A Life in Austen…REBOOT!!

All right…well…I dunno… I made it six months which – technically – was my original goal. But I spectacularly dropped off, right?!?!

?!

Yeah, my bad. Thing is? I moved across the country (Oregon to Pennsylvania) exactly 11 days before I launched my program of Jane Austen Everything Everywhere All At Once. And it turns out, as Jane could have taught us had we (er, I) been paying attention, that moving is…hard. Emotionally and mentally. According to family lore, Austen was notoriously even-keeled regarding most events of life. Except one. Moving to Bath. It is recorded in various sources as the only time Jane Austen ever fainted. So yeah, we moved, and while I initially thought the move meant I would have oodles of time and energy and whatever else, turns out all of that had to go into getting us settled and helping my kids with the transition and discovering some cool new things (I’ll share one tomorrow!!!).

But NOW …

… I have some big news! ….

I AM PUBLISHING A JANE AUSTEN NOVEL IN DECEMBER!!!

It is wildly exciting. And as I’ve been going through my novel – reviewing, revising, re-researching – I realized how much I missed this site!

But I also made a fairly critical realization as well.

THE INTERNET DOESN’T NEED ANOTHER INFORMATION SITE ABOUT JANE AUSTEN!!

And to own the truth, that was never my intention. As the title of my blog suggestions, I had intended to focus on integrating elements of Jane Austen’s life into my own. You know, things like recipes (“receipts), knitting patterns (known as “netting” to Jane and her contemporaries), dress making (highly unlikely I’ll do that by hand…), and whatever else. Maybe I’ll try making ink like Lucy Worsley in her documentary Jane Austen – Behind Closed Doors, a companion documentary to the biography she also wrote. Take a look – ink making occurs at 45:00:

Soooo, what I would rather do is to curate materials for you here – websites, articles from Persuasions or other relevant publications, and the beloved youtube videos. I have discovered so much great content out there, and what I want to do for you is to generate some rabbit holes that you can travel down, all focused on specific ideas.

Now, the other thing I’ve been doing as part of my novel preparation is listening to Austen’s novels on audio. I have read the texts so many many times, and again, I don’t have any less children, pets, or work and house responsibilities than I did a year ago, and audio has been a true delight. Currently, I am listening to Northanger Abbey, and hearing the reader’s rendition of character’s voices is really quite interesting, particularly in those accents which vary so wildly from my own internal voice. But, since I’ve got Catherine Morland and Isabella Thorpe on the brain, here’s a video from one of my favorite youtube lecturers on Isabella Thorpe. The analysis here of both characterization and language/style is nothing less than on point. I hope you enjoy!