Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

It's Jane Austen's birthday today and over at My Jane Austen Book Club , there are books and prizes to be won, as well as contributions from authors, like myself, which will be posted over the next 24 hours - don't miss it ! In celebration, Project Darcy and Searching for Captain Wentworth are both on offer on Kindle, as well as Mr Darcy's Secret - I hope you'll enjoy them if you get a chance to read them!  This week I went to see the Georgians Revealed exhibition at the British Library. It's well worth going to see and imaginatively put together. Sadly, I was unable to take photos to give you a glimpse of what's on offer, but a plethora of imagery was used to illustrate the themes of Homes and Gardens, Shopping and Fashion, Culture and Ideas, Leisure and Pleasure. Some of my favourites included Humphry Repton's Sketches and Hints in Landscape Gardening, with examples from his 'red books' where he showed before and after images of how a...

Happily Ever After is Susannah Fullerton's new book which celebrates Pride and Prejudice. It is a beautiful book and one I am enjoying enormously. I am very pleased and proud because one of my illustrations features in it on page 126 in a section about Mr Wickham! Lydia, Wickham and Kitty This is the illustration - as you can see, Lydia, Wickham and Kitty are stepping out in Meryton. No doubt they are shopping and will be perusing all the latest ribbons and muslins to be had along the way. I was very surprised to see mentions of my two Pride and Prejudice sequels, Mr Darcy's Secret and Lydia Bennet's Story also included in Susannah's book - you can imagine, I was thrilled! Here's a little blurb about the book: In 2013 Jane Austen's  Pride and Prejudice  turns 200. Again and again in polls conducted around the world, it is regularly chosen as the favourite novel of all time. Read and studied from Cheltenham to China, there are Jane Austen Societies ...

I have two gifts today to giveaway! Here's the first for those lucky enough to own a Kindle: SEARCHING FOR CAPTAIN WENTWORTH Free on Kindle - December 16th - Jane Austen's Birthday! This offer is only open for one day so to claim your free copy make sure you download it on the 16th My second gift is a choice of any one of my books! i.e Choose one copy of either Searching for Captain Wentworth, Mr Darcy's Secret, Willoughby's Return, Lydia Bennet's Story or Effusions of Fancy! Let me know your preference in the comment box with a contact email . As before, the winners will be announced on Monday 17th December. Thank you for joining me this week with all your lovely comments!

When I was writing Mr. Darcy's Secret I was lucky enough to take a trip to Derbyshire for inspiration and research. In my book Elizabeth Bennet's aunt, Mrs. Gardiner, has a friend, Mrs. Butler, who lives in Lambton. We know, of course, that Mrs. Gardiner lived in Lambton herself once upon a time so I assumed she would have made friends there. I stayed in the village of Beeley on the Chatsworth estate and it was here that I was very taken with the house below which I thought would be a good starting point for Mrs. Butler's house. Although not quite exactly as the house I'd imagined in my head, it certainly ran on similar lines. I'd imagined a stone house with mullioned windows - perhaps a little more set back from the road, a little larger in size, and with a grander front door, but I was very pleased with this one nevertheless. The interior of Mrs. Butler's house was inspired by a house that I knew as a child. The room belonged to a friend of my mother's an...

There's a sneak peek from Mr Darcy's Secret over on Austen Authors  today - I hope you can join me! I'm very excited to think that in less than a month (February 1)  Mr Darcy's Secret  will be out at last! In celebration I include this short extract. Elizabeth Bennet has married her Mr Darcy at last, and they are travelling to Pemberley in Derbyshire. ~  ~  ~ Elizabeth Darcy looked out of the carriage window, her spirits in high flutter as they crossed the ancient stone bridge on the road into Lambton village. Nestled at the foot of a hill, on the western side of the river, a number of stone cottages, a church, and a few handsome buildings formed the landscape. Her eyes were drawn to the rich and romantic scenery of the place, enhanced in beauty by the noble appearance of wood-clad hills, wreathed in mist on this damp, November morning. She could not help but remember her first journey to Lambton, accompanied by her uncle and aunt Gardiner on their northern...

It's just over a fortnight to go before Mr Darcy's Secret launch - I can't quite believe it, but it won't be long before I shall be able to hold my 'new baby'! When I was researching the book and thinking about the plot, I very much wanted to make Lizzy's dream of visiting the Lakes come true and who better to share the experience than with her new husband Mr Darcy. At this time the Cumbrian Lakes were beginning to grow in popularity as a holiday destination. The area became the retreat for painters and poets with Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey living and writing in the area. Wordsworth was inspired to pen his most famous daffodil poem in 1802 when he and his sister Dorothy were wandering along Ullswater. Dorothy wrote in her journal: When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the lake had floated the seed ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there...

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you've all enjoyed a lovely holiday over the festive season!  Thank you to everyone for visiting my site during the last year, and for those who leave their kind comments on the blog, it really gladdens my heart. An especial thank you goes to all those lovely readers who take the time to write to me individually, and to the wonderful blogging community out there who are always so supportive. I'm very excited that the time for publication of Mr Darcy's Secret is getting nearer - just a month away - thank you to everyone who have expressed such interest in my new book. I hope 2011 brings you all health and happiness - I've not started too well myself, I'm battling with flu at the moment, but I had to tell you this exciting news from Laurel Ann at Austenprose . I am thrilled to be a part of her short story anthology, Jane Austen Made Me Do It!  The Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest Begins January 1, 2011 In conjunction w...

I'm talking to Mari Grazia today at My Jane Austen Book Club I hope you will join us. Leave a comment on her blog to win a copy of Willoughby's Return. Competition open to all!

I am very excited to tell you that I can now show you the cover for my new novel, Mr Darcy's Secret. I am absolutely thrilled with it, I think it's the best yet, and I hope you like it too! I love the very curvy Lizzy on the cover, set against a backdrop that could either be Derbyshire or the Lakes where most of the action takes place. Look at those gloves! York tan if I'm not mistaken, and what a gorgeous contrast they make to the beautiful, sheer muslin gown she is wearing. The whole picture is lit by the shaft of light slipping under the curtain highlighting Lizzy's skin and that enigmatic smile. Well, I'm really chuffed, as they say where I come from. Sourcebooks do the most wonderful covers in the world!

Laurel Ann from the fabulous Austenprose blog has very kindly invited me to guest blog as part of her Pride and Prejudice without Zombies Group Read. If you've not been keeping up with all the fascinating posts do head on over there - there's something of interest for all fans of Pride and Prejudice. I was thrilled when Laurel Ann asked me if I'd write about the main hero and heroine of the novel especially as I've just finished a continuation of Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are perhaps Jane Austen’s most beloved characters. Pride and Prejudice was written more than two hundred years ago, yet these characters remain as fresh and irresistibly fascinating to us as they were for the first generations that read their tale, and remain the standard by which all other characters in a love story are judged. So, why do we love them so much? Jane Austen tells their story through Elizabeth’s eyes so it’s easy to identify with this heroine who is li...

I'd like to wish you all a Happy Easter - I'm having a bit of a break from blogging to spend time with my family - I hope you all have a lovely holiday. This is quite a long post but one thing seemed to lead to another! I'm very busy writing another book at the moment and drawing on lots of research which is always lots of fun. A lot of the action takes place in Bath so I'm hoping to spend some time there over the holiday period. This week, one of the lovely things that happened was 'meeting' Jennifer Duke and discovering her blog. She was born in England and even attended the the Abbey school as Jane Austen did. Her time there sparked an interest in all things Regency and a love of Jane Austen. Jennifer lives in Australia now and told me that although she loves Sydney, she still gets homesick for England. She wrote to ask me if I would do a question and answer for her blog, which I was thrilled to do. Here's the link: The Bennet Sisters Thank you very muc...