Category: adaptations
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Hearts Unspoken & What Opportunities Await
I’m thrilled to announce that my newest Pride and Prejudice variation, Hearts Unspoken, is now available wherever eBooks are sold. Book Premise: When Miss Elizabeth Bennet accepts a position as the paid companion of the mistress of Pemberley, would she have chosen differently had she known what lay ahead? Mr. Darcy, an honorable man, who…
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A Sneak Peek at What’s Coming
Growing up with two younger brothers was an adventure. I may not have found a snake in my bed, but that did not mean restful and peaceful sleep was always had. What I also remember was trying to tell them how to avoid my mistakes, like taking a bike down a hill that had a…
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Point of Personal Privilege
Today, I muse about the Austenesque genre from the perspective of my ten years of publishing Austenesque fiction. Our #Austenesque world is one of the older ones regarding variations of a popular author. The first identifiable Austenesque Variation, Sybil Brinton’s Old Friends and New Fancies, was published in 1913. This credible mash-up crossover brought Austen’s…
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Song of Pemberley
In 2021 I started a novel called ‘Song of Pemberley’ but never finished it. Between selling my house in Texas, packing up everything and moving to Illinois, a number of things fell to the wayside until lately. Now, I’m working on playing catchup, and you know how much fun that is. However, since I am…
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Vertigo in the Regency
In January of this year, after having 4 barometric migraines in 5 days, I found myself on the floor in my library, vomiting into the trash bin. For the next two weeks, I was told I had positional vertigo, but they didn’t want to treat it beyond medications to control the dizziness and nausea until…
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Blackbirds in Austen’s World
The war widow: sentimental depiction of a grieving woman whose husband has gone to fight in the South African War. Photograph of The Boer War, a painting by John Byam Shaw. &&&& These reflections upon military widowhood in Austen’s time found root in the first and seventh volumes of the Bennet Wardrobe Series, where Lydia…
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The Wit of Jane Austen Revisited
Letters to Cassandra This was a post that I wrote four years ago. But I just had to go back to it. It’s my laugh for the day. Jane Austen had a biting wit that I just love, and her letters to her sister usually had at least two or more samples of it. Enjoy!…
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Your opinion on which next story
Yes, it is that time once again. Time for the ramblings of Melanie. This time is one of my favorites and least favorites in the year. Why? Because of all the delicious produce. I grew up in a farming community in central Illinois. When the produce came on, you were busy. Green beans, peas, and…
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All the World’s A Stage – Sense and Sensibility, the theatre, and a new novel
I am most fortunate to live within an easy drive of one of North America’s best summer theatre festivals, the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. We are great theatre fans in this family, and make a point of going to several performances each summer. Sometimes we spend the night, other times we drive there…
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Setting the Stage
For a JAFF author, the plot is queen. A simple statement, I think, revealing a fundamental truth about our genre. An author can comfortably use the geography supplied by Austen to offer stories to readers thoroughly familiar with the lay of the land or building. Hundreds of stories have spoken of Pemberley glowing in the…