Hi friends! I’m excited to welcome the lovely Samantha Adkins to Austenesque Reviews for her first author feature! In addition to being a lovely reader of the blog and participant of Austenesque Jolabokaflod, Samantha is also a writer with a few Austenesque novels under her belt – Expectations, Suspiciously Reserved, and Banff Springs Abbey. And just last month she celebrated her release of The Jane Austen Contest, which as you might guess is about a Jane Austen contest! It sounds like a contest I would definitely enter even if I’m not much of a writer because it involves two things I love – Jane Austen and travel! 🫶🏼

Samantha is here to share a little bit about whaat inspired her new book and an excerpt. We hope you enjoy!

What kind of contest do you wish existed?

When I wrote my first Jane Austen inspired novel, Expectations, I spent a lot of time daydreaming about a trip to the U.K., specifically to visit Austen’s England – Bath, Steventon, Chawton. . . I knew I couldn’t afford such a trip, so I scoured the internet for ways to win a trip to England. I imagined a contest I could win by writing a story or even a book based on Jane Austen’s novels, but no such contest existed.

Several years later, my friend Sylvia gave me a book called The Write-Brain Workbook: 366 exercises to liberate your writing by Bonnie Neubauer. On December 19, 2017, the writing prompt read “You may have already won.” The prompt describes an envelop arriving in the mail from a believable-looking company called “Peerless.” I started the prompt and finally my contest idea took flight. But it took some unexpected turns!

I started writing my novel in what is now the middle of the book. I meant to write a short story, but the story kept going. When I had finished, I had a novella. When I showed my novella to an agent, she said she couldn’t sell novellas, but could I extend it into a novel?

I resisted for a while, but the idea was too tempting. I based my characters on Anne Elliott and Captain Wentworth in Persuasion. What did I still want to know about them? The answer – I wanted to see them in the early years. How did they become so strongly attached that their romance would continue for seven years without even a letter between them?

The result of all my questions and daydreaming, (and a lot of revising!) is The Jane Austen Contest. I’m so excited to release this book to my fellow Austen-lovers. Be warned I’ve taken a lot of liberties in my retelling of Persuasion. May you be transported on your own fanciful holiday!

~ Excerpt from The Jane Austen Contest ~

Isobel inhaled the invigorating scent of her strong breakfast tea while she sat at her white two-person kitchen table, overlooking the brick building across the street. Her one-bedroom apartment still gave her a feeling of peace. She’d splurged a bit on the crown moulding and dark hardwood floor. Plus, she’d chosen an apartment with a rooftop garden over one without, but she rationalized it was still the cheapest place she’d ever lived. Besides, digging her hands into rich soil to produce native flowers and vegetables was helping her soul and the environment.

Her eyes caught on her pile of unopened mail sitting before the empty seat on the other side of the table. She would not usually have opened an envelope marked “You may be a winner!”, but she had nothing to look forward to that summer. Her work as a systems developer was lucrative, yes, but it did not excite her. Besides, the bright red envelope was silky in her hands. It gave a satisfying shucking sound when she peeled open the golden seal. She felt a bit like Cinderella.

“Dearest Miss Everstein,

“You have the chance to win an all-inclusive trip to Bath to visit Jane Austen’s favorite haunts!”

That’s when she remembered entering a writing contest. 200 words in Austen’s style to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of her death.

Isobel scanned the letter. “. . .we require your quick reply. . . You have 200 minutes to answer our online Austen quiz. . .”

Oh, how fantastic for Isobel! I’m already charmed by her and cannot wait to follow her on her adventures to Bath, England! Thank you so much for sharing, Samantha! I love learning more about how the idea of The Jane Austen Contest came to you!

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~ Connect with Samantha ~

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Today, Samantha brings with her 1️⃣ paperback copy and 1️⃣ ebook of The Jane Austen Contest  for me to give away to 2️⃣ lucky winners! Woot woot!!! 😃

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

• This giveaway is open worldwide (paperback) and to Amazon.com users (ebook)   Thank you, Samantha!
• This giveaway ends April 12th.