Some reasons I’ve been looking forward to October…
The Runaway Princess (Love, love, love Hester Browne!)
Beautiful Redemption (I’m totally caught up in the Beautiful Creatures saga!)
Princess Elizabeth’s Spy (Was hooked with the first Maggie Hope Mystery.)
Death in the Floating City (Tasha Alexander’s Lady Emily books are some of my faves.)
Which ones am I missing??
Welcome to the halfway point on this week’s Traveling Tuesday, a segment of this year’s Austenesque Extravaganza! You’ve stumbled onto Part 2 of a three-part roundtable discussion that begins at Lori Smith’s blog and ends at KaraLynne Mackory’s. So, if you feel a little lost, be sure to go back and read Lori Smith’s blog first. I’ll be here when you get back…
The continuation of
A Discussion of Some Oh-So-Minor Pet Peeves with Jane Austen’s Novels…
Lori Smith: Another pet peeve — occasionally, at critical points in the stories, Austen doesn’t show us the whole scene. As when Knightley proposes. Austen doesn’t give us Emma’s response, just says, “She said everything that a lady would say…” or something like that. This happens a couple other times. Like Austen didn’t want to write that particular bit of dialog, perhaps?
KaraLynne Mackrory: Oh and when Darcy proposes “He reacted as a man violently in love can be expected to.”
KaraLynne Mackrory: Urgg that does bother me.
Lori Smith: Exactly, KaraLynne!
Alyssa Goodnight: I have to admit, I kind of like that. I guess I’m in the minority.
Lori Smith: Maybe it leaves a little up to the imagination?
Alyssa Goodnight: I feel like the scene is wide open with possibility–that it’s so romantic and heartfelt that it can’t even be captured.
Lori Smith: I like that perspective, Alyssa.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Yes, and that is how the reader is left feeling, Alyssa, which is probably why her books are so loved – we get to create a bit of the scene in our heads and imagine that part for ourselves.
KaraLynne Mackrory: I am left asking…”so how violently did Mr. Darcy act?….rarrr!”
Alyssa Goodnight: Perhaps the scene you need to write…
Lori Smith: Sort of like when she says of both Darcy and Knightley, something like “If I felt things less I might be able to talk about them more.”
KaraLynne Mackrory: Yes.
Alyssa Goodnight: YES!!
Alyssa Goodnight: And I think Colin Firth embodied those scenes (in P&P) beautifully because he filled all those silences with angsty, brooding stares. And we all sighed, imagining what he must be thinking. What he wanted to say, but couldn’t.
Lori Smith: Oh, love his brooding stares. Like when she’s helping Georgiana, turning pages for her while she plays the piano? My fave scene.
KaraLynne Mackrory: But I have to admit, sometimes it is disappointing because she does give clues as to the men’s “violence of love” – Darcy makes the wicked comment about admiring her figure from where he sits and Knightley comments that “indeed” they are not brother and sister.
KaraLynne Mackrory: So when they say things so leading and then the big moment happens and we are all ……. oh, I guess I have to imagine that part.
Alyssa Goodnight: But they are true gentleman, KaraLynne!
Lori Smith: Yes, it’s a little funny. Like the whole book leads up to that point, but the scene is still in some way shrouded in secrecy.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Well I wouldn’t want Jane to describe any physical passion – that wasn’t her thing – but they were good with words and even a gentleman can say charming things that are indicative of their thoughts and feelings.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Lori – maybe JA was giving them some privacy.
Lori Smith: She does some of the same thing with Anne and Wentworth. They talk over everything on the gravel walk, but she doesn’t tell us much of that.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Or blushing herself as a maiden writing the scenes.
Alyssa Goodnight: Maybe she didn’t trust herself to write those sorts of scenes… I don’t really know her personal history and what experience she had with men.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Ok, so it sounds like I expected them to make out but I’m not saying that. You guys get what I mean, right?
Alyssa Goodnight: Definitely!
KaraLynne Mackrory: I mean something more along the lines of “I ardently admire and love you -” without the “even though your family is crappy and you are poor and way beneath me.
Lori Smith: Totally get what you mean, KaraLynne!
Lori Smith: She received at least one proposal, likely two. The first she accepted, then changed her mind and withdrew the next morning. (She and her sister had to leave the house in disgrace.) The second proposal she didn’t accept. The perhaps love of her life (a man she met while vacationing by the sea) died suddenly without being able to propose.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Ohh poor Jane.
Lori Smith: The first proposal, he was rich, but she didn’t love him, so she just couldn’t do it. Even though he was a good family friend.
Lori Smith: Most women back then would have married him anyway.
Lori Smith: She just thought marrying without love was evil.
KaraLynne Mackrory: Maybe his brooding stares weren’t that good.
Lori Smith: 😉
KaraLynne Mackrory: I think her sticking to her convictions makes her truly magnificent especially considering the time (cough, cough Charlotte being a good example of what was common)
Lori Smith: YES — I’ve always felt that!
Lori Smith: And agree, KaraLynne.
Alyssa Goodnight: I agree, KaraLynne (and Lori), but I feel so sorry that she never married.
Lori Smith: Me too. But she was very happy.
Be sure to hop over to KaraLynne Mackory’s blog to read the end of the discussion, and please feel free to play along! What do you wish Jane had done differently?
Before you go…I have a giveaway! With my next book, AUSTENSIBLY ORDINARY, coming out in late January, I want to celebrate by giving away a trade paperback copy of AUSTENTATIOUS (Shipping to the US only. Sorry!) There are three ways to enter.
1. Add AUSTENSIBLY ORDINARY to your to-be-read shelf on Goodreads.
2. Follow me on Twitter, so you can get all the deets as the release date gets closer (a_goodnight).
3. Help me in making my dream come true. Tweet the following and send me the link:
“I want to see AUSTENSIBLY ORDINARY by @a_goodnight on @TheEllenShow! #EllenDancesWithAO”
Entries will be accepted through October 2nd, and I will choose a winner on October 3rd! Good luck!
Summer is now officially over, if you go by the school calendar, which I do. Monday was the first day of school here, and I celebrated the peace and quiet with a lunch of fish tacos and Imperial Scandal by Tracy Grant. Divine.
So now, it’s back to work. I made hardly any writing progress over the summer, but I’m much better organized than I was in early June, so perhaps the trade-off was worth it. I’m working on a new series that involves a supper club, and that’s all I want to say about it for now, since it’s still in the brainstorming stages. Write a little, brainstorm a little… Obviously, these books will be a little ways off.
But!
I do have a book coming out in January. AUSTENSIBLY ORDINARY is finally up on Amazon (although no Kindle version yet) after being listed, for the longest time, as “Untitled 2” with no cover image, but having the correct release date: January 29, 2013. It’s also up on Goodreads, but no one has added it yet, and it’s sooo lonely over there! So, if you do plan to read it, or aren’t above a pity add, please click over and add it to your reading list. You’ll have my undying gratitude.
I’m supposed to get galleys in late September, so I will be doing a giveaway on Goodreads (hoping to bump up my stats!) and probably one here too.
It’s weird, but when I imagine my highest aspirations for this book, it’s not what you might think. Of course I would LOVE to have it hit the New York Times Bestseller List…or really any bestseller list. I’d love to have it picked up by bookclubs all across the country, be mentioned in magazines, and touted by celebrities, but when I imagine that pinnacle moment, it’s simple.
I picture Ellen DeGeneres dancing with a copy of my book on her show.
Picture it…
Awesome, huh?
And then…everyone in the audience goes home with a copy!
I only picture the book on the show, not me. The latter, I can’t even imagine. It is far, far, far off the edges of my (occasionally) vivid imagination. But I can see AUSTENSIBLY ORDINARY there, dancing.
Simple perfection.
So. If you know anyone involved with The Ellen DeGeneres Show (the producer would be GREAT!), first of all, I’m flattered you’re reading my blog. Secondly, maybe you could put in a good word… It’s a really photogenic cover. I’m not good enough with Photoshop, or I’d totally find a picture of Ellen and edit my book right in there. Sounds like my husband has a project when he gets home…
I’ll do the easy part. I’m starting a bulletin board on Twitter, with the hashtag #EllenDancesWithAO (not the greatest choice in the world, but that’s all I’ve got). If you want to help pass the word, use the hashtag. Maybe (just maybe) it’ll trend, Ellen will see it, get inspired, and feel like dancing.
It could totally happen!
So get out there, and let’s make this happen!