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“The Olive Branch” is available for preorder!

I have great news! My latest book, The Olive Branch, is now available for preorder. I honestly think this is my best book yet. I’m really excited about it and can’t wait to hear what my readers think!

The Olive Branch features a truly nasty Mr. Collins. Despite his villainy, I would consider the book to be PG or PG-13 or so, for any readers who might prefer to know in advance. My 12-year-old has been a loyal beta-reader for several drafts.

You can preorder The Olive Branch on Amazon! I may try offering it through other sellers as well, but I am still in that process right now, so just Amazon for now.

Elizabeth Bennet faces an impossible choice—wed Mr. Collins or watch him destroy her entire family.

Given a choice, Elizabeth would never dream of marrying the pompous, ridiculous Mr. Collins. But when she refuses his offer, he threatens to reveal a shocking secret that could ruin the Bennets.

Fitzwilliam Darcy has no intention of giving in to his unsettling attraction to Elizabeth Bennet. Still, before he flees to London, he cannot resist seeing her one last time and discovers, to his dismay, that she is now betrothed to her odious cousin. She did everything in her power to evade Mr. Collins at the Netherfield ball, and the woman he sees before him now is not merely unhappy, but afraid. Elizabeth is in trouble, and Darcy cannot bear to abandon her in her distress.

As the wedding day looms, Darcy and Elizabeth become desperate to break the engagement without scandal. It is only when a stranger arrives—a stranger Mr. Collins seems to fear—that Darcy and Elizabeth have any hope of extricating her from this frightening predicament.

As Mr. Collins’s plan begins to unravel, it is clear that Elizabeth may not be the only one in danger. Will she and Darcy be too late to stop Mr. Collins’s vile plans?

The Olive Branch is a clean, full-length Pride and Prejudice variation of about 90,000 words.

Richard and Darcy

I have been knee-deep in edits of “The Olive Branch” for some weeks now, so I thought I’d share a little preview of the story with you. I hope to start posting it on the boards soon, just hoping to make it as good as I can first!

“Richard” in this story refers to Colonel Fitzwilliam. Because of their name overlap and childhood friendship, they use “Richard” and “Will” when speaking to each other. As for Richard–Colonel Fitzwilliam is not given a first name in Pride and Prejudice, and I have read some good arguments for why Jane Austen probably does not like the name Richard and would not have used it. Nonetheless, it is so prevalent in fanfiction, especially associated with a specific personality that we see as part of “fanon,” that I am using it in this story because my version of Colonel Fitzwilliam is similar to the way he is commonly portrayed in fanfiction.

Darcy was just returning from his morning ride when he found an unexpected sight in the stables.

“Richard!” He dismounted and hurried to the side of his cousin, who was just handing over his own reins to a stable hand. “What are you doing here?”

Richard clasped his hand. “Did you not expect me? I received your letter.”

Darcy shook his head, but he could not help laughing. “I wrote to you yesterday.”

“By private messenger. If you had wanted me to dillydally around Town for a few days before responding, the regular post would have sufficed. I received the letter before I went to bed. Why should I not leave at dawn when your friend’s hospitality and your intriguing letter beckon?”

Richard threw his arm around Darcy’s shoulders and forcibly guided him from the stables. “We should wait until we are in your rooms before I explain further.”

Darcy fought to keep his usual composure as they entered the house and he introduced his cousin to Mr. Bingley, Miss Bingley, and the Hursts. He could hardly keep from tapping his foot impatiently as they discussed the weather between London and Meryton, the delights of fine horseflesh, and the benefits of fresh air in the countryside.

Finally, after Bingley had graciously offered Richard a room near Darcy’s, they were able to excuse themselves and make their way back up to Darcy’s bedchamber.

“You prolonged that on purpose,” Darcy complained.

“Perhaps.” Richard lay down on Darcy’s bed despite being covered with road dust. “I can never quite resist getting your goat.”

“Come, now. Why are you here? Does your regiment not need their colonel?”

“Phhhht, what they need is more drilling, and Major Radford is good enough for that, even if he cannot think strategically enough for battle itself.” Richard reached into his pocket and pulled out a rather battered letter.

“Dear Richard,” he read aloud. “As much as it may shock you, I require your advice. An acquaintance of mine here in Hertfordshire, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, has entered into an engagement with her cousin—but something is wrong. I believe the engagement is being coerced in some way. She acts oddly around him and I begin to worry for her.” Richard looked up. “Need I read more?”

“No, damn you, but you still have not answered my question!”

“Oh, it is all in this letter.” Richard waved it carelessly. “You wrote to me about a woman. A woman, Darcy. A female creature unrelated to you. Do you know remarkable this is? It is landmark! It is unprecedented!”

“Did you see the part where she is engaged to another man?” Darcy asked dryly.

“Oh, that is the best part! Well, one of them. It’s all in the first paragraph, you see.”

Darcy sighed and sat in one of his chairs, leaving Richard to the bed. This was clearly going to be a long morning. Or was it afternoon now? If it was not, it would be by the time Richard got to the point.

“Our sweet little Will, finally in love.” Richard fluttered his lashes.

“Love!” Darcy stood up quickly. “Give me that! I said nothing about love!”

“Have you not been listening? You have never written to me about a woman before. No, you certainly are in love. Apparently you are in the early throes of it where you insist upon denying it. Now, if I may continue?”

Darcy shot him an aggrieved look but nodded. It was best to get this over with.

“As I was saying. You have finally fallen in love, and it is with the perfect woman.”

“Perfect?” Darcy frowned. It was true that Elizabeth was perfect in . . . well, in many ways. But he would not have thought that his family would agree.

“It’s all right here. See, ‘Miss Elizabeth Bennet.’ Well, that will scandalise Lady Catherine. How dare you fall in love with a woman who is not Anne? And then this part, ‘here in Hertfordshire.’ That will scandalise my father. How dare you fall in love with a woman without wealth or connections, that sort of rot. ‘An engagement with her cousin.’ That will scandalise my mother. How dare you fall in love with a woman who is already betrothed to another man? So, you see, you have picked a young woman who will make all three of our family elders howl to the moon and poison your wedding cake. I cannot imagine a more perfect choice.”

Darcy groaned and put his head in his hands.

“Unless, of course,” Richard went on, “she is also plain. That would scandalise Milton, for you know he has no patience for women who are not beautiful. And if she does not wear the best silks and the latest fashions, that will scandalise our sisters, both yours and mine. So in one blow you could take care of our siblings as well.”

“And you?” Darcy asked, without raising his head from his hands. “What would it take to scandalise you?”

“Oh, there is very little that would scandalise me.” Richard thought for a moment. “Unless she does not care for riding horses. As a cavalry officer, that would certainly do it for me.”

Darcy’s head shot up involuntarily. He met Richard’s eyes.

“Oh, no. No no no. Will. It is one thing to pick a young woman who will rock the Matlocks and de Bourghs to the core. They need a good shaking up now and again. But she dislikes horses? I always think you can judge a person by how they take care of their horse.”

“Why am I still here listening to you?” Darcy asked. Was Richard’s aid worth the raillery? He would have laughed off Richard’s teasing in other circumstances, but regardless of his wishes, Miss Elizabeth was an engaged woman.

“Because I have a brilliant strategic mind and will help you rescue your girl. If you still want her, of course, now that you have acknowledged that she does not care for horses.”

“I do not want . . .” Darcy trailed off. He had noticed her, watched her, admired her. But did he go so far as to love her? He had known her for mere weeks, and she was betrothed to another. “I have no intention of marriage,” he said stiffly. “It is more . . . as a friend. I am concerned as her friend.”

“Friend?” Richard rolled to his side and supported himself on his elbow. “Do you play billiards with her? Hunt? Shoot? Fish?” He scoffed. “I suppose you do not ride.” His eyes narrowed. “Horses.”

Darcy suppressed a grin. “Not at all.”

“Then you are not ‘friends.’”

“We argue.”

“Friends do not argue,” Richard protested.

“What exactly are the two of us doing right now?” Darcy asked pointedly.

Richard sighed. “So you have no intention of marrying your ‘friend.’ You merely want to make sure that she does not marry anybody else.”

It did not sound pleasant phrased that way. “I am not trying to prevent her from marrying anybody, just Mr. Collins. Something is wrong with her betrothal with him.”

“You,” Richard said firmly, sitting up and reaching for his bag, “are like a giant spoilt toddler. You do not wish to play with the toy, but you do not want anybody else to, either. Well.” He stood and walked towards the door. “I shall be in my room unpacking. I would like to meet this woman and her Mr. . . . Collins, was it? I will form my own opinion once I have met them.”

“There is a party Monday night,” Darcy called after him just before the door shut. “You will see both there.”

“I will wait to drag you off to Bedlam until Tuesday morning, then.”

Book Review: “More Than He Seems”

Renata McMann and Summer Hanford have long been favorite authors of mine, definitely in my top five JAFF authors as a pairing. They have so many varied and interesting Jane Austen variations that there’s always something new. Some other authors may stay closer to Jane Austen’s diction and style of writing, which I enjoy too, but McMann and Hanford’s writing tends to be lighter and funnier. I laugh out loud several times a book due to their witty lines or situations, and like Elizabeth, I dearly love a laugh.Renata McMann and Summer Hanford have long been favorite authors of mine, definitely in my top five JAFF authors as a pairing. They have so many varied and interesting Jane Austen variations that there’s always something new. Some other authors may stay closer to Jane Austen’s diction and style of writing, which I enjoy too, but McMann and Hanford’s writing tends to be lighter and funnier. I laugh out loud several times a book due to their witty lines or situations, and like Elizabeth, I dearly love a laugh.

“More Than He Seems” is an interesting twist on Pride and Prejudice, because the main character and even the main storyline isn’t about Darcy or Elizabeth . . . it’s about Wickham. Yes, yes, I know, many people will have stopped reading the blurb as soon as they noticed that. They would be missing a clever and delightful story.

This isn’t really a “Wickham redemption” story, because there’s nothing to redeem. George Wickham makes the decisions he does for quietly heroic reasons–for the good of England and all of its people. He has to face some of the same difficult ethical decisions anyone might face in service to their country. The reader might disagree with a decision here or there, but at the same time sympathize with hard choice that has no perfect solution.

I remember glancing down at my Kindle at one point to see how far I was into the story and realizing I was at 43%. I was delighted to realize how much story was left, because I was loving it so much and I never wanted it to end.

Readers who love to hate Wickham–read this story anyway. Trust me, there are characters galore for you to hate, characters who are like we usually think of Wickham. Seriously.

This is probably one of the most fascinating, surprising, and entertaining JAFF stories I have read in quite some time. 5/5 stars, I highly recommend it!

Pride and Prejudice Play-offs Results!

We end our Pride and Prejudice Play-offs with Elizabeth Bennet’s victory over her husband, Fitzwilliam Darcy!

Did you guess that Elizabeth Bennet would win it all?

I hope you had fun with this little game! I had a blast, and got some fun comments along the way!

I’m planning to arrange a similar game sometime this spring that will match up characters from lots of different Jane Austen books! I’m going to “rig” the game a bit for the starting match to pit characters against other characters who are similar in position and behavior. Wouldn’t it be fun to see who will win when Lady Catherine de Bourgh goes up against General Tilney, or Elizabeth Elliott against Tom Bertram? Who is the worse hypochondriac, Mary Elliott or Mr. Woodhouse? Who is the best hero, Henry Tilney or George Knightley? There should be some fun matches there!

Got a favorite match-up I haven’t mentioned? Please feel free to comment here or email me! I may or may not be able to include your pairing, but I will try! Please keep suggested characters to those in the six complete novels: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey.

Pride and Prejudice Play-offs, Final Round!

We are now onto the hardest round of all! Who is the fan favorite, Fitzwilliam Darcy or Elizabeth Bennet? This will be a tough race, but you must choose one!

Mr. Darcy came out ahead of Mrs. Gardiner 95 to 5, and Elizabeth beat her sister Jane 96 to 4. The current standings are as follows:

Vote now for the last race! Mr. Darcy versus Elizabeth Bennet!

Pride and Prejudice Play-offs, Round #4!

You guys! Nooooooo! You’ve ruined my hopes of having a cousins and a sisters play-off. Voting down my beloved Colonel Fitzwilliam, how could you? Sigh.

All joking aside, we have a final four! Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Gardiner, Elizabeth Bennet, and Jane Bennet have defeated their opponents to become the last four standing. The only really close race was Mrs. Gardiner, who beat Colonel Fitzwilliam by a mere 52% to his 48%. There may have been some voter fraud there, may need to demand a recount. Ha ha.

This is where we are so far!

It’s now time for Round #4! We’re down to two races, Mr. Darcy versus Mrs. Gardiner, and Elizabeth Bennet versus her sister, Jane. I have a different poll site this time, so I need you to click on a link and follow it instead of having the poll in-line. Sorry!

Match #29: Mr. Darcy versus Mrs. Gardiner

Match #30: Elizabeth Bennet versus Jane Bennet

Happy voting!

Pride and Prejudice Play-offs, Round #3!

Now it’s going to really get hard to pick! But before we start voting for Round #3, the winners of Round #2 were Mr. Darcy, Charlotte Lucas, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mrs. Gardiner, Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Bingley, Jane Bennet, and Mr. Gardiner. It was pretty close between Charlotte Lucas and Georgiana Darcy (56 to 44) and Mr. Bingley versus Mr. Bennet (also 56 to 44).

The current standings are as follows:

So let’s get voting for Round #3!

Some tough races here! Who will you pick? Check back after Christmas to see the results and vote for the final two rounds!

Pride and Prejudice Playoffs Round #2

We had some close calls in the second half of round #2! Maria Lucas only edged out George Wickham 57 to 43! And voters picked Caroline Bingley over Mr. Collins by 63 to 37.

Elizabeth Bennet won by a landslide, without a single vote for Colonel Forster. Take that, Mr. Darcy! Your future wife won more votes than you did!

The winners were Elizabeth Bennet, Caroline Bingley, Mr. Bennet, Charles Bingley, Jane Bennet, Maria Lucas, Mr. Gardiner, and Mrs. Bennet. Again, the totals listed on the chart below are percentages.

This new round pits Mr. Darcy against his aunt, and Elizabeth Bennet against Caroline Bingley. However shall you vote?

Current standings are as follows:

And now, without further ado, Round #2!

Should be some interesting matchups here! I can’t wait to see how the votes go!

Pride and Prejudice Playoffs, Round #1, Part 2!

Wow, thanks for all of the great responses to part 1 of this round! While I think most of the winners were as expected, it was really interesting to see by what percentage each contestant won their round! If you missed Round #1, you can click here to see what the options were, but I am no longer accepting votes for that round.

I have included the results with percentages of the vote that each character won. We actually had 99 people participate, so the actual numbers were very close to the percentages anyway, but we had at least one person who didn’t vote in all 8 contests, so the number of participants in the contests was slightly different. For that reason, and so that it’s easier to compare rounds, I thought it would be best to give the numbers in percentages (rounded to the nearest whole percentage point) instead of in total votes.

Without further ado, here are the results of part 1 of round 1!

As you can see, our winners were: Mr. Darcy, Lady Catherine, Charlotte Lucas, Georgiana Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Mary Bennet, Mrs. Gardiner, and Kitty Bennet. There weren’t any races that were very close, but Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam won almost all of the votes in their rounds, whereas Mary only won 70% of the votes in hers. (Also, just who *are* the two people who voted against Mr. Darcy? We need to have a talk.)

And now is is time for the second half of round #1!

One note. It looks like WordPress/CrowdSignal limit the number of total responses to polls/surveys that I can post. That may mean that I run out of responses before we get all the way through this poll. If so, I may need to use an external polling service and the options/setup may look a little different. Fear not! I will find a way to make this work, it just may look different if I get close to my cap.

Pride and Prejudice Playoffs–Round #1, Part 1!

A favorite author of mine had a fun round of polls matching up fictional characters, and I thought it would be great fun to make a poll of Pride and Prejudice, and then maybe one of Jane Austen characters in general. Sure, we know Darcy and Elizabeth will almost certainly win–but which one will win over the other? Who will do better, Mrs. Hurst or Kitty Bennet? Lydia Bennet or Mr. Wickham?

So the rules are simply. Vote for whomever you choose in each matchup. You can vote on whom you think is the more likeable character, or you can vote for who is the most intriguing character, the funniest character, the one you most love to hate. Would you pick a hilariously annoying character over a barely-mentioned character? Or the reverse?

I seeded the matchups, so some of the first ones might be pretty obvious–I mean, Mr. Darcy versus Lady Lucas? But they will get more challenging as they go. And if there’s sufficient interest, we’ll do a Loser’s Circle where we see how the losers match up, because that’s almost more interesting than the winners!

Curious how everybody is matched up? Here’s the overall matchup we’ll be using (I’ll update it as we have winners).

I will set up the second half of Round #1 in a few days, I just didn’t want to overwhelm people all at once!