Jane Austen ~ a true inspiration...with Cynthia Ingram Hensley

Thank you, Cynthia, for agreeing to be my guest today and congratulations on your new book! I understand that the eBook is available today! That is wonderful news!  I know you must be excited! I enjoyed reading about the different questions upon which you dwell and I appreciate you sharing them with us.

Please forgive me for the late post. I am having computer problems! (and not doing too good on this computer) Giveaway information is at the end of the post!

Jane Austen ~ a true inspiration…

As a reader and ardent admirer of Jane Austen, I have always been awed by authors who have taken up the questions of “what happened next” and “what if” and written sequels, variations, or adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. I just love reading them! Although fully inspired by the world’s greatest love story, as a writer, I found that I dwelled on different questions. Such as: What if the Darcys still lived at Pemberley? Isn’t there a whole host of great country houses scattered throughout the U.K. occupied to this day by the original families? And best of all… What would the modern descendants of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy be like—their personalities, peculiarities, strengths, weaknesses, and temperaments? Finding the answers to these questions intrigued me, and so I took up the challenge and wrote my first novel, Echoes of Pemberley.

While technically a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Echoes of Pemberley is a renewal of sorts, a bringing forward of the family Jane Austen started two centuries ago. When I sat down and created Darcy and Elizabeth’s descendants, I wanted to create a love story that, like Pride and Prejudice, was timeless and enduring. In my humble addition to Jane Austen’s classic tale, it was my hope to continue Pride and Prejudice by paying homage to the past while embarking upon a new journey of the heart.

 Like Ms. Austen’s Georgiana Darcy, my heroine, Catherine (Catie) Elizabeth Darcy was orphaned at a young age and left in the custody of her overly protective brother, Bennet Fitzwilliam Darcy—a man worthy of his lineage. A true romantic who has never been kissed, this young Darcy spends her school holidays at Pemberley, daydreaming of her ancestors legendary love story and reading romance novels that her brother calls “rubbish.” But what Catie doesn’t know is that her life is about to change forever.

            Enter nineteen-year-old Sean Kelly, the son of a horse farmer and an Irishman from his flat cap to his boots. Sean arrives at Pemberley in his relic Land Rover to give Miss Catie riding lessons. With a poetic nod to Pride and Prejudice, Sean initially dislikes Pemberley’s fetching, young heiress but soon discovers that first impressions aren’t always as they seem. Oh, those wretched first impressions! Echoes of Pemberley is a heartwarming tale of star-crossed love and family devotion. It was my goal for my readers to laugh, cry, and travel once more back to Derbyshire, England and fall in love all over again. Let’s face it…if you don’t swoon over Sean Kelly then you don’t have a pulse!

And there’s more…without spoiling the ending of Echoes of Pemberley for those who haven’t yet read it, I will simply say, Sean and Catie’s story was never meant to end where we left them. Find out what happens next in The Heart Does Whisper, the second installment of Echoes of Pemberley. The Heart Does Whisper will be available for pre-order on Thursday August 1^st at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and your local bookstore. To celebrate the upcoming release of The Heart Does Whisper, my publisher, Meryton Press, is offering Echoes of Pemberley at the special rate of $3.99 for a short time in ebook format on Amazon.com.

Finally, I’d like to say that it is my sincere belief that Miss Austen would genuinely appreciate how she has inspired so many women, writers, and novels. Her characters are imperfect, passionate, endearing and wicked. Essentially—they are real! Using the human spirit as her canvas, Jane Austen set the standard for romance.

You can find out more at www.cynthiahensley.merytonpress.com, Facebook (Cynthia Ingram Hensley, Author) and Twitter @writer_chensley!

Ms. Hensley, it is a pleasure to have you visit this week. Again, I thank you for sharing your story with us.

I want to thank Michele Reed and Meryton Press for the giveaway. Ms. Reed is kindly giving away a trade paperback and an eBook. This giveaway is international. To be entered leave a comment below. I always love reading your thoughts! Has Jane Austen been an inspiration to you? Good luck to all. 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, August 5.