Monica Fairview and Mr. Darcy's Challenge

It is with pleasure and no small amount of excitement that I welcome back author, Monica Fairview. Her novel, Mr. Darcy's Challenge is now available and I am anxious to read it and see what happens following Mr. Darcy's Pledge. (Here is the link to my review.) I know, dear readers, that you will enjoy the extract that follows the post. There is a giveaway too for one lucky person! Yay!

Thank you, Janet, for this opportunity to appear on More Agreeably Engaged as a stop on my blog tour for Mr. Darcy’s Challenge. I do love Janet’s original artwork, don’t you?  I could look at it for hours.

Since I started my blog tour, I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between Jane Austen variations and sequels. Since I’ve done both, I can tell you they are a completely different kettle of fish. With sequels, you are more limited in what you can do with the characters. When I wrote The Other Mr. Darcy, for example, I found myself constantly challenged because I was writing about Caroline Bingley, and readers did not really want a happy ending for her. Yet since I was writing a romance, and Caroline was the main character, it was rather unavoidable. I was limited as to how I could approach her character, however, since I was picking up the novel from where it left off.

When writing a variation, however, you can allow free reign to your imagination, which is an absolute delight. Obviously, the characters should be consistent, but your plot can start anywhere and take on any twists and turns you choose. You are faced with a challenge of a different sort: how to make sure the characters remain plausible even in very different situations. I must admit I am enjoying that challenge so far.

Speaking of challenges, Darcy has a few of his own in my latest novel. I chose the title deliberately because Darcy daydreams about becoming Lizzy’s champion in shining armor. I love the idea that he needs a Challenge to prove his worth to her, and that’s what he does when he rides off later in the novel to rescue her.

In the extract below from Mr. Darcy’s Challenge, however, we are not yet at that stage. He and Elizabeth have quarreled, and Darcy is seeing her for the first time after their big fight.  In this extract, Darcy has just been to visit the Gardiners to inform them and Mr. Bennet that he has found Wickham. He does not know Elizabeth is in town. The moment is both poignant and comic.

***

As the door shut behind him, he set his walking stick firmly on the ground, looked down the stairs with resolution and smoothed out the inside of his beaver.  

“Mr. Darcy!” said a much too familiar voice. “What are you doing here? Is there news?”

Darcy was so stunned he dropped the hat. It tumbled down the stairs and lay in the street on the dirty cobblestones. He stared at it for too long, unable to gather his thoughts together. By the time he registered the danger, a cart had come by and reduced it to pulp.

“Oh,” said Elizabeth. “I am sorry to have startled you and ruined your hat.”

He felt naked without it, totally naked and exposed. He could hardly say so, however. Years of practice in uttering polite phrases prompted him to answer. “It was entirely my fault. Say no more of it, I beg you.”

His voice was so strained it sounded unfamiliar to him. He tried to steady his breath, which was coming as fast as if he had arrived from running uphill rather than from inside the Gardiner’s house, but the more he tried to appear in control, the more breathless he became.

He watched her from the corner of his eye. She was wearing an alluring walking dress in a very attractive shade of green that showed off her ripe figure to perfection. It brought out the sparkle in her eyes and the wine-red color of her lips.

They stood there, staring at the ruined hat as if at some precious object that had been irredeemably destroyed. The specter of their last encounter stood between them.

Dodging the traffic, a street urchin dashed across from the other side and took it up, and, without so much as a glance towards Darcy, ran back to the other side where he proceeded to dust it and pat it back into a parody of a top hat, crooked and torn.

“Are you not going to stop him?” asked Elizabeth, curiously.

Darcy shrugged. “The hat – if it could still be called that – is no use to me. If he can sell it or use it himself, then I will not begrudge him that.”

The urchin’s theft – if that was what it could be called -- had served a useful function, in fact. It had given Darcy time to recover from the unexpected encounter. His pulse was still unsteady, but at least it was not galloping like a horse running from a fire.

“I did not expect to see you here,” he remarked. It was a colossal understatement. 

“We arrived last night. My mother was convinced my father would call Wickham out and be killed. Nothing would ease her fears but being here where she could prevent him.”

“I see,” he said, trying to think of something better to say but failing.

“You have not yet told me the purpose of your visit to my uncle and aunt,” she said. “Has Wickham been found?”

Darcy took a deep breath. “Yes, he has.”

“And--?”

He was behaving like an idiot. She needed reassurance and he was not providing it.

“I have found Wickham, but Miss Lydia was not with him.”

About the Author:

Monica Fairview

Monica is a longtime admirer of Jane Austen and likes to write down her fantasies about living in the Regency period. She has written two traditional Jane Austen sequels,THE OTHER MR. DARCY and THE DARCY COUSINS and a story in the anthology JANE AUSTEN MADE ME DO IT. Her new series consists of traditional Pride and Prejudice ‘what-if’ variations. MR. DARCY’S CHALLENGE is the second in the series. 

Monica Fairview’s real claim to fame is that she lived in Elizabeth Gaskell’s house in Manchester as a teenager, when it was crumbling and neglected, so you could say she has the smog of NORTH & SOUTH in her blood. After that, Monica lived in the USA for many years, where she taught literature to captive victims (not necessarily captivated). She now lives in Surrey within the Greater London area and loves visiting historical properties when it isn’t raining.

Visit Monica at 
her website www.monicafairview.com
Austen Variations www.austenvariations.com
her blog www.monicafairview.blogspot.co.uk
on Facebook  www.facebook.com/monica.fairview
Twitter @Monica_Fairview
and Pinterest http://uk.pinterest.com/mfairview/

Below are the links to where Monica's books may be purchased.

Links to sites carrying Mr. Darcy’s Challenge

Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Darcys-Challenge-Novels-Volume/dp/150336352X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1417604498&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Darcys-Challenge-Darcy-Novels-ebook/dp/B00PF3KJA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416567989&sr=8-1&keywords=Mr.+Darcy%27s+Challenge

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Darcys-Challenge-Darcy-Novels-ebook/dp/B00PF3KJA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416567858&sr=8-1&keywords=Mr.+Darcy%27s+challenge

http://www.amazon.ca/Mr-Darcys-Challenge-Darcy-Novels-ebook/dp/B00PF3KJA8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416567739&sr=8-1&keywords=mr.+darcy%27s+challenge

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/493233

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/mr-darcy-s-challenge

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/mr.-darcys-challenge/id942395892?mt=11

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mr-darcys-challenge-monica-fairview/1120792285?ean=2940046407617

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I had never thought about the different challenges associated with writing a sequel as opposed to a variation, Monica, and I like your thoughts on the subject. I do find that it is important as a reader to try to allow for the characters to be affected or even changed 'somewhat' by the circumstances they encounter. 

With this tantalizing excerpt, I cannot wait to read more! The hat scene was perfection and I could see it all unfolding in my mind as I read. Darcy's response about the street urchin was spot-on for the man we know and love! I know my readers will be as excited as I am to read more and with the giveaway opportunity, someone will get the chance to do just that. Your generosity is much appreciated. 

Thank you for your lovely comments about my artwork. They were very much appreciated. The cover design for this second book is lovely too. I thought the first one was gorgeous but any shade of purple is wonderful in my eyes.

I'm so happy that you stopped by on your blog tour, Monica Fairview, and that you are hosting a giveaway for my readers. That is especially fun this time of year. Monica is giving away one eBook copy of Mr. Darcy's Challenge to one lucky reader from US or UK only. Please leave a comment to be entered. You know the drill so please leave your email that I may contact you if you are the winner. Giveaway ends midnight December 18, 2014.