Jane Austen Made Me Do It, Book Giveaway and First Stop on the Blog Tour

Thank you Vic, for graciously hosting me on my first stop of my Grand Tour of the blogosphere in celebration of the release of Jane Austen Made Me Do It. As a fellow Janeite and blogger, we have both clocked some major mileage researching, reading and writing about our favorite author, Jane Austen. When I created my blog Austenprose.com in 2007, you were one of the first to leave a comment of encouragement – and I thank you.

I never dreamed that when I started blogging about our “dear Jane” that it would culminate into a book deal, but it did! My new short story anthology, Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature’s Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart, releases tomorrow, October 11, 2011 from Ballantine Books. I have been working on it now for close to two years and I am so anxious for everyone to read it.

How it all came to pass can be credited to passion, connections and fate.

Jane Austen has long been admired for her witty dialogue and engaging plots, inspiring writers for generations. After the 1995 A&E/BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries starring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy introduced her to a wider audience, there was a flood of Austen-inspired fan fiction available online and new sequels being published monthly. So many so, that they became the new Austenesque book genre. Over the past fifteen years I have enjoyed reading many of them. I had this idea about an Austen themed short story anthology rolling around in my head for years. I just didn’t know if anyone would be interested in reading it, or more importantly, how to get it published.

While working with some of my favorite Austenesque authors to promote their new books on Austenprose, I began to see a thread that might be woven into my dream. Luckily, the Internet is a powerful tool and you just don’t really know who is paying attention. That came in the form of Mitchell Waters, a literary agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. in New York, who also admired Jane Austen and recognized my passion and connections. The fate part of this equation comes from timing in life – and that is the big one! I guess you could say that I had paid my dues to the sweat equity Gods, or whatever, because when we proposed my book idea to my future editor at Random House she loved it, and I had a deal within a week. Thank you Jane Austen!

That is my whirlwind romance with publishing. It took years of hard work and dedication to get to that point. I just didn’t know that when I was pounding away, day and night, about Austen, her novels, and the books and movies that she has inspired, that following my bliss would produce such a surprising reward. As one of my contributors Diana Birchall told me, “You're just Cinderella and this is your ball! Take it and enjoy it.”

I have been favored with twenty-two stories by twenty-four fabulous authors. Here they are in all their glory:

Pamela Aidan • Elizabeth Aston • Brenna Aubrey • Stephanie Barron • Carrie Bebris • Jo Beverley • Diana Birchall • Frank Delaney & Diane Meier • Monica Fairview • Amanda Grange • Syrie James • Janet Mullany • Jane Odiwe • Beth Pattillo • Alexandra Potter • Myretta Robens • Jane Rubino & Caitlen Rubino Bradway • Maya Slater • Margaret Sullivan • Adriana Trigiani • Laurie Viera Rigler • Lauren Willig

Over the next month I will be visiting 30 of my favorite blogs on my Grand Tour. Now that you know my story, I hope you will follow along as I continue sharing how my dream evolved into Jane Austen Made Me Do It and reveal a bit about each of the stories along the way.

Many thanks to all my Janeite friends for your help, and support.

Cheers, Laurel Ann

“But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.” – Northanger Abbey

About the editor:

A life-long acolyte of Jane Austen, Laurel Ann Nattress is the author/editor of Austenprose.com a blog devoted to the oeuvre of her favorite author and the many books and movies that she has inspired. She is a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, a regular contributor to the PBS blog Remotely Connected and the Jane Austen Centre online magazine. Classically trained as a landscape designer at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, she has also worked in marketing for a Grand Opera company and at present she delights in introducing neophytes to the charms of Miss Austen’s prose as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble. An expatriate of southern California, Laurel Ann lives in a country cottage near Snohomish, Washington where it rains a lot. Visit Laurel Ann at her blog Austenprose – A Jane Austen Blog, on Twitter as @Austenprose, on Facebook as Laurel Ann Nattress, and at the Jane Austen Made Me Do It website.

Jane Austen Made Me Do It: Original Stories Inspired by Literature’s Most Astute Observer of the Human Heart, edited by Laurel Ann Nattress
Ballantine Books • ISBN: 978-0345524966

GRAND BOOK GIVEAWAY! Contest is over. Congratulations, phastings. Laurel Ann is giving away a copy of her new book. All you need to do is leave a comment and tell us which contributing author is your favorite and why! The winner will be drawn by random number generator on October 15th, midnight, EST. (Only residents in the US and Canada are eligible.)