Mar

10

Mrs Darcy, Episode Twenty-Four

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And we’re back to the curious storyline about the mysterious prisoner. Except that there’s two of them now. Who can they be?

Who indeed?

Mar

7

Help! I Need a Publisher!

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Well, obviously I do. But that phrase also happens to be the title of an excellent blog run by Nicola Morgan, who for some reason has chosen to highlight Mrs Darcy today! I’m really chuffed about this, because it’s completely unsolicited and completely unexpected. But it’s exaactly the kind of thing that I hoped would happen when I kicked this whole thing off. So big thanks to Nicola. And everyone out there who isn’t reading her blog, take the advice that Adèle Giras gave at Get Writing 2010 and start reading it now. OK?

Mar

6

Mrs Darcy, Episode Twenty-Three

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As far as Lord Byron is concerned, we’ve already had the rock’n'roll but might it be time for sex and drugs? If you find this episode rather filthy, the problem might be entirely yours …

Mar

4

Risky Regencies

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risky-button2 So, today I am very privileged to be guest blogger at the very wonderful Risky Regencies. Apparently I’m not the first bloke to appear on the site; that honour belongs to a cover model. However, I am at least the first male author, which is probably slightly less exciting. I must say that from time to time I do wonder what on earth I’m doing stumbling about in the Jane Austen community, gleefully trashing everything in sight, but I’m quite gratified that they all seem to be good sports. I’ll be fascinated to look at the stats tomorrow to see how many more readers the site has got as a result.

One thing is for sure, though. I wouldn’t have been invited to blog there at all if it hadn’t have been for Twitter. A significant proportion of Mrs D’s core readership have come on board because they’ve been followed by @RealMrsDarcy (including Janet Mullany, the lady who invited me over to Risky Regencies). So the message to all you writers out there who aren’t on Twitter is: what on earth are you waiting for?

[EDITED TO ADD: Nearly forgot. This went up today as well. I may be asking for your votes later on in the month. You have been warned.]

Mar

3

Mrs Darcy, Episode Twenty-Two

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… in which Wickham establishes his credentials as a rough cottager, is now up. I wanted a little scene to move Wickham into Rosings and I struggled for ages trying to think up a suitable hook. Then I started wondering about how he would explain away his smooth hands and it all fell into place. It’s essentially just one extended joke, but I think this episode is one of my favourites. The next one, on the other hand, is really quite filthy.

Feb

27

Mrs Darcy, Episode Twenty-One

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… in which the ruin of the Bingleys continues is now up. Things are not going well at Northern Rock, but help is at hand. Or is it?

Feb

24

The Fish Prize Shortlist

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Fish_logo Just in case you thought I’d given up on short stories to concentrate on Regency alien spoofs, I’d like to reassure you that I haven’t. And just to prove it, here’s the Fish shortlist, announced today. I seem to be on it. No idea how that happened.

Feb

24

Mrs Darcy, Episode Twenty

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… in which we meet a surprising new character, is now up. I think we’re going to have some fun with him.

Meanwhile, in the early hours of Monday morning, Mrs Darcy’s YouTuberance smashed the 1000 view barrier. In my most recent post about Mrs D, I forgot to mention the last-minute problem I had with Episode Nineteen. Originally the beer that Wickham drinks was going to be called “Old Dangleberry”. I thought this was suitably disgusting and rustic-sounding – that was until I had a pint in a London pub a week or so ago and noticed that one of the beers on offer actually had this very name. So I put out a shout to the VWC and got a whole load of suggestions, all quite revolting, and in the end the winner was provided by the very talented Sandra Norval – big thanks to her.

I’m pretty certain that there isn’t a beer by that name. Yet. But I’m open to sponsorship deals if any independent brewery out there is interested. And the reason why I haven’t mentioned it by name here is that I’ve just checked and it’s a Googlewhack! How cool is that?

Last bit of Mrs Darcy-related news: I’ve been invited to provide a guest post to this rather splendid blog for next Thursday. Apparently I’ll be the first bloke to do this. It’s all turning out to be a bit of a strange and wonderful journey, is it not?

Feb

22

Get Writing 2010

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Well, that was a hell of a day.

Saturday was the day of the VWC’s “Get Writing” conference, now in its fourth year of existence. This time it was held at the University of Hertfordshire, just up the road from me and a place that will always have a special affection in the writing side of my heart (and if you want to know why, check out the Fiction page). Must admit, I’ve always been amazed at the way this thing has grown, year on year, and it’s an object lesson in what can happen if you dare to think big. (Which, incidentally, is why I’m extremely pleased to have Kate Nash as my agent – “Get Writing” was her idea, and in fact she was the guest of honour this year.)

So … what happened, then? Well, we had several talks from various agents, publishers and authors, giving a broad view of the publishing industry for wannabes from almost every possible angle. The most practical advice probably came from the agents and publishers (John Jarrold, Anna Power, Simon Taylor, Marlene johnson and Philip Patterson), although the writers themselves probably just shaded them for entertainment value. Mark Billingham in particular was hilariously indiscreet, using the skills acquired in his previous career as a stand-up comedian. I’ve heard both Adèle Geras and Imran Ahmad before at VWC-only events and they’re both excellent value. It’s worth mentioning Imran Ahmad in particular, as his autobiographical book “Unimagined” is in my opinion one of the most important books I’ve read in the last couple of years. It’s a quietly subversive masterpiece of militant moderation, and everyone should read it.

And that wasn’t all. Out of all the excellent workshops on offer, I picked Vanessa Gebbie’s one on “The Short Road to Success” and it was of course superb. It was lovely to meet Vanessa again, and I picked up several excellent nuggets of advice which I’ll use on the off chance that I ever find time to write any short stories again (only kidding – that’s one thing I’ll never be able to give up).

Last but not least, I had the opportunity to give a three-minute pitch to Simon Taylor of Transworld. This was, of course, deeply scary , although it was at least made more bearable by the fact that something clearly went wrong with the way time was operating in the room, resulting in the pitch actually lasting only thirty seconds. However, I think I managed to get my point across, and he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. He could of course just have been polite.

It was also nice to meet some old friends and some new ones, including Helen Beal, who I’d previously only known on Twitter and Lindsey Mountford who I didn’t know at all before and who I also now know on Twitter.

Gosh, is that it? If you’d like to hear some more opinions, take a look here and here. I think the general consensus was that it was a rather good day, all in all.

Feb

20

Mrs Darcy, Episode Nineteen

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I think last time I saw this scene, there were werewolves involved. Anyway, Wickham has now arrived at Rosings, to be followed very soon (in the very next episode, in fact) by Mrs Darcy herself. The tension is mounting! Well, I can hardly contain myself – can you?

Mrs Darcy’s YouTuberance continues to have a strange and rather wonderful life of its own, nearing 900 views at the time of writing. The lovely Becca from the Jane Austen Centre has pronounced it “fantastic and very funny”, and JK Evanczuk in the really quite serious Lit Drift has said that it’s “one of the weirdest book trailers I’ve ever seen”. My only problem is that whenever I go to YouTube to link to it, I have to make sure that I hit the pause button damn quick so that I don’t have to hear myself attempting that ridiculous falsetto.

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