Celebrate with Jane Austen's World
Today my Jane Austen’s World site meter registered 500,000 hits. Wow. For me this marks a milestone. Collectively my three blogs have garnered over 1 million hits. Studying the stats, these numbers represent a half million unique visitors, of whom 300,000 stayed long enough to read a post or two on this blog, Jane Austen Today (with Laurel Ann), and Dishin’ Dat (now closed.)
To celebrate I am giving away three well-thumbed books from my personal romance writers library. I’ve been clearing my library stacks, but have been loathe to part with these books which are chock full of good and useful information for the aspiring romance or sequel writer.
Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of Romance, edited by Jayne Ann Krentz, 1992. This book will arrive creased and dog eared for good reason. Popular and successful romance writers like Sandra Brown, Laura Kinsale, Elizabeth Lowell and Susan Elizabeth Phillips discuss the various aspects of writing a romance novel and the nature of its appeal, effectively countering the widely held belief that romance novels are poorly written schlock. Although this compilation is 17 years old, its precepts still ring true.
Creating Unforgettable Characters: A Practical guide to character development in films, tv series, advertisements, novels and short stories, by Linda Seger, 1990. Linda discusses researching the character, creating a back story, writing dialogue, etc. She sets examples using classic films like Casablanca and familiar authors like Agatha Christie. Linda’s advise is classic and timeless and still well worth reading.
The Romance Writers’ Phrase Book, Jean Kent and Candace Shelton, 1984. Sometimes you simply cannot overcome writer’s block and this phrase book is designed to help you jump start your brain. Use it as a crutch and you will wind up with the sort of cliche riddled drivel that critics like to pounce on, but used sparingly and only in a pinch and these phrases will help to inspire you to create your own unique phrases and word images.
All you need to do to be eligible to win the books is to leave a comment on how Jane Austen inspires your writing. The contest will stay open until March 31! (Please note: A Winner has been chosen. Congratulations Donna Lee Simpson! ) Thank you all for stopping by to read my posts and leave comments.
Please Note: Only those who live in the continental United States are eligible to win; although anyone may enter a comment.
In addition, this blog has received two more awards.
One is the Sisterhood Award from All Things Considered. Thank you Gina! I can only come up with ten blogs total which I shall divide among the two awards. Nominees, please go to All Things Considered to read about the Sisterhood Award. My six nominations are:
- Austenprose by Laurel Ann
- Enchanted Serenity of Period Films by Charley Brown
- Jane Austen Sequels Blog by Jane Odiwe
- Jane Austen in Vermont with Janeite Deb and Janeite Kelly
- Kaye Dacus.Com
- Silver Screen Surroundings by Linda Merrill
And the other is the Proximade Friendliness Award from TammiMaggee at Histatic! This award is reserved for history blogs and the rules of the award sit on Histatic! My nominees are:
I read Austen (mostly Northanger Abbey) when i’ve got a bout of writers block. The wild imagination and lovely love story are just the ticket for me!
Congratulations Vic. Quite an accomplishment. Thank you for the nomination of the Sisterhood Award.
Cheers, LA
Whenever I read Austen’s books, I’m always struck by her mastery of characterization. In one or two quick, candid observations, she tells you everything you need to know about the grasping Fanny Dashwood, the naive Catherine Morland, or the jocular, merry Mrs. Jennings. She inspires me to be more of a “people-watcher,” and hone my own descriptive skill!
Congradulations! I am really not surprised that your blogs have received so many accolades, considering that they are professional and approachable at the same time. Thank you for your reply and I have bookmarked this site as one of my favourites!
Thank you Vic for the kind nomination, and congratulations on your fascinating and well written blogs!
Reading Austen is like listening to Bach or Mozart for me. It clears my mind. I am taken into a well constructed story written by a master of grammar, story, and observation.
Her grammar is both beautiful in its technical use as well as a character delineator. I appreciate the worldliness in her novels. I also appreciate that her characters weigh each other on merits of honor, intelligence, humor, conversation, etc…before romantic love ever enters the story. I love her irony.
All these things help me approach my own work with a clearer mind. I edit much better for reading Austen (oh, and Heyer!), as reading their prose and reading through my own makes it even easier to be ruthless.
I should have written,”…their prose and then reading through my own…”
Jane Austen inspires me with her timeless observations of the world and relationships. You give a good example of that in your post of October 13, 2007. There are a zillion others as well.
Austen can relate the most mundane elements of everyday life, yet she makes them truly interesting. She infuses her stories with character. I could go on and on…
I’m excited about a book coming out in November by Susannah Carson, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 34 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen.
More often than not, I feel Jane Austen may as well be sitting behind me in my writing room, reading over my shoulder-just out of my line of sight. With alternating pats on the back or flicks of the ear if and when I drift off towards enticing thoughts of a long hike or alphabetizing my my socks– I’m encouraged and flattered and not a little unsettled that I can imagine Jane there with me so clearly.
Oh my goodness, what a lovely surprise. Thank you for your kind nomination. I’m really touched.
When I purposefully write, I am much more aware of my grammer, punctuation and phrases used. When I blog, my comments and posts are carefree and sometimes un-spell checked. But when I write in my books, I stop, slow down and think the sentences thoroughly before putting pen to paper and it’s because of Jane.
Great giveaway!!!!
Congratulations on your huge milestone Vic! I can certainly believe it being one of the many who have enjoyed the fruit of your labour!! And I’ve ONLY skimmed the surface of both your sites but I know if I’m looking for any information on Jane or the Regency, I know where to go!
Thanks for the award. I am excessively diverted!
Congrats! I’m not surprised that you’re blog’s gotten so many hits-though i only stumbled across it recently myself, it’s already became an invaluable cornucopia of information for me, even if it’s not on something I’m researching!
I confess that i have only just became reading Austen (Pride and Prejudice, soon Northanger Abbey), but what I’ve found is that she’s an inspiration because she was actually there in history. She saw the Napoleonic War, she lived through the Regency. She’s a first hand account of the life and times that not even my favourite modern authors can beat, simply because they weren’t there!
Jane Austen inspires my writing in the way she contrasts representation with reality. In some ways her books are mystery novels in which no one gets murdered. Only their reputations do.
While my writings are usually vignettes, prose poems and longer fiction based in today’s day and age, Jane Austen has inspired me to really examine the inner-workings of my character’s minds and hearts, and listen to their voices, in order to portray what is really there, and not just what I want to see.
The humanizing and almost sympathetic treatment she offers characters who do things we could not possibly imagine doing (for example, Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins) and even characters like John Wiloughby of “Sense and Sensiblity”–a character whom most would not be inclined to pity at all–have taught me the importance of truly entering into character’s hearts and souls and capturing what is true of their lives, and not neccesarily what we hope to be true. So many times I’ve judged my own characters unjustly, only to find that stripping away stereotypes and my own blindness make them more relatable, and make their stories better than what I could have imagined.
btw, I probably should add that my writing is mostly romance =)
Thanks for including my blog in the “Sisterhood,” Vic!
Oh, and I’m trying to send a bunch of folks over here who I know want copies of those three books.
I in turn received the Proximade Award from Mrs Woffington and have given it to you again! Congrats!
I in turn received the Proximade Award from Mrs Woffington and have given it to you again! Congrats! I guess this is an example of “What goes around comes around”!
Jane Austin was a wonderful writer. She was a close observer of her times. She wrapped up real situations she knew about, together with her own fantasy, and turned out skillfully written text. Readers then had, and readers now have, no choice but to love her stories.
Contemporary authors of historical novels would murder in cold blood to reach the same kind of comparable lasting fame. The only author who I personally think comes close is Georgette Heyer. She had a very personal style and paid wonderful attention to correct details about the Regency and Georgian periods. Her books are a pleasure to read.
Both Austin and Heyer never took their stories ‘beyond the bedroom door’ – Austin because it would have been unheard of at that time, and Heyer because it was not her style of writing. Despite this (or perhaps because of this?), they are still both immensely popular. They did not base their writing on sensual experiences, it was romance all the way.
The tendency by modern publishers of historical novels to want lots of ‘bodice ripping’ and explicit sex in the stories they publish, may boost selling figures, but they do little to raise the quality of the writing or make lasting impressions on the readers. Ask any reader of contemporary ‘historical’ novels to name the author of the last good story they’ve read and I bet the vast majority of them wouldn’t be able to give an answer.
I write contemporary novellas. My guiding principle is to write stories I myself would like to read. I like to think Jane Austin also wrote her stories in the first place to entertain hersel, her success when she became a published author was the icing on the cake – it confirmed her writing skills and craftmanship.
Very interesting article, i have bookmarked your blog for future referrence. Best regards
Jane Austen’s great characterization and language inspires me to write not only modern day romances but romances of her time and era. I am currently working on a novel set in regency times fueled by my love of everything Jane Austen. I dont know when I’ll finish, but it sure is fun and exciting.
Jane Austen more than inspires my writing (she brings forth wonderful romantic imagery in which to write prose), but she inspires everything else I do too. From the (original) clothes I make-(Regency era designs) to my whole lifestyle. She is a woman who cleary has goten into the hearts of women and will remain thereand will keep doing so for generations to come.
We are lucky to have a wonderful authoress who has paved the way and has left behind such stories that they now turn into movies…We can see it live on te screen.
How Jane Austen Inspires My Writing
Whenever I lose my way, in the sense that I have trouble calling up the ‘voice’ and tone of the time about which I write, I reread bits of Jane Austen. She helps me recapture the swift flow of slow prose, the lovely economy of excessive verbiage.
I suppose what I mean is, she wrote long books ostensibly about nothing, and yet her books are never boring. I aspire to that, even when I am exploring murder and mayhem in Georgian England!
Everytime I read Austen’s book I learn something knew and inspires me to look up new words in the dictionary (I speak portuguese)! Jane Austen writing reflects in my writing too because I tend to write formally as her.
i love jane austen and am excited to see so many wonderful sites to become more knowledgeable about her.
Jane Austen was truly brilliant! She had such a way of saying things that fascinates me every time I read her work. I absolutely love her novels but am also very intrigued by her letters that are still in existence. There are a couple of books out there are that are collections of these letters and memoirs written by her relatives. Getting to hear her voice in everyday correspondence makes her novels even more enjoyable…if that is possible, ;-) and also makes you feel like you understand a bit more of who she was as a person.
She inspires me in my writing because her characters are so alive. Her wit is evident throughout each story and I absolutely love the Regency period and all that has to do with it!
Have you ever heard anyone ask the question: “If you could sit and talk with anyone, alive or dead, for a few hours, who would it be?” For me, it would be Jane Austen…hands down!
Jane inspires me with the vivid way she creates her worlds and her characters. She also has a fabulous sense of humour…
How Jane Austen inspires me? She inspires me to look at the world with creativity. To look at each moment and use it to create a beautiful piece of work. I am in no way a writer by trade but her work influences my creativity and to appreciate the written language.
mm… thanks )