Hello Everyone! Happy Valentine’s Day! That’s right, it’s Valentine’s Day. A day all about romance and love, which means you’re in the perfect place. To me, romance goes hand in hand with poetry. So, here is my favorite romantic poem. (At least, to me it’s romantic. I’ve heard other interpretations, but I like my romantic… more goodness …
Here in Calgary, Canada, we’ve been pretty lucky this winter. Though we had some snow and cold in November and early December, since then it’s been largely mild temperatures and very little snow. That’s certainly welcome if you hate shoveling the white stuff off your driveway! Unfortunately, winter has caught up with us, leading to… more goodness …
I was recently thinking about how I scroll past so much stuff on Facebook, and don’t watch or read the news, and I got to thinking about newspapers. There is a lot to consider about newspapers. Nowadays we can read them online, though not as many are free as there used to be. The size… more goodness …
We all are aware that Austen wrote what she knew. Most authors do, except perchance those who write paranormal or science fiction or fantasy (although I would argue that these made-up worlds have similarities to the present day) and to an extent, historical fiction, but even with historical fiction, I often include something that occurred… more goodness …
Back in late November, a story was bouncing around in my head, and as any good Muse does, my inner voice kept telling me I needed to write this one. As many of you know, my Pride and Prejudice vagaries generally stay as close to canon as I can get them. Even my vampiric… more goodness …
How clearly I recall writing this blog post in March of 2011. I was six months pregnant with my daughter and spent the bulk of the morning at a lab getting my second glucose test for gestational diabetes. I whiled away the hungry hours devouring the new evidence that Jane Odiwe, author, artist, and friend,… more goodness …
I’ve got a new planner. A book club gave this to me last November and I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently to pull it out and start recording this bright New Year. There is so much potential within and New Year and within the blank pages of a good planner. I wanted to share it with you… more goodness …
I love weird stuff! Especially those weird things from the past. I also greatly appreciate the beauty and artistry of even the simplest object from long ago. Our modern, fast-paced, factory produced industries — while wonderful in so many ways (lower cost being a big bonus) — typically do not create with the skill and attention to aesthetics… more goodness …
Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for this 1995 Jane Austen adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. It is one of my favorite Austen film productions, so please don’t take this list to be proof of anything other than my love of all things Austen. I will concede that a few of the items in this list… more goodness …
There are certain historical inaccuracies which often pop up in Pride and Prejudice variations which catch my eye when I come across them, mostly because I tend to find them annoying. No one is perfect—I certainly do not get everything right. But with the awesome power of the internet, we, as authors, should be able… more goodness …
Many of you will remember that last year, I shared how difficult Christmas has been for me for many years. I wrote a Christmas book last year, and it was the first one I had done, though I had written a short story a couple of years earlier that became part of Promises Kept. I’m… more goodness …
New Year’s Day was not always celebrated on January 1. In the time of the Anglo-Saxons, December 25 was the first day of the new year. The Gregorian calendar set December 31 as the last day of the year, but that did not keep people throughout history from celebrating March 1, March 25, and… more goodness …
One of the best descriptions we have of English Christmas traditions during Jane Austen’s life comes—ironically—from an American. You probably know about Washington Irving, the American author who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. But in 1815, at the age of 32, Washington Irving arrived in England to conduct some business… more goodness …
