GUEST POST:

“Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” *

As some of you may or may not know, I write a serial story that recounts my vision of marriage and life for Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy, those famed lovers from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” My first three novels were originally one very long tome that I eventually had to divide into three reasonable lengths. I opted not to write a synopsis of the first book, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy, as a prologue to the second installment, Loving Mr. Darcy. Instead I jumped right into the action primarily because I assume folks are smart enough to remember what they have read before! For the third volume, My Dearest Mr. Darcy, I held the same philosophy, but conceived of a cool opportunity to play around a bit.

…Imagine my surprise to realize it has been over a month since last jotting my musings in this fine book. Of course, writing while at sea is inconceivable. Egad, I abhor being at sea! Luckily the remedies for seasickness liberally doused down my gullet by the ever faithful Dr. Raul Penaflor staved off the worst of the hideous symptoms. I even managed to walk about a bit on deck. Bracing sea air, my derriere! Nonetheless, I was abed for the bulk of the trip, wallowing too far in my personal hellish misery to complain about the narrow confines of our cabin and odiferous mattress. East India trading ships cater to the needs of cargo far above passengers. We disembarked at Ramsgate. I was quite happy to embrace the rigors of overland travel rather than proceeding up the Thames, but several days of subsequent immobility were required to restore my equilibrium ere we moved beyond that lovely seacoast town. Raul, bless his Spanish heart, rather delighted in my incapacitation as it allotted him the opportunity to ramble through the streets and relish the sights. Poor man has never seen England. How does one live? I ask arrogantly.

The excerpt above is the opening paragraph of My Dearest Mr. Darcy and is obviously written in first person. One of my favorite characters is Mr. Darcy’s eccentric uncle, Dr. George Darcy. Dr. Darcy literally barged in upon his nephew in Loving Mr. Darcy and within a few pages he had utterly captured my heart. I knew he had to stay since he is wonderfully fun with a quirky personality and huge heart. I also grew to adore his unique perspective on events. Writing the chapter titled, “Snippets of a Physician’s Memoirs” was inspired simply because I knew George possessed a sharp wit and that his thoughts were worth hearing. So I began with his sea voyage back from India where he had resided for over thirty years, and through a series of passages from his journal related the major events spanning the initial two months of his sojourn. Later, when splitting the saga apart, I realized George’s memoirs were a perfect way to summarize Loving Mr. Darcy and for readers to see those events from an entirely different angle. Excellent! It is now the prologue for the third book.

At the time it was my first foray into writing with another person’s voice. George is completely real to me. I, sadly, am nothing like him! Yet as much as I love this man and comprehend his soul, could I write a journal as if it was his? I think I succeeded. Plus, I was able to reveal hints of the good doctor’s past via his diary. Quite fun…. And mysterious!

I ended up having so much fun with the exercise that I took another chance. To bridge the slight gap between the second and third novels, the first chapter following George’s humorous prologue is a series of correspondences read by Darcy and Lizzy. Written by Jane Bingley, Mr. Bennet, Dr. Darcy, Anne de Bourgh, Georgiana Darcy, Mary Bennet, and Lydia Wickham, each letter is unique to that character’s personality. I discovered that letters are a marvelous way to update on faraway people! And it is way more fun to learn of Mary’s romance from an amused Mr. Bennet, the Bennet family’s dramas from a serene Jane, or the misadventures of Mr. Wickham from an erratic Lydia.

As a reader of serial novels I confess that a synopsis of prior events can be very beneficial since the details do blur over time as we wait months for the next book. But those dry narratives can be fairly boring when you just want to get on to the meat in the new story. Hopefully George’s memoirs and the parchment letters from family will be as entertaining to read as what follows in the subsequent chapters.

Thanks to Shoshana for hosting me today. I am deeply appreciative of blog owners who share their space with authors. Leave me a comment as you wish, but if you can think of a synopsis/prologue done in an unusual way I would love to hear of it. And maybe Shoshana will throw in an extra point if you can identify the *quote used as this blog’s title!

MY DEAREST MR. DARCY—IN STORES JANUARY 2010

Married life is bringing out the best in the Darcys. Their mutual attentiveness brings readers into a magical world of love and wedded bliss.

Elizabeth is growing into her role as Mistress of Pemberley, and Darcy has mellowed under her gentle teasing and light-heartedness. Pemberley becomes a true home and a welcoming environment for loving family and friends. The Darcys travel to the seaside, welcome their firstborn, celebrate their anniversary and second Christmas, and at every moment embrace the love gifted to them.
“I love you, my Elizabeth. You are my soul, my blood and bone, my very life.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharon Lathan is the author of the bestselling Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One, and Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley. In addition to her writing, she works as a Registered Nurse in a Neonatal ICU. She resides in Hanford, California in the sunny San Joaquin Valley. For more information on Sharon and her saga, come to her website at: www.darcysaga.net

GIVEAWAY:

1 set of Sharon’s trio of books so far, Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Loving Mr. Darcy and My Dearest Mr. Darcy.
1 winner, US and Canada only, no PO Box addresses please.
A winner will be drawn on January 25. That will give you almost two weeks to peruse unusual synopsis from different books.

HOW TO WIN:

+1 = Leave a comment for Ms. Lathan.

+1  = Get 1 extra point if you can identify the quote used as this blog’s title.

+3 = If you can think of a synopsis/prologue done in an unusual way I would love to hear of it (you can give a book title and prologue snippets or page number. Three points for each different title)

Winner: [Added Jan 26]

The winner is Ms D.Congratulations!

If you didn’t win this time, don’t despair. I have more books coming up.

Here’s how I draw. I put everyone’s name in random.org List Randomizer. I entered the names as many times are they qualify for entry. I count the total entry when I have everyone’s name in. I randomize that list. Then I go over to Interger Generator and pick a number and matched it to the names from List Randomizer. I figured this way, it’s just like the good old fashion way of drawing where I write everyone’s name in slip of papers, shake it in a jar and pull a name.

Tags: Danielle Jackson, Pride and Prejudice related, Sharon Lathan

My Dearest Mr. Darcy: An amazing journey into love everlasting
by Sharon Lathan
Paperback
352 Pages
Published 2010 by Sourcebooks Landmark

What a fantastic ending** to this trilogy. Ms. Lathan captured Mr. Darcy perfectly. The Mr. Darcy, as performed by Matthew Macfadyen. Every single time Mr. Darcy speaks to Lizzy in this book, I get the shivers. This particular Mr. Darcy (Macfadyen) has the sexiest voice, IMHO. If you don’t quite believe me, listen to this and this.

This book opens with a journal from Mr. Darcy’s Uncle, Dr. Darcy. He’s a very engaging old man. He’s quite entertaining and lovable. So, on this prologue, you get snippets of Dr. Darcy’s life, Anne and Mary’s love story. I think it’s inspired. I laughed my head off imagining Lady Catherine’s face when Dr. Penaflor started with his genealogy details. Poor Lady C!

Darcy and Lizzie travels to the sea, and you can see that Elizabeth is as spirited as ever. I love that scene in the dining room with a particular lady. It just melts my heart how Darcy is as romantic as ever. There was this riddle game he concocted to celebrate their 1 year anniversary. It’s truly awesome. This book is quite scorching! I wish the series would continue. This is one of the most enjoyable adaptations I have read.

Watch out for Sharon’s Lathan’s guest post, and giveaway coming up next.

**I am very excited to know that there are 5 books to this series. I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye. Just heard it from Ms. Sharon.

Tags: Pride and Prejudice related, Sharon Lathan, Sourcebooks

Last Call
by JD Seamus

Tracey

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Swimsuit
by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro
Reader: Christian Rummel

Jessica

Freda Mans

 Amellia

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Dark Hunger (Demonborn)
by Rita Herron

Teresa W.

Belinda M

angela m

 renee

karen k

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Highland Rebel by Judith James

bridget3420

 elaing8

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Laced with Magic
by Barbara Bretton

Lori Barnes

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Magnificent Man by Randall Lang

Heidi V.

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Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley
by Sharon Lathan

CherylS22

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My Cousin Caroline: The acclaimed Pride and Prejudice sequel series The Pemberley Chronicles Book 6
by Rebecca Ann Collins

Jenny N

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Tags: Barbara Bretton, James Patterson, JD Seamus, Judith James, Maxine Paetro, Randall Lang, Rebecca Ann Collins, Rita Herron, Sharon Lathan

Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley
by Sharon Lathan
Paperback, 448 Pages
List Price: $14.99
Published 2009 by Sourcebooks Landmark
ISBN-10: 1-4022-1741-2

My Take:
This is one of the most romantic take off on Pride and Prejudice that I have read. There are many takes on Lizzie and Darcy: some authors put them at odds with each other, or they’re made into amateur sleuths, or even power hungry and doormat couple, etc.  While each one is enjoyable to read for it’s variations, Sharon Lathan’s take on the couple is my all-time favorite. It’s how I imagine Fitzwilliam Darcy to be with his shyness coming off as arrogant. He’s sweet and loving, sexy and insatiable, strong and kind. He’s everything that a dream man should be. Lizzy is wonderful in this story also. She hasn’t lost her witticisms. I was afraid that the book would be overly sweet, but Ms. Lathan did a superlative job of making this couple very much in-love without making the book ridiculous. Sometimes, I can’t help but squeal in delight at the antics of this Mr. and Mrs. Darcy. I love it. I bet you’re going to love it, too. It’s a Pride and Prejudice version that cannot be missed. Check out below. One lucky winner will get book 1 and 2 of this series.

Guest Post:

Stargazing in the Regency
One of my favorite childhood memories was visiting my grandparents in Lake Isabella, CA. My grandfather held a nightly ritual of sitting in his lawn chair and gazing up at the stars. Sitting beside him as we stared into the vast, glittering expanse, waiting for one to fall so we could make a wish while attempting to trace patterns and images is one of my fondest memories. Grandpa Baker knew nothing of astronomy and I never did take up the study in later years, but we loved gazing. I still do.

Writers frequently incorporate our passions, memories, and life experiences into our writing. Part of the fun for me is taking these characters birthed by Jane Austen and giving them a deeper personality and history. In Lizzy and Darcy I instilled a common interest in stargazing. Naturally there is the clichéd romantic element of handholding lovers lying under the nighttime sky. However, I honestly didn’t approach it from that angle. I remembered how pacifying it was to sit in the still darkness with someone I loved, listening to the sounds of crickets, feeling the cool breezes, and trying in vain to recognize more than the Big Dipper. Those comforting, relaxing, and fun nights came alive in my story without me initially realizing where it came from.

Can you even imagine how amazing it must have been to walk under a canopy of heavenly bodies in an age before the air was clogged with haze? When the only sounds would have been natural ones undisturbed by machines clamoring? Picturing Darcy and Lizzy walking along the spacious lawns of an English country estate was too vivid an image of tranquility and romance to pass up!
But I then wanted to take it a step further, and that is where research came in. Staring into the sky above and counting stars is as old as Adam and Eve. I knew that since before Galileo there were scientists mapping the planets and stars. What I was not so sure about was when functional telescopes and star-charts first appeared. I wanted Darcy to be more than just a casual observer. Could he have a telescope at Pemberley? Could he have studied astronomy at Cambridge? Would he know the constellations and planets?
Thankfully the answer to both is yes!

Telescope invention is traced to the Dutch as early as 1608 using optics created by the Egyptians 400 years earlier. Galileo later expanded and perfected the device. Isaac Newton made more improvements some decades later, and then William Herschel offered the largest leaps in technology in the late 1700s. While it is true that bigger is better in terms of seeing farther away, smaller telescopes were quite the norm. Having a reasonable sized telescope standing on a balcony, as I do in my novel, is perfectly plausible.
The connections between astronomy (and all the sciences) and Cambridge University are too numerous to name. Many of the great scientists and astronomers through the decades, including Newton, either studied or taught at Cambridge. Often both. Mr. Darcy, a graduate of Cambridge and man deeply interested in new inventions and science, (as I have written him) would definitely have taken a class or two.

So there I had the facts to back my idea! I created a Darcy who happily discovers his new wife also enjoys stargazing, even if it annoys him that she (like me) can’t figure out the patterns. Scenes burst forth with intimate conversations, romance, and humorous happenings occurring. My childhood fondness came alive in this small but significant way, thus I can glance upward into the heavens and thank my grandpa for giving me a love that manifested in my books.

Perhaps this history lesson and tidbit from my life has intrigued you enough to pick up Loving Mr. Darcy: Journeys Beyond Pemberley when it is released on Sept. 1. Or “Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One” that is already available. But for now, tell me of a favorite stargazing experience! Perhaps on the beach in some tropical locale? Or on a mountaintop where the stars are so close you can almost touch them? Or just in your backyard. I would love to hear your memories.

About the Author

Sharon Lathan is a native Californian currently residing amid corn, cotton, and cows in the sunny city of Hanford. She divides her time as homemaker nurturing a husband and two children, plus the cat, dog, and fish; while also working as a Registered Nurse in a Neonatal ICU. Somewhere in there she finds time to write! Sharon Lathan can be found on her website/blog at: www.darcysaga.net, on Facebook as “Sharon Lathan, “ on Twitter as “@SharonLathan,” and on the Casablanca Authors’ blog at: http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com/

The Giveaway:
Thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks for my copy and giveaway.
One (1) winner for a set of  Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Loving Mr. Darcy on September 21.

Contest open to US and Canada. No PO Boxes on address please.
Winners will be announced within a week after deadline. Please make sure to subscribe to this blog’s feed to find out if you’re a winner. Please contact me within 1 week of posting the winners, or I get to pick another winner.
+1: Blog or link to this contest on your sidebar.
+1: (for each link) Tweet, stumble, or facebook this contest. Make sure to leave me link where I can find it.
+1: If you can only ask Sharon one question and one question only, what would question would you ask?
+2: Bring a friend, and make sure your friend mentions your name. Both of you get extra entries.
+3:  Sharon Lathan asked:

tell me of a favorite stargazing experience! Perhaps on the beach in some tropical locale? Or on a mountaintop where the stars are so close you can almost touch them? Or just in your backyard. I would love to hear your memories.

Tags: Danielle Jackson, Sharon Lathan