Following Austen

Kathleen Norris meets Bridget Jones

So, this is the big idea for this book:  Kathleen Norris meets Bridget Jones (with a good dose of Frances Mayes, as well).  If that's possible and I can pull it off, that's what I'm aiming for.  There are lots of biographies about Austen, and lots of fiction based on her writing, and everyone's writing a memoir these days.  But, as far as I know, there aren't any memoirs based on the writer's interaction with Austen and her material, which is what this will be.

And while there are some great Austen biographies, I don't think there are any that fans of her writing have devoured.  I want this to be that book.  It will be well researched, but it's not a straight-up, academic, let-me-tell-you-all-the-details-of-Austen's-life biography.  It's one devoted fan sharing the aspects of Austen's life that are most interesting to her, and that, I think, will be most interesting to readers as well. 

It will be about love, heartache, family, the meaning of home and community.  Independence, marriage, children, learning, work -- a woman's place in the world.  And writing and creativity, and even a little jealousy and fame. 

And it will be about faith.  While Austen didn't record anything about her own spiritual journey that we know of, except for a few references in her letters, she was immersed in the Anglican church.  Her father and two of her brothers were rectors.  She penned a couple prayers which survive.  And her faith evidences itself in a gentle way in her writing.

Mostly it will be about faith because I can't write about my own life without writing about my own delights and struggles in my relationship with God.  I've recently found a home in the Anglican church, and it makes me happy to feel some sense of connection with so many of the writers I love, including Austen.  How does my faith differ from hers?  That question may be impossible to answer, but I will investigate it.

Lastly -- or perhaps primarily -- it will be about travel.  The narrative progression will be based on the month-long trip I took in July 2005 to follow Austen's life through England.  Lovely Bath, gray Lyme, the quiet Hampshire countryside, me nearly losing my way on a solitary trek through the fields around Steventon, and hitchiking in the rain, and finding comfort and solace in evensong at Christchurch Cathedral.  I love Austen, and England -- and I hope this book will be a trip many Austen fans will want to take.

What's a blook?

A blook is a book that's released first in a blog before it's printed.  (Can you say that three times fast??)

Most of the blooks that I've seen are books the author's already finished that are released on a set schedule online before their publication date.  This one's a little bit different, in that I'm still very much in the writing process.

I plan to release 2-3 posts a week, which will be short sections of the book.  They will be polished, but not in final form.  I'm continuing to research and everything will go through 2-3 more rounds of editing before it's ready to print (I love to edit... and I hate to turn things in for the final-printed-version before I feel like they're as good as they can be).

I expect it to take 6 months or so to get the rough draft online.  After that, I expect to put in 3-6 more months finalizing the research and the editing.  If I self-publish, the book could be out shortly after that.  If I get a contract with a publishing house, it might take longer (but on the other hand, I might be able to commit more time to it, so it might not).

I wanted to go ahead and put pieces of the book out to connect with people, to start to build an audience, to get feedback about whether or not this idea actually works.  (Let me know what you think!)  It could be spectacular.  (I'm leaning that direction. ;-)  It could be a complete train wreck.  Either way, it will be an adventure.

The trip

I left for England on July 9 at 8:10am on a British Airways flight direct from Dulles to London.  What followed was a crazy, lovely, month-long journey through Austen's England.  Here's how it broke down:

• Oxford:  July 9 - 16 I started my trip with a week in Oxford, which has strong Austen connections.  (Among other things, Jane's father George and two of her brothers went to school at St. John's College.)  In addition to the Austen research, I attended a week-long class in theology and apologetics at Wycliffe Hall.
• Hampshire:  July 16 - 21 For the next five days, I was in the middle of the Hampshire countryside, where Jane grew up and where she lived later in her life when she was writing and publishing.  I stayed at Alton Abbey, a working monastery of the Anglican church, and visited Steventon (including St. Nicholas Church where her father was rector for so many years) and Chawton, where she and her mother and sister lived on her brother Edward's estate.
• London:  July 21 - 25 After Hampshire I moved on to stay with a dear friend outside of London for a few days.  I did day trips to Box Hill, and London (Jane's writing desk and a manuscript chapter of Persuasion are on display at the British Library, and the only drawing of Jane, the pencil drawing her sister Cassandra did, is at the National Portrait Gallery.)  I also did a rather adventurous trip to Canterbury and Godmersham, which was her brother Edward's other estate.
• Winchester:  July 25 On my way from London to Lyme, I stopped through Winchester to see Winchester Cathedral where Jane is buried and the house where she and Cassandra stayed during her illness.
• Lyme Regis:  July 25 - 27 I spent two gray days in Lyme where I stayed at an old (smelly!) hotel, walked the Cobb, and, of course, saw the "Granny's Teeth" steps from Persuasion.
• Bath:  July 27 - 31 From Lyme I was on to lovely Bath for four days. I visited the Jane Austen Centre and did their walking tour of the city, saw the Roman Baths, found a favorite tea shop on a quiet side street, and climbed Beechen Cliff like Catherine in Northanger Abbey.  I stayed at a great little B&B -- the Villa Magdala.
• Derbyshire:  July 31 - August 4 Derbyshire, in the Peak District, is the setting for Darcy's house, Pemberley, in Pride & Prejudice.  It's gorgeous countryside (though I failed to see any real peaks in the Peak District...).  I stayed with Jo and Rod Spensley at The Devonshire Arms, their great little pub in Pilsley for two nights, and then at a youth hostel in Youlgreave.  I visited Lyme Park, which was Pemberley in the BBC version of P&P, and then Chatsworth, which they say may have been a model for Pemberley, and was used in the new version of the movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFayden.
• Stoneleigh:  August 4 On my way back to London and back home, I made one final stop at Stoneleigh Abbey, Jane's mother's family's estate.

I spent one final day in Oxford, which I'd come to love, and flew home exhausted on August 6.

Many thanks to the team at The Republic of Pemberley.  This trip would have been nearly impossible to plan without all the detailed information and links on the Pemberley site.

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