Moving Forward as a Writer

My guest is romance author Abigail Reynolds. Abigail writes The Pemerley Variations. It's a series of novels exploring the roads NOT taken in Pride and Prejudice fiction.


Regardless of what genre we write, our writing must progress and change. Part of that is a learning curve all writers go through. To remain current with the market  and not have each book we write an interchangeable carbon copy we must change and add conflicts and problems for our characters to solve on their way to their happy ending. Fans don't always like how authors change and grow. 


So how do you deal with fans that don't like the new conflict your characters face? Abigail discusses this with regards to her own writing.  

I’m starting to realize how difficult it is to evolve and change as a writer.   Not the evolving part - that happens naturally – but dealing with reader reactions. Those of us who write in the “comfort reading” genres discover quickly that many readers who love our first book(s) would really prefer that all future books stick very close to the same pattern.  Those readers end up feeling betrayed when a new book isn’t what they expected, and as an author, I have to be careful to stay clear of those angry readers so that I don’t turn into a book-manufacturing machine.  I’ve read too many books by talented authors who are afraid to move out of the reader’s comfort zone, and instead end up with interchangeable books.

I understand the readers’ position very well.  Some of my favorite writers started out with books that were light hearted and low in angst (my favorite), and when their later books become progressively darker, I didn't like it.  But as a writer, I found myself doing the same thing and noticing that most of my fellow writers followed the same path.  It seems to be part of the author’s journey to start looking into more complicated characters and situations as time goes on, but the dilemma is dealing with those reader expectations.

The expectations can be astonishingly precise.  My earliest books had 100% happy endings.  By the time I wrote Mr. Darcy’s Undoing, there were painful issues to be resolved in the course of the story, and the ending is only about 95% happy.  Darcy marries Elizabeth and they’re very contented together; all the other main characters also end up happily married and secure in life.  There are only two ever-so-slightly bittersweet notes.  One is that Darcy and Elizabeth aren’t fully accepted by London high society owing to some of their earlier struggles, but that doesn’t bother them since they don’t like to go to London during the Season anyway. Also, their wedding unexpectedly takes place a week early after they’re caught in a compromising position, but Darcy is thrilled to be marrying Elizabeth sooner, while Elizabeth would have preferred to wait, but thinks it’s probably for the best this way. 

For me, those two things are just part of life not being perfect all the time, but I’ve had several readers tell me they didn’t like the book’s unhappy ending.  The first time that happened, I was completely baffled, since at the end of the book every single character was happy, but I eventually realized that in my earlier books, there hadn’t been even a suggestion of life being less than perfect or that there could ever be lasting consequences of mistakes that were made. 

In the end, though, it all comes down to who I write for.  While it’s very difficult for me to let go of thoughts about what readers will like, I’ve learned from hard experience that trying to write anything but the stories that appear magically in my head is the surest road to writer’s block.  These days I look at my manuscripts and think uncomfortably about the readers who may not like it, and then I remind myself of the new readers who discover my later books and think those, like Baby Bear’s porridge, are just right.

What about you? 

• As a reader, how do you feel when your favorite author changes style or adds darker or lighter conflicts?
• As a writer, do you notice your writing changing and growing the more you write?
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 **Abigail is traveling to Texas today for a writers conference but she will be checking in as she can.

MR DARCY'S UNDOING-available in e-format and print 

A passionate new Pride and Prejudice variation explores the unthinkable-Elizabeth accepts the proposal of a childhood friend before she meets Darcy again. When their paths cross, the devastated Mr. Darcy must decide how far he'll go to win the woman he loves. 

 
How can a man who prides himself on his honor ask the woman he loves to do something scandalous? 

 
And how can Elizabeth accept a loveless marriage when Mr. Darcy holds the key to her heart? As they confront family opposition and the ill-will of scandal-mongers, will Elizabeth prove to be Mr. Darcy's undoing? Chapter 1 excerpt

BUY: AMAZON, BARNES and NOBLE, CHAPTERS INDIGO, INDIE BOUND

Abigail Reynolds is a physician and a lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. She began writing the Pride and Prejudice Variations series in 2001, and encouragement from fellow Austen fans convinced her to continue asking "What if...?" She lives with her husband and two teenage children in Madison, Wisconsin.


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The Bane Of A Writer's Existence: Interruptions

Today, we step back into a gentler time period. One peopled with beloved characters, The Ton, balls, Almacks, sharing the latest on-dits, diamonds of the first water, and all those dangerously sexy rakes.

Haven’t you thought of stepping into a world where fortunes won or lost on a card, dress in the lovely gowns of the time, go riding in a phaeton, walk through the shops of Bond Street, or go to huge house parties or attend balls during the London season?

 My guest, Abigail Reynolds, creates that sort of world set in the Regency period of England, that authors like Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen made so popular.


Abigail says writing about that world, and when you’re in the zone, everything fades away but the world being created. Unless something wrenches you abruptly two hundred years forward…but we’ll let Abigail tell you about it.



Writing is the ultimate escape from me. When I’m writing – as opposed to trying to write, which is a horse of a different color – the whole world fades away. Dishes don’t need to be done, the house doesn’t need to be cleaned, and I don’t have to worry about the latest front-page news, because none of it exists. It’s a haven, a safe harbor from the shoals of life, full of the sunshine of creativity and abundant possibilities in every blank page.

But it’s a very temporary haven, which brings me to the bane of my writing existence: interruptions. A few hours ago I was deep in the throes of powerful fight scene, almost in tears myself along with the heroine, and my son came down, distraught because he had lost one of his games in the war zone we refer to as his room. Now, before you tell me I should set some limits and tell him to look for it himself, let me mention that my son has autism and that for him, this truly was a disaster of cosmic importance. And, since I have a vested interest in him being able to complete his homework without a meltdown, I helped him find his game and came racing back to the computer.

The inspiration wasn’t there. I couldn’t feel my heroine’s sense of betrayal or get inside the head of the hero who is desperately trying to explain himself. But because I really wanted to write, I sat down and wrote. Bland, boring, excruciatingly dull sentences free of any spark of life. They even bored me. And I know from experience that it’s likely to be a couple of days before the characters come alive for me again.

That’s what happens when I get ripped out of the story. Little interruptions are annoying but tolerable – letting the dog out, getting a drink of water, closing the windows to keep out the rain. My characters will usually keep talking in my head through something minor that doesn’t require much thought. But when I have to do something that requires planning and interaction with real life people, they vanish without a trace. To make matters worse, it’s almost painful to be torn out of story when I’m deep inside it. I usually surface with an intense desire to murder the source of the interruption, and while I manage to put that aside, my family will happily tell you – at length – that I am very testy indeed under those circumstances.

That’s why I have my office, which isn’t actually an office. It’s a comfortable coffee shop nearby where nobody interrupts me, plus they provide great tea and dainties on request, something that never seems to happen at home! But that’s not all, because I’m not the only one who uses my office to write. There are a half dozen familiar faces that I’m likely to spot there, hunched over their laptops and typing away with that distant look in their eyes. I don’t actually know most of them beyond a first name and that they’re a writer, too, but I do know one thing about them. When I walk in this evening, I can go up to any one of them and say, “I am going to kill my son,” and they’ll look up and nod sympathetically, perhaps even making the suggestion of using a very sharp knife. We’ve all been there, and that makes us comrades at arms.

Then we smile at each other, and the coffee shop reverts to its other plane of existence as Pemberley, a London alleyway, the sewers of Paris (not for my books!) , and a multitude of other places. All of them with good coffee.

• How do you handle interruptions? 

Mr Darcy's Obsession Blurb:

What if Mr. Darcy never had the opportunity to propose to Elizabeth Bennet at Hunsford, and did not meet her again until her circumstances were reduced? In Mr. Darcy's Obsession, Mr. Darcy has an even greater social distance to bridge if he wishes to marry Elizabeth. Add in some Fitzwilliam relations with links to the Prince Regent and the loose morals typical of Regency high society who feel that Elizabeth is the material of which mistresses, not wives, are made, and Mr. Darcy has to make a painful choice between the demands of a decadent society and his personal moral sense. The background of this novel is the morally bankrupt ton which Jane Austen knew well, but did not describe in detail in her novels, perhaps because it was a given to her and her contemporaneous readers. Against this backdrop, the characters of Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet shine brightly as they seek to find an alternative to the bounds of decorum that constrain Darcy's usual marital prospects.  Excerpt

The more he tries to stay away from her, the more his obsession grows... "[Reynolds] has creatively blended a classic love story with a saucy romance novel." -Austenprose

Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters Indigo 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Abigail Reynolds is a lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast and a physician.  In addition to writing, she has a part-time private practice and enjoys spending time with her family.  Originally from upstate New York, she studied Russian, theater, and marine biology before deciding to attend medical school.   She began writing From Lambton to Longbourn in 2001 to spend more time with her favorite characters from Pride & Prejudice.  Encouragement from fellow Austen fans convinced her to continue asking ‘What if…?’, which led to five other Pemberley Variations and her modern novel, The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice.  She is currently at work on another Pemberley Variation and sequels to The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice.  Her newest release is Mr. Darcy’s Obsession, available October 1, 2010.  She is a lifetime member of JASNA and lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two teenaged children, and a menagerie of pets.
 
You can find Abigail:  Abigail Reynolds Website
 
Facebook, Abigail's Writing Desk Blog, Austen Author's Blog,

Launching a New Austen Blog

"My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company." ~ Jane Austen ~

It’s my pleasure to again have Sharon Lathan visiting Over Coffee, and this time she brought her partner, Abigail Reynolds. Both of them write Austen fan fiction. Regardless of whether you like or hate fan fiction, there are so many readers who love Austen stories and want to read about the research, social mores, fashion, and of course the continuing love affair between Lizzie and Darcy. These authors and the additional twenty plus Austen fan fiction authors can all be found on one site now. You want a daily dose of Austen like stories and ondits; you’ll now have that opportunity on this wonderful blogsite.

I’m so proud of Sharon and Abigail. I well know what work goes into creating a new blog, setting blog times and guests, as well as getting the word out. I love how quickly like minds came together to do a final chat about the blog to launching it a month later. All this month there will be all sorts of goodies on the blog.

First, for those that don't know Sharon and Abigail let me introduce them to you.

Abigail Reynolds is a lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast and a physician. In addition to writing, she has a part-time private practice and enjoys spending time with her family. Originally from upstate New York, she studied Russian, theater, and marine biology before deciding to attend medical school. She began writing From Lambton to Longbourn in 2001 to spend more time with her favorite characters from Pride & Prejudice. Encouragement from fellow Austen fans convinced her to continue asking ‘What if…?’, which led to five other Pemberley Variations and her modern novel, The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice. She is currently at work on another Pemberley Variation and sequels to The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice. She is a lifetime member of JASNA and lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two teenaged children, and a menagerie of pets. You can read the blurb, and excerpt of her soon to be released book.

Sharon Lathan is a native Californian currently residing amid corn, cotton, and cows in the sunny San Joaquin Valley. She divides her time between being a homemaker, nurturing her own Mr. Darcy and two children, and working as a registered nurse in a Neonatal ICU.  Sharon is generally found reposing in her comfy recliner with faithful laptop adhered to her thighs. Throw in the cat, dog, and a ton of fish to complete the picture. Read the Blurb and excerpt.

Sharon and Abigail in costume

So how did the two of them come up with this idea? Funny, I wondered the same thing and so I asked (as per usual, lol!)



Funny things happen when you get a bunch of authors together. Add in a party atmosphere and perhaps a bit of wine and rich food and watch out world!

Writers recognize that often times their best story ideas begin with some tiny snippet. Maybe an overhead comment or random one-liner meant as a joke that then takes flight and evolves into a huge bestseller! Well, for us the genesis for our Austen Authors blog began as a halfhearted proposal and has flamed into a massive undertaking successful beyond our wildest dreams.


The first time we tossed out the concept of a group blog for Austen fiction writers was in 2009 at the RWA National Conference. It was a great idea even if verbalized more as a jest about the hundreds of Austen writers banding together and taking over the world! For a host of reasons we did not pursue it, yet neither of us totally shelved the concept. We met again at this year’s Nationals in July and before lunch on day #1 we were again talking about a group blog. Seriously this time.


Now, barely a month later, Austen Authors has launched. With a sonic blast! Despite our flippant remark about hundreds of Austen fiction writers we truly did not grasp how many there were nor how positively they would respond to our invitation. It has been overwhelming, but in a fabulous way.


We have needed to rethink our process many times, but our mission has remained clear and unwavering:

To provide a consolidated website where lovers of Austen who want to experience more of her world can learn about the variety of literature published in the genre. As authors we want to share our passion for Austen and support each other, no matter whom we are published by, so that the diverse visions sparked by her brilliance will flourish.

Why? ... because there’s never enough Jane Austen


As of today, 20 published novelists of Jane Austen literary fiction have banded together for the first time in history to share their passion for Jane’s world and celebrate this ever-increasing genre. The brainchild of best-selling authors Sharon Lathan - The Darcy Saga sequel to Pride & Prejudice - and Abigail Reynolds - The Pemberley Variations.

Austen Authors

We cordially invite you to the launch of Austen Authors blog!

For the entire month of September there will be posts by each author as well as contests, quizzes, a scavenger hunt, oodles of information, three new release parties, author introductions, entertainment, humor, polls, secrets, recipes, games galore, and a massive giveaway of gifts and books from the authors and their publishers.


Today we are welcoming Amanda Grange, bestselling author of Mr. Darcy Vampyre and Mr. Darcy’s Diary!

The group also includes these established and debut authors ( to learn more about each one and what books they have out or being released soon, click on their names and it will bring you to their website):

Skylar Burris, Kathryn L. Nelson, Monica Fairview, 

Jane Odiwe, Susan Adriani, Mary Simonsen,
Cindy Jones, J. Marie Croft, Marsha Altman
Regina Jeffers, Jack Caldwell, Carolyn Eberhart
Heather Lynn Rigaud, Kara Louise, Lynn Shepherd

Marilyn Brant, C. Allyn Pierson, Victoria Connelly

• Sharon and Abigail, I'm so excited for you. Thank you so much for being my guest today!

Thank you, Sia, for giving us this opportunity to talk about our blog and the amazing talent involved. We hope everyone will click over and join in the fun.


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