Jane Austen Lied to Me
by Jeanette Watts
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GENRE: Romantic Comedy Audiobook
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BOOK BLURB:
What college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzy was certainly no exception. But when Darcy Fitzwilliam comes into her life, he turns out to be every bit as aggravating as Elizabeth Bennett’s Fitzwilliam Darcy. So what’s a modern girl to think, except....
How could my hero be so wrong?
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EXCERPT ONE:
Sept 5
Well! That was interesting. My roommate invited me along to this frat party she was going to. She went through something called rush week, and she is now pledged to a sorority. She said the frats are less formal than the sororities, and even though I wasn’t a pledge I could go with her. I figured, why not, it should be fun, right?
I got to meet the guy she’s chasing. I couldn’t blame her for being interested. He’s cute, and sweet, and considerate, and a total people-pleaser. One of his parents must be the demanding sort who is never happy.
He introduced us to his friend… whose name is Darcy Fitzwilliam! I wasn’t sure at first that the guy wasn’t just pulling our legs.
“Your mother obviously loves Jane Austen,” I laughed.
“Obviously,” he answered. Not much to go by.
“I love Pride and Prejudice,” I continued.
“I hate Pride and Prejudice,” I can only describe the look he was giving me as hostile.
“I think you will find yourself very much in a minority,” I answered, returning his look with one of my own.
We didn’t talk any more that night. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot!
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GUEST POST:
Inspired by Headlines: How to Put Your Spin on Real Life Events
I absolutely adore fitting current events into my stories!
Usually, my books are historical fiction. Wealth and Privilege and Brains and Beauty are set in Pittsburgh between 1875 and 1889, I relied heavily on newspapers in the process of researching both books, and I use the current events I found to tell my readers where in time we are.
For example, the railroad riots of 1877 started in Pittsburgh on July 21. Garfield’s assassination in 1881. (July is clearly a good month for bad things happening. In January of 1885, the Liberty Bell really did pass through Pittsburgh on its way to the World’s Fair in New Orleans. When I needed to kill off a character, why just have some random fake accident, when there was the Washburn A mill explosion in Minneapolis? And of course I talk about the Johnstown flood.
These are all real events, in real time, and they tell my readers precisely what the date is, besides being the most awesome world-building. I learned this from Margaret Mitchell and Gone With the Wind: why make things up when my characters can be perpetually running for their lives through hair-raising real historical events?
I expanded this in Brains and Beauty to include events beyond the headlines: the heroine sings music from the latest Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. In both books, I frequently use clothing. What would a man’s reaction have been the first time he sees the radical change in women’s fashion in 1877, and for the first time in 50 years, skirts hugged along a woman’s hips and thighs?
My other modern novel, A Woman’s Persuasion, is sent in 2007. I chose the dates specifically because of current events. I used the crash of 2007 is a catalyst for the story, to mirror the financial troubles of the characters in Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
For Jane Lied to Me I had to very consciously make the opposite choices. Jane Austen’s stories are very timeless, in order to embrace that I wanted to say as little as possible about time and place, even as I emulated her trick of saying as little as possible about each character’s appearance. (What color ARE “fine eyes?”)
The story is about the all-American girl, set on an undefined college campus.
Is this campus in the Midwest? In the south? New York state? In Colorado? Arizona? Minnesota? I never discuss the landscape, or describe the buildings. This could be an Ivy League school, a little private school, or a big university sprawling across miles. I wanted people to be able to see their own college in their mind’s eye as they are reading.
This also applies to the time. All the markers I usually use to tell everyone when this is, I carefully avoided. I tried to stay as vague as I could about the clothing although I am taking a gamble of high heeled shoes are not going to go away anytime soon. When the characters go to concerts, it’s to hear Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, or a group with a long-running history (Metallica). My heroine has jobs at the school library and McDonald’s.
I do not bring up any current events. There are no news stories, no references to any events going on at all. I was trying to uncouple the story from a specific place in history.
I like to think, for the most part, I succeeded. The thing that is going to date most rapidly, and set it within a timeframe, is the technology. Phones and laptops change. At least, for now, people still use their phones to text back-and-forth, although I have had any number of conversations entirely over Snapchat, or Discord, or Messenger, or Marco Polo. So plain ol’ text may already be in danger of feeling dated. At least, for now, students still get online to register for classes, right?
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AUTHOR BIO:
Jeanette Watts has written three Jane Austen-inspired novels and two short stories for Jane Austen Fan Fiction anthologies, two other works of historical fiction, stage melodramas, television commercials, and historical dance manuals. She is a regular contributor to MOMCC Magazine.
When she is not writing, she is either dancing, sewing, or making videos for her YouTube channel and TikTok accounts, “History is My Playground.”
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CONNECT WITH JEANETTE:
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@historyismyplayground1827
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@historyismyplayground
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AMAZON BUY LINKS:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Jeanette will be awarding a Jane Austen Coloring Book (US Only) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
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Thank you so much for featuring JANE AUSTEN LIED TO ME today.
ReplyDeleteSuperb idea
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance
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