VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Posted on March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 by vlaw759

*Sometimes the appeal of fan fiction includes fabulous dance numbers!*

For the last several months my preferred escapist reading has been variations on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. What’s the appeal?

Well, for one thing, I enjoy seeing the varied ways a writer can use Pride and Prejudice as a starting point for so many related but different stories!

*In addition to dodging social pitfalls, the Bennets must dodge hordes of the roaming undead.*

One of the Bennet daughters is an heiress.
Mr. Bennet dies and the women must make their way by working, sometimes for their Uncle Gardiner, sometimes as companions.
Lydia marries someone other than George Wickham.
Jane marries someone other than Charles Bingley.
Elizabeth is a widow, often with a child.
Mary Bennet marries Collins, and Charlotte Lucas marries someone else entirely.
Elizabeth and Darcy become trapped alone together in a flood and must marry because of the “compromise.”

Elizabeth and Darcy first meet in their teens and reunite years later.
Minor characters shift personalities, behaviors, and support.
Jane Austen characters from other novels make an appearance.
Longbourn is not entailed.
Mrs. Bennet dies; Mr. Bennet remarries and has an heir.
Elizabeth is kidnapped.
Darcy saves Elizabeth’s life and vice versa.
The events of the story are mere background in the lives of the Bennets’ servants, who are dealing with their own problems.

And what makes these stories most comforting is that, whatever happens to other characters or the plot, Darcy and Elizabeth always end up together.

One of Austen’s first imitators was Sybil G. Brinton, whose novel Old Friends and New Fancies (1913) features characters from nearly all of Austen’s novels.

The Kindle Store offers literally hundreds of these stories, to buy or borrow. They come up when a user searches the store for Pride and Prejudice variations. These novels are a version of fan fiction (also known as fanfiction, fan fic, fanfic, fic, or FF).

*from the Jane Austen Parade for Literacy, 2019*

Fan Fiction

*A fan-made movie poster for a cross-over fic casting the characters from BBC’s Merlin in the roles of Pride and Prejudice* by ls311 on deviantart

Fan fiction is fiction created by fans—(duh!)—typically in an amateur capacity, that is based on an existing work of fiction, using their characters, settings or other intellectual properties but not authorized by the original creator(s).

Sometimes fan fiction is based on real life celebrities or politicians.

Fan fiction can range from poems and short stories to novel-length works and can be based on various media, including books, movies, TV shows, comics, video games, music videos, board games, and more.

Fan fiction allows fans to explore their favorite characters, settings, and storylines in new ways, often continuing canon narratives, exploring alternate universes, or creating original stories within the established framework.

Examples

*A graphic novel from Marvel Comics based on Pride and Prejudice*

Stories based on popular TV shows like “Supernatural” or “Only Murders in the Building”.
Stories based on books like “Harry Potter” or “Twilight”.
Stories based on movies like “Star Wars” or “Avengers”.
Stories inspired by other forms of media (such as the language learning app Duolingo).
Poetry and song lyrics reflecting characters or elements of a story

Fan fiction websites, such as Archive of Our Own, Fanfiction.net, and Wattpad, attract millions of daily page views, and many social media users share or discuss fan fiction on Tumblr, Discord, Instagram, and TikTok .

While fan fiction often uses copyrighted material, it is generally considered fair use because it is a transformative work, and the original creators are unlikely to take legal action. One must be more cautious when writing variations of more modern works. For works out of copyright, such as Pride and Prejudice, this is never a problem.

Jane Austen’s Fandom

*One of the earliest film adaptations, in 1940, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier*

Jane Austen fan fiction, or JAFF, is a very popular and thriving genre, with numerous published and unpublished works, and has seen an increase in popularity since the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. As I said at the beginning, I greatly enjoy Pride and Prejudice variations.

The Austen fandom boomed after the release of the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries and the 2005 film adaptation.

There are numerous published Austen-inspired novels, with Pride and Prejudice being the most popular source of inspiration, accounting for at least 900 published books. The number of unpublished stories on various JAFF sites at least doubles that number.

Modern adaptations of Austen’s works, including “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,” have also drawn in new audiences, including those who may not have read the original novels.

My particular escapist reading is rooted in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but whatever your taste, there’s surely fan fiction out there for you!

*Pride and Prejudice: Blood Ties, a role-playing video game that blends Jane Austen’s work with vampires*

Evolution of Fan Fiction

*Elizabeth Bennet drawn in the style of an anime chibi, by twosugars16 on DeviantArt*

“Despite its ties to the Internet, fan fiction is nothing new. English-language fan fiction can be traced to the 18th century. Jonathan Swift’s satiric novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726) inspired some of the earliest fan fiction, including a series of poems by Alexander Pope. In one such piece, Pope imagined Gulliver’s wife bemoaning her adventurer husband’s long absence and his uninterest in her upon his return, accusing him of infidelity during his journeys: “Not touch me! never neighbour call’d me slut! Was Flimnap’s dame more sweet in Lilliput?” (britannica.com)

Because it is, by definition, “derivative,” fan fiction often gets less respect than other fiction. However, many successful traditionally published authors have written fan fiction, including Meg Cabot.

Orson Scott Card, though he says he hates fan fiction, has published “fanfic” at some point in his career.

*from Charles Ross: One Man Pride and Prejudice, a stage play in Vancouver, 2019*

Author Neil Gaiman inspires fan fiction, and he’s also written it. His novel Good Omens (1990), written with Sir Terry Pratchett, has nearly 50,000 entries on Archive of Our Own. Gaiman’s story “A Study in Emerald” (2003) imagines a crossover between the worlds of Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft, creating a
Sherlock Holmes-style mystery with a supernatural twist. In 2004, members of the World Science Fiction Convention named it the year’s best short story.

“Early fan fiction, like its contemporary counterparts, could be bolder and more sexually explicit than its source material. Henry Fielding wrote a sensual fan fiction of Samuel Richardson’s sentimental novel Pamela (1740). Amusingly titled Shamela (1741), it reimagines Richardson’s protagonist without the burdensome virtue of chastity. Similarly, in the 19th and 20th centuries the works of Jane Austen and Arthur Conan Doyle became popular fodder for fan fiction writers, who may have wondered, What happened between the lines of the original stories?” (britannica.com)

Inspiration

*Illustration from Pride and Prejudice and Enterprise, a Star Trek crossover, by NaOH-giveup*

Fan fiction shows up in unexpected (by me) places. For example, Biblical fanfic is (could be) a thing. Some in the fan fiction community have gone so far as to call apocryphal writings or Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–21) “biblical fanfic.” Although people generally consider religious literature to be a unique genre, in the Internet age, The Divine Comedy has inspired its own fan fiction, including more than 150 related works on Archive of Our Own. On Fanfiction.net, the Bible has inspired about 4,000 fan pieces.

The huge number of Sherlock Holmes fans inspired the Baker Street Journal (1946), a fan magazine that published a mix of scholarly writing and fan fiction. Ellery Queen’s “My First Meeting with Sherlock Holmes” was one of those. Actually, according to britannica.com, Queen was also a fiction, created by authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. (Dannay and Lee also launched Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in 1941, which still publishes crime fiction.)

Harry Potter has inspired more than twice as many stories as any other fandom. In second place is the anime Naruto.

Among TV series, the BBC’s Sherlock, which has had only four seasons, generated 29,000 works of fanfiction per season. That’s almost 30% more than the runner up, Teen Wolf, which averages a little more than 20,000 stories per season over six seasons.

Big fandoms tend to be older ones (for example Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Supernatural).

*Illustration of Star Wars: Rogue One characters in the roles of Pride and Prejudice by Blooming Cyre*

Although books often generate fan fiction, here are 5 famous books generated by fanfiction:

The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
Point Pleasant by Jen Archer Wood
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
50 Shades of Grey by EL James

Why Fan Fiction?

*Fans “cos-playing” as characters from Pride and Prejudice, dressing up and acting out the story to better suit the way they thought it should have gone. photo by Ringmasah*

Many people write and read fanfic for many reasons.

Fan fiction fosters a sense of community among fans who share an interest in the same media. In addition to exchanging direct contact details, fans can join online communities, Discord servers, subReddits, Tumblr clusters, zine boards, etc. with other fans of similar media. Some fans even set up conventions and local meet-ups.

Some writers use prompts from other fans as writing practice. For example, Sherlock fans will challenge each other to write 221B “drabbles.” They try to tell a story in 221 words, ending with a word that begins with the letter B (in honor of Holmes and Watson’s shared flat at 221B Baker Street). Other prompts include chain stories, collaborations with illustrators, retelling scenes from the point of view of a background character, resetting a story in one’s hometown with local slang, experimenting with first or second person narrative, and just about anything else one might imagine.

Other reasons fans write their own stories:

*A lesbian young adult romance in which a young Pittsburgh writer is magically transported to meet the Bennet sisters*

As a chance to explore and share interests, such as setting the story in a particular historical setting or having characters exploring niche hobbies

Providing representation the fan writer feels is missing, whether self-insertion or widening the role of minorities overlooked by the original author

Correcting perceived plot holes, factual inaccuracies, or underdeveloped characters

Simply making the story turn out the way the fan writer would have preferred!

Bottom Line: If you ever wish you could change a story’s ending or hate to cut ties with particular characters, the solution could be fan fiction. Ditto if you just want to avoid too much news!

Something to Aspire to!

Posted on July 2, 2019July 2, 2019 by vlaw759

Jane Austen: Her Complete Novels title page, Gramercy Books — *Jane Austen: Her Complete Novels*

Those of you who have been with me for awhile know that I am a HUGE fan of Jane Austen. On March 22, 2017, I posted a blog on the 200th anniversary of her last fiction writing. A gazillion books and articles—that’s by actual count!—have been written about Austen. If you want a pretty thorough overview and summary, with references to delve deeper, check out the 30-page Wikipedia article. What you have in this blog is my personal homage.

My Journey to Jane Austen

Copies of Austen’s novels are old friends. I bought Northanger Abbey secondhand for 35 cents.

book cover of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Laurel Jane Austen edition — *Northanger Abbey* by Jane Austen

Others were bought new for 50 cents each.

book covers of Persuasion and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen — *Persuasion* and *Mansfield Park* by Jane Austen

All of them have been read and read again, and most show those years of age and love.

I first became a fan in the spring of my sophomore year in college. “Why so late?” you might ask. In my pre-matriculation advisement, the English professor (who happened to teach such classes) urged me toward Chaucer and Beowulf. I took no literature classes after my freshman year, so there were tons (by actual weight) of books that “everyone” had read but I hadn’t. A lot of them are still out there. In any event, during finals week, I devoured every Austen I could lay my hands on.

Pride and Prejudice first page, early edition — Hugh Thomson (1860-1920) [CC BY-SA 4.0]

As I recall, I read Pride and Prejudice first, and it remains my favorite. I’m not alone here. As far back as 1940, various film and TV versions have come to be. If one searches Kindle for Jane Austen Fan Fiction, there are literally hundreds of novels based on this book alone.These include prequels, sequels, murder mysteries, soft-core porn, fantasy, and horror.

Film adaptations of all Austen’s novels abound. In 1995, Emma Thompson won an Academy Award for her role in Sense and Sensibility. 2007 brought forth Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Love and Friendship, based on Austen’s first novel, Lady Susan, appeared in 2016.

Jane Austen for Writers

Setting pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard—a writer never knows what the future holds. Although Austen’s Lady Susan, written in the epistolary form popular at the time, was penned first (1804), it was published last (1871). Austen published as Anonymous and enjoyed little fame or fortune during her lifetime.

Title page of the 1909 edition of *Emma*, illustrated by C. E. Brock. Matt [Public domain]

Emma is but one example of why Austen’s work is so enduring. Before she began the novel, she wrote, “I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like. Emma Woodhouse is handsome, clever, and rich. She is also spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied; she greatly overestimates her own insights and abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people’s lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.” In other words, she paints a timeless portrait of the conceit and hubris of youth.

Austen is a great example of “write what you know.” In all her novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in 18th and 19th century England, their dependence on marriage for security and status. Her novels portray the social and economic reality of the period.

And she makes her readers laugh.

Something to aspire to: to express universals of human relationships, personalities, passions, and foibles that transcend time and place. She’s my role model—which is why I continue to acquire her books. This is my most recent one. Although published in 1981, I’ve enjoyed it for only a couple of years—so far!

The complete works by Jane Austen spine — *Jane Austen: Her Complete Novels*

Jane Austen 200 Years Later

Posted on March 22, 2017March 22, 2017 by vlaw759

On March 18, 1817, Jane Austen wrote (and dated) her last lines of fiction. She had begun the work on January 27, 1817, and in less than two months had written some 23,000 words! That alone is enough for me to put her on a pedestal. She has been a favorite author of mine since college.

jane austen sanditon — [Source: Jane Austen Centre]

Austen had not titled her unfinished novel but it has come to be known as Sanditon, named for the location of the story. The unfinished manuscript was first published in 1925 and is still in print.

The March 13, 2017 issue of The New Yorker has a well-written and informative article (need I even say that about a New Yorker article?) about the book, with biographical notes on Austen.

According to Anthony Lane, Sanditon is filled with Austen’s signature humor, wit, and unerring eye for human folly—in this case, focusing on a town full of hypochondriacs. He also comments, “Austen knew as well as anybody that, in the long run, hypochondriacs aren’t wrong. They’re just early.”

At least seven writers have finished Sanditon—according to Lane, with varying degrees of success. No doubt some of these are available.

Austen died four months after penning her last fiction lines, on July 18, 1817. The cause of her death is still debated, perhaps Addison’s disease, perhaps Hodgkin’s disease. Lane calls her last book an “exercise in courage.” I’ve just ordered it!

Sickbed Reading

Posted on March 7, 2017March 6, 2017 by vlaw759

A horrendous bout of bronchitis has plagued me for weeks, going from bad to worse. I’m talking about coughing so long, hard, and often that my entire ribcage ached. I’m talking about such congestion that every time I changed positions, I could hear as well as feel fluids sloshing around in my lungs and sinuses, and would cough all the more. I’m talking about flushed face and frigid fingers. I’m talking about no energy, and sleeping (albeit poorly) twenty hours a day, till my whole body felt stiff and sore from lack of movement. (Yes, oh, poor me!)

At times like these, I like cold drinks, something warm and cozy to wrap up in, and no body bugging me with, “How are you feeling?” And as I sleep less and ache less, I like comfort reads.

jane austen books — [Source: Folger Shakespeare Library]

A prime requirement for my sickbed reading is familiarity. Hence, Jane Austen is a go-to choice. I know what’s going to happen and that all anguish will come to naught. I can even get this sort of read with a Jane Austen fan fiction variation. The characters remain the same and the action is still low-key. Which brinks me to another criterion for sickbed reading…

west night beryl markham — [Source: Wikipedia]

walk woods bill bryson — [Source: Wikipedia]

A second criterion for my good sickbed read is that it be low-key. Absolutely no action/adventure here. Consider Markham and Bryson. I want the emotion to be relatively mild and generally upbeat.

harry potter sorcerer's stone j.k. rowling

wings of fire book cover — [Source: Tui Books]

I’m not alone in these criteria. I have a granddaughter who recently reread Harry Potter while ill, and her sister reread the Wings of Fire series. Various friends and acquaintances go off in various directions. Here are some of the most popular, returned to again and again.

I’ve turned the corner on this bronchitis—I hope and trust. I’m ready to rebuild my sickbed shelf for next time. What do you read when you’re sick? I’d love to know.

Writers Readers Want to Be

Posted on February 28, 2017February 28, 2017 by vlaw759

50 shades of cabernet facebook hop writers readers want

This past weekend I participated in a Facebook Hop to help promote the 50 Shades of Cabernet mystery anthology which is about to be published. It was a first for me. People were encouraged to hop from one FB page to the next and register for whatever that person was offering. It seems to have been very popular.

My giveaway was signed copies of my books. In order to qualify, I asked people to answer the question, “If you could be reincarnated as any writer, any time, anywhere, who would it be? Why?” Given that this was associated with a mystery anthology, it isn’t surprising that many people cited mystery writers. But not all! Here, in alphabetical order, are all the writers mentioned.

Jane Austen—who can count the reasons?

Agatha Christie—a classic choice by several for reasons from youth reading, to she went to exotic places, to she solved crimes before technology

Beverly Cleary—even though she’s still alive

Blaise Clement—b/c her pet sitting books are great

Jackie Collins—b/c her books are fun

Michael Creighton—b/c the reader learns something new in every book

Tim Dorsey—b/c he seems to really enjoy his life

James D. Doss—writes clean mysteries with hilarious acerbic asides

Jessica Fletcher—b/c she is fictional and will live forever!

Dick Francis—b/c he got to ride horses, worked for the Queen, and lived a long life

Robert Frost—b/c his poetry is wonderful

Homer—and who needs a reason?

Colleen Hoover—b/c she is just damned AWESOME

P.D. James—insert your own reasons

Carolyn Keene—b/c she was a favorite youth read (for more than one responder)

alexander mccall smith the woman who walked in sunshine

Alexander McCall Smith—b/c he’s charming, witty, and down-to-earth (listed here b/c his last name is McCall Smith)

Margaret Mitchell—b/c of Gone With the Wind and loving the Civil War

L. M. Montgomery—b/c she lived on Prince Edward Island

Edgar Allen Poe—b/c of his fascinating imagination

Mary Roberts Rinehart—b/c she was such an interesting woman

Nora Roberts—b/c I love her book

J. K. Rowling—right before she became famous for Harry Potter

Ann Rule—b/c she has a really special mindset

Dr. Seuss—b/c of his wonderful imagination

Anna Sewell—wrote Black Beauty, etc.

J. R. R. Tolkien—b/c he has a rich imagination

Laura Ingalls Wilder—b/c she wrote what she lived

Virginia Woolf—b/c she felt so deeply and expressed those feelings wonderfully

I’ve edited some of the responses to fit the “because” format, but tried to keep the meaning. All of these come recommended. Why not pick up an author you haven’t read?

Christmas: It’s Everywhere!

Posted on December 6, 2016December 6, 2016 by vlaw759

Fairly early on, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Joyce has a wonderful scene involving Christmas dinner. It runs more than ten pages, and reveals the characters and their Catholicism beautifully. It’s often humorous (as people share anecdotes) and sometimes disrespectful (as when Mr. Dedalus refers to the bird’s tail as “the Pope’s nose.”) It ranges from humor to anger. A thoroughly enjoyable passage.

portrait of the artist as a young man james joyce

On Christmas Eve, 2014, the Huffington Post published a delightful piece titled “The Most Festive (And Not-So-Festive) Christmas Scenes from Classic Books.” Here you will find bits from 13 classic novels.

Christmas Scenes from Classic Books

Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)

Emma (Jane Austen)

A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)

Far From the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy)

Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)

Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)

Vanity Fair (William Thackerary)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)

The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot)

Pluck any of these great reads from your shelves (or from the shelves of your local library) and get in the Christmas spirit!

Without Books, TV Would Be Barren

Posted on September 6, 2016September 7, 2016 by vlaw759

top ten tuesday — Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they provide a prompt for bloggers. Today’s prompt is TV-themed.

We tend to think of TV as something totally separate from literature. Not so! If you’ve enjoyed any of the following on TV, consider reading the books they are based on.

Homicide: Life on the Street, based on Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon

Poldark, based on the Poldark Saga books of Winston Graham

Rizzoli and Isles, based on the Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritson

Boardwalk Empire, based on Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson

Inspector Morse, based on the novels by Colin Dexter

Nero Wolfe, based on the novels by Rex Stout

Outlander, based on the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon

diana gabaldon outlander — [Photo credit: Tripping Over Books]

Pride and Prejudice and other series based on novels of Jane Austen

Masters of Sex based on Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love by Thomas Maier.

Sherlock and Elementary based on the Sherlock Holmes books and stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Call the Midwife based on Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth

Bones based on Deja Dead and others in the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs

kathy reichs deja dead — [Photo credit: Goodreads]

Game of Thrones based on A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.

Orange Is The New Black based on Orange Is The New Black: My Year In a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman

I could go on and on: Roots, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, numerous books by Agatha Christie (including Miss Marple and Poirot), Grantchester, Anne of Green Gables, the Father Dowling mysteries, Great Expectations, the Forsythe Saga. . .

Here’s a thought: Whatever your TV passion, check it online for possible roots in books. You might find an author you love!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed

Posted on May 24, 2016May 24, 2016 by vlaw759

Top Ten Tuesday, Broke and the Bookish — Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature created by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they provide a prompt for bloggers. Today’s prompt is Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed.

BOOKS I LOVE—OR NOT SO MUCH!

Some books seem to get better every day—or at least year by year. I find that many books I first read for entertainment have grown over time—or maybe I have! Into this category I put anything by Jane Austen.

Jane Austen

Her observations of human behaviors, foibles, and motivations are timeless. And I smile at the humor, even when re-reading.

Mary Renault

Then there are Mary Renault’s books. She brings history to life and dealt with delicate issues of sexuality long before most mainstream authors.

Lewis Carroll

I first approached Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as children’s books. Indeed, my elementary-school granddaughter read them recently. But reading them with an adult eye and understanding, I find the plot line and magical realism rich and the writing superb.

Waverley Root & Richard de Rochemont

I’ve had Eating in America: A History by Waverley Root and Richard de Rochemont on my shelf of unread books for years. But recently, The Food of Italy by Waverley Root turned up on a list of recommended reads for people planning a trip to Italy, and having started that book, I turned to Eating in America. It starts with seafarers and Native Americans and continues through refrigeration and the modern American sweet tooth. Why did I let it languish so long?

Cookbooks

And that segues into cookbooks. Of all my book loves, cookbook loves are the most fickle. I’ve had my low-calorie, low-fat, low-glycemic-index, low-carb, pressure-cooking, microwaving, slow-cooking, blending, cooking-for-one-or-two infatuations. But two cookbooks have held steady in my heart: The Doubleday Cookbook—the best encyclopedic cookbook out there—and Culinary Classics and Improvisations—the best leftovers cookbook in the world!

The New Doubleday Cookbook, Jean Anderson, Elaine Hanna, book, Top Ten Tuesday pick — *The New Doubleday Cookbook*

Michael Fields Culinary Classics and Improvisations: Creative Leftovers Made from Main-Course Masterpieces, cookbook, Top Ten Tuesday pick — *Culinary Classics and Improvisations: Creative Leftovers Made from Main-Course Masterpieces*

Memoir & biography

As a category, I’m coming to a greater appreciation of memoir and biography. For example, The Glass Castle by Jannette Walls, West With the Night by Beryl Markham, and at the recent Gaithersburg Book Festival, I bought “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs” by Annette Gordon Reed and Peter S. Onuf, a recent and atypical biography of Thomas Jefferson—which is still untested but very promising.

West With The Night, Beryl Markham, book, Top Ten Tuesday pick — *West With the Night*

"Most Blessed of the Patriarchs" Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Annette Gordon-Reed, Peter S. Onuf, book, Top Ten Tuesday pick — *“Most Blessed of the Patriarchs,” Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination*

The Bible

When it comes to books about which my feelings have undergone a sea-change, the Bible is in a category by itself. Once upon a time, I believed it was literally the word of God. Now I don’t. Enough said.

Ryrie study Bible, The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, books, Top Ten Tuesday picks — Ryrie Study Bible and The New English Bible

Mysteries

As I’ve become a writer, my interest in the mystery genre has waned. I lost interest in Patricia Cornwell early on because her protagonist, Kate Scarpetta, didn’t grow or develop. But former favorites from Sue Grafton to Rex Stout just don’t grab me anymore.

Strange Maps

One of the books I bought on a whim, Strange Maps, turned out not to be as interesting as I expected it to be.

The Dictionary of American Regional English

And last but not least, I’m no longer in love with the six volumes of The Dictionary of American Regional English. I really regret it. But being able to look up a word and find out where it’s used isn’t nearly as useful as it would be if I could look up a region and get typical word usage!

What books are waxing, waning, or shifting ground in you heart?

Day 13 at Nimrod Hall Writers’ Workshop

Posted on August 2, 2015 by vlaw759

NIMROD HALL TRAVEL LOG

Day 13

Most years we have only one group picture. But at breakfast today Jane Shepherd (seated in the middle next to me) gifted everyone with a Jane Austen tattoo!

Nimrod Hall Writers' Workshop group photo — Week 2 writers with their tattoos

Here’s a close-up of mine, taken by Foust.

Jane Austen-inspired tattoo that reads, "Imprudent" — My tattoo

And then Charlotte Morgan introduced us to her Frog “King”–i.e., Elvis. Charlotte is the author of the novel, Protecting Elvis. She worked on that book at Nimrod the same summer I worked on a first draft of “Love Me Tender” (published earlier this year).

Statue of a frog in Elvis wig and coat at Nimrod Hall — The Frog King

Even after the room was empty and the car loaded, we chatted on the front porch of Square House.

So I said goodbye to Jimmy, the man who provided such great food this year.

And goodbye to Nimrod, comforted to know it will be waiting for us next year.

brightly painted chairs on lawn at Nimrod Hall Writers' Workshop — Waiting for next year

Nimrod Hall, established in 1783, has been providing summer respite from everyday stress since 1906. It has been operating as an artist and writer colony for over 25 years. The Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program is a non-competitive, inspirational environment for artists to create without the distractions of everyday life. The 2015 Writers’ Workshop writers-in-residence are Sheri Reynolds, Cathryn Hankla, and Charlotte G. Morgan.

NIMROD HALL TRAVEL LOG POSTS