Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Jane Austen Lied to Me by Jeanette Watts @JeanetteAWatts @GoddessFish

Jane Austen Lied to Me

by Jeanette Watts

GENRE: Humor

BLURB:

What college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzie was certainly no exception. But when Darcy Fitzwilliam comes into her life, he turns out to be every bit as aggravating as Elizabeth Bennett’s Fitzwilliam Darcy. So what’s a modern girl to do?

Jeanette Watts’ satire pokes loving fun at Jane and all of us who worship the characters who shall forever be our romantic ideals.

Excerpt:

This afternoon I got further confirmation that I’ve been seeing an awful lot of Michael.  I was wandering back to the apartment, when Lon hailed me from one of the couches inside the lobby doors.

“I have a message for you from your boyfriend,” he said, kind of stiffly.

I looked at him stupidly for a moment.  “My what?”

“Your boyfriend was here.  He said his phone was dead, so he couldn’t call or text you to tell you that he can’t stick around for dinner tonight.  He has a late meeting with a new client and he had to rush back to the office.”

I was still having trouble with the boyfriend thing.  “Wait – do you mean Michael?”

“If that’s the guy you’ve been seeing the last couple of months,” Lon said with a shrug.  “The one you’re always having dinner with.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I protested.  “He’s an old friend of the family.  We grew up together.”

Lon's head was back at his computer screen.  “Boyfriend, friend.  The guy who kisses you goodnight all the time after he takes you out for dinner.  He’s not coming tonight.  I’ve delivered my message, that’s all I’ve got.”

Right then Allie walked up.  “Hey, Lizzie!  Waiting for Michael?”

“No, he’s not coming tonight.”  I headed to the elevator with her.

“That’s a shame.  I know how much you enjoy having dinner with him, even if he does aggravate you a lot.”

“Yeah.  It’s kind of a love-hate relationship,” I agreed. 

Interview with Jeanette Watts

What inspired you to write Jane Austen Lied to Me?

It all started with a car ride. Come to think of it, most of my cockamamie ideas come from car rides. I think it was a car ride when I got the idea to throw a big party for my 50th birthday that was so big, it dwarfed some people's weddings. I was driving home from the airport after said birthday party when I told my husband that, gee, the party came out so well, we should do an entire Vintage dance week workshop. I obviously do too much thinking in cars.

Well, I was coming home from the Jane Austen Festival in Louisville. My husband and I had walked in the giant promenade, bought me an antique parasol, went to the ball, had tea in the tea room. We had spent the weekend playing with all these reenactors and Jane Austen enthusiasts, and had a blast. The weekend before we had been at a Civil War reenactment, playing at being in the 1860s instead of the 1800s. I realized out loud that I was silly: my historic fiction is set in the height of the Industrial Revolution in the 1870s and 1880s. There are no reenactment groups out there reenacting the Industrial Revolution. I can't imagine anyone ever reenacting tending a blast furnace or the railroad riots when they burned down the center of Pittsburgh.

"Why don't you set something in the Civil War?" My husband asked. "Because Gone With the Wind has already been written," I answered. "Well, then, what about Jane Austen's time?" "I'd have to come up with a story," I said. And then it hit me, and I stared at him, and I knew exactly what story I wanted to tell. It's not set in Jane Austen's time, but it's a tale about Jane's effect upon us in the here and now.

Can you tell us a little bit about the next book in the series or what you have planned for the future?

As far as I know at this point, Jane is not going to be a series. It's a fun little read. It was a mental vacation for me when I wrote it, and I hope it's a mental vacation for the people reading it. It's a romantic comedy. When Harry Met Sally doesn't have a sequel. Or Pretty Woman, or Sleepless in Seattle.

Now that I've had my light little vacation, I am going to be returning to historic fiction. I have found this intriguing historic figure who lived in New York for the first half of the twentieth century. I will either write about her, or make up a fictitious character just like her.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Jane Austen Lied to Me?

Well, the protagonist is your typical American girl. 18 years old, boy crazy, leaves for college with one idea of what she's going to be when she grows up, and then starts to figure out who she really is and what she really wants to be. I've been teaching at my local community college for the last 15 years, this girl is the compilation of so many of my past students, as well as myself when I was a college Freshman. She can be a little dumb sometimes, she can be incredibly insightful sometimes. She can be selfish, she can be generous. If you asked her (which no one does), she would probably admit that she feels somewhat ill-equipped for facing adult life.  She wants to please her parents, but she can't be the person they want her to be. She is going through every 18-year old's struggle to balance the expectations of school, and family, and society, and the demands and distractions of her hormones. 

And above all else, she's an optimist and a dreamer. She adores Jane Austen's books, and she hopes that her own life will end up like a Jane Austen story. The problem is, life doesn't always work out like a work of fiction. But when it doesn't, she has a good cry, pulls herself together, and moves on without looking back. She never dwells on past failures, but looks for new ways of approaching life.

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

I have several favorite authors. I grew up adoring Margaret Mitchell and Gone With the Wind (talk about a book that is not a series). I also grew up adoring Laura Ingalls Wilder. I can't tell you how many times I've read the series. I think her books are one of the most significant eyewitness accounts of frontier life in America that we have. 

If you could time-travel would you travel to the future or the past? Where would you like to go and why would you like to visit this particular time period?

My first stop with a time machine would be the Colombian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. I want to see the White City for myself! I'm a Chicago native, I've been mesmerized by that fair since I first saw photos of it when I was about 10 years old.

Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?

Sadly, my husband is allergic to everything with fur, so my only pets are my fantasy dogs from my historic fiction. Anthra and Bit are the dogs I'd have if only I was able to have any dogs!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us today.

Thank you for talking with me!

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jeanette Watts had been writing historic fiction when the inspiration for Jane Austen Lied to Me hit her on the drive home from the Jane Austen Festival. The idea was simply irresistible, and she put aside other writing projects in order to focus on writing a satire, thinking it would be a "mental vacation." It turned out to take every bit as much research to write a modern story as it does to write a historical one.

She has written television commercials, marketing newspapers, stage melodramas, four screenplays, three novels, and a textbook on waltzing.  When she isn’t writing, she teaches social ballroom dances, refinishes various parts of her house, and sews historical costumes and dance costumes for her Cancan troupe.

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Giveaway:

A doll dressed in Regency clothing, handcrafted by the author (International)

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