"Falling" in love with Austen

To kick off our Fall into Austen event, our collection Holidays with Jane; Trick or Sweet is FREE for your kindle September 22 – 26. Snag a copy on Amazon.

"Falling" in love with Austen

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was my first Jane Austen novel that I read and it has remained my favorite Austen novel and my favorite novel of all time. (I’m saying this as an English teacher who majored in English literature that loves to read in my free time.) Why does P&P remain my favorite, even after a dozen readings? Is it the romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy? Is it the sweetness of Jane? The country/city life compared? The fact that it is set in England? The answers to all of these is yes and no. 

I mean, of course I love all of the above.  But is goes deeper than that. It’s the varied themes of the novel. Finding true love and not giving up on it. Finding out that we are proud and prejudiced in so many ways. Our families are a part of who we are. Being confident in the role we have been placed in. THERE ARE SO MANY THEMES. 

My AP English class just finished this novel and it was an amazing transformation. They started the novel with 0 students liking the story. They thought the premise was absurd. They hated every character. Slowly, as they read more, as we discussed more, as they thought more, they began to dislike it less. By the end of the novel, they all cheered when Elizabeth and Darcy finally got together. Of course, there were remarks like, “Why couldn’t they just have gotten together in the first few chapters?” My response, “That would be a very short book. And you wouldn’t have cared about the characters and what happens to them.” 

As we read, we make an investment into those characters. That’s why we yell at books when our favorite characters make “stupid” choices. It’s why we dress up and host Jane Austen tea parties. It’s why my friends and I write modern adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels. It’s why we take those “Which Austen heroine are you?” quizzes. It’s why we all wanted Austenland to be a real place after reading the novel. Jane Austen knew the human heart and she knew human imagination. She combined them in magical ways. 

It’s easy to fall in love with Austen’s writing. You’re in good company.

**Giveaway** One person will win a $10 Amazon.com gift card! Fill in the Rafflecopter info below.

Be sure to check out all of the cool stuff on the Indie Jane Press site. You can enter to win a Starbucks gift card and a free copy of our newest book!

We will also have some fantastic giveaways starting September 22, as well as fun blog posts to keep us falling into Austen all weekend long.

Here’s our posting schedule!

9/22 – Kick off Post and NEW BOOK REVEAL – Jessica Grey

9/23 – “Falling” in love with Austen – Melissa Buell9/24 – Making a Mansfield Perk Approved Flat White – Jennifer Becton9/25 – Austen, Magic, and a Modern Teenage Darcy – Jessica Grey9/26 – Rebecca M. Fleming9/27 – WINNERS POSTED HERE on indiejanepress.com

We hope you’ll join us for this fun event!

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Holiday Movie Fest! Hosted by "Holidays With Jane" authors

Ugly Sweater and Christmas Movie Party!

My fellow authors and I all *love* the plethora of cheesy, adorable, super-sacchrine Christmas movies on ABC Family, Hallmark Channel, Netflix, etc. They are somewhat predictable but we really do love them!

And...there are some of us who believe that "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie, so it will be included on the list. We have a plan to have a movie fest between all of us (even though we are separated by many miles!)

Join our online Christmas Party!

Saturday, November 22

We'll wear tacky Christmas sweaters, eat yummy treats, make cute ornaments, and watch sappy movies. Instagram or tweet a pic of yourself wearing your fanciest/tackiest Christmas sweater and you'll be entering into our "12 Days of Christmas Cheer" giveaway! (See Rafflecopter entry form below.) I'll be heading to my local thrift store to find a sweater, preferably with puffy snowmen on it. Or Rudolph with a blinking nose. Whatever I find/make, it will be epically adorable/horrible.

Join us as we live tweet the movies we are watching on the 22nd. (We'll give a countdown on our Facebook page as to when we'll each start a movie. Use #holidayswithjane on your tweets/Instagram so we can see what you're saying.)

Watch your DVDs, TV, DVR, Netflix, Amazon Prime...whatever!

OR!!! You can borrow movies from your local library! Be sure to reserve your copy early.

On Netflix:
"The Mistle-tones"
"Christmas Crush"
"A Christmas Kiss"
"Desperately Seeking Santa"
"Christmas Bounty"
"Christmas Cupid"
"12 Dates of Christmas"
"All I Want For Christmas"
"A Princess For Christmas"

Hallmark Channel:
"One Starry Christmas"
"The Nine Lives of Christmas"
"A Cookie Cutter Christmas"
"Northpole"

Amazon Prime Instant Video
"Christmas Crush"
"Elf"

Other movies on our list

"Die Hard"
"If You Believe"
"White Christmas"
"Meet Me In St. Louis" - Judy Garland sings "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"

And, of course, you can purchase a copy of HOLIDAYS WITH JANE: Christmas Cheer and snuggle up with a cup of hot cider (or cocoa or coffee) and visions of Mr. Darcy/Wentworth/Henry Tilney/your fav Austen hero will dance in your head. ;-)

We will be picking winners for the Rafflecopter giveaway below. There will be 12 winners (though possibly more if we have more prizes!). We tried to go with the 12 Days of Christmas song for our theme and threw in some Austenesque fun. If you have a preferred prize, include that in your blog post comment. :)

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PBS SoCal Summer Learning Day

PBS SoCal is hosting a "Summer Learning Day Literacy Fair" and will be at the La Habra Children's Museum on Saturday, June 28th from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Lots of books, authors, and fun will be there.

I'll be there with several other local authors. I hope to see some old friends and make some new friends, too! :-)

La Habra City Events

For fun summer reading activities for your kids, visit PBS KIDS Lab site.

Upcoming Event: Young Authors' Faire 2014

I'm happy to say that I'll be at the OC Dept of Education Young Authors' Faire again this year!

https://sites.google.com/site/yaf2014/

Where: La Habra Library, La Habra, CA

When: Saturday, May 10, 2014 from 11:00-3:00 p.m.

Who: Local authors and students will be there!

Barnes and Noble will be there selling books, authors will be talking about writing, students will be presenting their work. This celebration of the writing efforts of K-12 students in Orange County Schools will feature performers, authors, games, prizes and more. This event is free of charge.

Big Orange Book Festival at Chapman University!

Hey howdy hey!

I'm SO very excited to share the news you all that I'm one of the speakers at the Big Orange Book Festival this year! I'll be there on Saturday, October 12 at 11:00 a.m. Please check the festival schedule at the BOB website for the full list of all speakers and authors that will be there.

I hope to see you there!

Farewell to summer!

Goodbye, summer. It was nice seeing you. :-)  My kids are back to school now (started back last week!) because the school district decided to start two weeks sooner and get out two weeks sooner. It's been a strange adjustment to go from my kids around all day long to having a quiet house for 6 hours.

If you missed what I've posted on Instagram or Twitter, this is what happened this summer while I taught at an awesome summer camp. (Eureka Ministries)

-Taught at Cooking Camp x 2
-Went to the cheap movie theater x 2
-Crocheted a few hats
-Sewed some baby items for a friend
-Celebrated my husband's birthday
-Saw "Star Trek: Into Darkness"
-Saw my little sister as Ariel in "The Little Mermaid"
-Took a walk with llamas with the summer camp
-My oldest son got a concussion
-My good friend from college got married and my sister and I were the wedding photographers!
-Taught "The Science of Superheroes" at camp. I dressed up as Batgirl.
-Was part of "Local Author Night" at Mrs. Nelson's Bookstore in La Verne, CA. 10 authors and lots of fun!
-Read a bunch of books (of course)

It was a very full summer! (For pics, you can check out my Instagram feed.) It's nice to be home now and get the house organized, closets cleaned out, etc.

As for writing, I'm outlining ideas for more "Tales of Gymandrol". I've been researching fairy tales that I want to reimagine into something else. I'm revising some picture book manuscripts that I wrote. I want to *finally* finish the YA contemp story I've been working on for almost two years (in between other projects). I should probably set some firm goals for word count, dates to be done with writing, sending it out to agents/pub houses. Probably being the operative word.

How about you, book friends? Any writing goals you've set for yourselves?

Multi-Author Signing at Copperfield's Books

My husband, kids and I drove up to San Francisco on Friday so I could go to Copperfield's Books in Petaluma for a multi-author signing. The drive was rather easy with my awesome husband at the helm. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, a first for our boys. It was super foggy when we drove across which made it kind of scary.

Kindle and Sleeping Beauty pillow for the car ride

We walked around Ghirardelli Square, Hyde Street Pier and went to the Maritime Museum. It was a great time for sightseeing.

Alcatraz Prison

We then drove up to Petaluma and found our hotel. I traveled on to Copperfield's Books for the Super Summer YA Pizza Party and met up with the other authors at the event. I also ran into Tabitha who I met while I was at BEA! Small book world! 

Daisy Whitney, Shannon Messenger, Debra Driza, SJ Kincaid, Marissa Meyer, Susanne Winnacker, and me and Tabitha from "My Shelf Confessions"! All of these ladies are SO very nice and fun to be on a panel with.

 Daisy Whitney was the moderator for the event. She had great questions for us. It was then opened to the audience for questions. A 10 year old boy was there and was so cute with his questions. "How did you come up with your idea? Were you just sitting there, hanging out, and thinking, 'Huh, maybe I could mix a cyborg with Cinderella. That'd be cool.'" (His question for Marissa Meyer.) We ended with signing books and meeting the readers and bloggers who attended the event. Blogger Mindy has a post on the event, too.

I met Petaluma Batman after the signing

More sightseeing around San Francisco before we drove to the Big Basin Redwood State Park and then back home.

Thank you to EVERYONE who supported this event. Hugs and cupcakes to you!

June Book Signing - Copperfield's Books

Copperfield's Books

Super Summer Sampler YA Pizza Party!!

Friday, June 7th at 7 p.m.

Petaluma, CA

Eat drink and be literary at Copperfield's!  Celebrate the start of summer with a slew of great YA authors: Marissa Meyer, Suzanne Winnacker, Debra Driza, SJ Kincaid, Shannon Messenger, Daisy Whitney, and Melissa Buell will present their latest books.  Re-imagined fairy tales, tech-y science fiction,razor-sharp real life, naughty fairies: WOW!  There's something for everybody.  And there's pizza!  Feed your body and your mind and start the summer off right with these bestselling YA authors!

I'll be up there in Petaluma, guys! I'm so looking forward to this event. I hope to see you and eat pizza and talk about books and then eat gummy worms and have fun!!

Scarlet

By Marissa Meyer

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Impostor: A Variants Novel

By Susanne Winnacker

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MILA 2.0

By Debra Driza

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Insignia

By S. J. Kincaid

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Let the Sky Fall

By Shannon Messenger

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When You Were Here

By Daisy Whitney

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The Seventh Blessing

By Melissa Buell

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The Hidden Blessing

By Melissa Buell

Bookish Weekend!

This weekend was filled with activities of the bookish sort!

On Saturday, my family and I headed out to the LA Times Festival of Books on the USC campus. It's a HUGE event! I signed at the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore booth. My kids enjoyed the childrens' stage and authors present. I was able to hang out with my friend Gretchen and meet up with old family friends who brought their girls to the MG booth to meet Ridley Pearson.

With the "Tumbler" (Batmobile)

On Sunday, we went to the Young Authors' Faire after church. The YAF was held at the MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana. It is put on by the OC Dept. of Education. I presented with Sarah Skilton at the YA Author Panel. Sarah is so sweet and fun to hang out with! Her YA contemporary novel is about a girl, Imogen, who is a black belt in Tai Kwon Do. Barnes and Noble hosted us and they have autographed copies of my books and Sarah's books at their location across the street from the MainPlace Mall!

Sarah Skilton, author of BRUISED

Me, talking about writing

Reading from THE SEVENTH BLESSING

Presenting at the YA Author Panel with Sarah Skilton, author of BRUISED

We read excerpts from our books and then we had volunteers from the audience perform in a "Readers' Theatre" from a scene from THE HIDDEN BLESSING. The kids did a wonderful job!

Signing at the Barnes and Noble table in the mall

Representing TLT Publishing!
(Bookmarks for TLT, CONSUMED, DARTBOARD, THE CHOSEN HISTORIAN)

Crowd at the Young Authors' Faire

It was a busy weekend but also filled with fun. Thank you to everyone who came out to these events!