I am thrilled to welcome back Kara Louise, author of some of my most favorite Austenesque novels, Darcy’s Voyage and Only Mr. Darcy Will Do, to Austenesque Reviews!!! Today Kara shares with us a little about her current release, Pemberley Celebrations: The First Year!
Thanks, Meredith, for allowing me to guest blog today about my new book, Pemberley Celebrations: The First Year. From the title, you may assume this book is about Darcy and Elizabeth in their first year of marriage. You would be correct. But if you assume this book is about them celebrating Christmas, you would only be partially correct. This is a book that takes them through their whole first year of marriage celebrating not only Christmas, but New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Easter, May Day, Midsummer’s Day, Michaelmas, All Hallows Eve, Birthdays, and their first anniversary.
This is very different from my other books in that it is not a novel, but a compilation of short stories that are centered around the different holidays and special events in their first year of marriage.
But since we are entering the Christmas season, I thought I would write a little about one of the Christmas stories in the book. (There are actually four of them.)
In the very first story, Darcy is away from Pemberley, and Elizabeth witnesses a large evergreen tree being brought into the house. Imagine her surprise and wonderment! For you see, Christmas trees were not a Christmas tradition yet in England. They did not become popular for several more years.
So how could Pemberley have a Christmas tree? I’m glad you asked!
Apparently, the late Mr. Darcy made some trips over to Germany (where they did put up Christmas trees!), and enjoyed the tradition so much, he brought it back to Pemberley. And even though it wasn’t until Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, introduced the trees to England that it became popular, there were those in England who had already adopted the tradition. The Darcys, of course, were one of those families.
Prince Albert was from Germany, where they decorated the trees with candles and tinsel made of real silver. The late Mr. and Mrs. Darcy had two trees: one large one was put in the ballroom, and a second smaller one on the table in the sitting room that they could enjoy. The larger tree was decorated with glass baubles and trinkets while the smaller tree was decorated with handmade ornaments made by Mrs. Darcy and her young son, Fitzwilliam.
Those lovely traditions the Darcy family celebrated all those years before, came to an abrupt end when Mrs. Darcy died. Her death on Christmas Day put an end to the joyous celebrations at Pemberley. The servants continued to put up the larger tree for the sake of young Fitzwilliam and even younger Georgiana, but the smaller tree and handmade ornaments were not put up again. That is, until Elizabeth becomes Mistress of Pemberley. Mrs. Reynolds thinks with the new Mrs. Darcy in residence, it is about time to bring the joy and traditions back to Pemberley.
I thought it was interesting to find in some internet research that “Decorations were still of a ‘home-made’ variety. Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilling snowflakes and stars, sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree.”
(http://www.christmasarchives.com/trees.html)
You’ll have to read the book to find out whether Elizabeth renews the tradition of the small tree and handmade ornaments. And other things you will find out – whether Mr. Darcy had another love interest (in the New Year’s Eve story); whether Lady Anne Darcy had a first love before marrying Mr. Darcy (in the Valentine’s Day story); whether Lady Catherine and Elizabeth find reconciliation (in the Easter story); and much more.
I began writing these stories ten years ago and posted them online as each holiday came around. One thing I wanted to do with them was to incorporate some of those things that Jane Austen tells us at the end of Pride and Prejudice in regards to what happens to some of the characters. I hope you’ll look for those things as you read it.
I am thrilled to be able to give away a copy of Pemberley Celebrations: The First Year. Just leave a comment and a winner (from US/Can only) will be chosen at random. Good luck!
Pemberley Celebrations: The First Year is currently available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook at lulu.com, as well as ebooks on kindle, nook, and in the iBookstore. The paperback just started showing up on amazon and hopefully will be available at other online book sellers shortly.
GIVEAWAY!!! Thanks to Kara Louise, I have one BRAND NEW copy of Pemberley Celebrations: The First Year to giveaway to one of you lucky readers!
All you have to do is leave a comment on this guestpost and share your most favorite Christmas tradition. (To save inbox from unwanted spam, please don’t leave your email address.) Just check back to see if you win! This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents. Thank you, Kara!!
I really loved Darcy’s Voyage, so looking forward to this one. Also, that sounds like a great story! I would say my favorite tradition is on Christmas Eve, my Mom and I get out a treasury of Christmas stories and take turn reading them to each other. We always read “yes virginia there is a santa clause” and there are so many others. I always enjoyed that.
Hi! My favorite Christmas tradition is our Christmas morning quiche. When everyone else has headed to bed Christmas Eve, my mother prepares a quiche with an old family recipe. It is baked Christmas morning as we open gifts and then we sit down to a luscious breakfast. Its been a tradition for as long as I can remember, and the recipe is only to be prepared on Christmas.
My favorite Christmas tradition is on Christmas Eve we all read a story called “The Wright Family”, passing presents left and right whenever the words “left” or “right” are said, and then we open whichever present we end up with.
And I’m so excited for another book from Kara Louise–I love Darcy’s Voyage!
Sorry, I’m a sucker for ALL of Kara Louise’s books. Yup, I read Mr. Darcy’s Voyage, Assumed Engagement, Assumed Obligation, and have only begun Drive and Determination. My favorite so far is, of course, the dog story, Master Under Regulation – and that’s not to take away from the other volumes, it’s just that dogs, well, you know guys and dogs. Though I’m married to a Christmas Nut, it’s not one of my favorite holidays, but I do look to reading PC-the first year.
Looking forward to reading another KL book!
A favorite tradition: after Christmas Eve service, going for a ride to look at the light displays.
I love Kara Louise ‘s books and would love to read this one!
My favorite Christmas family tradition is to make everyone a travel mug full of hot cocoa, then we all climb into the car and drive around to look at all of the holiday lights. 🙂
I was about to say — Darcy and Elizabeth wouldn’t have a Christmas tree. Glad, Kara Louise decided to explain that one away.
My favorite Christmas tradition was always hanging up the lights with the dad. Now that I don’t live at home, my favorite tradition is reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to one another.
This book sounds wonderful and so very festive!
I think my favourite holiday tradition is just being around my grandparents who always spend the holidays with us. A very simple tradition.
Thanks so much for the giveaway! I’m excited about this book. 🙂
My most favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree. My dad puts on classical holiday music and my mom bakes cookies, and basically they let me do whatever I want with the decorations. My father and brothers are engineers, so it’s a fun mix of keeping the tree visually balanced (which they direct) and creatively engaging (which is my job). I love it!
This sounds so fun :o) Love peeking into the lives of the characters for events like this! And great guest post too.
My favorite Christmas tradition…Food! LOL! No, really: Mum & I bake dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies – all flavors, all designs – and candies the week leading up to Christmas. (Normally kicking the guys outta the house, so we can get real work done, hehe). And so we’ve got all these amazing sweets, but we also make our favorite dips and savory treats. Basically, it’s a time to spend making your favorites and eating them like they’re goin’ out of style while watching football :o)
I think my biggest family tradition is just setting up the tree with the kids. We really look forward to it. Also my husbands birthday is on Christmas day so we always do a Christmas themed birthday cake as well.
It’s been fun to read your kind comments and especially your Christmas traditions. My favorite tradition has been ‘passed on’ so to speak. When our son was born, my aunt made him a felt advent calendar with ornaments you put on the tree each day. We did that with him every year, and even when he was in high school, he’d put the tree up. When he was in college, we put it up and did it until he came home. When he moved into his first apartment, he took it with him. At some point I had to replace the felt ornaments with little resin ornaments, but now he is married and I imagine he will still put up that tree. We no longer do it at our house, but it was a fun tradition and a lovely memory of my aunt. Thanks so much for your comments!
What a wonderful idea! I can’t wait to read it. And I, too, loved Darcy’s Voyage! =)
Oops it cut off the rest of my comment…
My favorite Christmas tradition is making tons of Christmas candy with my mother, aunt, and cousins. We make lots of different kinds (Martha Washington candy, rum balls, divinity, etc.) and wrap assortments in tins to give to family and friends. Our house smells wonderful for days!
hello! I have loved all your stories, but especially Asumed Engagement and Darcy’s Voyage!
I look forward to reading Pemberley;s Creations!
Roxey Wolff
I loved Kara Louise’s novel Darcy’s Voyage so I was so thrilled to see she was visiting the blog today with another book.
These vignettes look adorable.
My favorite Christmas tradition believe it or not as other’s groan, is to write, send, and receive Christmas cards.
Thanks for the interview and the giveaway opportunity.
I am so thrilled to hear that this book is available in paperback and hardback. I had been looking at it online but had only seen it in ebook format. I know it will be a good book since Kara Louise is the author. I LOVED ‘Darcy’s Voyage’. It is one of my all time favorites.I have not read ‘Only Mr. Darcy Will Do’ yet but it is on my wish list. I can’t wait to get it and read it too. Christmas is my favorite time of year and it is hard to pick a favorite Christmas tradition. When I was a child one night before Christmas we would always drive around and look at all the holiday decorations. I looked forward to that night. We still try to do it now but have missed a couple of years recently. We are planning a special night this year and it should be much fun! I also loved the smells of candies being made and breads baking, plus all the candles burning. It is a great family time! Thanks for the giveaway and for the guest blog, Kara. I enjoyed reading it. Merry Christmas to all of you!
I must say that I envy those of you who make a variety of cookies and candy. I never do, because we have several people that always give us a wonderful assortment, and the last thing I need is tons of that stuff sitting around! Many of those things you mentioned I love, as well, decorating the house to Christmas music (Manneheim Steamroller, to be precise), going out and looking at Christmas lights, and our Christmas morning tradition is cinnamon rolls.
Pemberley Celebrations sounds wonderful! My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree and pausing to remember the significance of each ornament. Who gave me the ornament, where I bought it, what friend it reminds me of etc.
Kara, thank you for offering a copy of Pemberley Celebrations via Meredith and her wonderful Austeneque Reviews blog.
Thanks for the giveaway! I loved Only Mr. Darcy Will Do and I can’t wait to read Kara Louise’s new novel. 🙂
My favorite Christmas tradition has to be getting up really early in the morning and sneaking my stocking downstairs with my sibs. I’m probably getting too old for such silliness but I don’t care. 🙂
Kara Louise, we always had cinnamon rolls the day after Christmas, my birthday. Mother would make yeast rolls for Christmas dinner and would save enough dough to make cinnamon rolls for my birthday breakfast! Mine are just not like Mother’s! Wonderful memories!
Yea, another Kara Louise book!!
I think my favorite Christmas tradition has to be making my family’s favorite Christmas cookies and treats for them, including bon bons and bourbon balls. Yum 🙂
I love the premise of this book and have enjoyed Kara’s other stories as well. My favorite Christmas tradition is putting the ornaments on the tree. My favorite is one that my great grandma made for me, for my first Christmas. Its a teeny tiny mouse sitting in a little crocheted box that looks like a present. When I lived at home my mom always disliked writing out the Christmas cards, but I enjoyed it, so she gladly let me do it.
Thanks for the giveaway. Im keeping my fingers crossed that I win! If not I will ask Santa for a copy.
I’m a huge Darcy’s Voyage fan– thanks for the giveaway!
My favorite Christmas tradition isn’t done every year, as I no longer live in North Carolina. But I absolutely love attending the Moravian Love Feast at Wake Forest University’s Wait Chapel at the start of the Christmas season. If you’re in Winston-Salem on December 4th this year, go check it out!
Laura Hartness
my favorite Christmas tradition is shopping for gifts for my family & friends!! but the real fun part is somehow, i always manage to overbuy & i’m stuck w/the extra goodies!!!! LOL!!!!
thank you for this giveaway & HappyHolidays!!!
I have SO enjoyed Darcy’s Voyage and so need to get my hands on a copy of this book. Short stories are so great for when I just have a short time to read. I love connecting them to the various holidays and keeping some of the themes Jane Austen started. Hope I win!
This book sounds positively lovely!
My favorite Christmas tradition is watching Christmas movies with my family!
I haven’t rad any of these Darcy books, and how could I have missed them!? I love the Jane Austen mashups so much. I hope I win so I can get started by way of this one..then on to the others. I loved your interview method, by the way.
Favorite Christmas tradition: I’m a grandmother now, so my favorite tradition has been allowing my children to open a present every Christmas Eve before they went to bed. I just couldn’t keep the joy from them, (and myself) a minute longer by the time the evening came. All of us were so excited, the night had usually been so happy with church, singing, cold New England nights and dark, starry skies pretending we saw Santa. I adored my little children…still do adore them. They’ll always be my babies. Now they just have tag-along babies that I can adore, too! :] You’ve made this book so inviting, Meredith, if I don’t win it, I’m going to buy it to read by myself this Christmas. I can’t be with any of my children since they all live all over the States and I live in FL., but we’ll be skyping and calling! :] Happy Holiday Season!
Deborah/TheBookishDame
Kara, Having read all your other books, I am looking forward to spending some time with Pemberley Celebrations. The day after Thanksgiving out comes my tree. It takes several days to complete. It is covered with old, antique, hand blown ornaments, some dating back to the late 1800’s, along with ones handmade by my boys. The tree has a lot of history and is the best way to kick off the holiday season. Thanks for the giveaway.
Kara. I enjoyed your interview and learning more about how your book came to be. You have come along way from posting your stories on your website. I look forward to reading your holiday stories.
Barbara Tiller Cole
Kara, once The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy is at the publisher’s, I am moving Pemberley Celebrations up in my TBR list. Congratulations on your continued success.
Love your writing, Kara. Darcy’s Voyage is one of my favourite book. Hugs from Sydney!
My Darcy Vibrates…
Love Kara’s novels. My favourite Christmas tradition was always decorating the tree!
For me, my favorite Christmas tradition has always been to decorate the tree!
My favorite Christmas tradition is going to Midnight Mass with my family. What a beautiful experience; I wouldn’t miss it for anything!
(Thanks for the chance to win Pemberley Celebrations.)
–Patricia R.
I love trimming the tree and watching holiday movies!
Can’t wait to read this book! Love all the previous release books!
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking cookies and decorating the tree with my family.
Jennifer W.