The Country of Pointed Firs is a book you can take your time with. You can read a bit of it, put it down to read something else, and pick it right back up again, immediately immersing yourself into late 1800s New England. The book has a dreamy quality, and it's sense of nostalgia is very strong as if this place and time described no longer exists but in the author's memory. It's not especially sad, but it got me thinking of similar events or people in my life that are perhaps gone forever. You can tell that the importance lies in the time, as you can always go back to the place, but maybe things have changed so much that the experience will never be the same.

Since I read this book on and off over a period of several months, I will comment that I don't feel I lost anything from taking several breaks from reading. There are many characters in the book, but the plot is secondary to the the feel of the story, and that is something you don't forget as easily. A review by a reader on Amazon stayed with me, as it describes perfectly the mood of the book:

"I would recommend reading this book some afternoon with the telephone unplugged, sitting on a porch with a teapot full of Earl Grey nearby, with your feet propped up and your cares let down. It's as subtle and delightful as a waft of air from the garden after an afternoon shower. It's a haiku in prose--the memory of the book is better than the reading."

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart is a charming set of letters which offer a unique, distinctly female perspective on the American frontier experience. They chronicle the adventures of a young widow as she travels west with her small daughter from Denver to Wyoming, takes a job as housekeeper on a cattle ranch, and eventually stakes (and proves up on) her own claim. The letters, which were written over a span of years from 1909 to 1913, walk the line between truth and fiction; they are largely true, although some details and many of the names were changed by the author in order to create a stronger narrative and to protect the privacy of herself and her friends. But the stories of the men and woman who lived, loved, and worked in the Burntfork area of Wyoming in the early twentieth century are true stories, and they are astonishing, amusing, and inspiring by turns.

Elinore Pruitt Stewart has one of the strongest voices I’ve read in a long time. It is distinctive and personal, in part because the letters were originally written as attempts to amuse an old friend, who was ill. They began to be published in the Atlantic Monthly two years later, in 1914. Stewart’s tone immediately draws the reader into the world of the author, and embraces them with a confidential tone. They are chatty, newsy, cheerful letters, full of fascinating and amusing characters, funny stories, and beautiful descriptions of Wyoming scenery.

The timeless appeal of Stewart’s Letters of a Woman Homesteader undoubtedly lies not just in her interesting adventures, but in the indomitable good humor and optimism of Elinore Stewart herself and the people of whom she wrote--notably the strong, capable, intelligent, humorous, and hardworking—in short, the inspiring. frontier women she met in Wyoming.

Letters of a Woman Homesteader will appeal to fans of books set in small towns with a wide range of quirky and interesting characters, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird, the novels of L.M. Montgomery, or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

I wish I could transport you here this moment from our sour easterly skies to this endless summer and endless sunshine, and shimmer of a peaceful sea, and an atmosphere whose influences are all cheering.

Have you ever been to Hawaii? Are you planning a trip there? Did you just get back? Do you remember a trip there from long ago? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then by all means, read Isabella Bird’s fascinating The Hawaiian Archipelago. This narrative is a vivid study in contrasts: long, lazy afternoons in the sun and perfect weather punctuated by harrowing, sweltering horseback rides up the sides of volcanoes, then coming very close to frostbite while sitting nearly atop Mauna Loa, the Earth’s biggest active volcano.

Ms. Bird’s ambition was to visit all the Hawaiian volcanoes, and visit she did, starting with Kilauea and progressing to the great dead volcano, Haleakala and ultimately to Mauna Loa. “It was a strange thing to sleep on a lava-bed at a height of nearly 14,000 feet, far away from the nearest dwelling, 'in a region,' as Mr. Jarves says, 'rarely visited by man,' hearing all the time the roar, clash, and thunder of the mightiest volcano in the world.”

Ms. Bird’s work is significant because of the historical as well as personal perspective she offers. Published in 1875, The Hawaiian Archipelago depicts a far different Hawaii than the one we see in travelogues or the one made famous by Pearl Harbor. During Bird’s time, one primary concern about Hawaii was its dwindling population and abandonment of once-thriving communities. Another concern was the loss of civic leaders as well as children and parents to the leper colony on the island of Molokai. While the residents of Molokai were treated benevolently, all residents understood that it was a one-way trip.

What a strange place Hawaii must have been—a place where children swim to school, and where food is so abundant and the climate is so benevolent that natives have no real need to plan for the future. Bird finds their lackadaisical attitude somewhat frustrating, although one suspects that were she to stay longer she would likely adopt some of the native traits. I am sure that she hopes, however, that she would still refrain from the incessant gossip rampant among both natives and expatriates. But her love for the islands and the personal healing she has experienced, both physically and psychologically, will leave her always in its thrall.

It is best to leave the islands now. I love them better every day, and dreams of Fatherland are growing fainter in this perfumed air and under this glittering sky. A little longer, and I too should say, like all who have made their homes here under the deep banana shade.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

Cuba 1964: When the Revolution Was Young by Deena Stryker
25% off with discount code REW25
In 1964 Deena Stryker traveled to Cuba to interview the original "Twelve" leaders of the Revolution. The members of the government including Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Che Guevara and Celia Sanchez, spoke to her informally, occasionally talking about each other. The photographs are now part of a collection at Duke University. Stryker returned to Cuba in 2011, taking the pictures in the Epilogue.

Nachtstürm Castle: A Gothic Austen Novel by Emily C.A. Snyder
50% off with discount code REW50
Catherine Tilney had settled in for a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic English life in the countryside with her husband, the Reverend Henry Tilney.  Unfortunately, a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic life had not settled itself for her.  An original sequel to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey,Nachtstürm Castle whisks the reader and its heroine away to the border countries in the Austrian Alps, where adventure, mistaken identities, lost heirs, and terrifying butlers lurk.

Margaret's Rematch by Farida Mestek
FREE with discount code RE100
After the loss of her sister, Margaret Fairfax settles at the country estate of her brother-in-law, Mr. Westfield, whose dislike of her is legendary. She faces a challenge in proving to him that she is worthy of his regard. With time and many an exertion, Margaret succeeds in altering Mr. Westfield’s opinion and attaching his heart. But she fears the worst when her deceitful friend arrives.

The Happy Medium by Janice Tarver
FREE with discount code RE100
Although she has sometimes been referred to as a clairvoyant, author Janice Tarver prefers to describe her abilities as those of a medium. The Happy Medium centers upon Janice’s interactions with clients, the clients themselves having submitted many of the experiences described in the book. Her journey through acceptance and actualization of her gift comprises another facet of the story.

Celebrities for Breakfast by Shelley Stout
FREE with discount code RE100
Personal shopper to the stars, Judith Collington, refuses to spend one more day in LA, answering the demands of her Hollywood clientele. To escape, Judith and her daughter give up their lucrative lifestyle to run a bed and breakfast in Illinois. Judith prepares to purchase the property, until it changes hands in a poker game. New owner: Hollywood actor and part-time egomaniac, Ren Spencer.

There Must Be Murder by Margaret C. Sullivan, illustrated by Cassandra Chouinard
50% off with discount code REW50
To the Tilneys, revisiting to Bath a year after they first met seems it can only add to their happiness; but Catherine finds Bath still carries dangers she must learn to navigate. Revisit the pleasures of Georgian Bath with your favorite characters from Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and prepare for romance, mystery, and a very nice story indeed! Includes 29 illustrations by Cassandra Chouinard.

Almendra: A Fairy Tale by Farida Mestek
FREE with discount code RE100
Almendra, the High Lady of The Upper Kingdom, is doomed. Many years ago, in a rage, her mother banished all the men from the country and plunged it into unhappiness. To get rid of the curse, Almendra must go to The Land of Men to find love that will restore The Upper Kingdom to all its former glory. But it’s a long way to The Land of Men and the outcome of the journey will change her forever.

Heart Pulled to Pieces by Megan Trennett
50% off with discount code REW50
When her marriage ends abruptly, Andi Mathews leaves the City to start a whole new life in a small town known as The Tourist Trap. A good distance away from her old life, Andi heals by meeting new friends, and flirting with the idea of falling in love once more. But just when life starts to look good for Andi, an unexpected turn of events sends her world crashing down all over again.

Lunch with Fellini, Dinner with Fidel  by Deena Stryker
25% off with discount code REW25
An American Woman's Journey from the Cold War to the Arab Spring. Highlights include her stint as Fellini's press officer during the shooting of the film 8 1/2, journalistic adventures in Cuba where she held informal conversations with all the members of government including Fidel, Raul and Che. Stryker's memoir is not only a professional journey but a deeply personal exploration.

Letters of Love & Deception by Emily C.A. Snyder
50% off with discount code REW50
Part I of this collection of Austenesque short stories offers us a glimpse into various behind-the-scenes interactions from Austen's original works. In Part II, Snyder runs with her imagination taking on various "what-ifs" to hilarious results. The final story, "Pride and Paraliterature" is a satiric take on the phenomenon of monster mash-ups.

Sense and Sensibility annotated by Margaret C. Sullivan, illustrated by Cassandra Chouinard
50% off with discount code REW50
This edition of Jane Austen's first published novel is annotated by AustenBlog's Margaret C. Sullivan and illustrated by Cassandra Chouinard. Sense and Sensibility chronicles two sisters' experiences through romance, misunderstandings and heartbreak. Elinor Dashwood with her good sense and well-developed sense of justice forms a foil to her romantic, headstrong sister Marianne.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, illustrated by Catherine LaPointe
FREE with discount code RE100
This edition contains original illustrations by Catherine LaPointe. Set in 1584, The Mysteries of Udolpho tells the story of Emily St. Aubert, a young French woman who is orphaned after the death of her father. The novel is one of the first Gothic romances, replete with incidents of terror, castles, seemingly supernatural events, a brooding, scheming villain, and a persecuted heroine.

An Altered Ending by Megan Trennett
50% off with discount code REW50
Ellen Mitchell did not imagine she would be nearing thirty, dealing with her mother's terminal illness and taking life day by day. This all changes with an email from her former professor who offers to help get her dream of writing off the ground. Their relationship has never been simple, and now she wonders if she'll let the one who got away slip through her fingers once again.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

Since this year marks the 150th year since the United States Civil War began, Portrait of the Past is an appropriate offering for our ebook catalog. Author Kate Halleron demonstrates a firm grasp of the storytelling process, and her studies into the psychological aspects of the storyline are intriguing. Portrait of the Past grabs the reader from the beginning and doesn’t let go till the last sentence.

The story begins in the year 1880 with an obviously talented artist selling her canvases and miniatures on the wharf in San Francisco. We soon learn that the artist is African American; a former slave who was wronged by her former owner, her family members and her country itself. She protects her emotional scars by avoiding unnecessary human contact and by assuming that a benevolent deity, or perhaps any deity, does not exist.

While reading Portrait of the Past, I kept thinking of Gone With the Wind—from the underside. What if the family owning the slaves was not well off like the O’Hara family? What if the slaves were not the only helpless members of the household; the owners being as much a captive of the Southern economic system as the slaves? What if the protagonists lived in a border state (Kentucky), where allegiances were less clear-cut than in decidedly Southern Georgia?

Author Halleron pieces together stories of the years immediately preceding, during and following the civil war. She changes viewpoint starting with a story told bitterly by Marguerite Dumas (A.K.A. Daisy Carr). Later, an account of the same events is related by her former owner and yet another told by her uncle (also a former slave), each making clearer the picture of what actually happened to cause our protagonist’s bitterness.

By switching points of view, author Halleron offers us some unique angles and some interesting speculations regarding interactions between slaveholders, former slaveholders, freed slaves and those who had never owned slaves. Her stories also treat us to historical details regarding some of the ugly truths about the slavery system in the South, the battles fought in Kentucky during the war, and the workings of the Underground Railroad.

In her answers to my interview questions below, Ms. Halleron mentions that she has written mostly Sci Fi/Fantasy, and that the fact that she came up with an historical novel was a surprise to her. It is my sincere wish that we will be seeing some of her Sci/Fi offered here soon.

How long have you been writing? Tell us a little about your writing /publishing career.

I’ve been writing for my own amusement off and on since the third grade. Mostly I’ve written science fiction/fantasy, so the fact that my first (and probably my second) full-length book was a historical novel came as some surprise to me. Much of what I’ve written is fan fiction, and Marguerite first appeared in a fan fiction story I wrote several years ago. She’s lived in my head since then, demanding that I tell her story.

Other than on the Internet, this is the first thing I have published.

In “Portrait of the Past”, the attitudes of the San Franciscans that we meet seem to be very cosmopolitan for the 1880s. Do you use these attitudes as a literary convention, or do you have reason to believe that such openness actually existed then? (I keep visualizing the 1960s in the American South and Rosa Parks being asked to move to the back of the bus.)

The late Nineteenth century was more ‘modern’ than many people realize but, yes, I did wish to convey that the family Marguerite falls in with is different from most of the Americans she has dealt with – more tolerant, more open. As with many people, she needs their safe haven before she can find a way to heal.

Every time period contains people who are more progressive and open than the average. Even in the 1960s (even now) there were social progressives in the South.

Your story talks a lot about art. Are you an artist yourself?

I have dabbled in watercolor and taken some drawing classes – I like to try new things, but no, I am not an artist myself. As I said in my biography, I knit and am an amateur photographer, so I do have some experience with creating and with the kind of ‘eye’ an artist needs to have.

Marguerite’s experiences make a very vivid story. What inspired you to write Portrait of the Past and what sort of historical information did you rely upon? (Besides the historical information you mention in the back of your book regarding Civil War battles in Kentucky.)

I tend to write character-driven stories – and Marguerite is a character who has haunted me for some time. Even though I grew up in the South - Kentucky and Louisiana - I actually knew very little about the Civil War. I spent a year researching before I ever sat down to write – reading everything I could find about the US Colored troops, about contemporary attitudes to slavery and to free blacks, about the abolition movement, the history of Kentucky and many other things.

Much of your story is told in flashbacks. This mode of storytelling was very effective, and I was intrigued by how intricately the plot unfolded. However, I suspected that detailing the plot in this manner was more difficult than telling the story in a straight timeline. Was it difficult to keep up with your story lines when you were writing the book? Why did you tell the story in flashbacks?

I made a few notes, but no, it wasn’t terribly difficult to keep things straight. I write in what may be an odd way – the story has to be fairly complete in my mind before I sit down to write. I don’t make an outline, but I do need to understand my characters and their choices before I commit words to paper. The act of writing is merely recording who they already are and what they’ve done.

So the story came in flashback form because 35-year-old Marguerite was the one who needed the healing and she could only find that by reliving her past and coming to understand it, as many of us also need to do.

Another effective convention that you used is to have a character relate a past event, then later have another character relate the same event from a different viewpoint. This was especially interesting when you described the dilemma of a somewhat benevolent slave holder when the only “property” he has left is his slaves. I don’t think I ever came across that viewpoint before. What inspired you to relate this kind of viewpoint?

I hate villains who are evil because they’re evil – everyone has a reason for what they do, people are far more complicated than that. We all have our dark places and our demons. And sometimes cataclysm is the best thing that can happen to us. Life is messy. I prefer to read stories with some moral ambiguity – pure evil is as boring as pure goodness.

As to Lucian and his dilemma – I do think that the institution of slavery was a trap to the slaveholders as well as the slaves. I think of Thomas Jefferson and his own quandary, his description of ‘having the tiger by the tail’ when it came to freeing the slaves. Even most abolitionists at the time were in favor of gradual emancipation – the sudden release of millions of uneducated slaves was something only the most radical abolitionists desired.

Lucian’s dilemma reflected the dilemma of the South as a whole – when your entire economy depends on something vile, what do you do?

What authors have inspired you to become a writer and why?

Oh, that’s a hard one – there are so many. My mother taught me to read when I was four years old, and I’ve pretty much devoured everything I can get my hands on since then. My earliest stories were inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which my mother gave to me for my seventh birthday.

One book I read in junior high that had a profound impact on my writing was Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl. The story is told from two different viewpoints – from one viewpoint it’s a science fiction story, from the other viewpoint, it’s a medieval fantasy. From that one book I learned that viewpoint is everything – both in story and in real life.

Other writers that have profoundly affected me – Louisa May Alcott, Madeleine L’engle, Thomas Merton, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Alexandre Dumas, Ellery Queen.

Oh, yeah, I read a LOT.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

In this romantic comedy novelette, author Lorene Haupt poses some scenarios that will whet the appetites of women who remember the guy that got away. While introducing us to a romantic story that captivates our interest, Haupt weaves in fun pop-culture references, from Pretty in Pink to Pearl Jam. She also broaches some unexpected topics such as diabetes, Weight Watchers, Facebook, and—ahem—Chlamydia.

Our heroine, Elise, has been married to a reliable if boring man for 13 years, but she is not unhappy. He married her when she was considerably overweight, and she has remained so with no complaint from him for the duration of their marriage. They discussed children unenthusiastically, but at the point when she became serious about the subject, fertility problems prevented further discussion.

Spending some time on Facebook, she connects with a man from her past—one with whom she had an uncharacteristically intimate encounter shortly after they finished high school. Elise doesn’t think too much about their innocent online flirtation--after all, he's married too and lives on the other side of the country. The intimacy they experienced might have been due to nothing more than too many tequila shots. She also has other issues to deal with—diabetes for one, and getting the weight off to preserve her health; and what with the fertility problems, her health is her major concern now.

Author Haupt keeps the plot humming to the point where several plot lines converge. At the point Elise finally gets her health back to normal, the rest of her life spins out of control. She must then make some decisions that will change her life completely. What follows could be a fantasy or a nightmare, but Elise handles the situation the way a heroine should: amusing us every step of the way.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

The crisp air of October in the Bering Sea, the ocean slapping against the bow, two macho men to share a bunk room with, a high-paying, if perilous job fishing for crabs, and all the chocolate milk she can drink—with all this, what does Shawn Nilsen have to complain about? For beginners, she just ran away from Seattle after a shattered engagement. A week before the wedding, her fiancé eloped with her best friend and used her bank account to finance a honeymoon in Aruba. Lacking the funds to pay her college tuition, she flees to Alaska and gets hired for the only kind of work she knows something about—crab fishing.

Worse yet, the two macho men sharing her bunk room have reason to mistrust or even openly dislike her. Drake Richards, the captain’s son, dislikes her because “women don’t belong on fishing boats.” Besides, he’s a tea drinker. JP is kind to her but shouldn’t be. She brought him to grief ten years ago when they worked together on her grandfather’s fishing boat. He and the captain drink the swill they call coffee aboard ship. (Author Voynich effectively uses a character’s preferred drink as a metaphor for a different aspect of one’s personality.)

Shawn considers leaving the boat’s service. However, the captain insists that it’s too late to replace her. The boat launches with undercurrents of seething resentment clouding the atmosphere while the captain plays referee to the two feuding crew members. Shawn’s only hope for a positive outcome is her strong work ethic and non-traditional background. A stint in the Coast Guard in addition to her crab fishing experience establish her credibility as a (ahem) fisherman. Or she’ll drown in the process. At this time she isn’t sure which would leave her better off.

This engaging novel offers a liberal dose of conflict mitigated by the actions of some truly decent and hard working, if flawed, human beings. If you are a strong believer in the philosophy that even some of the worst things happen for a reason, this book will reinforce that viewpoint. Set aside several sizable blocks of time for reading because this novel is a difficult one to put down.

Author Lana Voynich kindly answered the following questions about her background and inspirations behind writing the book.

Where did you grow up, and where do you call home?
I grew up in Grand Rapids, MN (a small town in the northern part of the state). Currently I live in northern Wisconsin. Home is wherever my husband, dogs and cats are.

Name three of your favorite authors and three of your favorite books.
I like so many different authors, genres and books, it's hard to pick just three. I guess I'd have to go with Nicholas Sparks, L.M. Montgomery, and Mary O'Hara as my favorite authors. The books that I read over and over again are Anne of Green Gables, All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriott, and My Friend Flicka.

What book most influenced you when you were growing up?
I can't pick just one. I devoured all of Jim Kjelgaard's books (Big Red, Irish Red, etc). I couldn't get enough of Mary O'Hara's books. Whenever my parents received their new Reader's Digest Condensed Books, I'd hide it from them until I finished reading all of the stories because I didn't want to share. I read everything I could get my hands on and I remember being bored during "library time" during elementary school because I'd read all the fiction on our school's shelf by the time I was in 4th grade.

As a child, did you have an ambition to become an author?
Yes. One day I was bored in the car and my mom gave me a piece of paper and a pencil and told me to write a story. I came up with some crazy story about my pet frog stealing a car and driving into town. When I filled the entire paper, I started writing on the back of a tissue box. I think that's when I decided I wanted to be an author.

What inspired you to write Alaskan Healing?
My husband was watching "Deadliest Catch" on television one day and I thought to myself "What if there was a female crew member trying to prove herself?" After that, I couldn't get Shawn out of my mind.

You seem to know a lot about crab fishing. Does your knowledge come from research or experience?
Research. Unfortunately, I've never even been to Alaska. The only experience I have with crabs is eating it at a nice restaurant.

Shawn Nilsen is a strong woman character, able to handle herself even in a male-dominated profession. How is she like you? How is she different from you?
Shawn and I are similar in that we've both been employed in predominantly male fields. We both like to appear to be stronger than we really are, and don't always expect the best from people. Shawn is different from me because I've never punched anyone just because they annoyed me, and she's quite a bit braver than I am. I'd never have the strength to leave everything with just the possibility of a job in another state far from everyone I know.

You mention that you were involved in a male-dominated profession. If you are willing, would you tell us what that profession is?
I worked as a printing press operator for 9 years, and there was only one other woman on my shift. All of my bosses were male and everyone I dealt with on a daily basis was male. I also worked for two years as a laborer in a paper mill, one summer in a sheet metal shop with a crew of 7 men. For some reason, 95% of the men I've worked with think they can perform manual labor better than a woman, even when the job doesn't require brute strength.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

In the 1920s the Radium Dial Company opened a factory in Illinois producing luminous paint made from radium. This paint was used to paint clock faces, safety signs, even watches for soldiers--anything that needed to glow in the dark. The primarily female workers at this factory and a similar one in New Jersey were told that the paint was harmless and were even encouraged to lick their paint brushes to sharpen them. This ingestion of the radioactive paint led to severe health problems and sometimes death of many of the workers. Five of them, known in the media as the Radium Girls, sued their former employer and won, thereby establishing several legal precedents in the U.S. regarding individual worker rights and labor safety standards.

Radium Halos is a fictional story based on these true events. Our narrator is Helen Waterman, a 65-year-old mental patient who worked at the Radium Dial factory when she was 16. She tells us her story through flashbacks, slowly revealing her past, the loved ones she's lost, and the dangerous secrets she's kept all these years.

While the subject matter is intense, the tone of the novel is surprisingly light. Thanks is due to Helen who adds humor through her naive and bluntly honest outlook. Her periodic flashbacks introduce the people who have moved in and out of her life in the past 50 years. Author Shelley Stout excels in making these characters feel real, never sacrificing detail in favor of stereotypes. We feel for the characters as Helen does: we are irritated with nagging niece Pearl but understand why she's that way; we feel affection for young friend Adrienne but are anxious about some choices she's made; we defer to big sister Violet's decisions but secretly wonder if she's right after all.

Ideally for me, a novel will impart new knowledge and introduce characters I can quietly observe for a few days while reading and who stay with me for many more after that. Radium Halos does both. I've been introduced to some important history that I knew nothing about, and I've met a variety of colorful and interesting characters who will no doubt stay with me for quite a while.

The following are some questions I had for Shelley Stout about the inspirations she had behind writing the book. Thanks to Shelley for sharing her answers with us.

Before reading your book, I had never heard of the Radium Dial painters. What was your inspiration for writing about this subject matter?

In the late 1980's, I watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel called "Radium City." This documentary told the terrifying and tragic story of the unfortunate women who went through this ordeal. The documentary also described the city of Ottawa, IL, and how radioactivity from the demolished factory remains today. The documentary had such an impact on me, I continued to think about it for nearly two decades. By 2004, I had written a few novels-- mostly romantic comedy, but I felt I was ready to tackle a bigger, more important subject. I began researching the story again. There are several non-fiction books on the subject, but I was determined to bring the story to the public in the form of a novel. My research included borrowing and viewing a very grainy VHS copy of the original documentary from a library in Peru, IL. I received help along the way from experts in the field.

I also spent a day at a mental hospital, where I received a private tour and lecture from a gentleman who had actually worked there in the early 70's.

Your narrator and main character, Helen, is the highlight of the book for me. What was your inspiration behind this character?

I think Helen appeals to readers because everyone can relate to being trapped in a place or a circumstance beyond their control. The character Helen evolved out of studying the true story behind the tragedy, and finding a voice that could tell the story, yet be a uniquely resilient individual who must endure tremendous hardships and adversity in her life.

Because this was based on true events, did you find anything in your research, perhaps small details, that you particularly wanted to include in the book? Were there any characters or character traits that are based on details you found when researching?

Some of the details that I wanted to be sure to include were the health issues: the body's reaction to the radiation and long-term poisoning. Also, about the testing at the lab, and how the original factory was demolished.

Beth and Violet suffered from the effects as young women. Many of the women were affected within a short time. Others were not affected until they were much older. So the details of how Beth and Violet's bodies reacted were important for me to detail for the reader.

A few times while reading, I started imagining what a certain scene would look like in a movie. Did you think of the book as the basis for a movie while writing it? Who would be your ideal actress to play Helen's character?

Many other readers have also said Halos would make a great movie, but I wasn't necessarily thinking of that while I was writing it. I began to think in those terms after I'd revised it several times, and started to work on the pacing. As far as an actress, I don't have anyone in mind. Just a really good character actress, rather than someone well-known.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

A short comment about the author at the end of An Altered Ending mentions that Megan Trenett has lived in both small towns and large cities. Living in these areas, she mentions, has given her "the chance to be inspired by different surroundings and the different people these places present". Since I read and enjoyed Megan Trennett’s previous submission, Heart Pulled to Pieces, which instilled in me a tremendous longing for coffee shops and shopping malls, I can well attest that she has a talent for conveying her settings and the characters which inhabit them.

In An Altered Ending, Megan Trennett has moved from shopping mall to university campus. Her heroine, Ellen Mitchell, has spent the six years since her graduation watching her mother suffer from cancer. Her mother’s illness has been the focal point of her life, thus prompting her to abandon the writing career she had once dreamed of and the professor over whom she suffered a chaste case of hero worship and a blossoming friendship.

Ellen’s mother is now residing in an hospice facility, and Ellen is still avoiding personal commitments in order to spend as much time with her as possible, even as her mother advises her to broaden her horizons and seek out some romance in her life. An email from her former professor, Simon Avery, could be the answer to both her social void and her professional dissatisfaction.

Simon asks her to join him for coffee. (For the record, Ellen drinks green tea—but the coffee shop ambience prevails.) At the coffee shop, Simon tells her that his publisher is looking for new authors and has asked for him to send manuscripts from some of his most gifted students. At first, Ellen does not feel up to the task, but after some careful soul searching she decides to put together a manuscript of the book that has been waiting six long years to be written.

What follows is part Friends, part Sex and the City, dosed with a good dollop of the angst-ridden romance we love from the classics. While the manuscript is being written, Ellen enjoys a few platonic dates with Simon, the understanding being that each already has a significant other and that the dates are more literary than romantic. Things however never stay the same for long. One can almost predict the outcome, but the ins and outs of the plot will both amuse and surprise. The reader may even find herself longing to hang out at a university campus, and she will most definitely find the need to have a long chat with friends at the nearest corner coffee shop.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

This review is meant as a tribute to Edith Wharton's writing skill, because she can take a topic about which this reader has little knowledge and less interest and weave it into a page-turner. An inspiring story with a happy ending it is not, but The House of Mirth has many qualities to recommend it. Its heroine, Lily Bart, is not noble. She is snobbish and indecisive, qualities only somewhat mitigated by her intelligence, generosity and integrity (at least in comparison with the other characters caught up in the social whirl of New York's Fifth Avenue at the dawn of the Twentieth Century.)

Lily Bart is a beautiful, sought-after socialite who turns down more marriage proposals than Scarlett O'Hara accepts. Pushing 30, she is still hedging on commitment, possibly because her heart belongs to Lawrence Selden. Lily has made it clear to Lawrence that they can only be friends because she must marry a rich man, as both of her parents died and left her in a upper crust social milieu with no inheritance of her own. Lily lives with her aunt who is kind to her and pays most of her expenses except the debts Lily has incurred playing cards for money. The aunt's attitude might have been reasonable had Lily not incurred the debt fulfilling a social obligation to join her aunt's bridge parties. Thus Lily's life goes on, her obligations leave her damned if she does, damned if she doesn't, and she lacks the wherewithal to ignore social obligations and strike out on a path of her own. The issue of her debt drives the downward trajectory of Lily's social status, since Lily possesses neither the money sense nor the professional skill to manage her finances or shore up her dwindling bank balance.

In spite of the fact that The House of Mirth was published in 1905, the truths that Wharton illustrates with Lily's story feel strangely contemporary. Wharton pictures a new class of self-made millionaires created by Wall Street, casts a shadow over the tenuous position of those in the "leisure class" and offers a peek at the ascendancy of the self-supporting career woman. What a working woman can take away from this story is a gladness that she can marry or not; that she can keep her friends or not; that she can join the social whirl or thumb her nose at it because she possesses an independence that Lily Bart was denied.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

If you're expecting something similar to Charlotte Brontë's more famous novel Jane Eyre, you will most likely be disillusioned with Villette--but that's not to say you won't like it. While both novels enjoy similar craftsmanship, the tone could not be more different. Personally, I had a hard time the first time I picked up Villette. However after reading several comments on the C19 forum that promised an enthralling story, some said better than Jane Eyre, I picked it up again.

This time around several favorable aspects of the novel appeared. One is the quality of not just the story but of the storytelling. The book is sonorous--Brontë has a strong and poetic command over the language that is especially apparent in this, her final novel. Another was the beautifully detailed inner turmoil of our protagonist, Lucy Snowe. Some say much of the inspiration for Villette was taken from Brontë's own life, from the time she spent in Belgium teaching English. This would make sense, as Lucy Snowe's thoughts seem too minutely described to be drawn purely from imagination.

In spite of all the intricate details, Lucy Snowe is a most ambiguous and intriguing narrator. Over a third of the story she keeps a startling secret from the reader, and then casually mentions it as if it were a simple side note. I found myself having dreams of reading Villette and finding more surprising plot twists and turns. I will definitely put this one the "to re-read" shelf and look forward to new odd experiences Lucy Snowe will inflict next time.

A note on the text--there is a lot of French dialog. So if you don't know any French, you will be lost. If you know a tiny bit of French, you will do okay, but you will wish you had kept up better with your foreign language skills.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

First published in 1794 in four volumes, The Mysteries of Udolpho is a Gothic Romance set in the 16th century. The novel is unique in this genre in that its many mysterious and supernatural events are eventually given a rational explanation. While most famous today for being referenced in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, The Mysteries of Udolpho was wildly popular on its own account upon initial publication and in subsequent decades.

Central to the plot is our beloved heroine, Emily St. Aubert. She is a young French woman who bears a striking resemblance to the heroine of Fanny Burney's Cecila. She is an orphan, naive, innately good, yet preyed upon and at the mercy of many shady characters, many who are her own relatives. Like Cecilia's favorite suitor Mortimer Delville, Emily's true love, Valencourt, has the same emotional (some would say whiny) character and true heart. And like Cecilia, Emily's story is long.

The novel begins in France as we travel up and down and back up the Apennines too many times to count. It is almost a relief when Emily departs for sea level, traveling to Venice under the "protection" of her vain and superficial aunt and her aunt's new husband, Montoni. Emily is frustratingly at the whim of Montoni, who is intent on marrying her off to the first rich Count he encounters. From Venice we enter the mountains again, and this time they are crawling with banditti. Now things get interesting at the Castle of Udolpho

I will stop the summary here as I cannot do smallest justice to the story in Radcliffe's own words. This long novel contains enough excitement for three novels of such length. The subject matter is also shocking, even for modern readers. It deals with death, murder, poison, secret passageways, crumbling turrets, obsessed lovers and shady bandits. It is amazing that Radcliffe can write a story with gory and fantastic elements and yet in the end explain it away with Victorian (or rather, Regency) propriety.

Despite the dark and gloomy context, Radcliffe's prose is enchanting. There is also much poetry--Emily many times will burst into song while particularly entranced by a scene in nature. Music and poetry make up a large portion of the text and come in at the most critical points of the plot. It makes one wonder why this novel has never been made into a musical. What is Broadway waiting for? Forget The Phantom of the Opera, The Mysteries of Udolpho would be a smash hit!

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

In order to do a proper review of Margaret’s Rematch I had to overcome a huge case of language envy. I’m accustomed to being jealous of writers who produce entire novels and demonstrate an easy facility for the language, but I acknowledge that a large percentage of English speakers have a better command of its written word than I. Farida Mestek, author of Margaret’s Rematch, raises my language envy to a new level, for her native language is not English but Russian. Farida is from the Ukraine. She has done a remarkable job of presenting an Austen-style novel that reflects not only a good understanding of plot development but also the ability to mimic a proper English lady’s writing style. This fact raises her accomplishment from excellent to outstanding. With that in mind, I present my review.

Some books offer the reader a roller coaster ride, with ups and down, twists and turns and not a few panics. Some books offer a game of hide-and-seek, constantly changing the rules just when you think you have figured out the plot’s trajectory. Some books, and indeed the most enjoyable, offer a comfortable predictability, where you can guess the ending, perhaps from the first sentence, but hold your interest by taking you on a n enjoyable journey from here to there. Margaret’s Rematch belongs to the third type of novel, serving up a healthy dose of conflict, but allowing the story to meander gently and pleasantly toward its goal.

The conflict comes in the form of character development. Will Margaret gain any measure of respectability in her brother-in-law’s eyes? Will Catherine’s rumormongering destroy any inroads Margaret has made toward reconciling with him? Will that unfortunate and all-too-public scandal involving Margaret, Mr. Linton and Linton’s fiancée sully Margaret’s reputation so badly that no one will have her? And who is Catharine’s mystery man, the man to whom she claims to be engaged?

The first chapter sets the stage as James Westfield, who was married to Margaret’s late sister Isabella, contemplates his complete antipathy toward Margaret even as he journeys to London to take her away from a life that has become too scandalous for his tastes. Returning to his home, Northbrook Hall, the two have little to say to each other, with past hurts and conflicts seething beneath the surface.

In spite of their awkward start, Margaret’s ability to enchant Mr. Westfield’s son, charm his mother, and befriend his sister pave the road toward a more cordial relationship between Mr. Westfield and Margaret. Margaret grows to like the country and enjoy the serenity of her stay at Northbrook Hall. But her tranquility is shattered by the arrival of two reminders of her London life: Clifford Stockley and his conniving sister Catharine.

If you are looking for a romance peppered with heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods, Margaret’s Rematch is not for you. However if a mature, quiet romance with an interesting psychological angle is more your style, read and enjoy.

The following is an interview with author Farida:

Where are you from and what is your native language?

I'm from Ukraine, Odessa. My native language is Russian. It's Ukrainian as well, but as Odessa is situated in the south of Ukraine - pro-Russian part of the country - I grew up speaking Russian.

Where did you find your inspiration for writing Margaret’s Rematch?

I am a very big Jane Austen fan. Having read her books for the umpteenth time I wondered if there were similar books written by modern authors. What I found in their place was a Regency romance market overstuffed with titled rakes and their mistresses. I realized that unless I wanted to read a book to my liking I would just have to write it myself.

Is this your first novel? If not, what else have you written?

After Margaret’s Rematch, I have completed two more Regency-set stories one of which is going to be published this summer. The story, though set in Regency, is in quite a different key from Margaret’s Rematch as it has at its core the blossoming feelings of mutual affection between two men.

In your novel appear two characters, a woman named Catharine and a man named Linton. These names are reminiscent of Wuthering Heights. Coincidence or deliberate?

Oh, it was a pure coincidence! I had no idea, really. But now I would love to reread Wuthering Heights.

Did you have a real life location that was the inspiration for Northbrook Hall, or was it a figment of your imagination?

Well, part of it was a figment of my imagination, but Margaret’s favourite spot with the lake and willows is quite a real place. In fact, it was after I saw the place that I decided that Margaret would just love it.

Catharine is by far the most interesting character in the novel, in spite of Margaret’s antipathy toward her. Where did you find the inspiration for Catharine?

For Margaret’s antagonist I needed someone I personally would dislike greatly and I cast around for all the unpleasant girls and women that I ever had to come into contact with. But I am very lucky in that the characters themselves come and find me, telling me their stories and insisting that I should write them so I don’t have to look far for inspiration. I love to watch and study people around me and borrow their most pronounced qualities and traits for my characters.

Where do you think Catharine comes by her need for gossip and intrigue?

She is trying to make her way by the only means available to her: she is neither pretty nor wealthy, but she has enough cunning and lack of morals about her to use gossip and intrigue in order to get what she wants.

When you started Margaret’s Rematch did you have a clear picture of where it was headed, or did you let the novel write itself?

I always make an outline of the story I am about to write. Of course, while writing I deviated greatly from its original plan, but despite all the alterations that I’ve made whenever I looked into the outline (and it happened very rarely) it kept me on track.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

The first novel by Fanny Fern, otherwise known as Sara Payson Willis, is a semi-autobiographical tale of a talented writer who loses her husband and is forced to support herself and two young children in the mid-1800s. Fern writes with biting social commentary on the subject of traditional assumptions of a woman's place in society.

The chapters are short and character details are sparse. With a journalist's style, Fern builds her story through snippets of information and dialog. In these snippets, she fearlessly depicts real-life events and people, draping them in a fictional guise. Most of Fern's family is here--her father and brother and in-laws--in all their vicious detail. We follow the "story" of Ruth Hall from her happy married life to groveling for work while her relations turn a blind eye to her poverty and suffering. Upon her first successes as a paid writer, she takes the same approach in exposing the underhanded tactics of publishers, especially when dealing with women.

Fern states in her preface that Ruth Hall is not a novel, preferring the term "continuous story". She wrote at variance with the traditional themes and styles of the time and therefore received her share of criticism for it. However she also had supporters. Notably, Nathaniel Hawthorne hoped that Fern's writing would encourage her female contemporaries to follow her example and "throw off the constraints of decency...then their books are sure to possess character and value."

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

The romance was the major form of literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Romances were epic tales full of heroism, adventure and chivalry, sometimes involving gods or legendary figures. After the Renaissance came a slow transition to shorter, less epic and less fantastic forms of literature to what we now appreciate as the "novel". By the mid-1700s, when Charlotte Lennox wrote The Female Quixote, romances were considered by many as dangerous. With a comparatively large literate population and books becoming easier to mass produce, romances lead credulous readers to think that the dream worlds of heroism and fantasy were true. Or so some thought.

The Female Quixote is the story of Arabella who has lived in seclusion all her life. With only her recluse father and a mountain of old romances as companions, Arabella grows up thinking that the world of her books is the world that she lives in. All is fine and good in her quiet abode until her uncle and cousins arrive and she is thrown into society. You can hardly imagine the trouble she gets into. Any man riding a horse is a probable ravisher. Any gardener with a literate accent is a man in disguise intending to carry her away. A small argument between two young men will no doubt turn into a bloody duel over the affections of a lady.

The story is bit sluggish at times, but always full of strange and funny episodes. Particularly funny is the history of Sir George, one of Arabella's many admirers. He recounts his life story (or what he wants Arabella to believe it is), complete with a dethroned Prince, bloody duels, imprisonment and multiple damsels in distress.

The Female Quixote is an amusing read that perhaps has applications to modern living. Has anyone ever told you that too much television will rot your brain? Or that trashy romance novels will give you wrong notions of relationships? Sit up and take note.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

***

Jane Austen published her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, in the autumn of 1811. While in London attending to the page proofs, she wrote to her sister Cassandra, “I am never too busy to think of S. and S. I can no more forget it than a mother can forget her sucking child. . .” That was the first time that Austen referred to one of her books as a child, but not the last; and this particular child had a disconcertingly long gestation period: sixteen years.

Cassandra Austen, her sister’s lifelong companion, first reader, and literary executor, left a note stating that Jane first wrote a novel in letters—a popular literary style of the time—in 1795 that she called Elinor and Marianne. The following year, Austen wrote a prose manuscript that she titled First Impressions, which was later published as Pride and Prejudice, and in 1797 she rewrote Elinor and Marianne in prose style. The novel retains some of the flavor of its epistolary beginnings: the scene in which Colonel Brandon tells Elinor his romantic history, as well as the scene in which Willoughby explains his actions, are easily imagined as letters, and of course several letters are included in the novel and are vital to the plot.

Deirdre Le Faye writes that Austen may have found a new title for Elinor and Marianne in the journal The Lady’s Monthly Museum in 1798-99, which contained an essay with the phrase “Sense and Sensibility” in a headline. Austen continued to write into the new century, and even sold the manuscript of a novel she called Susan to the publisher Richard Crosby. However, Crosby, for reasons known only to himself, never published Susan, and offered to return the manuscript to Austen for the ten pounds he had paid for it; a sum beyond Austen’s means.

In 1811 her brother Henry arranged for Thomas Egerton to publish Sense and Sensibility at the author’s expense—meaning if sales did not cover the publishing expenses, Austen would have had to make up his losses. However, the book sold well and made a profit of 140 pounds on the first edition, and a second edition was published two years later. Neither edition bore the author’s name: the title page said only that Sense and Sensibility was written “By a Lady.”

Within a few months of its publication in late 1811, Sense and Sensibility had many admirers, including among the highest in society. Princess Charlotte, the Prince Regent’s daughter, wrote that she thought Marianne Dashwood much like herself. The Countess of Bessborough wrote in a letter, “Have you read ‘Sense and Sensibility’? It is a clever novel. They were full of it at Althorp, and tho’ it ends stupidly I was much amus’d by it—”[1]

The Countess might have been the first person to express the opinion that the ending of Sense and Sensibility was “stupid,” but she was hardly the last. Many readers have had difficulty with various characters. Elinor Dashwood, with her good sense, well-developed sense of justice, and occasionally wicked sense of humor, is nearly universally liked; but her sister does not fare so well. Romantic, headstrong Marianne is amusing to some, and annoying to others.

The girls’ suitors do not fare well with some critics, either. Edward Ferrars is seen as weak and bland, and Colonel Brandon’s affection for Marianne is considered hard to believe and, because of their age difference, a little creepy. Elinor and Brandon are seen by many as a much more suitable couple; but I submit that Brandon could only fall in love with Marianne. He was not looking for romance or for a wife, Mrs. Jennings’ matchmaking notwithstanding; he fell in love with Marianne because she reminded him of his lost love, Eliza. Marianne was about the same age as Eliza when Brandon “lost” her—when she married his brother. He felt that he had failed Eliza by going away and not staying to look after her, and in Marianne he perhaps felt he had a do-over; but can he save her as he failed to save Eliza?

Edward Ferrars is a sober young man, certainly; he does not read poetry with sufficient feeling for Marianne, and Austen herself writes, “Edward Ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of person or address. He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing.” This is certainly not a description meant to create flutters in a young girl’s heart. However, Elinor Dashwood is the steadying influence in her family—not only of Marianne and young Margaret, but also of her mother, who also has a tendency to be romantic and to not think things through very carefully. She is not looking for someone dashing, and the reader only has to wait with Elinor to see if Edward shows his quality, and that he can be as honorable and steadfast as Elinor deserves.

I think the careful reader will find all the evidence she needs to be happy with the ending of the novel the way that Jane Austen wrote it. In the end, deserving characters get their rewards for good behavior and good choices, and the reader can close the cover of Sense and Sensibility (or turn off her e-reader!) with an untroubled heart: all is well in Devonshire. Jane Austen has made it so; and in Jane we trust.

Margaret C. Sullivan
Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania
October 2011

[1] Althorp is the estate of the Earl of Spencer; the Countess was born a Spencer, and was the sister of the famous Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, and the mother of Lady Caroline Lamb, famous for her affair with Lord Byron.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

This is a captivating story about love and tea. It is told from the point of view of the titular character, Ida Mae, a divorcee grandmother living in Ohio. As the story opens she is waiting for her best friend since she was 10 years old, Jane, to arrive for tea. Jane and Ida Mae have always been complete opposites--Ida Mae being the quiet homebody and Jane the bustling actress. But their friendship works. They complete each other, perhaps more than the various lovers and spouses that entered the two women's lives over the decades. In this first scene we learn some devastating news: that Jane has cancer and has only a few weeks left.

From there the narrative shifts between flashbacks in the form of Ida Mae's journal entries and the present during the last days Ida Mae and Jane have together. From Ida Mae's past journal entries we see the start of her friendship with Jane and her years in high school with her first boyfriend. Marriage and a daughter follow. In these life changing events both in past and present, one thing stays constant: the enduring connection between the two women and tea.

If you are a tea drinker, as interested in the ceremony as the drink, then you are in for a special treat--"Tea Party" isn't in the name of the book for nothing! The appendix includes several recipes for sweet treats for the tea table as featured in the book. Another treat is an introduction and epilogue in which author Ginnie Bivona chronicles her experiences from when the book was turned into a Hallmark movie, Bound By a Secret. The meta-story behind the story gives this book a personal touch, nicely enveloping the narrative into something you won't soon forget.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

I recall seeing a "Twilight Zone" episode close to fifty years ago, about a man who really wanted to be alone. He got his wish when a nuclear war wiped out everyone else. He was quite happy at this state of affairs, migrating to the New York library to spend the rest of his life reading all the books. Unfortunately, he tripped on the steps and broke his thick reading glasses. So much for solitary bliss.

Being the last man on earth is once again a hot topic with the 2012 apocalypse movies coming out seemingly once a week. An apparently hideous movie based on Shelley's The Last Man was released in 2008. The movie updates the setting of The Last Man to take into consideration the technology advances of the past two centuries plus the seventy-odd years that will take place before the novel's action begins. Looking at the trailer, however, it appears that technological accuracy is the only improvement made to Shelley's novel.

Reading Mary Shelley's The Last Man will, if nothing else, send you running to your history books to find out, among other things, when Napoleon waged his wars for world domination (the battle of Waterloo took place in 1815--eleven years before The Last Man was published), when English Monarchs became more of a figurehead than a ruler (1867), and when Jules Verne first wrote about traveling in a balloon (Five Weeks in a Balloon in 1863, Around the World in Eighty Days in 1872), and what type of plague would kill a person before the sun goes down on his first sick day.

As in Frankenstein Mary Shelley shows herself as a sci-fi pioneer and visionary with enough political savvy to know that the strife between Christian and Muslim would not be resolved even two hundred years into the future. She also envisioned that in this distant future, we would not be safe from disastrous epidemics, although she did not suggest that germ warfare (rather than a natural spread of disease) might be the culprit. Her visions of balloon travel as a means of rapid transit predates Jules Verne by forty years, which helps us forgive the fact that in her story ground transport, even for kings, consisted of horseback or carriage.

The Last Man was published about four years after the death of Mary's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley drowned when his boat sank, a boat that Mary claims was not seaworthy, although a sudden squall might have caused the boat to capsize. Her husband's death in 1822 happened the same year that a miscarriage nearly took her own life and only two years after her half sister and Percy's ex-wife both committed suicide. One can see why Shelley's world-view might have been depressing, and The Last Man reflects this.

The story begins with a visit to a cave in which an unidentified narrator visits Naples in 1818, finding a manuscript in an inaccessible cave. The manuscript appears to be from the future, from the year 2079, and is written by one Lionel Verney, a close friend of the English king and Brother-in-Law to the greatest General since Napoleon. Verney will become the last man to inhabit the earth.

We follow Verney's manuscript from his early roots as a poverty-stricken orphan to his friendship with the heir-apparent to the throne of England and to a military campaign with his Brother-in-Law into plague-stricken Turkey, a campaign which touches off the worldwide plague that wipes out the human population of the Earth.

As much as I like and admire The Last Man as a visionary work, I also found a lot to dislike. I have read several books about real and fictional plagues, and have come to expect that one would at least see a description of what a plague victim experiences when in the throes of the disease. Shelley describes very little beyond a fever and a quick death. I would imagine that she was vaguely describing Pneumonic Plague, a mutation of Bubonic Plague that takes the pathogen airborne and which can kill in a matter of hours.

I also disliked Shelley's annoying habit of describing the outcome before she describes the action. I spent a lot of reading time backtracking because I was certain I missed something, since I seemed to have found out what was going to happen before I was supposed to. Our protagonist beset with grief, but I couldn't figure out why. As I read on, I discovered the reason for the grief, but since I already knew something bad was going to happen, the reading was more depressing than suspenseful.

On the up side, Mary Shelley's gifted use of the English language was perhaps better in this work than in Frankenstein. Also to her credit, Shelley, perhaps because of her many tragic experiences, quite accurately captures and expresses the angst of mourning. The Last Man was not Frankenstein, but if you have the patience to read it, you will find its mysterious makeup rather interesting.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

While it didn't keep my heart racing or the midnight oil burning like Fanny Burney's Evelina, this was still an entertaining read. Belinda, first published in 1801, is the story of a young woman who comes of age amid the distractions and dangers of London society. From her stays at both the extravagant, aristocratic Delacours and the sober, rational Percivals, she molds her views on love and marriage and much more.

During my reading, I sometimes thought the book should have been called Lady Delacour rather than Belinda. I found Lady Delacour an amusing character and greatly enjoyed her parts of the novel. There is an interesting back-story to which Edgeworth devotes and entire chapter about a Lady Delacour's wild days with estranged friend Harriet Freke. It includes a duel between women, cross dressing, and an angry town mob. I thought it would be quite interesting to read a whole novel about Lady Delacour's past!

But this is Belinda's story, and a delightful one it is. Belinda learns from the mistakes of others (and many does she witness) rather than rashfully committing the mistakes herself. From her tutelage by Lady Delacour and the Percivals, we see Belinda grow from a confused little girl into a confident young lady that is admired and eventually depended upon by all. In love, her suitors find they must grow and prove their worth to her, rather than the reverse.

In Belinda one can find some semblance to her contemporary and admirer, Jane Austen. Personally, I find Austen a tad bit more accessible, I suppose for the simple fact that Austen didn't tackle as many "touchy" issues as Edgeworth (such as interracial marriage, colonialism, and the above-mentioned female dueling and cross dressing!). But however outdated her treatment of these issues, the main story remains the same, which is an engaging one and highly recommended.

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!

This is a lovely collection of short stories by Emily C. A. Snyder, author of another Austen-themed publication Nachtstürm Castle. This time around Snyder treats us to two different styles of paraliterature that draw upon all six of Jane Austen's novels as inspiration.

Part I: Heroes and Histories captures the behind-the-scenes moments of Austen's original works. The short and bittersweet "Something Blue" features the character of Miss Bates' from Emma. We learn that she was not always destined to spinsterhood; in fact there was one of her former acquaintance who took delight in her ways some called ridiculous! Another gem from Part I is "A Most Persuasive Correspondence". Here we are treated to the illicit correspondence between Persuasion's two splendidly-matched villains, Mrs. Clay and Mr. Elliot.

In Part II: Types and Trifles, Snyder runs with her imagination, taking on various "what-ifs" to hilarious results. What if all the villains from Austen's novels were thrown together on one Dark and Stormy Night? Would all of them come away alive? What would all the heroes, meeting at a club, talk about? And would Bingley ever be able to finish a sentence? Most importantly, how would you inspire Mr. Crawford to fetch you a glass of lemonade? The final story, "Pride and Paraliterature" is a satiric take on the phenomenon of monster mash-ups, concluding that nothing proves so dangerous to Mr. Darcy as that original adversary, Miss Bingley.

I have read these stories time and time again and never tire of them. I catch new, subtle references to Austen's beloved novels with each new read. The best parts are when we see the true essence of the original characters in a new situation. And then there is Snyder's writing which is as similar to Austen's in syntax and approach to subject matter as I've read anywhere.

The following are some questions I had for Emily about the inspirations she had behind writing the book and her writing process.

I notice you have a gift for writing natural and humorous dialog. Does this come from your theatrical background? How much do you think your background in theater influences what you write?

I do enjoy dialogue and have always found that characters' voices come fairly easily to me.  I think much of that does come from theatre and from playwriting.  Since all I can reliably rely upon in a script is the dialogue (since the director, cast and crew are free to change the stage directions), dialogue must tell potential actors/directors who the characters are, and often what they are doing as well.

My first play was written my senior year of high school, when I was doing an independent study comparing Oscar Wilde and Emile Zola.  Part of that project was to conclude with a creative writing piece in that author's style.  I decided to take the same characters I'd written for the Zola piece and transpose them to Wilde's Earnest-like British upperclass.  The result is The French Butler, which has since been published by Playscripts, Inc.

What I learned from that project, and what I hope has carried over ever since, is not only the rhythm of individual voices, but also the interplay between voices.  In real life, we tend to pick up on each other's words, so that the end of one person's sentence might be the beginning of someone else's.  Dialogue is as much about "throwing the line" to the next person, as it is about what the person himself has to say.

That said, it's such a luxury to have narrative to write as well!  I had been writing plays for so long, that at first it was difficult to commit to narrative.  If Miss Bingley approached Mr Darcy sinuously in prose, she would always approach Mr Darcy sinuously in prose.  If this were a play, I probably wouldn't even write that she approaches him, let alone sinuously, so that the actors and directors would be free to have her move, or stay still, or Mr Darcy start jigging (if they really wanted to).  So it took some getting readjusted to remember Miss Bingley would not, on the whole, object to my describing her action.

I like that the stories from Part I fit seamlessly within Austen's original works. What was the impetus behind writing these? Were you reading Persuasion one day and wondered "Hmm...I wonder what Mrs. Clay and Mr. Elliot are really up to!"

Yes, pretty much!  With Miss Bates, I absolutely fell in love with her character, particularly by Sophie Thompson's depiction of her.  (My mother and I still yell: "PORK, MOTHER!" to one another on occasion!)  She was so sweet, so silly, so tiresome, so winsome, that I wondered why she had no typical happily ever after.  Why was she so particularly involved in Jane's romances?  And more to the point, if she had a beau, what sort of fellow would he be?  I loved what Mr Knightly said about her to Emma in the strawberry scene, and it seemed to me that he knew something of what Miss Bates' disappointment had been.  There's more to that story, I'm sure!

For the other three, it's fascinating to think how much time can pass in the composition of a letter - and that the composing of a letter is an entirely separate occasion than its reception.  For Captain Wentworth, he was such a passionate fellow that it seemed impossible he hadn't written variances of The Letter many times over.  For Isabella, she gives up James Morland so easily and sent such a ridiculous letter to Catherine that it seemed there was something else going on.

And for Mr Elliot and Mrs Clay, it's mentioned rather hastily at the end of Persuasion that they've run off together.  I wanted to know what was occurring between them. And since I had just read Evelina and Sorcery and Cecelia, both epistolary novels, and was beginning work on my own Sable Valentine, I thought it might be fun to see how they spoke to each other in letters...where they might be much less bound by social niceties than one is in polite conversation!  I'll admit Mrs Clay, who is really quite a cipher in the novel, proved to be shockingly fun - and a worthy adversary to Mr Elliot.

We know that Austen wrote, at least initially, to entertain her family by reading aloud. Do you practice this yourself? If not, do you have someone you bounce your ideas off while you're writing?

It depends on what I'm writing as to whether I bounce ideas off my family.  Most of the stories were written for the enjoyment of other Janeites, and I received notes back from them as I was writing it.  Once upon a time, The Republic of Pemberley hosted a board called Bits of Ivory, which was a place to post Austenesque literature.  Many of my stories began there.  What was great was that you essentially wrote for an immediate audience.  It was rather like a cyber version of writing a chapter and running downstairs to read it virtually aloud.  So there was definitely a performative element (to which I really respond as a writer).

Alas, that board seems to be currently closed.  But reality is not!  I freely admit that I rushed around Pride and Paraliterature to my family, most particularly my sister Julie, for their amusement.  Jules' laugh at Miss Bingley's ultimate literary fate made the times of staring blankly at the screen all worth it!  So, in conclusion, I suppose I do tend to write performatively, but I don't tend to solicit as much advice in the initial writing.

 I think one of the funniest stories is "A Matter of Resolution" where you bring together all the disappointed foils such as the Crawfords, Miss Bingley, Miss Elliot and Isabella Thorpe. In some ways these characters are more interesting than the heroes and heroines of the original books. Do you have plans to feature any of these characters more in upcoming work? 

I'm glad you like that story!  It was so much fun to revisit all of the disappointed foils - or at least, those who remain disappointed at the end of their respective novels.  I'm always intrigued by the "ones who got away."  There's something so particularly human about them, in some ways even more than the heroes who of course end up happy, while the foils are left in venial ambiguity.  They aren't evil, per se, but their pettiness gets in their own way.  There's something sad about them, but comic, too!

Of course, "A Matter of Resolution" is about all of Austen's more villainous foils; she had sweet foils, too.  My current work-in-progress is Presumption which is based on more "ones who got away," in this case finding a happy ever after for Colonel Fitzwilliam and Maria Lucas - and even one for Anne DeBourgh! - and hopefully a future novel on the redemption of Henry Crawford, for which the stories in Letters of Love & Deception are certainly two of the moments between the end of Mansfield Park and the forthcoming novel!

"Pride and Paraliterature" is a satire on the monster-mashup phenomenon. I found this story interesting not only because of the monsters, but also in the way that you made the story interesting in spite of them! Do you have any interest in getting into the monster-mashup genre yourself (other than this story)?

I have to confess that I haven't been able to get past the first chapter of either Pride and Prejudice and Zombies OR Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.  The idea, I think - at least for the first one - is admirable.  It's rather like Shawn of the Dead, which is a brilliant film; the quintessential romzomcom.  But the execution, the sheer labor evident in the stretching of Austen's works into [fill in the random paranormal big bad] pains me.  I'll be hoity-toity and say it pains me because I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Shawn of the Dead while absolutely HATING Twilight et al.

I'm not against monsters, but I'm against using them poorly OR arbitrarily.  Monsters are a metaphor; hence if you employ that monster, you are employing all their metaphoric meaning.  You can't have a sea monster just because your title has an "S" in it.  You can have a sea monster if you're at sea.  And even then, there's a variety of sea monsters.  Are you interested in exploring creatures that look charming but kill you?  Go for mermaids.  Are you interesting in exploring creatures that look human but are emotionally distant?  Go for selkies.  Are you looking for something that's all consuming and toothsome?  Have a kraken.  But for pity's sake, sea monsters aren't scenery; they're action.

That said, writing "Pride and Paraliterature" was a hoot and a half, and kept surprising me with its twists and turns.  I did try to use the monsters as scenery, while fitting in the givens of Austen's story into this world casually infested with creatures.  And, as you said, it seemed to me that Miss Bingley is still Darcy's most potent nemesis of all!

Would I ever write a full-length monster mash-up, though?  The closest I've come is Nachtstürm Castle, and again - although I certainly stuffed it full of trapdoors and doppelgangers and ghosts and evil butlers - I hope that they all felt organic to the story, since it was a Gothic novel, and a parody to boot.  I think the only way I could ever write a full-length monster mash-up, a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would be as a parody of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  However, I think such a joke ON a joke would wear thin after more than a few pages.  Which is exactly the length of "Pride and Paraliterature"!

Thank you for the interview!

Join us at Facebook and Twitter for the news as it happens!