Jane Odiwe Jane Austen Sequels

I wrote this short piece for a guest blog today on Serena's blogspot Savvy, Verse and Wit. I am grateful also to her for a review for Lydia Bennet's Story, which you can read by clicking here October 31st, 1801 “I’ll bet you’ll see your true love by midnight,” said our maid Mary, and she looked so mysterious and meaningful that we took her at her word and arrived at the kitchen door as late as we dared. It was very quiet and I was all for bursting in at the door but Kitty was already nervous on account of being told to come without candle or lantern. At her timid knock, the door was suddenly thrown back and the vision that greeted us was so terrifying that Kitty let out the most bloodcurdling scream you have ever heard. When we realised it was Mary with a hollowed turnip candle held under her chin we laughed so hard, I thought I might be ill. The kitchen was very dark but for the glow of turnip candles on every surface illuminating several strings of apples suspended from the ...

Fiction set in the Regency era often has an incident or event taking place in a country inn in England. The first thirty years of the nineteenth century saw the growth of such hostelries as the rise of coach and post-chaise travel expanded and peaked. I really like to read contemporary descriptions which help inspiration for writing. The first is by the English writer, George Borrow. ...an army of servants... was kept; waiters, chambermaids, grooms, postillions, shoe-blacks, cooks, scullions, and what not, for there was a barber and hair-dresser who had been at Paris, and talked French with a cockney accent...Jacks creaked in the kitchens turning round spits, on which large joints of meat piped and smoked before great fires. There was running up and down stairs, and along galleries, slamming of doors, cries of "Coming, sir," and "Please to step this way, ma'am," during eighteen hours of the four and twenty. Truly a very great place for life and bustle was this i...

The weather here in the UK has been getting colder with freezing winds blowing down from the north. Last night was most unusual for this time of year as autumn was quickly ousted by winter. Last night we had lightning, a thunderstorm, followed by snow - huge, fat flakes of twirling ice hurtling to the ground and settling to form a blanket over the garden and the street outside. Everywhere looks so pretty, and as I write there is a pink glow from the sun as it rises, gilding the tops of snow-covered roofs with rose and gold. A day to stay in by the fire, I think! Here, in contrast to the chill outside, is a lovely review from Sharon at her blog, Ex Libris Title: Lydia Bennet's Story Author: Jane Odiwe Publisher: Sourcebooks Rating: 5/5 "The true misfortune, which besets any young lady who believes herself destined for fortune and favour, is to find that she has been born into an unsuitable family." (pg. 9) The opening line of Chapter 1 of Jane Odiwe's sequel to Jane...