Downton Abbey, Episode Two: Twitter Party and Blog Round-Up

The second episode of Downton Abbey will be aired by PBS Masterpiece Classic at 9 PM on Sunday. PBS will be hosting a second Twitter party in honor of the event, and yours truly will be there once again as an unofficial host! @janeaustenworld.

Start of the hunt, Downton Abey

The event will begin from 9 PM EST through 10:30 PM PT. Including Vic, the other bloggers who will be hosting are:

• @pbs; @masterpiecepbs; 
• Evangeline Holland of Edwardian Promenade (@edwardian_era); 
• Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose (@Austenprose); 
• Cheryl LeBrun of Enchanted Serenity of Period films (@charleybrown77); 
• Vic Sanborno of Jane Austen’s World (@janeaustenworld) 

If you plan on joining, make sure to tag.your posts with the hashtag #DowntonPBS or use PBS's TweetGrid, which will automatically add the hashtag.

If you want to read our tweets go to Twitter and type: #DowntonPBS

Links to articles about the series:

Jane Austen's World: 

• Everything You Wanted to Know About the Entail in Downton Abbey and More
• Watch Downton Abbey Online
• Entertaining visitors in an English country house, such as Downton Abbey
• Downton Abbey's Recycled Costumes
• Downstairs in Downton Abbey: The Servants
• Upstairs in Downton Abbey: The Three Crawley Sisters
• The Jane Austen Connection to Downton Abbey and Egypt

Edwardian Promenade:

• Addressing Titled Persons
• Downton Abbey, Episode One

Enchanted Serenity of Period Films:

• Downton Abbey: A Milliner's Dream?
• Familiar Faces of Period Drama: Downton Abbey

Austenprose:

• Downton Abbey, Review and Recap of Episode One
• Preview of Downton Abbey

JASNA Meeting in Portland, Day 3

The final posts about the Jane Austen of America Society meeting in Portland last week are up on Austenprose and Jane Austen in Vermont. Deb and Laurel Ann have done a splendid job of updating us on the workshops, exhibitors, and events.

Laurel Ann Nattress, Austenprose, and Deborah Barnum, Jane Austen in Vermont

Read about the final conference day at:

• Jane Austen in Vermont Day 3 and Day 4
• Austenprose

Georgette Heyer Event Schedule at Austenprose

Sun Aug 01 Event intro, Werksman Interview, Review of Georgette Heyer’s Regency World on Jane Austen's World and Austenprose

Mon Aug 02 The Black Moth, Aarti – Books Lust; Powder and Patch, Lucy – Enchanted by Josephine

Wed Aug 04 These Old Shades, Keira – Love Romance Passion; The Masqueraders, Helen – She Reads Novels

Fri Aug 06 Devil's Cub, Meredith – Austenesque Reviews; The Convenient Marriage, Laurel – Austenprose

Sun Aug 08 Regency Buck, Susan Scott – Historical fiction author; The Talisman Ring, Ana – An Evening at Almack’s

Mon Aug 09 An Infamous Army, Elaine Simpson Long – Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover; The Spanish Bride, Kelly – Jane Austen Sequel Examiner

Wed Aug 11 The Corinthian, Danielle – A Work in Progress; Faro's Daughter, Joanna – Regency Romantic

Fri Aug 13 The Reluctant Widow, Jane Greensmith – Reading, Writing, Working, Playing; The Foundling, Claire – The Captive Reader

Sun Aug 15 Arabella, Kara Louise – Austenesque author; The Grand Sophy, Meg – Write Meg

Mon Aug 16 Interview with Vic – Jane Austen’s World; Friday's Child, Vic – Jane Austen’s World

Wed Aug 18 The Quiet Gentleman, Deb Barnum – Jane Austen in Vermont; Cotillion, Alexa Adams – First Impressions

Fri Aug 20 The Toll-Gate, Laura – Laura’s Review; Bath Tangle, Deb Barnum – Jane Austen in Vermont

Sun Aug 22 Sprig Muslin, Laura – Laura’s Reviews; April Lady, Becky Laney – Becky’s Book Reviews

Mon Aug 23 Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle, Laurel Ann – Austenprose; Venetia, Laurel Ann – Austenprose

Wed Aug 25 The Unknown Ajax, Brooke – The Bluestocking Guide; A Civil Contract, Elaine Simpson Long – Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover

Fri Aug 27 The Nonesuch, Marie – Burton Review; False Colours, Kristen – BookNAround

Sun Aug 29 Frederica, Nicole – Linus’ Blanket; Black Sheep, Katherine – November’s Autumn

Mon Aug 30 Cousin Kate, Chris – Book-A-Rama; Charity Girl, Dana Huff – Much Madness is Divinest Sense

Tues Aug 31 Lady of Quality, Elizabeth Hanbury – Regency romance author; Heyer Vintage Covers

Event wrap-up

Sat Sep 07 Giveaway winners announced

Georgette Heyer Celebration at Austenprose

‘Celebrating Georgette Heyer’ at Austenprose – August 1st - 31st, 2010

Stylish, witty and historically accurate, novelist Georgette Heyer has been delighting readers with her romantic comedies for eighty-nine years. In honor of her birthday on August 16th, Austenprose.com www.austenprose.com will feature a month long event ‘Celebrating Georgette Heyer’ featuring thirty-four book reviews of her romance novels, guest blogs, interviews of Heyer enthusiast from the blog-o-sphere, academia and publishing and tons of great giveaways.

Vic (that's me) of Jane Austen’s World and Jane Austen Today, and Deb Werksman, acquiring editor of Sourcebook Casablanca and the catalyst in re-introducing Heyer to a new generation of readers will be interviewed for their knowledge about the author.

The festivities start August first with a review of the newly re-issued Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, by Jennifer Kloester. Don’t be a wet goose. Chase away that fit of the blue-devils by attending this bon ton affair.

Click here to enter Austenprose

Follow Friday: Austenprose

Starting on Monday, Laurel Ann at Austenprose will begin her in-depth study of Jane Austen's last work, Sanditon. Jane was working on this book about a seaside community and the health-challenged people who went to the sea side for bracing dips in the waters, when she fell too ill to continue to write this marvelous new novel.

Austenprose arrived on the scene in the fall of 2007, and quickly found its niche among Jane Austen blogs with its excellent reviews of books, offerings of beautiful images, and insights into Jane Austens novels that leave the reader feeling that they have discovered something new about their favorite author. Join Laurel Ann as she investigates the novel fragment, Sanditon, and seaside behavior during the Regency period.

Laurel Ann tweets at this Twitter account

Thank You, Laurel Ann

Laurel Ann of Austenprose has been my blog partner on Jane Austen Today since late 2007. She contacted me regarding PBS and asked: “Would you be willing to write a post about the upcoming Jane Austen Season for the PBS blog, Remotely Connected? Would I? I said yes in two seconds. I then invited her to become my blog partner on Jane Austen Today. Our talents meshed so well, that Jane Austen Today’s visitors rose by 300%. I cannot thank her enough. Sadly, Laurel Ann has had to move on, leaving me with the daunting task of filling her very capable shoes while continuing my own posts. Thank you for all your hard and lovely work, Laurel Ann. – Vic


Join Laurel Ann as she reads and writes about Sanditon on Austenprose, March 15-21.

Soiree with Lady Susan at Austenprose

Today's the day to join Laurel Ann at Austenprose for the next two weeks to read Lady Susan, discuss the book with other readers, and discover additional interesting information about Jane Austen's anti-heroine. What a fabulous way to start September.

Seen on the Blogosphere: Our Other Blogs

• Jane Austen's World features a favorable review of Lost in Austen, currently shown in mini-series format on ITV.

• Austenprose will follow Virginia Claire Tharrington as she interns at The Jane Austen Centre in Bath England. Look for her posts each Saturday.
  

About the drawing below (Click for a larger view): Follow its development from the rough first draft you see to a more refined image of "Jane" in the information age. Its inspiration was an illustration from the New Yorker, which I found a tad too sexy for my purposes (right). Stay tuned to see how my adaptation evolves.

Posted by Vic, Ms. Place, Jane Austen's World

Mansfield Park Madness: Day 5 Give-away!

“We have a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.” Fanny Price, Mansfield Park

This beautiful Jane Austen inspired lined journal is designed by Potter Style and is the next give-away to be offered on day 5 of Mansfield Park Madness at Austenprose. It has a vintage image of a Regency era lady on the cover and a great quote by the shy but wise heroine Fanny Price from Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park.

Be sure to check out all the discussion on the novel, movies and book sequels during this great blog event continuing to August 31st. On day 5 we will be exploring and discussing chapters 9-16 of the novel. By leaving a comment there, you qualify for a drawing for this charming journal. Don’t miss out on your chance to win any or all of the 17 great prizes being offered over the course of the 17 day event. It's not too late to participate!

Upcoming posts
Day 5 – Aug 19 MP novel discussion chapters 9-16
Day 6 – Aug 20 Metropolitan movie discussion
Day 7 – Aug 21 MP novel discussion chapters 17-24
Day 8 – Aug 22 MP great quotes and quips

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Mansfield Park Madness Begins @ Austenprose

17 Days of Great Give-aways!

Jane Austen’s most mysteriously misunderstood novel will be given a fair shake as the blog Austenprose endeavours to unravel it’s charms and short-comings (are there any?) in a 17 day blog event, Mansfield Park Madness, August 15-31, 2008. This Mansfield Park 101 will feature discussions of the novel, movie adaptations and book sequels geared for the novice reader, but also open to all levels of literature lovers and Janeites alike.

Amazingly, there will also be 17 days of great give-aways of books, movies and Jane Austen ephemera to the lucky winners. To qualify for the daily drawings, just join in the conversation by leaving a comment in a post. The complete details are available here.

Don’t miss out on your chance for all the fun discussions and give-aways at Mansfield Park Madness. Please join us - because gentle Fanny Price has requested your attendance and does not want to be viewed as insipid any longer!

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Upcoming Posts
Day 1 – Aug 15 MPM introduction
Day 2 - Aug 16 MP novel discussion chapters 1-8
Day 3 – Aug 17 MP 1983 movie review and discussion
Day 4 – Aug 18 MP Naxos (Juliet Stevenson) audio

Seen on the Blogosphere

Austenprose and Ellen and Jim Have a Blog Too are cowriting book reviews of the new Oxford World's Classics reissues of Jane Austen's novels. Their diptych review is of Sense and Sensibility, the first of Jane Austen's novels to be published. In honor of these new Oxford editions, this blog is running a contest in which the winner gets to choose their favorite Jane Austen book as a prize. Click here to enter the contest.

Jane Odiwe's Blogspot features the scenes and settings from Jane Austen's novels and movie adaptations. She intersperses her posts with her drawings and paintings. Nicely done, Jane! And congratulations on getting your book, Lydia Bennet's Story, published with SourceBooks in October.

Click here to read the exchange of letters between Lucy (Ms.Place) and Lydia Wickham (Jane).




Girlebooks is now offering free e-texts of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. You can choose several ways to download these books - as an Adobe PDF document, plain text, kindle format, Microsoft reader, or eReader PDB. As the site says, "We publish ebooks by the gals. But much more than a simple ebook resource, Girlebooks aims to make classic and lesser-known works by female writers available to a large audience through the ebook medium."


Austen Blog features an interesting post about Meryton. The comments are just as informative and are definitely worth reading!


Book Club Girl spoke recently on Talk Radio with Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict author Laurie Viera Rigler . Click on the widget to listen to the interview.
Posted by Ms. Place

Miss Austen Regrets Preview

The premiere of the new biopic on Jane Austen's later years, Miss Austen Regrets, is quickly approaching on Sunday, February 3rd. at 9:00 pm. Presented by Masterpiece Classic, it is a co-production of WGBH/BBC and is highly anticipated by many Janeites. The story line focuses on the last few years of Jane Austen's (Olivia Williams) life, as she advises her niece Fanny Knight (Imogen Poots) on courtship and marriage, and attempts to help her navigate her choice of the correct match.

After Last summers biopic Becoming Jane, and the controversy surrounding the producers promoting the story with tag lines like "Jane Austen's Love Story Was Her Own", I admit to being a bit gun shy of further biographies of Jane Austen's life story. From the PBS press release, it appears that the writer Gwyneth Hughes has closely based the story on Jane Austen's letters, and family memoirs. That's a relief. You can read further details on the production at my other blog, Austenprose.

Did you know that in addition to Becoming Jane, there are several documentaries available on Jane Austen's life and world? You may want to check out these DVD's and put them in your Netflicks que, or order them for your own library.

• Biography: Jane Austen , A&E Home Video (2006)
  
  
• Great Women Writers: Jane Austen, Kultur Video (2000)
  


• The Famous Authors Series: Jane Austen, Kultur Video (1996)
  


• Jane Austen's Life, Arts Magic (2005)
  


• Jane Austen's Society, Arts Magic (2005)
  


• Jane Austen's Work, Arts Magic (2005)
  


• Becoming Jane, Miramax (2007) pre-order (release February 12th 2008)

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose