Cassandra Grafton & When Harry Met Jane...? Read on!

Or how a Connecticut seagull and a famous boy wizard contributed to the cover story of A Fair Prospect, a trilogy inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

That grabs my attention, how about you? As Mr. Bennet would say, 'read on' and you will discover the delightful and diverting story of Cassandra Grafton and the aforementioned contribution to her trilogy. Ms. Grafton is generously giving away 2 books and I will tell you more about that at the end of this post! Now without further distraction, please "Read on!"

I am so grateful to you, Janet, for hosting me on More Agreeably Engaged and guiding me through my first ever Blog post! One thing I have learned in the last few months is that there is so much more to publishing than just the creative process of writing, and when you offered me the opportunity to do a post here, I wanted to give your readers something special - the behind the scenes story of how the covers of these books came about - and here it is!

~o0o~

Do you believe in legend or hearsay about things that bring you luck? If you find a penny, do you pick it up? Do you salute a magpie if you see one flying by or search desperately for a four-leaf clover in a patch of grass? (I won’t get into the ‘black cat crossing your path’ one. An American friend of mine thought I was being wittily ironic in naming our black cat Lucky until I confessed that, here in the UK, black cats are considered precisely that).

Well, I have no luck when it comes to winning things. I’ve played the National Lottery, entered charity raffles and numerous competitions, and my number just never comes up.  My husband is the same; we have come to find it rather amusing and console ourselves by reminding each other that our luck comes in different ways, and the summer of 2001 was an instance of when it certainly did.  

At the time, we were living in a coastal town in Connecticut. For many local families, most weekends in summer were spent at the beach, and we were no exception. One day, I had forgotten to take a book with me, although I did have a small local newspaper to read. My husband and son were soon off enjoying the water, so I settled into my beach chair, burrowed my toes into the warm, soft sand and opened the paper, ready to indulge in some neighbourhood news – until precisely two seconds later, when a passing seagull deposited its plentiful load on said paper which I threw hastily to the ground. I knew, however, the old adage that being pooped on by a bird brings good luck, so I had to hope that something good was coming my way.

With the paper disposed of, I turned to the only other reading material we had brought along – a book that had caught my eye earlier that day in the local bookstore and had purchased for my son (then 13) to try and encourage him to read more. I picked up the copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, from where it had been happily discarded in favour of splashing around in Long Island Sound, without much expectation of being entertained by it – how wrong can one be?

Little did I know at the time, but JK Rowling had only released four of the seven Harry Potter books, all of which I had consumed by the end of the following week. I was hooked, and like many fans of the books, I was desperate for more. Failing to find anything on the shelves of the local bookstores, I turned to the Internet, where I discovered I was one of millions now longing for Book Five.

I had never heard the term ‘fan fiction’ before then, but in my searches of the Web, I soon stumbled upon websites and forums where growing communities of Harry Potter fans were all huddled together, in for the long wait and, in the meantime, indulging their fantasies as to where the story might go next by writing their own tales.  I was hooked again!

As any reader of fan fiction knows, whatever the genre, the quantity may be overwhelming but the quality can be variable. After a few months, I stumbled across a small website called The Hidden Tower. Unlike many of those I had found previously, the community was very small and the authors posting stories numbered only two, both of whom were excellent writers. With delight, I had found my new home on the Web!  I lurked for a while, then tentatively joined the small group of members, soon forming a close bond with one of them.

Before long, Adrea and I began to co-write Harry Potter-inspired short stories ourselves, and the webmistresses at The Hidden Tower very generously offered to host them. Fan fiction is, of course, the path not travelled, the story not told by the original author, so as well as writing a few stories about how Harry fell in love with Ginny Weasley (yes, that was our ship!), we also ventured into comedy, writing a short story about  the 14-year-old Harry’s mishaps with a bra he had accidentally acquired and another (after the aforementioned Book Five had been published) from the viewpoint of several owls (inspired by Chapter Two of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – A Peck of Owls).

If you have stayed with me so far, you can see how the seagull is connected to the boy wizard – but perhaps not how that leads to Jane Austen.

Well, something else that Adrea and I discovered along the way was that we shared a love of Jane Austen and, in particular, Pride & Prejudice. We became involved in a forum related to both after the 2005 film release where the talented community soon began to pour out its love for Jane Austen’s story in various art forms: paintings and drawings, sewing and craft-making, photo collages and videos and, of course, fan fiction. Inspired, we both began writing again, sometimes together, sometimes on our own, and eventually I decided to take the plunge and attempt a full-length story.

“Full length” began to take on a whole new meaning as the story came into being, as A Fair Prospect (four years in the writing and half that time again in editing) amounted to a rather onerous 300,000.

I decided that, if the story was going to be published, it needed to be divided into three volumes of more manageable size. I also wanted to find a way to include Adrea in this new adventure. She was, after all, as well as having become one of my best friends, the person who helped me to finally complete my first writing projects back in our Harry Potter days (before which I had many years’ worth of boxes full of incomplete ones) and therefore set the ball rolling for me.

Adrea and her mom, Diane, are both talented artists, producing beautiful drawings in pen and ink and watercolour (including the gorgeous The Twelve Days of Christmas, which is a lovely keepsake book if anyone is into doing their Christmas shopping particularly early this year!). It seemed the logical thing to ask them if they would be able to produce something for the covers, and I was delighted when they agreed. The added benefit was that Adrea had followed the story as it was written and, therefore, settling on a key scene between us for each cover was fairly straightforward, heavily influenced by its location.

In Disappointed Hopes, the first proposal takes place in the grounds of Rosings Park in Kent in inclement weather. You see, I had never forgotten the outdoor proposal in the 2005 film, at the end of which Darcy is seen walking away as the rain continues to pour. I just couldn’t accept that he would leave Elizabeth there, soaking wet and alone, so I began to think about “what if he came back to take her home? What might happen, and what might be the on-going effects of this?”

Having visited Groombridge Place, also in Kent, in recent years (a private manor house with traditional gardens that are open to the public), I knew exactly where I wanted that scene to be set.

Groombridge has extensive formal gardens which were planted and laid out in the form of ‘outdoor rooms’ in the 17^th century by Philip Packer, who had inherited the property, and his diarist and horticulturist friend, John Evelyn. One of these ‘rooms’ is called The Secret Garden (said to be Philip Packer’s favourite of them all, where he allegedly passed away peacefully whilst reading a book – one has to wonder which book, but as his demise was said to be peaceful, one can assume it wasn’t the story or the tome itself that was the cause!)

The secluded Secret Garden is a shady hideaway, and the photo shows the sheltered path that leads to it. From that photo came the artwork for the background, and then the figures were drawn in pen and ink and added. This was passed to the talented Rebecca Young, who offers a cover design service, and resulted in the finished product.

When it came to the second volume, Darcy’s Dilemma, I recalled a colour plate that I had come across whilst doing some research. I had been writing a scene set in Vauxhall Gardens in London and found a plate that had been engraved for the New Universal Magazine in 1752, depicting a view of the Grand Walk.

Vauxhall Gardens were pleasure grounds in London where people would go to promenade, see and be seen, partake of refreshment and enjoy musical concerts and so on. They were in use for two centuries, the height of their popularity being the mid-17^th century, and one of the main attractions was that it was a place where young men and women could meet freely without many of the constraints that normally attend the often delicate process of socialising in a public domain. The Grand Walk was particularly popular for strolling.

Adrea and Diane again produced a delightful interpretation of this, which Rebecca turned it into a lovely cover for the second volume.

As for Volume III, Desperate Measures – well, it’s coming soon, and here’s a sneak peak of the gorgeous artwork!

So, Mr Seagull, thank you for bringing me good fortune. Without you, I might never have found my dear friend Adrea, might never have finished a story and certainly would never have been in possession of such beautiful and original book covers!

~o0o~

Volume I, Disappointed Hopes, is available at Amazon, in all online bookstores in paperback, and in eBook format in the Amazon Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iTunes stores, or at Smashwords.com

Volume II, Darcy’s Dilemma, is available in the Kindle store and at Smashwords.com (all other eBook formats). It will be available in paperback and at Nook, Kobo etc during the next week.

Volume I has been available since March, and below is the description of the newly released Volume II.

Thrown together by circumstance in London, and with his friend, Bingley, in hot pursuit of the eldest Miss Bennet, Darcy finds his best endeavours to relieve Elizabeth of his unwelcome presence come to naught. As the encounters continue, they seem to be developing a better appreciation of each other, but is there any future for them in the face of their previous misunderstandings, and what of Harington, the man who is deemed a fair prospect for Elizabeth’s hand?

As further evidence arises of a bond existing between the couple, Darcy faces a dilemma: should he remain in Town, or should he make himself scarce? Which decision will lead to the least heartache: to never lay eyes upon Elizabeth again or to watch the woman he loves being courted and wed by another?

Personal links for Cassandra Grafton
Website
Twitter
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Included below, at Ms. Grafton's request, is a bit more about the talented artists for her covers of A Fair Prospect, the three volumes.

Diane and Adrea are mother & daughter artists with very different styles. They have always found that blending their artistic concentrations is their best form of communications. The Twelve Days of Christmas was done as a 'conversation' in which one drawing leads to the next - one artist leading lines off the page which the other had to follow and blend with their page.

The Twelve Days of Christmas is available on Amazon

Ms. Grafton, it has been a privilege to have you as my guest today. Thank you for taking the time to share your story. I enjoyed it and I feel sure the readers have too. I loved the pictures that were the basis for each of your covers. Having your covers designed around places you have visited and loved (and by good friends) makes them all the more unique and gives them sentimental value too. I like that. 

I offer a very special 'thank you' to Cassandra Grafton for her generous giveaway of two books, winner's choice of A Fair Prospect: Disappointed Hopes, (Volume I) or A Fair Prospect: Darcy's Dilemma, (Volume II) This giveaway is international. Winners, you may choose your title and whether you want it in a paperback or an ebook.  To be entered please leave a comment below. Be sure to include your email address in the comment. To prevent unwanted spam, put your email address with an (at) instead of @.  Winner will be chosen in a random drawing. Giveaway ends at midnight, April 20. Good luck.