It is my pleasure to share a guest post from author Jeanette Watts, who shares her answer to my question...
JW: I am a Vintage Ballroom dancer. Vintage dancers
are not the sort to go out in sparkly costumes and vaseline on our teeth in
order to perform for judges: we dance for the pure joy of it. The joy of being
in motion, to music, in the arms of a delightful partner. And we get to look at our partners while we dance! The
competition dancers are denied that pleasure.
While I
dance for the love of dancing, it is also a perpetual excuse to wear costumes!
I'm an overgrown little girl, and I love hoopskirts. I love bustle dresses even
more than hoopskirts. I have been accused of setting my first two novels during
the Industrial Revolution so that I had an excuse to write about bustle
dresses. I always answer, "No, I did it so that I could WEAR bustle
dresses!" I always go to book fairs and other author appearance events in
dresses that demonstrate women's fashions between 1875-1889; the years my first
two books were set.
Owning hoopskirts and knowing how to do
quadrilles and other dances from the 1870s is just the tip of the iceberg for
Vintage dancers. A vintage ball is a re-enactment of what life was like
"back in the day." Any vintage dancer can quote you rules of
etiquette. A lady never crosses a
ballroom unescorted. A gentleman dances the first and last dance with the lady
he brought to the ball - and that is the ONLY time he will dance with her.
There are other ladies present at the ball with whom it is his duty to dance,
and the lady he escorted to the ball might like to dance with other gentlemen
(who might step on her toes less often).
What this all adds up to is a whole lot of
knowledge about what life was like in the 1800s. Just through my play, I
acquired a huge body of knowledge about social practices. Some people would
call that research...
Even my new book (which is a departure for me -
it is set in modern times) has its roots in Vintage dance. A lot of Vintage
dancers are Jane Austen fans, have memberships in the Jane Austen Society of
North America, and go to the annual Jane Austen Festival. I was driving home from meeting Vintage dance
friends at the Jane Austen Festival when I got the idea for the book. I never
thought I'd be writing a modern satire, but that's the joy of being a writer;
if you follow where your imagination takes you, the journeys will be
spectacular and surprising.
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by Jeanette Watts
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GENRE: Humor
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BLURB:
What
college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzie was certainly no
exception. But when Darcy Fitzwilliam comes into her life, he turns out to be
every bit as aggravating as Elizabeth Bennett’s Fitzwilliam Darcy. So what’s a
modern girl to do?
Jeanette Watts’ satire pokes loving
fun at Jane and all of us who worship the characters who shall forever be our
romantic ideals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
I’ve
been thinking about my conversation with Professor Jacobson over and over. The thing about formulas and people. It makes a certain kind of sense, but does it
lack a romantic sensibility?
Ha! Sense
and Sensibility!
This
is the second time that Professor Jacobson has me thinking about S&S. Well,
if I’m no Lizzie Bennett, there are worse things in life than being a Marianne
Dashwood. She had youth and beauty and
high spirits. She wasn’t good at the
dating thing, either, and overlooked the better man at first. Why was that?
Did Colonel Brandon seem unromantic at first impression?
Even
though I’ve got an assignment due in Spanish, as well as the inevitable calc
and chem homework, I grabbed Sense and
Sensibility to take with me to read while I went to dinner. I wanted to
read everything in the book about Colonel Brandon.
Anne
spotted me in the dining hall while I was halfway through a tuna sandwich and a
really big pile of potato chips. “Hey,
Roomie.” She slid her cafeteria tray onto the table across from me and plopped
her book bag down beside it. “You having
a really bad day?”
“Um,
no I don’t think so, why?” I asked.
“Usually,
if you’re having a bad day, you pick up Jane Austen and read a little something
before you start to study. Since instead
of sitting here doing your homework, you’re sitting here reading Jane Austen, I
take it you had an exceptionally bad day today.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jeanette Watts had been
writing historic fiction when the inspiration for Jane Austen Lied to Me hit
her on the drive home from the Jane Austen Festival. The idea was simply
irresistible, and she put aside other writing projects in order to focus on
writing a satire, thinking it would be a "mental vacation." It turned
out to take every bit as much research to write a modern story as it does to
write a historical one.
She has written television
commercials, marketing newspapers, stage melodramas, four screenplays, three
novels, and a textbook on waltzing. When
she isn’t writing, she teaches social ballroom dances, refinishes various parts
of her house, and sews historical costumes and dance costumes for her Cancan
troupe.
Links:
Twitter
@JeanetteAWatts
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The tour dates can be found here
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, thank you for having me!
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