Following Austen

Announcing... Jane Austen's England 2009 Calendar

2008-11-30T23:21:55-05:00

Dear readers -- hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm beginning to feel well enough to enter the world of blogging again (though it has required a strict fish-and-vegetables diet... more on that soon). I'm thrilled to announce...

Jane Austen's England 2009 Calendar

Featuring pictures of the places Jane lived, loved and wrote about, including Steventon, Chawton, Box Hill, Bath, Lyme, Winchester -- and more!

Also includes dates from Jane's life -- the writing and publishing of each of the books, dancing with Tom Lefroy, the moves to Bath and Chawton ... and much more!

More info here.

Psychoanalyzing Jane

2008-05-19T16:16:37-04:00

A friend sent me this and I thought you'd enjoy:

THE NEW YORK PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY & INSTITUTE: Extension Division
247 East Eighty-Second Street, between 2nd & 3rd

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEMES IN JANE AUSTEN'S WORK
Muriel Morris, M.D. & Adrienne Scott, LCSW

Thursdays, May 22 - June 19, 2008
7:30 - 9 pm (5 sessions)
Fee $100

Study Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, and juvenilia to uncover the unconscious chords Austen struck to make her work irresistible and timeless.

To register call 212-879-6900

For information about our training programs please visit us at: www.psychoanalysis.org

Austen '08

2008-05-19T16:13:17-04:00

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

Top Ten Spiritual Jane Austen Places

2008-05-19T16:08:19-04:00

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)

Loved: looking for stories

2008-04-11T13:11:34-04:00

I'm one of several writers working on a new book project, a book called Loved with Christian recording artist Rebecca St. James. The book is based on a song ("You Are Loved") Rebecca wrote for a friend who turned to drugs and away from the church, and will tell stories of young women who left their faith and rediscovered the love of Christ. This is a book of encouragement and hope. It says, "No matter where you've been or what you've done... you are loved."

Do you have a story like this that you'd like to share, or do you know someone who might? I would love to interview you (in person if you're in the DC area, by phone if you're not.) Simply post a comment here with your contact information, or email me at LElizabethSmith AT gmail DOT com. (I'll handle all the writing, so no worries if you're not a writer.)

The stories may be dramatic or very simple; the women featured may be modern-day, they may be young women still, they may be older now; I'm hoping to throw in one or two historical pieces as well. (Just a note -- there's no payment for stories, but everyone featured will receive a free book.)

Even if you don't know of a story, if you could pass this on to others who might know of one, that would be a huge help.

The book will release through FaithWords in the fall of 2009.

"Without knowledge that we are loved so extravagantly by God, we can't love Him back, we can't live a holy life, we can't trust Him. But when we understand that He loves us – so deeply and so passionately – and that He wants us to live this great adventure with Him – then we can understand who He is and love Him with all we are." -- Rebecca St. James

Where have all the good men gone?

2008-04-10T15:12:58-04:00

My writing friend Angie Kiesling just published a new book, Where Have All the Good Men Gone? Thought you would enjoy this little bit:

Beneath all the laughter and eye-rolling, I find myself growing disillusioned by degrees, and my thoughts go something like this: Do I really want my love story to begin with ‘Well, there was this website, and he saw my photo and I saw his, and then he emailed me…’?

The happy couples who do end up together after an online “match” don’t seem bothered by this lack of mystery at the outset. Somehow, though, I think I was born one of those who must have mystery and romance and longing and finally longing fulfilled. I sit in darkened theaters watching the latest remake of a Jane Austen classic, and my eyes well up with tears. Call me odd perhaps, but as you’ll soon discover in this book, there’s a whole subculture of postmodern women like me who can’t quite reconcile the flat, perfunctory nature of modern dating with the bittersweet tension of romances from an earlier era that we read about in books or watch on-screen. We long for something more—and, fortunately, many of the guys out there do too.

I've got a copy of Angie's new novel, Skizzer, and can't wait to dig into it.

S&S review

2008-04-04T16:40:35-04:00

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?

2008-04-04T16:13:32-04:00

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

2008-04-04T16:05:05-04:00

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

2008-04-04T15:59:19-04:00

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.