Author: Don Jacobson
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Writing For Readers
Kurt Vonnegut’s Rules 1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted. 2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for. 3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.…
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The Family Lantern Illuminates Seasonal Stories:
An Author’s Confessional I am building a collection of seasonal stories for the first time in my writing career. About seven months ago, my good friend Cristy Huelsz approached the Austenesque writing community for willing volunteers to contribute to her annual Christmas collection, Antologia Celebraciones de Navidad. Having finished The Sailor’s Rest and needing a…
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What is it About the Militia?
A running theme in books InspiredByAusten is the militia (well, yes, red coat) craziness of Lydia Bennet and her follower Kitty Bennet. Yes, her mother’s reminiscences of the appearance of the militia in Meryton in her adolescence fired their imaginations. Add their reading of novels, and you can understand Mr. Bennet’s reaction to his youngest…
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Redemption and Forgiveness
C.S. Lewis, in his 1958 lectures on the BBCidentified four types oflove governing positive human interactions:Storge: Empathy BondPhilia: Friend BondEros: Erotic BondAgape: Unconditional Love. *** I have discovered that the Bennet Wardrobeoperates in the service of other Loves:Exagoras Agapis: Redemptive Love.The Fifth Love drives us to become betterversions of ourselves. *** Yet, ’twas Reinhold Niebuhr…
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Evolutionary Creativity
These musings were brought on by the remastering of my entire backlist now that I am once again in control of the books. This includes the eight Bennet Wardrobe novels and novellas, the series that occupied my writing life for seven years. I have re[ublished Volume One—The Keeper: Mary Bennet’s Extraordinary Journey—and Volume Two—Henry Fitzwilliam’s…
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Where Our Characters Stand…
“…their lives were linked and interwoven in innumerable and often intimate ways and because this…land shaped all who lived along its rivers, by its swamps and on its islands and sandy hills, even as those who lived there shaped the land itself.” Erskine Clarke, Dwelling Place All-too-often we see Austen in terms of interiors: a…
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The Enlightenment, Austen, and the Regent
Historians are nothing if not epochal creatures. We divide time into epochs and apply catchy names—The Golden Age, The Dark Ages, the Renaissance, and so on. Some span centuries, some only decades. Their kinship rests in that each marks moments—long or short—when everything changed. Such is the case of that ninety-year revolution we call The…
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The Why-ness of Being
Early on in my affair with the Canon, I became rather angry. Well, perhaps angry is incorrect: perhaps dissatisfied is a better fit. I tend to read a book (modifying Mortimer Adler’s approach) three times. The first is to enjoy the story: to sort of glide along the surface, being moved by the plot’s and…
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What Elizabeth Heard, What She Knew
Giving Sailors Their Voice This contemplation grows from both my friend Alice McVeigh’s recent column on reviews and the release of my latest full-blown novel, The Sailor’s Rest. Before I go further, I will stipulate that reviews are essential to the writing process. Good authors look at reviews and find value in reader comments that…
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Cover Reveal: The Sailor’s Rest
Eleven months ago, my journey toward The Sailor’s Rest began with these words I found squirreled away in a file from April 18, 2022, right after the blog tour for The Grail ended. A gentleman’s greatcoat and beaver most assuredly were not foul weather gear of the type he was used to. Multiple capes did…