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

The Goldilocks Zone

Win a copy a new erotic series of sexy warriors and magical heroines.

My guest is historical romance author, Christina Phillips. She hails from Western Australia (by way of the UK) and writes about sexy Romans and Druids.

The road to being published is not an easy one. Somehow there is the thought of you write a book, query it, and it's published. The reality is much different. It's fraught with many rejections, perfecting your writing, and finding a story that excites both you and publishers. 

Christina tells us a bit about her road.


Thank you, Sia, for inviting me to Over Coffee today!

I was very excited to read the other day that a possibly habitable planet has been found orbiting a nearby star. Well, nearby in astronomical terms – twenty light years or roughly 190 trillion kilometers away from Earth. So I don’t think we’ll be visiting any time soon!

The scientists had been observing the red dwarf star Gilese 581 for eleven years before they discovered this planet in the system, which they’ve called Gilese 581g. With a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, and having studied in detail a couple of thousand stars, I can only imagine the excitement when a planet was discovered with the capability of having water on its surface – a prerequisite for life as we know it.

Two other planets had already been discovered in this system – one too near the sun so it was too hot to sustain life and one so far away it was way too cold. Gilese 581g is just the right distance away from its sun – in the so-called Goldilocks Zone.

Eleven years. That got me thinking. It was eleven years ago that, after immigrating to Australia from the UK, I decided to get serious about my writing. I started off without a clue about the craft, my efforts boomeranging into deep space (aka the slush pile and form rejections). After a few years I graduated to personal rejections on my work and then onto revisions. The black hole receded. I was finally entering a solar system!

But like so many solar systems in this breathtaking galaxy, just because it looks right and feels right doesn’t necessarily mean it is right. My efforts at writing contemporary romance hovered in the cold zone. My paranormal romances caught the attention of several agents, but ultimately none led to representation. I like to think of these as incinerating in the too hot Zone!

Eventually, after nine years, I sold two erotic novelettes to a small e-press. I had written them as an experiment to stretch my writing muscles, but it was as if a mini-supernova illuminated my muse. I discovered I loved writing the darker, erotic stories. I would write a full length erotic romance with the aim of hooking an agent!

Vampires, demons and bad-ass angels were hot. I would write an erotic paranormal romance. And into my imagination stormed a Roman warrior searching for his Druid princess lover.

Uh, what? No, that would never fall into the Goldilocks Zone! But it was no good. My hero, Maximus, refused to leave. And within five minutes I didn’t want him to leave, because who on earth was this Roman Centurion and why would a princess – a Druid and, as such, one of Rome’s bitterest enemies – have fallen in love with him?

It took me nine months to write FORBIDDEN, my debut ancient historical romance and a genre I hadn’t written about since high school. There was an honorable warrior, a brave princess and an insane villain, and threaded throughout a fantasy element involving vindictive gods and goddesses.

I loved writing this book. I knew it was a long-shot because of its unusual time period – AD 50 – its protagonists – a Druid princess and Roman Centurion – and even its setting – ancient Wales.

But within a month of first querying agents, I was offered representation. And while I know signing with your dream agent and discovering a possibly habitable planet are hardly comparable, I’m not convinced the scientists who found Gilese 581g could have been much more excited than I was the night I realized I had finally found my very own Goldilocks Zone :-)

• What about you? Have you had an idea storm into your imagination and not want to leave?

~ * ~ * ~

Forbidden Blurb


He was a master of seduction - but no match for the magical allure of the woman he wanted most...


Carys knew from the moment she first spied on Maximus in his naked barbarian glory that he was a dangerous Roman centurion - his taut, battle-scarred flesh marking him as a fearless warrior. But her desire for him was as undeniable as it was illicit.


Charged by his emperor to eliminate a clan of powerful Druids in Britain, Maximus never expects his mission to be thwarted by the clan's ethereal princess, Carys, his daring voyeur. Falling under her spell, he doesn't realize her true heritage - until he captures her heart as well as her body.


As Carys's loyalties are twisted, and freedom is no longer her single-minded obsession, an avenging former lover threatens to crush Maximus's people into oblivion. Now Carys and Maximus must overcome the devastation of war and face the ultimate sacrifice if their forbidden love is to survive. EXCERPT

"Set in the time of the Roman Empire, Phillips' wonderful story of the romance between a Roman soldier and a Celt is more than entertaining"

Romantic Times Review, 4 Stars

BUY:  Amazon , The Book Depository,  Borders, Barnes & Noble, Rendezvous The Romance Bookstore  

Christina Phillips has always loved writing, and while her efforts in eighth grade usually involved space ships, time travel and unfortunate endings, as soon as she discovered romance novels a whole new world opened up. She now writes ancient historical romances about strong heroines and gorgeous warrior heroes who, no matter how torturous the journey, are guaranteed their happily-ever-after. Christina was born in the United Kingdom, but now lives in sunny Western Australia with her real-life hero and their three children.


Visit Christine:  Blog, Facebook, Website