I am very excited to welcome Anngela Schroeder, author of a recently released Jane Austen inspired novel, Affections and Wishes, to Austenesque Reviews today! In addition, Anngela also has a short-story in the new Meryton Press anthology, Then Comes Winter! Today Anngela visits Austenesque Reviews to chat with you all about writing, her novels, and Jane Austen!

Since you may be a relatively new author to some of my readers, how about we start with you telling us a bit about yourself, Anngela. How long have you been writing? When did you first encounter Jane Austen?

Thank you, Meredith! I’m so excited to be on Austenesque Reviews today. I was raised in Southern California, with three brothers and parents who valued family, sports and education. One of my fondest memories is my Mom and I reading Jane Eyre together when I was in 4th grade. It was she who instilled a love of reading in me, but I’ve been writing and telling stories for as long as I can remember. My first incomplete novel “Hannah’s Crush” still sits on my bookshelf in the hot pink spiral notebook from Mrs. Mitchell’s 5th grade English class.

Other than watching the Sir Laurence Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice with Mom when I was young, I first encountered Jane Austen in college. I read Persuasion, and didn’t get it. My professor gave us 3 days, start to finish, and I couldn’t keep all the characters straight and became frustrated with the apparent lack of romance between Anne and Wentworth. (Silly, uneducated me! ☺). It wasn’t until I was sick, a few years later, and a friend loaned me her 1995 version of P&P that my passion for Jane Austen began.

How lovely that your mom introduced you to Jane Eyre!  Glad you gave Jane Austen another chance later on!  Now tell us a little about your latest novel, Affections and Wishes. Rather than write a sequel, modern-day retelling, or variation, you penned a story inspired by Jane Austen and filled with original characters. I love Austen-inspired stories with original characters! How did you come up with the idea for this story? What inspired the premise?

One thing I am extremely proud of is that each chapter has a quotation connected to a Jane Austen work as its title. It took me a very long time, but I found the perfect one to ‘summarize’ each chapter!

I love all the retellings of Pride and Prejudice, but wanted to step away from the obvious rewrite. I was actually inspired by events from my own life as well as those from my girlfriends’ who had lived through the dating scene and believed we found what we wanted, only to reevaluate our choices time and time again. Were we still juvenile enough to expect a ‘Prince Charming,’ or had our tastes become more refined and instead called for a ‘Fitzwilliam Darcy’? Were the men we loved really who we believed they were, or was it our own fantasized ideal of ‘This is what we have, and we’ll make it work,’ (often times with blinders on and ignoring the obvious).

With my heroine, I wanted to choose someone who would have a romanticized idea of love which was deeper than a ‘princess’ stereotype- a person who had literary examples of desirable love interests, and not just random guys you’d meet at a club or online. She had to be touched by literature so that she would draw parallels between her own world and that of Austen’s characters. Emma Sanders is not fashioned after any particular Jane Austen heroine. She is just a normal, average girl who has romanticized life, and is now realizing things aren’t what she always believed them to be. She has to grow from a naive character lacking in depth and understanding (somewhat like her Austen namesake) into a more astute observer of human nature (Dare I hope to say Elizabeth-esque?). But she also has to accept the truth and not hide from it when she realizes it might not be what she has always hoped for.

I love that your heroine is normal and average!  I also love that Emma and some of the other characters are high-school teachers! What made you choose this particular field of professions for your characters? I see you have a degree in Education, are you also an educator? 

I am an educator, and have been for 17 years. I love my job and could only think of two I’d rather have instead- full time writer, or Oprah. Since I’m new to the book thing, and Oprah seems pretty content in her own life, I’ll continue to teach 17 year olds what an entail is, and the numerous ways you would be considered compromised and have to marry someone, even if you didn’t love them.

I’ve had a few people tell me they couldn’t imagine a high school teacher behaving the way my main character behaves.  Emma is only five or six years older than many of her students- more of a big sister than an adult authoritative figure at this point in her career. She’s not an old school marm with grey hair, a bun, and a walker- she is fresh out of college and loves life. That is one thing that attracts somewhat quiet Warner Hall to her from the beginning-she’s not like every other girl he’s used to dating.

I taught middle school right out of college, I can’t imagine teaching high school and being as you said just marginally older than your students!  In addition to your short story in Then Comes Winter, what new projects have you been working on? What can we look forward to from you in the future?

Other than Affections and Wishes, and my short story “Winter’s Awakening” in the Then Comes Winter anthology, I have self-published a modern-day historical adventure entitled The Quest for Camelot. The Quest follows historian Guinevere Arthur on a quest to find the sword Excalibur to save the life of a new acquaintance. She travels through three different countries and is led by clues from Tennyson’s ‘The Lady of Shalott.’ It’s Indiana Jones meets Nancy Drew. In the realm of Jane Austen, I am finishing up a P&P “alternate path” novel entitled A Lie Universally Hidden. I am VERY excited to share that one with you when it’s complete. Tentative release date is Spring, 2016.

Thanks for letting me to hang out on your blog today. I brought a short excerpt with me from Chapter 6 of Affections and Wishes. Emma Sanders and Warner Hall have gone for a drive and are sitting on a blanket at 11pm down by the river. They are still at the friend phase, although there is a significant attraction between the two. I hope you enjoy it! 🙂

~~~

“Are you comfortable?”

“Yes, I am…Oh. I’m sorry, Hall,” I cried nervously moving away from him.  “I didn’t mean to…”

He softly interrupted me. “Emma, stop.  It’s okay. I was just joking.”  He took my hand and pulled me back towards him.  “I really didn’t mind.”

We slowly relaxed, silently becoming aware of our surroundings.  Frogs were croaking by the marsh grass, the water was gently lapping up on the shore, and the wind was lazily blowing through the trees.  

After another minute, Warner nudged me with his shoulder and pointed at the sky.  “Do you know anything about constellations?”

I shook my head in the darkness.  “Just that the Big Dipper and Little Dipper both look like soup ladles.  You?”

“A little bit.  I had an astronomy class in college, but the only one I remember is Orion.”

“Really?  Why?”

“Well, see those three horizontal stars perfectly lined up?’ he asked scooting over behind me and lifting my arm up to point directly at the three.  “That’s his belt.  My teacher constantly tried to infuse astronomic humor into class, and told us that if Orion’s belt fell, he’d ‘moon’ us.”

“Oh,” I groaned gently leaning back against him.  “That was terrible.”

“I know.  It was like that all semester.”

I relaxed into the hollow of his arms, intentionally testing my limits, and gazed across the sky.  “What about that one?” I asked, pointing to a small cluster.

“Which one?”  Warner replied, drawing me in closer and placing his chin on my shoulder. His breath warmed my neck and I could feel his skin against my cheek.  “I don’t know what that one is,” he said, as I rested my head back against his chest.

“Why did you take an astronomy class anyway?  You teach History.  I’m sure there was an easier science to fill that requirement.”  Just breathe normally, Emma.  You’re just checking out the stars.  That was hard to believe as he was lightly twirling the wisps of hair that had fallen from my ponytail.

“When I was a kid,” he said reminiscing, “I would go out on our property and try to count the stars.  I always wondered what made them sparkle and why sometimes the same star wouldn’t be where I thought it was a few days before.  I wanted to find out why.”

I was trying to formulate a response, but couldn’t quite concentrate with him slowly outlining my ear lobes with his fingertips.  “I guess I never really thought about it growing up.  You can’t see too many stars in Los Angeles because the lights of the city drown them out.  Stop babbling, Emma!  I started to get goose bumps and had to focus on something else. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent, the scent that I was becoming to know all too well. Think of something to say, fast!   “Hall, I keep wanting to ask you something, but I never remember.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you mention “Pride and Prejudice”?  When that kid knocked me over and you were helping me up?  How did you know?”

“How did I know what?  That you teach it, or that I should call you Miss Bennet?”  I could hear the laughter in his voice.

“Both.”  

“Well, I overheard a couple of your students talking about it a few weeks ago in the front office, so I knew you taught it.”

“And?”  I asked trying not to shiver as he began to wrap the wisps of hair from the nape of my neck around his fingers.  “Did you research the story so you could talk to me about it?”

“Research it?  Em, I minored in English Lit.  My senior year at Creighton I took a Jane Austen Seminar class, which I was both the only man in and got one of only three A’s out of a class of 200 students.”

“Now I’m really impressed!”

“You should be.  I’m quite a catch in the world of ‘what you need to know to attract a woman.’  But, if you’re wondering, I’m more like Mr. Knightley, than Darcy.  Darcy is too brooding for me.”

“Brooding?  Ha!  That shows what you know!”  I challenged his superior knowledge of the female species and Jane Austen.  “EVERY woman wants a Mr. Darcy- someone who appreciates her for who she truly is, accepts her for her flaws, is willing to possibly sacrifice his world if he must-  ALL to quench his love for her.”

He chuckled softly, “You don’t, Em.  You might think you do, but you don’t.”

“I don’t, do I?”  I asked, now mocking his apparent knowledge of me.  “And what, Mr. Hall, do you believe I want in a man?”

“I’ll tell you someday.”

“Someday, huh?  Why not now?”  I turned to face him and arched an eyebrow.  “You don’t really have an answer, do you?”  I began to jokingly sneer at his obvious defeat, before he lifted his hand to brush a loose strand of hair out of my eyes.  

“As your friend, Emma, I must beg, to be importuned no farther on the subject.”

My eyes widened as he winked at me, having paraphrased Jane Austen.  “Touché, Hall.”  I shivered through my coat, and began to rub my arms for warmth.

“Come back here,” he said, concern coloring his voice.  He gently pulled me back towards him and encircled me in his arms, this time wrapping them completely around me.  “This should keep you warm.”

You have no idea!

AHH!  That was so sweet!  I can’t wait to read more of Emma and Warner!  Thank you for such a delicious little sample!

~~~

Connect with Anngela

Twitter    ❧    Facebook 

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Today, Anngela brings with her ONE paperback copy (US residents only) and ONE ebook copy (open internationally) of her recently released novel, Affections and Wishes, for me to giveaway to TWO lucky winners!

 

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment, a question, or some love for Anngela!!

• This giveaway is open worldwide (paperback open for US residents only.)  Thank you, Anngela!
• This giveaway ends December 16th!