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Welcome to the Author page of Joana Starnes

The Unthinkable Triangle - LAUNCH and BLOG TOUR

23/9/2015

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I am thrilled to announce the launch of my latest novel, 'THE UNTHINKABLE TRIANGLE, now available at Amazon as e-book and soon also in paperback. And as a party is not a party without goodies, please follow the blog tour to enter the many giveaways:

1 September –  My Blog Page: Cover reveal and Giveaway (you can still enter, it ends at midnight BST on Wednesday 23 September. Please follow the link).

2 September – Austen Authors: Excerpt and Giveaway (the link takes you to the giveaway at Austen Authors, which ends at midnight BST on Wednesday 23 September too).

24 September – Laughing with Lizzie: Guest post, Giveaway and an Excerpt read out by the lovely Sophie Andrews, the very image of a Regency young lady.

28 September – Austenesque Reviews: Guest post and Giveaway

5 October – Babblings of a Bookworm: Guest post and Giveaway


7 October – Diary of an Eccentric: Guest post and Giveaway

8 October - Regina Jeffers's Blog: Guest post and excerpt

9 October – Babblings of a Bookworm: Review

12 October – Diary of an Eccentric: Review

13 October – More Agreeably Engaged: Guest post and Giveaway

16 October – My Kids Led Me Back to Pride and Prejudice: Guest post and Giveaway

17 October – Hey Lady Publications – Interview and Giveaway

20 October – My Jane Austen Book Club – Guest post and Giveaway

22 October – From Pemberley to Milton – Guest post

24 October – The Calico Critic – Guest Post and Giveaway

26 October – From Pemberley to Milton – Review and Giveaway


29 October - A Covent Garden Gilflurt's Guide to Life - Guest post and Giveaway

31 October – My Love for Jane Austen – Guest post and Giveaway


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Winners of the Giveaway

22/9/2015

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Many thanks to all you lovely people who have entered the 
first giveaway for The Unthinkable Triangle! 


I'm delighted to announce the winners:


ERIKA MESSER and MONICA P


will receive a free Kindle copy of this book. 
Congrats and I hope you'll like it!


Winners have been selected with the Sequence Generator provided by www.random.org.


Please use the 'Contact' tab on this website to let me know the email address you would like me to use. As Amazon UK does not offer the 'Gift this item' option yet, I will send a gift voucher for you to purchase the e-book from your own Amazon site, so 
please specify the site, as well as the price
so that I can send the correct sum (due to the way tax is charged, 
the price varies from site to site). 


Many thanks for taking part in the giveaway!


All the best,


Joana
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A Special Announcement from Laughing With Lizzie

18/9/2015

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Thank you very much for allowing me to visit your blog today, Joana, to make my very special announcement!  


In fact, rather than making my own announcement, I am going to let the wonderful Caroline Jane Knight, Jane Austen's 5th great niece, tell you all!




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"It is inspiring to see the positive influence Jane has on people’s lives today.    


They say life is about what you leave behind and I couldn’t be more proud of Great Aunt Jane’s legacy, my inspiration for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. As Jane’s popularity continues to grow, I wanted to extend her legacy by harnessing the global passion for Austen to improve literacy rates. Literacy is the key to self-improvement and unlocking potential. Reading and writing are essential skills for anyone who wants to understand, enjoy and influence the world around them.The foundation raises money to help create CONFIDENT READERS and PROUD WRITERS by providing FREE books and writing materials to communities in need around the world, in honour of Jane. We are a volunteer organisation with all monies raised spent on literacy resources and fundraising activity. We are currently raising funds to provide literacy resources for the displaced children of Syria, delivered on the ground by UNICEF.

I only joined Facebook a year ago and was amazed to discover a world of Austen, involving Janeites from around the world, enthusiastically and vibrantly celebrating and discussing all aspects of Jane’s life and works. With over 7000 websites and social media profiles associated with Jane, there is a never ending stream of content to keep even the most ardent Janeite engaged.    

One in particular caught my eye; “Laughing with Lizzie”, a young woman who seemed to have a lot of fun dressing up in regency costume, visiting Jane’s former homes, participating in Austen events and sharing it all with thousands of followers in a well written blog. I was intrigued. Why did this young woman dedicate her time to celebrating Jane Austen? I reached out and arranged to talk to the woman behind the blog, Sophie Andrews. Sophie is a delight to know personally and her journey with Jane truly heart-warming, a story I will leave for Sophie to share.

Before discovering Austen, Sophie wasn’t a big reader but the discovery of the magic that lay in the pages of Pride & Prejudice, that just got better with every read, changed that and was the start of Sophie's love affair with the written word. As a keen writer herself, Sophie was able to imagine the frustration of wanting to write but having no paper or pen and without hesitation offered to help promote the foundation.


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I am pleased to announce Sophie Andrews, aka “Laughing with Lizzie”, as an Ambassador for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. We are thrilled to have Sophie’s support to help us create CONFIDENT READERS and PROUD WRITERS, in honour of Jane." 


Thank you Caroline for such kind words, and more importantly, for allowing me the opportunity to be an ambassador for such a worthwhile charity. It is an honour and I am very much looking forward to doing all I can to help the charity!

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As Caroline mentioned, Jane Austen has been very important in my life, for many different reasons. I was just9 when I saw the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice, but I was a little too young to fully understand the language, so it didn’t really make an impression on me. I watched that film a few more times and as I grew up I began to fall completely in love with it!  But I still wasn’t hooked on Jane Austen, it was just Pride and Prejudice – or actually, to be more accurate, I was just hooked on Mr. Darcy! However, back in 2011 I was going to be studying Pride and Prejudice for my English exams, and so that summer I had to read it - you have to understand that at the time I really wasn’t a reader. However, given I enjoyed the film, I was looking forward to it. When I was on my summer holidays I read it in a week. I just couldn’t put it down! It seemed strange to my family to see me engrossed in a book, as I guess I used to be like Emma Woodhouse in regards to books and reading! Pride and Prejudice was amazing from start to finish, and from that point I was caught up in the elegance and eloquence of Miss Austen's world and words!

I re-read Pride and Prejudice straight afterwards and I really enjoyed studying it at school, becoming the class expert. Following this, I read Sense and Sensibility, then Emma, followed by Persuasion, Northanger Abbey and finally Mansfield Park. There was no stopping me! Having devoured the 6 main stories, I devoted myself to studying all aspects of the Jane Austen phenomenon, from the film and television adaptations, to the fan fiction, commentaries, critiques, information books and biographies, as well as the worldwide online Jane Austen community. There was no going back now - I had become a true and proud Janeite.

Fast forward a year or so, and after a lot of 'persuasion' (if you'll excuse the pun!) from a friend, I eventually started my blog, "Laughing With Lizzie" (http://www.laughingwithlizzie.blogspot.co.uk/). It was my space to rant and rave about my passion for Jane Austen. It was also my escape; I was having a hard time at school and some family illnesses at the time (that is a whole other story I won't go into now!), and so I really threw myself whole heartedly into the world of Jane, enjoying my escape into her world through her books, and subsequently my blog. Slowly, slowly my blog becamemore well known, and then about a year and a half ago I started my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/laughingwithlizziejaneaustenblog). From there, I have no idea how, but so many amazing things have happened for me and I have participated in so many wonderful events. I have to pinch myself every day, as it is all beyond my wildest dreams.


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Fast forward again to a few months ago, when I noticed a certain Caroline Jane Knight had liked my facebook page. I sent Caroline a message of thanks, and before I knew it, I was actually talking to Jane Austen's descendant on skype! Caroline told me all about growing up Chawton House, and about her charity she has recently founded. I was fascinated by both, but the foundation really caught my attention; a charity that was using Jane's popularity and her legacy to do some good in the world. It really hit home with me, given how much Jane Austen has changed my life. We continued to skype every few weeks, until Caroline asked if I would be an ambassador for the charity. As you can imagine, I jumped at the chance!
I mentioned earlier how I never used to be a reader, well, the truth is that I had never read another ‘proper’ book before Pride and Prejudice! Jane Austen brought me to reading, and so being able to have the opportunity to help bring the joy of reading to others, as Jane did for me, is truly wonderful.
The foundation is also helping to create proud writers, as well as confident readers, and this is also something I really would like to help in promoting, for, without the ability to write, I would not be sitting here right now writing this post. I would not have had a blog full stop.
Jane Austen really has been a huge influence in my life, even in just 5 years! As I cannot thank Jane Austen personally for all she done for me, this opportunity to help use her legacy to bring the ability to read and write to others seemed like the perfect way of saying thank you to Jane for bringing reading, and to a certain extent writing, to me.  



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I am even more pleased to be able to say I had the opportunity to meet a fellow ambassador the other day. Simon Langton, director of the groundbreaking 1995 mini-series of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, was announced as the first ambassador a few weeks back, and during a recent conference at Chawton House Library - which is even more appropriate, given that the founder, Caroline Knight, was the last generation of Knights to grow up there! - celebrating 20 years since the mini-series. It was lovely to be able to meet him in person. He was a lovely gentleman and just as passionate about the charity as I am.  



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Can you spot anything different about the front of the books we are holding? That little white label proudly adorning our books? What you can see is a very special Jane Austen Literacy Foundation bookplate! Bookplates are a traditional way to indicate ownership of physical books. Especially when books were scarce and expensive, labelling books was an important way of keeping track of your property, whilst still allowing them to be loaned out and circulated. And what is even better is that you can own one yourself, personalised with you name in Jane's hand and its own unique number, perfect to stick into your favourite book, showing your support of the charity. All you have to do is head over to the foundation website - https://www.janeaustenlf.org/support-us - click on the donate button, and once your donation has been processed, you will receive by email your personalised bookplate! Simple as that! 


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Once again I would like to say a big thank you for allowing me to come onto your blog to share my special announcement with you and your readers. I did not come empty handed either, I am able to say that I have a fantastic competition to enter!



COMPETITION:

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Bath Boutique Stays 
(http://www.bathboutiquestays.co.uk/) have been so kind as to offer a 1 Night Mid-Week stay for two in an apartment at 4 Sydney Place
(http://www.bathboutiquestays.co.uk/luxury-apartment-rental-bath/), Jane Austen’s former Home in Bath.  


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All you need to do to enter to win this fabulous prize, is to predict the following question:

How many steps is it from Lizzy Bennet’s Penthouse Apartment to the carriage awaiting her at the front door of 4 Sydney Place? 


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Please email you answers to Lucy Bennett (her real name!) at lucy@bathboutiquestays.co.uk and the person who guesses the correct - or comes closest to it! - amount of steps will win! 


The competition entries end on 2nd October. 


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Pride and Prejudice 1995 - Twenty Years On

6/9/2015

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A month or so ago I was deep in Cornish countryside, without much WiFi signal to speak of, but thankfully enough to get a message from the wonderful Sophie Andrews, who wrote to ask me if I was absolutely sure I didn’t want to go to the Pride and Prejudice 1995 anniversary event in Chawton. I did want to go, of course, but at the time I was under the impression it was not open to the general public. 

HUGE thanks, again and again Sophie, for letting me know I misunderstood, and for getting my ticket for this magical event, at a time when I had no chance to.

And what a magical event it was! Set in the beautiful Chawton House, home of Edward Austen-Knight, it began with some delightfully informative and entertaining talks by several reputed Austen scholars: Devoney Looser (Arizona State University), Juliette Wells (Goucher College, Baltimore), Linda V Troost (Washington & Jefferson College, Pennsylvania), Sayre Greenfield (The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg) and Nora Nachumi (Yeshiva University, New York).

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During those talks I learned an awful lot I didn’t know. Such as that, for many decades since Pride and Prejudice was first published, Mr. Darcy was in no way regarded as central to the story. Hard to believe, but so it was. Until the Peacock Edition, there were barely any illustrations showing him, and those that did were terribly unflattering. Or that, in an early theatre production, Colonel Fitzwilliam had a name, and it wasn’t Richard. It was Guy!!! 

That Clark Gable and Robert Taylor were at some point short-listed to play Mr. Darcy in the 1940 adaptation. That there was supposed to be a 1974 version (which never was), casting Sir Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Peter O’Toole as Mr. Darcy! That JAFF is much older than we think, and there were sequels, prequels and spin-offs as far back as 1949.

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But later on that day, a dream came true, and we were treated to a couple of hours in Pride and Prejudice Heaven, in the company of some of the people who have given us 20 years full of very happy hours.

Simon Langton was a joy to listen to, and the stories he had to share were a delight. Not least the one about how, in the filming of the underwater scenes, in a special tank in Ealing, due to an unwise decision taken by his first assistant, our dear Mr. Darcy ended up surfacing straight into the edge of the last section of the heavy metal lid, leaving the distraught director to contemplate four dreadful possibilities: recasting Mr Darcy (the horror!!!!) after nearly half of the film had already been shot; waiting for months for Colin Firth to emerge from reconstructive surgery; seeing the whole P&P project shelved while the BBC battled with the insurance company, or spending the next 15 years in jail for murdering his first assistant :D. Luckily, none of these came to pass. There was just a relatively small bump, easily concealed, and the show could go on.

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Along with Jane Gibson, the wonderful choreographer who has given us the magical dance scenes, Simon Langton also told us how, in the very beginning, Mr. Darcy was ‘dancing-dyslexic’ (ever so hard to believe!) and how surreal the filming of the dance scenes seemed, because there was no music in the room, just in the carefully concealed ear-pieces every character had been supplied with.

We met Kitty Bennet (Polly Maberly) who is full of life and wonderfully welcoming, and so much prettier in real-life than in the role of a petulant and spotty teenager! Mr Bennet (Benjamin Whitrow) was there too, to tell us that he had modelled his portrayal of the character on his own father, who absolutely adored his mother although he ‘took the mickey’ mercilessly. So was Mrs. Gardiner (Joanna David), to share moving and deeply personal stories from the filming of the scenes in the Peak District, and to show us that she has not changed in 20 years.

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Neither had ‘Jane Bennet’. Susannah Harker was as beautiful and kind as in the miniseries, and seeing her with Mr. Bingley was a joy to behold! 


I was pleased and surprised to see that the photo I posted yesterday on Facebook, with the caption ‘Mr and Mrs Bingley, still going strong 20 years on’ was shared by Relationships Watcher :) 

That’s one relationship we are definitely going to watch, for many years to come!

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Need I say that meeting Mr Bingley face to face was a delight that kept me on a high for hours? 

He, too, is as wonderful as ever, as ‘Mr Bingley’ as ever, in looks and in manner. Cheerful and engaging, his real-life persona is a perfect mirror of the role he had portrayed and made us fall in love with his delightful character.

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Sadly, Mr. Darcy wasn’t there, just his wet shirt, but I guess it was just as well, otherwise the lovely people of Chawton House would have been treated to the spectacle of several ladies fainting in tight formation :D.

The last story I have to tell (today at least) is that Susannah Harker told me she was extremely surprised that, despite the enthusiastic following, unlike Trekkies, Pride and Prejudice fanatics don’t have conventions.

Oh, but we do! We don’t dress up to portray Lizzy and Darcy (we wouldn’t dare; it’s a tall order, that!), but what are all the Jane Austen festivals we merrily go to, but countless Pride and Prejudice conventions? If you’re going to one in the near future, I hope you’ll have a wonderful time! I’ll post more from the one in Bath, very soon. 
Four days left! 
Can’t wait - can’t wait - can’t wait!
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'The Unthinkable Triangle' - Upcoming Release and Giveaway

2/9/2015

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Of all the scenes in all the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ adaptations, ‘The Look’ at Pemberley is, hands down, the one I love best. But the piano scene at Rosings is a close second, followed by the gentlemen’s first visit at the Parsonage.
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Photo: BBC
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Photo: BBC
It was the last two scenes that inspired ‘The Unthinkable Triangle’. I’ve been drawn to write love triangle scenarios before – what better way, after all, to torture Darcy for being a self-centred sanctimonious prig and not proposing to Elizabeth while he had the chance? But this time the Rosings and Hunsford scenes simply goaded me into writing the worst triangle of all. What if his rival was not some secondary new character that nobody really cared about – that Darcy didn’t care about? What if his rival was his dearest, closest friend?
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Photo: BBC
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Around this time last summer, while my family was climbing up Langdale Pike in the Lake District, my idea of fun was very different. There I was, in the garden of a gorgeous old coaching inn, with a glass of lime-and-soda, pen and plenty of paper – and the story started to take shape. 

Then I went home, and set it aside. It’s always tempting to punish Mr. Darcy in some pretty harsh ways for his excessive pride and his misjudgements, but I thought that making him learn that the love of his life is engaged to his dearest cousin is probably a step to far!

And what of the dear Colonel? We love him very nearly as much as we love Darcy, so how can we bear to see him lose the girl in the end – as surely he must? How to ensure that the close connection between the cousins doesn’t get irretrievably damaged in the process? How to bring about a happily ever after’ for everyone?

So I started writing another story instead and got a few chapters down, that owed a lot to Deborah Fortin’s knowledge of horses and side-saddle riding. Thanks ever so much for the info, Debbie, that story will be written one day. But not yet. It just didn’t want to be written. But ‘The Unthinkable Triangle’ really did.

The main reason is that, fraught as it might be in the first half, ‘The Unthinkable Triangle’, with its premise of Elizabeth’s engagement to Colonel Fitzwilliam, presented terribly appealing opportunities for her and Mr. Darcy to spend more time together than they ever did.

Because, in everybody’s eyes, they were almost related – they were as good as cousins. So, along with Jane, Elizabeth can accept Georgiana’s invitation to spend time at the Darcys’ townhouse.

She can get to know Darcy, if not at his most intimate, then certainly at his least formal. She can learn to see him for what he truly is: a good man, an affectionate brother, a considerate master. Someone who would be a tower of strength in times of dire trouble. Someone for whom reserve is but a mask he wears to strangers. Someone who would preserve the woman he loves from every evil. And thus she can discover at long last there is nothing she wants more than to be that woman.

An excerpt from the first chapter is now up at the Writers’ Block and if you’d like to have a peek, you can find it here. More excerpts will be available on various stops on the blog tour, but for now what do you think of these two short quotes?

“What have you against my engagement?” Fitzwilliam queried. “You may not approve of Elizabeth, but I pray matters would mend between the two of you. Will you not try, for my sake, to accept her?” 

From his deepest hell, Darcy wished he could beg for mercy – for an end to the cruel torture. Yet he could not, for it would only bring a different hell, where all the sores would be laid into the open.

“Elizabeth, you must leave me room to hope! Or, as God is my witness, by this time tomorrow I will have carried you off to Gretna Green and damn the consequences!”
So, are you intrigued or plain terrified? Are you willing to take this roller-coaster ride with me? ‘The Unthinkable Triangle’ will be released soon after the Jane Austen Festival, on the 23rd of September. In the meantime, please leave a comment for the chance to read it for free as soon as it’s released. The international Giveaway is open until midnight (BST) on Wednesday 23 Sept 2015 and includes a paperback and two e-copies. Good luck and see you soon!
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(Posted at Austen Authors 2 Sept 2015 http://austenauthors.net/the-unthinkable-triangle-upcoming-release-and-giveaway/ )
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'The Unthinkable Triangle' – Cover Reveal and the first Giveaway of many

1/9/2015

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“All is fair in love and war – or is it? 


What if Mr. Darcy’s rival for Elizabeth Bennet’s affections is not some inconsequential stranger, but his dearest, closest friend? 


How is he to reconcile the claims of loyalty and kinship with the urge to pursue his heart’s desire?”
We do love our ‘Pride & Prejudice’ what-ifs! We simply can’t have enough tales of our favourite couple. Some tales are adventurous, some are exquisitely and deliciously romantic - and some can be plain horrifying. Like, for instance, what if Mr. Darcy’s closest friend beats him to the post and proposes to the woman he loves, mere hours before he was going to? And what if Elizabeth says ‘Yes’? 
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Photo: BBC
It’s fair to assume that such a tale might torture Darcy far beyond the limits of what should be legally allowed :) which is why I have been so hesitant to write it.
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Photo: BBC
But then, what if the rewards make up for the cruel torture? They say that what is hardest to reach is what people value most, so by these standards Mr. Darcy should treasure his wife more than anything in his entire world! 
And that, as we all know, is exactly what he does!

An excerpt from Chapter 1 of ‘The Unthinkable Triangle’ has just been posted in the Writers Block at Austen Authors, and you can find it here.

Proud members of the ‘Let’s Torture Darcy’ Club, come join me for a sneak peak and please leave a comment here on my website, for a chance to read the full story for free, as soon as it’s released. 

​The international giveaway of two e-books closes at midnight (BST) on the release date, 23 September 2015. Do visit and I hope you’ll like what you see.
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