Young Jane Austen: Becoming a Writer...Giveaway...International!

Winner Announcement:

The 10th person to comment, Silver De, is the lucky winner of Young Jane Austen: Becoming an Author.  She has sent me her address and the book will be mailed to her shortly.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog, read the review, and left a comment!

Like the subject of her book, Lisa Pliscou's Young Jane Austen: Becoming a Writer is short and sweet.  It provides a fictional account of Austen from birth to twelve years old, when Pliscou states that Austen was on the brink of launching herself as an author, having had the luck to be born into a family that nurtured her natural gifts.

The chapters are very short--sometimes little more than a paragraph or two--written from the point-of-view of a child describing her world as it slowly comes into focus and expands and contracts with the flow of life and the life of the family.Not much is known about Austen's early years, and so Pliscou uses modern psychological thinking to thoughtfully speculate on how Austen might have responded to the few known circumstances of her life as a child, given her later works and words.

While I was expecting to see young Jane putting pen to paper with her Juvenilia, in ending where she does, Pliscou makes the point that Austen's earliest years put her firmly on the path to literary prowess.

The book is beautifully constructed, with lovely simple drawings of Jane and her family dotting the pages.  It is a quick read, even when you read the annotations and biographical details, and bibliography.  I read it on a short flight between Denver and Phoenix, and found it satisfying.  Covering familiar ground but also providing insights into why and how Austen was able to tap vast reservoirs of creativity to become the Austen we know and love.

The author has graciously provided me with a second copy to give-away on my blog --the first copy will be shared with my JASNA group in Denver/Boulder.  For more info on the book, visit Lisa Pliscou's website.

If you would like to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below and provide your contact info.  The giveaway is open internationally, and I will accept entries through 8 pm MT on Sunday, May 24.

Winner: The Pursuit of Mary Bennet

Congratulations to mfantaliswrites of A Writer's Notepad for being the lucky random winner of Pamela Mingle's marvelous The Pursuit of Mary Bennet.

As always, it was great fun to host a giveaway and meet a bunch of new readers and writers who visited my site to read the review and enter the giveaway.

"Portable Steinbeck" Winner

Using the wonderful Random Number Generator, I am happy to announce the Eva SB is the winner of the "Portable Steinbeck."

Congratulations, Eva! Hope this gives you an opportunity to rediscover Steinbeck.

Happy Steinbeck Summer - Announcing a "Portable Steinbeck" Giveaway

It's been way too long since I held a giveaway on my blog. So, to honor my rediscovery of the enchanting words of John Steinbeck, I will be giving away a gently used copy of The Portable Steinbeck (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century).



I know there are a lot of readers out there who are intrigued by the works of this Nobel-winning author, and this collection will provide a more than just a taste and flavor of what Steinbeck has to offer.

Please note that this collection contains some complete works (The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men), complete stories from The Long Valley and The Pastures of Heaven, and excerpts from The Grapes of Wrath, Tortilla Flat, East of Eden, Cannery Row, Travels With Charley, and Sea of Cortez. It also includes Steinbeck's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.

This giveaway is open to everyone (no international restrictions). To enter, leave a comment on this post. You can get an additional entry by tweeting about this post (just let me know you have done so).

Deadline to enter is Sunday, August 28 at 8 pm MDT.

If you haven't already been reading up on Steinbeck via the Classics Circuit Steinbeck Tour, I urge you to do so. There are some really interesting posts out there.

Here is my post on Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...Giveaway Time

And the winners are...Maria Grazia and Laura Hartness. I'll be emailing you as well. Congratulations, ladies. Hope you enjoy the stories!


I have a few review copies of Intimations of Austen, my collection of Austen-inspired short stories, left from the last shipment and and I thought I would offer two up this week in a giveaway. You can consider it an early Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwansaa present, or you can pass it along to a Janeite on your list.

This is especially designed for those of you who are getting a little bored (dare I say it) with Pride and Prejudice and want to venture into Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Somehow I never wrote a short story around Sense and Sensibility or Emma--in the case of the latter, it might be because Queen Emma always insists on having full-length novels rather than short stories if she is to serve as inspiration. DISCLAIMER: I don't mean to imply that P&P doesn't get its due in Intimations...four of the nine stories are P&P-inspired, but that's less than 50%, for crying out loud!

If you would like to be entered in a drawing for one of two copies that I will draw for on Sunday, November 22:
1) Leave me a comment on this posting for one entry
2) Become a follower for two entries
3) Tweet about this giveaway for three entries
***Be sure to provide me with your email address so that I can let you know if/when you've won.

Not quite sure if this is your cup of tea?

Here are some reviews from fellow bloggers:
Laurel Ann from Austenprose
Heather at Gofita's Pages
Lisa at Lit and Life
From Alexa at First Impressions: A Tale of Less Pride & Prejudice
Mags on Austenblog