Emily C.A. Snyder's Blog, page 17

When You're Staring Blankly at the Screen...

...with no clue what you're supposed to write next, why not watch this?  Or any of the other Mr Don Music videos, such as here , here , here , here , and here ! (In honour of Erica and Jenny , aka The Regency Ladies .)


 Or, if you're feeling overwhelmed, let Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick cheer you up!


What videos/songs are your cathartic release?

Teatime Ten: Interview with Margaret C. Sullivan

 Welcome to the inaugural "Teatime Ten" Interview Series with your favorite authors and bloggers from across the interwebs!  This Tuesday, we're kicking things off with Margaret C. Sullivan, whose accomplishments include:
Editrix of AustenBlog.com Author of The Jane Austen Handbook : Proper Life Skills from Regency England available from Quirk Books Author of There Must Be Murder, a sequel to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, available from Girlebooks.comA contributing author to the forthcoming Jane Austen Made Me Do It from Random House's Ballantine BooksShe's also a terrific sport, finding time in her busy schedule for the Teatime Ten!  Pull up your plate of scones (mine's pumpkin in honour of the season) and your pot of tea, and settle in with the wit and wisdom of Margaret C. Sullivan!


Hello, Margert!  And welcome to the Teatime Ten!  A quick survey of your work shows your love for Jane Austen.  How did you come to discover her books?
I managed to get through AP English and several years of being an English major without reading any Jane Austen (I was more into 20th century American authors). People kept telling me I should read her books, and then one day I was in the bookstore and unable to find anything I really wanted to read. I saw a remaindered copy of Emma for a dollar or two and bought it. I read it, and liked it enough to buy a remaindered copy of Pride and Prejudice a few months later. I read that, and liked it enough to buy a non-remaindered copy of Persuasion. And then I fell in love. That was the book that made me a raging Janeite, and while I enjoyed the whole thing, it was The Letter that pushed me over the edge. Has there ever been so much expressed in so few words?
"You pierce my soul!"  I absolutely agree.  However, a few years ago, I was told by a Hollywood-type that "Austen fandom is passe."  But now we see a broader and more diverse fandom than before.  What do you think is the staying power of Austen?

I guess it depends on who you are talking to. For someone (like your Hollywood type) who follows the trends, interest in Austen will always ebb and flow. For those of us who love her, she is always there for us. I could use a little peace and quiet from Hollywood, myself, though I know that some fans can't get enough of the films. But I think for the next few years, the auxiliary stuff (if you will) will be in book form, which will always be more of interest to dedicated Janeites than the world at large.

It's been interesting to watch the spread of the fandom across the Internet. I think the ease of making blogs and Tumblrs and with Twitter and Facebook, it's easy to connect with Austen fans who love the same things you do and in the same way. Things are not so concentrated as they were when I first came aboard.
And by "not so concentrated" you mean...?
Yes, by "things are not so concentrated I meant that back in the day, there was Republic of Pemberley, the Derbyshire Writers Guild and the two mailing lists, Janeites and Austen-L. Now, groups of Austen fans who are not finding their needs met by the sites and communities already in existence - even now when there are so many blogs and things - can easily go and create their own online place. Also, the films have brought in new, more casual fans who aren't interested in deep book discussions and just want to have some fun with the movies. They don't even KNOW about the old-school stuff!  I had to explain to some folks on Twitter that I was not a Janeite-come-lately to Team Tilney but had in fact more or less invented it!

You did!  In fact, you have entire website devoted to Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey, and your own novel There Must Be Murder is a sequel to NA.  What draws you to NA and Henry Tilney in particular?

I read NA fifth of the major novels (see above--I had also read S&S). In all of those novels, the fun, witty guy at the beginning always turned out to be a jerk. So I loved Henry from "distressed me by his nonsense" and then spent the rest of the novel waiting for the other shoe to drop. What was wrong with him? What was hidden? A natural child? Plagiarized sermons? Was the muslin thing more than it seemed? Imagine my relief and happiness when I got all the way to the end and learned that it's not just fun to love Henry Tilney, but it's the right thing to do.
Tell us a little bit about There Must Be Murder!  What is the plot, and how did it pop into your mind?

I wrote the first chapter years and years ago. Originally it was going to be a real mystery with Captain Tilney accused of murder (and the Tilneys would never make it to Bath, because Henry would have to Fix Things). I wrote the first chapter thinking it would be fun to see the newlyweds' happy life before Everything Changed. I never got past the third chapter of that. But as I attempted to work out a mystery plot, it seemed to me that fixing a standard-model mystery onto Northanger Abbey would not work. A sequel to that book calls for lots of fun and adventure, not murder and tragedy, and I thought it would be funnier to make it a mystery like the original was a Gothic--in other words, that it looked like one, but wasn't really.

I really do want to write a Captain-Tilney-redeemed story at some point. I don't have anything specific in mind, though.
I, for one, would welcome such a story!  (Hint hint.)  Mysteries, though, can be terribly tricksy to write!  How did you approach writing not just the continuing romance of Catherine and Henry, but the mystery they're embroiled in?  (Especially since you originally wrote it in serial form!)

I had the original idea worked out and knew where it was going to go before I started writing it, though I did change the ending from what I originally planned--Catherine was really going to be abducted (due to the "misunderstanding" between her and Sir Philip) and Henry would have to rescue her, with the help of MacGuffin, of course! But after Catherine grew and changed so much in NA, I decided to let her solve her own problems and stand up for herself. I think some readers might have preferred the melodrama, but it seemed wrong to me. It is definitely harder to change an ending in mid-stream when the beginning of a story is already published! But I decided early enough on that I was able to lay things out the way I wanted.
One of the pleasures of writing Austen paraliterature is the opportunity to intermingle established and original characters.  Of all the new faces in There Must Be Murder which is the one you'd most like to spend a day with and why?

Henry's factotum, Matthew. He has an interesting past, I think, and I would like to discuss it with him, and perhaps write a story about it. I've been told by many that he needs a romance of his own (and with someone better than Biddy). I have to agree with that.
In keeping true to the spirit of Austen, what sort of rules or guidelines - if any - did you set for yourself (e.g., spelling, POV, etc.)?  What common -isms in Austen paraliterature did you purposely avoid?

I am a canonist at heart (as opposed to a purist; if I were a purist I wouldn't be countenancing this stuff at all). I feel like if I am playing in Jane's sandbox, I should play by her rules. I try to keep the characters as she wrote them--which entails very closely reading the originals and studying the story and characters. I also read non-fiction and literary criticism, which can help me better understand the originals.

It's interesting--people who don't read or like Austen paraliterature will commend me on my knowledge of the novels, and then are surprised to learn I know the novels so well from writing paraliterature. I felt like I had to really know the source material well before I could try to write anything based on it, or using the same characters.

I try to avoid melodrama for the most part, but do not always succeed! I think melodrama is the thing that really kills the Austen flavor, unless it's done with a tongue firmly in cheek. There is so little of it in Austen's novels--there is some, but not much.
You've done a lot of research on the Regency period.  What's the one tidbit you've always wanted to put in a novel but haven't gotten around to yet?

I have done some stuff with the Royal Navy (my story in Jane Austen Made Me Do It is a Persuasion-inspired sea story) but I'd love to do more with the military and the battles of the time period. I don't know that I'm knowledgeable enough at this point to write something like that, though.

Most of my research has been done for something I was writing, so most of it has made it in somewhere!
You've been fortunate to work with Quirk, Random House and Girlebooks.  You've also been one of the most visible bloggers/site owners for Austen fandom.  What has been your experience working with both established and independent publishers?  What has been the response?
I've been pretty fortunate with all my publishers! I don't know that there is much difference, really. Since the two main companies, Quirk and Girlebooks, are both fairly small operations, I can usually get hold of someone pretty quickly if I need something. Since I'm only one of many authors on the Jane Austen Made Me Do It project, and one of the lesser authors for that matter, I haven't had any direct contact with the company, but all the contact I've had with regards to editing and that sort of thing has been professional and pleasant.

When it comes to editing, I generally go along with nearly all the suggestions, because then when I really feel strongly about something, it's easier to fight for it if you haven't been fighting all along over stupid stuff. In other words, authors: pick your battles.

The reception for both the JA Handbook and TMBM have been great, both inside the fandom and out of it. Certainly the Handbook got a lot more attention from the mainstream press, and it has been very kindly received. And so far people seem to be enjoying TMBM, and Janeites seem glad to see something NA-inspired.

The Internet makes it both easier and harder for authors--there are more ways to publicize your books, but then you spend a lot of time publicizing your books on the Internet! Whether virtually or in "real life," I enjoy meeting readers. I'm hoping to meet some at the JASNA AGM this year--I'll be at the author signing on Sunday, and there is an event the same weekend in Forth Worth for JAMMDI.
We've seen a lot of trends in Austen paraliterature (sequels, opposite POV stories, and now monster mash-ups).  What do you think is on the horizon?  Or what novel do you think deserves more attention from Austen authors?

Jane knows what's next! I hope we've seen it all! I'm told that P&P-based stories sell better than others, so we're always going to see a lot of Darcy, Darcy, Darcy, though I'm cheered by the recent stretching-out into other novels, and stuff not based so much on a particular novel as on Austen in general (like Laurie Viera Rigler's books).

I am still waiting for the Austen-based Wide Sargasso Sea - the paraliterature that is also literary. Don't expect me to write it; like Jane, if I couldn't relax into laughing at myself or other people, I would be hung before I finished the first chapter. I don't know what it would be, either. Colonel Brandon: The India Years, perhaps? That might be the problem right there: I think one would have to introduce a great deal of melodrama which, as I said, is rather antithetical to Austen. It works for the Brontes and Shakespeare, but maybe not so much for Austen.
One more question to bring us to an even eleven...what's next from Ms. Sullivan?

I guess it's been more or less announced or hinted at, so I can talk about it...I'm annotating Sense and Sensibility to be published by Girlebooks/Librifiles this autumn, with illustrations by Cassandra Chouinard, who illustrated TMBM. Cassi is talented and has a great sense of humor and it really shows in her drawings. I think Janeites are really going to love this new edition of S&S! And I've developed a real girl-crush on Elinor Dashwood from spending a lot of time with S&S this year for various projects.

I have lots of ideas (both Austen-related and not) and finding the time and energy to work on them is a challenge! But I shall persevere!
Thank you so much for your time and for all that you've done!

Thanks so much for the interview!

Margaret C. Sullivan is a prolific author and expert on all things Austen and Austenesque (and a fellow Girlebooks author) from Lafayette Hill, PA (down the road from the site of the Battle of Barren Hill).


You can order Margaret's books through:
Girlebooks.comAmazon.comBarnes & NobleLibrifilesOr you can follow Margaret on Facebook and Twitter!

<font size="-1"><b>Full Disclosure:</b> <i>Margaret C. Sullivan is a fellow Girlebooks author, and encouraged me to publish "Nachtsturm Castle" through them.  This interview is as much a "thank you" to a woman who's brought so many of us to love of Da Man, as well as an honour to bother her with questions!</i>

"The Golden Men"

It feels super to submit a fantasy short story again! Sent off "The Golden Men" to Daily Science Fiction just now! Here's to hoping!

About the Story:

In Haraggini, the princes prove their worthy by becoming golden men: severing their hands or tearing out their sides to replace them with living metal, which they must learn to control. But on the day that Arjunay is to become a man of gold, his world is destroyed by men of flesh.

A Taste!

"Well he knew what happened to one who did not tame the metal to his flesh. It was whispered among the Ahraji's sons, late at night when such stories seem more real, that mad prince Hassim had not the patience to coax the wires through his flesh. He had blasphemed, so the story ran, and torn his hand from off the wrist, declaring that he would be flesh, not gold. But while he slept, the golden hand had crept on tip-tap fingers, and strangled Hassim in his sleep."

For those looking for help with titles, may I suggest two sites?

LuLu Title Scorer: Is your title a best-seller? Find out here!
Fictionalley Title Generator: A mad-libs way to get that title in the first place!

Enjoy! And happy writing!

"Turn to Flesh"

Come one, come all to a cold reading of my latest play , Turn to Flesh, a ten minute play written in iambic pentameter, which examines Medusa's last minutes as Perseus comes to kill her.

If you're in the Boston area on Monday, September 19th, make sure you check us out!

Open Mic Night: Five Ten-Minutes Play Readings
Hosted by the: Small Theatre Alliance of Boston

Monday, September 19, 7-10 p.m.
Charlestown Working Theater
442 Bunker Hill Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

"You're always lovely,
You heroes come to kill us."

The Tempest: Characters

On Tuesday & Wednesday, Sept. 13 & 14, from 6-9 p.m. in the Mini-Theatre at Hudson High School, for all interested students, we will be holding auditions for Shakespeare's The Tempest, which will perform the weekend before Thanksgiving.

For Auditions:
If you wish to, you can come prepared with a monologue (no more than 15 lines, please!) from The TempestThe majority of the audition will be cold readings of scenes from The Tempest (so it's not a bad idea to read or see the play before showing up to auditions)It is entirely possible that I will not have room for everyone in the cast, since I want to keep the cast to between 14-20 people.  So put your best foot forward...and remember that there are lots of upcoming plays this year! 
Basic Concept of the Play:

In my research on The Tempest, a few thoughts struck me:

1) Essentially, the play is made up of four plots that begin but don't really go anywhere

2) This is generally acknowledged to be Shakespeare's last play, and Prospero to be a slight reflection of the playwright himself (especially Prospero's final speech)

3) Peter Brooke, the revolutionary director and author of The Empty Space, said that Tempest was the Shakespeare play he returned to time and again because it really was an expression not so much of a particular plot as the interior being of those creating the world of the play

4) Although the Colonial overtones are obvious (esp. re: Ariel and Caliban), there's something to the Freudian interpretation - best represented in the movie sci-fi adaptation, Forbidden Planet - that Caliban is Prospero's id and Ariel his superego.

For me, then, mixing in the element of a King Lear-esque Shakespeare writing his own ending through Prospero, Caliban turns into all those doubts, those fruitless ambitions, those petty jealousies, those frustrated hopes - while Ariel remains the unattainable and only nominally governable muse. 

The titular tempest becomes Prospero's frustrated and final attempted to write something of worth, to expend all the words within him.  Miranda becomes his secretary, his protege, his literary daughter, a fleshy incarnation of his muse - the next generation of wordsmiths - who looks always forward without understanding the shoulders of the giant on whom she so firmly stands.

Each of the four plotlines, therefore, are being "written" as they happen: 1) Miranda's romance with Ferdinand; 2) Caliban inciting the fools, Trinculo and Stephano to rape Miranda and usurp Prospero; 3) Antonio and Sebastian conspiring to kill the King of Naples and his resident philosopher, also to ultimately rule this desert isle; 4) and Prospero's attempt to master and reconcile with all involved - in particular with Ariel, Caliban and Miranda.

And sometimes, the character write their own destinies (e.g., Miranda writes Ferdinand for herself).

Quelle surprise, I'll be including music and dance in the play as well (because it's in the play...and, c'mon, I'm directing).  I'm not sure of everything I'm using, but I'm definitely using "Falling" by The Civil Wars, probably in place of the random Isis masque at the pseudo-marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand.

  Character DescriptionsProspero (male) is our main character, and it may be said that nearly everything that happens on the stage is a creation from his mind; that we are watching an aging wordsmith create his last work.  He is by turns crazed, gentle, fatherly, jealous, vengeful, remorseful - and a tempest of other emotions.  Through the course of the play, he comes to peace with the end of his life's work and quits the stage. Miranda (female) is Prospero's secretary in "real life," and his daughter in the world of the play.  She is a budding writer herself, a little cheeky, and a romantic.  She writes herself a romance in Ferdinand, partly as a way of disentangling herself from her father-mentor, Prospero  Ariel (female) is Prospero's muse, who has been bound to Prospero for the past several decades.  By turns puckish, impudent, sorrowful, and sprightly, Ariel longs for freedom from Prospero's control - although not necessarily from Prospero himself.Caliban (male) is Prospero's darker self who drinks, swears, and swears vengeance on Prospero for controlling him.  A cruel manifestation, he once attempted to rape Miranda, which Prospero stopped. Caliban, too, longs for freedom and seeks it by taking up with two fools and inciting them to kill Prospero.  While there is much that is visceral and vicious about Caliban, he is also a sympathetic creature since Prospero has never dealt with him except by abuse.Alonso (male or female) is the King or Queen of Naples, and the father of Ferdinand, who joined with Antonio to maroon Prospero.  Lately, he has been feeling guilty for his part in destroying Prospero, and is therefore on the path to redemption.Sebastian (male or female) is Alonso's brother or sister, who longs to rule Naples in Alonso's place.  S/he is incited to do so by Antonio, but thwarted by Ariel.Antonio (male or female) is Prospero's usurping sibling, who proves his continued ambition by inciting Sebastian to overthrow Alonso, and from there to overthrow the island.  Although by the end, Prospero forgives Antonio, it's unclear whether Antonio ever feels remorse for what s/he did.Ferdinand (male) is the strong, studly and simple son of Alonso, who is created by Miranda and Prospero to woo and win Miranda.  In some ways, he's a representation of Prospero when he was a young author, wide-eyed and fearless.Trinculo (female) is Alonso's "jester," or for our purposes an aging boozy-floozy, the sort you'd find wasting away on a piano in a seedy bar.  She is comical, terrified of everything, and completely in love with Stephano.  There's something pathetic about her; she is what Miranda might become if she does not disentangle herself from Prospero's commandStephano (male) is Alonso's drunken butler, very broad and jovial, and absurdly commanding.  (Think Sir Toby from Twelfth Night, Falstaff from Henry IV, Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream, etc.)  He is the foolish form of majesty, which in Alonso is a misspent youth, in Sebastian is slavish ambition, in Antonio is destructive envy, and in Prospero is frightful dominion.  He views Trinculo's admiration of him and Caliban's service to him as only natural.  Although he is incited by Caliban to kill Prospero, rape Miranda and take over the island, he is more concerned with the moment and having a good time to be that much of a threat.Other lords and ladies of the court, members of the ship, spirits on the island, etc.  Possibly Caliban's mother in flashback.I'm very much looking forward to what each of you brings to auditions!  We're going to have a grand time, I think! 

The Teatime Ten: Interview Series

It is with great pride that we announce that on every Tuesday, beginning in September, we'll be hosting "The Teatime Ten," a series of interviews with your favorite authors, bloggers, and up-and-comers!

Keep an eye out for the first interview with none other than Margaret C. Sullivan, author of The Jane Austen Handbook and There Must Be Murder.

Join us next Tuesday, September 6, for the kick-off of "Teatime Ten!"

Author Interview

The Upper Kingdom:
Guest Interview with Emily Snyder!

"Today I'm happy to welcome Emily Snyder (my fellow author at Girlebooks.com) to The Upper Kingdom.

Be sure to read her interview, because she is one of the most interesting and entertaining people that I've ever met and an extremely prolific and versatile writer."

Read the full article here!

Thank you so much, Farida! And make sure you show my lovely interviewer some love by visiting her blog , or by checking out her novels at Girlebooks: the Regency Margaret's Rematch and the fairy tale Almendra !

On E-Books and the New Art

[image error] Last night, I had a wonderful conversation with my household sister, Annie, who is a fabulous author and lyricist, and who knows more about current events in the publishing industry than I do.

The conversation turned to e-books, since Niamh and the Hermit and Charming the Moon are both scheduled for conversion...and Letters of Love & Deception (previously titled Shards of Ivory) will soon debut in e-book format.

And yet...and yet...Borders closed.

I must confess that I do not own an e-reader and am a little reluctant to do so - even as I'm sure that once I have one, I'll love it as much as I first hated cell phones, and now love them; and hated texting, and now use it; and thought internet on a cell phone redundant, and now...! A picture, I trust, is forming.

What interests me, though, are the possibilities that this new medium possesses. "Form dictates content," is a good motto and too rarely followed. To put it another way:

Every time you change the form,
You change the art.
An e-reader may be used initially merely as another means of conveying words - but so does speech, and so do newspapers and blogs, and swears at your alarm clock in the morning (with the instruction manual you never read), and "Do you like me, check yes or no" notes passed in third grade, and the sides of cereal boxes. But newspapers took on their aesthetic format for practical purposes. Blogs likewise. Scripts for the stage look different from scripts for the screen, because the art conveyed is different.

The tragedy of print, in my humble opinion, is that through the ease of moveable type et al, we've forgotten the art of the novel. Illuminated manuscripts delved more fully into what a bound book could be, and why it should be cherished. Of the books currently being printed, only Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (especially the ambitious Unauthorized Autobiography, complete with reversible dust jacket!), and volumes like the various Ology books begin to make an aesthetic case for the printed word.

I'm an advocate of "outdated arts" - theatre, opera, and bound novels among them - but I am excited by the prospect of this new electronic art (which requires a better name than e-book or e-reader, which is too practical to get the proper creative juices flowing!). So, I wonder...

What, aesthetically, can an e-book do?

First, it seems strange to me that so few of them are still in greyscale. However, like orange-toned monitors, I presume this will change fairly quickly.
Once the conversion to color happens, authors and artists are free to include a whole variety of different "looks" for their texts - with pictures, perhaps with embedded video, app-like moving flash elements, as well as:
Various "extras" - rather like the DVD/Blu-Ray version of a book: interviews with the author, "commentary" from the author, direct links to dictionaries or thesauri or encyclopedias, links to forum and social networking sites to discuss the book in real time, playlists that can accompany the book, etc.
The author, too, will have the opportunity to include more interactive elements, or worldbuilding elements. I'm thinking especially as a fantastist here, since we tend to create our own encyclopedias for our worlds - the majority of which rarely sees the light of day, and yet which is some of the most fun that fantasy affords as its own aesthetic.
This element of connection to the internet will/can make time-released elements - similar to the serialized novel, or modern Easter eggs - also a possibility.

I'm sure there are many more possible uses, which I hope you will add in the comments! I'm equally sure that several of these ideas have been implemented in some form or another already. What concerns me is that authors begin to make use of and explore the whole range of possibilities available to them through the new medium of e-books, rather than merely using it as another (cheaper) form of getting their stories out there.

For myself, my dear friend Annie said: "Well, then, what you should definitely add, Emily, is the music for Niamh. Because I can read it, and I can vaguely remember what it's supposed to sound like, but I'd love to have it play when I reread the book."

Annie...here's one of those songs (acappella version by my sister and I, as part of a birthday present for my Mum).

Enjoy! And leave a comment below. Where are we going next, in this brave new world?

Happiness is...

Math for Actors performing in Great Bend High School, Great Bend, KS in January 2012 and...!

Charming Princes also performing, same bat time, same bat place!

Have a great time, Great Bend thespians!

Letters of Love and Deception

Today, I did a quick photoshoot with my sister, Julie Kersting , for the cover of the upcoming Austenesque short story anthology, Letters of Love and Deception (formerly known as Shards of Ivory . Below is not the photo we're using...but a pretty outcome of the shoot!