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Week in Review: What I’m Reading (10-11-2013)

While watching the latest version of Emma with Mini Moe #2 to get ready for the first two episodes of Emma Approved (latest offering from Pemberley Digital, the lovely people who brought us The Lizzie Bennett Diaries), I was suddenly struck with an idea for my NaNo novel. (This is huge, because it usually doesn’t happen until panic mode has set in, somewhere around October 31st. If at all.) For whatever reason, I was fixated on Jane Fairfax this time around, and just how rotten Frank Churchill treats her. To be fair, it does usually bother me, but this time I got really annoyed. So I started thinking–what if Jane didn’t take him back? What if she moved on? Went through with that job she secured for herself? Or…maybe she made him do some big-time, major groveling before she did take him back, but we never got to see it, since it wasn’t known to Emma?

So…I’m writing Jane Fairfax’s story. And possibly Frank Churchill’s too. Though I am not entirely convinced that he can do what he needs to to get her back…time will tell.

(Please don’t tell me that it’s already been written twenty million times, because I don’t want to know. I’ve rewritten my Northanger Abbey modernization twice and then gave up because there’s a bunch out there already…though I really do like it and may pick it up again after all. My latest version wasn’t horrible, even for a first draft. For now I’m just going to go along in my ignorance is bliss bubble, and plan my novel.)

To prepare, I’m currently listening to the audio version of Emma as narrated by Juliet Stevenson, who played Mrs. Elton in the Gwyneth Paltrow version. Since I’m at a particularly anti-Mr. Elton part right now, it’s especially amusing.

I ordered Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England and Pride and Prejudice: Paper Dolls (very important for research purposes, surely) in print and picked up What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew and Jane Austen’s England in the B&N store with my teacher discount, since it’s currently Educator Days there. Behind Jane Austen’s Door was a Nook purchase–for $2.99, I couldn’t say no. Research will ensue. I may also get Fashions in the Era of Jane Austen on Kindle, because it’s not a bad price either. In print, though, it’s ridiculous.

For non-research purposes, I finished Meg Cabot’s The Bride Wore Size 12 on audio and it was just as entertaining as the other Heather Wells books. The narrator wasn’t my favorite, but the book was good nonetheless.

On ebook I read and enjoyed Annie Seaton’s Dangerous Desire (reviewed earlier this week) and A Very Scandalous Holiday, an anthology of holiday-themed novellas that I’m featuring on Sunday. I’m about halfway done with Her Accidental Boyfriend by Robin Bielman, the second in her Secret Wishes series. It’s adorable so far. Next up I think I’ll pick up Annie Seaton’s latest, Outback Affair.

I also read a bunch of essays written by eighth graders on four different types of government and which one they felt was more effective. But I’m trying to block the entire experience out of my head, so that’s all we’re going to say about it here.

Instead, I’ll go watch the first two episodes of Emma Approved again. In the name of research.

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