them in the story.

BTCOLE:  I enjoyed the history you shared in your story about Regency Valentines.  Your Colonel and Anne were definitely devious in how it came to be that Elizabeth received Valentines!  What was your favorite part of this story?

WS: Thanks! This question is so difficult to answer! I always seem to love the scene I’m writing at that moment the most.

BTCOLE:  I was intrigued by the Bingley’s empty townhouse!  Many stories speak of remodeling but I don’t honestly remember one that was empty!  Did you have dollhouses as a kid?  Do you particularly enjoy decorating?

WS:  I have to admit it was something I didn’t research (shame on me!), but I figured if the previous family sold their house instead of leasing it out, they would take most of their things with them, just like we would do now. I imagined the house would be pretty much empty at this stage. I had Barbie houses which mostly came with furniture built in, LOL! I do love to dress up the house at Christmas.

BTCOLE:  Robin, back to you.  How did you discover Jane Austen and Austen inspired literature?

RH:  As a student and later as a teacher, I have long loved the books Austen wrote, and I instilled that love in my husband, my daughters, and many of my students.

My sister Gayle and I were in Myrtle Beach at a teachers’ convention when she told me about the Austenesque books she’d found. I thought it was amazing, so we went to a book store, and I bought several of them. I was hooked immediately. I read all the Austenesque books Gayle had, as well as the ones I bought. Then, she introduced me to the online readers’ forums. I read on your forum, Barbara, and on A Happy
Assembly, Derbyshire Writers’ Guild, and Darcy & Lizzy. I now have my own readers/writers forum, Beyond Austen, I post my WIPs along with other like-minded authors.


BTCOLE:  What was your inspiration to write Austen inspired literature of your own?

RH:  Probably two years or so after that, I decided to write, and I settled on the idea of Darcy as Elizabeth’s guardian angel. There are many who think The Guardian Trilogy has nothing to do with Mr. Darcy, but in my
mind, it was a perfect fit. According to Scripture, Christ was made a little lower than the angels when He became human. That means that angels are higher beings than we are – just as Darcy had a higher place in society than Elizabeth Bennet did. Angels and humans aren’t supposed to marry, so loving Elizabeth in the way he did was
forbidden. He took a lower form to marry her. I think Xander (Fitzwilliam Alexander Darcy) is a good representation of the honorable gentleman from Derbyshire.

I posted Guardian, SoulFire, and Legacy on the same forums where I read. I recently put all three books in one volume – The Guardian Trilogy.

BTCOLE:  What inspired the particular story you are writing about for this anthology?

RH:  Actually, I Dream of You was the third story I wrote for the anthology. My original story was More to Love. It grew to fifty thousand words, and Laura Hile reminded me that our stories were supposed to be around twenty to thirty thousand words. She insisted that instead of cutting words from More to Love, it should be a
standalone, and she was right.

Immediately, I dropped More to Love (which I am now finishing), and began working on Maestro, a story close to my musician’s heart. I felt it so deeply that it is some of my best work, but again Laura balked. She told me Maestro deserved to be a full-length novel, not a short story. She was right. Again. (Don’t you just hate when that happens?)

After a few sleepless nights worrying about the looming deadline, she suggested I look back at one-shots and shorts I had written a few years before. When I did that, I came up with the concept of using Elizabeth’s dreams to develop the story. I wrote I Dream of You in a month or so. It just flowed with no struggle, and that was a first for me.

BTCOLE:  How exciting that we will expect two more works from you inspired by your novella for A Very Austen Valentine!  But about this story, was there personal inspiration for Elizabeth dreams?  Do you have vivid
dreams yourself?

RH:  Yes. I have very vivid dreams. In fact, I dream storylines in color. How weird is that? My dad used to go to bed worried about problems with his machines (motor graders, backhoes, bull dozers), and he’d dream the answer to repairing them. He told me God sent him the dreams.  I believed that with him, and I believe it in my own case.

BTCOLE:  Elizabeth had a determination to be a fine horse woman in your story. Have you ever ridden yourself?  

RH:  I use to ride although it has been many years.

I rode my brother-in-law’s horses when I was in college. I had a
friend who lived on a farm a few miles away. She had her own horse,
and we would ride when I was home on the weekends and during summers.
Our boyfriends would join us. It was so much fun.

BTCOLE:  Back to you Wendi, Do you have any special Valentine’s planned yourself this year?

WS:  It will be just before our 30th anniversary, so we should do something special, but I’m not sure what it will be yet!

BTCOLE:  Do you have any works in progress you would like to tell us about?

WendiS:  I’m working on an Austen-Inspired Regency now, but as usual, life keeps getting in the way and it’s not as far along as I’d like it to be. My goal is for it to come out summer 2019. Fingers crossed! It’s untitled as of yet. More than likely, I’ll need others’ help finding a title after I’m finished writing the entire story unless something jumps out at me from the start. Canon timeline is a bit scrambled… Miss Elizabeth Bennet has just
returned from Hunsford, where she stayed with Mr. Collins and his new wife, Charlotte.  We understand she has met Lady Catherine, Anne, and Col. Fitzwilliam, but only caught mention of a "Mr. Darcy" who was another nephew of her cousin’s benefactor. From what she’s heard, he sounds like a male version of Lady Catherine, so she has no interest in meeting him—ever. Soon after her return from Kent, Elizabeth leaves for a holiday trip with the Gardiners. Their journey to the Lake District is redirected when they receive an express letter stating
Mrs. Gardiners’ sister and two nephews have fallen ill, and her brother-in-law desperately needs their help. The trio proceeds to assist the ailing family, who lease a tenant farm on the estate of Pemberley.

BTCOLE:  Anything else you would like to share with the readers here at  Darcyholic Diversions?

WS:  I’d just like to thank all your readers for their interest, and I wish you good luck in the giveaway!

BTCOLE:  And back to you Robin, Do you have any special Valentine’s Day plans for your own Darcy this
year?  Or are  you afraid he will read this post?

RH:  I’ll probably cook some of his favorites. My Mr. Knightley doesn’t eat chocolate, and I’m diabetic, so the obvious choices are out. My hubby is not a Darcy. He has never been a proud man, and he has never been
wealthy by the world’s standards. Everyone loves him. Definitely a hard-working, dependable, genial Mr. Knightley of unimpeachable character, a wonderful husband and the best father I’ve ever seen. He could give lessons in how to be a father.

BTCOLE:  Anything else you would like to let us know about your works in progress?

RH:  More to Love addresses body image. When Darcy first sees Elizabeth at the Assembly, she’s eating a cookie (and, yes, Americans had developed cookie recipes by then). He says, “She is tolerable, I suppose, but
there’s too much of her to tempt me.”  You can imagine how that goes. Ha!

Lawfully Innocent is part of The Lawkeepers series. I’m contributing a book along with many other authors. Mine is an historical romance set in the pre-Civil War South. Benjamin Beckett (youngest of the four Beckett brothers) is a U.S. Marshal for the District of South Carolina. He’s from England, and he’s against slavery.

Maestro is the story from my musician’s heart. Alessandro Landini is a concert artist. He sings, conducts, and plays. Mary Bennet is in London with the Darcys (who are married). Darcy takes Elizabeth and Mary to one of Landini’s concerts, and she is shocked at the depth of the connection she feels with him through the music. In this story, I write how music makes me feel – how it affects me. It may be my best work.

I haven’t yet started my story for A Very Austen Romance: Austen Anthologies, Book 3, but it will, of course, be an historical romance novella. It may be a sequel to I Dream of You, my story in A Very Austen Valentine. I like that idea.
BTCOLE:  Well I thank you both Robin Helm and Wendi Sotis for visiting with us today!  And I hope that all of you readers will begin making some fun plans for Valentines Day inspired from the anthology!

Contact Information:
Robin Helm
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Helm/e/B005MLFMTG
Website:  BeyondAusten.com https://www.beyondausten.com/
Twitter: @rmhelm
Facebook: Robin Helm https://www.facebook.com/RobinHelmAuthor/
Facebook: Austen Anthologies
https://www.facebook.com/AustenAnthologies/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Instagram: @jrhelm  or @AustenAnthologies
Goodreads: Robin_M_Helm
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5210675.Robin_M_Helm
Blogging: Robin M. Helm https://robinmhelm.com/

Wendi Sotis
Amazon Author Page:     https://www.amazon.com/Wendi-Sotis/e/B005CSBVFS/
Website: http://wendisotis.com
Facebook: Wendi Sotis, Author https://www.facebook.com/author.wendi.sotis/
Twitter: @WendiSotis
Forum: BeyondAusten.com http://BeyondAusten.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5009020.Wendi_Sotis

You can find A Very Austen Valentine Here 

Raffletcopter Link Here for Giveaways!

A Very Austen Valentine Blog Tour Schedule
01/06 Just the Write Escape; Guest Post, Giveaway
01/07 Margie’s Must Reads; Review, Giveaway
01/08 So Little Time…; Guest Post, Excerpt, Giveaway
01/09 Babblings of a Bookworm; Author Interview/Character Interview, Giveaway
01/10 Half Agony, Half Hope; Review, Excerpt
01/11 Austenesque Reviews; Vignette, Giveaway
01/12 My Love for Jane Austen; Vignette, Giveaway
01/13 open
01/14 From Pemberley to Milton; Excerpt, Review or Vignette, Giveaway
01/15 My life journey; Review, Excerpt, Giveaway
01/16 My Vices and Weaknesses; Guest Post or Vignette. Excerpt, Giveaway
01/17 open
01/18 Diary of an Eccentric; Review, Giveaway
01/19 open
01/20 Darcyholic Diversions; Author Interview, Giveaway
01/21 Austenprose; Author Interview