Monday, September 20, 2010

Guest Post and Giveaway: C. Allyn Pierson

Please join me in welcoming, C. Allyn Pierson, author of Mr. Darcy's Little Sister. Sourcebooks has generously offered 2 copies of this book to two commenter's of this blog. Details at the end of the post.

I have been a Jane Austen fan for many years and I also am very interested in history, so I have read and reread her books and seen the 1995 film version of Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, innumerable times. I never felt the urge to write a sequel to Pride and Prejudice until 2006 when my eldest son went off to college and I had fewer demands upon my time. I decided to, maybe, read one of the sequels to P&P and looked through what was available on Amazon. Most of the sequels had a huge variation in their customer reviews, so I had no way to select which ones I would be likely to enjoy until I came across Pamela Aiden’s Trilogy which tells the story of P&P from Mr. Darcy’s point of view. I bought the first two books (the final one was not yet out) and I enjoyed the story and its historical accuracy, but I found that I did not agree with how the story was developing. It was not exactly a stroke of lightning, but I suddenly realized that I had a definite feeling of how the story “really” happened and where the characters would go after Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage, so I sat down at my laptop and started writing. The last time I had done any creative writing was in high school, so this entire process was a learning experience.

Writing about another author’s characters is very challenging, but it is also fun to try and see if I can make a story which will fit comfortably with her character. It is rather like a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing, which I had to fill in. Some writers solve this puzzle by imagining the characters in modern times, or figuring out what might have happened if one component of the original story changed, but I love history and became engrossed with my research on the Regency Era, so a straightforward sequel to the original story was the most comfortable for me. Georgiana was easier than some characters because she was talked about multiple times in Pride and Prejudice but we only meet her two very brief times during the book, and not under the easiest circumstances. Because she is an enigma to Elizabeth (and to us) I had a lot of leeway in developing her character- all we know in P&P is that she is very shy and loves playing the piano and harp. My two goals were to make Georgiana a three dimensional person and to make the setting as accurate as I could without turning it into a history lesson. I came to realize that in historical fiction one must use one’s historical detail wisely—you do not want to lose the story in too intricate historical detail! When I talk to young writers I call this “using the powers of history for good rather than evil!” I hope to write several more sequels to Pride and Prejudice and cover some of the other, less well known, characters.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Two winners will receive a copy of Mr. Darcy's Little Sister courtesy of Sourcebooks. The rules are simple:

1.) Two winners will each win a copy of Mr. Darcy's Little Sister, directly from the publisher. U.S and Canadian addresses only.
2.) You must be a Google Friend Connect follower to participate.
3.) You must leave a comment on this post with a valid e-mail address, so I contact you if you win.
4.) The deadline for this giveaway is: Midnight, EST, October 4th.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

+5 for following me on Twitter (button on the sidebar)
+5 for being an old follower
+3 for being a new follower
+5 each for entering the other giveaways on my sidebar
+5 for putting the giveaway on your sidebar
+10 for putting my button on your sidebar
+10 for subscribing via e-mail (sign up on the sidebar)
+25 for getting the word out about the giveaway, via Blog Post, Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc.

19 comments:

Jeremy said...

Sounds like a great book!

romancebookjunkiesdanielleATyahooDOTcom

+5 following on twitter
+5 Old Follower
+5 Entering 1 other giveaway
+25 http://twitter.com/RBJunkies/status/25021148531
+25 http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001517990296&v=wall&story_fbid=155915861093379

Kemendraugh said...

Ooooh I really want to read this one!

I am an old follower.

kemendraugh at gmail dot com

Ashley said...

I'd love to read this.

+5 old follower.

hewella1 at gmail dot com

Unknown said...

I am a follower. Please enter me in contest. I would love to read this book. Tore923@aol.com

Kathy Habel said...

+25 http://twitter.com/toobusyreading/status/25129533277
Old follower +5
+5 Follow on twitter @toobusyreading
+5 Other giveaway

bkhabelATgmailDOTcom

Renee G said...

+3 New Follower
+5 Entered Simon Serrailer Giveaway.
rsgrandinetti@yahoo(DOT)com

Book Loving Mommy said...

I would love this book!

manningjessicar(at)yahoo(dot)com

+5 Twitter follower
+5 old follower
+5 Entered Just One Taste giveaway
+5 Giveaway on my sidebar
+10 Your button on my sidebar
+10 Email subscriber
+25 Blog about it http://booklovingmommy.blogspot.com/2010/09/im-winneragain.html

Total=65

Pris said...

What a fabulous giveaway! I am a new folower! (#1)
pbenterud@gmail.com

Pris said...

FI am a new follower #2
pbenterud@gmail.com

Pris said...

I am a new follower #3!
pbenterud@gmail.com

Pris said...

I'm not sure how to do this...because everyone else is just putting the amount of entries they should have... whereas I would have thought that you actually had to enter that many times... let me know! For now:

+3 I am a new follower
+5 I entered your giveaway for "Darcy's Voyage"
+5 I entered your giveaway for "Just One Taste"
+5 I added this giveaway to my sidebar
+10 I added your button to my sidebar
+10 I subscribe via email

=38

pbenterud@gmail.com

Jennifer said...

Hi, Thanks for the giveaway.

New GFC follower +3
Twitter follow +5
Entered Darcy' Voyage too +5
Added your button +10
Email subscriber +10

Jennifer
http://booknoise411.blogspot.com/

BookNoise at gmail dot com

Emma said...

Mr. Darcy's Little Sister sounds wonderful.Please enter me in the giveaway.augustlily06(at)aim(dot)com.Thank you.
+5 for being an old follower
+5 each for entering the other giveaways on my sidebar
+10 for subscribing via e-mail

Hannah said...

Sounds great!

+3 for being a new follower
+5 for entering Darcy's Voyage giveaway
+10 for putting your button on my side bar (nurseatkins.blogspot.com)
+25 for getting the word out about the giveaway (nurseatkins.blogspot.com)
Total: 43

Please enter me. Thanks!
Hannah
hmatkins@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Thank you for the contest!

+5 old follower
+25 tweeted http://twitter.com/TigerHolland/status/26016673764

leighofthestone(at)yahoo(dot)com

Kelsey said...

Count me in! Thanks for the contests!

+3 new follower

Kelsey O.
kopsahl48(at)gmail(dot)com

Cheryl @ Simply Shoeboxes said...

+3 for being a new follower

simply blogs @ live dot com

Steph from fangswandsandfairydust.com said...

I had never thought before that why, if Georgiana is so important to Darcy, is Georgiana so 2-D. Thanks for adding another variable to the Austen equation!
+ 5 Twitter Follower @fangswandsfairy
+3 New Follower (GFC name Steph)
(Total +8)I wou;d love to read this.
Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust
email: steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com
twitter: @fangswandsfairy

k_sunshine1977 said...

this sounds like a good read - i would love to win it!

+3 new gfc follower
+5 entered shana galen's giveaway
+10 new subscriber via e-mail

= 18 entries!

k_sunshine1977 at yahoo dot com