Jane Austen Made Me Do It Short Story Contest

Are you inspired by Jane Austen? Love to read her books? Looking for a way to build publication credits? Whether your love to read or write is inspired by Jane Austen, here's a contest for you.

The Republic of Pemberly, an amazing site for all things Regency and Jane Austen, is hosting a short story contest in conjuntion with Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose (another great Austen site) and Random House. The winner's story will appear in the anthology Jane Austen Made Me Do It, to be edited by Laurel Ann and published by Random House this year.

Jane Austen Made Me Do It contains more than twenty best-selling and popular authors who have contributed short stories inspired by Jane Austen, her novels and her philosophies of life and love. From historical continuations of her plots and characters to contemporary spinoffs and comedies, the stories encapsulate what we love about our favorite author: romance, social satire and witty humor. Contributing to the line-up are best-selling authors Karen Joy Fowler (The Jane Austen Book Club), Adriana Trigiani (Brava, Valentine), Lauren Willig (The Pink Carnation series), Laurie Viera Rigler (The Jane Austen Addict series), Syrie James (The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen), Stephanie Barron (Being A Jane Austen Mystery series), and the husband and wife writing team of Frank Delaney (Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show) and Diane Meier (The Season of Second Chances). Many Austenesque authors and others from related genres have already contributed to the project. One spot in the anthology remains open for the lucky Grand Prize winner.

To enter, you must submit an original, previously unpublished 5000 word short story of your own creation inspired by, or based upon, Jane Austen, her novels, characters, letters, philosophies of life and/or love. The story can be set in any era and may include romantic and suspenseful elements, but you must stay within the realm of Jane Austen's sphere of social decorum, avoiding profanity, violence or "adult" content. The contest is open to previously unpublished (short stories OK) US residents. Full details are available here.

The contest is open now and runs through February 13. Voting for the Top Ten finalists runs February 14 - 28, 2011 on Pemberley, with the Top Ten finalists announced on March 1, 2011. The Grand Prize winner receives $500.00 and a contract for publication in the anthology Jane Austen Made Me Do It.

Since Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors, and as I spent the better part of a year researching the Regency for my novel, I am definitely entering this. Plus, a shot at publication in a Random House book? Sign me up!

If you like writing short stories, head on over. If you like reading short stories, head on over! There are currently a few entries up for viewing and I'm hoping mine will be there soon. And don't worry, I'll post a reminder when it is time to vote.

Digitizing is not all bad...

There has been a great deal of press about Google's plan to digitize every book. (Read something about it here). Obviously, there are some seriously ticked-off copyright holders who don't want their hard work given away for free online (and rightly so) but I have to applaud part of the plan, whether that makes me popular or not.

In the course of researching my novel, I have been looking for some obscure information, the kind you don't find in the average history books. So I turned to the Internet (natch) and found some of my best sources courtesy of Google digitized books.

Most notably, I came upon an amazing gem of a book published (in its third edition) in 1828. The copyright has long since expired on Domestic Duties: Or, Instructions to Young Married Ladies on the Management of their Households and the Regulation of their Conduct in the Various Relations and Duties of Married Life by Mrs. William Parkes and no doubt there are only a handful of original copies still in existence in the world. I guess there isn't much call for it anymore and will likely only be accessed by writers of historical novels and thick dissertations about the subjugation of woman in early 19th century England. But still, what a shame it would be if this book just crumbled away to nothing, unloved and unneeded on a shelf of the NY Public Library.

How could we lose a book that includes such nuggets of wisdom as:

"The mistress of a family has the power of being the spring of its movements and the regulator of its habits. Exerting this properly, she sees around her everyone obedient to the laws of order and regularity"

(Subjugated, my eye!)

Thanks to Google's efforts, we have it for all times and I for one am grateful.