Hi readers! I’m happy to welcome  a new-to-me author to Austenesque Reviews today, although she may already be known to you if you read her books – Camp Jane: The Winners Rally Round and Camp Jane: Double Trouble for Lizzy. Susan is stopping by to chat about Jane Austen, her humor, and this wonderful Regency Era themed resort called Camp Jane. Doesn’t that sound like a wonderful place to escape to this winter? ❄️🎩📖☀️

We hope you enjoy!

Hi Susan, I’m so excited to have this chance to talk with you. Why don’t we start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself. How long have you been writing? When did you first encounter Jane Austen?

Hi, Meredith! I’m a retired educator and school psychologist who spent over thirty years working in the child/teen section of a psychiatric hospital in the southern U.S. I did some ghostwriting after I retired, but truthfully, I began writing as soon as I could hold a pencil. My first work was a poem that began “A bunny doesn’t do anything/ He doesn’t dance, he doesn’t sing …” (The critics branded it “anti-bunny” when I had intended it as a light-hearted homage to the still creature!) I first read Austen at university and found her howlingly funny. I howled. I did. My roommate complained, even.

Haha! What an excellent first work. Anti-bunny?!? I think it is observant and pithy. 😁 I love that reading Jane Austen made you HOL – howl-out-loud! I understand you are writing a series inspired by Jane Austen. Can you tell me a little more about your series, Camp Jane? I see that it takes place in a Regency Era themed resort – which sounds amazing! What inspired your ideas for this series?

During the covid lockdown in 2020 when all of us needed a good howl, I revisited Jane’s books and screen adaptations. I joined some Austen online groups and was excited to see that love of Jane had spread worldwide and was truly a diverse, international phenomenon now. I had enjoyed the movie Austenland but now I imagined that we all needed a bigger, grander, destination resort, the Regency Resort. Here Janeites from all over the world could travel to a Disneyland built for US, the quirky but lovable bookworms, to have an immersive in-costume experience with Austen storylines playing out all around us. Austen online fans like yours, Meredith, will likely recognize many of the pop culture inspirations (“But Matthew Macfadyen in the rain, guys!” “Did Austen write any rain? She did not, sir, not a drop!”) planted throughout the series.

Sounds wonderful! I love seeing characters reference the Jane Austen culture like that and moments that are significant to us – “the wet shirt,” “the hand-flex.” And I love that this came  to you during the pandemic and at a time where we were all desperately needing escapism and vicarious adventures! One of the reasons people fall in love with Jane Austen’s writing is her sharp sense of humor. Like Lizzy Bennet, we all “dearly love a laugh.” Is there a particular scene or exchange that you find especially humorous in one of Jane Austen’s novels. Aside from Jane Austen, what are some other writers, comedians, or even shows that make you laugh?

My Austen favorite is Mr. Bennet’s reply to Elizabeth’s refusal to marry Collins. He presents her an “unhappy alternative,” namely: “From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.” This is such well-written comedy, so symmetrical and economical, purporting to be “unhappy” and serious but bursting with the ironic pay off at the end. Genius.

I love the comedy of juxtaposition, putting two unlike things together, especially posh people being de-poshed. Wodehouse’s elegant-but-dim Bertie managed by his wise butler Jeeves, John Cleese’s Fawlty Towers TV series where Basil tries to be an innkeeper to the upper crust but keeps tripping over his own overreaches. Monty Python was the pinnacle of this, creating the oh-so-serious government Ministry of Silly Walks and my personal favorite, a shopkeeper refusing a gentleman’s return of an obviously dead parrot by insisting that the bird was “only pining for the fjords.” Broad or subtle, I’ve always felt that well-written comedy is an artform and Austen was a master of it.

Excellent choices! Mr. Bennet’s line there is such sarcastic genius! How about we talk a little bit about the characters we encounter in Camp Jane? I imagine that at a Regency Era themed resort we will meet all sorts of interesting personalities. Which characters were your favorite to write for? Which ones were the biggest challenge?

With role-players onsite who would have personalities like their Austen characters, I realized that chatty, oversharing Lizzy and cheeky London actor Henry Tilney would likely be best friends. Both are clever and funny and outspoken. My main six are those two, as well as their respective plus ones—Darcy and Catherine Morland—along with the famously supportive Jane Bennet and Bingley characters. I loved writing their group interactions but I ran into a problem in Book Two. No spoilers, but Henry and Lizzy, my extroverts, get separated and the other cast mates are without them for a time. I realized that I had left only a bunch of introverts onstage! Yikes! I had to somehow get Darcy and tiny Catherine to find their voices and lead the group. The characters let me know what to do, as they always do, but it was a challenge I hadn’t anticipated until I wrote myself into that corner!

I love the idea of Lizzy and Henry being besties!! What is next for you, Susan? Do you have any other projects in the works?

Camp Jane, Book Three; Follies of Family is percolating on my computer right now, looking toward a spring release. In the meantime, I’ve started a Regency Resort newsletter called “The Meryton Jester” (sign up is at anachronbooks.com) where along with keeping up with happenings at the resort, I get to play with some of my favorite minor Camp Jane characters that I don’t have space for in the series. For example, one recurring feature contains letters from the nauseatingly-perfect Jane Fairfax who is always doing something irritatingly amazing, this time training geese to STAY south for the winter by teaching them to drink from glasses with little umbrellas and to watch hours of soccer instead of hockey.

That’s wonderful! The Meryton Jester sounds like it would be a very entertaining subscsription! How about we switch it up with some Quick-Fire Questions (and in honor of your series, let’s make it all about going to a place like Camp Jane?)

• Which Jane Austen character and/or Camp Jane character do you most resemble?

Lizzy Bennet, flaws and all. I would have spent the whole Regency era with my petticoat six inches deep in mud.

• You need some roommates, which three Jane Austen characters do you want as roommates?

Oh, wow. Jane Bennet is the world’s most supportive sister/friend so definitely her. Elinor Dashwood would be a real asset in making sure the bills got paid. (She has to leave her sister Marianne at home, though. Dumpster fire/drama queen!) Catherine Morland would probably be tidy. As long as she’s not mad at me for my whole laundry situation, she’d be cool.

• Where would we find you – going on a solitary ramble in the morning or organizing an excursion to a hermitage?

I would love sitting out by the lake in front of Pemberley (there’s a gazebo) as the mist comes off the lake. Box Hill has a great view so a carriage ride up there with friends would be amazing as long as everybody promises to be nice to Miss Bates.

• What would excite you more – participating in a theatrical or attending a ball?

Yay for theatricals! Not that I was thespian of the year back in high school or anything …

• Which outdoor activity are you willing to diligently practice – horseback-riding or archery?

Archery since there is less chance of me injuring myself if I fall off my own hooves. The risk of me doing that, or shooting myself with an arrow, for that matter, is not zero, but still safer than riding a horsey.

• In which location of the resort will you spend the most time?

Lake, lake and more lake! There’s a bathing area in front the Sense and Sensibility area across from Pemberley. But I’d also be sure to take a carriage ride to shop at the bespoke clothiers in “London” and hit the geothermal pool re-creations in “Bath.”

• What will be the thing you miss most about leaving Camp Jane and the Regency Era?

The manners. The reliance on civil conversation. The camaraderie with other Janeites who understand the power of words to unite us in laughter rather than divide us. As the Janeite “Campers” are prone to do, I’d depart with one last cheer: One, two, three, CAMP JANE!

Ooh! I love that your favorite part of the resort is the outdoor beauties one would find there! That perhaps would be my favorite too. ⛲️

Thank you so much, Susan, for stopping by and answering my questions! I greatly enjoyed learning more about you and your fun series – Camp Jane!! It definitely sounds like a place I would like to visit! Best of luck with your upcoming release  of Book Three!

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Today Susan is offering a chance for ONE lucky reader to win an ebook from the Camp Jane  series (winner’s choice!) 🙌🏼

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

• This giveaway is open worldwide.  Thank you, Susan!
• This giveaway ends February 22nd!