Welcome to my stop on the excerpt tour for Jane Austen Lied to Me by Jeanette Watts. This tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an exclusive excerpt from the book. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $15 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more exclusive excerpts. Enjoy!
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Author: Jeanette Watts
Publication Date: September 25th 2017
Print Length: 193 pages
Genre: Romantic Comedy
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Dear Diary,
In three years of college, there are seven times my life seemed to suddenly turn into a Jane Austen novel; seven times my life, instead of becoming a romance, turned into a made-for-TV drama.
What am I doing wrong?
Goodreads * Amazon * Barnes & Noble *
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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT:
Well! That was interesting. My roommate invited me along to this frat party she was going to. She went through something called rush week, and she is now pledged to a sorority. She said the frats are less formal than the sororities, and even though I wasn’t a pledge I could go with her. I figured, why not, it should be fun, right?
I got to meet the guy she’s chasing. I couldn’t blame her for being interested. He’s cute, and sweet, and considerate, and a total people-pleaser. One of his parents must be the demanding sort who is never happy.
He introduced us to his friend… whose name is Darcy Fitzwilliam! I wasn’t sure at first that the guy wasn’t just pulling our legs.
“Your mother obviously loves Jane Austen,” I laughed.
“Obviously,” he answered. Not much to go by.
“I love Pride and Prejudice,” I continued.
“I hate Pride and Prejudice,” I can only describe the look he was giving me as hostile.
“I think you will find yourself very much in a minority,” I answered, returning his look with one of my own.
We didn’t talk any more that night. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot!
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a Rafflecopter giveaway
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jeanette Watts has written three Jane Austen-inspired novels, two other works of historical fiction, stage melodramas, television commercials, and humorous essays for Kindle Vella.
When she is not writing, she is either dancing, sewing, or walking around in costume at a Renaissance festival talking in a funny accent and offering to find new ladies’ maids for everyone she finds in fashionably-ripped jeans.
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GIVEAWAY:
Jeanette Watts will award a $15 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn reader via Rafflecopter. Good luck!
(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility over this giveaway.)
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI like the cover and think the book look interesting.
ReplyDeleteHi! I’m having trouble signing in with my name…I’m glad you like the cover! My husband does my cover art, and I think he outdid himself on this one! -Jeanette
DeleteThank you for having me today! -Jeanette
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and commenting =)
DeleteThis sounds like a terrific rom com read. I enjoyed the EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy the rest of the book just as much! 😄 -Jeanette
DeleteI love the cover, synopsis and excerpt, Jane Austen Lied to Me sounds like a fun read and I am looking forward to it. Thank you for sharing your bio and book details, I have enjoyed reading about you and your work
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bea! Both paperback and ebook are discounted for this book tour, if you want to grab a copy before mid-July! Please consider going back and leaving a review when you’ve finished! Just 2 or 3 sentences with your honest opinion would be really valuable!
Delete(Sorry, I hit “Publish” before I signed it… -Jeanette)
DeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeletevery nice cover, congrats on the release
ReplyDeleteThanks! My husband is my graphic artist, he put in a TON of funny little details on each character. Including his initials buried in the artwork!
DeleteSounds like a great book. I like the cover and excerpt.
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it! When you read it, please go back and leave a review! Just a couple sentences with your honest opinion. Authors live and die by reader reviews! -Jeanette
Deletenice excerpt
ReplyDeleteThanks! I hope you will stick with the Goddess Fish tour for this book to get more glimpses into Lizzy's adventures! -Jeanette
DeleteI liked the excerpt. I definitely want to read more of this book.
ReplyDeleteGood book for Summer reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contest.
This sounds like an interesting book and I also like the cover.
ReplyDeleteabfantom at yahoo dot com
Jane Austen Lied to Me by author Jeanette Watts sounds like a book that would be fun and entertaining.
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
Thanks for the great blurb and excerpt. The book sound like a fun read. Love the cover!
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt and giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy a good rom comedy. this looks like one!
ReplyDeleteRomantic Comedy - I really like this genre, fun reading!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this.
I like the cover. Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteWhat famous person would you find it inspirational to meet?
ReplyDeleteI got to meet David McCullough once! It was pretty thrilling. I gave him a copy of my first book; the scenes at the end set in the Johnstown Flood used portions of his research on how the town was devastated.
DeleteWhat part of the book did you have the hardest time writing?
ReplyDeleteThis was the hardest book I've ever written! I usually know where I'm going. This started as a little novella...that got rewritten...and rewritten again...and again... and again... it was one when I realized this book wants to be turned into a Broadway musical that it finally shaped up into the story it was always meant to be. - Jeanette
DeleteDo you listen to music when you write?
ReplyDeleteI can't write and listen to music. It doesn't have to be very quiet, but mostly quiet. I love being in pretty places when I write: wineries, libraries, hotel lobbies. I have written in retreats at a friend's cabin in Canada looking at Lake Erie, and in a cabin in the Allegheny forest looking at the side of a mountain while listening to the creek rushing by next to me. - Jeanette
DeleteWhat is your favorite place that you've visited?
ReplyDeleteThat's a really hard question! I love to travel. Is it a cop-out just to say Europe? I really love Italy, but Greece and Ireland and France and Germany and Belgium and the Netherlands are all good, too... - Jeanette
DeleteDo you have a favorite character from a movie or tv that you wish you could incorporate into your books?
ReplyDeleteI actually was trying to get permission from the Margaret Mitchell estate to write the story of Scarlett O'Hara's mother! I adored both the book AND the movie of Gone With the Wind growing up. But there's a darkness to the story of Scarlett's mother, an intensity. She's a woman whose heart was broken, but she has the strength of will to go on. Sadly, I never did succeed in getting them to talk to me. Maybe someday! - Jeanette
Deletewhat inspires you to write
ReplyDeleteMy brain hates me and will not leave me alone! I can't get done with ONE writing project, when it comes up with two more that I absolutely HAVE to do. - Jeanette
DeleteWhat is your favorite way to relax?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I know HOW to do this relaxing thing of which you speak.... I'm almost always in motion! The closest I come to relaxing is probably going to wineries. They are great places to write - outside on a patio, with a glass of wine and the computer, overlooking the vineyards! But that same scenery goes equally well with a couple of good friends to share the view with. - Jeanette
Deletehave a great long weekend
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a good holiday! Sorry to take so long in answering; I had a major computer glitch. At least I don't think any writing has been lost, my webpage seems to be back up, and now I get to talk to all of the people who have been visiting on my blog tour! - Jeanette
DeleteWhat is the best book you've read so far in 2022?
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge history buff and I got to go to Waterloo battlefield this spring; so I read a really good biography of Napoleon Bonaparte by Alan Schom. It helped fill in a gap in my historical understanding; I write Austenesque stories, but Jane Austen never talks about the Napoleonic wars she lived through! - Jeanette
Deletedo you have a favorite author
ReplyDeleteI love histories and biographies, so my favorite authors are David McCullough, Ron Chernow, and Shelby Foote. It's why I am usually writing historical fiction... I get to dig into all that juicy historical detail! - Jeanette
DeleteWhen did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
ReplyDeleteI've been telling stories since I was in 4th grade...in 5th grade, my best friend made me start writing them down. It took me a long time to start publishing completed books, but the more books I complete, the easier it keeps getting to write another one. - Jeanette
DeleteJane Austen Lied to Me by author Jeanette Watts sounds like a fun book that many people will enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
Are you glad when a book is finished?
ReplyDeleteWell, define "finished...." There is a momentary feeling of completion when I type "FINIS" at the end of the first draft. But there's still a lot of work to do, and I know it. There's a commitment to hitting the "Publish" button when sending the book out to readers (after all the editors, proofreaders and beta readers have returned their feedback to me). But that's just a momentary feeling, because the work of marketing simply looms larger. What really makes me glad is when people have read the book, and talk to me about it. They love these characters I have been loving for a few years by the time people get to meet them. THAT feeling is very profound. - Jeanette
DeleteIf you celebrate, how are you spending your fourth of July?
ReplyDeleteHappy 4th of July
ReplyDeleteWhat is your work schedule like when you're writing?
ReplyDeleteThe laundry doesn't get done, email doesn't get answered (answers to posts get delayed...), but I will walk to the neighborhood coffee shop and spend 4 hours on the patio with my coffee and the computer. The next day I spend at least 4 hours doing my writing at the local library - which looks like an art museum. The next day I spend the afternoon writing at the winery that is 10 minutes from my house. I don't go to the same place every day, but I set aside everything else, and go somewhere so I am not interrupted by the demands of the house and the rest of life. - Jeanette
DeleteHappy Independence Day!
ReplyDeleteWhat story of yours did you find it difficult to write?
ReplyDeleteI have an unfinished manuscript on Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. I wrote it, and re-wrote it, threw out the first third, and re-wrote it. I put it aside, because I am not a good enough of a writer yet. I will come back to it, because her story needs to be told. Not yet, but soon.
DeleteOops, sorry, didn't sign that! I'm having trouble using the non-anonymous options. -Jeanette
Deletehow long have you been writing
ReplyDeleteI was in 4th or 5th grade when I started writing down stories for my best friend. I've written different things at different stages of my life, but writing has been a huge part of who I am as long as I can remember. - Jeanette
DeleteWhat's your best memory from 2022 so far?
ReplyDeleteFinally getting off a plane in Germany and hugging a friend who moved there just in time to begin quarantine for Covid! My husband and I promised we'd visit her when she took the job. It took 2 years to be able to keep that promise. -Jeanette
DeleteI live the cute blue cover of Jane Austen Lied to Me!
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
was it hard to choose the cover
ReplyDeleteNot in the least! My husband does my cover art. This is a new cover to acknowledge the current fashion for romantic comedies. I showed him several covers of what rom com covers look like, and then I just get out of the way. His creativity is always far above and beyond anything I would come up with. -Jeanette
DeleteIs it hot where you live?
ReplyDeleteAt the moment, I am living in Illinois, where it's been pretty warm. But I'm a midwestern girl, dancing in a Scottish wool costume in 95 degree heat with 90 percent humidity is how I spent my summers in college. And the tomato plants in my garden like the heat. -Jeanette
DeleteI'm so ready for good reads for the summer, this is on my list!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret Ann, I hope you like it! When you have a chance to read it, would you please go back and write a review? Just 2 or 3 sentences of your honest opinion would be so valuable! We authors live or die by readers' reviews! -Jeanette
DeleteWhat, to you, are the most important elements of good writing?
ReplyDeleteBe true to your characters. In what universe would Luke Skywalker not come to the rescue of the princess...? A writer needs to LISTEN to their characters. The character is more important than any outline. Forcing the characters to say and do things because it's on the outline, instead of being willing to change the direction of the story because the character demands it... well, it happens a lot. But it does not make for good storytelling. -Jeanette
DeleteWhat are you looking forward to in the second half of 2022?
ReplyDeleteA LOT of chaos. My husband just accepted a new job, and we are moving halfway across the country to Washington state! Even though we have a household full of packing - which mostly falls on me, while he gets to live in an apartment while I put the house on the market back in Illinois - I still want to get another book written this year. Which means packing and moving may be slowed down. But I have writing to do! -Jeanette
Deletedo you have any other books in the works
ReplyDeleteThere are always more books! In too many directions. I have an artist friend that does the most engaging "doodles," she calls them. I have written children's books that I have asked her to illustrate. Meanwhile, I want to start writing a third book set in Pennsylvania, a companion to my first two, Wealth and Privilege and Brains and Beauty. I also have two stories set in Elizabethan England that I need to tell. I just need time to write. I haven't been able to for several months, and it's time to put everything aside, hide away, and start writing. - Jeanette
DeleteCongrats on your book tour!
ReplyDeleteThank you! - Jeanette
DeleteI think that many people will find this book entertaining.
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
Have a great evening!
ReplyDeleteDo you like to travel?
ReplyDeleteI *love* to travel. I am happiest when I am in motion. This year I have been in almost perpetual travel since April 2nd! Germany, the Netherlands, England, Belgium, then New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Pennsylvania, Ohio, back to North Carolina... as long as I do the laundry often enough to have clean underwear... I'm okay to keep going! - Jeanette
DeleteWhat fiction tropes are your pet peeves?
ReplyDeleteWhat is really a pet peeve is the need to confine fiction to tropes. Just tell a good story. (Actually, when I wrote my first book, Wealth and Privilege, it's all about twisting romance novel tropes. Woman is forced into marriage with a man she doesn't love. So I made it a man. Falls in love with spouse by the end of the story. Not in MY version...) -Jeanette
DeleteWhat inspired the idea for your book?
ReplyDeleteDriving home from the Jane Austen Festival in Lexington, KY, I was thinking about how we all romanticize the men in JA's books, but if you look at the texts, not the movies where we're honestly REALLY in love with the actors, the Byronic hero isn't always what we really want in a significant other today. Sounded like a comedy to ME! -Jeanette
DeleteHow did you decide on character names?
ReplyDeleteThis book was THE MOST FUN to name the characters! Darcy Fitzwilliam instead of Fitzwilliam Darcy still gives me the giggles. The main character, Lizzy, was a given. Most of the rest of the characters are named after my friends and dance students (who are also my friends). Ken from Spanish class has been a friend and dancer of mine for maybe 15-20 years now, and he is now married to the Karla he's dating in my book. (And she really does love her rum!) Nathan from Starbucks is another close friend and dancer. Natalie is a close friend of his -and mine- not his twin sister. And Lon the Floor Nerd is autobiographical. Tall blonde Air Force ROTC on my floor my freshman year. He liked me, but he was not my type. I should have been nicer to him, though... (Sorry, Lon!)
DeleteSounds like a very unusual storyline - I am SO ready for something new! Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! I felt very clever as I was writing - and rewriting - and rewriting - this book. It is probably the most original thing I've written. It's also a book written specifically for Jane Austen fans. Non-JA readers might think it's amusing, but it will be confusing. If you haven't read Northanger Abbey, the whole segment about the coffee shop makes ABSOLUTELY no sense and seems out of character. When you know the references, I'm told it's the funniest part of the whole book. I hope you enjoy it! -Jeanette
DeleteWhat is your favorite setting to write in?
ReplyDeleteThe Industrial Revolution. Because of the clothing. I absolutely LOVE bustle dresses! Hoopskirts are fun to wear, no argument from me and I have plenty of those, too, but I adore bustle dresses. It's an exciting time for women, historically. The sewing machine has now made it into most people's homes. Everyone knows it takes 100 hours (not sure the actual amount of time...) to sew a new dress. The sewing machine means you get the base of the dress done in 10 hours...so women spent the other 90 hours adding embellishments! Everything is covered in tucks, and ruffles, and lace (much of which might have been made by machine, although plenty of women were crocheting their own!) - Jeanette
DeleteThe book cover looks inclusive and has plenty of diversity.
ReplyDeleteThat was really important to me! When this finally gets turned into a Broadway play, all the parts need to be cast colorblind, but there should at least be one of everybody - white, black, Latinx, Asian... I never say where the college is, because it is meant to be anywhere in America. The cast should represent everyONE in America. Thank you for noticing! -Jeanette
DeleteHow do you handle hot weather? 103 degrees today.
ReplyDeleteShade. While I was living in North Carolina, I was turning the front yard inside the driveway circle into a Japanese garden. I ran out of time before it got to over 100 degrees every day, but after waiting a week for it to cool off a little, I got annoyed and just resolved to sweat a lot. I worked wherever the shade was. When the place I was working was in the sun, I went to the other side of the yard and worked over there. Sadly, it was just really taking shape when we moved away. I still miss it, it was lovely. :-( - Jeanette
Deletehave a Sunday
ReplyDeleteDo you have any more books you are planning to release this year?
ReplyDeleteI hope to! There's always another book to write. I have been so busy learning more about how to market books, which has taken away from having any time to write the next one. :-( But I have an idea to turn my two historical fiction books set in Pittsburgh into a trilogy, and I'm impatient to get to work on it! -Jeanette
DeleteIf one of your books was made into a Hollywood movie, who do you picture potraying the main role?
ReplyDeleteIf I could take my actors from anyplace in time, I would want Duncan Regehr to play Thomas in Wealth and Privilege. Beautiful man with a soft baritone speaking voice. No actor before or since comes close! And Marina Sirtis for Regina in the same book. Current actors? I would rather have an "unknown" who is perfect for the role, than a current actor that just doesn't look the part. - Jeanette
Deletedo you have a favorite spot to write
ReplyDeletePretty places! I will often book a couple of extra days when I'm traveling, and sit with my notebook at a cabin in a national park, or on the patio of a winery overlooking the vineyards, or in an Air BnB next to the ocean. -Jeanette
DeleteHave a great week.
ReplyDelete<3 - Jeanette
DeleteLooks like a great book
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's my gift to my fellow Janeites. -Jeanette
DeleteSuper hot here, time to grab my book and get some iced tea.
ReplyDeleteWith or without lemon? :-) -Jeanette
DeleteJane Austen Lied to Me sounds like a fun and sassy summertime read.
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
I hope you enjoy it! Please consider going back and writing a review when you're done! Just a couple sentences with your honest opinion. - Jeanette
DeleteDo you like to people watch?
ReplyDeleteI think I do it less than a lot of people, but I love people! It's impossible for me to NOT stop and talk to crying children (they are usually surprised out of their distress, and I can distract them out of crying faster than a parent can soothe them out of their tears) or the other people in the grocery line. It's part of being a Chicago native. We're a gregarious bunch. - Jeanette
DeleteHow much writing do you do in a day?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea.... it can vary so much. When I can schedule time away from home, I will get up, write all morning, write while eating lunch, write till dinner time, write until I stop and go to sleep. When I am at home, I can spend the day at the library or local winery, or just a morning at my neighborhood coffee shop. Usually life interferes, and I write until commitments get in the way. -Jeanette
Deletehave a wonderful day
ReplyDeleteYou, too! -Jeanette
DeleteDo you have any other new books planned for this year?
ReplyDeleteI hope so! It's July, and I've got the first two chapters of a new historical fiction completed. But my husband just accepted a new job halfway across the country, so I need to insist that I am NOT going to just be a professional mover for the rest of the year. He can pack while I go write in the library! :-) -Jeanette
DeleteI like the cute illustrations of the characters on the front cover of Jane Austen Lied to Me!
ReplyDeleteNancy
allibrary (at) aol (dot) com
I am so thrilled with them! Wait til you see the back cover (if you get a paperback copy). It's the scene of a dorm room, littered with books from the protagonist's classes...and Jane Austen novels. -Jeanette
DeleteWhen did you realize you wanted writing to be your career?
ReplyDeleteSince my early teens. It took a lot of years to get to publishing my first completed novel - a friend had submitted some of my stories to Marion Zimmer Bradley, and she sent me a very nice, HAND WRITTEN letter, telling me some hard truths about wanting to be a writer. She was very kind, and very honest, and she was very right. I can only be an author because, just like MZB, I'm living off of a husband who allows be to be a writer and contribute nothing to the household finances. - Jeanette
DeleteDo you write when you're on vacation?
ReplyDeleteNot usually. "Vacation" usually means something related to dancing - a dance camp when I'm the student, not the teacher, for example, and every day is very full. That's why I will schedule a couple days afterwards to recuperate and write before I start traveling home. - Jeanette
DeleteThe book cover art is cute.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your favorite book series by another author?
ReplyDeleteLaura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, and Lucy Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. For the most part, I don't read many series. I tend to read biographies and other history books! - Jeanette
Deletebest of luck with the book, it sounds amazing
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! If you read it, please go back and leave a review of what you think? Readers really like to know what other readers thought about a book. I really get it: I have had professional reviews that are soooooo, well, corporate. Meanwhile, my readers have accurately psychoanalyzed me in a 5-sentence review. Other readers are smarter and more insightful than "professional" reviewers, I guess? - Jeanette
Deletelooks like a fun one
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope you enjoy the book! - Jeanette
DeleteHow do you "flesh out" your characters?
ReplyDeleteA lot of it depends upon the characters' relationships to each other. Do they like each other? Do they grate on each other's nerves? In the case of this book, each man that Lizzy meets needs to resemble one of Jane Austen's romantic leads. How do they meet the description of that hero? It doesn't - in fact it CANNOT be a perfect match. But some few characteristics needed to be recognizable. And then there needed to be ways where each gentleman needed to deviate from JA's characters. So I sort of had a road map for most characters. I don't write with outlines, but I do like to have a road map. - Jeanette
DeleteHow long have you been a writer?
ReplyDeleteWhen do we start counting? Wealth and Privilege was first published in 2013, but it was copyrighted in 2009. I spent those 4 years trying to find an agent, so I could find a publisher... and it took me 10 years to write the book. It was long enough ago that when I started writing and I needed to research things in Pittsburgh history, I couldn't just look things up online. I had to go sit in the Heinz History Archives and talk to the archivists to bring me the newspapers and city maps. - Jeanette
DeleteThank you again for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping in multiple times! Good luck in the drawing! - Jeanette
DeleteThank you for the giveaway and God bless!
ReplyDeleteLAST DAY
ReplyDeleteThanks for the contest.
Thanks for stopping in and entering it! - Jeanette
DeleteSounds like a super interesting read!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy the book! Please go back and leave a review when you've read it. Just a couple sentences with your honest opinion is SO valuable! - Jeanette
Delete