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2012 Appearances

Patrice Sarath — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:26:27 +0000

Here are some upcoming events:

February

Event name: Romance Readers Social

Time: 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Date: Saturday, February 25

Description: Meet local romance authors April Kihlstrom, Jane Myers Perrine, and Patrice Sarath at the library’s annual Romance Readers Social. Enjoy refreshments and bring your old romance paperbacks for a book swap.

Location: Pflugerville Community Library

Street address: 102 S. 10th Street, Pflugerville

Phone: 512-251-9185

Cost: N/A

Website: http://www.pflugervilletx.gov/library

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March 10 (date and time tentative; more details as they come in)

Houston Town & Country Barnes & Noble: with Jennifer Ziegler and Alyssa Goodnight.

Expect lots of fun and a good time. Alyssa Goodnight is the author of Austentatious, which comes out any second now and looks like so much fun I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy (January 31 is the official date), and Unladylike Pursuits, which also looks like a romp (come on — highwaymen? an arranged marriage? I am so there).

Jennifer Ziegler is the author of Sass & Serendipity and several other young adult and children’s novels. Join us!

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May 19 (details to come)

BookPeople: Austen in Austin! The three Musketeers (Alyssa, Jenny, and me) join forces again at Austin’s own BookPeople for Jane, more Jane, and still more Jane. There will no doubt be Pride, Persuasion, and Sensibility.

Smart Bitches Trashy Books review

Patrice Sarath — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:53:34 +0000

Sure, everyone loves to get four- and five-star reviews, but the romance blog/review site/my new crush* Smart Bitches Trashy Books doesn’t play that game. There is no grade inflation. The Unexpected Miss Bennet gets a C+ and there will be no whining about the curve.

So when SB Sarah writes:

One, the hero, Tom Aikens, is adorable. He’s horse-mad, awkward, extremely active, and as unlike Mary as could be. She likes to sit and read; he can barely sit still let alone focus on a story. Yet he likes Mary, and swears his horse, Hyperion, whom he takes incredibly good care of, likes Mary, too. Mr. Aikens is not always wise in his actions, though, and can lose his temper – at one point he snaps at Lizzy that she doesn’t know Mary at all, and her understanding of her sister is sadly wrong.

I did a little happy chair dance, because she likes him! She really likes him! Also, Mr. Bennet made her laugh.

Oh, and also? Charlaine Harris read The Unexpected Miss Bennet and she liked it too.

* It was my crush before the review. Seriously. Just like Lizzy revised her opinion of Darcy before she saw Pemberley.

Which Heyers are your favorites?

Patrice Sarath — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:31:49 +0000

A friend of mine has access to about 15-20 Georgette Heyer novels and is willing to send them to me. Since he is overseas, this is a huge deal. I’m tempted to say all of them! But that might be expensive. He has said that one of them is Cotillion, which is my favorite Heyer, and I’m definitely getting that one.

So here is my question, Heyer fans: Which Heyers are your favorites? Or more to the point, which of the less well-known Heyers are your favorites? After all, we all know The Grand Sophy, and for good reason. I’m including her mysteries, contemporary books, and non-Regencies.

Comment away!

Austen and Gaskell — a comparison

Patrice Sarath — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:15:34 +0000

So many readers suggested North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell in the comments during the Birthday Soiree that I decided to read it over Christmas. I can see why many fans love the book and suggested it but I was also stunned by how different it was from Jane Austen’s own work. Somehow, I thought it would be written in the same spirit as Pride & Prejudice. Clearly this was naive; Gaskell is a different writer with different concerns and — this is crucial — from a different era not only in English literature but of women’s literature as well.

What a difference a few decades make. Pride & Prejudice was published in 1813. North & South was published in 1854-55 and was originally serialized in Charles Dickens’ magazine Household Words. While comparisons between writers and times may be naive, there was such a stark contrast between the way women’s concerns are portrayed by these authors. In particular, in North & South, the character of Margaret Hale is the epitome of Victorian womanhood, who flinches from even respectful male admiration. She has two suitors, Harry Lennox and John Thornton, who each propose to her and whom she not only rebuffs, she is physically repulsed by their proposals. Despite being strong and intelligent, and physically so courageous that she takes a rioter’s rock that was meant for Thornton, she grows ill and enraged at the thought of their love.

As with many things Victorian, this is actually kind of neurotic and it kept me from liking Margaret as much as I wanted to.

Now take her counterpart, Lizzy Bennet. Lizzy is never once physically courageous — we are told nothing about her physique (Gaskell frequently describes Margaret’s strength, her arms, her imposing presence). She may even lead a more sheltered life than Margaret did (well, especially since Margaret does walk around pretty freely). Yet she is more matter-of-fact about sexuality and married life than Margaret is. She turns Darcy down because of the insulting way he proposes to her. Whereas to Margaret, the proposal is the insult.

How can we know this about Lizzy when Austen’s characters barely touch one another? It’s the absence of Lizzy’s concern when she is naturally attracted initially to the handsome Wickham. He’s a rogue and a troublemaker, a complete bad boy, and she likes him.

Yet, take a look at everything that Margaret accomplishes! She befriends a small family and helps keep it together during hard times, she keeps a riot from growing worse, she keeps her family together through selfless self-denial (another Victorian virtue), and for all of this she ends up a wealthy woman. Lizzy doesn’t really do much.

The difference in the portrayal of women is really astonishing, as I said. Sure it may be a difference between authors — Gaskell was a writer and a thinker among a group of writers and thinkers who worked to improve the lives of the poor. She was married to a minister, and Austen’s father was a minister though, so in that sense, perhaps they had quite a bit more in common. Perhaps in Austen’s time, ministers really were just paid employees of the church (hence the term living, and the fact that Wickham almost got one, though he would have made such a bad minister as to be laughable. Can you imagine?)

But it was just 40 years. Forty years difference between the two authors and there is so much difference in the portrayal of society and women.

I’m glad I read North & South, and will probably dip into more of Gaskell’s work. It is not fair, perhaps, to say that Austen is the “better” writer, since those kinds of comparisons, especially based on this admittedly simplistic comparison, really are so subjective as to be useless. All I can say is, I admire Margaret Hale a great deal, but I also feel a little bit sorry for her. She had spunk, but she was emotionally crippled by the times in which she lived.

And I feel a bit sorry for Lizzy too — she had so much less freedom and scope for self-determination than Margaret Hale did.

Miss Bennet included in Best of 2011 lists

Patrice Sarath — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:35:57 +0000

Austenprose has named The Unexpected Miss Bennet one of the Top 10 Jane Austen sequels, prequels, and retellings.

And Austenesque Reviewer Jeffrey Ward named The Unexpected Miss Bennet one of his top Pride & Prejudice sequels of the year as well.

I am very honored to be in such company. And thanks to everyone who read and loved Miss Bennet and shared their opinion with the Internet and their friends. As someone who is a reader first, I know the joy of finding a good book. To be able to give others that same experience is why I write.

Julie Kagawa — The Iron Knight

Patrice Sarath — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:12:56 +0000

I read the fourth book in Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Fey series, The Iron Knight, over the holidays and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you aren’t reading this YA series, and you love YA, treat yourself by picking up this series, which starts with The Iron King. In every one of the books in the series, Kagawa brings a sideways look at the familiar tales of Faerie. From conjuring up the iron fey, which is an utterly brilliant concept and executed to match, to the final book of Ash’s trials, the books go much deeper than the typical YA love triangle structure set in a future or fantastic world. Yes, there is romance, but to me, who is decidedly not a young adult, the appeal is the worldbuilding and the character development as well as the rich plots.

Kagawa does such a good job of presenting Ash’s choices and his trials in The Iron Knight and relating them back to what it means to be human that I wanted to applaud while reading (but I was staying at my mom’s and didn’t want to alarm anyone). And she’s done this in every book — nothing is easy, everything is well thought out, and decisions have consequences. Seriously, while The Hunger Games gets much-deserved attention, if you or a fantasy-loving teen you know is looking for something new, check out The Iron Fey.

Have I gushed enough? Sorry… but when I get excited about a good book I have to tell everyone.

If you’ve read it, let me know in the comments — we can share notes. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

After Christmas drive-by

Patrice Sarath — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:09:54 +0000

‘Twas the night after Christmas and all through the house,

Not much was happening, we were too stuffed to move.

The Christmas dinner was all eaten with care,

As was the Christmas Eve feast because that’s how we do things

In Connecticut — right.

Anyway, I’ve been hunkered down with my family, hiking in the woods and getting lost, taking awesome pictures of water and trees and family and non-Texas things. We’ve also been telling family stories, and believe me, you can’t make this stuff up. It’s been wonderful.

I want to let everyone know that I will be back for the New Year with more news and snippets and other good stuff. And also, after you’ve read Death Comes to Pemberley, you really should read The Unexpected Miss Bennet. And compare the two. And tell me about what you liked about each one.

The Winner Is…

Patrice Sarath — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:00:22 +0000

Kelli H!

Please send me your address and I will send out a signed copy of The Unexpected Miss Bennet. Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy my book.

My thanks to everyone who commented on Jane Austen’s Birthday Soiree. It was so much fun to talk about favorite books. Thanks to commenters I have now put North & South on my TBR list. I am looking forward to reading it.

To everyone: have a wonderful holiday season and the very best to all of you in the New Year.

Patrice Sarath

Happy birthday, Miss Austen — the Birthday Soiree

Patrice Sarath — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:20:17 +0000

Note to my readers: As part of the Jane Austen Birthday Soiree, hosted by Maria Grazia at My Jane Austen Book Club and Katherine Cox at November’s Autumn, I’ve joined some 30 Austen bloggers and authors for a special birthday celebration. We are delivering our “gifts” to Jane and as a gift to you, offering wonderful prizes on our blog. Simply visit one of the sites listed below and comment for a chance to win. I’m offering a signed copy of The Unexpected Miss Bennet.

Here is my gift to Jane:

Dear Miss Austen,

Because you are a great reader, I wanted to pass along the books that have given me great pleasure over the years. I am sure that you would have loved them too, had you been able to live as long as your own books have.

Not long after your death, if I may speak of so sad an event on this anniversary of your birth, a writer called Charles Dickens took the world by storm. You would have LOVED him. Your concerns were the same, even though his world was darker and coarser. But civility, society, and how we look upon people without prejudice and do our best to do right by even the poorest, would have surely captivated you.

The Bronte sisters. Everyone thinks you were so sheltered but I don’t think so. You wouldn’t have been scandalized by Wuthering Heights. I bet you would have liked Jane Eyre better though. It is the better book.

The United States was a fledgling nation during your life, but we produced some pretty good writers in the past 250 years. Mark Twain for one. Huckleberry Finn is his masterpiece, and rightfully so, but he also wrote numerous short stories, and his book about his travels in Europe in Innocents Abroad would have probably amused you and Cassandra and Fanny.

I think you would have admired Louisa May Alcott as well, and would have seen your influence in her novels.

What would you have thought of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? I am sure that you would have preferred War & Peace to Anna Karennina and Crime & Punishment to The Brothers Karamazov, if only because you understood the importance of a well-placed ampersand in good title.

I have probably given myself an impossible task — how to provide a survey of world literature in a single blog post. I’m not that well-read and I’m leaving out a lot of my cherished books. Maybe my readers can help me out in the comments — what books do you think Jane Austen would have liked?

I will say that the Nora Roberts’ body of work would have probably appealed to you. I don’t know about science fiction and fantasy –you just missed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and I doubt that Lord of the Rings or I, Robot or the Dragonriders of Pern would have fascinated you.

But mysteries! Ah, there’s a genre for you! Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers would have probably been favorites, and I can see you enjoying the Sherlock Holmes books too. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has fans that are almost as rabid as us Janeites, did you know that?

Happy birthday dear Jane Austen. Thank you for some of the best literature in the world.

Patrice Sarath

To my readers: What books do you think Jane would have liked? Make your suggestions in the comments and be entered for a chance to win a copy of The Unexpected Miss Bennet. And don’t forget to visit the other bloggers! Thanks for visiting!

Here is a list of participating sites:

Sharon Lathan
Giveaway : Miss Darcy Falls in Love

Emily Snyder
Giveaway: Letters of Love & Deception

Laurel Ann Nattress
Giveaway: signed copy of Jane Austen Made Me Do It

C. Allyn Pierson
Giveaway: Mr Darcy Little Sister (open worldwide)

Cindy Jones
Giveaway: a signed copy of “My Jane Austen Summer” and a package of Lily Berry’s Pink Rose Tea by Bingley’s, Ltd.

Farida Mestek
Giveaway: I was Jane Austen Best Friend by Cora Harrison

Marilyn Brant
Giveaway : A canvas ACCORDING TO JANE tote bag and a pair of A SUMMER IN EUROPE luggage tags.

Prue Batten
Giveaway : Anna Elliot’s “Georgiana Darcy” (Kindle book)

Erin Blakemore
Giveaway : a set of Potter-Style Pride and Prejudice notecards

Velvet
Giveaway: Jane Austen’s Little Instruction Book (Charming Petites) By Jane Austen, Edited by Sophia Bedford-Pierce, Illustrated by Mullen & Katz, Introduction by Barbara Paulding

Karen Doornebos
Giveaway: 2 Jane Austen Candles and 2 signed DNMD books plus drink coasters and tea!

Regina Jeffers
Giveaway: An autographed copy of “Christmas at Pemberley “

Alyssa Goodnight
Giveaway: Jane Austen Action figure

Deb
Giveaway: JASNA 2012 calendars from the Wisconsin JASNA Region

Laura Hile, Susan Kaye, Pamela Aidan, and Barbara Cornthwaite
Giveaway:
•   One copy of Young Master Darcy: A Lesson in Honour by Pamela Aidan
•   One set of Frederick Wentworth, Captain (Books 1 and 2) by Susan Kaye
•   Two copies of Mercy’s Embrace: So Rough a Course (Book 1) by Laura Hile
•   George Kinghtley, Gentleman (Books 1 and 2) by Barbara Cornthwaite

Juliet Archer
Giveaway: a copy of “Persuade Me” and one of “The Importance of Being Emma”

Jane Greensmith
Giveaway: a copy of “Intimations of Austen” and Sense & Sensibility (Marvel Illustrated)

Jenny Allworthy
Giveaway: a copy of Northanger Abbey DVD starring Felicity Jones and JJ Feild (The winner will choose region 1 or 2 DVD)

Sitio Jane Austen
Giveaway: – Spanish edition of Sense and Sensibility for the 200th Anniversary + A DVD package with adaptations of Jane Austen
(It’s only zone 2, but it’s in Spanish and English ) + blu-ray of the BBC’s Emma with Romola Garai

Kaitlin Saunders
Giveaway: “A Modern Day Persuasion”

Becky Rhodehouse
Giveaway: selection of Austenesque Reads

Adriana Zardini
Giveaway: DVD – Sense and Sensibility (1995) – English / Portuguese subtitles

Jane Odiwe
Giveaway: a mug with one of Jane Odiwe’s illustrations and a copy of her “Mr Darcy’s Secret”

Courtney Webb
Giveaway: Noble Satyr by Lucinda Brant (Regency Romance)

Jennifer Becton
Giveaway: An ebook of the Personages of Pride and Prejudice Collection, which contains all of my Austenesque works: Charlotte Collins, “Maria Lucas,” and Caroline Bingley. The giveaway will be open internationally.

Vera Nazarian
Giveaway: a copy of Vera Nazarian’s gift hardcover edition of her inspirational calendar and diary, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Abigail Reynolds
Giveaway: a signed copy of “Mr. Darcy’s Undoing”

AustenAuthors
Giveaway: Georgette Heyer’s Regency World by Jennifer Kloester

Katherine Cox
Giveaway :$10 B&N Gift-card (US only)

Maria Grazia
Giveaway : A selection of Austenesque reads

Upcoming Jane Austen birthday soiree

Patrice Sarath — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:21:13 +0000

Please join me and 30 other Jane Austen sequel and prequel authors for our celebration of Austen’s birthday on Friday. Visit each blog and comment for a chance to win a variety of prizes. I’ll be giving away a copy of The Unexpected Miss Bennet for some cozy winter reading.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE JANE AUSTEN’S BIRTHDAY SOIREE