I’ve been a bit of a wreck all week knowing that Alias Thomas Bennet was to go on sale any day now. It really wasn’t warranted, but I think it’s traditional.

You see, the people at Meryton Press are so fantastic there was little to worry about, even if I’m a control freak and agonized over the times I had to stop and wait and let them do their jobs.

I had a lot of interaction when it came to editing and layout with Gail Warner and Ellen Pickels, as well as incorporating Janet Taylor’s ability to interpret and enhance my vision of the cover. My opinions were taken very seriously, and I think the only place I grumbled was when I wanted to keep a double negative (Austen used them, you know!) and Gail said she drew the line there! I’ve been told by other authors that I’m lucky I was allowed to be so involved with the process, since most publishers pretty much leave the writer out of the loop. Instead I came away from it with some new friends.

Then there are the invisible people like Zorylee Diaz-Lupitou and Michele Reed who work the marketing and production and strategy and who knows what else. It all happened with selective input by me, which felt strange because usually I’m the one in charge and on top of every detail. But being new to this, I had no clue what the details entailed, and thank goodness someone else was there to handle them.

I was cared for. That’s really a lovely feeling. I got to be the author. The one who was being helped, being pleased. Peel me a grape.

The silly thing is that my mind was dwelling on things like “Should I use a different picture on Amazon?” “What if there’s a problem getting the book on the market?” (Don’t go there, Suzan, even if a self-published friend had a few issues last week!) “Should I have cut ‘those’ scenes so I wouldn’t have to blush when my mom reads it?” and “How many copies do I need to give away to family and friends?” because “What if no one likes it?”

And there lies the classic author’s insecurity.

But see, I like it. That’s the thing. I’m very pleased with a plot that was supposed to be a rather simple “what-if” and turned into something I’ve been told over and over again is extremely unique. I love my new characters, and especially how they pushed their way into importance in the lives of the Bennets. I think I succeeded in the way I used the traditional characters from Pride and Prejudice and changed their actions because of their circumstances but stuck with the base personalities that Austen created for them. And I’m proud of how I put the words and scenes together to create something new and decidedly different.

When I look back and see all I learned as a writer through working with the betas for the original series on A Happy Assembly, and then with Gail on the book, I’m grateful that I had that chance to grow and to make Alias Thomas Bennet the kind of book I’m proud to share with the world. I get to go forward with more confidence and skill as I return to work on my next novel.

And while I’m writing that next book, my readers are getting to find out what’s behind that cover and blurb, like:

“What’s with the boat? Is it coming or going?”

“Who are these people?”
(A good guess is that it’s Jane, Elizabeth, and their father.)

“What is little Jane looking at?”

“Where is this quay that they are standing on, and why are they there?”

“What is the significance of the house on the back cover?”
(Which again a good guess would say is Longbourn.)

“If Jane and Elizabeth are really young, how much of the traditional time period of Pride and Prejudice will we see?”
(The main story is played parallel to canon in 1811-1812, with a few short flashbacks.)

“So if this story is about Mr. Bennet, what about Darcy and Elizabeth?”
(Don’t worry, it’s still all about Darcy and Elizabeth; in fact, our favourite couple’s slightly simpler romance makes for some prime snogging, and there’s a particularly steamy carriage scene!)

“So what is this mystery about the Bennets being recognized and Darcy being important to it all?”
(Okay, I started this post off okay but then got into the habit answering the questions a bit too easily. You’ll have to read the book for this one!)

Heh heh heh.

Let me know what you think!

When Michele at Meryton Press told me the proposed timeline for editing my soon-to-be-released novel, Alias Thomas Bennet, I immediately wondered how it would affect my holiday. Yeah, an amazing opportunity to have my “baby” published comes up and I’m thinking how I’ll manage to sneak away and not let the publisher know that I’m not actually available for the entire editing period.

You see, hubby and I like to travel, and his latest obsession is road trips. We pack ourselves into our little convertible and drive a week or so in one direction, checking out the sights. Top down, Mom’n’Pop motels, share plates, lots of CD’s, mountains and meadows and orchards and beaches.

You’re saying, “You take that car? But it’s so little!” Yup. Of course, my nieces would each need their own car because the entire trunk is the size of one of their suitcases. I use something just a bit bigger than a carry-on, with the shoes packed outside of it.

But we had planned on being away for two weeks, and I wondered how it would affect my ability to work with the editor, especially when I was at my mom’s, where there is no wireless. I knew I could do my best but it would be an uneven schedule as we’d be pretty busy driving and sightseeing and visiting.

But when I started talking to my editor, Gail Warner, my perspective on being away during editing adjusted.

You see it was similar on the other end, too. This book was not destined to be edited sitting still, so to speak. Instead, Alias Thomas Bennet crossed the country at least once, while Gail and her husband took a different approach to the road trip: the RV. Everything you need in one well-organized vehicle, including the cat. A perfect retirement nomadic home.

The nomad was at home firing chapter after chapter of edits my way, and I was at my mom’s in small-town Saskatchewan, Canada when I started getting accustomed to the fact that I use too many commas. It was also the first time I had really spent talking about the book to anyone outside of my small group of JAFF friends. My sister had a barbecue and I had cousin after cousin make inquiries.

“It’s based on the Jane Austen book, Pride and Prejudice,” I would tell them. “But I’ve made some changes to the characters and built a mystery in.”

The conversation didn’t extend much further than the expression of wanting their copy signed—it was a party, after all, and I see these people only every few years, and had lots more to talk about—but it was really cool to feel the pride that they had for me and excitement about the book. I come from a family of readers, but more along the lines of bestseller readers than classics readers.

The real discussion took place with Mom, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my husband a few days later. This particular sister is a cop, and most of her reading is Baldacci and Grisham and the like. But both my sisters read Pride and Prejudice in preparation for this book. Isn’t that the sweetest thing?

First, of course, I had to explain Fan Fiction, how people get together on the Internet and write and read stories based on books, movies, or TV shows they like. Mom, who is an avid mystery reader and devours every P.D. James novel in hardcover the moment she can get her hands on it, mentioned Death Comes to Pemberley.

“Yup. Fan fiction,” I said. “In that case, P.D. James used a few of the characters of Pride and Prejudice for an original story. That’s what the people do on the web sites I’m a member of: writers take Austen’s books, usually Pride and Prejudice, and write original stories about them. My book takes the character of Mr. Bennet and changes it.

“You know how Mr. Bennet is absent as a father?” I asked.

My sister nodded. I wonder if she was thinking about Dad too.

“I thought that a lot of the flaws that contributed to problems in Pride and Prejudice could be rooted in Mr. Bennet. If he had been a better father, how would it affect each family member? And how would that affect the major plot points in the book? What would Darcy think of the Bennets, and how would that change his relationship with Elizabeth? So that’s where the idea started. What if Mr. Bennet was a better man?”

Now I have to expand on the comment about my dad. He was lucky to have a very stable and responsible wife and even if he had avoidance issues with things for which he probably should have taken responsibility, he did parent when we got out of control. We were pretty good kids, but had our teen moments where he did act.

But then Mr. Bennet did too. It was just that Lydia was already in London by the time he took responsibility. As for day-to-day, well, Austen is pretty clear that although Mr. Bennet is clever and witty, he’s pretty hard to respect.

It’s not that she doesn’t like him. She finds him pretty funny, and enjoys his quirks. She also shows him as clearly enjoying himself at the expense of others, and that’s amusing to the reader as well, even if it is a more than a little rude and unkind at times.

Interestingly Mr. Bennet is pretty much a fun character until the letter from Darcy. Then Elizabeth starts seeing his flaws, and we are shown a much more critical picture of the man who “would never exert himself.” When he won’t deal with the issues related to Lydia going to Brighton, Elizabeth further criticises “the impropriety of her father’s behaviour as a husband,” and his bad influence in treating her mother poorly is “highly reprehensible.” Then we see him as being glad of having needed a “trifling exertion” to solve his family’s problems, rather, he left it in the hands of others.

Sometimes Austen judges Bennet by making fun of him and his inability to deal with the personality of his wife at the same time as she is making fun of Mrs. Bennet, resulting in the reader seeing both of their shortcomings in one short sentence.

And here is another area that intrigued me as a writer. Why is Mrs. Bennet so flighty, fearful, and fretful? That’s day-to-day! She comes off as almost unhinged when Lydia runs away. It occurred to me  that perhaps a trauma had affected her, and as a result, the instability we see in her character in Pride and Prejudice continues unchecked because she’s really had nothing in her life to ground her properly.

Then what if she had a husband that performed that duty for her, helping to calm her when she was upset? Here again is another area in which this changed Mr. Bennet that intrigued me so much as a writer could have a great deal of influence. Better Mr. Bennet, better Mrs. Bennet, better Bennet girls, totally different Pride and Prejudice.

But how to accomplish this better Mr. Bennet? That’s the cool part!

If Alias Thomas Bennet was just a story about the new-and-improved Bennet family and the resulting changes in the course of Pride and Prejudice, it might just be boring. In changing so many of the entertaining and dramatic moments in Austen’s story, we lose a lot of the best scenes; for example, if Darcy no longer can object to Elizabeth’s family, we lose a major issue in the conflict between Darcy and Elizabeth.

But there is more to the story than that, and Mr. Bennet’s past plays into Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship, and vice-versa, to make for some very interesting alternatives to the original story line of Pride and Prejudice.

Alias Thomas Bennet will be released by Meryton Press in November 2013.