One of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail. Meg Ryan, a children’s book store owner reads Pride and Prejudice every autumn.

Like her, I make Pride and Prejudice an annual thing as well. Only I spread it out and read favorite parts sporadically throughout the year. I also watch the movie(s) at least six-twelve times a year. I watch it enough that my six year old will stop to watch certain scenes and say, “this is my favorite part”.

Yay! She has a favorite part! Parent win!

When I decided to write my Matchmaker series I was in a Pride and Prejudice phase. Though Persuasion is my favorite of the Austen books, there is something so enchanting about P&P (the conflict in Persuasion gives me heartburn). It was the perfect romance to watch and I didn’t have to worry about language or naughty scenes. Though I was starting a new, different series—one that was already mapped out——I couldn’t get the P&P characters out of my head. I was hesitant to take my story line and change it to a P&P variation.  Nervous about how it would be received. Writing what might be called “fanfiction” can have a negative vibe. Some people simply think fanfiction isn’t real writing (let me point to Fifty Shades of Grey which is Twilight fanfiction). But I gave into the muse and decided to go with it.

It would seem I’m not the only one. Have you seen how many retellings, variations, or inspiration pieces there are from Elizabeth and Darcy?

Let’s make a list:

• Eligible- Curtis Sittenfeld
• Unleashing Mr. Darcy- Katherine Rey
• The Girl From Summer Hill- Jude Deveraux
• Over you- HM Ward
• Bridget Jones’ Diary- Helen Fielding
• The Lizzy Bennet Diaries (also on video- MY FAVORITE) Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
• Austenland- Shannon Hale
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies- Seth Grahame-Smith

I could go on. Bookbub even allows readers to ‘follow’ Jane Austen and tells them know when a new book taken from her great works is for sale.

But love for Jane goes beyond books and movies. On Facebook you can join many like minded fans on any of these pages:

• A Lady
• Austen Authors
• Austen Variations
• Jane Austen Society of North America

Again another endless pool of awesomeness.  But retellings don’t begin or end with Jane Austen. Both traditional publishers and indie authors are putting out well received books in the worlds of Sherlock Holmes, Harry Styles, and the Twilight Series. Amazon offers opportunity to publish books in some of your favorite author’s worlds- aptly called-Kindle Worlds.

But why do these stories continue? Why, year after year, are authors creating tales of these well known characters?

Because we simply can’t get enough.

I love the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Hands down, it’s my favorite. But the last scene in the Pride and Prejudice movie where they are married and he’s calling her Mrs. Darcy, um, yeah, I want more of that.

Was it because so much was left unsaid between them? Nowadays, we get front row seats into the bedrooms of many of our favorite characters. But not Lizzy and Darcy. We’re left to guess. We’re left wondering with only our imaginations the limit. Did Lizzy and Darcy ever talk about Caroline Bingley? What did their fights look like? How did he show his affection? Did he leave Pemberley when her mother came for a visit?

So much left for us to speculate about. An endless source of ideas to turn into books.

That’s why I believe we see and will continue to see Jane Austen based stories.

What do you think?

If you could emerge into a favorite world what would it be? Do you like to read retellings? I’d love to know. Leave a comment and share:-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Author Bio:

Kristi Rose was raised in central Florida on boiled peanuts and iced tea. She’s been lucky enough to travel the world but now, a wife and mother, she’s resigned to traveling to the grocery store. When she’s not practicing as a pediatric Occupational Therapist she’s watching people and wondering about their story. That’s what Kristi likes to write. Stories about everyday people, the love that brings them together, and their journey getting there. Sign up for Kristi’s newsletter and be the first to know about releases, giveaway, and become an advanced reader for her work.

Social Media:

Website/Blog: http://kristirose.net

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The Curse of the Lost Isle, a romantic medieval fantasy series, was twenty years in the making and is coming to a close. Of course, I wrote many other novels for various publishers in multiple genres during that time, since that series did not find a publisher right away, and required a great amount of historical research. As I am writing the last novel, Book eight, Angel of Lusignan, scheduled for release around the holidays, I realize with nostalgia that it has been a long labor of love. I’m going to miss living in that world.

As to what comes next, I’m still debating. I like writing in different genres and I have a habit of mixing them, which creates marketing nightmares for my publishers. But I like my stories to be original, different and unique. I write what I would want to read. In the Curse of the Lost Isle (from BWL), featuring a family of immortal ladies with Fae gifts, I mixed authentic legends with known history and romance. In the Chronicles of Kassouk and in the Borealis series (from Desert Breeze Publishing), I mixed science fiction with romance, and several of my characters have paranormal abilities… sometimes created through technology.

I also wrote a few contemporary romances, but always with a twist, like reincarnation, a shape shifter, or a thriller element. Whether writing about the past, the present, or the future, my main constants are action, adventure, and romance. I also have a predilection for cats, as they pop up as secondary characters almost everywhere (except in medieval times, but I do have a major dog character in Damsel of the Hawk).

I would also like my next project to be a series. Like a reader, after I fall in love with a created world, I enjoy spending time in it. But I may choose to make these series shorter. Maybe three or four books, not six or eight like in my two latest series. It’s difficult to promote Book seven or eight to new readers who haven’t read any of the other books… even if it’s a standalone.

Standalone is another requisite of mine. I like my series to be readable out of order, so each book should be a complete story as much as possible. As a reader, I hate cliffhanger endings and would never do that to my readers. I had to cut longer books into two parts before, not by choice, and although I still gave the first book a satisfying ending, I couldn’t tie up all the loose ends or resolve all the conflicts at the end, since that happened in the second book. It deeply bothered me. From the reviews, I know it bothered a few of my readers as well.

Now, for the time and place: Medieval? Futuristic? Contemporary? Post apocalyptic? On a space station? On an alien planet? In an alternate universe? I have used all of these in the past. Is there any other option?

As for the characters, I have a predilection for strong, kick-butt heroines. I also really enjoyed writing immortals. I once flirted with the idea of writing a series featuring angels, and I am still considering it. They could be fallen angels seeking redemption, or guardians of the human kind. Or, they could be aliens, alien/human hybrids, or AI (artificial intelligence), but I already featured a synthetic being in Black Dragon (Borealis series).

So, my new writing project should definitely be a series with strong heroines, romance, action, adventure, and cats (you can never have too many of those). Each novel should be a complete story, and the series should lend itself to a different hero and heroine for each story. So, the constant would be the world in which the characters evolve.

 In other words, writing a series revolves around creating a world in which strong, captivating characters can fight for what is just and good, and in the process, find their happily ever after. Writing this post helped me order my thoughts. Starting next year, look for the start of a new sci-fi romance series involving strong kick-butt heroines and gorgeous aliens with angel power. Now, back to finishing the Curse of the Lost Isle medieval series.

 About the author:
Born in France, award-winning author Vijaya Schartz never conformed to anything and could never refuse a challenge. She likes action and exotic settings, in life and on the page. She traveled the world and claims to also travel through time, as she writes without boundaries about the future and the far away past. Her love of cats transpires in many of her books… and she has more than twenty-five novels published. Her stories collected numerous five star reviews and a few literary awards. Find her and her books at http://www.vijayaschartz.com

Thank you, Cynthia, for inviting to your blog. I’m always thrilled to be here and to answer questions from your readers. I didn’t start out to be a historian; in fact history was horrendously boring to me in school. But it was required so I studied whatever it was that I had to know, passed the tests and exams with flying colors, and promptly forget all the dates and battles. Yes, I know that history is important. But it’s boring!

Even the History Channel usually has failed to keep my interest. Turn it on and there are the RAF flying across the English Channel, brave young men that often didn’t make it home, and a bomb being dropped on something below. Is there something else we can watch? My husband would roll his eyes at me.

My husband spent time in VietNam, his father was in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed, and his grandfather spent time in the trenches of WWI. I’m supposed to care, right? Well, I do, but ask me what day Peal Harbor was bombed… “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date that will live into infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan” FDR Of course I didn’t know that off the top of my head. I am getting really fast at looking stuff like that up. But learn it in school? Ugh.

So how did I wind up writing historical westerns? My readers have asked for it. Once I started writing the diary of Clare Coleman, I realized I needed to know more about the history of the west. I needed to know who went west. Why? I needed to know more about the people. Suddenly history isn’t so boring.

I look stuff up and wind up spending hours researching. But it’s not just the west, it’s the whole timeframe and what was considered proper. Let me ask you this: Would you go someplace far away from your family because you might have a chance of surviving and having your own place? Would you leave your creature comforts to hack down a few trees and create a house out of nothing? Where your nearest neighbor might be a day’s ride away? Will you give up your job to do it? Sell off your worldly possessions and your grandmother’s fancy brooch that you’ve loved since you were a child?

The answer to that is usually a big NO! And so it was back then. So who did go west? Well, cowboys were boys! Rare was the cowboy who was over fifteen years old. They were often as young as seven or eight when they started. They were runaways, children of families that couldn’t afford them, and orphans. Working cattle meant meals. The numbers seem to vary but approximately one boy out of three never survived. Most of them perished under the hooves of the cattle they were driving. If they lived long enough, they rose in the ranks or left to find other work. Eventually the boys faded out of the job and it slowly became a man’s job in the 1900’s. Those cowboys were drifters, criminals, or unskilled men who wanted to eat. It was a job. If they lasted a week, they got a few bucks.

Mail order brides… Oh, boy! We have to look hard at the times. These women were desperate. For starters women didn’t marry as they do today. Most marriages were arranged or at least semi-arranged. Lucky was the gal who got to choose a suitor. Fathers often chose a man for their daughter. But sometimes there were several eligible men and the daughter might go to her father and inquire about a particular man. If she didn’t have a father, sometimes an older brother, uncle, mother or some other family member would make arrangements. Women were a liability to a family. The sooner they could marry her off, the better.

But what if there was no one to find them a husband? What if no one wanted them? What if they were horribly bucked-toothed, cross-eyed, or a gazillion other possible things might be wrong with them? These are things we don’t think about today. We put our children in braces, and children have surgeries to correct certain flaws. If a child is born with an extra finger today, that finger is removed immediately. But that didn’t happen back then.

You might call it selective breeding but men didn’t want women that were flawed. It’s not much different from today. Women instantly form an opinion of an eligible man based on his looks. Of course we want cute, handsome, or whatever. And men do the same to women.

In my newest western, Loving Ellen, she was married, and her husband died. Having two small boys from that marriage, she tried to keep going on her own by taking in laundry, mending, etc. But the idea of finding a man through an advertisement meant that she would have some security for her and her boys. And a man with a ranch had great appeal, because he seemed stable. On the flip side, she appealed to a rancher because she had two boys. Boys were needed on a ranch to help with the chores.

With great hopes and dreams, she went off to marry a man she didn’t know. She was probably worn out when she did that. Tired of trying to keep her boys tummies filled, tired of a lot of things. But the picture Joseph had painted of the ranch was not exactly accurate. She went from the frying pan to the fire. But don’t worry, this story will end with a happily ever after!

Have things changed? Yes and no. Today women look at a man and consider what he does for a living. Do they dare marry a man who stocks merchandise at a warehouse or should they marry the one who is a lawyer? Well, if you are reading a romance novel, I promise he’s not stocking merchandise at the warehouse!

All of that doesn’t mean that only the dregs of society populated our west. There were others, young men and slightly older ones who looked at the west and saw an opportunity. It was a chance to build their own empire, and become wealthy. These are the same guys who would have probably done it in the towns and cities where they grew up, but that wide open called to them. I like to write about those men.

To me, they are the more romantic men. They are the ones with… May I say it? Home training – men who respected women and knew how to treat them. Yes, there were plenty of good men in the west, even those who took jobs that provided them with an income that was decent for those days. They worked in gold or copper mines, and in the coal mines; they worked for the railroad or did a dozen other jobs.

One of these days I’m going to write a novel about a man who isn’t making a fortune and that gal with crossed eyes. But everyone wants to read about perfect people. Maybe because the female reader wants to step into that woman and become her for a few hours or maybe she wants that handsome guy to whisk her off her feet. It’s an adults’ game of pretend.

Well, guess I don’t write Let’s Pretend. I write about the real west. The people, who populated it and made the west what it is today, are the ones that interest me. So I mix that with a romance and you get a historical western with a romance.

I don’t write Christian books. I understand the Christina values, etc. I know the vast majority of the people who settled the west were Christians. But if they had been Jewish, Wiccan, or Buddhist, I would have willingly written from that perspective. In all my research, I’ve not found one instance of someone washing their stones during the solstice to renew their energy, but I have found quite a few Jewish families that went west. The vast majority of the North America is Christian, and the USA was founded on Christian principles.

I write what was there and who was there. I write the times as accurately as I possibly can. If they lived with an outhouse, I’ll write it. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and I have plenty of readers that feel the same way. That also doesn’t mean that I’m right and the others who write in this era are wrong. It’s Vanilla and Chocolate.

I love Cynthia’s characters, and her females in their pretty dresses. But my gals are less apt to wear such a dress. They are probably in a drab color with an even less exciting fabric. They are probably milking the cow or goat and slinging a rifle over their shoulder. But they are probably dreaming about those pretty dresses and are envious of those who wear them. When I wrote Loving Ellen I took a young woman who had come from a modest home to a young marriage where making do was quite normal but she still could dress in her finest and stroll the park with her young husband, to a woman who was almost destitute and became a mail order bride to a twice widowed woman with absolutely nothing, living in the middle of nowhere in Montana. And well I don’t want to tell you the end, but I will say for a few days she discovered what it was like to live as royalty.

Ask me a question in the comments, I’ll answer it, to the best of my ability, and put your name in the hat for a free ecopy of my first Montana Sky Series KW, Loving Matilda. Or if you have that one, I’ll give you your choice of another one of my historical westerns.

Morgan’s Crossing, Montana

A new mail order bride, Ellen has now been widowed.

Twice.

With two young boys from her first marriage to raise, a newly deceased mail-order-husband, no food and no money, she is forced to accept an offer of shelter from the neighboring rancher who found her latest husband’s body. Ellen is no stranger to sacrifice as a means to achieve a better future for herself and her children, but there is something different about Nik.

Amazon Buy Link:  https://amzn.com/B01J4R63DM

“Gadje Gadjensa, Rom Romensa.” This is a Romany (Gypsy) saying that means “Gadje with Gadje, Rom with Rom.”

So what is a gadje? A gadje in the Romany language means “not one of us.” Many Rom prefer to not allow outsiders into their lives. It’s no coincidence that in my hours, days, and months of researching the Romany for my novels, little information was available. Odd, because the Rom have lived in many places throughout the world for centuries. They’re a widely-traveled people. Yet there is little written history regarding their origins, although recent evidence points to an emigration from India 1500 years ago.

I believe that the reason there is little information available is because the Rom simply prefer it that way. They are a proud people who keep to themselves. And they are nomads, forever on the move, traveling by horse and wagon in caravans. In one of my novels, a bender is described. It is a tent, easily constructed using bendable twigs and any available materials on the side of the road.

It is no secret that the Rom have suffered persecution, prejudice, exclusion, and discrimination for centuries. The “Gypsy” stereotype includes a criminal, fortune-teller, blacksmith, thief, and musician, a dark-complexioned, shadowy figure. But why do so many of us harbor this unfair prejudice? Perhaps because of the Rom’s nomadic existence, lack of a solid religious belief, and exotic clothes and lifestyle. Their dialect is distinct and related to Sanskrit. Their tradition is oral, for they didn’t have the luxury of building libraries.

I explore many of their beliefs in my novels, including Seeking Patience.

One belief shared by all Rom is cleanliness. Mahrime means unclean or polluted. To avoid mahrime, clothes covering the top half of their body are washed separately from clothes on the bottom. Certain parts of the female body are considered unclean, and doctors are sometimes avoided because they deal with illness. And, a Rom can become polluted by being too close to a gadje.

Thanks for having me today! Hope you enjoyed this blog and the fascinating culture of the Romany. (Gypsies)

Happy Reading!

Josie Riviera

SEEKING PATIENCE

Blurb:

Do people prove their worth by strength, or by character?

Half-Romany, half-English lord, he lives a perilous Gypsy life … until a sweet English rose saves his life, and perhaps his soul. Widowed by a cruel husband, she’s given up all hope of love. Brought together in peril, they dare to reach for a brighter future together.

Luca Boldor, Romany leader, lives a nomad’s life in Regency England with his Gypsy caravan. Believing his noble father abandoned him at birth, he refuses to acknowledge his English blood, or live a settled life. But when a vicious attack by a rival leaves him bleeding on an English lady’s doorstep, he has no choice but to accept her help. Her gentle faith stirs his heart in a way he has long denied.

Lady Patience Blakwell, widowed countess, lives in near poverty. Her husband’s heir uses threats to keep her from demanding her rightful inheritance. With a few faithful servants, she exists quietly in the country, only her faith keeping her strong … until the day a bold, handsome Gypsy collapses in her hall. He’s unlike any man she’s ever known, and she’ll confront any subterfuge to keep him safe.

But when a secret from Lady Patience’s past emerges, Luca must face his own past, or lose her and all hope of love. Will this strong man humble himself to open his heart for his lady?

Travel back to Regency England for this sweet, inspirational romance—get your copy of Seeking Patience today!

Please note: This book is a second edition.

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H42QM5I/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

Apple:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1125089890

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1115240264;jsessionid=C7981171A6A1C091E77E1DDC82C00FF7.prodny_store01-atgap05?ean=2940152793109

Kobo:  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/seeking-patience-1

BIO:

Author Josie Riviera writes Historical, Inspirational, and Sweet Romances. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband.They share their empty nest with an adorable Shih Tzu who constantly needs grooming and an old house forever needing renovations.

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After writing contemporary romances for twenty-some years, I reached a burnout point and stepped away from writing. Even though I’d walked away from publishing, I soon learned that it isn’t so easy to walk away from writing. I’d been toying with the idea of writing mystery for a while, and even bought books and studied the genre. The book I wanted to write was about a Shakespearean actress who become a Pinkerton agent and uses her acting ability “undercover” to solve crime. So, not only did I need to learn to write mystery, I needed to learn how to write a historical as well.

I did a lot of research on the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and the famous crime buster’s personality and methods. I was thrilled to learn that Allan Pinkerton hired the first female detective, Kate Warne, as well as others through the years. He also hired several actresses. In a time when women were stuck at home and either smothered and coddled or exploited and treated like chattel, he actually believed women were smart and capable and assets to his operation.

Researching traveling theater troupes was a must. Learning what their lives were like, and how they were looked upon as they traveled from venue to venue was eye opening. For example, utility actors often knew more than 100 parts. Libraries and historical societies provided information about everything from the layout of the town in my book to what certain theaters or opera houses looked like and where they were located.

Since Lilly Long, my heroine, is an actress, and I wanted to tie her two careers together, I thought it would be great to use lines from Shakespeare for the titles. I have spent days pouring over quotes, looking for those that lend themselves to the story ideas I have in mind.

I found a lot of lines about murder or death, but I wanted something subtle that spoke to the plot, not something that sounded like a slasher story. I called the first book COME TO DUST, a reference to the end we all come to, but when I sold to Kensington Publishing, we changed it to AN UNTIMELY FROST, a reference to the plot, that death often comes too soon. Book two, which will be released in May of 2017, is called THOUGH THIS BE MADNESS, and the tentative title for book three is THIS MISERABLE DEATH.

I also want to use the available forensics in each book, even though there isn’t much available for that time period. I also made Lilly impulsive, hardheaded and smart. Sir Pierce Wainwright, a man surrounded by his own mystery who may or may not be her father, took her in after her actress mother was killed by an angry lover, and has given Lilly the equivalent education of a young English male.

From the beginning, I saw Lilly as a complex character, one who was very different from the women of her time. Traveling actors lived a nomadic life that was in many ways sheltered, but women who “trod the boards” were treated as equals by their male peers. That life has left Lilly unprepared to deal with a silver-tongued stranger she meets at the train depot, marries within a month, who then steals her life savings and disappears.

Coupled with her mother’s death, this causes her to realize what easy targets most women are for unscrupulous men. Determined to bring justice to those women she can by exposing the men who take advantage of them, she answers a newspaper ad for a female Pinkerton detective.

The surprising thing about Lilly is that I am a very measured, traditional woman, and here I am, writing about a woman who challenges the status quo at every turn. I remember the day I was looking up something and was shocked to see it listed under “women’s issues.” I hadn’t once occurred to me that I was writing about a woman involved in the women’s movement back in the 19th century.

It’s those kind of “aha” moments, or moments when something unexpected occurs that makes writing so satisfying. Your subconscious is constantly working looking for ins and outs you may not have considered, and when that serendipitous idea hits, it’s the most miraculous feeling.

AN EXCERPT from AN UNTIMELY FROST

Too upset to worry over much about being out alone at night, Lilly pulled her woolen scarf up over her head and flung the ends around her neck before stepping into the narrow back street. She soon entered the main thoroughfare where tendrils of fog writhed in the flickering glow of the gaslights, turning the few stalwart souls braving the chilly night into wraithlike phantoms.

She navigated the four blocks to the boardinghouse in no time, her annoyance and concern rising with each step. When she pushed through the doorway, a rush of heat from the foyer fireplace greeted her. She marched down the hall, mentally framing a series of questions for Timothy.

Nearing Pierce and Rose’s room, she noticed their door standing ajar. That was odd. The worldly, wise Rose was generally more careful. Lilly placed her gloved hand on the doorknob, wondering if she should stick her head in and mention the oversight. While she stood there waffling, she heard the sound of a man’s voice from inside the room. Sudden uneasiness caused her heart to beat faster. She’d left Pierce at the opera house.

The man spoke again, menace in his low tone. Before she could do more than acknowledge that something was terribly wrong, she heard the sickening, somehow familiar, sound of flesh meeting flesh. She slumped against the wall, squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears in an attempt to block out the onslaught of memories that sought freedom from the place she’d banished them eleven years ago…fighting the craven desire to escape into the dark vortex of unconsciousness.

BIO

Penny Richards has been publishing since 1983 with just over 40 books to her credit. Mostly contemporary romance, her books have won several industry awards, including a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award and a RITA nomination, and have made many best seller lists. She currently writes the “Wolf Creek” series for Love Inspired Historical  for Harlequin. Book five, WOLF CREEK WIFE will be released in  August,  and AN UNTIMELY FROST,  the first book of the “Lilly Long Mystery” series for Kensington Publishing will also debut in August.

AN UNTIMELY FROST: In 1881 Chicago, the idea of a female detective is virtually unheard of. But when famed crime buster Allan Pinkerton opens his agency’s doors to a handful of women, one intrepid actress with her own troubled past is driven to defy convention and take on a new and dangerous role.

BUY LINKS 

Available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

Wolf Creek Wife (book 5) www.amazon.com/Wolf-Creek-Wife-Inspired-Historical

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/wolf+creek+wife?

An Untimely Frost (book #1 www.amazon.com/Untimely-Frost-Lilly-Long-Mysteries

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/an+untimely+frost?

Website: www.pennyrichardswrites.com

Facebook: Penny Richards, Author

Twitter: @pennyRwrites

email: pennyrichardswrites@yahoo.com