Jane Austen Addict Blog

Book Club Girl and I Talk Austen on BlogTalkRadio

I had such a fun and stimulating conversation with Jennifer Hart of Book Club Girl and all the readers who called in. Click on the widget above to listen. (Or if the widget doesn't show up on your browser, click here.)

Thanks, Book Club Girl!

Jane '08 and the Austen Dream Team

Good things come in threes. Three Bears. Three Lord of the Rings movies. Three volumes of Pride and Prejudice. … And now, three Jane '08 videos.

Yes, it's a trilogy, and no, my candidate is not ready to concede.

Check it out. Tell your friends. Share, embed, and spread the word.

If you missed the first two videos, here's the first one. And the second.

Remember: It's not over till every vote is counted and the woman in the bonnet and spencer gets sworn in.

So onward to the White House! And I don't mean Mrs. Norris's sad little crib. I'm talking Pemberley on the Potomac. Bath on the Beltway. State dinners with English country dances. Cabinet members in knee breeches. Which reminds me…

The dream team is now being assembled:

• Vice President: Mr. Darcy (a favorite in both red states and blue, and not like the wild young men now-a-days, who think of nothing but themselves)

• White House Chief of Staff: Emma Woodhouse (never loth to be first)

• Press Secretary: Miss Bates (is sure to say three things very dull indeed as soon as ever she gives a press briefing)

• Secretary of Defense: Mr. Bingley (so complying, so easy, and so generous, that there will never be another war)

• Secretary of State:  Mr. Knightley (anyone who could live at Hartfield with Emma and Mr. Woodhouse must be qualified for high-level foreign relations)

• Secretary of Treasury: Mrs. Norris (because she shall not be ashamed to practise economy now)

• Attorney General: Lady Catherine de Bourgh (a most active magistrate).

• Secretary of the Interior: Mrs. Elton (her first act will be to organize exploring parties to all national parks with the Sucklings in their barouche-landau)

• Secretary of Commerce: Caroline Bingley (It's about time she faced up to the fact that her family fortune was made in trade)

• Secretary of Health and Human Services: Mr. Woodhouse (devising a universal healthcare plan that includes daily doses of gruel—thin, but not too thin—and  an egg, boiled very soft, by Serle)

• Secretary of Labor: Edward Ferrars (understands the consequence of ignorance of the world--and want of employment)

• Secretary of Transportation: Fanny Price (will ensure that everyone has her own horse)

• Secretary of Energy: Elizabeth Bennet-Darcy (if she can walk three miles to Netherfield, she's got energy to spare)

• Secretary of Education: Mrs. Bennet (it's about time she became a slave to someone's education)

If you have your own ideas about who should serve at the pleasure of President Austen (I rather like the sound of that), do enter your suggestions in the comments section below.

By the way, a little sidebar on author videos: Check out this hilarious one by Seth Greenland, , which came to my attention via Ron Hogan at Galleycat,  who is one of my favorite bloggers and who is always posting updates on the funniest and most innovative author vids. Like this one. And this one.
Does this have anything to do with Jane Austen? Not unless you count the fact that Ron definitely knows his Austen, as evidenced by the title of this post,  which featured the first Jane '08 video.

Make that an Austentini. Shaken, not stirred.

One of my favorite bloggers, Laurel Ann of Austenprose and Jane Austen Today, posted the other day about the Sex and the City movie, and in that post she casually mentioned a drink called an Austentini.

An Austentini!? As an Austen devotee with a taste for vodka (no wonder my protagonist sought refuge from her romantic woes in an Austen-and-Absolut-induced haze), I had to have the recipe. 

And so here, with Laurel Ann's compliments, is something you might like to imbibe (in moderate doses, of course) to cool off in the midsummer heat. As Laurel Ann says, the Austentini is "sweet and sour like our Jane!" 

The Austentini:

2 ounces of Vodka
2 ounces of sweet and sour mix or margarita mix
splash of framboise
lemon twist

Pour into a chilled martini glass, open volume one of Pride and Prejudice. Or Persuasion or Emma or Sense and Sensibility or Northanger Abbey or Mansfield Park. Sip. Turn pages. Smile.

If you do not drink alcohol, here is a suggestion for an alcohol-free Austentini:

2 ounces Pellegrino or your favorite sparkling water
2 ounces sweet and sour mix or margarita mix
a few crushed raspberries or a splash of raspberry juice
lemon twist                                                                                        

Warning: Falling asleep after reading Jane Austen and drinking too many Austentinis in bed may result in your waking up, as my heroine did, in Regency England. Not to mention raspberry stains on your sheets.   

Calling All Book Clubbers!

One of the things I love most is talking to book groups. I've done conference calls, visited book groups in person,  and now I am happy to announce an upcoming book club call-in event on Blog Talk Radio.

Here are the specifics:

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
7 PM EST
Live call-in show on Blog Talk Radio.
Hosted by Book Club Girl (a must-read blog for book clubbers everywhere)

So if you and/or your book group would like to discuss Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict with me, do call in!

Here is the link to the show, which enables you to set a reminder for yourself:

Your call-in number for June 25 at 7 pm EST is:
(347) 945-6149.

In the meantime, feel free to check out my reading group guide.

Looking forward to talking to you!