JANE AUSTEN LIED TO ME
Jeanette Watts
GENRE: Romantic Comedy Audiobook
BLURB:
What college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzy 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 think, except....
How could my hero be so wrong?
Excerpt:
Feb 7
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
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
It was a very long time ago, but when I first read Gone With The Wind, it blew me away.
We need to back up, first, to 4th grade. That is when I discovered the biography section in my school library. It was fabulous! I could read all of these neat stories about real people, and it was awesome! I read about Betsy Ross, and Harriet Tubman, and Florence Nightingale, and the first woman doctor in America. There were so many stories, and they were all true.
Gone With The Wind was when I met adult historical fiction for the first time. Instead of telling the story of a person, it painted a bigger picture of society as a whole. There seemed to me a bigger sense for the upheavals of history. Instead of one person’s story, the idea that a place is as much a character in history as a person was powerful. I was riveted on so many levels, and it made me look at fiction as a place for education and understanding as well as entertainment for the first time.
How do you select the names of your characters?
That was particularly fun for this book! Most of my books, I only get to choose the names of a few characters, and a few personal friends will get small parts as a maid or valet or something. Then all of the supporting cast tend to be gratuitous cameos by real historical persons. For Jane Austen Lied to Me, I got to name everyone, and so absolutely all the characters are named for people in my life. That’s why the dedication for this particular book is a list of nineteen names. There is almost always something about each character that had a little bit to do with their namesake. Karla really does love rum, for example. And Justine really is rather buxom. And Natalie really is every bit as pretty as Lizzy says!
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
All the time! I never thought of them as secrets before. Just things that I do to mostly amuse myself. For example, in Wealth and Privilege, my first book, I describe the foyer of a mansion which is filled with dragon imagery. But the hero notices that there are no representations for Saint George slaying the dragon. That is my personal little joke. People who know me well know that I don’t approve of Saint George. Because dragons are cool, and he was a very bad person for killing off dragons.
In Jane Austen Lied to Me, there are a lot of little bits that are my personal quirks. I really do love Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. I really did work at the circulation desk of the library, although it was not the law library, and I was in grad school, not undergrad at the time. I had close friends who had the parents that dictated their children’s career choices. The sweet spot in the library is a real place. All the stuff about being a words person, and not a numbers person? Yeah, that is absolutely and completely autobiographical.
What was your hardest scene to write?
It depends on how we define a hard scene hard to write. One of the hardest things for me was to be able to accurately depict going to college in the here and now. I’ve been an adjunct college professor for quite a few years; it’s been a while since I’ve been a student. That required a lot of research and a lot of asking questions to make sure I got my facts right about how things work today.
As for hardest scene to write, say, emotionally? Probably some of the parts with Professor Jacobson. I can’t say any more than that, spoilers…
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
I know that the conventional wisdom is that one should write books that are all in a series, but Jane Austen Lied to Me stands on its own. If I would have written six different books, one for each one of Jane Austen’s novels, this could have been a series. But this was meant to be a brief satire, and I can’t really imagine expanding each one of these sections into an entire book of its own.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
You ask really good questions!
My goals and intentions with this book were simply to be amusing. I usually write historical fiction; I want those stories to be both entertaining, but I also want readers to feel like they learned something. Jane Austen Lied to Me was sort of a mental vacation. It was meant to be light and funny, it is sort of an in-joke with other people who know and love Jane Austen’s novels. I am told it reads just fine for people who are not familiar with Jane Austen, but I imagine a lot of the humor is lost.
The reviews on Amazon are my best proof that I succeeded at what I set out to achieve. Almost every single review includes the word “fun.” Reviewers call it “a bright, entertaining read,” and “charming” and one reviewer said “the book kept surprising me.” I wanted something lighthearted and entertaining, and that is precisely how people are viewing it.
What inspired you to write Jane Austen Lied to Me?
It all started after a lively weekend at the Jane Austen festival in Louisville Kentucky. I spent those days surrounded by fellow Jane Austen enthusiasts, from those who could quote entire novels to fans who just adored Colin firth as Mr. Darcy. The various conversations were so stimulating, they made me think of a ton of questions I wish I’d asked. Like, “Are you in love with Mr. Darcy, or just the actor?” or “Would he still be romantic if he wasn’t rich and good looking?”
I’m a huge Jane Austen fan, but I also love to ask questions. Sometimes I ask too many. This book is became a sort of playful nod to other Austen lovers, translating her stories into modern times and asking “does real life work like this?”
That curiosity turned into this book. It’s all about poking fun at our favorite fantasies while celebrating the genius of Jane Austen. Plus, if it makes people laugh and think a bit differently about these beloved stories, then I know I’ve done something right.
Can you tell us a little bit about the next books or what you have planned for the future?
Honestly, I don’t believe there is a next book to follow this one, it’s sort of a standalone. Although I have had a couple of people suggested that I really ought to do the same treatment to Brontë novels. Problem is, though, I am really not a big fan of the Brontë’s, so I don’t feel like I could do them justice.
At the moment I am having trouble settling down to complete one of many projects that I have started. So I have entered a few writing contests, to see if any of them take hold. That will give me some direction, and help me chose which book should get priority attention.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Jane Austen Lied to Me?
The main character, Lizzy, is a huge Jane Austen fan. She wants her life to resemble a Jane Austen novel. So she keeps looking for parallels in the men in her life. Darcy Fitzwilliam is coincidentally an awful lot like Fitzwilliam Darcy. Then Professor Jacobsen seems to her a lot like Colonel
Brandon. Her best friend Eddie Jamison seems an awful lot like Edmund from Mansfield Park. Michael Knox occupies the same place in her life that Mr. Knightley occupies in Emma Woodhouse’s life. The book is entirely filled with modern cognates for Jane Austen heroes. Jane Austen fans have fun every time they meet a new character, figuring out which hero he is going to turn out to be.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I think it was the jigsaw puzzle aspect of the entire thing. Every single element in my book had to come from an element in one of Jane Austen’s novels,. How do I write a character that is just like Captain Wentworth from Persuasion? I started by having a very obvious parallel to Mr. Darcy, but the book would be way too corny if any other character had the same name as the Austen hero. So I had to find less obvious parallels. Mr. Knightley becomes Michael Knox, at least the last name starts with Kn. I turned Colonel Brandon, an older man, into a college professor. Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey becomes a friendly barista at Starbucks. Keeping each hero, and each situation, fresh and original required a lot of creativity.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jeanette Watts has written three Jane Austen-inspired novels and two short stories for Jane Austen Fan Fiction anthologies, two other works of historical fiction, stage melodramas, television commercials, and historical dance manuals. She is a regular contributor to MOMCC Magazine.
When she is not writing, she is either dancing, sewing, or making videos for her YouTube channel and TikTok accounts, “History is My Playground.”
Connect with Jeanette Watts
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads
Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ YouTube ~ TikTok
A Jane Austen Coloring Book (US only)
2 comments:
Thank you so much for featuring JANE AUSTEN LIED TO ME today.
This would be wonderful to have.
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