Hello readers! I am so very excited to welcome back author, Karen Cox to Austenesque Reviews! If you aren’t familiar with Karen Cox’s work, I entreat you to rectify that immediately! She writes some brilliant, inventive, and award-winning Austenesque literature! At the moment she is celebrating her newest 
release, Undeceived (which I am dying to read!) Today, Karen shares with you a fun and informative list of what she learned while researching Undeceived!
Thanks, Meredith, for inviting me to Austenesque Reviews! I always love coming here to connect with other fans of Jane.
On my author blog, I have a feature called “The 5 Best…” The 5 best what, you ask? It could be anything: 5 Best Men’s Voices, or Songs that Tell Stories, or Internet Venn Diagrams, or the 5 Best Things about Mr. Darcy.
The writing of “Undeceived” was a steep learning curve, and I learned a lot—about writing, most definitely, but also about history, geography, cultures, and the world. So here are the…
5 Best Things I learned while researching Undeceived
- I didn’t know just how far West Berlin was from West Germany. Yes, I know. That kind of ignorance is shameful. Chalk it up to my passing notes in Coach Forrest’s World History Class, the fact that I took Honors Literature in college instead of History, or my lack of nonfiction reading about post-World War II Europe. It’s doubly shameful because I’m married to a history nut who was floored when he realized I didn’t know. Sure, I knew there was a Berlin airlift, but somehow I never put it together that it was that far from West Berlin to the FRG (West Germany). When I began studying maps to see how Darcy and Elizabeth would have escaped from East to West, I had the rude awakening that I’d had it wrong, for years. Turns out that wasn’t the last thing I’d had wrong…
- Hungarian is not a Slavic language. This I actually learned pretty early on while writing Undeceived. As Elizabeth tells Wickham, Hungarian is of Uralic, not Slavic, origin. The written representation, especially of the vowels and strident consonants, is complicated. Agnes, a friend of a friend (who I now consider my friend for her generosity in helping with those sections of the book) told me it is very difficult for native English speakers to speak Hungarian without an accent. Elizabeth needed to be fluent as a native, so I gave her a Hungarian great-grandmother who spoke the language to her as a child.
- Austria and Hungary have areas that are considered good wine country. I make it my mission to know where the good wines come from!
- The CIA generally calls their employees “officers” and not “agents”. Also, traditionally, CIA officers often had diplomatic cover positions in the state department, or as military attaches, etc. An officer with “non-official cover” (a NOC) is a relatively recent invention, but was made more prevalent by Director William Casey starting in the 1980s. And it is supposed to be against policy for the CIA to have officers using the press as their cover. Originally, Darcy was a press photographer in East Germany. When I was self-editing Undeceived, I had to give him another non-official cover.
- Shoulder gunshot wounds are actually very tricky to repair, difficult to heal, and often have long-lasting complications. All those Hollywood movie shoulder injuries gloss over that piece of reality. So I spared Darcy the shoulder GSW (gunshot wound). Where did he get the bullet instead? Well, you’ll have to read Undeceived to find out!
Ooh! Intriguing! I can’t wait to read Undeceived! Sounds like you really did your homework to make sure your story is very accurate, Karen! How awesome that you found the research work to be interesting and enlightening! Thanks for sharing!!!
Connect with Karen
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GIVEAWAY TIME!
Meryton Press is generously giving away 4 paperback and 4 ebook editions of Undeceived in conjunction with this blog tour!! Woot woot! Commenting and entering through the rafflecopter widget on this blog enters you in a chance to win!
- This giveaway is open worldwide. Thank you, Meryton Press!
- This giveaway ends February 18th!
Now I have to read this to see where Darcy receives his gunshot wound! Ouch, poor guy. How we love to torture him! Great post ladies.
Who says there’s only one? mwahaha 😀
I’d love to read this! How intriguing!
I hope you enjoy the story 🙂
This would be my biggest hurdle if I ever got the nerve to write the story I would dearly love to write. I’m not sure how much research it would take, but I would want it to be perfect and accurate. I’d Benet be satisfied! Lol This book sounds very interesting! Will add it to my must have list!
What I’ve found, Ardent, is that it’s never perfect, and sometimes you have to take a little artistic license, but yes, I tried to be as accurate as I could. I like learning new things, so that part was a lot of fun for me.
I found all the language details rather interesting too. Like when one answered the phone in Germany, they don’t say “Hello” but rather the first their last name. I suppose I would answer the phone “Boyd” which sounds rather unfriendly but I guess you knew right away if you misdialed. I wonder if it’s the same now with cell phones?
Little tidbits like that were fun to learn 🙂
I loved reading about your research and the process! Thank you!
Becky
You are very welcome, Becky. Thanks for stopping in!
I can’t believe I have yet to read something by this author! *hides* Hope to start this year with Find Wonder in All Things or… this new book! 🙂
Are you a Persuasion fan, Maria? Find Wonder is a variation on that amazing JA novel. Happy Reading!
Thanks, Karen! My favourite novel is Pride and Prejudice (Mr. Darcy stole my heart many years ago! Hehe!) but I have to say that Persuasion is a close second. Anne is my favourite heroine and I love reading Persuasion inspired books!
“At the Edge of the Sea” is a must read! As in “1932”!!!!!!
Darcy as a CIA officer sounds perfect!
He is ‘perfectly imperfect’ – as are all Darcy interpretations, IMHO 🙂
Oh, it sounds wonderful! Thank you for the “5 things” and for the giveaway.
You’re welcome and good luck 🙂
If I remember correctly, Austria wines took a big hit for a scandal some time in the 70/80’s. Just making their way back into world markets. While not a wine super fan(and sadly gout limits the amount I can have), I’ve had a few at wine tastings. I’ve had gout/and or tendonitis in the shoulder….yikes!
I didn’t know about the Austrian wine scandal – very interesting! I did read about Hungary wanting to develop their wine industry toward the end of the communist rule and after the government changed. Thanks for stopping in to say hello and leave a comment 🙂
Looks like a really fun/interesting read!
Thanks for saying hi, Amy!
Okay readers, I’m at home today (snow day), so in between taking care of grandgirl, I can really have my share in the conversation and reply at will 🙂 Thanks for all your interest in “Undeceived” !
Thank you so much for this lovely visit to Austenesque Reviews, Karen! It was great to learn more about your new release! 🙂
Love your research to make the story more accurate. Oh my, Darcy get shot? I hope Elizabeth is there to take care of him through the recovery process… Oh, I just had a thought, Elizabeth maybe the one that shoots him? Poor Darcy! Can’t wait to read this novel!
It’s P&P themed fiction – Darcy must suffer -lol. He does recover – he is Darcy after all!
Amazing what one learns! My husband mainly reads non-fiction as he got his degree in History from university. It still fascinates him and he will impart information or something amusing to me that he never knew. We (society/politicians) have yet to learn from history. We just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. Looking forward to reading this book and I always appreciate a well researched one! Thank you for the opportunity to win your book too!
History is one area of interest/hobby that hubby and I share, but he’s more knowledgeable than me, esp about war time history. Thanks for your comment 🙂
I love Karen M. Cox and would love to win a book or ebook! Can’t wait to read this!
Aww, thanks so much Laura! Good luck 🙂
Karen, I enjoyed your post; very clever. Really looking forward to reading your book (I’ve read your others). Definitely would be thrilled to win a copy.
Thanks, Ginna. I’m glad you liked the others enough to come back for more 🙂
Thanks for this fascinating feature. Your post was captivating and lovely and the novel would be greatly enjoyed.
Glad you liked the post, Anne. Sometimes it’s hard to think what might be interesting and a little off the beaten path.
I’m just dropping by to say that I LOVED this book and highly recommend it to all. I have always enjoyed spy stores and read all the James Bond books in college. I would love to have a paperback copy.
Hi Sheila – thanks for stopping by. And thanks for your review of “Undeceived”!
I first discovered your writing with 1932 and have been hooked ever since. This one sounds like it will also be wonderful (as if I could expect anything less).
Thank you so much for the vote of confidence, Jan 🙂
I am really looking forward to reading this book but what are you thinking of letting Darcy get shot??? I hope at least Elizabeth is there to look after him . I really enjoyed 1932. I am amazed that Darcy and Elizabeth fit so well no matter what period they find themselves in. Loved all the research. Thanks for the post Meredith nd thanks Karen for the giveaways.
What I love most in Austenesque literature is to take those characters I love so much, and put them in different times and places and watch what they do. It’s great fun!
Glad to hear you are interested in reading Undeceived, Glynis! Best of luck in the giveaway! 😉
I’m totally grooving on the whole Austen-meets-Helen MacInnes thing. Can’t wait to read this book!
I hope you enjoy it, Abigail! Thanks for stopping in.
Interesting tidbits! It is easy to forget how much research it takes to write a book. Darcy as CIA is definitely interesting 🙂 Thanks so much for the giveaway! I can’t wait to read this book.
Some take more research than others, Shannon. I had a lot of catching up to do on all things ‘spy’ for “Undeceived”.
This sounds so exciting! I think Elizabeth’s strength can really shine through in this kind of setting. Can’t wait to read it!
At first, I didn’t really LOVE Elizabeth the way I should have, but by the end of Undeceived, I had fallen for her completely.
This book sounds like fun, thanks for the top 5 and chance to win.
The Top 5 Feature at my blog tends to include my own favorite posts – they’re fun and light-hearted 🙂
This looks so good!!
Congrats Karen, looking forward to reading your newest book! Sounds like another fun one.
I have yet to read this one and can’t wait to get started. I too want to know where Darcy gets shot. Yikes. Sounds like a real thriller. Jen Red
Love your list of things learned during research. As I read, I wondered about the ‘officer’/’agent’ thing and I remembered NOC from Mission Impossible, but that is fascinating about not using the press as a cover job.
Loved the story and getting the background details adds. Don’t feel badly about the West Germany/West Berlin thing. I totally screwed up a story I did in college with a Russian setting because I had the Steppes like a days ride from St. Petersburg and my teacher pointed this little geographical/transportation impossibility out with the delightful suggestion ‘you might want to consult a map’.
I have enjoyed your other stories and this one sounds interesting It was fun to read about your writing process
Karen, your book sounds better and better the more I read about it! I think one reason I could never make it as a writer is that I’d get totally lost down all of those research rabbit holes and the book would never get written.
So pleased to see a new book from you. “1932” is lovely comfort food that I turn to when I need a smile.
You really learned a lot – thanks for sharing! It’s so encouraging to know you made the details of your book accurate.
It sounds very intriguing after reading some of the things that you have learnt! Karen M. Cox is a discovery as I have not read anything yet from her but this book is on my TBR list!!
Oh you must read something by Karen, Ana! You will love her books! I can’t decide my favorite between At the Edge of the Sea and Find Wonder in All Things – they are all fabulous though! 🙂