I am very pleased and honored to welcome Jane Odiwe, author, artist, and blogger to Austenesque Reviews. Jane, I’ve admired your work for quite some time now and I am so thrilled to be finally interviewing you!

Have you always wanted to be a writer? What inspired you to start writing?

I thought about it a lot when I was very young, and wrote lots of stories and books aimed at children, but I didn’t imagine it was something I could really do. Writers were ‘other worldly’ beings out in the stratosphere somewhere, and I didn’t have the confidence to even contemplate writing a book. The good thing about getting older means that you lose inhibitions, and now I’m so glad I did. I was inspired to write by Jane Austen, and my own quest to find the ‘real’ Jane.

An author and an artist. How long have you been an artist and what type of artwork do you do?

I’ve loved drawing and painting since I was a very small child. I went to Art school and then went on to teach Art and History. I’ve done all sorts of paintings from watercolours and oils in traditional subjects to illustrations for restaurant menus and greetings cards.

What are some similarities and differences do you find between being an author and artist?

It’s all about painting pictures in the mind or for the eyes! When I write I see the story unfold like a film, and when I paint, I try to capture the images I see in my head. I think it’s more frustrating when I don’t get a painting quite right. The beauty of a computer is that you can easily delete words and create new ones!

Which artists have inspired your work? What is your favorite piece of artwork that you created?

I love illustrators like Beatrix Potter, E.H. Shepard, Arthur Rackham, the Brock brothers and Hugh Thomson, all of whom I could never emulate in a million years. The list of favourite artists is too big to include them all but I love Lawrence, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hoppner, and Vigée le Brun. I think my favourite piece of my own is Jane Austen at her desk.

I’ve seen much of your Jane Austen related artwork on your lovely blog and on the DVD featurette in the special features of The Jane Austen Book Club. Congratulations! It’s almost as if you combined your two interests in one activity. What about Jane Austen’s world that attracts you artistically?

Thank you, Meredith. I love the costume and the settings, all those wonderful Regency backdrops, and I’m always trying to find the Jane I see in my head.

What inspired the plot(s) for Mr. Darcy’s Secret?

I’ve read Pride and Prejudice many times, but I always come away thinking that Elizabeth doesn’t know very much about her husband. I started to wonder what would happen if she stumbled upon some information that pointed to a mystery in his past. Because Lizzy has changed herself by the end of Pride and Prejudice, I wanted to think about how she would react. I didn’t think she’d go storming in this time because she’s learned that sometimes our first reactions are not the right ones. I wanted to give her a bit of a battle within herself, and also to mirror a similar battle in Georgiana, only this time between duty and desire. I wanted to write Georgiana’s story very much. I love writing about young love, and as you know, I also like there to be a little conflict. Jane Austen always takes her heroines on a journey within themselves, and I like to do the same.

Because Mr. Darcy’s Secret and Willoughby’s Return both have two main stories occurring at the same time, I think of them as having dual plots. Was writing a story with two plots your intention when you started Mr. Darcy’s Secret? What about Willoughby’s Return? Is it a style you’d like to write in again?

Yes, it was my intention to have two plots as I had in Willoughby’s Return! I love writing two stories at once, and weaving them together. It’s like putting a puzzle together, and both stories are equally important to the whole. My next book has three stories woven together. It’s partly inspired by Persuasion, and set in the past and the present.

In my review I mentioned how I love that you illustrated Darcy and Elizabeth as having a realistic marriage. I noticed that you did the same for Marianne and Brandon in Willoughby’s Return. What prompted your depictions of these marriages being less than perfect?

Jane Austen wrote books with imperfect characters, showing all the folly and foolishness of human beings in their dealings with one another. Real life has its own problems, and I felt if Jane Austen had written continuations to her books, her characters would have suffered the same joys, disappointments and happy endings.

In both Mr. Darcy’s Secret and Willoughby’s Return, I very much enjoyed the voice you gave to your minor characters. Do you feel they are an important part of your novels? Do you have a favorite Jane Austen minor character?

I love writing characters like Mrs Bennet, Mrs Jennings, Lucy Steele and Caroline Bingley. It’s a chance to write something humorous, and I have a lot of fun with them. If I can choose a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are my favourites and I loved writing their conversations in Mr. Darcy’s Secret. They are always talking to me when I’m writing – it makes it very hard to get on sometimes!

In a previous interview, I read that you didn’t feel quite ready to write a Pride and Prejudice sequel until now. What happened to make you feel ready?

I wrote two other books, and wanted to explore other characters and books that weren’t being written about. Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books. I think as a writer you are always learning, and I want to get better and better. There are a lot of continuations out there, and I wanted to do it justice.

What are three words you would use to describe Mr. Darcy’s Secret?

Romantic, amusing, and compelling.

Which is your favorite scene from Mr. Darcy’s Secret? Which scene was the most challenging to write?

This is so difficult because I enjoyed writing every bit! If I have to choose, my favourite scenes are the Christmas ones, which involved writing about the ball, Georgiana falling in love, and when Lizzy learns some shocking information from Caroline Bingley. The most challenging scene to write was the episode at Golgarth Park in the Lake District when there are many characters ‘on stage’ and I have drama and comedy happening side by side.

I understand you will be contributing to the Jane Austen Made Me Do It Anthology, that will be published by Ballantine Books in October, and that your story is inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Yay! What has it been like to work on this project with all these fantastic authors? Can you tell us a little more about your short story? I understand Persuasion is your favorite novel by Jane Austen.

It has been fantastic, and I can never thank Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose enough for the opportunity. I love Persuasion as you know, and I wanted to explore what happens immediately after Captain Wentworth proposes to Anne. What would happen when Frederick Wentworth asks for Anne’s hand this time? How will her sisters and the rest of the characters react when they find out that they are engaged? There’s reflection from Anne and Frederick too, as they look back to the past when they first met – I’ve always wanted to write that story. I know I say it every time, but I LOVED writing this!

What is next for you? Will there be any more Austenesque novels by Jane Odiwe for us to enjoy?

I am working on one at the moment, which I thought was finished, but it requires a little tweaking. It’s a bit different to anything I have done before, and I’m hoping to include a story that’s never been told before about Jane Austen.

Thank you so much for participating in this interview, Jane! It has been a real treat to have you answer my questions!! Best of luck with the release of Mr. Darcy’s Secret!!