Jeanna Ellsworth...some promises are meant to be broken!

Jeanna Ellsworth, debut author of Mr. Darcy's Promise, is my guest this week. Her answers to my interview questions are diverting, entertaining and touching. Her honesty and openness are to be admired. I greatly enjoyed reading your answers and getting to know you better. Thank you for sharing your loves, your thoughts and your innermost feelings. 

There is a giveaway so be sure to read about it at the bottom of the post! Please join me in welcoming Jeanna Ellsworth.

        1.  How and when did you become interested in Jane Austen and Pride    & Prejudice?

I’ve liked Pride and Prejudice for many years but I admit I preferred to watch the movie until my sister, KaraLynne Mackrory (author of Falling for Mr. Darcy and Bluebells in the Mourning), would send me her chapters as she finished them. She was so good at drawing me into the story that I began to be impatient for the next chapter. A writer can only write just so fast and she was not fast enough for my insatiable thirst for a good romance. I had been divorced for almost a year and had even less romance for at least ten years before that. Mr. Collins had more romance in his life with Elizabeth than I did . . . so . . . once I realized how my love life had been on a serious decade long fast, and nearly in dormancy,  and that it suddenly was being fed (one tantalizing but WAY too short chapter at a time), I begged her for more. I remember her saying, “Well if you like my book, why don’t you read this book”, then she suggested “that book”, then she turned me onto entire authors like Kara Louise and Jan Hahn. So I started reading and reading and reading. I read online books, rented every book from the library, and Amazon.com stock went up as I learned that KaraLynne’s addiction for Darcy and Elizabeth was contagious, worldwide, and that an addict found where she could get her blunt!

        2. What drove you to start writing your own books? Did you write other things before writing  PnP variations?

Do hallucinations count as a driving force? Ha Ha. If so, then I’d have to say I would have conversations with 200 year old fictitious characters and suddenly I would have plots and scenes come to me both awake and when sleeping. Of course this was over 50 JAFF books into my addiction. I was really beginning to be concerned that I was going crazy. I now believe a true Janeite must be a little crazy but I didn’t learn this until recently. The words “indeed” and “shall” and phrases like “are you ill?” began seeping into my vocabulary. So I asked for advice from my one sister who knew what I was feeling. Addicts attract addicts. I asked her what to do. She suggested a plot outline, then encouraged the first chapter to be written “just to see” how I liked writing. Two months later I had finished writing an entire novel. I admit it was never a dream to write. In fact, I am a nurse and we do very little writing in our professions. Certainly not dialogue or romance scenes. I had taken a creative writing class in high school and dabbled in writing short stories that could be counted as blogs. Even started a personal history once. I have loved writing in a journal though. I think if I give any credit to being able to express what I want in writing it would have to be because of my journal writing. 

            3. Do you have a muse that causes your story to lead you at times or do you use an outline and follow it religiously? What is your writing routine?

I love this question. I would say I know basic key plots but mostly it is muse and the energy I feel when I write. I remember in Mr. Darcy’s Promise, writing Darcy teasingly saying “I insist you tell me what you are thinking.” And then Elizabeth says, “Or what, Mr. Darcy?” My fingers paused at the end of that sentence and I thought, “Or what? What will Darcy, a man who is madly in love with Elizabeth, threaten her with?” I was on a TRAX commuting train and paused just contemplating what to do with the scene from there. An idea came to me. Mud. Of course! Why not mud in a Regency romance!?!? Mr. Darcy then threatens to throw her in the mud. It turned out to be one of my favorite scenes even though I never intended it in the book. So I very much let my fingers do the walking as I write. Occasionally I have to remind myself of my goals and refer back to the plot outline but mostly I just write what flows into my fingers.

           4. Is there any setting that inspires you to write?

My girls inspire me. I have two teenage daughters and a 7 year old daughter who laugh and cry and swoon with me on everything. They have been my constant in my life. I dedicate Mr. Darcy’s Promise to them. More often than not, it is them that request a chick flick and rarely is it me who suggests the BBC version (all 6 hours) of Pride and Prejudice (I try to limit myself). But we watch it 4-5 times a year. My 7 year old can nearly quote parts of it. I want so badly to have them find their own Mr. Darcy’s when the time is right.

      5. Why does the Regency era appeal to you?

Besides the breeches and sexy knee high boots? Ha Ha. Back then a lady was really a lady and a man fought to defend his honor as well as hers. The subtlest of looks and the briefest of touches meant so much! I enjoy the idea of a gentleman doing everything in his power to show that a lady’s reputation was more important than his own. I love that a single dance could communicate admiration. I love rules. But what I love the most about Jane Austen’s Regency Era was that rules were sometimes broken, and sometimes that was the best part! Darcy should never have written to Elizabeth after her refusal but he did! She should never have accepted a letter from someone she did not have an understanding with but only because the rule was broken did the relationship change. In Mr. Darcy’s Promise, there comes a time when my Elizabeth gets quite irritated with Darcy’s gentlemanly rules and promises. After all, some promises are meant to be broken.

       6. Tell us something about your book that you love most. (if you can without giving anything away)

I made myself cry in chapter 12 when I wrote it. I seriously did. I knew what was coming. I was prepared to write the scene. It was not a moment I was unprepared for. But when Darcy finally tells her how much he loves her, I bawled. My girls were in the same room as me and they asked me what was wrong. I told them “He loves her! He couldn’t contain it one page longer! He finally expressed his love!” My oldest two understood since they would read each chapter as I wrote them but my tenderhearted youngest just hugged me as if there was something wrong. She was very confused since 20 minutes before I was laughing at my computer screen as I wrote. Laugh. Cry. Swoon? Yup . . . I make myself feel it all! Hopefully you will all feel it too!

      7. Is there anything you learned from writing that has helped you in your life?

No comment. (This is a  game I play when I don’t want to answer a question). No seriously, one thing I am known for is my honesty so I will suck it up and answer this. I learned that not all relationships have to be like the marriage I was in. I learned that a marriage can be based on love, companionship, kindness and generosity. I learned that maybe, just maybe, I might be willing to do a bit of dating and search for my own Mr. Darcy.  All this I learned in a two month period of writing Mr. Darcy’s Promise which is about a forced marriage scenario.

        8.  Is there anything special about yourself or your writing that you would like to share with us?

Everything about me is special! But there were many years I did not believe that. I am healing from years and years of severe depression and have been completely depression free for over 4 years! I celebrate that anniversary day more significantly then my own birthday which is next week!

        9. Tell us about your sister, KaraLynne Mackrory and how her books/writing inspired you.

I am so lucky to have a sister who understands and even feeds my addiction and obsession. She is an inspiration. I have used and abused her opinions, knowledge, experience as a published author, her values etc. as I delved into writing and publishing. She is my Wikipedia with a heart. I still get mad at her that she didn’t put an epilogue at the end of Falling for Mr. Darcy. I seriously hold some animosity. Ha Ha. 

      10. Now for a very important question, why do you love Mr. Darcy?

I love that Mr. Darcy is not perfect. He has such serious faults that he learns about himself and doesn’t just sit back and accept that it is the way he is. He doesn’t offer excuses. He doesn’t dismiss criticism without introspection. Once these faults, his pride and his prejudice, were pointed out to him, he made every effort to fix them. He struggled. It was indeed a heavy load. But at the end of each day, he lives by my motto, “I will be better today than yesterday, and I hope that I can always say that.” 

Thank you for interviewing me! This was great to write! It is so fun to revisit my addiction to a fictitious hero and be able to share it with all of you! I hope this sparked your interest in my book, Mr. Darcy’s Promise, and that I make you laugh, cry, and swoon as much as I hope to! I hope you all follow my blog posts I do to on my website, www.heyladypublications.com. Happy reading!

Jeanna Ellsworth

Jeanna, thank you again for being my guest and for answering my questions. You brightened my day with your energy and spark. I share your addiction with a fictitious hero as do many JAFF fans. I also enjoyed your book and you did make me laugh, cry and swoon! Your Mr. Darcy was most swoon-worthy! I fell in love all over again. Better save the rest of my comments for a review to follow in a few days! 

Ms. Ellworth is giving away one eBook for an eReader or one trade paperback. The giveaway is worldwide and the winner will be selected in a random drawing. Leave a comment below to be entered. 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 19.