*Guest Post & Giveaway* with Janet Mullany!

JANE AUSTEN: BLOOD PERSUASION by Janet Mullany

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Release Date: October 4, 2011
Genre: Historical Paranormal Fiction
304 Pages

It is 1810, and the Damned are out of favor—banished from polite society. Jane Austen’s old undead friends have become new neighbors, raising hell in her tranquil village just in time to interrupt Jane’s work on what will be her masterpiece. Suddenly Jane’s niece is flirting dangerously with vampires, and a formerly respectable spinster friend has discovered the forbidden joys of intimate congress with the Damned (and is borrowing Jane’s precious silk stockings for her assignations). Writing is simply impossible now, with murderous creatures prowling the village’s once-peaceful lanes. And with the return of her vampire characteristics, a civil war looming between factions of the Damned, and a former lover who intends to spend eternity blaming her for his broken heart, Jane is facing a very busy year indeed.

Read an EXCERPT!


*************************************************************

About the Author: (From Amazon.com) The author of JANE AND THE DAMNED, Janet Mullany was reared in England on a diet of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer and now lives near Washington, D.C. She has worked as an archaeologist, waitress, draftsperson, radio announcer, performing arts administrator, proof-reader, and bookseller.

Guest Post:

The problem with the HEA

Thanks for having me guest blog today as part of my blog tour for JANE AUSTEN: BLOOD PERSUASION.

This is my second book about Jane Austen in an alternate Georgian England where vampires (the Damned) are out in society. In the first book, JANE AND THE DAMNED (HarperCollins 2010) I evaded the HEA issue. First, it didn’t fit the facts about Jane Austen, who did receive proposals but didn’t marry, and certainly wouldn’t have entered into any sort of illicit liaison (not in her mortal form, at any rate!). Besides, I had a second book coming up and I needed to think of the overall story arc although each book stands alone.

But HEAs, the staple of romantic fiction? Here’s how I’ve handled them.

This is the end of THE RULES OF GENTILITY (HarperCollins 2007) (there was a further short chapter which gave a view of the happy couple’s honeymoon written by the bride’s sister who accompanied them, something which, weirdly to the modern sensibility, did happen):

“Marry me,” he whispers. “You may put your hands in my pockets as much as you like, and you can buy bonnets to your heart’s content.”

What woman alive could refuse such a proposal?
Not I.

Or the end of A MOST LAMENTABLE COMEDY (Little Black Dress, 2009)

… there is nowhere I wish to run, nowhere for me to end up but with him. The cabal of concerned friends who plot and plan our happy ending have done their work. It is up to us, for there is no one else now. We have emerged from the woods and dreams and nightmares and must now tumble headlong into marriage.
I reach out my hand to him.

Another of my Little Black Dress books, IMPROPER RELATIONS (2010) ends with the (married) hero and heroine happily falling asleep together in the marital bed. One reviewer to whom I’d sent a .pdf of the manuscript asked if I’d missed the last few pages so I guess it wasn’t a total success!

I like to think of my hero and heroine embarking upon their next perilous adventure, having a new beginning together, and I like to show them at that one, breathless moment, because nothing will ever be the same again.

Now arguably JANE AUSTEN: BLOOD PERSUASION isn’t a romance. It’s categorized as historical fiction/paranormal/horror and so on but it has romantic elements. To end the book to fit romance conventions, I’d have to have Jane Austen accept someone’s proposal, but even though I had played fast and loose with (some of) the known facts of her life and certainly with English history, I drew the line at giving her a conventional HEA. She died in 1817, leaving us six wonderful books and some amazing fragments and I couldn’t and wouldn’t change that. I didn’t want her to fake her death and enter into some vampire happy-ever-after land because I don’t believe Jane would ever have done that to her sister Cassandra, the person closest to her. It was problematic, to say the least.

I came up with a nifty compromise, but I’m not telling you what it is, because I want you to read the book!

Tell me what sort of HEA you like. Do you like everything to be spelled out with a glimpse of the couple’s future married life and children? Do you like a few loose ends? Or do you like the opportunity to dream about the hero and heroine’s life together?

*************************************************************

Giveaway Details:

Thanks to Janet Mullany, I have one copy of JANE AUSTEN: BLOOD PERSUASION to give away to one lucky commenter. Here's how to enter:

*Comment with a Valid Email Address AND your Answer to Janet Mullany's Question Above in Bold. (Entrants that do not leave an email address will be disqualified)*

**Contest Open to USA ONLY**

***Contest Closes Thursday, October 27th at Midnight U.S. Pacific Standard Time and the Winner will be Chosen Randomly and Announced Friday, October 28th***