Making Connections

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

The Darcys of Pemberley has been published in all it’s forms for a little over a week now. And what a week it’s been for me – selling books online and in person, signing “Shannon Winslow” inside front covers, scheduling guest blog spots and a Twitter party appearance. It’s a dream come true! But not in the way you might think.

Some people aspire to fame and fortune when they begin writing a novel. That’s not me. I’m too shy to hanker after television appearances. And although I’d like to have something tangible to show for the countless hours of effort I’ve put in, it’s not really about the money either. So what was I hoping to achieve, then? What drove me to persevere for six long years to get this novel published? The answer became crystal clear to me over the last several days.

I participated in an outdoor art show this past weekend. I should have been crushed that my artwork wasn’t selling, but instead I was tickled pink to be meeting so many lovely Jane Austen fans, who were drawn to my booth by my book display. They were buying The Darcys of Pemberley, yes, but I was having so much fun talking to them that I could barely make correct change. One mom put me in touch with her Janeite daughter on the opposite side of the country. A high-school-aged girl, with writing aspirations of her own, ended up buying three books so she could share two with friends. And a couple of days later, a fellow artist invited me to an impromptu book signing at her studio after she discovered most the students she had in class that day were Pride and Prejudice fans too.

The joy was in making those connections, in discovering other people who speak the same language and hold dear things that matter to me.

There are certainly many points of strong resemblance in your characters; in your intimate acquaintance with each other and your mutual strong affection, you were counterparts. (from a letter to “My Dearest Fanny,” dated July 29, 1817)

I suppose the phenomenon isn’t confined to this specific genre of the book world (although I’m convinced that Jane Austen fans are some of the nicest people on the planet). Other authors undoubtedly feel the same about their readers.

Art for art’s sake (whether writing, music, painting or dance) is worthwhile, and bringing something beautiful into existence can be satisfying in and of itself. But I believe most of us want more.  The biggest reward for any artist must come from the privilege of sharing what they’ve created with others. That’s been my experience so far. What do you think?

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Cover Story – Part 2

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

When you’re browsing for a new book, the cover is the first thing you see. So, what does it tell you?

The author’s name, for one thing. If it’s the latest book by your favorite writer, that’s all you need to know. Which is why that single piece of information dominates the covers of books by best-selling authors. The graphic artist hardly has to break into a creative sweat; the name alone will sell the book.

The covers of lesser-known authors have to work a lot harder, drawing the reader in with glamorous photography, evocatic artwork, or effective design. The chosen elements can (and should) convey much about the subject and tone of the book. Is it funny, edgy, racy, or romantic? Is it chick lit, crime drama, or a horror show? When we see the cover, we instantly take in the clues and just as instantly make judgements about whether or not we will like the contents.

As I thought about the cover design for The Darcys of Pemberley, I knew I wanted it to strike an immediate cord with Pride and Prejudice fans. The title itself should do the trick, but I threw in the recognizable image of Lyme House (the place used to represent Pemberley in the popular ’95 film adaptation) for extra measure. Then I asked my graphic designer to give the artwork an aged look, since this story takes place 200 years in the past. The result? A soft and dreamy quality that I think suits the romantic, fairy tale aspect of both the original work and this sequel.

So far, the cover has been well received by Austen fans, my primary audience. (Check out this lovely blog post about my cover)  I hope the upcoming reviews of what’s inside are just as positive!

Looking for a fitting Jane Austen quote proved difficult, but I found the following in one of her letters (dated Aug 10,1814, to Anna).

“I allow much more latitude than she does, and think nature and spirit cover many sins of a wandering story, and people in general do not care so much about it…”

Does this mean readers will overlook some weakness in your story as long as you have an impressive cover?

 

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The Launch

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

I’m declaring tomorrow, August 1, as the official launch date for The Darcys of Pemberley!

I’ve been dreaming of this day for a long time – the day my first novel would be published.  I’m thrilled to have come this far, and proud to be sending my “baby” out into the world! But I must admit that this day looks a little different from what I originally thought it would.

Of course, when I started the book in January 2005, I didn’t know if I even had it in me to write a novel. Could I do it? Would I lose interest before finishing it? If I stuck with it, would it turn out to be any good? In the last six years, I’ve learned a lot. And, while I was honing my craft and polishing up this novel, the publishing industry changed dramatically too.

In the traditional publishing model, a book launch would have been preceded by press releases from the publishing house, ARCs (advance reader copies) sent to key people for reviews and cover quotes, the clatter of great printing presses, with boxes of books shipped and waiting to hit the shelves at Borders.  Hmmm.  What’s wrong with this picture?  The brick-and-mortar retailers are disappearing (along with the truckloads of preprinted books), and the e-book market is taking over an ever larger piece of the pie.

So instead of press releases to newspapers and trade periodicals, the launch of The Darcys of Pemberley will be announced on Facebook and Twitter (and all the reviews will be online too).  Instead of boxes of books awaiting you at Borders, Amazon will print and ship your very own copy within 24 hours. If you can’t wait that long, an electronic version can be downloaded to your Kindle or Nook in 30 seconds! I couldn’t have imagined these changes when I began. 

Six and a half years is a long time to work on a project, especially not knowing if it will amount to anything in the end. Yet today I am smiling, like Elizabeth Bennet, as things finally come together.

Elizabeth … now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled, that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation.   (Pride and Prejudice, chapter 55)

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Cheers!

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Shannon Winslow
 Today I sold my first copy of my first novel!  I listed  The Darcys of Pemberley with Smashwords (offering most e-book formats) and half an hour later I noticed I had a sale.  You might think that’s a small step (after all, it’s only $2.99), but symbolically, it feels like a huge triumph.
 
What better way to celebrate than kicking back with a nice hot glass of negus.  That’s right, “negus.”  I know your mouths are watering at the mere mention of that perennial favorite.  At least it used to be in great favor a couple hundred years ago.  Not so much anymore, I suspect.

As Tom Musgrave was seen no more, we may suppose his plan to have succeeded, and imagine him mortifying with his barrel of oysters in dreary solitude, or gladly assisting the landlady in her bar to make fresh negus for the happy dancers above.   

FYI, negus is a hot wine drink invented in England by Colonel Francis Negus in the 18th century.  He died in 1737, but his namesake beverage lived on, remaining a popular fortifier on cold evenings throughout the Regency era – as expected at a ball as white soup. Though Jane Austen only mentioned it once by name as far as I could discover (above, in her unfinished manuscript, The Watsons), it would undoubtedly have been served at the ball at Netherfield and the Christmas party at the Westons, among other events she described in her six novels.

So, in the name of academic research, I set out to discover what the fuss was about. I was not content to simply read about this mysterious drink.  No, I decided I really should go the extra mile and taste it for myself, so that I could write about it with more authority.  I gathered the ingredients and determined tonight was the night.

Recipe: To one pint port wine, add the grated zest and strained juice of one lemon, 1/4 lb. sugar, one quart boiling water, and grated nutmeg to taste. Cool to a comfortable a temperature and serve.

Here’s my review:  Although a hot toddy might be appealing on a cold winter night, especially in a drafty old stone house with no central heating, I didn’t really care for it at first – at least not served hot and in July.  Two sips and I was ready to dump the rest.  But, to give it a fair test, I pressed on and was surprised to find that, as the mixture cooled, I warmed up to it.  I’m not much for red wine, so in some ways negus is a big improvement: it’s diluted, sweet, and easy to drink (no bite to trigger that spontaneous little shudder dry wines give me). That’s probably why in later years it was considered only suitable for children.  Yup, that’s about my speed.  

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Cover Story: part 1

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

The cover is done, and I’m delighted with it! 

I wanted it to be just right. Despite the old  saying, people can and do judge books by their covers. That’s not necessarily bad, but it is important. The title and the cover design are the first (and possibly only) chance a book has to make a good impression. If it fails there, most people will go no further. They won’t open it and read a single line. They won’t even bother picking it up.

So, as an avid reader browsing for a new book, what do you expect a cover tell you? What does my cover say about The Darcys of Pemberley?

The season was fine, and from first seeing the place under the advantage of good weather, they received an impression in its favour which was of material service in recommending it to their lasting approbation. (Sense and Sensibility, chapter 6)

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Finishing the Fragments

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

You may have heard on the news that a fragment of an unfinished Jane Austen novel called The Watsons hit the auction block this past week – a few yellowed pages of hand-written manuscript, complete with cross-outs and corrections selling at Sotheby’s for 1.6 million dollars.

There’s been speculation as to why Austen set the story aside and never finished it. The leading theory is that she found it too painful to continue working on after her father died, the fictional plot too closely paralleling real life events. Could be, but the true explanation might be nothing more serious than that she never had time, she lost interest in the book, or she found her other projects more engrossing.

I’ve never heard an author of multiple novels say that s/he only thinks of one story at a time, finishing the book before even considering what s/he might write next.  Usually they speak in terms of their brains “teeming” with story ideas or some new tale running amok in their heads when they should be focused on their current project.  “So many stories to tell; so little time.”

At this point, I have three completed novels.  But if I died today and, only then, were they discovered to be works of pure genius, somebody would undoubtedly mine my computer for anything else that should be preserved for posterity.  There they would find three other “unfinished fragments” tucked away, and wonder why I abandoned them. The answer is simply that I haven’t gotten to them yet. If a new idea comes to me while I’m in the middle of something else, I can’t resist dashing a bit of it down for future reference (see Germ of a Novel).  I may or may not ever get back to it.

If Jane Austen had lived beyond the age of 41, she might have finished The Watsons (and another fragment known as Sanditon). Or instead, she might have gone on to write something else entirely.  The tragedy is not the unfinished fragments, but the life cut short and the fact she didn’t live to reap the benefits of her posthumous success. For her masterpiece Pride and Prejudice, she received 110 pounds in 1812.  Even adjusting for inflation, it’s a pittance and a far cry from the million pounds The Watsons fragment fetched for her heirs two hundred years later.

Of course, maybe she would have been uncomfortable with great wealth if it had come her way.  Here’s her own words on the subject taken from the Watsons (which I borrowed to use in the prologue of For Myself Alone). 

“A pretty piece of work your Aunt Turner has made of it! By heaven! A woman should never be trusted with money.”  On the other hand, she also wrote, “A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” (Mansfield Park, chapter 22)

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I Came; I Saw; I Formatted

Posted on July 10, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

Victory!  After about three days of concerted effort, and mind-numbing frustration, I think (fingers crossed) I’ve managed to get The Darcys of Pemberley formatted for CreateSpace, the print-on-demand arm of the Amazon publishing machine.

It shouldn’t have been difficult. After all, a template is provided, and the instructions simply say “cut and paste.” Although my computer skills are admittedly limited, I do know how to cut and paste.  So I figured, “How hard could it be?”

Glitch: a minor hitch or technical problem.

I beg to differ with this definition.  There was nothing “minor” about the technical problems I ran into trying to properly format my book.  The original document was in one font; after pasting a section into the template, it was a different font, a different size, with gaps between the paragraphs that I had never inserted.  Random sections were indented for no particular reason.  And don’t even get me started about convincing the page numbers and headers to show up where I wanted and NOT where I didn’t.  These are issues Jane Austen never faced.

But I persevered.  I discovered a step-by-step strategy for overcoming every glitch I encountered, and patiently repeated it …. 46 times – once after each section I had to cut and paste (42 chapters + prologue + title page + copyright page + acknowledgements page).  Then I instantly copied it to my backup so I would not run the risk of having to redo it….ever!

The good news?  Now that it’s formatted, The Darcys of Pemberley is starting to look like a real book rather than just a document on a computer screen.  One small step for literary history; one giant leap for author Shannon Winslow!

He was almost ready to wonder at his friend’s perseverance.  Fanny was worth it all; he held her to be worth every effort of patience, every exertion of mind, but he did not think he could have gone on himself … without something more to warm his courage than his eyes could discern …  (Mansfield Park, chapter 34)

Here, the prize was winning the heart of Fanny Price.  For me, the prize of five years’ perseverance will be to see my baby finally in print.

 

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Do You Want That Shaken or Stirred?

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

First, let me observe that people have vastly different tolerances for the level of danger, tension, pain, and suspense they are willing/able to tolerate, whether we’re talking about the activities they enjoy or the books and movies they prefer.  Adrenalin junkies aren’t satisfied unless they’re hurling themselves off a cliff with only a bungee cord or a parachute standing between them and certain death.   I suspect these people demand stories whose characters also face the highest stakes, continually and unrelentingly (i.e. Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy novels).  That’s not me.  I prefer to get my thrills from the relative safety of a rollercoaster, and my stories from Jane Austen and the like. Those tastes are reflected in what I write as well.

Eager to save her mother from every unnecessary moment’s horrible suspense, she ran immediately into the hall, and reached the outward door just in time to receive and support her as  she entered it.  (Sense and Sensibility, chapter 45)

As I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago (Drama, with a Twist – part 1), drama is the feeling evoked in the reader as a result of introducing 1)a serious conflict with 2)an uncertain outcome, 3)brought to a crisis that 4)forces characters to make hard choices and take difficult actions. The principle is the same whether the crisis involves nuclear destruction or a ruined relationship.  The variables are the type of conflict and the level of intensity. 

Personally, I don’t want to read about war or rampaging monsters. I don’t enjoy watching movies that are so suspenseful that I can barely breathe.  Reality supplies more than enough misery and stress, as far as I’m concerned – no need to supplement with my leisure activities(hence, my favorite Jane Austen quote).

But I think most readers have at least one thing in common.  Regardless of whether you like your entertainment heart-stopping, heart-pounding, or simply heart-stirring, we want to know the experience is survivable. We all like to be taken on a ride, but we’re trusting the author that, even against overwhelming odds, s/he will bring us safely through to a satisfying ending.  It doesn’t matter if that means saving the universe from total annihilation or securing the happiness of a couple in love.

So what do you think?  How much do the kind of books you read reveal about your personality, and specifically about your tolerance for stress and suspense in other aspects of your life? Is there a clear correlation or not?

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Last Lines

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

To continue with my recent theme, I decided to put together a quiz about endings for all you Janeites.  You might recognize most if not all the first lines, but how well do you know the last lines of Austen’s novels?  Let’s find out.  I’ve done my best to neutralize the obvious give-aways.  For example, some names have been changed to protect the innocent, and I’ve added the last lines from The Darcys of Pemberley and For Myself Alone to the mix, to make it a little more challenging.  I’ll post the answers in comments. Good luck, and no fair peeking!

1 – On that event they removed to Lalaland, and the Motel 6 there, which under each of its two former owners, Kiki had never been able to approach but with some painful sensation of restraint or alarm, soon grew as dear to her heart, and as thoroughly perfect in her eyes, as everything else within the view and patronage of Lalaland had long been.

2 – The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for finery or parade … But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.

3 – After a little more time had gone by, they were able to look back over the year just past and see only the good it had brought them, and reasons to face the future with hope … Desi and Lucy could easily have been forgiven for thinking themselves blessed above all other creatures in England.

4 – Between Manor A and Manor B, there was that constant communication which strong family affection would naturally dictate … and living almost within sight of each other, they could live without disagreement between themselves, or producing coolness between their husbands.

5 – With the Abernathys, they were always on the most intimate terms.  Micky, as well as Minnie, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Disneyland, had been the means of uniting them.

6 – I leave it to be settled by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.

7 – Yet, according to the direction of providence, they were now both honorably free of their former encumbrances to be forever attached to one another.  Of all the varied fates that might have been hers, this was the finest. 

8 – She gloried in being a butcher’s wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance.

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…With a Twist: Part 2

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Shannon Winslow

Elizabeth … now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation.  (Pride and Prejudice, chapter 55)

I promised I would take a closer look at how Jane Austen’s novels conclude, and specifically how she maintained the drama by keeping the happily-ever-after ending in doubt.  As I thought through the six books, I realized that in every case the outcome could easily have been (and often is, in similar real-life situations) completely different.

What if Captain Wentworth had stubbornly clung to his bitter resentment against Anne for rejecting him?  What if Emma had refused to listen to her own heart, and then to hear Mr. Knightley’s confession?  What if Marianne hadn’t shown the strength to fight her way back from her despondency over Willoughby? What if Henry Tilney, Fanny Price, and Elizabeth Bennet had all given in to parental pressure – marrying, respectively, an unnamed heiress, an unprincipaled Henry Crawford, and an unthinkable Mr. Collins?  All plausible outcomes, which makes the risk real and keeps the drama in play.

The intriguing “what if” scenario is something I play to the extreme in my third book, First of Second Chances (update: written third and published sixth as Leap of Faith), but it also crops up briefly in The Darcys of Pemberley when Elizabeth considers how close she came to losing Darcy:

How little she understood his reserved nature when they first met.  She blushed now to remember how she censured him for pride and arrogance – not wholly undeserved – whilst her own conduct was equally at fault.  What if they had never overcome those early misunderstandings?  It could so easily have happened.  No doubt most men would have walked away for good upon being so soundly refused. Elizabeth shuddered at the very idea.

The more real, imminent, and believable the possibility of the worst happening, the higher the drama.  As for believability, only Sense and Sensibility could be accused of deus ex machina, requiring a little sleight of hand to rescue Edward from his binding engagement to Lucy Steele at the last possible moment.

Image result for sense and sensibility weddingI credit the award-winning ’95 film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility with providing one of the best surprise endings I can recall.  I hadn’t read the book yet, and so didn’t know how the story turned out (or even that Jane Austen could be trusted to provide a classic happy ending).  After the scene where Edward shocks Elinor by revealing that he is honorably free and wanting to marry her, we move to a shot of the exterior of a church.  A wedding is apparently taking place inside and, because of what’s come before, I’m expecting the bride and groom to be Edward and Elinor.  I can still remember how blown away I was that Marianne and Colonel Brandon emerge instead – a surprising twist carefully crafted to delight.  What a thrill for a writer (in this case the movie’s talented lead actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson) to deliver that kind of enjoyment to her audience!

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