Interview and giveaway: Mary Lydon Simonsen with The Perfect Bride for Mr Darcy

Today I have the author of The Perfect Bride for Mr Darcy over.  There will also be a giveaway of two copies at the bottom of this post. But first, please help me welcome Mary Lydon Simonsen.

Welcome to Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell!

Tell me something about yourself, so we can get to know you better.

First, thank you for having me as your guest. Now to answer your question. I am the perfect example of someone who developed a second career relatively late in life. As a working woman, I was a legal secretary and special education assistant, but after taking early retirement, I started to write a novel which would eventually become Searching for Pemberley, my first novel for Sourcebooks, in my mid fifties. It goes to show you that it’s never too late to begin again. Of course, I’m not talking about trying out for the Olympics.

Your newest book is called The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy; could you tell me what it is about?

I chose to use two minor characters to advance the plot of my Pride and Prejudice retelling. The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy is faithful to Austen’s novel in that the set-up of the story is the same: Darcy proposes to Elizabeth at Hunsford, and she rejects him because of his arrogance, his interference in Jane and Bingley’s romance, and his supposed mistreatment of George Wickham. So that’s the end of their romance. Right? Not exactly.  Darcy’s cousin, Anne De Bourgh, realizing that Elizabeth is perfect for Darcy, puts a plan in place to bring the pair together at Pemberley. Along the way, she enlists the aid of Georgiana Darcy as well as Colonel Fitzwilliam and even their rascal cousin, Earl Fitzwilliam. Although there are difficulties, my goal was to write a light-hearted story.

I know that you have written a couple of other books. Could you tell me about those?

This is a question that every author dreams about getting. My first novel, Searching for Pemberley, takes place in post World War II England where American, Maggie Joyce, finds her own Mr. Darcy.  Anne Elliot, A New Beginning, is a parody of Austen’s Persuasion, and I had a ball writing it. Anne becomes a long-distance runner, and the confidence she gains from that experience, changes everything—everything except her love for Captain Wentworth. Finally, I wrote a modern, non-Austen romantic comedy, The Second Date, Love-Italian American Style, that takes place in the late 1980s in the Italian-American community of North Jersey where I grew up.

Now to the important question: what led you to writing Austen variations?

I have been in love with Jane Austen’s writings since I first read Pride and Prejudice in 1969, so Jane and I have been together for more than four decades. For years, I had been thinking about writing an Austen tie-in because Austen is one of those writers who doesn’t detail every single thing, allowing your imagination to fill in the blanks. Over the years, I have imagined many “what ifs.” In addition to The Perfect Bride, I have another novel coming out in July, A Wife for Mr. Darcy. Realizing that he was rude and had given offense at the Meryton assembly, Mr. Darcy apologizes the next day to Elizabeth. Because they don’t start out disliking each other, their romance goes off on a different trajectory. But the course of love never does run smooth or it would be a very short novel.

Are you working on something new and exciting right now?

I have several irons in the fire: a time travel in which a modern  P&P enthusiast travels back to Regency England, Mr. Darcy visiting New York where he meets American Elizabeth Bennet, and a post World War I story where Darcy and Elizabeth meet in a hospital. I don’t lack ideas; I lack time.

Which Austen heroine do you most feel like?

I would like to say Elizabeth Bennet because she has spunk, and I admire spunk. But I’m more like Anne Elliot. I tend to let events come to me, but Anne did end up with Captain Wentworth, one of my favorite heroes in all of literature.

Which Austen hero would be your perfect match?

Again, I will have to go with Captain Wentworth. Despite a separation of eight years, Frederick remained faithful to Anne Elliot in his heart and mind. I would always know that such a man would be there for me. Such devotion provides a foundation for a person to grow. I know this from personal experience. (Thanks, Paul.)

Do you have any insight into why we all love Mr. Darcy so much?

Hmmm. Let me think? Wildly in love with Elizabeth, devoted to those he cares about, good brother, excellent master, a man capable of reform, rich, handsome, a person of rank, portrayed by Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen, master of Pemberley. Should I keep going?

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Getting published is a hard business, so I would tell writers to remember why they started writing in the first place. Keep reminding yourself that this is something you love to do, so do it for that reason. Everything else is a bonus.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

Thank you :)

Now to the giveaway. Thanks to Sourcebooks I have 2 copies of The perfect bride for Mr Darcy to give away.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

Rules:

1. Open to US and Canada

2. Ask Mary a question, comment on the book, the interview, or just tell me which is your fav Jane Austen hero or heroine. Or who would be perfect for you. In the end just something more than enter me  :)

3. Ends January 19th

4. And last, if your email is not in your profile, then leave it here or just email me it. So I do not need to hunt you down if you win (which I will still do anyway but still :)

THE PERFECT BRIDE FOR MR. DARCY BY MARY LYDON SIMONSEN – IN STORES JANUARY 2011

If the two of them weren’t so stubborn…

It’s obvious to Georgiana Darcy that the lovely Elizabeth Bennet is her brother’s perfect match, but Darcy’s pigheadedness and Elizabeth’s wounded pride are going to keep them both from the loves of their lives.

Georgiana can’t let that happen, so she readily agrees to help her accommodating cousin, Anne de Bourgh, do everything within their power to assure her beloved brother’s happiness.
But the path of matchmaking never runs smoothly…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Lydon Simonsen’s first book, Searching for Pemberley, was acclaimed by Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and RT Book Reviews. She is well loved and widely followed on all the Jane Austen fanfic sites, with tens of thousands of hits and hundreds of reviews whenever she posts. She lives in Peoria, Arizona where she is working on her next Jane Austen novel. For more information, please visit http://marysimonsenfanfiction.blogspot.com/ and http://www.austenauthors.com/, where she regularly contributes.