Following Austen

Austen '08

Check out the Austen '08 campaign on YouTube if you haven't seen it already.  Fun!

Top Ten Spiritual Jane Austen Places

I'm thrilled to post this!  (Thanks, BajaJaneite for sending in the link -- I've been wanting to share it with you all.)

I did a gallery for BeliefNet with pictures from my trip and thoughts on the spiritual Austen places I visited -- spiritual being rather loosely defined, as in perhaps relating to (ahem...) the cult of Colin Firth. ;-)

Check it out!  The pics are some of my absolute favorites.  They're also running an excerpt from my book.

Photo of the Roman Baths (copyright Lori Smith 2005)

S&S review

I didn't love Sense & Sensibility.  Ugh.  I mean, I enjoyed it as a casual tv viewer, but not as an Austen fan.  I got this email from a friend yesterday which summarized my thoughts exactly:

We only watched part of S&S, and it was okay. I was disappointed in Edward (too self-assured), Willoughby (not good-looking enough and slightly creepy) and Col. Brandon (definitely creepy). And I feel like Andrew Davies is losing his touch -- he stole so many things from Emma Thompson's version (including Fanny's weird hair).

Edward was energetic and enthusiastic and confident -- I think he could have easily read poetry in such a way that pleased Marianne.  Willoughby was creepy.  I thought the scene at the beginning was unnecessary and actually confusing, because you didn't know who it was.  Mrs. Dashwood is not nearly emotional enough -- according to the book, Marianne gets her emotional tendencies from her mom.  And Davies seemed to steal an awful lot from Emma Thompson!  Like Margaret in the library on the floor, and playing outside with Edward while Elinor watches.  And why, oh why, change the story so that Marianne actually likes Brandon a bit at the beginning?  That changes everything.  I also thought Austen's language had been deliberately dumbed down.

I'm looking forward to Sunday night, but to me this feels like a lesser adaptation of Emma Thompson's wonderful version.

Would Jane Austen Settle?

Breakpoint has published my op-ed in response to Lori Gottlieb's article in last month's Atlantic Monthly (Marry Him!) suggesting that single women should forget about romantic love and settle for "Mr. Okay" instead of waiting around for "Mr. Right."  What would Jane Austen say?  Ultimately, I think she would challenge our notions of love (and probably have a great deal of fun laughing at them as well).

Perhaps I should start by saying that I’m not incensed by this notion. I’m single, I’m 36, and I want to be married. I want to have kids. I actually believe, as Gottlieb ever-so-heretically asserts, that relationships (and primarily marriage) are still in many ways what define us as women.

What strikes me about all of this is that these are conversations we’ve been having for hundreds of years, all the way back to Jane Austen’s dear Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (or perhaps more to the point here, Charlotte Lucas and the obsequious Mr. Collins. Could Charlotte have been happy that she settled? I doubt it). And as the film The Jane Austen Book Club pointed out, we’re still asking ourselves today, “What would Jane do?”

Would Jane settle? Absolutely not. Marriage in Austen’s day was all about settling, of course. Women who had no opportunity to earn their own living, needed financial security. Men as well were hoping to “settle” on a woman of means. The whole thing became a matter of business, which led to all sorts of mischief and misery. In that setting, Austen gives us poor, intelligent women hoping to marry for love. And because this is fiction, they do. (...)

Jane Austen Society DC luncheon

I'll also be speaking at the local Jane Austen Society DC chapter event.  It will be a luncheon on June 14 at the Embassy Suites in Friendship Heights.  More info soon!

Capital Christian Writers

I'll be speaking at the May 12 meeting of Capital Christian Writers on How to Write (and Sell!) Your Memoir.  CCW meets from 7 - 9 p.m. in The Gunnell House at Truro Church in Fairfax, VA.

Temecula Library discussion group

Baja Janeite sent this in ages ago and I've been meaning to post it.  How cool is this?  The library in Temecula, California has a Jane Austen study group which meets from 10:30 - 12:30 on Wednesdays.  Through May, they'll be discussing A Walk with Jane.  More info here.

Sherwood Library

I'll be speaking tonight at Sherwood Library in Alexandria, Virginia.  Hoping everyone who braved the ice last time will be able to make it out again!  Tea at 7:00, and the program will start at 7:30. 

The next event will be Kingstowne Library on Thursday, March 27.

Patrick Henry Library tonight

Just a quick reminder that I'll be speaking at Patrick Henry Library in Vienna, Virginia tonight at 7:00 pm.  Would love to have you join us if you're in the area!

British edition of A Walk with Jane

Found out last week that there will be a British edition of A Walk with Jane Austen coming from Monarch Press in late summer or early fall.  I'm thrilled!  Sounds like everything will stay the same except for the cover.  Will post more when I learn the details.