Category: Publishing
-
Announcing the Winner of P.O. Dixon’s “Triple Treat” Giveaway
Always Austen is pleased to announce the winner of P.O. Dixon‘s “Triple Treat” Giveaway. Lawyermom will receive a $5 Amazon Gift Card for following and commenting on the post. Congratulations. Please contact Regina Jeffers, Giveaway Coordinator, at reginalm@rjeffers.com to claim your prize. [According to stated giveaway rules on Always Austen, all prizes must be claimed…
-
Malvern, cello-playing and BOOK GIVEAWAYS
‘Why bother?’ my husband Simon wanted to know, when I said that I had been asked to audition, in Worcester Cathedral no less, for the English Symphony Orchestra’s conductor and principal cellist. My own view was, ‘Why not?’ (Remember: I was young and keen then.) Also, when else was I going to get to play…
-
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…
-
Why Is Editing So Important?
Well, I am back . . . to a degree, but not 100%. Recuperation may be several months and may require surgery at some point, so it is just a waiting game for a while. In the meantime, I’m working to, at least, get back into the swing of things—to a degree—if that is possible.…
-
Do Regency Men “Really” Care for Nothing But Looks?
To begin with, here’s the excerpt from my prizewinning new release, Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation, which was what first got me thinking about it. (Note: most of the book is from Mr Darcy’s diaries, but I allowed myself the variety of Mary’s notes to self at certain points. Here, she is musing on…
-
Happy Sixth Book Birthday to “Mr. Darcy’s Bride(s)”
In my book, MR. DARCY’s BRIDEs, by mistake Elizabeth disrupts Mr. Darcy’s marriage to his cousin, Anne De Bourgh. Our daring heroine is in disguise (NOTE: I drape her with a heavy veil attached to her bonnet, which would not be likely in the Regency era, but it was not forbidden. No one can say for…
-
Suspended Pleasures and Other Diversions
Cliffhangers. They’re the bane of many readers’ existence, yet we writers keep using them. So why do we do it? Why do we insist on ending a chapter with a nail-biting cliffhanger? First and foremost, cliffhangers are meant to keep you engaged, creating tension and excitement, and giving you a reason to keep turning the…
-
Piracy and Independent Authors
A lot of people have been talking recently about the Amazon crackdown on the exclusivity and priority pricing clauses in their online publishing contracts. If you’ve missed this or don’t understand what the big deal is, I wanted to talk about this as both someone who independently publishes my books and a practicing contracts attorney.…
-
A Little “This” and a Little “That,” Courtesy of the Bingley Sisters + a Bit from Darcy, Himself
Excerpts demonstrating my “take” on the Bingley sisters, from my new novel by Alice McVeigh It amused me, in Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation, to imagine Bingley’s sisters to be rather more differentiated than Austen imagined them… Caroline Bingley is still desperate for Darcy, but I imagined Louisa Hurst as rather more worldly, clever…
-
Celebrating the Release of “Two Earls to Love” + a Giveaway
The first of the “two earls” featured in this collection was released in the summer of 2022 as part of the Regency Summer Garden Anthology (which is only available in print format). Rose Vickers has been sent home by her parents from India where she has lived since she was a mere child. She arrives…