Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

 I hope you're all having a lovely Easter! I am absolutely delighted to welcome Shannon Winslow , a fellow Austen Author, to my blog - she's celebrating the release of her new novel, Return to Longbourn , and she is sharing an exclusive, never-before-seen extract with us  today! Over to you, Shannon. Shannon Winslow I was delighted when Jane invited me to stop here on my blog tour for my new novel Return to Longbourn . Writing this book was an absolute joy! It was such a treat to have an excuse to spend time with Darcy, Elizabeth, and the rest of the Pride and Prejudice cast again, and to revisit Longbourn, Netherfield, and Pemberley. I pick up the story again about five years later (after the end of The Darcys of Pemberley ), when Mr. Bennet sadly passes away. With Mr. Tristan Collins (the new heir to the Longbourn estate) on his way from America to claim his property, Mrs. Bennet hatches her plan. The man simply must marry one of her da...

What a lovely way to start the New Year - I've been honoured! Well, I may not be in the Queen's list, but Searching for Captain Wentworth is on Meredith Esparza's honours list . I love this award which is for Favourite Austen-inspired original novel! Thank you so much Meredith, I can't tell you what it means to me - I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm on Austen Authors today with a little poem for the New Year! Inspired by Pride and Prejudice, Lizzy looks forward to a new year - with little idea of her fate. Please join me and all my fellow authors!

Please join me tomorrow on Austen Authors for the start of the celebrations for the double wedding of Mr Darcy and his bride, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Bingley and Miss Jane Bennet. I've written a couple of vignettes which I've loved writing. For tomorrow -  A Conversation Between Jane & Lizzy on the Eve of their Wedding,  and one for the following day -  Mrs. Bennet’s Wedding Reflections.   Here's the full menu which promises to be a sumptuous wedding breakfast! The BIG day is fast approaching! Everyone is invited! In order to prepare for the plethora of vignettes written by the Austen Authors to cover the exciting events, we will be spacing them out for your gradual reading enjoyment. Using a vaguely “real time” order for the wedding day – and remembering that we use EST for our official time stamp – here are the vignettes coming up: November 15 ~ Day Before the Wedding Preparing the Wedding Breakfast  by Nina Benneton Darcy and Elizabet...

Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion, Searching for Captain Wentworth is set in Bath and Lyme Continuing my audio excerpts of my new book which has been inspired by Jane Austen's novel Persuasion. Here's Chapter Four of Searching for Captain Wentworth - I hope you enjoy it! If you'd like to listen to the first three chapters, please click here ! I've had a lovely review from Laura Gerold this week for Searching for Captain Wentworth. Is there a literary hero that shines brighter than Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice? To me, the answer is yes – Captain Wentworth is to me the sexiest Austen hero and among my favorite literary romantic leads. Besides the fact that Captain Wentworth is a navy man that has made his fame and fortune at sea, he is also a man with strong feelings and passion. Who can forget his letter to Anne Elliot at the end of Persuasion where he admits to never forgetting her and harboring a love for her for eight years after her reject...

The wonderful Diana Birchall has written a fabulous post about this previously unknown ring of Jane Austen's on the Austen Author's site. I think the ring is beautiful - sadly, they just don't make them like that anymore! It throws up all sorts of intriguing questions about who bought the ring etc. and I'm sure I'm not the only one who secretly hopes there was a romantic reason behind the purchase. Do visit Austen Authors to read all about it, I'm sure you'll be as intrigued as I am. And, if there is anyone out there with a spare £30,000 who would like to buy it, if Chawton cottage can't find room for it, I know someone who would be very pleased to take care of it! The equally gorgeous Julie Wakefield has news of some first editions of Jane Austen's novels in the same July 10th sale at Sotheby's on her Austenonly blog. Please visit for a full and fascinating report!

As I'm sure you know by now the very lovely Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose   has a book coming out in October! Jane Austen Made Me Do It is being published by Ballantine books, and is available for pre-order! In case you've forgotten, though I'm sure I've mentioned it once or twice, I have contributed a short story to this amazing anthology. Just look at the fantastic authors featured on the cover - I'm thrilled to think that my piece inspired by Persuasion is to be amongst them, and I can't wait to read all the stories. I am so excitied about this book, not least because there's a chance I may even see it on a bookshelf here in the UK, which will be a rare treat for me! Adam Spunberg who runs the wonderful Jane Austen Twitter Project  with Lynn Shepherd  contacted me to tell me about an exciting interview he had with Deborah Moggach who wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice. It's a lovely interview which also features ...

Happy Valentine's Day! Over at Austen Authors  we've been celebrating the whole weekend with lots of fun stuff - on Saturday I compiled excerpts from everyone's books - lovely romantic passages, of course - do have a look.  I am thrilled to bits with this review from Suite 101  I don't think if I'd written it myself I could have done it better-thank you so much, Jessica Hastings! I've been over at Love, Romance, Passion talking about writing styles. Here's the interview I had with Keira. And here's a guest blog from Read All Over Reviews  - suitably romantic for today! Thank you, Teresa, for inviting me to your blog to talk about my book,  Mr. Darcy’s Secret , and as we are so close to Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be lovely to tell you about how some of my research was connected with the sending of flowers and love letters. In Georgian times it was customary to send love letters and tokens, cards cut and pricked with a design to look lik...

Writers of Jane Austen fiction cordially invite you to the launch of ‘Austen Authors’ , and to share in our passion for her world... because there’s never enough Jane Austen. We look forward to the pleasure of your company tomorrow on Monday, September 6, 2010, and daily thereafter. Throughout September, during our Launch Extravaganza, there will be posts by many of your favourite Austen-related fiction writers as well as contests, quizzes, a scavenger hunt, oodles of information, spotlight guest Amanda Grange (Mr. Darcy Vampyre), new release parties, author introductions, entertainment, humour, polls, secrets, recipes, games galore, and giveaways of gifts and books from the authors and their publishers. Mark your calendar, join us, and be sure to post comments. Here is the list of contributing authors. ¨ Susan Adriani ¨ Marsha Altman ¨ Marilyn Brant ¨ Skylar Burris ¨ Jack Caldwell ¨ Carolyn Eberhart ¨ Monica Fairview ¨ Regina Jeffers ¨ ...