Darcy and Elizabeth: In A Future World Far Away

My guest is Aussie author, Enid Wilson. 

Enid writes Austen fanfiction but with a sci-fi bent. I’m rather impressed the premise and I have to say I love the plucky Jane in the tale. Darcy, as with the original Pride and Prejudice, thinks for himself. He’s a bit more forthcoming on his opinions and his actions in this futuristic tale.

Enid creates a complete and fun futuristic world, with plenty of romance and hot sex, interplanetary war, and space travel. 

Enid Wilson wrote this story in a somewhat unorthodox method with direct feedback from readers. But I’ll let her tell you all about that. J  

Thank you, Sia for hosting me today.

I’m a tea drinker so I’ve brought along my own Fair Trade tea from Oxfam. I hope the mixed aroma of coffee and tea will keep everyone inspired. Talking about inspiration, it’s my pleasure to introduce you to my latest novel, Every Savage Can Reproduce, a Pride and Prejudice-inspired science fiction.

I started off writing P&P fan fiction in 2007, just as a way to amuse myself in my spare time. I posted the stories in several free online forums and was amazed that many readers loved my crazy stories. A year later, my sister suffered a sudden illness and made me rethink about my life.  Life is too short to waste away (my sister has fully recovered now). So I followed the footsteps of other fellow fan fiction writers and was happy to have several of my stories published.

Every Savage Can Reproduce was written in 2007 as a choose-your-own adventure. It took me four years to complete it.  After each chapter was posted online, I put out a poll for readers to vote and then wrote the next chapter based on the option with most votes. In the published novel which has been revised substantially, I wanted to retain the original ‘interactive’ style and therefore the voting options were also featured.

Here is an adapted excerpt, of Prince Wickham’s televised address to Planet Earth, showing one of the polls at the end of a chapter:

“Our country men and women,I am sorry to bring grievous news to you.

We have received the alarming news that Mr. Darcy has returned to Earth, under mind control by the people of Hartfield, per the instruction of the rebellious Gentry.

He was seen with a vicious clone of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, Queen Immortal Catherine de Bourgh’s dead husband, and with his cousin, the fugitive ex-General Richard Fitzwilliam, his sister, Georgiana Darcy, and his whore, Elizabeth Bennet. Darcy’s friend Charles Bingley and Elizabeth’s eldest sister, Jane Bennet, are both still on the run, but have not been seen with them.

They are a dangerous group of people, and Sir Lewis’s clone has been seen to perform harmful mind control against our soldiers.

In order to protect the good citizens on Earth, the government is willing to grant them leniency if they surrender themselves.

We will give them 10 days, until the 26th of November, to give themselves up. If they do not, the government will have no choice but to execute the following people now in dissident camps in London for aiding and abetting the rebels. They are family members of the fugitives, including former Lord and Lady Matlock, Thomas Bennet, Fanny Bennet, Mary and Catherine Bennet.

Our dear countrymen and women, you are urged to provide information about this dangerous group of people. We will reward those who come forward with useful clues as to their whereabouts.

You are also encouraged to attend the execution, should this be required, to witness the end of an era for the bad elements on Earth.

In this difficult time of struggle, we must be strong for each other.

As you can see, our Queen is still gravely ill. We have spent tremendous manpower and resources in the battle with Hartfield. We hope you will give generous emotional and material support to the army.

After we remove this bad element, our planet will be cleansed, and life will be happy and peaceful again. May the Lord bless you all!”

Poll

1) Sir Lewis de Bourgh surrenders to the government

2) Darcy and Elizabeth’s baby creates havocs

3) Charles Bingley’s reappearance thickens the plot

Which way will you vote? Do you like the idea that you can decide how a story will pan out? I sometimes was quite frustrated with the progress of the story because I could never predict what the readers would vote for. But I think that was the fun of it as well.

I’m delighted to give out a pdf copy of Every Savage Can Reproduce and some souvenir from Down Under to a lucky reader of Sia’s blog. It’s open to worldwide readers.Just comment below and contest will end: 

• State-side,Saturday, October 1st @midnight central time.  
• For those across the pond, it will be Sunday, October 2nd @ Midnight.

Every Savage Can Reproduce Blurb

In the futuristic society on Planet Earth, Elizabeth Bennet is accused of luring Fitzwilliam Darcy to an illegal establishment, which leads to their exile deep in the centre of a rebel planet. The subsequent galactic war exposes dark secrets regarding the autocratic Queen Immortal. Will Elizabeth and Darcy discover their love for one another and find their way back to Earth?

Set in the 39th Century, this novel is a tale of Pride and Prejudice-inspired science fiction, where Jane Austen’s characters take on new lives but still face the barrier of class distinction and seek to overcome their faults, as in the original classic.

Buy: Amazon, Smashwords, Indiebound

For more information about the book, please visit www.enidwilson.com The book contains explicit adult content. It’s not for the faint-hearted Jane Austen purists.

Thank you again, Sia and happy commenting!!

Enid, it's my pleasure. I'll have the Review up this weekend on Goodreads and Amazon.

Enid Wilson is the author of Chemical Fusion, Fire and Cross, My Darcy Mutates, Really Angelic, Bargain with the Devil and In Quest of Theta Magic. She writes sexy romance in modern, historical, paranormal and science fiction genres. 

Enid's novels have received several top reviews. Bargain with the Devil has been ranked in the top 50 best-selling historical romances on Amazon USA, Really Angelic in the top 30 best-selling Regency romances on Amazon Canada and My Darcy Mutates in the top 21 romantic short stories on Amazon UK, Fire and Cross in the top 30 British detective stories.

Enid loves food, Pride and Prejudice, travel and tennis. She has a Masters degree in Arts. She works in advertising and lives in beautiful Sydney. Sounds too tame? You can read her wild stories at www.enidwilson.com

WITH TIME ON MY HANDS—Isabel Cooper

My guest is debut author, Isabel Cooper. She writes historical paranormal romance. 


I warn you, her article cracked me up. I love her sense of humor. I'll also tell you I read the excerpt and promptly bought the book.


Isabel shares with us how she came to write this story and The Call. My understanding is Leah suffered no lasting hearing loss. 

So I wrote this novel: No Proper Lady. 


It was the first romance novel I’d written, and perhaps not-so-coincidentally the first novel I’d written that actually stood up to a second reading. (I’d written a couple in college, since I needed something to think about during class, but going back to all of them was less “hey, I can fix this” and more “what was I thinking?”) I had a lot of fun in the process, since I got to write about weird dystopian futures and fancy dresses and really cute guys, and I kept myself occupied on a number of vacations and train trips. As I’d read you should do, I put the manuscript away, or at least closed the file, and waited six months to start revisions.

Six months later, it was January of 2008. My day job, reasonably enough, decided that “editorial assistant” was not exactly an essential position, considering the impending societal collapse and transition into Mad Max-style chaos. 

I had some time on my hands, is what I’m saying.

Some of this time, I used to look for another job—the endless train of hate that is pantyhose, interview skirts, and cover letters. Everyone knows it; nobody likes it. I facilitated communications! I synergized win-win situations! I got my nails done and then had to get them done again, because my lifestyle is not compatible with manicures that last more than an hour. I did some temp work, which mostly took place in tunnels under Harvard Business School, and pretended to be a Morlock. I spent a lot of time hating the weather, the T, everyone on the T, and everything in general.

But I also spent a lot of time writing. I think every friend who expressed any tangential interest in No Proper Lady got a look at the manuscript, and then had me pestering them about it a day later. (“What do you think?” “Well, my house was on fire, and a spider’s eating my face right now—“ “Yeah, but did you like the book?”) I put in scenes. I took out scenes; I actually took out a lot of scenes, since the first draft was something like a hundred and three thousand words. A background in fantasy had convinced me that a novel had to be long enough that you could use the hardback version to kill large insects, and I hadn’t researched length requirements in romance nearly enough before I first wrote.

I realized that I’d spelled the heroine’s name—or at least her alias--two different ways throughout the book, and hated everything. My computer broke, and I hated that too. My boyfriend let me use his computer, so I didn’t hate him so much.

I revised. I wrote cover letters. I wrote other cover letters. I realized that my job application cover letters were bleeding into my romance cover letters and vice versa. “Dear Ms. Jones: I am applying for a position as a heroine with nothing to lose in a world she never made.” “As passion grows between them, they will become valuable team players with an eye for customer satisfaction.”

I played a lot of music, fairly loudly, and tried to pretend that this was just a montage of hardship and would be over soon. I prayed that I wouldn’t get cavities or appendicitis.

I went on interviews, and more interviews, and developed a nervous tic any time someone asked me what my greatest weakness was. (I seriously considered answering “Kryptonite” or “the color yellow” later on. As far as I could tell, it would probably have worked out the same either way.) I started going out to lunch with friends after the interviews, because why not?

I had to get a new cell phone, because my old one succumbed to a deluge.

And then I came home from a post-interview lunch and found an email from Leah Hultenschmidt asking me to call her about No Proper Lady.

The first thing I did was make myself some tea. This seemed important. This didn’t keep me in any way from squealing like an anime schoolgirl when Leah offered to buy the book. She was very nice about the hearing damage and everything.

In the time since, I’ve gotten a new day job, written the sequel to No Proper Lady, and gotten to meet some incredible people in the romance field. It’s been awesome—and it totally makes those months in 2008 worth it.

Though I would still have preferred a montage.

NO PROPER LADY BY ISABEL COOPER – IN STORES SEPTEMBER 2011

It’s Terminator meets My Fair Lady in this fascinating debut of black magic and brilliant ball gowns, martial arts, and mysticism.

England, 1888. The trees are green, the birds are singing, and in 200 years demons will destroy it all. Unless Joan, a rough-around-the-edges assassin from the future, can take out the dark magician responsible. But to get close to her target she’ll need help learning how to fit into polite Victorian society to get close to her target.

Simon Grenville has his own reasons for wanting to destroy Alex Reynell. The man used to be his best friend—until his practice of the dark arts almost killed Simon’s sister. The beautiful half-naked stranger Simon meets in the woods may be the perfect instrument for his revenge. It will just take a little time to teach her the necessary etiquette and assemble a proper wardrobe. But as each day passes, Simon is less sure he wants Joan anywhere near Reynell. Because no spell in the world will save his future if she isn't in it.EXCERPT

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, Indie Bound 

Debut author Isabel Cooper lives in Boston and maintains her guise as a mild-mannered project manager working in legal publishing. She only travels through time the normal way and has never fought a demon, but she can waltz. Her next book, No Honest Woman, will be in stores in April 2011. For more information, please visit http://isabelcooper.wordpress.com.

MONDAY'S MUSINGS: Laughter Is Good For You

My sense of ridiculous is easily amused these days. I look for things that make me laugh whether its unusual stories, books, or videos.

This past week I got lots of giggles out of the story of the idea of walking out your backdoor because you’ve heard an unusual bellow and of course you’ve looked in the livingroom and see, no, it isn’t hubs—he’s sitting peacefully in his recliner. So you walk outside to investigate and find an elk. Problem is this elk isn’t at all where you expect it to be nor is she in the condition you expect an elk to be. She’s drunk and she’s up in your apple tree. As in stuck, can’t get up or down. Can you just imagine standing there trying to take that picture in from your back porch? Obviously, your eyes are lying, because there can’t possibly be an elk in a tree!  Try calling that one in to the fire department used to rescuing kids or cats from trees—unless you’re in Sweden where they’re used to strange antics by the local elk that munch fermented apples every fall.

Book blurb

Then there is the book (Judi Fennell’s Genie Knows Best) I just finished reading. Now, you expect some unusual antics when there is a genie involved. Hey, I remember I Dream of Jeanie and she did some really bizarre things (and didn’t you just love the reaction from Larry Hagman and his best friend to those happenings?). But the magical creatures in this book boggle the mind. First off, Aladdin and Abu have nothing on this genie and his fennec fox (who truly cracks me up with his activities). Then there is the Russian nesting doll sort of leprechauns popping out everywhere. No wonder the heroine is wondering if she’s having a nervous breakdown or having a psychotic episode. I had to read that passage twice and cackled each time. Then there are the arguing Dragon couple which both cracked me up and made me wish for duct tape. What really had me rolling was the mental picture of a baby dragon  with Ginsu knife teeth latching onto the villains finger as he kidnaps it. The whole sequence is hilarious as is picturing the villain trying to shake off a baby dragon dangling from his finger. Four star read! No one writes magic and mayhem and fun comedic chaos like Judi Fennell!

A video that made me laugh out loud was Julie Ann Long’s comments on the last 72 hours of insanity meeting her writing deadlines—and the *supplies* required to meet them (anyone else channel Joan Wilder in Romancing The Stone?).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2GkDNG1GKc&list=FLuRs-CkuctcA4iKBpwRhWPg&index=8

Laughter is good for you and a medicine I’ve been indulging in a lot of late. As my mind clears from the depressive fog and I can contemplate writing again, I think of ways to employ some of the unusual in scenes. Truth is stranger the fiction and there is a lot of fodder out there to use.

• Do you read or see something unusual, funny, or bizarre, and think about how to use it in your writing?

• Any funny stories or videos you'd like to share?

The Kitten Files