Dear readers, you are in for a special treat this April Fool's. Emerging author, Tess Quinn, is my guest today. She tells a lively and fascinating story of her path to writing and publishing. She is the author of Pride Revisited, an anthology of short stories released on January 28, 2013!
Tess Quinn is graciously giving away two ebooks to two lucky winners so be sure and leave a comment. Winners may choose either Pride Revisited or Caroline's ComeUppance. This giveaway is open internationally. Thank you, Ms. Quinn.
Now, please get to know Tess Quinn. You will find her quite lovely!
Thanks so much, Janet, for inviting me to
guest post today. It truly is a pleasure
to introduce my stories on your lovely site with the warm welcome you extended. I’ve been writing Austen-based fiction for eight
years, but it has been low-key – posting on websites with a relatively intimate
membership – and I’m ready to ‘emerge’ and reach out for wider readership. Now that I have a few pieces released or in
the works, this world of promoting via electronic media is alien to me. Exciting!—Yes; but daunting for a
dyed-in-the-wool introvert.
This post can easily grow to a long ramble;
I’ve never been celebrated for brevity.
So I’m benchmarking from other author posts I’ve read with interview
questions to try to rein myself in a little with structure. I hope your followers will enjoy this
introduction to me and my recent publication, Pride Revisited – a collection of original short stories based on Pride and Prejudice.
So, Tess, what drew you to Jane Austen and her writing?
Gertrude Stein once said, “America is my
country but Paris is my home town.” And—
Wait! – Gertrude Stein? Paris?
I thought you were introducing yourself as a Jane Austen-based author! Where does Gertrude Stein come in?
She doesn’t. But when I first read that quotation some
years ago, it resonated with me beyond its pedigree or context – positing the
notion that no matter where you originated or live, there is a place or an
experience that naturally speaks to your soul; that is ‘home’. For Gertrude Stein, that was Paris. For me, it is Britain.
I have no British family heritage, never
lived there. Yet even as a child, I was
fascinated by England, Wales and Scotland.
The first time I was fortunate to travel to London at four and twenty,
it felt like returning to ‘my hometown;’ and in successive years of travel to
the UK that sensation hasn’t changed. Whether
I visit town or countryside, from the moment I land to the moment I tearfully
fly off again, I experience home in its most intrinsic, cherished sense. I am mindful that I’m not native to it – one
friend’s daughters remind me of this truth whenever they try to teach me to
speak “proper English” – but this country resides in my soul.
Coupled with that, my mother— always
encouraging reading— introduced me early to international folklore. This led me to the Arthurian tales – and that
was that; a lifelong love affair with British history and literature was
launched. King Arthur became my first
“romantic” crush. Nothing like setting
the bar high at age eleven for all future comers! From T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, I read voraciously, drawn so often to
British authors. Over the years, I came
to love Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, Kenneth
Grahame – I could go on right up through Jerome K. Jerome and P.G. Wodehouse to
J. K. Rowling.
Hold on – there’s at least one relevant name missing
from that list—
At thirteen, I had an awesome English
teacher who recommended Pride and
Prejudice to me (thanks, Mrs S!) I
adored it. I didn’t have the maturity
then fully to grasp all its irony and humour, or incredible psychological
insights to human behaviour. I read it
as a straight story. But I loved the
flow of language. I sensed it was
brilliant. I was hooked. Northanger
Abbey followed, and I never looked back.
Fortysomething years later, I’ve reread the novels too many times to
count, and seen most of the adaptations and several stage productions. And every time I read one again, I take
something new from it. Sometimes it’s a
profound revelation. More often it’s
some small titbit to savour. For
example, a few years ago this line jumped out at me, where Lizzy wants to go to
Netherfield to visit Jane: “...and as she was no horse-woman, walking was her
only alternative.” I’ve pondered those seemingly
insignificant lead-in words a lot given how deliberate Austen was in her
writing . Eventually, they inspired the
story “Lizzy Gets a Lesson” in Pride
Revisited.
If this was a traditional interview, the next question
likely would be – which novel is your favourite?
Each of them has been, at given points in
my life. But Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion have held the honour more
often than not. If truly pressed to pick,
I have to say Pride and Prejudice – (Persuasion and Captain Wentworth do make
it hard to admit that) – for two reasons: it was my first, at a very
impressionable age, and introduced me to Jane Austen. And then, of course, there’s Mr Darcy. He became my King Arthur for the Regency
period – another bar set high. But he
was more than just a romantic figure to me.
Intuitively, I felt a connection with Fitzwilliam Darcy which later only
intensified when I considered why. I
identified with him. Well, except that
he was a man and I was not; and he was wealthy and privileged and I was not
(more’s the pity); and his taciturn behaviour was more often than not excused
because of his privilege, and mine was not; and he was flawed and I was...
okay, so that we had in common.
What else did you have in common?
I had experienced accusations of being
‘stuck up’ when in truth I was highly introverted and shy; felt awkward in new
situations with new people; sometimes judged people a little too readily as a
defence mechanism; perhaps felt superior or condescended to others when I
shouldn’t have done. Darcy felt like a real person to me. I loved Elizabeth Bennet, wished I could be her.
(OK, if it’s true confession time, I have to admit that in that first adolescent
reading, I kind of thought Lizzy was mean in the beginning; but that wore off
quickly and by the middle of the book I adored her.) I related to Darcy - my sensibilities
belonged to the gentleman right from the start, despite narrative teasers of
‘such different accounts’ designed to puzzle us exceedingly as to his
character.
How did this evolve into writing Austen-based fiction?
I always wanted to be a writer. But shyness and abject fear hitherto held me
back. I thought that I wrote pretty
well, and others had said as much for years in different context. My most immediate and specific fear wasn’t so
much whether I could write – but that I’d have nothing to say. Content,
not style, had been my folly.
So I quietly went about life for half a
century, appreciated Jane Austen, rejoiced in the 1995 miniseries – on my own,
since my family doesn’t share this peculiar passion. I’m sure I only have to mention the words
“eye rolling” and some of you can relate.
Then the 2005 film adaptation came out.
And in looking up some details about the production, I had the fortune
to discover an online community devoted to the film, and the book, and the
author. I’d found utopia! and people
with a common interest, some of whom over the years have become very dear
friends. At last, I’d found a place to
get my Austen “fix” on a regular basis!
It wasn’t just tolerated – it was shared! Encouraged! I got fulfilment –
and my family got headaches from increased eye activity.
At that point I had not experienced fan
fiction, but within this small community people started posting scenes,
full-fledged stories, poetry. Members
were supportive, encouraged more, added more.
It was wonderful. So I tried my
hand at a short descriptive piece; I swallowed hard and hit the ‘post’ button
the first time. And then sat in
trepidation watching the display for some indication a comment had been added,
whereupon my hand hovered over the enter key until I could summon the fortitude
to accept whatever verdict the comment offered.
And it was good, that first comment.
And so was the next one, and the one after that.
I’ve realized since that commenters mostly were
just caught up, as was I, in the spirit of it all. Especially now when I look back at those
earliest efforts, I know they were being kind.
I immediately recognize deficiencies from lack of sufficient research in
Regency social customs and history. I
violated the “show, don’t tell” mantra of good writing practice, and probably
others too. (But then, I still do
that.) I just got so jazzed that people liked my snippets and even requested
more. I can’t imitate Jane Austen’s
writing, “I have not the talent...”– but my natural writing style (refined
since those early efforts) and my narrative cadence seemed a good fit with
Regency fiction.
For me, the blessing of Jane Austen fan
fiction was that it gave me content,
a cast of characters, a plot within which to insert my little offerings. It resolved my “nothing to say” dilemma with
a jumping off point. It gave me so much
more, too – confidence! Not only to
write longer pieces, complete short stories and even novel-length pieces – but through
introducing within these some original characters, it led to several ideas for
wholly original works, my own ‘content,’ which I look forward to writing as
soon as the Austen projects I committed to are complete. Yet another blessing for which I am indebted
to Jane Austen!
Is Pride Revisited a collection
of stories compiled from those early posts?
To an extent, yes. I am writing a novel now that originally I planned
to be my ‘public debut.’ But in 2010 and
again in 2011 I entered the Chawton House Library Short Story Contest. The first year, my entry survived the first
screening cut – encouraging – but got no further. The next year, “Worst
Impressions” (in a shorter version of the one included in Pride Revisited) progressed through several rounds to make the
final list of 25 for jurying. It didn’t
pass that final hurdle of being selected in the top 20 that were subsequently
published. (I couldn’t help but wonder
if an uncomplimentary reference within the story to Jane Eyre contributed to its demise, as the final judge happened to
be an expert on the Brontes, worst luck.)
But still I was proud of it getting as far as it did.
Then I was approached to include my short
story, “A Good Vintage Whine,” in an anthology representing multiple contributors
(edited by Marsha Altman, publisher, Ulysses Press.) That book, The Road to Pemberley, was released in July 2011. I was thrilled to see my first story “in print”
alongside several authors already known in this genre!!! So I thought, why not
dust off some early stories and put together my own collection. I took a break from novel writing, did major
edits on existing pieces and wrote a few new ones, and the result is Pride Revisited. I intentionally released it on 28 January of
this year in order to honour the 200th anniversary date of the novel
that served as inspiration. And as of
this week, it is available through Amazon in ebook and now print form, too.
Speaking of dates, is there anything significant about
the fact that you’re guest posting today?
There is, though the scheduling part was
pure chance. Pride Revisited contains sixteen stories in all and fully two of
them take place at Rosings in Kent... on April First! “April’s Fool: A Confluence of Coincidences”
is humorous in intent with an interesting prank. The other, “April Fools: A Romance,” is a
what-if fantasy that re-imagines the two proposals Elizabeth receives from
Darcy.
Care to offer a teaser on the novel in the works?
I admitted earlier that I always felt a
connection with Fitzwilliam Darcy. So
from the start, I wanted to tell stories acknowledging his perspective. Several of my short stories grew from
background character exercises. When I
considered Darcy’s history and its chronology, it occurred to me that even
while he was becoming bewitched by Elizabeth Bennet’s fine eyes, Darcy and his
sister Georgiana would also be just forming a mature sibling relationship. Given their significant age difference and
circumstances, they would not have had opportunity to bond as adults until she
was established out of school. At the
opening of Pride and Prejudice, that transition
had only recently occurred. The nearly disastrous episode with Wickham in
Ramsgate, especially, would have offered the impetus and opening for them to
begin to relate on a different level.
So this novel will interweave two
relationship stories, one familiar and one new: that of Elizabeth and Darcy,
and the other the growing understanding between brother and sister – all of it as
recalled years later by Georgiana Darcy herself.
When will it be available?
(Laughs) Well, I’ve been writing for five
years!— with a lot of interruptions during that time. But I will complete it this year. In the meantime, as a bonus in Pride Revisited, I added a teaser
chapter that describes Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam travelling to Kent for
Easter. I have a completed novel featuring
the Colonel, too, (A Fitzwilliam Legacy)
that will be published in 2013 when I’ve completed edits. And I’d previously released in hardback an
early novel, Caroline’s Comeuppance,
that is a fun read and has been re-released as an ebook.
Anything else you’d care to tell us?
Ha! I’ve already long passed where this became a
ramble despite the ersatz structure!
I’ll just reiterate my gratitude for this opportunity to introduce
myself. It has been a delight, and “I
will only add, God bless you.”
Visit Tess Quinn at:
Thanks again to Tess Quinn for generously offering two ebooks, winner's choice of Pride Revisited or Caroline's ComeUppance. This giveaway is open internationally. 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 8. Good luck.
When I started to look for artwork for When They Fall in Love, I
wanted something to reflect the story’s setting: Florence, Italy. I spent hours
at WikiCommons looking for royalty-free artwork, and I finally decided on
Claude Lorrain’s Pastoral with Shepherds
for the front cover and his Repudiation
of Hagar for the back cover. I didn’t have to do much with the front cover,
other than fluff up the big tree on the left, but for the back cover, I had to
get rid of the temple and the people as the scene had obviously not taken place
in Renaissance Italy. After cropping the picture and working with the
transparency, voila! I had my cover. Here’s a summary of what the novel is
about:
