Laura Hile: Austen Inspired Literature--A Bit Like a Kaleidoscope

Welcome Laura Hile (Another of the 27 Authors Participating in the Upcoming Decatur Book Festival) to Darcyholic Diversions...

24 Days to Go till DBF!)

Hi, Darcyholics!  Today, I would like to introduce you to Laura Hile.  While perhaps not a 'Darcyholic' I think that Laura qualifies for an 'Austenholic' so I am very happy to have her with me today.  I look forward to geting to know her a bit better here, and am very happy that she is participating with us at the Decatur Book Festival as a remote author.  (She will have a proxy for a book reading and for book signings with book-plates that she has pre-signed herself.)

The information on Decatur Book Festival was updated last Wednesday evening this week, so visit the link again and find out all the details as well as where YOU can stay as we are so excited to have 27--yes TWENTY-SEVEN Austen Inspired Authors participating with us!  Here is the link! It included information about a large hotel room block you can take advantage of if you would like to be with us!

 The DBF Event Link.  

I am 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!!

If you have not read all of the posts for the month of June, there are still seven authors with open drawings.  Check out the archives on the right and read posts from Amy Cecil, William Deresiewicz and Maria Grace and leave a comment.  (On the other June posts, I will be announcing winners on Thursday).

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:

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--Pamela Aidan

August 26--Lory Lilian

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 21--Moira B.

November 2--Amy Patterson

November 13--Karen Doornebos

And Many more to come!

&*&*&*&*&*&

Laura Hil is giving away one print copy of the first book, Mercy's Embrace: So Rough a Course (USA only).   It's easy to enter, simply post a comment. Additional 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 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.

Austen Inspired Literature--

A Bit Like a Kaleidoscope

Ah, the fascination of the kaleidoscope.  The tube is sealed, and yet a simple twist tumbles the colored pieces into new and startling patterns.  So lovely!  So captivating!  Even as an adult I struggle to set one of those aside.  Just one more look, one more unexpected combination...

In a way, my Austenesque fiction is like that.  One twist, one tiny plot device altered---and as with the kaleidoscope, everything changes.  Can we bear to see what happens next?  Can we bear not to?
My plunge into writing began with my good friend, author Susan Kaye.  How surprised I was to find that she loved Jane Austen as much as I!  We launched a massive what-if tale into the laps of unsuspecting Austen fan fiction readers (Love Suffers Long and is Kind).  One small change,  and the world of Persuasion went spinning on its ear.  She wrote Captain Wentworth's half and I wrote Anne's.  What a ride!

During that project, I discovered several things. First, I love Jane Austen's secondary characters.  What fun to give them them elevated roles with new challenges, and then send them on a joyride!   Second, I enjoy entertaining readers with twists they don't expect.  In those days, as far as non-Pride and Prejudice fiction was concerned,  I had to earn readers one by one---and keep them coming back for more.   Third, Jane Austen's  "other" Elizabeth---you know, the so-opinionated one in Persuasion, the one you love to hate?---and I have much in common. Way too much.

Eh, except for pedigree and stunning good looks.  (Dang.)

And so the three Mercy's Embrace books were born, with Persuasion as a launching platform.  What's not to love? At twenty-nine, top-lofty Miss Elliot is desperate and isolated.  Ha, she's not as rich, or as socially secure, or a smart as she thinks.  And romance?  That is definitely not on her bucket list!  But finding a wealthy husband is.

What would happen, I wondered, if  I threw a dashing and intelligent man Elizabeth's way?  Who had none of the qualities she was looking for in a husband, but who dared to converse with her as an equal?   Would her cold heart thaw? Would she tumble hopelessly in love?   And that's only the beginning.

Want to find out more?  Read on, because  ...

We're giving away one print copy of the first book, Mercy's Embrace: So Rough a Course  this week (USA only).   It's easy to enter, simply post a comment.  

And while I dearly wish I could come to Decatur, I cannot. But my books will be there.  Oh, the places my little books go ...


Kaleidoscope Photo Credit: I {heart} Rhody
(Creative Commons)

Jane Austen’s Persuasion provides the backdrop for So Rough A Course, (Click link for book on Amazon) a delightful romp set in Regency England. Miss Elliot is as beautiful as ever, and yet no suitable gentleman has requested her hand. But when the proud Elizabeth encounters a pair of smiling Irish eyes, she is tempted to change her opinion. Almost. 


In So Lively A Chase, (Click link for book on Amazon) Elizabeth can only despise herself for falling in love with the common Mr Gill. He certainly holds the keys to her heart, but he also holds his own deep secrets that have the power to change their lives forever.
 
Can Elizabeth risk trusting the man she loves…or, indeed, anyone?  Wouldn’t she be better off accepting William Elliot’s offer of security and privilege? As the storm of social disapproval descends, The Lady Must Decide (Click link for book on Amazon)


Bio:  Laura lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, all three of her college/post-college-age sons---who are preparing to launch, honest! ---and a collection of antique clocks.  During the school year she teaches teens (which accounts for her snarky sense of humor) and spends summers writing as fast as possible.  She is currently working on a fourth--and fifth! --- Mercy's Embrace book.

Laura Dabundo: Faith in the Time of Jane Austen

Welcome Dr. Laura Dabundo to Darcyholic Diversions!

 (and the Continuing Countdown to the Decatur Book Festival...

26 Days to Go!)

Hi, Darcyholics!  Today, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Laura Dabundo, a professor at Kennesaw State University.  She is one of three non-fiction authors who will be participating in the Decatur Book Festival. Her book, The Marriage of Faith: Christianity in Jane Austen and William Woodsworth will be available for sale during the festival and she will be doing a book reading a book signings during the event.  I look forward to geting to know her a bit better here, as well as at the book festival over Labor Day weekend.

The information on Decatur Book Festival was updated last Wednesday evening this week, so visit the link again and find out all the details as well as where YOU can stay as we are so excited to have 27--yes TWENTY-SEVEN Austen Inspired Authors participating with us!  Here is the link! It included information about a large hotel room block you can take advantage of if you would like to be with us!

 The DBF Event Link.  

And I am 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!!

If you have not read all of the posts for the month of June, there are still seven authors with open drawings.  Check out the archives on the right and read posts from Amy Cecil, William Deresiewicz and Maria Grace and leave a comment.  (On the other June posts, I will be choosing he winners later today and posting them later this week).

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:

August 7--Laura Hile

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--Pamela Aidan

August 26--Lory Lilian

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 21--Moira B.

November 2--Amy Patterson

November 13--Karen Doornebos

And Many more to come!

&*&*&*&*&*&

Your comments on Laura Dabundo's post will also 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.

Faith in the Time of Jane Austen

Jane Austen wrote three prayers which have been published posthumously. On the surface, they seem to invite us to hear a speaker seemingly a world away from the beguilingly ironic and wise narrator of the novels.  Yet, I would like to suggest, maybe the speaker is not so different after all?   

Consider this prayer:  

Give us grace almighty Father, so as to pray as to deserve to be heard, to address thee with our hearts, as with our lips. Thou art everywhere present, from thee no secret can be hid.  May the knowledge of this, teach us to fix our thoughts on thee, with reverence and devotion that we pray not in vain.

May we now, and on each return of night, consider how the past day has been spent by us, what have been our prevailing thoughts, words and actions during it, and how far we can acquit ourselves of evil.

Have we thought irreverently of thee, have we disobeyed thy commandments, have we so neglected any known duty, or willingly given pain to any human being? Incline us to ask our hearts these questions oh! God, to save us from deceiving ourselves by pride or vanity.

Give us a thankful sense of the blessings in which we live, of the many comforts of our lot; that we may not deserve to lose them by discontent or indifference.

Hear us almighty God, for his sake who has redeemed us, and taught us, thus to pray.

Amen.

Using the concepts of the prayer, we can see that the novels parade before us people who are prejudiced and proud (say, Elizabeth Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Lady Catherine De Bourgh); who are selfish and cause pain to others because of that (consider John Willoughby, George Wickham, Lucy Steele, Mrs. Norris, General Tilney, et al.); who neglect their duties (as parents, think of Mr. Bennet; as property owners, think of Sir Walter Elliot); who are vain (Caroline Bingley, Fanny Dashwood, etc.)—my cup runneth over with instances in Jane Austen’s novels of characters whose behavior would indicate that they have transgressed God’s commandments! And I have not even mentioned the explicit violators of the Decalogue, the seventh commandment  betrayed by Maria Rushworth and Henry Crawford. There may not be murder in the novels, but for virtually every other sin and evil of the human condition Jane Austen’s novels are well represented, leading up to what is the epitome and acme of them, as her prayer shows in the third and fourth paragraphs, above, self-deception, discontent, and indifference. Characters delude themselves; they are dissatisfied with their plights and seek the vanities of the world to pass the time and entertain themselves and distract them from the morality of their putative faith.  

The form of this prayer—that is, of both the directives of the devotion, its instructions, and the act of the suppliant herself, the pray-er, in the act of praying—calls for self-scrutiny, self-reflection, self-discovery. Austen’s novels display the actions that culminate in these states of separation from the divine denoted by the prayer, self-deception, restlessness, tedium, and boredom, and her prayer here offers a path away from those states through gratitude and  submission to the all-knowing deity. Being omniscient, God already knows everyone’s human frailties and failings, so the task for the Christian becomes an imperative to acknowledge  personal shortcomings  to oneself before the Almighty who offers salvation. 

And in Austen’s novels, those characters whom I listed above either are directly challenged and in some ways punished for their waywardness at the ends of their novels or, like Elizabeth and Darcy, are reformed and rewarded. In other words, the prayer offers a counterplot to the novels, a subterranean way through faith and practice to a happy ending. It is a parable of the Gospel experience.

All three prayers of Jane Austen’s prayers seem to me to be similarly wonderfully rich and suggestive of a profoundly Christian believer and practitioner, and I think we need barely to scratch the surface of the novels in order to find that selfsame pattern.  

I shall be at the Decatur Book Festival to meet you and everyone who loves Jane Austen. If what I have written here is of interest to you, I bid you to look at my new book, THE MARRIAGE OF FAITH: CHRISTIANITY IN JANE AUSTEN AND WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, just published by Mercer University Press, for more on these themes, which will be available for sale at the JASNA-Atlanta booth. See you then!

Link to Laura Dabundo's Book on Amazon 

Wendi Sotis: The Healing Power of Darcy--Thank you, Darcyholics!

Welcome Wendi Sotis to Darcyholic Diversions!

 And 

The Continuing Countdown to the Decatur Book Festival...

29 Days to Go!

Hi, Darcyholics!  Today we visit with Wendi Sotis, who is a miracle and a testimony to the healing power of Darcyholism!  I am not only happy to have her back at Darcyholic Diversions, but I am happy that she able to be back with us as she has had some medical issues (to say the least) since she visited with us last. 

The information on Decatur Book Festival was updated on Wednesday evening this week, so visit the link again and find out all the details as well as where YOU can stay as we are so excited to have 27--yes TWENTY-SEVEN Austen Inspired Authors participating with us!  Here is the link! It included information about a large hotel room block you can take advantage of if you would like to be with us!

 The DBF Event Link.  

And I am 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!!

If you have not read all of the posts for the month of June, there are still seven authors with open drawings.  Check out the archives on the right and read posts from Pam Dixon, Marilyn Brant, Karen Aminadra, Jennifer Petkus, Amy Cecil, William Deresiewicz and Maria Grace and leave a comment.  I will be drawing for all but William's and Maria's on Monday so you have over the weekend for a last chance to leave a comment to win!

Upcoming Guest Posts Are As Follows:

August 5--Laura Dabundo

August 7--Laura Hile

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--Pamela Aidan

August 26--Lory Lilian

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 21--Moira B.

November 2--Amy Patterson

November 13--Karen Doornebos

And Many more to come!

&*&*&*&*&*&

Comments on Wendi Sotis's post will be included in a drawing for 1 softcover (USA) and 1 eBook (International) of her new book Dreams and Expectations. Your comment will also 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.

The Healing Power of Darcy--Thank you, Darcyholics

As many of you know, back in March, a sudden illness left me without the ability to control any voluntary movements. During the weeks that I was hospitalized, my husband Matt kept in touch with a few Darcyholics who passed on all of your encouraging messages. I can’t tell you how much all of that meant to us, and to this day, still does. Knowing fellow Darcyholics were out there thinking of and praying for me kept me going.

Retraining my body how to function again has been exhausting, and especially while in the hospital, I had a lot of down time. There was not much for me to do while resting, and I was in great danger of slipping into a state of self-pity at those times.

Deciding to catch up on all the JAFF I had purchased at Christmas, I then found another huge roadblock. Instead of being able to focus, my eyes kept drifting – they were not yet coordinated enough.

I could not read.

Darcyholism to the rescue! Without Barb’s story “I am a Darcyholic”, I would have never known that my Kindle could read to me. JAFF and a pair of headphones literally kept me from going bonkers all those weeks.

So, not only am I an admitted Darcyholic—dependent on reading about our favorite literary gentleman and his friends in every form and situation possible—but I have Darcyholics everywhere to thank for my sanity!

Love and hugs to you all!  Wendi

P.S. The release of Dreams and Expectations was delayed by all this, but now it is out! We are giving away copies, so be sure to sign up!

Purchase 'Dreams and Expectations' on Amazon

Blurb: While staying true to the characters of Jane Austen's much loved tale, this novel takes Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy on a much different journey than Austen did in Pride and Prejudice. 

Darcy and Elizabeth quickly recognize their feelings for each other and form a friendship, but misunderstandings and a bit of mystery and adventure hinder their path to happiness.

Purchase Promises on Amazon 

Wendi's Amazon Author Page

Wendi Sotis's website

Wendi's Facebook Author Page

Wendi on Twitter

Wendi On Kindlegraph

 Kindlegraph lets authors send personalized inscriptions and signatures ("kindlegraphs") directly to the electronic reading devices of their fans. Also available for download in pdf format.