Of P&P, Palpatine and Jean Prouvaire........

Hey everyone! So here's the answer post, finally. Enjoy!

Naomi asked:



How did you get introduced to Jane Austen?

      Okay. So I started reading P&P when I was about 10, and understandably I couldn't get very far;-) I watched the movie when I was about thirteen and fell in love with it, read P&P and all the other books as soon as I could get my hands on them. I also read a biography of Jane Austen by David Cecil. It was really good and I feel like I know her pretty well now. I would have loved to meet her!!

-How many siblings do you have? Brothers/sisters?

     Soo, you've probably seen them before, but here they are. Three sisters and two brothers.

Ems.

Ains.

Ruby and Tom.

Lukie.

-Have you seen Downton Abbey? /Would you like to?

I saw the first episode of Season 2 at a friend's place. I love Lady Violet, detest Lavinia Swire, feel sorry for Matthew and Mary, and can't wait to see the rest of the series!

-What are you currently reading and watching?

This. Again. (I know, I know.)

Watching:

Very good. Review coming up.:-)

And now... a question you'll probably hate me for:
-How can you love Les Miserables if everyone dies in it?

*Deep breath*

Not everyone dies. Two people survive.

These two do. But I love it even though everyone else dies, or maybe even slightly because. Les Mis is the story of a man whose life was changed by God's love. It is the story of  "les miserables," the wretched, the poor, the underdogs. It is the story of people fighting for freedom. It's gruesome and terribly sad but it's real life, and even though Victor Hugo killed off people I love, they died for a reason. :-)

"So be it," added Enjolras.  "A word more. ... In the future no man shall slay his fellow, the earth shall be radiant, the human race shall love.  It will come, citizens, that day when all shall be concord, harmony, light, joy and life; it will come, and it is that it may come that we are going to die."

~Les Miserables, "Saint-Denis," Corinth, chapter eight

Evelyn asked:


What's the best thing about NZ?

Hmm.

Summer Christmases.

The fact that wherever you live in NZ, you're not that far from a beach.

The gorgeous landscapes, native trees, animals and flowers.

Tui songs.

No snakes. Except in zoos.

The fact that we have enormous cities not far from rural areas.

Which is better Aus or NZ?

Would you ever consider coming to Aus for a visit? :D

Yeeaaahh maybe. If I can avoid floods and droughts and bushfires and snakes and spiders.:-)

What's your favourite thing about Star Wars?

Er.

Am I allowed to say everything?

No?

Okay.

Funny quotes.

Are you excited about the new SW movie?

YES.

So there you have it! Feel free to ask more questions if you want. I'd also appreciate suggestions for another Authors post in the near future.

I've already done the Janeite tag, but I couldn't resist.

So the lovely Miss Dashwood finally did the Janeite tag! Go read her post, it's great. And her questions sounded really fun, so I'm going to do them for lack of anything else to post about at the moment. (On a side note, has anyone else noticed that Blogger templates/layout are acting up lately? or is it just me?) I might have to capitulate and beg my readers for Questions so I can do an Answers post.
That sounds like a good idea, actually. Feel free....hint hint...

Ahem, anyway. Let's get on with these scrumptious Janeite questions.

~If you could mix-and-match any Jane Austen heroine with a hero from a different novel, who would it be?  (ex: Fanny Price and Mr. Knightley)

Ooh. Let me think. It seems kind of desecratory (is that a word?) to pair heroines with other heroes and so forth. I will not let that deter me. I'll go with Mr. Darcy and Emma. They're both rich and proud. And they're two of my favourites:-)

~What's your favorite quote from a Jane Austen movie that doesn't actually appear in the novel it's based on? (make sense of that if you can)

"That man is so full of himself I'm surprised he can stay on that horse."
~Mr. Knightley, Emma 2009, about Mr. Elton

~What's your favorite hat or bonnet worn by a heroine in a Jane Austen movie?

Definitely this:-)

It's the best. It's even got little gold leaves and flowers on the side, you can just see them in this picture. It's gorgeous:-)

~Which Janeite-related location would you most want to visit-- London, Bath, Steventon Rectory or Chawton Cottage?

Chawton Cottage:-) Though of course I'd definitely want to see the others too.

~What's your favorite kind of tea?  :D
 Wildberry. I detest black, green, milky, and chai tea. I can't stand coffee either. Or any other milky drink except for iced chocolate and smoothies. Yes, I am strange. Don't judge me, Miss Dashwood:-)
I cannot help it. It is not my own fault. 

~Have you ever randomly stumbled across a fellow Janeite at a social event?  Tell us about it!

Randomly, no. I don't think so. 
~Who's your favorite parent in a Jane Austen novel?
Hmm. Most Austen parents are pretty meh. I like Mrs. Morland and Mr. Bennet....probably leaning toward Mr. Bennet because he's hilarious even if he isn't a perfect father, and Mrs. Morland is pretty nice:-)

That's all for today, folks! So remember to ask me some deep and not-so-meaningful questions if you are so inclined. They can literally be about anything as long as they're not too personal, like, "What's your phone number?" in which case I wouldn't even answer them:-P Anything related to my fandoms will be hugely appreciated:-) hopefully you know what those are!

Love you guys!

another one of my quick notes...

So I was going to post pictures of the dance today, but they are not very good quality. And also, Blogger is being Very Bad and Annoying today which in a nutshell means I can't put the pictures on my blog. Hopefully they will be up sometime. Anyway, so it's about time for quote of the month isn't it? Here you go:

Love you all my amazing readers! Have a blessed week :-)

I'm back:)

Hello friends! Seems like ages since I've posted. Thankyou so much for your sweet comments on my birthday!! So hopefully there should be a few posts coming up:

   ~ Country Dance Post! Yay it's this weekend! I'm so excited! Just saying, our camera broke :-( so my post could potentially be photo-less.....unless I can bribe some obliging friends to send me some photos. I will do my best.
   ~ War Horse movie review. Got it out of the library, hopefully I will watch it sometime this week and I'll post a review.
  ~ Another Authors post, probably. I'm thinking of alternating classic/older authors with more 'modern ones'.....any ideas?
  ~ I will hopefully be able to post some photos from my birthday party too. Had to recruit my cousin as official photographer, because as you already know, our camera was Mean and Stupid and had to break just when we really didn't want it to. It's all good though, because she's an amazing photographer. Anyways.
 
How have you guys spent your holidays?
I've been:

 ~ working. At the library.
 ~ reading. OH GUYS GUESS WHAT I GOT FOR MY BIRTHDAY.

* the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums*

THIS.

Well, it isn't this copy. It has a picture from the 1998 movie on it and you all know what I think of that but it doesn't matter. I love, love love it! It's so lovely and thick :)

 ~ Watching;  all six Star Wars movies, finally. Never saw them before. Now I can't wait for number 7 :-)

 ~ Studying: English because exams are looming up before me. Oh well, the sun will go on rising and setting, whether I fail in English or not.

Have an amazing day, guys, and I will be back soon!

Favourite Authors ~ Jane Austen

Hello readers! Time for another author post. Hope you're not disappointed it's not L.M. Montgomery, Naomi :) but I picked Jane Austen today. She's my #1 favourite classic fiction writer (beating Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens by a tiny bit) and I've researched her life quite a lot. I feel like I know her pretty well; that we would have been good friends if we lived in the same era. Anyway, here's a list of her major works (I won't talk about her juvenilia today, that deserves a post of its own). 

Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen's  first published work when it appeared in 1811 under the pseudonym "A Lady". A work of romantic fiction, better known as a comedy of manners, Sense and Sensibility is set  between 1792 and 1797, and portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. The philosophical resolution of the novel is ambiguous: the reader must decide whether sense and sensibility have truly merged. (wikipedia)

Pride and Prejudice

  was first published in 1813. The story follows the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early nineteenth-century England, Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire. (wikipedia)

When Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy arrive in Meryton, Elizabeth's mother id determined to marry her daughters off to them. However, Elizabeth takes an instant dislike to the proud Mr. Darcy and lets her own prejudices cloud her judgment.

Mansfield Park

Fanny Price is brought up by her rich uncle and aunt of Mansfield Park. As she grows up, she is treated as inferior by most of her relatives except her uncle and cousin Edmund, with whom she gradually falls in love. However, when the smart brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford arrive in the town, Fanny is worried that Edmund is falling in love with the unprincipled Mary. 

Emma

Emma is the story of a clever, rich and handsome young woman with a habit of match-making that often gets her into trouble. Her efforts to match her friend Harriet with the two-faced Mr. Elton go disastrously wrong, and Emma herself does not realize that she is falling in love with family friend Mr. Knightley until it is too late.

Persuasion
This is the story of Anne Elliott, a twenty-seven-year-old woman who has remained unmarried since refusing to marry Captain Wentworth, persuaded by her aunt. Anne and Wentworth meet again and though Anne suspects he is in love with Louisa Musgrove until he writes to her reaffirming his attachment to her.

Northanger Abbey

Catherine Morland, young and naive, is about to embark on a trip to Bath with friends. There she meets the fashionable but deceitful Isabella Thorpe and the charming Henry Tilney. Isabella encourages her to read Gothic novels, and Catherine's imagination begins to run wild when she is invited to stay with Henry, his sister and father at their ancestral home, Northanger Abbey.

Jane Austen was born on the 16th December, 1775, at Steventon in Hampshire. She was the seventh child and one of two daughters. She was very close to her sister Cassandra: her brothers married and left home, and the two sisters lived with their widowed mother. She was very clever as a child, allowed the run of her father's library, was well educated, and had a quick wit. As a girl she wrote plays and stories, and her parents encouraged her in her writing. She never married, although she received several proposals. She was a devout Christian and critical of the social customs of her time. She died at the age of 41 in Winchester. While some of her works were published during her lifetime, she experienced little fame as she concealed her name, and several of her works were published  posthumously.

Jane Austen was a brilliant and perceptive writer. What I love about her style is that it's fairly easy to read for a nineteenth-century writer. She has complete control over her characters. She successfully rounds them out as well, making them real and believable, and convincing the reader that her world wasn't so different from ours after all. She also has some really memorable quotes:)

She's also really good for a laugh. Ie: Mr. Collins, Mrs. Allen, Harriet Smith, Mrs. Jennings, Mrs. Norris....and lots of characters you love to hate:)

"Is it a mermaid? or a shark?"

If you've never read Jane Austen, you don't know what you're missing. All six of her books are sweet, funny, a little bit sad and practically perfect in every way. She has inspired me to write in a way that deals truthfully and impartially with the characters and that upholds good values. And there are certain words and old English spellings I've become addicted to too.. Anyway, enough of that. Just grab a copy of Pride and Prejudice and you'll see what I mean:)

Authors I love : Belinda Murrell

Hey everyone!! So I decided I need a new blog series for inspiration. I thought I'd do posts about my favourite authors and the books they've written, what I like about their style, what I  don't like about their style, and how they have inspired me. This is going to be fun!!! So today I picked an Australian author by the name of Belinda Murrell.

Belinda Murrell is a bestselling, internationally published children’s author with a legion of loyal fans and a history of writing in her family that spans over 200 years. After studying Literature at Macquarie University, Belinda worked as a travel journalist, editor and technical writer. A few years ago, she began writing stories for her own three children – Nick, Emily and Lachlan. Her 21 books include The Sun Sword fantasy trilogy as well as a newly-released Lulu Bell series for younger readers. She is also known for her collection of other timeslip tales including The Sequin Star, The River Charm, The Locket of Dreams, The Forgotten Pearl, The Ruby Talisman and The Ivory Rose, which have been recognised by various awards, including Honour Book KOALAS 2013, shortlisted KOALAS 2014, 2012, and 2011, CBCA Notable List and highly commended in the PM’s Literary Awards.

(from http://belindamurrell.com.au/)

I've read three of Belinda's books and I loved them all! Her writing style is engaging and very accurate to the historical time periods she sets her stories in. It was cool to read about girls living in a country close to where I live :) instead of America or England. The three I've read are all set in Aussie and based on true stories.

A river pebble has an astonishing true story to tell of one family's survival in harsh, colonial Australia.... When artistic Millie visits a long-lost aunt, she learns about her family's tragic past. Could the ghost girl Millie has painted be her own ancestor?

In 1839, Charlotte Atkinson lives at Oldbury, a grand estate in the bush, with her Mamma and her sisters and brother. But after her father dies, things go terribly wrong - murderous convicts, maurauding bushrangers and, worst of all, a cruel new stepfather.

Frightened for their lives, the family flees on horseback to a hut in the wilderness. The Atkinson family must fight to save their property, their independence and even their right to stay together. Will they ever return to their beautiful home? Based on the incredible true life battles of bestselling author Belinda Murrell's own ancestors, the Atkinsons of Oldbury. (synopsis from the website I linked above.)

I own this book and I read it very quickly! I loved it because it was actually a true story. Charlotte's mother had to fight for the right to homeschool her children. Charlotte was a sweet and talented heroine, and although none of these books are ''Christian"  they are probably the best secular teen girls' fiction stories I've read. I think out of all I've read this is the best.

Favourite character: Charlotte or her mother, Mrs. Atkinson.

When Chloe visits her grandmother, it unleashes a flood of memories, not discussed for seventy years. Chloe could never have imagined how close the second world war came to destroying her own family so many years ago. Could the experiences of another time help Chloe to face her own problems?

In 1941, Darwin is a remote outpost in the far north of Australia - a peaceful paradise far from the war. Poppy is a mischievous, fun-loving girl, with a menagerie of unusual pets. Her life seems perfect but when Japan attacks Pearl Harbour, then Australia, Poppy’s world is torn apart. Everything she holds dear is threatened - her family, her neighbours and her friends Jack and Maude. Her brother Edward is taken prisoner-of-war. Her home town becomes a war zone, as the Japanese raid over and over again, on their relentless march south. Australia is under the looming threat of invasion. 
Terrified for their lives, Poppy and her mother flee to safety in Sydney, only to find the danger follows them there. Poppy must face her war with courage and determination. 
Will Poppy and her family survive the war? Where is the forgotten pearl? Will her world ever be the same again? 
The forgotten pearl is the key to entering another thrilling adventure from Belinda Murrell, author of The Ivory Rose, The Ruby Talisman and The Locket of Dreams. 

(book blurb from above mentioned website, and so is the next one:))

This is a close second favourite. I love a good war story, especially one closer to home. It's scary how close the war came to NZ! Poppy was funny, optimistic and kind. This book's sad and there's also a sweet little romance:) Poppy is given her pearl charm by a Japanese lady who becomes a prisoner of war when the Japanese attack Australia. 

Favourite character: Jack or Poppy

Jemma has just landed her first job, babysitting Sammy. It's in Rosethorne, one of the famous witches' houses near where she lives. Sammy says the house is haunted by a sad little girl, but Jemma doesn't know what to believe. 

One day when the two girls are playing hide and seek, Jemma discovers a rose charm made of ivory. As she touches the charm she sees a terrifying flashback. Is it the moment the ghost was murdered? Jemma runs for her life, falling down the stairs and tumbling into unconsciousness. 

She wakes up in 1895, unable to get home. Jemma becomes an apprentice maidservant at Rosethorne - but all is not well in the grand house. Young heiress Georgiana is constantly sick. Jemma begins to suspect Georgiana is being poisoned, but who would poison her, and why? Jemma must find the proof in order to rescue her friend - before time runs out.

I think this is one of Belinda Murrell's earlier books, and I didn't like it as much as the other two. the narrative didn't really grab me and the chapter titles were extremely predictable, but overall I enjoyed it. The historical details were all correct, and it was a harsh picture of the life of the Victorian poor. 

Favourite character: Ned, the Irish groom

What I love about Belinda Murrell's style : it's not overcomplicated, very easy to read, and funny. She manages to get all her historical details right without making the novel seem like a history book, but weaves the true and fictional together skilfully.

What I don't love about her style : she uses some descriptions repeatedly, but that's about it :)

How she has inspired me: to use elements from my own life and family history in my writing

Anyway, that's about it! I have scores of favourite authors, but if there's one you'd like to see featured in a post, please comment and suggest one!!