Guest Post with Authors Michelle D’Arcy, Elin Eriksen, Riana Everly, and Laura Moretti!!!

Hi readers! Happy Valentine’s Day to all those celebrating! Speaking of celebrating – I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to spend it with Mr. Darcy!

Have you heard that there is a new Valentine’s Day anthology out this month?

Yes!  6️⃣  short stories by  6️⃣  talented Austenesque authors. That sounds like an ideal Valentine’s gift for any Janeite, right?

And these authors are definitely in a giving mood – because all the proceeds from the sale of this book are being donated to the Jane Austen House & Museum!

Please give a warm welcome to Michelle, Elin, Riana, and Laura – some of the authors from the With Love, Mr. Darcy short story collection!

Hei, Meredith!

Greetings from the cold north.

We are excited to announce the publication of our Valentine’s Day anthology, With Love, Mr Darcy. A collaboration between Michelle D’Arcy, Elin Eriksen, Riana Everly, Iris Lim, Laura Moretti, and S Neha, where all proceeds will be donated to the Jane Austen museum

We thought it would be fun to share something personal with your readers, and decided to share how we met our respective real life Mr Darcy’s.

~ How We Met Our Husbands ~

  Michelle D’Arcy 

I met my husband on the internet!! On a precursor of FB-type of site, called ICQ! At the beginning of the WWW… And within 3 minutes of conversation, I knew he was the last man in the world I would be prevailed upon to marry!! I mean, he was rude!! In three minutes, he said “hi” (he contacted me first), waited barely for my answer and then informed me he was going out to a movie!! Is not this rude? I mean I have said “hi” and then “good bye”, persuaded I would never hear from him again! He came back the next day, with apologies, he managed to send me flowers within a week, inserted himself on my holiday in Turkey (I was going with a group of friends) and, for my birthday (we were still in Turkey), he wanted to buy me a bracelet but insisted I would choose the model. And in the boutique, he – so very romantically – said: “As we are already here, how about choosing wedding bands, as well?” Luckily he makes me laugh….

Elin Eriksen 

I met my husband through my matchmaking friend Christin. I was badly burnt from meeting Mr Wickham first, and he asked me out for 2 years before I said yes. He looked like a Hell’s Angels rider, but beneath his hard shell I discovered a warm and loving family man.

Though I would hardly call him a romantic. He called me at work and proposed, one month after our first date, and we married a year and a half later. He buys me a bouquet of flowers every seven years or so. I don’t mind, because he worships the ground I walk on, brings me firewood and carries the groceries. But most importantly, he wants to spend every moment of leisure in my company and he is my best friend. Over the years we have become ridiculously dependent upon each other and rarely do anything apart.

  Riana Everly 

I joke that I met my husband when he picked me up after I was in a back-up band for a concert. It’s much tamer than that, really. A friend was giving her graduating recital in French horn, and I was part of the string quartet for one piece. She had a reception at her home afterwards, and had invited quite a few people. One of these people was a friend she’d made the previous year in a German class, and this friend and I found we got on rather well!

     I was living in Montreal at the time, and he was studying in Toronto, and he needed to go back the next day. He sent me roses from the train station! We certainly kept the telephone and train services busy for a while. We were engaged six weeks after we met, and married a year later.

  Laura Moretti 

I was nineteen and discovering the wondrous world of roleplaying games, he was a geek like all of my friends, reading comic books and sci-fi, playing board games, and being a fascinating, clever, and hilarious RPG game master.

Then he moved away and I did not see him for twenty years.

Meanwhile, I got married, had two kids, got divorced. And decided I would never get married again. I had become a cynic! Romance was not for me! Romance was just a lie anyway!

And then we reconnected. We had lunch. And he was…fascinating, clever, hilarious. And I was sitting there, thinking, why, exactly, did I want to stay single? What was the reason again?

We fell in love. And he told me he had a huge crush on me twenty years ago. Which I kind of knew. We got married, and cynicism and I, we parted ways.

~~~

These stories are incredible!! I love them all. My romantic heart is so happy. Thank you so much for sharing! They were the perfect start to Valentine’s Day! 

And I think I know where I can go if I crave some more romantic stories…

~ Book Description ~

Six authors, six stories, seven happily-ever-afters.

Join writers Michelle d’Arcy, Elin Eriksen, Riana Everly, Iris Lim, Laura Moretti, and S. Neha for a special Valentine’s Day anthology of Pride and Prejudice variations, each crafted with love from Mr Darcy.

All proceeds will be donated to the Jane Austen’s House Museum at Chawton, England.
Swoon for a worthy cause!

Available for a limited time!

Alone (Michelle d’Arcy)
What did Mr Darcy do in London after fleeing Hertfordshire? How great was his struggle before the disastrous proposal in Hunsford? How deep was his suffering after the rejection, and how intense was his happiness when he finally married the possessor of the finest eyes he had ever seen? This story dares to attempt a glimpse into his thoughts.

My Funny Valentine (Elin Eriksen)
Miss Elizabeth responds to Mr Darcy’s insult at the Meryton assembly by fully agreeing with his sentiments, using effusive expressions of gratitude and a heavy dose of sarcasm…

A Coincidence of Connexions (Riana Everly)
An unexpected reunion with an old school friend brings Fitzwilliam Darcy face-to-face with the last person in the world he wanted to see. Or is she? When Pride and Prejudice slips into the world of Sense and Sensibility, the result might be a Valentine’s Day that no one could have dreamed of.

In Time for Valentine’s (Iris Lim)
When Lady Matlock determines something must be done to distract from the recent family scandal, she charges Darcy with the task of announcing a betrothal by her St. Valentine’s ball. But can Darcy manage to find a palatable bride, in time for Valentine’s?

Ten Valentine’s Days (Laura Moretti)
Darcy is passionately in love with Elizabeth, but she rejected him. Now he sees her only once a year, on Valentine’s day, and each time, it breaks his heart a little more…

Mr Darcy’s Matchmaking Valentine (S. Neha)
Fitzwilliam Darcy believes that he has lost his only chance at happiness when Elizabeth Bennet rejects his hand in marriage. But what if a service rendered to a little girl not only gives him a chance to make amends for separating his friend Mr Bingley from Jane Bennet but, in the process, also allows him to win the heart of the woman he still loves?

Wait? Did we say seven happily-ever-afters? Perhaps there’ll be something more!

With Love, Mr. Darcy is available now for $0.99!!!

Available in ebook, paperback and in Kindle Unlimited for a limited time only!

~~~

Feel free to leave these lovely authors a comment, a question, or some love!

22 comments

  1. What a sweet post and perfect for Valentines. I was happy to purchase this one for my TBR pile. Congratulations to the lovely authors.

    1. Thanks for purchasing a copy. We’re thrilled to be able to help the museum, and the JAFF community has been so supportive! And yes, we had fun chatting about our own How-I-Met stories.

  2. I love the authors marriage stories. I also love the stories in this book and was happy to preorder it. That the proceeds are going to Chawton House is a huge bonus. Thank you 🙂

  3. Hi, Ladies!
    Thank you for the anthology, in fact, I´m actually reading it and I´m enjoying a lot these romantic stories 🙂
    I appreciate your generosity in regard of the Jane Austen Museum as well as the symbolic price because it´s a beautiful way of supporting this cause.
    It´s fun to know about your meeting “real” Mr Darcy. Have you ever thought about using your experience as an inspiration for an austenesque story? I think there are several fitting in the canon of “Pride and Prejudice”, some in “Persuasion” and even it´s possible there´s a Mr Knightley hidden in one of the stories… who knows LOL
    Thanks, Meredith for this sweet and fun post 🙂

  4. I am currently rereading mine. These tales make me smile. Authors, your personal how did we meet stories are fun too. We were dating each other’s best friends when they broke up with us. We sat together in the high school cafeteria commiserating over our love lives, and sparks began to fly. We’ll have been married fifty years this spring.

  5. I loved the ‘How I met my husband stories.’ I always find those fascinating. I’m off to buy the book as soon as I finish this comment. Thank you for supporting Chawton House, that makes this even more special. Best of luck on this book launch.

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