I write novels set during the Regency period: Jane Austen-inspired novels and Regency romances. The time period 1800-1820 has always fascinated me, ever since I first read the novels of Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen. There is something unique about it, whether it is the see-through muslin of the ladies, the betting books in the gentlemen's clubs, dangerous carriage races to Brighton, or daring widows that walked the edge of scandal. With the shadow of the guillotine and Napoleon hanging over them, the young people of the Regency were determined to enjoy their lives to the full. It was the last fling before the stolid and constricting values of the Victorian era tightened like a corset around them.

Of course, there is no better writer to go to if you want to learn about the Regency than Jane Austen. My love affair with Pride and Prejudice started when we read Pride and Prejudice at school. I was captivated by the glint of laughter in her writing, by the sharpness of her social observation, and above all by her characters. Every one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice is drawn with an expert brush that must be the envy of so many writers. And to think that she had no writing manuals, no critique groups, and not even many novels to help her out! We tend to forget that she was a pioneer. She struck out on her own, and she never knew how well she really succeeded!

Official Launch Day is here at last!

 October 11, 2011

"Nothing More than Fairyland"

My story in the anthology
 
Jane Austen Made Me Do It

edited by Laurel Ann Nattress

Published by Ballantine