Darcy In My Head and a Giveaway

When I decided to write His Good Opinion, I printed a copy of Pride and Prejudice out from Project Gutenberg and sat down with a pen to make notes. I listened to the book while reading, and when the DIMH spoke up, I jotted down his thoughts. In this way, I created a sort of map of what Darcy was thinking throughout the book, and that map became the back bone of my book.

(I actually turned it into a mind map, but apparently those scare people so I won't show you that. However, you can see it here if you wish.)

However, DIMH could only explain the things that were within my scope of experience. If I didn't know what a certain phrase referred to, my own subconscious couldn't make it clear to me. That's when I had to turn to outside sources, AKA reference material.

My final pass of His Good Opinion is being made with an annotated Pride and Prejudice. I want to know what experts have said about the novel, in particular its social situations.

Since this is where I am now, I'd like to give away a copy of The Annotated Pride and Prejudice. 

To enter, simply comment on this blog post.

You can also gain additional entries by: 

• Following me via Google Friend Connect
• Following me on Twitter
• Tweeting up to once a day about the giveaway with this tweet: Want to know more about Darcy and Elizabeth? Enter to win The Annotated Pride & Prejudice from @Nancy_Kelley: http://ow.ly/6vchp 

Please add an additional comment for each entry. This giveaway is open to US/Canadian entries only, and runs through the 9/28/2011. I will then use a random number generator to select a winner, who will be announced on 9/29/2011.

Good luck!

England, Research, and More

England
Have you noticed the widget at the bottom of the right column? I'm taking off for England in just 28 days! I'll be there two weeks, touring and visiting friends.

Of course, the first stop on my trip is Hampshire and all the Jane Austen sites. I'll stay three days with a friend in Winchester, where I'll visit her grave at the cathedral. I'll also take the bus out to Alton to visit the Jane Austen's House Museum and possibly Chawton House Library. (My only hesitation is that I don't know if I'd have time to actually use the library.) Then I'll be off to Portsmouth and the Royal Naval Museum so I can take notes for a future story featuring Wentworth. When I'm in Bath the following week, I'll go to the Jane Austen Centre there.

I'm reaching out to you, friends. Do you know of any place special I ought to visit a Janeite? Maybe there's a bookstore that carries a wide selection of her works and related criticism, or... well, I don't really know what else.

Research
That brings me to my second point. I'm in the middle of edits, and I am constantly finding things I need to research more. What resources do you turn to? I'm interested in books, blogs, or websites--anything that might give more insight into the early Regency. I do have quite the library of my own, but I still feel like there's something I'm missing.

Right now I'm interested in the life of a Regency gentleman. There are several good books out there on Regency women, but I haven't seen anything focused primarily on the men.

More
I will post the first Austenesque Lesson on Thursday. As you can imagine, I read a lot of Austenesque novels. I try to learn something from each book, a lesson that will make my own stories stronger. Some will relate to the broader craft of writing, but oftentimes they will highlight things unique to writing Jane Austen sequels.