CONFESSIONS is now in paperback in the UK

AND it got reviewed in The Independent.  Bloomsbury, you rock!

Sex and the Austen Girl

Check out my guest post on the pros and cons of courtship today vs. courtship in Jane Austen's world. It's a question I pondered constantly while writing my latest novel, RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT.

The post is on Stephanie's Written Word as part of her Everything Austen Challenge.

Oh yeah, and there's a BIG giveaway: Dutton is providing three copies of RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, and I'm providing three copies of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT.

So head on over to Stephanie's Written Word and enter!

 
[Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam in EMMA.]

Q&A & Giveaway on Living Read Girl

The giveaway madness continues! Check out my Q&A on Living Read Girl, and enter to win a copy of RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT or CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT.

 

A Real Writer Writes Every Day, and Other Myths

Please check out my guest post on Peeking Between the Pages, where I discuss some of the most common myths about writers and writing.

And there is yet another chance to win a copy of my new novel, RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, plus a copy of my first novel, CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. Enter to win at Peeking Between the Pages!

RUDE AWAKENINGS is here, and CONFESSIONS needs your vote.

It's heeeeere! RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. June 25 is the day!

 At a time like this I find myself caught between channeling Mrs. Bennet ("Oh, Lord! What will become of me. I shall go distracted") and that Mike Myers character (you know, the one who's always verklempt).

Romantic Times has made RUDE AWAKENINGS a Top Pick for July, SisterDivas Magazine praises it for its "great main character, solid storytelling, and social commentary on women, independence, and love," and the Deseret News calls it "the perfect summer read."

Enjoy the book, and please check the Jane Austen Addict homepage for giveaways and other news.

And please vote for CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, which has been nominated for  a 2009 Regency World Award.* 

Polls close June 30, so please cast your vote now! 

*The Regency World Awards are sponsored by The Jane Austen Centre in Bath, a wonderful place to visit.

Many thanks, and may this summer bring you much happiness! 

AustenFest on BrantFlakes!

What does that mean, you might ask?

BrantFlakes is the blog of author Marilyn Brant, whose upcoming Austen-inspired book, ACCORDING TO JANE: A NOVEL ABOUT PRIDE, PREJUDICE, & THE PURSUIT OF THE PERFECT GUY, comes out October 2009. ACCORDING TO JANE is already a winner—it won the 2007 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements.

So what is AustenFest?

AustenFest is a series of Q&A's and giveaways of Austen-inspired books and more on Marilyn's blog.

Here is the AustenFest lineup:

6/22/09: Syrie James, author of THE LOST MEMOIRS OF JANE AUSTEN, which was nominated for a 2008 Regency World Award for Best New Fiction; and her new novel, THE SECRET DIARIES OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE.

6/24/09: Kim Wilson, author of TEA WITH JANE AUSTEN and IN THE GARDEN WITH JANE AUSTEN, which is nominated for a 2009 Regency World Award for Best New Nonfiction.

6/26/09: Abigail Reynolds, author of THE PEMBERLEY VARIATIONS series of novels.

6/29/09: Laurie Viera Rigler (that's me), author of RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, which comes out June 25; and CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, which is nominated for a 2009 Regency World Award http://www.janeausten.co.uk/awardsurvey.ihtml for Best New Fiction.

Although Marilyn Brant won't be doing a Q&A herself, she just received the ARCs of ACCORDING TO JANE and will be giving away at least one of them.

Each of these authors is giving away at least one book, so be sure to go to AustenFest to enter!

In Two Places at Once. I Think.

Two reviews in major UK papers in the space of a week. What riches! Lord bless me! I shall go distracted.

Okay, enough channeling of Mrs. Bennet.

But it is thrilling that CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT is receiving such a warm welcome in England, as it's just been published there by Bloomsbury.

Here's an interesting thought: Jane Mansfield, the protagonist of the upcoming parallel story, RUDE AWAKENINGS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT (and no relation to the 1950s screen siren), will be able to go online and read The Observer, the same paper she could read in print in 1813 (it's been around since 1791). What I really can't wrap my mind around is that this nineteenth-century woman will be able to sit in her apartment in the twenty-first-century and read a 2009 review of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, which will tell her what's going on in the nineteenth-century life she left behind.

Brain in pretzels? Me, too. Absolut martini? Thought you'd never ask.

 

How Do I Love Bath? Let Me Count the Ways.

A couple of days ago, Kerri Spennicchia, Assistant Regional Coordinator of JASNA NY  forwarded to me the Jane Austen Centre's newsletter with a note "You do know that “Confessions” has been nominated for [a] Regency [World] Award.”

No, Kerri, I didn't! In fact, as a subscriber to the excellent Jane Austen's Regency World magazine, I'd received the newsletter myself earlier in the day. But I hadn't yet looked at the nominees. Nor had it occurred to me that my book might be one of them.

I've been doing the happy dance ever since.

According to The Jane Austen Centre in Bath, which is the sponsoring organization, "the Awards recognise the contribution of the nominees in furthering the understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of the work of Jane Austen."

Winners are chosen by the public, so please visit The Jane Austen Centre's website and cast your vote.

I had the great pleasure of visiting The Jane Austen Centre when I was deep into my research for Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and took a trip to Bath. I'd long been curious about the city that figured so prominently in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, and where key scenes in my own novel take place. I'd read a great deal about Bath prior to my visit, but the one thing that all my reading hadn't prepared me for was the feel of the place. Before I'd spent a full day in Bath I was already thinking to myself: I could live here. In a heartbeat.

What struck me more than anything else about Bath was its own heartbeat. Its energy and vitality. Although going to Bath was like going back in time, it was also a vibrant, wholly alive place.

There was so much to do in Bath that every day was filled with exciting adventures. I went to The Jane Austen Centre  and breathed in everything Austen. I took one of The Centre's excellent walking tours of Jane Austen's Bath. I also took an unforgettable walking tour of Georgian Bath led by Bill Haxworth of the Mayor's Corp's of Honourary Guides.  I went to the Assembly Rooms  and thought of Anne Elliot and Catherine Morland,  gazed at the façade of 4 Sydney Place, where Jane Austen once lived, walked in Sydney Gardens, went to Bath Abbey, visited the Pump Room and the King's Baths, the Building of Bath Collection, Number One Royal Crescent, and the Victoria Art Gallery. I sketched, bought a suitcase full of books, wrote scenes for my novel.

I left Bath inspired and full of energy, ready to delve back into Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. At the time, I had no idea that my book would ever be published. It certainly never crossed my mind that it might some day be nominated for a Regency World Award. I am deeply grateful to the Jane Austen Centre for this great honor.

Please visit the Jane Austen Centre's website and cast your vote for the 2009 Regency World Awards.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict: UK Edition

What an exciting week this is. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is just out in the UK, published by Bloomsbury with a gorgeous new cover.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the gold is shiny, and the title is in raised letters over creamy white. It's as yummy as a box of white chocolates wrapped in gold foil and a shiny red ribbon.

And to make things even sweeter, one of my favorite bloggers, Laurel Ann of Austenprose, wrote a lovely review.

Win a Book on Austenblog

Another giveaway: Send an email to Austenblog (see rules here) by noon on December 21 to be eligible for a random drawing. The winner will received an inscribed copy of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT.

Even if you don't win the book, you'll be happy you stopped by Austenblog, It's the perfect respite from holiday madness and one of my favorite spots in the Janeiverse.

Happy Holidays, and good luck!

 

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen (and another book giveaway)!

Check out my guest post at Book Club Girl, which is one of my absolute favorite blogs. I talk about giving books for the holidays and, in particular, giving a book by Jane Austen.

If you post a comment at Book Club Girl by Thursday, December 18, you'll be eligible to enter a drawing for one of two signed copies of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which I'm giving away in honor of the holiday season and Jane Austen's birthday (that's today, December 16th).

Happy Holidays, and happy birthday, Jane Austen!

Q&A and a book giveaway

I've done a Q&A on a cool literary blog called Scobberblotch, which is the blog of Karen Harrington, author of the fascinating novel Janeology (nothing to do with Jane Austen).

Check out my Q&A for insights on writing, Austen, and Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Please post a comment on Scobberlotch if you'd like to be entered in the drawing for a signed copy of Confessions.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Another Book Giveaway!

Naida of The Bookworm, an excellent book blog I recently discovered, interviewed me for her blog and is giving away two personally inscribed copies of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

Click here to read the Q&A and enter the giveaway.

Winners will be announced Monday, September 15 by The Bookworm.

If You Could Live In Jane Austen's World...

There's a fun giveaway going on at She Is Too Fond Of Books. To take your chance at winning one of two signed copies of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, here's what you need to do:

Click on this link to the post at She Is Too Fond of Books and enter, as a comment, what you would find most appealing and what you would find most challenging about living in Jane Austen's world.

Even if you don't win, it's a fascinating thing to contemplate what it would be like to ride in a barouche, dance at a ball, spend all day reading and taking turns in the shrubbery instead of answering emails...oh yeah, what would it be like to give up email, and movies, and my cellphone, and mascara, and...

Enter by midnight on Friday, September 5, 2008. Good luck!

Live Chat on Jane Austen Today--it's Tonight!

My live chat with Vic of Jane Austen Today will begin tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific time and 10 p.m. EST.

Please join us for a fun discussion and a chance to win a book!

Here are the instructions Vic gave me for participating in the chat:

Please click on this link: You will see a page that looks like this: Enter your name. For example, you will see Vic's name listed as Vic, Ms. Place. You do not need to enter your profile. Then click on Chat! You will see this screen (and hear a knocking sound): The arrow points to a window/address bar. This is where you will type your questions or chat with the others in the chatroom. Click on enter to submit your discussion. You will see the dialogue in the large blank field on top of the address bar. You will see the names of the chatters on the top right, however, you will not see your name. This is normal. We are looking forward to meeting you and talking with you in the chat! If you live in other parts of the world or country, please check this time zone clock for conversions. Email Vic at janeaustensworld at gmail dot com if you encounter difficulties. Sincerely, Vic (Ms. Place)

Q&A on Booking Mama, and another chance to win a book!

Julie of Booking Mama, an excellent blog whose tagline is "Sharing ideas on books and book clubs (and occasionally other things)," interviewed me for her blog. Here is the post, which you can also read on her blog. Do visit Booking Mama if you're searching for something fabulous to read on your own or with your book group.

Booking Mama: I am absolutely thrilled that Laurie Viera Rigler, author of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, agreed to answer a few of my questions. I read her book back in June when I was fortunate enough to participate in Book Club Girl's BlogTalk Radio Show; and I really enjoyed both the book as well as the discussion with Ms. Viera Rigler (you can read my review here.) I highly recommend CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, and I hope this interview will give you some insight into the book and entice you to read it!

Booking Mama: I love the concept for CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT – it’s such a unique idea to combine time travel with a historical fiction-type book. How did the idea for this novel come to you?

Laurie Viera Rigler: Hi, Julie, and thanks for asking me about CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. The idea didn't come about deliberately; I wasn't trying to think of an idea for an Austen-inspired novel or an idea for any novel. I was just standing in my kitchen one day and saw, in my mind's eye, this twenty-first-century Austen devotee, Courtney Stone, waking up in that four-poster bed in 1813 England in someone else's body.

Booking Mama: To write a historical fiction book like this, you must have done a ton of research to make it “feel” authentic. What types of research did you conduct, and how much time did you spend doing the research for CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I spent six years writing the book and did research throughout that entire period. I read many books and periodicals about the period, traveled to England, and made use of excellent Internet resources such as Google Books and the Jane Austen Society of North America's website, http://jasna.org. I also conducted some experiential research (not time-traveling, unfortunately) by taking English country dance lessons and going to a few balls, including one I attended with my husband in which I discovered that English country dance is indeed a very sexy thing to do with the handsomest man that ever was seen.

Booking Mama: Jane Austen is huge right now with so many books and movies out there! Why do you think she is so popular today, almost 200 years since she wrote her novels?

Laurie Viera Rigler: What makes Jane Austen timeless is her keen observation of human nature, and human nature has not changed at all in the past 200 years. That is why we can read about Elizabeth and Darcy and see ourselves in a heroine who thinks she knows everything about another person and realizes she's been blinded by the same pride and prejudice she ascribed to him. That is why we can see ourselves in Anne Eliot of Persuasion and relate to someone who has been misguided and unappreciated, and who finally gets a second chance to make things right. The other novels have equally resonant universal themes. Plus there is the pure delight of reading a well-constructed, funny, and touching story with a satisfying conclusion and so many layers of mastery that it can be read again and again with increasing pleasure.

The movies attempt to capture that mastery, and some succeed better than others. Emma Thompson wrote the best Austen screenplay, in my opinion, because she truly captured some of that Austen wit and genius. In any case, the movies are almost always fun escapist entertainments, providing a doorway to another time and place, an accessible and low-risk form of time travel. And they are an excellent way to introduce potential readers to Austen's novels.

Booking Mama: I found the ending to be very interesting, and I like how you left the ending open for different interpretations by your readers. As the author of the story, do you have a definite theory on the ending or does your opinion change?

Laurie Viera Rigler: What an intriguing question! The ending has a very specific meaning for me. However, once I started hearing various interpretations of the ending from my readers, I decided not to interfere with the individual reader's interpretation by imposing my own. Generally, the interpretations fall into two main categories, but to say any more might spoil it for those who have not yet read the book. I will only say that the ending is a truly happy one, and that my protagonist gets exactly what she wants.

Booking Mama: Your second novel is kind of being described as a sequel to CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT since it will have some of the characters who were in the first book– this time Jane finds herself in the body and life of a 21st-century woman. Did you always know that you wanted to write this book when you began CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, or did you decide to tell this story after the success of your first book?

Laurie Viera Rigler: The sequel to CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT is more like a parallel story/sequel in that it follows the adventures of Jane Mansfield (the nineteenth-century character from CONFESSIONS, not the twentieth-century screen goddess) who has woken up in Courtney Stone's twenty-first-century life (and body). So basically, while Courtney is taking over Jane's life in the first book, Jane is taking over Courtney's life in the second book.

The idea for the second book came up while I was writing CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. I did consider including Jane's twenty-first-century story in the first book; however, it just didn't feel right. Her journey is a very different journey, and it just didn't fit inside the first book. So I decided it would be my second novel, and I decided this way before I had a publisher.

Booking Mama: As I read this book, I could totally picture it as a movie. Is there any chance that CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT will appear on the big screen? Are there any specific actors/actresses you see in the roles?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I too would love to see CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT as a movie, and the rights are available if some clever producer would like to make me an offer I can't refuse. There are so many wonderful actors and actresses I admire that I couldn't possibly limit my fantasy choices. But I've certainly enjoyed reading and participating in the forum thread on my website that's devoted to casting the movie.

Booking Mama: I have to admit that I am not a huge “Jane Austen Addict;” but after reading your novel, I have to say that I want to re-visit some of her books. That has to make you pretty happy if you’re having that effect on your readers. Besides creating some new Austen fans, what else would you like for your readers to learn from or take away from this book?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I can't tell you how happy that makes me, Julie. It was my intention to write this book so that it would be completely accessible to those who had never read Austen or who had read a little Austen. And then there are all sorts of allusions to the novels that Austen addicts like myself would enjoy as well. It is tremendously gratifying to me that someone who reads my book would then become interested in revisiting Austen or reading her for the first time, which I have heard as well.

What I'd like readers to take away from this book, aside from the pleasure of a fun read, is a desire to explore some of the central questions that Courtney faces. One of those questions is: What makes up my identity? Am I who I am because of what I remember, or because of what people remember about me? Am I whoever people think I am, or am I someone else entirely? And what would I be willing to give up to live in a different time, and what would I gain?

Booking Mama: What is the best thing about being a writer? What is the strangest thing that’s happened to you since your novel was published?

Laurie Viera Rigler: The best thing about being a writer is being able to immerse myself in the world of my protagonists. It is a privilege and an adventure to see a whole new world through their eyes. I may not, in "reality," have time-traveled to Jane Austen's world and switched identities with a Regency gentlewoman, but thanks to Courtney I feel like I've shared her experiences.

The strangest thing that's happened to me since my novel was published was seeing my book in an airport bookstore, because back when I was fantasizing about being published I was traveling with my husband, and in an airport bookstore I said, wouldn't it be fantastic one day to see my book here?

Booking Mama: Besides Jane Austen (of course), who are some of your favorite authors and what are some of your favorite books?

Laurie Viera Rigler: I adore Zadie Smith. On Beauty is one of my favorite books and very much reminds me of Austen, even though it is an homage to E.M. Forster's Howard's End. I also love Nick Hornby, who also reminds me of Austen (About a Boy, High Fidelity, Long Way Down, How to Be Good). And I love Ian McEwan (Atonement, On Chesil Beach), Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Vine of Desire, Sister of My Heart), Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake), and so many other authors. I'm an avid reader. A few novels I've recently read and loved: Keeping the House by Ellen Baker, Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily, Angelica by Arthur Phillips, The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover. I could go on and on but will restrain myself!

Thanks again for asking me about CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT. It's been a lot of fun talking to you, Julie, and I hope to do it again soon!

Booking Mama: A huge thanks goes out to Ms. Viera Rigler for this interview. If you would like to learn more about CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT, you can visit the book's website. I have had almost as much fun playing around on this website as I did reading the book! The site is very interesting (as well as entertaining) and has tons of information for the "Jane Austen Addict" in all of us.

There is also another great opportunity to "talk" with Ms. Viera Rigler on August 12th. She will be joining Jane Austen Today for a live chat, and you can ask her some of your questions about the book. Click here for more details about how to participate - you could even win a copy of the book.

Not only has Ms. Viera Rigler been extremely gracious in answering all of my questions, but she has also offered to give away two signed copies of CONFESSIONS OF A JANE AUSTEN ADDICT! If you are interested in winning a copy of this book, please leave a comment with the name of your favorite Jane Austen book (or movie). Don't forget to leave an e-mail address so I have a way to contact you. If you'd like to double your chances to win, blog about the contest (and the interview) with a link to this post. You have until August 8th to enter. This contest is open to citizens of the United States and Canada only.

Chat with me on August 12 and win a book

Vic and Laurel Ann of Jane Austen Today, two of my favorite bloggers, have asked me to participate in a live chat on August 12th. We'll be talking about my novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, and this is your chance to ask me questions about the book, the great author who inspired it, about writing and publishing, and about the sequel. Please join me!

How to participate:

Just before the scheduled chat, which is on Tuesday, August 12,  from 10 PM - 12 AM EST, and 7 - 9 PM Pacific time, go to Jane Austen Today, where you will see the link to the chat room. Simply click on the link and join in our chat.

And maybe even win a book:

You could win one of five autographed copies of the new paperback edition of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict.

There are two ways to enter this giveaway:

1. Post a question for me at Jane Austen Today. If you have questions about the book and its inspiration, the research, writing techniques, or the publishing process, please post your question as a comment on Jane Austen Today's post about this upcoming chat.

On August 12th, Jane Austen Today will draw the winning name. In the meantime, I will do my best to answer your questions.

2. Be the first in the chatroom or the last to leave. The first two people to sign into the chatroom and begin talking will win books. So will the last two people in the chatroom.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for Tuesday, August 12, 10 PM - 12 AM EST, and 7 - 9 PM Pacific time.

I'll be looking forward to chatting with you!

Blog Talk Radio, part 2

For those of you whose browsers don't show the Blog Talk Radio widget from my last post, here is the link to the show.

Potential spoiler alert: For those of you who haven't read the book, I start talking about the ending around halfway through.

Thanks again to Book Club Girl and everyone who called in and listened!

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!

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!

Protagonists R US

[This is my second guest post for Penguin USA's blog.]

Ever assume that the protagonist of a novel is a self-portrait of the author? I have.

I make the author-equals-protagonist assumption so often that I have to laugh at myself when I catch myself at it. For example, I was happily reading Literacy and Longing in L.A., the story of a bibliophile who uses books for comfort and escape (oh how I could relate to that), when my fuzzy cocoon of protagonist/author/me kindredness broke open upon the protagonist's announcing her dislike for Jane Austen. What?! My favorite author scorned by the book-loving heroine of a book I really like?

After the initial shock passed, I reconnected with the heroine. After all, poor misguided thing, look what she was missing out on: Jane Austen. It didn't even occur to me that her tastes might not be shared by her creators, coauthors Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack. In fact, when I was about to meet Jennifer and Karen as my fellow panelists at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, I actually felt a bit of trepidation. Would these Austen-hating authors snub me? After all, the title of my novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, says it all.

No, I told myself, that's just plain silly. And of course, they were absolutely lovely. To my surprise, Karen Mack even mentioned the Austen thing during the panel. It seems that she and Jennifer had received quite a lot of angry emails from Jane Austen devotees berating them for their lack of literary taste. Karen wanted it on record that although her protagonist had no use for Austen, both Karen and Jennifer love her.

I was duly chastened. Not that I was one of the people who had fired off an angry email (nor did I have an impulse to do so). But I, like them, had not questioned my assumption that author equals protagonist.

As an author, I should have known better. After all, many a reader has assumed that at least parts of Courtney, the protagonist of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, are exactly like me. And I don't mean just her taste in books. The question is usually couched in polite language, e.g., "How much of Courtney is you?" But I imagine what they really want to know is do I thrive on high drama, consider vodka to be one of the four basic food groups, and can I "be had," as Bette Davis famously quipped in All About Eve, "for the price of a cocktail, like a salted peanut."    

Notice I'm not answering the questions. [Pauses to sip from huge martini glass.]

See? You fell for it.

Here is the real answer: Authors are like actors. We step inside the minds of the characters who speak to us, we hear what they say, and we become them, we live inside their worlds—while we are writing, that is. Not that we don't think about them all the time when we're away from our desks, hear them inside our heads, see scenes unfolding. But we still know the difference between them and us.

At least I hope we do.

Ten Ways to Cope Without The Complete Jane Austen Series

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

[This is my guest post for  Jane Austen Today.]

What? No more weekly doses of Austen on PBS? Fear not, my fellow addicts. Help is here. All you need to do is follow this ten-part program.

Re-reading Austen's six novels (or reading them for the first time) will of course play a big role in this program. Ah, but what accompanies each read will make your experience even sweeter.   

1. Try Northanger Abbey for your first post-Masterpiece read. Why Northanger Abbey? One reason could be that it was the first of Austen's novels to be accepted by a publisher—who then couldn't be bothered to publish it. Idiot. Thumbing your nose at such stupidity is one reason to read it first. Another, even better reason, is that NA's a fun way to shake off the post-Masterpiece blues.

•    After you read the book, see what it's like to be Catherine Morland, the heroine of Northanger Abbey. How? Drive or walk around your city or town and pretend you are seeing it from the point of view of someone who has never been there and finds it fascinating and exciting. See? You're experiencing your world like Catherine experienced the city of Bath. If you're hard pressed to find something exciting or fascinating about your world, go into the nearest flower garden and learn to love a hyacinth. Or just think about how a young woman from the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century might respond to some of the modern technological wonders you take for granted.  Like hot showers, for example. Flush toilets in every house. Mascara. Tampons.

•    Then, top off your newfound sense of wonder and appreciation for your world by firing up your DVD player with the 2007 adaptation of Northanger Abbey* starring J.J. Feild and Felicity Jones. There. Aren't you feeling better already?

•    *Ready for more? Try the 1986 adaptation of Northanger Abbey. Though it's unpopular with a lot of Janeites, you might, like me, find it entertaining.

2. Read Sense and Sensibility.

•    After you close the book on Elinor and Marianne, imagine what happens next. (We all know these characters are real and keep living their lives after the books end, don't we?) Here's a fun situation to ponder: What happens the first time Edward and Elinor go to London and have dinner at Edward's mother's house—and are sitting across the table from Lucy and Robert? What do they talk about? Imagine Elinor sitting in the drawing room after dinner with Mrs. Ferrars and Lucy. And here's another one to consider:  Should Marianne, or Mrs. Dashwood, ever confront John Dashwood about his broken promise to help them financially? If you were to write that speech, what would you have Marianne say? Or should the Dashwood ladies let John's own guilty conscience do all the work?

•    Now that you've survived all those Dashwood/Ferrars family reunions, reward yourself with a screening of the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson Oscar-winning Sense and Sensibility (1995)*  And while you're at it, order yourself a large pizza, chocolate cake, and/or a trough of margaritas. Yes. This program is definitely working.

3. Read Pride and Prejudice.

•    After you read the book, imagine that you are Elizabeth experiencing your first visit to Rosings as Mrs. Darcy. (Lady Catherine has cooled down by now and consoles herself by hoping that her nephew will be so fortunate as to become widowed at a young age and redeem himself by taking a second wife, i.e., Anne de Bourgh.) Amuse yourself by observing the gyrations of Mr. Collins when he and Charlotte join the Rosings party for dinner. As Elizabeth once said to Mr. Darcy, "Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can."

•    But wait, there's more. It's time to watch the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle P&P mini again (one can never watch it too many times), and/or the 2005 movie with Keira Knightley, depending on whether your idea of Mr. Darcy is Colin Firth or Matthew MacFadyen or both. The 1995 mini is a great excuse to have a pajama party (where I grew up, we called them slumber parties). And one is never too old to have a slumber party. Send the kids away for sleepovers and banish any curmudgeonly significant others. Then, bring in lots of goodies, because five hours of viewing requires a great deal of fuel. There's all that fencing and swimming and dancing and taking refreshing turns around the room. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it. No matter which film you watch (or even if you watch both), be sure to buy the soundtrack of the 2005 film and play often. It's stunning.

4.  Read Mansfield Park.

•    Even if you're a reader who can't quite warm up to Austen's heroine Fanny Price (I feel your pain, but do give her some time; she grew on me after awhile), you can have a lot of fun thinking about how this book could have ended but didn't. For me, that's the most fascinating, thought-provoking aspect of Mansfield Park. As Patricia Rozema, director of the controversial 1999 adaptation of Mansfield Park, put it in her screenplay, "It could have all turned out differently, I suppose. But it didn't." With that in mind, imagine what would have happened if Edmund had married Mary Crawford, and if Fanny had given in and married Henry Crawford. Happy marriages? Reformed rakes? Or a disaster?

•    As compensation for the lack of a truly satisfying Mansfield Park film (see below)*, you get to watch the lovely 2007 BBC mini of Sense and Sensibility instead. I know, it's Sense and Sensibility, not Mansfield Park, and you just saw it on TV, but who cares? It's worth seeing again. It'll make you feel good. And isn't that what this program is all about?

*I'm one of the minority of Janeites who liked  the 1999 Patricia Rozema adaptation of Mansfield Park, but I liked it more as a story inspired by Mansfield Park than as an adaptation per se. Rozema's rendering of Fanny Price is more like the director's idea of a young Jane Austen than the protagonist Jane Austen wrote for Mansfield Park. And Rozema's vision of the story's subtext is pretty dark. But then again, the book itself is perhaps the least "light, and bright, and sparkling" of Austen's works. By the way, there is a fascinating article on this film by Kathi Groenendyk in JASNA's journal Persuasions: As for the latest adaptation that aired on PBS, it has such a truncated version of the story that one wonders how anyone who didn't read the book could figure out what's going on. Mrs. Norris, Fanny's main nemesis, has mysteriously turned into a bland creature. And Fanny Price looks entirely too 21st-century and wears cleavage-baring day dresses (none of this is the fault of the actors, but still). As for the 1983 BBC mini, the heroine is more faithful to the book than its companions. However, while the principal actors are unquestionably talented I couldn't quite see some of them in their roles. And it's got that static, video-on-a-stage feel of early BBC productions that I find challenging to watch.

5. Read Emma.

•    After you finish the book, play a little game called "Emma, Reformed Matchmaker." You'll need to play with a single friend (preferably a single friend who would like to be in a couple). Each of you sits down and writes a list of qualities that your friend's perfect, future mate should possess. Do not reveal what is on your lists until both of you are finished writing. Now share. You may be surprised to find that your lists differ greatly. When you read your friend's list, refrain from exclamations of horror unless one of the items on that list includes "must be incarcerated in a maximum security prison." Now, give your list to your friend to take home with her. Tell her she is free to cross out whatever she doesn't like on your list and keep whatever she does like. Or burn the whole thing. If she cares to share her final list with you, you may keep your eyes open for appropriate candidates and discreetly point them out to her. That's "point them out," not shove them in her face. Remember, you are "Emma, Reformed Matchmaker." If your friend doesn't care to share her final list, then graciously wish her all the best in finding her dream partner and promptly change the subject. Then, take her to Ford's (or local emporium of your choice) to buy a new dress. Or draw her picture. Without a potential mate watching the proceedings. See? You're a better, happier human being already.

•    Now that you've had a successful run at self-improvement, Jane Austen-style, you deserve to have an Emma film festival. That's three very clever films indeed: The Kate Beckinsale/Mark Strong-starrer, the Gwyneth Paltrow/Jeremy Northam movie , and the brilliant Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone and directed by Amy Heckerling. Three fabulous films means you get to invite at least three friends over to have a viewing party or slumber party. And stock up on provisions, for a private screening of three films, without sitting down to supper, [would be] pronounced an infamous fraud upon the rights of men and women.

6.  Read Persuasion.

•    After you finish the book, amuse yourself by imagining whether or not Mrs. Clay will indeed become the next Lady Eliot. If she does, will Anne and Frederick, or any of her family, ever visit Sir William and Lady Eliot? How will Mary's health survive it? Or Elizabeth's pride? Or on a pleasanter note, will Capt. Wentworth allow his wife on board his ship? If so, what exciting places will Anne visit?

•    Watch the lovely, 1995 adaptation of Persuasion starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds. Optional: the 2007 version of Persuasion.  Although Austen's story is compressed into a scant 93 minutes in the latest version, this one is also worth watching, particularly if you love Rupert Penry-Jones as much as I do. Besides, the DVD restores the small but significant bits that were cut from the PBS broadcast.

7. Join the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and mingle with fellow Janeites at local and national meetings. I know what you're thinking, and yes, the rumors are all true. It's a cult. We have a secret handshake. We aim for total world domination. Okay, you can stop sweating now. I'm kidding. Really. JASNA is a community of warm, welcoming, fun-loving people who love Jane Austen and love getting together and talking about their favorite author with like-minded people. Like you. There are local reading groups (think Jane Austen Book Club, but usually with more than just the six Austen novels), regional get-togethers with fascinating speakers, entertainment, and delicious food, special screenings for members, and annual general meetings (AGMs) in a different city each year with talks and panels and workshops and English country dance lessons and a banquet and a Regency ball. At my first AGM I thought I'd died and gone to Austen heaven. 

8. Watch a film that's so life-affirming and joyful that it merits a place of its own on this list: Bride and Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha's Bollywood-meets-Hollywood tribute to Pride and Prejudice. It's way better than a year's supply of antidepressants or a gallon of Absolut martinis. Hint: This one merits a party or at least inviting one friend over to watch with you. First, order in Indian food. Then, before popping in the DVD, unearth floaty scarves from your wardrobe or nearest accessory emporium, and keep them on hand to wave around while you dance along with the various musical numbers. Be sure to buy the soundtrack and play it in your car or on your iPod while commuting to work the next day. I feel better just thinking about it.

9. Now that you've got that Indian groove thang going, try English country dancing. Then you can watch all the movies set in Jane Austen's time again, and at the ballroom scenes you can dance along. There are many places to learn English country dancing, and from my experience, the people are friendly and welcome beginners, and there's no need to bring a partner with you. Some dance societies hold regular dances and even annual balls. In Southern California, check out Vintage Dance & History. Nationwide, go to the English Country Dance Webring and the Country Dance and Song Society.

10. Finally, take a trip back in time to Regency England. No, I haven't lost my mind. I have, however, written a novel that will transport you to 1813 England. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict  is the story of a modern L.A. girl and Austen fan who wakes up one morning as an Englishwoman's in Austen's time. As of April 29, Confessions comes out in paperback, which means the fare to Jane Austen's world becomes even more affordable.

If you have another item or two to add to this list, I would love to hear your suggestions, and I'm sure the readers of this blog will thank you. Just enter your suggestions as a comment .

Win a collection of Austen-inspired books, and a DVD

Book Club Girl, which is a fabulous resource for book clubbers and solo readers alike, is running a contest for all of us who've been watching the Masterpiece Complete Jane Austen extravaganza on PBS. All you need to do is go to Book Club Girl and vote for your favorite Masterpiece adaptation of Jane Austen's novels. Then, post a comment to Book Club Girl's blog saying why you chose that particular film, and you'll be entered in a random drawing. The prize is a collection of Austen-inspired books: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by yours truly, Lost in Austen by Emma Campbell Webster, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James,  an advance copy of Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley, and Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer, plus the DVD of whichever is the favorite Masterpiece adaptation of Austen’s novels as chosen by voters on the Book Club Girl blog.

By the way, I've met two of the authors of the prize books: Emma Campbell Webster, author of Lost in Austen, (we were on a panel together at Book Expo); and Syrie James, author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, at a JASNA meeting yesterday. They're both lovely women.

And speaking of being inspired by Austen, at yesterday's JASNA meeting (a regional meeting of JASNA-SW), a highlight of the program was a tour of the Michael Sadleir rare book collection at UCLA. Among the treasures in that collection was a gorgeous first edition of Pride and Prejudice, the third volume of which I held in my hands. That was a moment I will never forget.

"A Ball? I Long for a Ball!"

by Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com)

(This post also appears as a guest post on About.com's Classic Literature blog.)

It was only about six years ago when I looked at pictures of empire-gowned members of the Jane Austen Society of North America and said, "I'll never be one of those people who dresses up in costume and goes to a Regency ball. Isn't that a bit like going to a Star Trek convention and wearing Vulcan ears?"

Lesson #1: Whenever you say, "I'll never be one of those people," what it really means is that you already are one of those people. You just don't know it yet.

Lesson #2: It all starts with English country dance lessons. You know how they talk about gateway drugs? Well, English country dance lessons, my friends, is the gateway drug.

I went to my first dance lesson at the 2004 Annual General Meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA AGM) , which took place in my part of the world, i.e., Los Angeles. Learning English country dance was, after all, part of my research for my novel, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, which is about a modern L.A. girl who wakes up one morning as a woman in Austen's time. Dance lessons were as legitimate a pursuit as attending the various lectures. Or so I told myself. How could I, in all good conscience, write a dance scene if I had the opportunity to dance and passed it up?

[Here I am dancing with my friend Ron at the 2008 Jane Austen Evening.]

Then came the JASNA ball itself that Saturday night in 2004. Sure, I didn't wear a costume; lots of people didn't. But I danced every dance and not only did I have a blast, I also discovered that English country dance, which in the movies looks like people are merely parading about and posing like peacocks, is actually quite a workout. I also found that when I looked at the women in their gowns this time, I experienced costume envy. I too wanted to wear a dress and pretend I was Elizabeth Bennet dancing with Mr. Darcy. Wouldn't my turns and steps look ever so much more elegant in a Regency ball gown than in black velvet pants? No, I told myself, I won't give in. Costumes are where I draw the line.

Since then I have attended two more JASNA AGMs and two more JASNA balls. Still in contemporary dress. But the turning point came when I attended something last year called the Jane Austen Evening, which is not a JASNA-sponsored event. At the Jane Austen Evening, which is organized by the Society for Manners and Merriment,  almost all of the attendees are in costume. Unlike the JASNA balls, where everyone is there because they are Jane Austen readers, the attendees of the Jane Austen Evening appear to be a mixture of Jane Austen readers, period-dance aficionados, people who are into historical re-enactments, and combinations thereof.  You can imagine the costumed glory of these folks.

["A whole campful of soldiers!"]

Lesson #3: No one is immune to the costume bug. Case in point: At this year's Jane Austen Evening, I was in the powder room where a number of women were primping. One of them, who was in her early twenties, said to a friend, "I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm actually a t-shirt-and-jeans kind of girl." Another woman, who was perhaps forty and in a gorgeous bright green gown, said, "How about me? I'm an airline mechanic."

You can't make up that kind of dialogue.

Lesson #4: English country dancing can heat you up in more ways than one. The best thing about going to the Jane Austen Evening last year was the fact that I went with my husband Thomas, he who had previously informed me that Regency dancing was the most fundamentally uncool activity he could imagine, and that it would be a cold day in hell…you get the picture. But when the girlfriend who was supposed to go with me couldn't make it, Thomas gallantly offered to take her place. Even took English country dance lessons with me. And that's when I realized that not only is English country dancing a good workout, it's also pretty hot.

It's one thing to dance with one of your girlfriends or some random guy you're not interested in. It's quite another to stand up with the man you find most agreeable in the whole world, the handsomest man who ever was seen, the man who has a noble estate in Derbyshire, I mean, Pasadena. It was then that I truly got why all that serious courting went on at balls in Jane Austen's novels, and why women longed for a dance. Not only was it pretty much the only genteel outlet for vigorous exercise, aside from walking and horse riding; it was the only place that a young man and woman could spend lots of seriously flirtatious face-time with each other. All that eye contact and hand touching and display of bodies was highly charged, and all done with the full sanction of society. No wonder the women were fanning themselves. It was after going to that ball with Thomas that I expanded the ballroom scene in Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. As for Thomas, he had such a good time that this year he decided to invite a group of friends to go with us.

[The handsomest young man that ever was seen...]

At last year's Jane Austen Evening, I wore a long skirt under a knee-length, empire-waisted dress, in a sort of poor man's imitation of a Regency gown. This year, I decided, I would cross the line for good. And so I had a gown made for the occasion. I even had my hair done (admittedly more like big prom hair than authentic Regency hair, but more of a period look than my usual flat-ironed style).

Bring it on, I said. There's no difference between me and those guys who speak Klingon to a friend of mine whenever she ventures into the sci-fi section of her local bookstore. I may not speak Klingon, but I can dance Mr. Beveridge's Maggot like Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle did in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I am a Jane Austen addict, and my version of Vulcan ears is a scarlet silk-taffeta empire-waisted gown.   

If you'd like to learn English country dance and you live in Southern California, visit lahacal.org  for lessons near you. (You can also link from there to the Jane Austen Evening site.) If you're in another part of the U.S., you can try the English Country Dance Webring; or just do a Google search with the keywords "English country dance" and your geographical area, and you're sure to find something nearby.

And if you'd like to join a warm and welcoming community of fellow Austen addicts, visit the Jane Austen Society of North America at http://jasna.org and find out where your local region meets and what events are going on throughout the year. As for the AGM (and that famous Saturday night ball), this year's event will be held in Chicago.

By the way, the most important thing that the JASNA AGM balls and the Jane Austen Evening have in common, aside from dance and costume, is the abundance of warm and welcoming people. So if you're shy with strangers or don't have a partner to accompany you to these events, never fear.

If you'd like to see my photo album of this year's Jane Austen Evening, visit the Many Charming Views / Scrapbook  section of my website, janeaustenaddict.com.

(I came across a YouTube video of folks dancing the Sir Roger de Coverley at the Jane Austen Evening, and there I am in the foreground dancing with my friend Alice. Video by Larry Buckel. He and his lovely wife Carin helped organize the event:)

Happy Holidays

I hope this finds you well and happy and indulging in Austen!

Great news for all Austen lovers awaits us in the new year: Masterpiece Theatre’s Complete Jane Austen begins in January with four new adaptations, plus rebroadcasts of the Kate Beckinsale Emma and the inimitable 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries starring the man in the wet shirt, Colin Firth.

Canada's public station, TVO, has cool clips and commentaries   on these exciting new productions. (If you get TVO you don't even have to wait till January to see three of the new films. You can watch Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion on TVO beginning December 16, which also happens to be Jane Austen’s birthday.)

In the meantime, consider taking a break from holiday stress (or feigning work at your desk ) while eying an array of all your favorite Austen movie trailers and clips. And if you dearly love a laugh, watch some of these, too.

Wish you’d come to one of my readings instead of washing your hair that night? Check out this Authors @ Google’s video of a reading at Google’s Ann Arbor offices, which was one of the highlights of my book tour. Imagine working for a company that cooks you a delicious lunch every day and brings in authors to read you stories during the workday. Where can I sign up?

Speaking of unusual venues, how about a hair salon that’s also a bookstore? That’s Beauty and the Book, the Jefferson, Texas headquarters of The Pulpwood Queens Book Club, another exciting stop on the tour. What would Jane Austen say about such a place? Read my guest post on Book Club Girl and find out.

Coming up this month: Satellite Radio interview on XM 163’s Sonic Theater-“This is Audible.” If you don’t have XM, the interview will be available on audible.com for free download. Just type in keywords "This is Audible," "Josephine Reed" (the delightful interviewer/program director), and "December 2007" to find the download. Exact broadcast date will be posted here as soon as it’s available.

In the meantime, let’s all enjoy the holiday season and raise our glasses to Miss Austen on December 16. And while you’re making your lists and checking them twice, consider giving your favorite Austen addicts a round trip ticket to 1813 England for the mere price of a book (or six-CD unabridged audiobook, which just got a glowing review in Publisher’s Weekly).

May this holiday season and the coming year bring you much happiness,

Laurie

I QUIT!

About two months ago I was obsessively checking my amazon.com sales ranking  (I'm told this is a common addiction among newly published authors and that sometimes said authors must be hauled off to rehab) when I came across a gem of a customer review, entitled "Austen Addict Needs Rehab." This title was not, in fact, as serendipitous as it appeared, as I discovered when I read the first two sentences:

Laurie Viera Rigler should resign her membership in the Jane Austen Society. I don't see how anyone who admires Austen's work could associate that great author's name with this tripe.

I happened to be in a fairly confident mood that day, and so I was able to laugh it off. After all, I knew when I was working on this book that should it ever be published, it was likely to arouse the ire of some and the approbation of others, Janeites being a particularly passionate bunch. And if I've learned anything from my years of reading Austen, it's the importance of laughing at myself.

So, aside from the absurdity of the reviewer's proclamation, how was I able to resist the temptation to take any of this personally? Glad you asked. I'd have to say that other external forces of a positive nature, such as finding out Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict debuted on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list and several good reviews made this call for my resignation from JASNA seem a trifle, even an amusing one.

Inevitably, all highs wear off. It could be that (a) you get a bad review. Or (b) you're having a hard time zipping up your jeans. Or (c) that cute guy who lives across the street didn't smile back at you. It doesn't matter, of course, that (a) the reviewer simply didn't enjoy your book but did enjoy making herself look clever at your expense. Haven't you ever done that in private conversation? The only difference is that newspaper reviewers get to be catty in public. It also doesn't matter that (b) you happen to be premenstrual AND ate pizza for the last three days, so of course your jeans are tight at the moment; and (c) that cute guy across the street wasn't wearing his glasses and didn't see you smile. In fact, he didn't even know that blurry blob across the street was you.

Nope, none of that matters whatsoever. By the time you've been through (a), (b), and (c) and who knows how many other imagined slights, you're ready for some more self-flagellation. Let's see--what would hit the spot? I know! Let's check our amazon.com ranking. No. This cannot be true. It just shot up 5,000 points in four hours?? How is that possible? Does my book really suck? Is it all over? Am I the biggest loser on the planet?

But wait, there's more: Surely the answer to the question of whether or not "L" must be stamped on my forehead awaits me in the review section of my book's buy page. Let me scroll down a bit and--NO--not another bad review. This one is so awful ("I chose this book for my book club pick. I was so NOT impressed that I am going to tell the other book club members not to waste their time") that I feel compelled to re-read the one that says I need to resign from JASNA.

And you know what? This time I'm not laughing.

I've thought about this descent at length, and I've come to the conclusion that something has to change. And you know what? It isn't my membership status in JASNA. In fact, since then I've become a life member.

No, what needs to change is me. My habits. My beliefs. Was I going to allow other people to determine my happiness based on something as inconsequential as whether they love or hate my work?
After all, is my book any better or worse than it was because of the good review? Or the bad review? Of course it isn't.

All I know is this: If I sit on the praise/criticism seesaw, I'm doomed to the inevitable down after going up. Anyone ever see a seesaw stand still with someone at the top?

I've decided to find my happiness elsewhere. I've also decided to stop making devil's bargains with myself. To wit: I am a master at all those "If only this happens, I'll be so happy" wishes. At first it starts out with: "If only I had an agent for my book, I'll be so happy." Well, I was/am. But then it turned into, "If only I get a publisher for my book, I'll be so happy." Then it's "If only the book gets a good review, I'll be so happy," and "If only it sells a lot of copies, I'll be so happy." Have I kept any of those promises? Only temporarily. All it takes to make the seesaw go down is the first bad review, drop in sales figures, too-tight jeans, or imagined slight from my neighbor.

So here's what I choose instead: I choose the happiness that comes when I practice gratitude for all the blessings in my life. I choose the happiness that comes when I'm giving a reading and my sole mission is to make the people who came to see me happy. I choose the happiness that comes when I delight in the pure joy of creating a strong scene or a funny moment. I choose the happiness that comes from whatever comes.

Failure, I've decided, is not an option.

May happiness be yours to keep.

My Guest Post on Book Club Girl

[You can read my guest post here or on Book Club Girl.  In any case, check out Book Club Girl, a  priceless resource for anyone who has a book group, wants to start a book group, or just loves to read. ]

Laurie Viera Rigler, author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Reports from Her Visit to the Pulpwood Queens Book Group!

I was en route to Jefferson, Texas to give a reading of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict to the Pulpwood Queens Book Club when the flight attendant announced that he wasn't quite sure our landing gear was working. There probably wasn't anything to worry about, he said, though I later learned that the Shreveport Fire Department was out in full force to greet us just in case. Hands gripping the armrest, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, "Why did they have to tell us that?" She shrugged. And so I said some prayers and then went back to my book; I was reading Emma. If those last twenty  minutes of flight time were to be my last twenty minutes alive, I would go down reading Jane Austen. Sure enough, Austen took me out of myself, out of my fears, and into Highbury, where Emma danced with Mr. Knightley at the Crown. And before I knew it, the plane was safely on the ground.

Like the protagonist of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict , I use Austen as comfort, guidance, and a cure for a host of ills that come with modern living. Unlike her, I found myself transported not to Regency England, but to Beauty and the Book, the headquarters of the Pulpwood Queens, and the only beauty salon/bookstore in America. Their motto? "Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!" At Beauty and the Book, bookshelves lined with must-reads face racks of RedKen products, and stacks of the club's monthly picks are flanked by hairdryers. Tiaras and other rhinestone goodies are also on offer. One thing that struck me was the absence of gossip magazines, the typical reading fare of hair salons. Then again, there is nothing typical about Beauty and the Book. If you want to read while you're getting your hair done, there are plenty of choices, but they don't include accounts of celebrity divorce and who made a fashion faux pas on the red carpet.

At the meeting, book club members, most decked out in tiaras, some sporting the club's signature hot pink T-shirt, seat themselves in hairstyling chairs to tuck into fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and other Southern delights they've cooked specially for the occasion.  Kathy Patrick, the original Pulpwood Queen and author of the upcoming Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, is the charismatic and benevolent ruler, making announcements, encouraging everyone to fill a plate and get comfy. This group is here to have fun, but first and foremost it is there to fulfill Kathy's mission, which is "to get the world reading."

And so the readings and discussions began. This month there were two selections, and so I not only got to read and discuss Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, I got to meet Masha Hamilton and listen to her read from her wonderful novel, The Camel Bookmobile, as well as hear about the real Camel Book Drive she's launched as a result of writing her book.

When the last bite of chocolate pie had been consumed and the last of the tiara-wearing Queens filed out the door, Masha and I were in for yet another treat: hair tips from Kathy, who showed us some cool tricks for last-minute special looks. As I left this enchanted place, I wondered, What would Jane Austen think of Beauty and the Book and The Pulpwood Queens? I'm convinced she'd love them. For one, the Pulpwood Queens live up to what Anne Eliot said in Persuasion: "My idea of good company... is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation." The Queens are definitely my  idea of good company--truly a delightful group of women who were full of  questions and stimulating ideas. As for their Jefferson, Texas venue, I am reminded of the circulating libraries of Austen's day, often fashionable places where patrons could borrow books for a fee, and   which also sold jewelry and other trinkets. If they had offered hairstyling, too, they might have been nearly as perfect as Beauty and the Book.

Book Club Girl Here: Laurie, this sounds like it was great fun and I'm glad you got to meet Masha Hamilton too! I grabbed some photos from your site and here's a link to all the rest of them.

 

I was en route to Jefferson, Texas to give a reading of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict to the Pulpwood Queens Book Club when the flight attendant announced that he wasn't quite sure our landing gear was working. There probably wasn't anything to worry about, he said, though I later learned that the Shreveport Fire Department was out in full force to greet us just in case. Hands gripping the armrest, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, "Why did they have to tell us that?" She shrugged. And so I said some prayers and then went back to my book; I was reading Emma. If those last twenty  minutes of flight time were to be my last twenty minutes alive, I would go down reading Jane Austen. Sure enough, Austen took me out of myself, out of my fears, and into Highbury, where Emma danced with Mr. Knightley at the Crown. And before I knew it, the plane was safely on the ground.

Like the protagonist of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict , I use Austen as comfort, guidance, and a cure for a host of ills that come with modern living. Unlike her, I found myself transported not to Regency England, but to Beauty and the Book, the headquarters of the Pulpwood Queens, and the only beauty salon/bookstore in America. Their motto? "Where tiaras are mandatory and reading good books is the rule!" At Beauty and the Book, bookshelves lined with must-reads face racks of RedKen products, and stacks of the club's monthly picks are flanked by hairdryers. Tiaras and other rhinestone goodies are also on offer. One thing that struck me was the absence of gossip magazines, the typical reading fare of hair salons. Then again, there is nothing typical about Beauty and the Book. If you want to read while you're getting your hair done, there are plenty of choices, but they don't include accounts of celebrity divorce and who made a fashion faux pas on the red carpet.

At the meeting, book club members, most decked out in tiaras, some sporting the club's signature hot pink T-shirt, seat themselves in hairstyling chairs to tuck into fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and other Southern delights they've cooked specially for the occasion.  Kathy Patrick, the original Pulpwood Queen and author of the upcoming Pulpwood Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, is the charismatic and benevolent ruler, making announcements, encouraging everyone to fill a plate and get comfy. This group is here to have fun, but first and foremost it is there to fulfill Kathy's mission, which is "to get the world reading."

And so the readings and discussions began. This month there were two selections, and so I not only got to read and discuss Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, I got to meet Masha Hamilton and listen to her read from her wonderful novel, The Camel Bookmobile, as well as hear about the real Camel Book Drive she's launched as a result of writing her book.

When the last bite of chocolate pie had been consumed and the last of the tiara-wearing Queens filed out the door, Masha and I were in for yet another treat: hair tips from Kathy, who showed us some cool tricks for last-minute special looks. As I left this enchanted place, I wondered, What would Jane Austen think of Beauty and the Book and The Pulpwood Queens? I'm convinced she'd love them. For one, the Pulpwood Queens live up to what Anne Eliot said in Persuasion: "My idea of good company... is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation." The Queens are definitely my  idea of good company--truly a delightful group of women who were full of  questions and stimulating ideas. As for their Jefferson, Texas venue, I am reminded of the circulating libraries of Austen's day, often fashionable places where patrons could borrow books for a fee, and   which also sold jewelry and other trinkets. If they had offered hairstyling, too, they might have been nearly as perfect as Beauty and the Book.

Book Club Girl Here: Laurie, this sounds like it was great fun and I'm glad you got to meet Masha Hamilton too! I grabbed some photos from your site and here's a link to all the rest of them.

My Guest Post on Booksquare

I was delighted to guest post for one of my favorite blogs, Booksquare (see my Jane's Addictions page). You can read the full post here or on Booksquare:

Jane, Now More Than Ever

September 13th, 2007
by Laurie Viera Rigler

[BS: The great thing about Jane Austen fans is the myriad of reasons they come to Jane. Some come for the clothes, stay for the satire. Others seek the social skewering but discover the empathy. And, yeah, there a few who figure if it's good enough for Colin Firth... Today, we welcome Laurie Viera Rigler, whose novel Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict captures the beauty of loving Jane while indulging in the ever-tantalizing "what if"]

The decision to write Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict wasn't exactly a decision. It happened like this: I was standing in the kitchen of the house I used to rent in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, and I saw, in my mind, the opening scene of my book unfold. I saw a twenty-first-century woman who, like me, reads and rereads Jane Austen's six novels. Unlike me, she wakes up one morning in the body and life of an Englishwoman in Austen's time. I couldn't stop thinking about her, and finally I decided to write down what I saw. Once I opened that door, there was, of course, a good deal more to her story.
   
It wouldn't take a quantum physicist to figure out why Courtney Stone made her appearance in my head. After all, she embodies all the "what if's" I posed in many an idle fantasy indulged after yet another reading of Pride and Prejudice or another viewing of the 1995 BBC adaptation. What if I could hang out in one of those drawing rooms in Jane Austen's world, pretending to do needlework ("pretending" being the operative word for someone who cannot sew) while stealing glances at some hottie in tight knee breeches? Would it be a dream come true to inhabit that world, or a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for? What exactly do Austen's books tell me about her world, and what do they not tell me? What is invisible to me as a contemporary reader? Just how sanitized are even the most "faithful" of the film adaptations? Why do I, with all my freedom and choices as a contemporary woman, fantasize my way into the world of Jane Austen? Writing this book was an opportunity to explore those questions.
   
There is another question I keep hearing, and it concerns the current spike in the popularity of all things Austen. That question is "Why now?" It is difficult to imagine topping Devoney Looser's hilarious answer (here). Nevertheless, I'll venture a couple of theories.

Here is the first: Quite simply, it's score one for the snowball effect of the collective consciousness. Like Austen's "one shoulder of mutton, you know, drives another," one could say that "one Austen movie drives another quickly through the development process." It is, after all, the films that are sexy enough to grab most of the headlines. And there are at least six of them, two in theatrical release (Becoming Jane and the upcoming Jane Austen Book Club) and at least four coming up on PBS. The books then gratefully hitch a ride on the pop culture express.

Here is another theory, which came out of something my husband said to me the other day when I was obsessing over something of no consequence whatsoever. "The mind," he said, "is an unreliable narrator." His comment led me to ponder whether we are now living in the era of the unreliable narrator--from our widespread distrust of traditional media and Washingtonian mouthpieces to our own overly analytical and self-helped-to-death minds. Perhaps our need for the reliable narrator is stronger now than ever.
   
For me, there is no narrator more reliable than Jane Austen, the keenest and funniest observer of human nature of any author I know. It is her all-knowing, all-seeing narrator who holds up a mirror to our human failings as well as our capacity for magnificence. It is she who guides us to distinguish truly trustworthy behavior from the posings of those who have nothing to recommend them but a handsome face and an agreeable manner. It is she who shows us how to spot greed, jealousy, arrogance, and vanity at a hundred paces, regardless of how smartly dressed it is. Most of all, it is she who shows us how to laugh at all of it and not take ourselves so seriously. That is why I can't (and wouldn't want to) stop reading and rereading Austen. For me, her six novels constitute the most reliable set of self-help books I could ever want to own. Add to that her gift for storytelling twists and a love story with a satisfying ending, and you've got the perfect recipe for a much healthier sort of addiction than those in which we humans usually indulge.
   
Austen's hilarious skewering of the follies and flaws of human beings is what makes her novels timeless. Human nature, after all, hasn't changed at all since Austen's day. Nevertheless, I, like many Austen addicts, do find myself drawn to the period details of her world, the window dressing, if you will. What makes these details attractive has little to do with their inherent qualities. After all, empire-waisted gowns are not as well-suited to my figure as they are to say, Gwyneth Paltrow's. And given the choice between spending five hours in my car driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, as I did the other day, to four bone-jangling days in a horse-drawn carriage, I'd take the car any day. Nevertheless, I am attracted to those details precisely because they are of her world, because they give me greater access to her stories.
   
And so in writing Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict I was able to indulge another aspect of my addiction, immersion in the details of Austen's world. And yes, when seen through the Hollywood-tinted lenses of postmodern nostalgia, spending four days on the road in a horse-drawn carriage doesn't sound that bad after all. Especially if at the end of your journey you get to sleep in a four-poster bed in a sumptuous mansion and rest up for the ball where you dance with Jeremy Northam and look just like Gwyneth Paltrow in your empire-waisted gown.   
   
Still, I'd venture to say that our deepest yearning isn't merely to escape the noise of modern technology for the bonnets and balls and carriages of Jane Austen's world. We, like our favorite protagonists, long to escape the unreliable narrators of our minds for an omniscient guide who writes our own story, the one with the happy ending.

[BS: Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is available at bookstores right now, and Laurie Viera Rigler's website is a treasure trove for fans of Jane, ready-to-become fans of Jane, or just people who understand the value that comes from wasting time on a really fun site. Laurie is also making appearances in support of her novel.]

 

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict: The Book Trailer

Today I stumbled across a "60 Second Book Review" of  Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict on YouTube, created by Lissa Staley of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. It's done with a playful sense of humor and is absolutely adorable. What more could I ask for than to find what amounts to an extremely cool book trailer circulating around--and one created by a librarian, no less. If it weren't for all the lovely librarians of my childhood feeding my insatiable need for books via the blessings of bookmobile and library bus, I don't know where I'd be. Thank you, Lissa.

First reading and signing

Just had my first reading on August 8th at Vroman's Bookstore, Southern California's oldest and largest and absolutely coolest independent bookstore. I love Vroman's--the people, the community outreach, the events, the classes (I teach there from time to time, and it's been a peak experience for me), and the BOOKS.

One of the most gratifying moments of that first reading was what my friend Beth said, which was that my book inspired her extremely well-read daughter to read Jane Austen. This is exactly what I had hoped for: to write a book that would be as accessible to readers who had not read Austen as it is to those who are fellow Austen addicts. And even better, to spark the curiosity of non-Austen-readers to read my favorite author.

Another memorable moment: A woman in the audience presented me with this gorgeous drawing she made while I was reading from my book:

Many thanks to everyone who showed up that night--it was lovely to see familiar faces and to meet new people. I'll have more to report when I return from the first leg of my book tour...

There are more pictures from the reading in my site's "Scrapbook" section, under "Many Charming Views."