L.L. Diamond's Blog, page 20

June Update!

I can’t remember the last time I had an update! Shame on me!

Things have been crazy and hectic. I’m prepping my oldest to start high school (How do I have a high schooler already!) and another to start middle school. We swapped swim teams, and we’re trying to keep up with a myriad of other after school activities along with my own swim schedule. It’s insane some weeks!

Today, we managed to get out in the garden and clean out my planters and pots. A quick trip (and more money than I planned to spend) filled them with flowers, so hopefully, once things fill out a bit, everything will be overflowing with colour. At least I had a brilliant sunny day for it!

Goodies!

I’m also busy prepping for Jane Austen Regency Week. If you’re going on Regency Day, please stop by the Austen Variations table, which will be me this year, for a bag of goodies and to enter a drawing. I’m still hoping to add one or two more little items to the prize, so I don’t have a picture yet of that. I will say that I would love to have the basket. We have contributions from Abigail Reynolds, Maria Grace, and a few Jane Austen goodies I’ve thrown in, as well as two of Jane Odiwe’s amazing note cards. Trust me, you’ll love it!

One or two people out there might be asking “What about your next book?”

Cambridge – Sedgwick and Fitzwilliam Museums

Exterior of the Sedgwick

I know I blog Cambridge a lot, but in all fairness, there’s a great deal to do there. Cambridge is chock full of different sorts of museums which are all free, so we try to take advantage whenever we can. On an off and on rainy Sunday, we thought a trip to Cambridge and the museums would be a good way to spend the day rather than the usual bumming around the house.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Sedgwick, it is the museum of natural history and affiliated with Cambridge University, so fossils galore and a few dinosaur skeletons are what you find when you walk inside. I do say fossils and dinosaur skeletons, but I do want to be fair, there are some geology samples as well as meteorites, but they have glass cases of fossils that make up the majority of the museum. Fossils of all kinds and in all sorts of rock.

In the event you were wondering, my son loved it, but we called his attention to specific things we thought he’d enjoy and he liked the activities for children. My tween daughter was similar. My teenage daughter, however, looked for a while, then rushed through the rest before she declared herself bored. I will say that while she normally finds fossils interesting, I think it went past her fascination level. Sedgwick has a great deal of interesting fossils, but if you are interested in pouring over everything ensure your company is as enthralled with the subject matter as you are.[image error]

Just to cover all of the bases with my children, our next stop was the Fitzwilliam museum. We’ve been before, but they have several special exhibits going on at the moment, which was the reason for our return (that and I never finished the regular exhibits the last time we were there!).

The first special exhibit was Death on the Nile. My daughters are interested in about all mythology, including Egyptian, so they had a great time going through all of the coffins, artwork, and information on display. I wish I had photos to show you, but the temporary exhibits do not allow photography (Sorry!). If you enjoy Egyptian culture and mythology and this exhibit happens somewhere near you, it is worth the look. Here’s a bit through links in the event you’d like to see a bit of what we did.

http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/exhibitions/2016/02/23/death-on-the-nile-uncovering-the-afterlife-of-ancient-egypt-exhibition

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/news/secrets-ancient-egyptian-artisans-show-death-nile

I also enjoyed the exhibit of prints “1816: Prints by Turner, Goya, and Cornelius.” I particularly enjoyed the prints by Turner, but I am a big Turner fan. This exhibit runs through 31 July.

The last special exhibit was “Brueghel and his Time: Landscape Drawings from the Bruce Ingram Bequest.” I’ll be honest, I’m not a Brueghel fan, but I did enjoy some of these. The simple pen and ink drawings with watercolour tinting were lovely and gave a glimpse of a simpler time. This exhibit runs through 4 September 2016.

Lastly, we finished off  the last few rooms I hadn’t seen. I enjoyed finally walking through and seeing what else the Fitzwilliam had to offer. I did get a giggle over this painting, and anyone who reads JAFF would probably have a giggle along with me. I had to take the photograph just to do it.[image error]

My children were ready for a late lunch by that time, so we walked from restaurant window to window looking for something interesting with decent gluten-free options and found De Luca Cucina. We weren’t too certain what to expect and I normally don’t write-up restaurants on here unless their historic, but we were really pleased with the service and the food. They were great with the children, had the dishes that could be gluten-free labelled (And were great about accommodating myself and my daughter. A huge plus!).

Another great thing about Cambridge is the shopping. For those who have never been, you can find everything from an open air market on certain days to a huge variety of shops and boutiques. Grand Arcade is nearby, which is as close to a mall here as I’ve found and also offers parking (just be careful, the price goes way up after four hours!). There are a few parking garages a little further out, or you can park and ride from the outside of town. It just depends on your plans. If you’re planning a great deal of shopping, park and ride may not be your best option.

 

Next up…Wimpole (I think!)

Bath – March 2016 Part 2

When you cross the river, leaving Bath, and walk uphill for a little over a mile, you find Prior Park Landscape Garden, which is a National Trust Property. This 28 acre piece of property boasts six miles of walking trails with amazing views of Bath in the distance as well as one of four surviving Palladian bridges.

Prior Park has its beginnings with entrepreneur Ralph Allen, who purchased the property and had it landscaped to compliment his home, which was of Palladian architecture and designed by John Wood the Elder. The house still exists, but was sold to the Catholic church in 1828. The house is now Prior Park College, though the students have sweeping views of the park on a daily basis–lucky ducks!

Prior Park’s trails vary and have several follies, the remains of Prior Park’s ice house, which they are still excavating, the restored Serpentine, and a small waterfall or two.

Despite our long uphill trek to Prior Park, I would say it was worth the walk. We brought a picnic and sat on benches (the ground was still wet from a recent rain) just below the school, looking over the Palladian bridge and Bath in the distance. It was a wonderful lunchtime view! If you do decide to take in Prior Park and walk like we did, the exit at the bottom of the hill is supposed to now be opened for entry to the Park as well (At least, that is what we were told on our visit. We missed the change by a few days.), so do check the National Trust’s website for directions there. My only warning is it is a small road, so you have to watch for cars as there is no pavement/sidewalk. While the original and main exit is a big uphill, it does have a pavement. There was also no parking at the entrance, so if you drive, check the website for the closest parking.

After our foray to Prior Park, we walked back up Lansdowne to Hedgemead Park where my children, despite their constant complaining on the walk back that their feet hurt, wanted to play. Hedgemead is a lovely park for a stroll and has a good playground. After the kids had their fill, we walked around and I happened upon St. Swithin’s Church, which you can find at the end of the Paragon in the Walcot section of Bath.

For those who are unfamiliar with St. Swithin’s, it was the parish where Jane Austen’s parents were married (Though it was a smaller church that stood before this one. It was demolished and replaced due to the growing population in Bath at the time.) and is also the church where Jane Austen’s father, the Rev. George Austen is buried.

I didn’t go into the churchyard to find his grave, but did get a picture from Hedgemead park.

My last fun bit was to walk just up from where we stayed at the end of Camden Place to actually look at Camden Place and take photos of the building. It’s a tricky building to get a good photo of, due to its length and the busy road in front. I tried a panorama at one point when a car came barreling around the corner, creating a strange blip in the panorama. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the building where Sir Walter Eliot lived in Persuasion.[image error]

 

Next up – Cambridge – Sedgwick Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum

 

Winner of the Karen M. Cox Giveaway!

A huge thank you to everyone

who contributed questions and comments

for Ask the Author this month!

I’d like to give a special thanks to those repeat offenders out there who have been contributing questions or comments on every interview. Y’all are awesome! 

 

 

 

So winner of the e-book of their choice

(from Karen’s amazing books of course)

is….

 

Glynis!

Glynis chose Undeceived for her prize, and I’m sure she’ll love it! 

 

Congratulations!
Also a huge thank you to Karen
for stopping by and answering your questions!!!

 

I am swamped for the month of June, so right now, my plan, at the moment, is to skip Ask the Author next month. I’ve thought about trying it a bit differently, but I haven’t been able to talk myself into it yet. In the meantime, if any of y’all are going to Jane Austen Regency Week, I look forward to seeing you there!

 

Karen M. Cox Interview is in!

Karen has answered your questions, and there were a lot of them.

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed!

Due to the number of questions, a few questions that were similar or the same were combined so we wouldn’t be publishing a book today[image error] I hope no one minds!

Anywho,

Enough of hearing from me, let’s get on to Karen’s answers!

Which is your favorite Jane Austen novel and why?

(Debbie Fortin)

I love them all, even have a soft spot for Mansfield Park (although it took a group read to keep me focused on it). But Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion flip-flop as my 2 favorites: Persuasion for the elegance of the novel, and P&P for the characters, especially the charming Elizabeth Bennet!

 

What is your favourite P&P film? (you could maybe say two and why)

(anadarcy)

I’d have to say P&P 95 is my favorite overall for its fidelity to the book, for Colin Firth (yummy!), and all the minor characters: Mr. Collins, Charlotte, Mrs. Bennet, Lydia. Mary Bennet cracks me up. I also think Jennifer Ehle did a great job of portraying a character that we all think we own a little piece of.

I do think Joe Wright’s version is beautiful to look at, and I LOVE the soundtrack. I like Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightley, but they don’t particularly exude Darcy and Elizabeth to me. I’ve watched that version many times though, and I like it too.

 

Who is your favorite Jane Austen hero? Why?

(Joy Dawn King and Debbie Fortin)

Oh man, I’m not sure I can choose! Let’s see…nope, I can’t choose on this one‑sorry!

I’m sort of a Captain Wentworth gal—I respect him for being a self-made man, and he’s a risk-taker, which I admire too. If you think about it, he not only went off to do the captain-thing, but he took a risk on Anne when he was young and maybe a bit impulsive (her being so far above him in social stature.)

But Mr. Knightley is so gentlemanly—kind to people, classy and elegant, yet he speaks his mind when he needs to (I’m thinking of the Mrs. Elton set down.) And Mr. Tilney has a great sense of humor. I’m not too enthralled with Edward Ferrars or Edmund Bertram though.

As for Mr. Darcy? Hmmm…I think of Darcy as deep and mysterious (which is why we all want to know what makes him tick.) I can see Darcy being rather challenging as a husband—a man who’s used to telling people what to do and having them actually listen to him, a man with strong opinions. And you know at some point that pride of his is going to rear its ugly head again. It’s not gone forever. (Oooh, plot bunny…)

 

Who is your favorite Jane Austen villain and why

(Debbie Fortin)

Henry Crawford – I think he has the most potential to “go towards the light”. A stronger personality than Fanny’s might have brought that out in him.

 

Who is your favorite Austen heroine and why?

(Debbie Fortin)

Elizabeth Bennet – it has to be her, because she’s what most women want to be: attractive and charming and witty, with a side of humility and strength. She’s a bit of an underdog who is always being compared to her older sister, which makes her easy to relate to. And she comes out on top in the end, sitting pretty as the Mistress of Pemberley.

   

Which Jane Austen female would your family and friends say you are most like?

(Joy Dawn King)

Sadly, I am an Elinor in real life. I have always been and will always be the practical, observant, hold-your-tongue, older-sister type. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m a writer, because when I write a story, I can say what I want. In some ways, that’s a role that was thrust upon me because of events and people in my life, but then, the same could be said for Elinor herself. Would Elinor be Elinor if there had been no Marianne? No neglectful half-brother? No precarious financial situation forcing her to grow up quickly? (Oooh…plot bunny.)

Elinor has some great qualities, including her loyalty and her wisdom, which I think I share with her to some degree, so it’s not, you know, a BAD thing to be an Elinor.

But she doesn’t come across as very exciting, and I think that’s how I come across as well.

   

Are you in love with Mr. Darcy? Do you have your own Mr. Darcy?

(Joy Dawn King)

Yes, I am in love with Mr. Darcy, and Mr. Tilney, and Mr. Knightley…

I do not have a real-life Mr. Darcy of my own. I do, however, have a Captain Wentworth (although he wasn’t ever an actual captain) who I’ve been married to for 30 years next month, and he’s pretty awesome.

     

What is your opinion of Mary Bennet?

(anadarcy)

I said above that the Mary in P&P 95 cracks me up. That’s true in the book as well, but part of me feels sorry for Mary—middle-child syndrome, preachy, dull thing that she is. I think she is the only woman in P&P that would have been happy and fulfilled being Mrs. Collins. She never gets the chance, and that’s kind of sad.

 

What do think about Mrs Louise Hurst? Would you ever consider writing a book giving her a more important role?

(anadarcy)

Honestly, I’ve never thought too much about Mrs. Hurst. She seems to function solely as Caroline’s snark buddy in the original, without the depth of a character such as Charlotte. But you never know—she could have this fascinating story tucked behind her.

 

What first got you into writing and what made you decide on writing JAFF books or did it just come naturally?

(Amanda Frank)

I wrote as an emotional outlet off and on for years and dreamed of being an author someday, but I was always so BUSY. And I had absolutely no training as a writer, except for non-fiction writing I learned for school. So being an author was a dream I’d really given up by the time I turned 30. As far as JAFF goes, I read it voraciously for 2 or 3 years before I ever tried posting anything. I had a lot of encouragement from authors and readers at A Happy Assembly. Because of my lack of formal writing education, I felt very insecure about writing fiction, and the supportive online environment was a safe way to explore those interests. Meryton Press asked me in 2010 about publishing 1932, and it all just sort of bloomed from there.

 

How do you organize your time to have free and, most importantly, quiet time to write? I usually resort to working during the night so I don’t get interrupted…

(tgruy)

I tell you, Teri, I truly don’t know. I’m always struggling to find this quiet time and don’t have any good answers. I tend to write in fits and starts, but I think that’s more a function of the obligations to work and family than of my own inclination. I will say that until the end of 2012, my work schedule was such that I usually had one work day each week where I was alone at my house, in the quiet, and that was the time frame when I was the most productive, writing-wise. I wrote the bulk of 1932 when I was home because of bad snow and ice storms. Find Wonder in All Things I wrote for NaNoWriMo, mostly in the evenings. At the Edge of the Sea, Northanger Revisited 2015, and Undeceived were written when I could carve out chunks of time: weekends, summer breaks (I work at a school and have more free time in summer), other vacations/snow days, evenings, early in the mornings before the others got up, etc.

I have a feeling though that I’m on the cusp of some big changes in my routine. I will go from having a very full house, to a very empty nest in the next few months, and entering what Gail McEwen (my editor for FWiAT and AtEotS) calls “Phase Three” http://gailmcewen.merytonpress.com/2014/03/30/phase-three/

So, ask me again in a year and the answer might be very different!

 

Do you have a special time of day and place to write?

(Debbie Fortin)

Mornings are my most productive writing times. I will sometimes get up even at 4 am to write for 2 or 3 hours before my family gets up. But I’ll make anything work if I have to!

As far as places to write, I have a chair in my bedroom where I do a lot of my writing (on the laptop), but I also like to write in my living room—lots of natural light, few distractions, surrounded by books and pictures.

 

When writing do you need quiet or do you listen to music, and if so what kind?

(Debbie Fortin)

I can do some editing with music on—instrumental New Age stuff is my favorite for that—but when formulating new material, I really need quiet. I use music a lot when writing a story (I wrote a guest post about this during the Undececeived blog tour at My Love For Jane Austen blog http://forloveofausten.blogspot.com/2016/02/undeceived-blog-tour-guest-post.html )

But the music is more to anchor myself to the story, rather than as a background while writing.

 

Do you keep notepad and pen by your nightstand when a plot bunny or conversation pops in your head and wakes you up?

(Carole in Canada)

I do, and I jot things down, but they rarely pan out as good story material.

 

Do you dream about your stories as you write them?

(Joy Dawn King)

Before Undeceived, I would have told you no, but that story took hold of me in a different way than the others. I did dream about Undeceived—the danger, the plot points, the love scenes.

It seems every book affects me a little bit differently.

 

What do you do to relieve stress or writer’s block?

(Carole in Canada)

When your muse decides to be uncooperative what do you do to get her cooperation again (walking, cleaning, listen to music, etc)?

(Debbie Fortin)

For stress and for writer’s block, I tend to go for walks. It helps me clear out the cobwebs. I also swim when it’s warm enough. I listen to music, sing along to distract myself, or read. Familiar, beloved books are like a lullaby to me. My kids will tell you they know I’m angry or stressed because I’m cleaning!

I have sometimes been able to write myself through a writer’s block—just get something on the page so I have something to fix later. That tends to unstick my brain a bit. I also talk to my ideal reader—she knows who she is —and that helps me too. My own worst writer’s block was after FWiAT. I didn’t think I had anything left to write about. But then I saw Billy Ray Davenport in my head and I just had to tell his story.

 

Leslie and I are constantly working to improve our ability to write in third person multiple, deep point of view, a difficult writing style that’s super reader-friendly. Deep POV puts the reader into the protagonist’s head but allows multiple characters’ narratives. I’d loved books using this POV yet had no idea how to emulate their style until you championed it and suggested “Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View” by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. You also indicated that this technique is something you’re constantly improving upon. Can you comment on the considerations required to write in deep POV? What do you see as key issues/discipline for an author who wants to incorporate it into her/his novels? If you’ve read books that came close but failed, what would your advice be?

(Suzan Lauder)

For me, the two biggest struggles are using “see/saw” and “thought/felt” in my sentences, and eliminating the “prepositional-tells”, prepositional phrases used to describe emotions or one right after another (Gail McEwen really helped me note this in my own writing.) I think these POV challenges are somewhat exacerbated when adapting Austen because of the 19th Century prose style and the omniscient narrator she used. I think for some readers, that’s part of the charm of Austen – that formality – so for some Austenesque stories, the narrative distance could work nicely, e.g., epistolary stories.

The easiest way for me to write deep POV is to imagine experiencing the story as a movie in which I can pause the action and look around, rewind and resume, so I don’t miss anything. In my head, I actually stop as the character and take in the surroundings.

I sometimes struggle to remember that as a reader, a constant barrage of deep POV can be exhausting; in other words, it is possible to overdo it, because it speeds the pacing up so much. There has to be balance, a moment for the reader to ‘rest’ before surging into the next piece of action or the next scene. But then, I can’t stray too far from deep POV or it sounds like I’m writing two different books. The ultimate goal is that, when I go back over my manuscript, I want it to ‘sing’ to me. I wish I could explain it better than that, but it’s a slippery concept.

 

What do you like most about writing? Editing?

(Christina Boyd)

I know it sounds cliché, but what I like most about writing is hearing from readers. Not just whether or not they liked the book (although a happy reader is always a good thing), but what resonated with them, what memory the story brought to mind, what made them smile, laugh, cry, whatever. It’s that experience of sharing thoughts and ideas with other people that makes writing worthwhile to me. Writing comes to LIFE when it’s shared.

I’m one of those odd ducks who likes to edit. I love tweaking word choice and rearranging sentences and figuring out how to keep a reader in the story. Sure, the copy editing part is kind of dull (commas, ugh!) but I love the stage of content editing.

 

I have memories of a trip to West Germany the spring before the cold war ended, and being constantly buzzed by US military aircraft. In addition, my father did business in Russia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “Undeceived” took me to a place nearby what I know, but beyond it, into a world my father spoke of suspecting, but he had always seemed paranoid to me, so I blew it off! As far as I know, he had no direct knowledge of the world of “Undeceived.” Where did you find the information that inspired specific events, and how did you select some of the places in the novel?(Suzan Lauder)

I’ve been dying to know how you researched Undeceived. Did you watch movies and read books of the time? I feel like you really captured the 1980’s without it being kitschy or obvious.

(Beau North)

I’ll answer these two together. I’ll admit, when I began researching Undeceived I knew very little about espionage in general, or spy novels in particular. I’d read a few stories, but I’m not even all that well versed in the genre (so much for write what you know!)

(I have a Pinterest board with some of my sources on it, and I posted a couple of pictures of my notes there as well. https://www.pinterest.com/karenmc1932/undeceived-spy-moviestvbooks/ )

I started by reading a book called A Short Course in the Secret War by Christopher Felix, pen name for an American ex-intelligence officer, and sort of a classic in the non-fiction spy book arena. It was published in the early 1960’s so a lot of the information wasn’t applicable, but I was amazed at how the oldie-but-goodie trade craft techniques could still be useful. This was also where I got the Hungary setting idea, as this man was stationed there. I took copious notes in a spiral notebook: new terminology, ideas, dialog snippets that occurred to me, concepts I thought I could use.

Then, I tackled Molehunt by David Wise, which is about James Angleton and his failed search for a mole inside the CIA. This search destroyed the careers of some CIA officers who were judged later to be innocent, and this was interesting to me. One of the officers was sent to Trinidad, so that’s where that setting comes from.

At this point, I started watching some movies and TV: “Spy Game” with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, “The Lives of Others”, a German film (this led to Undeceived ‘s theater setting in East Germany), some of “The Americans” episodes, “The Assets” which is about the investigation of Aldrich Ames, and of course, I re-watched “No Way Out”. I researched the CIA a lot on the internet (still waiting for Homeland Security to show up at my door!), and I googled and read online articles about the settings I chose, different hand guns, and the Bay of Pigs incident. Used GoogleMaps to plan escape routes and gauge distances. I found some documentary gold on You Tube about life in East Germany, and read some books on body trauma and writing violence.

I read a spy novel or two, or pieces of them; I tried not to delve too much into fiction at that point, and I read the books with an eye toward style and structure rather than letting myself go into the story too deeply.

Meanwhile, I kept taking notes and began to envision events in my story that could be analogous to general events in the Pride and Prejudice story arc. At one point, I had Post-Its with plot points all over my wall!

Scrivener helped me organize the chapters, and then I just kept plugging away until I had something reasonable to send to Michele at Meryton Press for review.

It was a gamble: a quasi-modern era Austenesque story, and a genre jump to boot. But I thought it was an interesting place to take P&P, so I wanted to write it.

 

Which is your favorite era to set your stories in?

(Joy Dawn King)

Whichever one I’m working on at the moment

May 2016 – Karen M. Cox

I love May!

It’s the month we moved to England and such a beautiful time of year here.

I also met May’s Ask the Author victim when she visited London late last year! It was great getting to chat about JAFF while we visited Portobello Road Market with a group of JAFF ladies. Such a great day!

Please join me in welcoming

Karen M. Cox!

1932 is one of my favourite fics ever and now, Karen has released

Undeceived

 

Karen is not only waiting to answer your questions,

but she also has offered an e-book of

one of her great novels as a giveaway!

That’s right, you can choose between 1932, Find Wonder in All Things,

At the Edge of the Sea, and, of course, Undeceived!

The giveaway is international!

Karen is waiting patiently, so ask your questions!

Rules for the giveaway – 

If you ask a question on this post, you get 1 chance in the drawing.

If you comment on the final interview, you get 1 chance in the drawing.

If you leave a question and a comment, you get 2 chances in the drawing!

Please join in and ask a question or leave a comment. Authors love answering your questions and hearing from you! 

**Final date for questions is Thursday, 12 May, 2016**

Interview posts Monday, 16 May

Last day for comments for the giveaway is Wednesday 18 May

Please leave those questions below!

Bath – March 2016

While I took a trip to meet some friends in Bath last September, I returned to Bath almost a month ago with my family. Bath is such a walkable city that we took the train rather than drive. We had yet, as a family, taken a trip on the train, so my children were quite excited and we had quite good luck with our timing on the tube to Paddington Station where we caught the train to Bristol, with Bath Spa being the last stop before the train terminates. (And when you purchase the tickets, they will verify you want Bath Spa[image error]  )

Upon our arrival around in Bath, we walked around some in order for everyone get an initial look around. From the train station (I exited from the correct side this time!) we walked up to the Pump Rooms and the Roman Baths, down Westgate Street, and then to Queens Square. From Queens Square, we took Gay Street to the Circus, passed the assembly rooms, and then walked up to Royal Crescent–quite a trek with all of our belongings in backpacks! By the time we finished our climb to Camden Crescent, where our lodgings were, we were worn out!

That evening we made a trip to the grocery store for food and relaxed, reserving our energy for the next day.

For our first full day, I took everyone mostly around places I had been on my last trip. We stopped by 4 Sydney Place where we dropped off a copy of my latest book (Thanks to Bath Boutique Stays for allowing us to have copies of our work in Jane Austen’s home! So cool!). From Sydney Place, we walked across to the Holburne for an Impressionist exhibit I wanted to see and had tea in the tea room before walking in Sydney gardens and Henrietta Park.

New experiences, for me at least, began on our next day when we went to the Roman Baths. The line/queue was rather long, so while my husband waited in line, we went for a quick look in the Abbey. The Abbey requests a £2.50 donation per person (which is low compared to the admission in some of the cathedrals), but is absolutely beautiful inside. I wish I’d had more time to read all of the epitaphs and take more photos, but we were soon called for the tour of the Baths.

I must say that I never expected the Roman Baths to be so extensive. I knew of the pools (one of which you can see from the Pump Room), but the different rooms and the temples are very interesting. Obviously, not much remains of all of it, but they have quite cleverly protected much of the ruins by having them indoors and (I think) even underneath the building where you enter. In some places, monitors give a computer generated image of what you would see if you stood in one place and looked over the courtyard that remains. The exhibits range from pottery and jewellery to hairpins and personal grooming items. Pieces of metal where people inscribed things that were stolen from them in a wish to have the thief punished were once thrown into the water and are now behind glass for all to see. We spent a good portion of the day taking our time as we strolled through it all.

I will say that they don’t like you to touch the water. My son thought it was something to do and we were told to wash his hands at our first opportunity. I don’t know that it is quite that bad since they do treat it and allow visitors to drink it, but we erred on the side of caution.

When we reached the end of the tour, everyone drank some of the water. I had no wish to repeat the experience, but my family all decided the water didn’t taste as bad as I had made it out to be. Oh well! I claim sensitive taste buds!

 

 

Next up… Prior Park

Winner of the Moira Bianchi Giveaway!

Thank you,
Moira Bianchi!

It was great having you as a guest this month!

 

Moira was amazing enough to offer her

Prince of Pemberley series

as a giveaway and we have a winner!

 

Congratulations
Jennifer Redlarczyk!

 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and asked questions or gave comments. Don’t forget to stop in next month as our Author for May is the accomplished Karen M. Cox! 

Call for questions is 9 May, don’t miss it!

 

April 2016 – Moira Bianchi

Moira’s answers are in!

I now you’d rather read what she had to say, so let’s get down to it, shall we? 

 

First of all, I’d like to thank Leslie again for having me here. The wonderful JAFF universe has helped me so much; I love everyone who writes Darcy and Lizzy variations. It’s an honor to be amongst you.

 

Is Jane Austen popular in Brazil?

(Joy Dawn King)

Yes, incredibly. We have Facebook groups of 10k fans, our ‘Jane Austen Society of Brazil’ is pretty big too. I have to say the 2005 movie has opened Austen’s domain to lots of people – and that’s the beauty of adaptations, right?

 

 

Hi Moira, I am so excited over these books. Three! My question is how did you get introduced to this Jane Austen world and how old where you?

(Shelley Hoisington)

Late 20s, I guess. I have a dear friend who challenged me to read ‘the classics’ – her favorite classics – and gave me Tolkien, Balzac, Austen. But it was S&S and the first pages killed me. I wanted to jump in the book and punch John Dashwood in the face! Then shake Elinor’s shoulders! As I complained, my friend grimaced and said: ‘Honey, you need Elizabeth Bennet.’ Here I am, a P&P junkie!

 

 

Which is your favorite Jane Austen novel and why?

(Debbie Fortin)

P&P. Always.

But I have to say Lady Susan gnaws on my heart, she’s my guilty pleasure.

April 2016 – Moira Bianchi

It’s Ask the Author time!

Spring is finally here! Can you tell it’s my favourite season?

I’m also excited that we have a new

Ask the Author victim!

Everyone welcome

Moira Bianchi

 

with a question or two!

Moira recently released her

Prince of Pemberley series

 

to the English and Portuguese translations of her work!

So! Moira is waiting! Leave your questions in the comment thread below!

But wait!!! Moira is offering one e-book set of The Prince of Pemberley series (Yes, all three books) for a giveaway!

The giveaway is open internationally!

Rules for the giveaway – 

If you ask a question on this post, you get 1 chance in the drawing.

If you comment on the final interview, you get 1 chance in the drawing.

If you leave a question and a comment, you get 2 chances in the drawing!

Please join in and ask a question or leave a comment. Authors love answering your questions and hearing from you! 

**Final date for questions is Thursday, 14 April, 2016**

Interview posts Monday, 18 April

Last day for comments for the giveaway is Wednesday 20 April.

 

Leave your questions in the comments below! 

Good luck everyone!!