Hi friends! I can’t believe it, it is only the 4th day of December and already I feel like I’m a week behind! 😣
The outlook is not good for me for the rest of the month! Is December ever a month where you feel “caught up” or “ahead of schedule?” 🤔
Anyways, I have some fun stuff to share that took place in November! 🍁
I attended the lovely JAFF Writer/Reader Get Together in Washington DC that the amazing Victoria Kincaid put together. So I thought I’d give you a little recap here. 😃
And I was absolutely horrible at taking pictures, which is so unlike me. (must’ve been too busy having fun to take pictures! 🤷🏻♀️) I did snag some from Facebook that others took to share with you. 🥺
I don’t even have a pic of me and Samantha Whitman, a JAFF author you might have heard of, who also lives in Wilmington, NC and attended the event with me! (talk about a missed opportunity!) 🤦🏻♀️
But some of the great highlights of the event were meeting so many people in person that I’ve gotten to know online (I was definitely a little starstruck!) And I loved that we almost were always talking about Jane Austen related topics and books! It isn’t something I get to do in my everyday life…so sitting at a table and discussing Lydia’s and Wickham’s future happiness, Fanny ending up with Henry, or Mr. Darcy’s wishes regarding Mr. Bingley with others felt a bit surreal.
I took part in a blogger panel with fellow bloggers Serena of (Savvy Verse and Wit) and Anna (of Diary of an Eccentric).
I really loved meeting these two sweet ladies in person after following their blogs for nearly 10 years! And even though we all were super nervous about our panel, it went really well with lots of audience participation and questions!
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Another special highlight was the delicious tea service we had Saturday afternoon!! Every single thing was scrumptious!
Look how beautifully the tables were decorated!
Clearly I remembered to take pictures of food…but not with people! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
And it sounds like there is a plan for a 2020 Jane Austen Writer/Reader Get Together the weekend of November 6th-8th! I am definitely hoping to go and meet more writers and readers then!
Thank you again to Victoria for taking on the initiative and the tremendous amount of work to put this gathering together! 💕
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Want to know what Austenesque fun I’m getting into this month?
…here is what’s on this month’s
Austenesque Agenda:
~ TO REVIEW ~
~ TO REVIEW ON GOODREADS ~
It isn’t Austenesque, but a fun Christmassy story I finished yesterday to get in the holiday spirit!
~ TO READ AND REVIEW ~
Reading about Christmas at the Biltmore, since it will be our first time visiting the Biltmore this month!
~ MY YEARLY TRADITION ~
Here is a bit of twist! Some of you know that for the last 6 years I’ve read an annotated Jane Austen novel each December. And even though I have at least 6 more to read, I thought I’d spend this Christmas reading an annotated edition of Little Women instead…especially with the new movie coming out. But don’t worry, I’ll be continuing this tradition of Jane Austen annotated editions next year!
The question is, do I still review it here on Austenesque Reviews? (Let me know if you are interested in seeing this reviewed here)
~ FEATURED AUTHORS VISITING THIS MONTH ~
Jessie Lewis – December 2nd
Karen Cox – December 6th
Victoria Kincaid – December 8th
Anniina Sjöblom- December 13th
Marilyn Brant – December 16th
Falling for Mr. Thornton Anthology – December 20th
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Loved the pictures from the get together. It looks like another great month! Enjoy! ♫
I only wish I had taken more! Yes, I hope you enjoy a wonderful month, Jennifer!
Lovely to meet you last month, Meredith! Looking forward to your posts this month!
It was so special, Jan! I am too! Lots of great reads and authors to enjoy!
Please do review the annotated The Little Women. You have a busy blog month so thank you!
Thanks for letting me know you are interested in that, Eva! Yes, it is a bit busy…seems like the trend these past few months (#notcomplaining!)
Such a great get together, it looks like you all had a great time (and some great food )
How on Earth are you going to get through all that with Christmas in the mix? Good luck!
It really was, I’m so glad I went to it!
I’m managing okay at the moment, my friend! The reading part is definitely going well! 😉 Christmas stories are so much fun!
Hope you are enjoying a lovely month!
Oh, Meredith, your pictures were still wonderful. How exciting and I am so jealous to not have been there. Well, THAT will be on my Bucket List to attend one of these shindigs. Yep, that’s what I’ll do. One of these days. You have a whole list of wonderful things planned for December. Yikes! It IS December. Man, where did the time go? I let the others help you decide about ‘Little Women.’ If you write it, I’ll read it. [hello to your Mr. Bingley and Merry Christmas] Yeah, it’s early so sue me… snicker. Oh, I think I hit the eggnog a bit too hard. Pardon me.
Thank you, Jeanne! I feel bad on all the ones I missed taking though.
Yes!! I hope you can come to the next one!! I would so love to meet you!
I know! November was too short and fast and I could swear it was only October 2 weeks ago!
Merry Christmas to you and yours, my friend!
Thanks for the write up on the JAFF get together. It looked like you all had a great time. It must be surreal meeting people that you know of from the online Jane Austen community. You line up for December looks packed Meredith. How do you find the time to read everything? You amaze me.
Thanks so much for checking out our post! It really was surreal, felt like I needed to pinch myself! It is a busy month for sure, hopefully I can manage to keep up with it all! 😉
I think your December is looking packed with great posts too, can’t wait!
It looks like a fun gathering and I’m glad you go to go and meet so many familiar on-line personalities.
Lovely Christmasy reads and guests you have coming up, and yes, do review Little Women for us. 🙂
It was so fun! So many lovely people in this community, and they were just as lovely in person!
Thanks for sharing your interest in a Little Women review, looking forward to starting it soon! Hope you enjoy a lot of Christmasy reads as well!
WOW Meredith , how many things in the agenda! . The JAFF meeting seemed so interesting! I wish had stayed there with all of you debating about Jane Austen’s characters 😉
And the decoration was so elegant with those teapots and cups and those tiny and beautiful flowers (in Spain we call them “paniculata” and they are the flowers of the brides in their weddings and I was told that when the size of the flower is bigger they are called “Blancanieves ” (“Snowhite”). And the desserts! WOW how many delicious pieces of cake!.
I’m very interested in read about “Little Women” in your blog as it’s one of my favourite novels (I’m looking forward to the movie!). And I wouldn’t mind reading about others novels in your blog although they weren’t austenesque so you can count on me! LOL.
I’m really curious about “A Biltmore Christmas” (I didn’t know it and the cover is gorgeous) as well as “Falling for Mr Thorton ” (when it says “tales of north and south” it means from Elizabeth Gaskell ‘s novel?).
Well, I hope you can catch up with December. It’s a very busy month so we had better remember the mantra “Keep calm and enjoy festivities ” .
A big hug my friend!
Thank you so much for your lovely enthusiasm, Teresa! It would have been so lovely to have you come to the event! What a pretty word “paniculata” is! The food at the tea was amazing! And there were 3 different teas and I tried them all!
Oh I’m so excited to hear that you are a Little Women fan! I thought it was an appropriate choice before reading more Jane Austen…especially after learning there is an annotated edition of it! I’m looking forward to the movie too!
A Biltmore Christmas was loaned to me from my mom, it isn’t related to Austenesque at all, but I am checking it out as we are visiting the Biltmore in a few weeks (the Biltmore is a large estate/museum in NC that was built for the Vanderbilt family in the late 1800s. It is the largest privately build home in the US and they deck it all out for Christmas). I can’t wait to visit for the first time!
Hugs to you, my friend! I hope you have a festive and lovely December!
Looks like you had a wonderful time Meredith. Do read Little Women and let us know what you think. I tried to read it and just couldn’t get into it yet I’ve loved the tv adaptations of it. Can’t wait for the new movie. It might inspire me to try the book again. Of course our own home grown Saoirse Ronan is part of it, so that makes me feel proud. She’s a wonderful actress.
Hi Teresa! We did! It has been a good amount if years since I read the story, so hopefully I will like it as much as I remember doing so before. I’ve watched the movie with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder around Christmas each year, but I’m excited about the new movie! That is something to be proud of!! The cast looks wonderful!
I find that at this time of the year if I do get to read, I end up not finding time to review books. The photos you did take make everything look so lovely…and delicious. I have loved all the books by Alcott and read them when I was young. I look forward to seeing the movie. I would love to meet so many authors and would be tongue tied in their presence as I so admire all their creativity. Loved Speechless and the N&S anthology and The Knight before Christmas and have not read that Victoria Kincaid one but have read many of hers. I did read one Sanditon book but not sure if that is it (Did read the JA one also.) I read His Choice of Wife and have been reading good things about The Clergyman’s Wife but have not yet picked it up. Good luck with your reading. Merry Christmas, everyone.
I can understand that, Sheila! Maybe you can opt to read stories that are only rereads this month?
I am so happy to hear you have enjoyed those books! I’m hoping to catch up to you and read them soon!
Hope you enjoy a lovely December!
Love the pictures of the gathering. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure! Thank you for checking them out!
What a lovely get together! I’d love to have met some of my favorite authors. Looking forward to all your interviews this month, especially the one with one of my favorite people Marilyn Brant.
Please come to the next one, Brenda! It would be so lovely to meet you in person!
I’m reading Marilyn’s book right now and I love it!