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Monday, January 28, 2013

Pride & Prejudice is 200 Today!!!

Oh, Austen lovers around the globe are celebrating wildly today! Our wonderful Jane's "darling child," Pride and Prejudice, has its 200th birthday. In honor of the bicentenary, the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England is hosting a live 12-hour Readathon of the novel, which will be broadcast worldwide throughout the day, starting at 11am GMT!

All of my fellow writers at Austen Authors are, likewise, celebrating (of course!!), and we're beginning a cool interactive writing event called "P&P: Readers Choice" on the blog. Like a Regency version of "Choose Your Own Adventure," the readers will get to vote on the direction of the storyline and a great many of us (myself included) will get to contribute to writing these scenes! The first installment will begin on Wednesday, and mine will be coming up at the end of April... I'm already excited about getting to write something historical (I don't get to do that often) with a scene involving Edward Bennet, aka #HotBennetBrother, as he is affectionately known on Twitter, LOL.

Also today, my friend Alyssa Goodnight is having a special P&P Blog Hop, and all of us involved have the chance to share on our own blogs something about how we came to read/love P&P. For me, it was an assigned novel in high-school English class my freshman year. Much like the experience my heroine Ellie had in According to Jane, when the copies of the classic novel were plopped onto the students' desks, I lifted up my copy of the book not knowing that reading it would change my life. Unlike Ellie, of course, I did not hear Jane's voice in my head giving me dating advice (which is unfortunate, as I would have benefitted greatly from her wisdom!), but reading that story made me see the world and its people anew. What insight Austen had into human nature and behavior!! I'm still more than a little awed by her work, even all these decades later...

And a big thank you to EVERYONE who's purchased a copy of my new digital romance, Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match! Thanks to you, it's been a Top 100 Best Seller on Amazon in both "Single Women's Fiction" and in "Humor." I'm not only thrilled, I'm so honored and grateful to you all!! On the subject of both P&P and my own novel, I'll be guest blogging on Fresh Fiction today, too. Given all of the Manti Te'o/online dating controversy as of late, a discussion of Internet romances (and how easy it is to misrepresent oneself online) is my topic! Hope some of you are able to pop by...

Anyone have any particularly good news to share? Fun plans for the week or month ahead? I'd love to hear. And, now, for Jane, let us raise our glasses in a toast to a brilliant author who's brought us such timeless characters and compelling stories!! Cheers, Miss Austen!

10 comments:

Edie Ramer said...

Congrats on the success of your newest book! I did read it and loved it! I'll post a review tonight. As for Jane, I'm raising my mug of tea for her. Cheers!

MonicaP said...

Viva la Jane! I'm a blog-hoppin' fool on this special P&P anniversary day! Congrats on the success of PP&TPM - you really deserve it. I've had fun celebrating Marilyn Brant month, too (what regular mortals call "January" lol). After having read ASIE, According to Jane, Holiday Man, and PP&TPM, I think you have more in common with dear Jane than you know. When I think of her I think: relatable characters, wisdom and humor; and you have all of those. Happy P&P Day! And it never occurred to me that you'd be getting to write Regency style for Readers Choice. Cool!

lucaseth said...

Wow...200 years and going strong....her wit, her wonderful characters and we can still relate in our modern times..have read and enjoyed your works also..

Candy @ So little time... said...

Congratulations!! on being on the top of 2 top 100 list! That's fantastic! PP&tPM is a wonderful book! :) Happy P&P Day!

Marilyn Brant said...

Edie,
*Hug!* Thank you so much for reading it, and for your kindness in writing a review, too! I imagine Jane is clinking tea mugs with you on this special day ;).

Monica,
Ohhh, you are determined to make me blush! Thank you for reading so many of my novels and for all the kind things you've said about them!! And LOL about "January" having been Marilyn Brant month. I can no longer be ambivalent about the first month of the year anymore, even with all its ice and snow :). XOXO

Lucaseth,
Thank you!! I'm thrilled you've enjoyed my stories and that you took the time to stop by for the celebration today!! And I agree -- JA is timeless!

Candy,
Thanks so much for all your good wishes and, as always, for being so kind and supportive!! Happy P&P Day to you, too! I hope you had a day filled with Austen-inspired joy ;).

Robin Bielman said...

Woot! Congratulations, Marilyn! I'm so happy to hear what great success PPatPM is having! And happy 200th birthday to P&P! I hope you had an awesome day celebrating it, Marilyn! *hugs*

Veronica said...

Looking forward to reading your book. I've been hearing so many good things about it. I'm hopping through all the blogs of the P&P Blog Party Hop! Glad it brought me to you.

Marilyn Brant said...

Robin, thank you!!! And I don't know if I should hug you or strangle you for keeping me up so late last night...LOL :). I couldn't stop reading Yours At Midnight until I reached the very last page -- excellent story!!

Veronica, thanks so much for stopping by, being part of the P&P celebration and for saying such sweet things about my new book -- I'm so delighted you'd like to read it!!

Vesper said...

200 years! Amazing. Imagine if she would've somehow known what would happen to her story, how it would influence so many people... Really amazing!

Congratulations on the success of Pride, Prejudice and the Perfect Match!

xoxoxo

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