Following Austen

Blooking

Two blooking interviews ran this weekend:

The first on The Blook Journey at Future Perfect Publishing:

FPP - What interested you most about Jane Austen?

Lori - I had been reading her books since college, and felt very close to her (which many of her readers do, I’ve found, and which I can’t entirely explain). I had read the books over and over — they’re like literary comfort food to me — and when I felt like I had nowhere left to go, started reading biographies and her letters. I wanted to see the places she lived, the countryside she loved. The book grew out of a month-long journey following her life.

And the second on Blooking Central (which is just some thoughts from me on what the blooking process was like).

Send in your icons for a free book!

The icon contest at Jane Austen Today has so many beautiful entries.

Send yours in (submit them at the JA Today blog) by midnight Sunday, November 4, for a chance to win a signed copy of A Walk with Jane Austen.   Fun!

Interview at MindyWithrow.com

Mindy Withrow, author of the History Lives series for children, has posted a "meet the author" interview on her site.  I had a lot of fun doing this. (And I want to ask her -- how is it possible that she has never watched the BBC version of P&P??)

My first question to a writer is always: how do you define “the writing life”? Every writer seems to have a different take on it.
Well, I think anyone who writes is a writer (published or not). If you feel like you just have to write, if you can’t make that go away, you’re a writer. But I’m incredibly privileged at this moment to be able to do this full-time. It’s a joy—and at the same time, a difficult life I wouldn’t wish on anyone! It can be pretty tough emotionally, financially…but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. (Um, except maybe health insurance.)

Read the whole thing here.

Live radio interview

I had the pleasure of doing a live radio interview this morning on WWJC's Northland Notebook in Duluth, Minnesota.  An MP3 of the interview is available here.

Blooking

Following Austen was mentioned in "The State of the Blook" on Future Perfect Publishing and in this post at Blooking Central.

I'll be sending Cheryl more info about the blooking process, but for me, it was a way to get pieces of the book out there and connect with an audience -- to promote the book before it came out and help demonstrate to a publisher that I was serious about promoting it.  To that end, it's been very successful.

Other "blookers" like Julie Powell of Julie and Julia fame just started blogging and then had a book deal come their way.

A few small things

Just heard yesterday that A Walk with Jane Austen will be features in Today's Christian Woman in the January/February issue.

Also, I'll be on the Paul Edwards radio show in Detroit on Tuesday (release day!) at 5:15 PM.  Looks like it's available via podcast.