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The pugnacious cuckow

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Last week was shoe-shopping; this week my activities were more nature-oriented: a hike (in more practical shoes) at the nearby Waterman Nature Center and reading my latest research find, A Selborne Year: ‘The Naturalist’s Journal’ for 1784. It’s one annual installment of the journal kept for 26 years by Gilbert White, curate, gardener and naturalist, who lived in Selborne, a village in Hampshire not far from where I am setting my current work-in-progress. The edition I own has lovely illustrations by Nichola Armstrong.

I like incorporating glimpses of nature and seasonal details into my writing. So A Selbourne Year is a positive treasure-trove. Here are some typical entries:

Apr 3. Rain. The ever-green trees are not injured, as about London. The crocus’s are full blown, & would make a fine show, if the sun would shine warm. (On this day a nightingale was heard at Bramshott!)

July 10. Grey, & pleasant. Gale, sun. The hops damaged by the hail begin to fill their poles. Thatched my hay-rick. Cherries very fine. Grapes begin to set: vine leaves turn brown. The young cuckow gets fledge; & grows bigger than it’s nest. It is very pugnacious. Cool.

This is just the sort of detail I love!

I find it interesting that Jane Austen had so little detail about the English countryside; perhaps she expected her audience to be too familiar with the subject to find it interesting. But it goes along with the general lack of descriptions in her books (we only know Elizabeth Bennett has “fine eyes” for instance, but her hair and eye color are left to the imagination). No matter; Austen’s characterization and dialogue are brilliant enough to stand on their own.

It is possible to go to the opposite extreme, I suppose. Friends and I were discussing Tolkien over beer (I love having friends with whom I can discuss Tolkien over beer!) and one said his descriptions of various imaginary settings went on too long. Those long descriptions always worked for me, though, because I like to visualize settings as I read. Tolkien’s description of Ithilien made me yearn to go there, although I would settle for the New Zealand film locations.

In my own writing, I try to strike a balance. I know too much description wearies some readers so I use it in service of the characters and the story. In my current mess-in-progress, the hero has spent much of his life in India and war-torn Spain and Portugal; a green and fertile England holds a special meaning for him. However, he may just enjoy hearing a bird sing; my heroine, the daughter of a naturalist much like Gilbert White, will know if it’s a lark or a thrush.

How much descriptive detail do you like in stories?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

Posted in Jane Austen, Research, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 3 Replies

Top Ten Reasons to buy Hidden Paradise

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I’m absolutely the worst self promoter in the world because Hidden Paradise has now been available on amazon for two days and I somehow missed my own release date (which for the rest of the world may be September 25 or October 1). So today it’s all about the book. First, here’s the booktrailer in which I make my debut as a porn voiceover star:

This was made on iMovie which comes with the standard Mac bundle of software and it’s an extremely nifty little program. All sorts of visual effects and you can fade music in and out and I recorded  the voiceover with the puter’s inbuilt mic when the guys next door weren’t using their power tools.

You can read an exclusive excerpt on Heroes & Heartbreakers and learn more about my inspiration for the book at the RT Daily Blog.

And the Top Ten Reasons to buy the book:

10. There’s stuff about Jane Austen in it. Really. (As well as the sex.)
9. There’s a lot of stuff about paint analysis (well, it floats my boat).
8. People dress up in Regency clothes (and have sex).
7. They eat authentic Regency food (and have sex of no particular historical period).
6. There’s horseback riding and boxing (and … you know).
5. Also country dancing (and, you guessed it).
4. Glimpses of downstairs life among the team of hot footmen (no, not like that, though probably it should have been, but you do get that elsewhere).
3. It’s funny sometimes (even during the sex. Did we mention the sex yet? Oh yes, we did).
2. And sometimes it’s sad (by the way, did I tell you that…)
1. Because you know you want it real bad.

And now the contest: I’m giving away two signed copies (US only) if you enter with a coherent sentence about … just about anything, and I’ll pick names and announce on Sunday. So if you’re not planning to visit on Sunday, leave an emasculated version of your email, eg riskies at yahoodotcom so I can contact you. Usual restrictions apply.

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , , | 11 Replies

It All Comes Back To Jane Austen

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Welcome to our new home! We expect our new home to be ever more comfortable. I watch a lot of HGTV – House Hunters, Property Virgins, Property Brothers, Love It or List It – so I see lots of new homes. Let me assure you, the Riskies have moved in to space that is more “open concept” and all of our appliances are stainless steel and our counters, granite….Or the Regency equivalent.

And who better to invite to our new home but Jane Austen, who will stay with us until her birthday December 16. In honor of Jane, we thought we would each take turns discussing What Jane Austen Has Meant to Me.

There will be prizes – including a grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card! My prize today is the British Library Writers Lives edition of Jane Austen by Deirdre Le Faye. Eventually we will be using Rafflecopter for giveaways, but I don’t quite know how yet, so I’ll randomly choose a winner from the comments on this blog.

I’ve mentioned before that I came late to loving the Regency, not until I started writing in 1995. I’d read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in some English class along the way, but it wasn’t until my writing pals Helen and Julie introduced me to Georgette Heyer and Regency Romance (the Signets and Zebras) that I began to really fall in love with the Regency.

One event clinched it.

Helen, Julie, and I went to see the 1995 Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds movie Persuasion, which had been a BBC TV production in the UK but released in theaters in the US. It was this movie adaptation of a Jane Austen book I’d never read that made the Regency come alive for me.

From the country house of the Elliots to the chic rooms in Bath to the simple seaside abode of the Harviles, the Regency world the move depicted seemed so real to me. Maybe it was because the whole movie was filmed on location, but, even so, the details were not prettied up for film. The livery of the Elliot footmen looked a bit shabby, as it would have for a baronet whose fortunes were dwindling. Skirts and boots got muddy during country walks, as they would have in a time without paved walkways. The dancing was boisterous but not polished and practices, as professional dancers would have performed. The hero and heroine were attractive but not “beautiful people.”

The Regency people in the story also acted in ways I believed were true to the period. The emphasis on status, on honor and obligation seemed genuine to me. There were bored privileged young women, proud impoverished ones, scheming social climbers. There were also “normal” people, like the Musgroves and the Crofts. And Ann and Wentworth, of course.

Jane Austen may have been exploring the role of persuasion throughout the story, but she also crafted a lovely, satisfying romance, with familiar Romance themes. Persuasion is both a reunion story (Ann and Captain Wentworth were once betrothed) and a Cinderella story (Ann, the put-upon sister finds great love in the end). The conflict was poignant – Ann regretted breaking her betrothal to Wentworth; Wentworth remained bitter that she threw him off in order to seek better prospects.

There’s a lovely villain in Ann’s cousin, William Elliot, who becomes intent on courting her, and more complications ensue when Wentworth considers himself obligated to marry the injured Louisa Musgrove. The steps Ann and Wentworth each make to find their way back to each other are subtle, but very satisfying and very typical of romance novels of today.

After seeing the movie, I had a picture in my mind that was my Regency. I read Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice and all of Jane Austen’s books, even Lady Susan. The social attitudes from Jane Austen’s books seeped into my brain, as did the language, the rhythm of the conversation.

So you might say Jane Austen helped create my Regency world!

Have you seen this version of Persuasion? What do you think of it? Comment for a chance to win today’s contest.

Holiday Giveaway! And also remember to enter the Harlequin Historical Authors Holiday Giveaway. Today’s day is Sarah Mallory’s. For more details, go here.

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen | Tagged , | 26 Replies

Writers’ Habits

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I recently read THE IMMORTAL DINNER, by Penelope Hughes-Hallett, subtitled “A Famous Evening of Genius and Laughter in Literary London”. The book centers around a dinner party held by painter Robert Haydon whose guest list included John Keats, William Wordsworth and Charles Lamb. There’s lots of interesting background information on the participants and their contemporaries.

For example, there’s an account of Coleridge composing poetry “in walking over uneven ground, or breaking through the straggling branches of a copse-wood” while Wordsworth preferred “walking up and down a straight gravel-walk, or in some spot where the continuity of his verse met with no collateral interruption.”

Maybe it’s presumptuous, but I love it when I read about famous writers with similar habits to mine. “Thinking walks” are part of my own writing process. I’m more like Wordsworth–I like a reasonably level path, to keep my mind free to focus on my story–which is a good thing as copse-woods are scarce in my neighborhood.

Another account that made me smile was this one by Marianne Knight, one of Jane Austen’s nieces. “I also remember how Aunt Jane would sit quietly working (which meant sewing) beside the fire in the library, saying nothing for a good while, and then would suddenly burst out laughing, jump up and run across the room to a table where pens and paper were lying, write something down, and then come back across to the fire and go on quietly working as before.”

I always keep a writing pad in my purse, one by my bedside, and one on the kitchen counter for just that reason. Ideas don’t always come while I’m actively writing–perversely, some of the best ones come when I’m doing something else. Perhaps it’s because sewing and walking, both rhythmic activities, loosen up the creative process for me as they do for other artists I know.

Do you have any favorite accounts of famous writers’ processes? Are there any quirky habits you use that help you be creative, whatever your field of endeavor?

And to anyone who sees a woman striding through a neighborhood muttering to herself, remember she may not be crazy. She may just be a writer. 🙂

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Jane Austen, Writing | Tagged , , | 9 Replies

Jane Austen Birthday Week

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Jane Austen was born Dec 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England, a day for us all to celebrate; however, we Riskies are celebrating Jane Austen ALL week.

We want you to celebrate with us. There will be prizes. We’ve managed to scrape up Jane Austen-related prizes to send to one lucky commenter chosen at random next Sunday after Amanda’s Saturday blog finishes our week.

What was your first introduction to Jane Austen?

I first read Pride and Prejudice in college, but I cannot say my love of Austen hit me then. At the time, I loved everything about English Literature, enough to focus on English Lit as an English major. The real impact of Jane Austen came later for me and not through her books but through a movie.

Shortly after I’d first started writing, my critique group went to see Persuasion in the movie theatre, the Amanda Root-Ciaran Hinds version. There on the big screen the world of the Regency came alive in front of my very eyes. I’d just started reading traditional Regencies at the time and the beautiful houses, the clothing, the lush countryside, the sea coast, Bath, were all before me to experience as if I were really there. I loved the performances in the movie. I loved how Amanda Root as Anne began the movie looking like a dowdy spinster and ended up beautiful when the love she’d lost came back to her. I loved how Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth was not movie-star handsome, but seemed like a real man from that era. All the characters in the movie seemed perfectly cast and the scenery was unsurpassed. Look here for the movie trailer and you will see what I mean.

I still didn’t return to reading Austen at that time. That came later when I decided to try writing a Regency Historical. To help me develop a “Regency Voice” I listened to Jane Austen’s novels in audio book form over and over. Persuasion was still my favorite. I loved the “second chance” aspect of it.

You can hear a sample of that audio recording here.

Through the audio versions of Jane Austen’s novels, I truly began to appreciate her storytelling mastery. It is no wonder that librarians chose Pride and Prejudice as their number one favorite novel of all time…and Persuasion as number 82.

For more about Persuasion look here

For Cara’s Jane Austen Movie Club discussion of the 1995 movie Persuasion look here.

Tell us, did you love Jane Austen at your first exposure or did it happen later? Did you start with a movie or a book?

Don’t forget, we’re giving away Jane Austen-related prizes in honor of her birthday, so make a comment today and all week.

Come visit my website and enter my contest by Dec 20 for a chance to win Mistletoe Kisses.

 

Oh, by the way, here’s a photo of my son’s graduation. He really did it!!
The little arrow is pointing to him. If you can see a bearded face, my son is right behind him.

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged , , , , | 25 Replies