JAFF Reader-Writer Get Together

Hello, dear readers! The Reader-Writer Get Together is coming up quickly now! It is this weekend (Nov. 11-13).

I will be participating in the Historical Accuracy panel as well as doing a presentation on English country houses and Jane Austen. I've been prepping on and off over the last couple of months for this presentation and I am super excited to share it with you all.

Registration is only $12.50 for the virtual conference so even if you can't make the whole weekend it's still a good value, particularly since it comes with virtual goodies provided by the authors.

I hope to see some of you there!

It's Beta Time

 Hello again, dear readers!

I am very excited to tell you that I've started online beta for The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy. I still have quite a bit of minor edits to do on the later portions of the story, but it is far enough along that I can begin to post.

I would be remiss if I did not note that the scenario is COMPLETELY BONKERS and I am well aware of this. There are tropes. Lots and lots of tropes. I had fun with it, and I hope you will as well. In a way, it's as though A Generation's Secrets and Mistress had a fiction baby. If you enjoyed both of those and you don't mind a trope or four, I think you'll like this one. If not, this may not be your cup of tea, and I understand that.

You can read the first three chapters at either Fanfiction.net or Archive of our Own. I expect to start out with weekly posts and then hopefully ramp up to more frequently once more of the story is edited.

An Update

 Hello, dear readers, it's been a while! I have been neglecting my blog for two reasons. 

The first is that I finally made it back to England again earlier this year. It was so wonderful and inspiring to be back again after two years away during the pandemic, and I was fortunate to time my trip so that COVID case rates were low there and I could travel about pretty freely. More to come in the future, but for now here's a photo of Lacock, to whet your appetites. You may recognize it as a filming location both for the 1995 Pride and Prejudice as well as the first Downton Abbey movie. I stayed there several nights and it was wonderfully atmospheric.

Lovely Lacock

The second reason for my quiet time on the blog is I have been focused on getting a first draft done for The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy, which I finally completed yesterday and ugly cried a bit upon doing so. It still needs a lot of work before it will be ready for online beta – in addition to the usual gaps for names and such that I need to fill, there are sections relating to time on a packet boat and all of the legal bits that need me to refresh myself on my research and try to write them through accurately. 

I did not think it would take this long to complete, but my original estimate was that it was going to clock in between 125,000 and 150,000 words, and I am sure that it will come as a surprise (eye roll) to you all that it's come out at nearly 170,000 words instead. I've got some weekends coming up to devote to writing, however, so I'm hoping to work through the edits as quickly as I can and have it into online beta by this autumn.

JAFF Loves Ukraine: Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund

 Hi dear readers, if you haven't seen it already, I wanted to let you know about a wonderful fundraiser JAFF authors are doing for Ukraine. There is a Facebook fundraiser and also an Austen Variations page (different items are listed on each) for it but also flexibility if you wish to donate to different organizations. And there is a HUGE list of things you can get in exchange for donations of different amounts. Scroll down to Melanie Schertz's post in the Facebook fundraiser on March 2 to see the full list, which is continuing to be updated.

I have 10 ebooks ($10 donation) and 10 audiobooks ($15 donation) available, but more exciting is that I'm offering a cameo in my next book for a $50 donation. I can share with you here that it will be in The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy and I already have the female or male characters identified that would have your name (you'll be a Lady, Lord, or Sir!). There is flexibility in terms of whether you want your first, last, or full name listed.

So if you'd like to see your name in print AND help an important cause, this is your chance. 

Guest Post at Austenesque Reviews + Writing Update

 Gah, it's been so long since I've done a guest post somehow I neglected to post about it here in my blog! So if you didn't see the link on my social channels, I did a guest post at Austenesque Reviews on writing Lady Anne Darcy for A Generation's Secrets.

I had also been intending to give a blog / writing update. My original plan when I left Austen Authors was to keep posting in this blog about once a month, but I've quite fallen off of that pace in the push to publish A Generation's Secrets. I do still have a bit more from the Lake District left to post, but for the next few months I intend to focus more on restoring the posts that were lost when I left Austen Authors so that they're available in this blog. Unfortunately restoring them hasn't turned out to be as quick and simple as copying and pasting, but I had a lot of key posts that touch on various aspects of my books, so I want to ensure I get them back online.

I'm also making great progress on The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy. I took advantage of the long weekend in the USA last weekend to do a little writing getaway, and have ploughed right on past the 100,000 word mark – it's now at 114,540. Based on where I'm at in the outline I think it's going to clock in somewhere between 130,000 - 150,000 words, which is a much more reasonable length than I've been working in for my past few books! It will still be a while before I've filled all the gaps and edited it sufficiently for an online beta, but watch this space for more updates.