Barbara Tiller Cole: The Inspiration for Darcyholic Diversions

Christmas In July With Barbara Tiller Cole

Hi, Darcyholics!  Today's post is by me!  I am celebrating Christmas in July!  My gift to you is Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy's Kindle edition both on the 24th and 25th.  More information later in the post!

If you have not yet reviewed the updated information about the Decatur Book Festival Jane Austen: Then And Now, review the tabs above.  The deadline for authors registering to join us is July 31st.  We are up to 18 authors participating (with 2 more close to committing in the wings)! It is NOT too late to join us!  We just added another tent today so we have room for you!

During the month of August we will be featuring many of the authors that are going to be at the event.  And don't forget to comment on the other July posts as there are still some give aways up for grabs!

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:
July 27--Amy Cecil
July 29--William Deresiewicz
July 31--Maria Grace
August 3--Wendi S.
August 5--Laura Dabundo
August 7--Moira B.
August 10--Abigail Reynolds
August 12--Cynthia Hensley
August 14--Colette Saucier
August 17--Regina Jeffers
August 19--KaraLynne Mackrory
August 21--Sally Smith O'Rourke
August 24--Amber Godat
August 26--Lory Lilian
September 18--Laura Hile
November 2--Amy Patterson
November 13--Karen Doornebos
And Many more to come!

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Comments on Barbara's post will be entries into the monthly drawings here at Darcyholic Diversions, as WELL as you getting to get a FREE Kindle Copy of Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy just for taking the time to read the blog post!.  Entries will be based on comments on blog posts; 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 me on Facebook, clicking 'like’ on Barbara Tiller Cole, Author's Facebook page, Join Darcyholic Diversions Facebook Page or following BarbTCole on Twitter.

 The Inspiration for Darcyholic Diversions

Some of you who have been following my blog for awhile may wonder how I came up with the name Darcyholic Diversions in the first place?  Well, obviously if you are going to create a site with this particular name you probably ARE a Darcyholic?  But how did it start?

It all began in 2001 after having surgery.  A girl friend brought over her VHS set of the BBC Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice to cheer me up. I pushed rewind countless times to see Colin dive into the pond at Pemberley (of course I do now know that scene was Jane Austen inspired literature and NOT in the novel itself)!  But it was more than just that. I was caught by the language, the period, the characters, the costumes--but most of all caught by Mr. Darcy himself.  

Earlier in my life, my mother had introduced me to Jane Austen and I had loved her novels then.  We even found and read some early sequels, but it was 2001 that caused me to begin to 'mainline' Darcy. 

My surgery was in March of 2001. Low and behold the very first movie I saw, still in sweatsuit and not driving (long before I returned to work) was Bridget Jones Diary, released April 1, 2001.  There he was again, Mr. Darcy.

Since BOTH Mr. Darcy's were portrayed by one Colin Firth, I was HOOKED!  I began searching for anything and everything I could find about Mr. Darcy (and Colin Firth) and happened upon online sites filled with Jane Austen inspired literature (also called JAFF) one day by accident.  The first site I came to was Sharon Lathan's back when she was posting her Darcy series online.  But that was just the beginning! An addict was born.

I will share more of the middle of the story at a later date, but some of you might want to know how I decided to coin the phrase Darcyholic.  You see, in my real life I have been working in the field of addiction for going on 25 years.  If there is a work field in which you need a divergent hobby to escape, it is work in addiction. I have a work-in-progress that may one day see the light of day about an alcoholic Will Darcy.  I began to write that story and shortly after beginning its development my uncle committed suicide from complications of his disease of alcoholism and losing his vision.  I lost my heart for the story for a time.  

Last fall, however, I wanted to write again and I decided to write THAT story's flip side.  A comedy!  I got the inspiration to write a story that will be published late this fall, Adventures of a Darcyholic.  It started out as a short story, but now has become a full fledged book with what I hope is a plot full of fun and Darcyholic adventures! 

So why am I posting about this TODAY?  I wanted to share with you a Christmas in July gift.  In the process of doing that, I had to look up and find the origins of Christmas in July.  In the Northern Hemisphere we celebrate Christmas in December, but there are some in the Southern Hemisphere that chose to celebrate in July; because it is much closer to the type of weather that is commonly associated with Christmas.  The earliest reference to Christmas in July that I could find was in an opera libretto of Werther in 1894.  

The earliest known occasion to make the phrase Christmas in July literal was in July 1933 at Camp Keystone, a girl's summer camp in North Carolina.  They celebrated with a Christmas tree, gifts, and a visit by Santa Claus. In 1935, the National Recreation Association's journal Recreation described what a Christmas in July was like at a girl's camp, writing that "all mystery and wonder surround this annual event." QUITE a coincidence, my niece is at that camp as I write this!

So we come back to THIS year's Christmas in July Gift to YOU, the readers of Darcyholic Diversions! July 24th and 25th--All Day Christmas in July Eve and Christmas in July Day--Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy is scheduled to be Free on Amazon!  So pass the word, and Merry Christmas in July!

With that gift, I am also pleased to announce my next novel.  The novel whose name inspired THIS blog!

Coming This Fall--Adventures of a Darcyholic

It is a proven fact that when a man or woman become obsessed with an object of desire, particularly when that personification is a fictional character such as one Fitzwilliam Darcy, it may be necessary to surrender and admit defect to intervention, and seek help when simple infatuation becomes an addiction.  In Adventures of a Darcyholic our hero and heroine have a deep need to find some balance in their lives. Is support available to assist them to find a path back to normal?  But then again, if Darcy is the problem do they wish for a cure?

Barbara Tiller Cole, an Atlanta native and author of her third novel, brings to light this Jane Austen inspired laugh-out-loud comedic delight.

Bernadette E: What Brings A Story To Life

Welcome Bernadette E. to Darcyholic Diversions!

Hi, Darcyholics!  I am happy to welcome Bernadette E. to Darcyholic Diversions.  For those of you who read Jane Austen Inspired Fan Fiction online and have done so for many years, you most likely know about Derbyshire Writers Guild.  Bernadette has been writing a creative modern story that includes characters from three of Jane Austen's novels, and I have gotten to know her as she has been posting her story, 'Beautiful Friendship'.  Elizabeth Bennet is a ballet dancer in the story. Hopefully, for Bernadette and myself it has sparked a beautiful friendship. I hope that you enjoy getting to know her as well. 

If you have not yet reviewed the updated information about the Decatur Book Festival Jane Austen: Then And Now, review the tabs above.  The deadline for authors registering to join us is July 31st.  We are up to 18 authors participating (with 2 more close to committing in the wings)! It is NOT too late to join us!  We just added another tent today so we have room for you!

During the month of August we will be featuring many of the authors that are going to be at the event.  And don't forget to comment on the other July posts as there are still some give aways up for grabs!

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:
July 24--Barbara Tiller Cole: Christmas in July
July 27--Amy Cecil
July 29--William Deresiewicz
July 31--Maria Grace
August 3--Wendi S.
August 5--Laura Dabundo
August 7--Moira B.
August 10--Abigail Reynolds
August 12--Cynthia Hensley
August 14--Colette Saucier
August 17--Regina Jeffers
August 19--KaraLynne Mackrory
August 21--Sally Smith O'Rourke
August 24--Amber Godat
August 26--Lory Lilian
September 18--Laura Hile
November 2--Amy Patterson
November 13--Karen Doornebos
And Many more to come!

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Comments on Bernadette's post will be entries into the monthly drawings here at Darcyholic Diversions.  Entries will be based on comments on blog posts; 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 me on Facebook, clicking 'like’ on Barbara Tiller Cole, Author's Facebook page, Join Darcyholic Diversions Facebook Page or following BarbTCole on Twitter.

 What Brings A Story To Life?

What's that something special that says, yes, this is honest. This is compelling. This is life. Can you open Pride and Prejudice and watch the heroine grow? Can you feel the hero's heartbreak?

This is the charm of Jane Austen's characters. Mr. Darcy and Miss Woodhouse, Fanny Price or Frank Churchill. Everyone has a favorite.

Or perhaps many favorites. I think this is one of the joys of fiction. Your favorite is not your neighbor's favorite, which might not be his neighbor's favorite. Scan your local bookstore with a friend and they will say, yes, that book moved me. That book made me laugh. That book was beautiful, funny, exciting, interesting. That book was amazing. It goes on the shelf as a 'favorite'.

So Pride and Prejudice was placed on my shelf.

Prior to discovering Jane Austen's work, I'd never seen the Austen movies, the miniseries', the books on tape. I flipped open my first Austen book knowing nothing of story, its author, the tone of her pieces. I should also say I felt a touch cautious of 19th century literature. I'd just read Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert to rather disappointing results. I'd pulled it from a shelf with the false impression that it was a bonnet romance. Not even close.

Pride and Prejudice was everything I hoped to read, and more. The opening sentence, so witty and oft-quoted, was enough to assuage my fears. The book was charming. The dialogue was clever. Austen's characters weren't perfect, but neither were they tragic. They could be witty, kind, ill-tempered, or brave (sometimes all at once). The mistakes they made, they learned from.

And here of course, we come to Mr. Darcy. Tall, dark, handsome, certainly a man to notice across a crowded room. His mood could be prickly. That alone is enough to bring to mind the other famous 'leading man' of his era: Heathcliff. But Darcy was different. He had a unique charisma. He was smart. He could be aloof and funny, arrogant or kind. And, in the end, he strove to improve himself.

But of course, I could say that about many of Austen's heroes and heroines. They were good people, sometimes stumbling over their own mistakes, but always searching for what was right. Austen wrote of a privileged middle-upper class and yet her stories continue to resonate. Perhaps because they were characters who were allowed to discover things and are better for those discoveries. And that's life, isn't it?

Author Bio:
Bernadette is the author of the English Night Sky and Beautiful Friendship. She will never again believe that Gustave Flaubert was aiming to write a romance novel, but she's pleased about discovering Austen's oeuvre. She's honored and amazed that she was invited to guest blog at Darcyholic. If you'd like to email her about either piece, her contact email is: austenbee@hotmail.com

Lori Smith: Mr. Darcy Is Not Perfect

Welcome Lori Smith to Darcyholic Diversions!

Hi, Darcyholics!  I am happy to welcome Lori Smith, author of The Jane Austen Guide to Life, to Darcyholic Diversions today.  It has been great to get to know a wide variety of Austen inspired authors, including some of those who are non-fiction authors such as Lori.

I have had the pleasure of reading her book and found some treasures. My favorite chapter was 'Finding Joy and Laughter' as I dearly love to laugh myself.  With reminders such as 'Greet the World with Energy' and 'Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously', they merge with my personal philosophy of Living Life Looking for God's Gift in it.  Particularly appropriate today is her chapter on 'Enduring the Hardest Things'. In it she shares Jane Austen's sister Cassandra's experiences when Jane passed away, and as today--7/18--marks 195 years since she passed, it is a poignant reminder.

If you have not yet reviewed the updated information about the Decatur Book Festival Jane Austen:Then And Now, review the tabs above.  The deadline for authors registering to join us is July 31st.  We are up to 17 authors participating now! During the month of August we will be featuring many of the authors that are going to be at the event.

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:
July 20--Bernadette
July 24--Barbara Tiller Cole: Christmas in July
July 27--Amy Cecil
July 29--William Deresiewicz
July 31--Maria Grace
August 3--Wendi S.
August 5--Laura Dabundo
August 7--Moira B.
August 10--Abigail Reynolds
August 12--Cynthia Hensley
August 14--Colette Saucier
August 17--Regina Jeffers
August 19--KaraLynne Mackrory
August 21--Sally Smith O'Rourke
August 24--Amber Godat
August 26--Lory Lilian
September 18--Laura Hile
November 2--Amy Patterson
November 13--Karen Doornebos
And Many more to come!

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Comments on Lori's post will be entries into the monthly drawings here at Darcyholic Diversions.  Entries will be based on comments on blog posts; 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 me on Facebook, clicking 'like’ on Barbara Tiller Cole, Author's Facebook page, Join Darcyholic Diversions Facebook Page or following BarbTCole on Twitter.

Mr. Darcy Is Not Perfect

Mr. Darcy—forgive me for saying this—is not perfect.  And that’s what I love most about him.

I fell in love with Darcy and with the world of Austen’s novels when I was a junior in college.  Even with lots of English classes, I had never been assigned Austen.  But over Christmas break, at my grandparents’ house in California, I picked up a copy of Pride and Prejudice at a used book sale and stayed awake late into the night with Darcy and Lizzy, Bingley and Jane, Lady Catherine and Mr. Wickham.  I was enchanted.

It would take years for me to work my way through all of Austen’s books, but I found that they simply weren’t enough. Like many of you, I got to the end of them after reading them all over and over and had nowhere left to go.  So I started reading biographies, and her wonderful, lively letters, and eventually left on my own pilgrimage to trace her life and writing through England. (Which I chronicled in A Walk with Jane Austen.)

But while Darcy is ideal—He’s tall!  He’s handsome!  He’s rich!—he’s far, far from perfect.  We all know this.  He’s proud, and socially awkward, and what he says about Lizzy when he first meets her at the dance is downright rude.  “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me . . .”  How dare he?  But he’s open to learning about his shortcomings, open to the painful realization that he is not entirely the gentleman he ought to be.  He’s willing to change.

All of Austen’s men are like this—far from perfect, but seeking to know themselves better, to ferret out their faults and become better men.  Captain Wentworth’s stubbornness, his pride, kept him from pursuing Anne for years, when she would have welcomed him back. “I was proud, too proud to ask again,” he says. “Six years of separation and suffering might have been spared.” Edward Ferrars, however faithful he may be, allowed himself to be snared at a young age by thoughtless, grasping Lucy Steele.  Edmund Bertram is so captivated by Mary Crawford’s beauty and spirit that he misses the fact that she nearly worships money and social standing, to the neglect of more important things.

And even if their characters are largely sound, one can imagine that Austen’s men are not entirely ideal.  Mr. Knightley has a tendency to be all business—he could not be said to be imaginative, or terribly romantic.  Colonel Brandon is not exactly dashing.  Mr. Bingley can probably be a little flighty, and Henry Tilney—well, maybe he is more difficult to criticize than the rest.

Austen wrote to her niece Fanny, responding to someone’s criticism that her characters were too flawed, “Pictures of perfection, as you know, make me sick and wicked.”  They do me, as well.  No perfectly chiseled, always gracious, ideal heroes for me.  Give me a guy like Austen’s men—charmingly or even glaringly imperfect, but willing to come face to face with his faults.

Sure, Austen gave us beautiful, maybe even impossible love stories.  As with Darcy and Elizabeth, the wonderfully rich and handsome guy falls for the spirited, intelligent, not-rich girl with few hopes of marrying well.  It’s a version of happily-ever-after.  But it’s no far-off fairy tale, because Austen’s men are always real. She set the bar high, but not too high. And that gives me hope of finding a guy very much like one Austen might herself have created. 

Bio:

Lori Smith is the author of the recently-released The Jane Austen Guide to Life: Thoughtful Lessons for the Modern Woman. As a child, Lori’s mother had to pay her to read books.  So it’s a bit ironic that she now gets paid to write them.  Lori feels connections to Austen on many levels—as a writer, a single woman, an Anglican, and as someone struggling with a mysterious chronic illness. For her last book, A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love, and Faith, Lori spent a month in England tracing Austen’s life and works. Readers voted to give that book the Jane Austen Regency World Award for best nonfiction.

Her writing has also appeared in Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Beliefnet.com, Skirt!, and Today’s Christian Woman.  Lori lives in Northern Virginia with her sweet but stubborn English lab, Bess.

The Jane Austen Guide to Life on Amazon: www.amazon.com/Jane-Austen-Guide-Life-Thoughful/dp/0762773812

A Walk with Jane Austen on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Jane-Austen-Journey-Adventure/dp/1400073707

Blogs:  www.writerlorismith.com, www.austenquotes.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/writerlorismith

Twitter:  @writerlorismith

Book trailer:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVYt-QOJWO8