My fascination – nay – obsession with all things Austen began inauspiciously enough. To quote Mr. Darcy, “I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.” 

The A&E series did renew my interest in her novels. I would have loved Jane Austen just as well, but I do not think that I would have been sent into such a tailspin of obsession had the role of Mr. Darcy not been so well cast.

While Mr. Colin Firth proved to be a distraction, after the series was over, I dug out my hardback copy of P&P and read and re-read it. Austen’s stunning economy and skillful plotting was incomparable.

Her Juvenilia announced a maturity far beyond her years. In one story her heroine warns a friend prone to histrionics, decrying fainting fits – “Run mad if you must, but do not swoon.” Her own letters to her sister Cassandra were filled with local bits of news. In them Jane proved herself a tad irreverent. In one letter to Cassandra, Jane writes about a their pregnant neighbor:

“Mrs. Hall was brought to bed yesterday of a dead child some weeks before she expected, owing to a fright. I suppose she happened unawares to look upon her husband.”

I was struck, not only by what JA wrote, but what she did not.

The Regency Era was tumultuous. Two of JA’s brothers were in the navy taking part in numerous sea battles. Her Cousin Eliza’s husband was guillotined in France. But other than officers populating the romantic landscape of her novels, one wouldn’t have known that England was at war.

I spent a great deal of time daydreaming about Darcy & Elizabeth. My day dreams were explicit. I wanted, nay, needed to know what really might have happened to Darcy &Elizabeth. Completely unaware that the internet had spawned what was called writers of Fan Fiction, I stopped dreaming and began to write a book.

Understanding the unlikelihood that my book would ever see the light of day, it was wonderfully freeing.

Once I had decided to take the characters where Jane Austen, as a maiden, could not, I simply wove the historical fabric into the storyline in order to see how our characters might be affected by the upheaval.

The first scene I wrote was the wedding night; the second was the last page. Although I wrote and rewrote the rest of the book a dozen times, those pages remained largely untouched. To me, what came to pass on Darcy and Elizabeth’s wedding night reflected what their relationship would come to be and that was the foundation of Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife. 

I knew that somehow Wickham would live – and commit sins of a Shakespearean nature.

It was my husband who insisted that I publish the book. I would never have done it without his encouragement. Indeed, I called one agent and got one rather snotty refusal. Not taking rejection well, I was ready to gather up my books and trot all the way home. In 1999 the publishing industry was a different world - EBooks were not part of the vernacular and to publish one had to commit a substantial amount of time and money to the project.

Regardless, we went to a local printer and self-published (as The Bar Sinister - a title that I thought as brilliant at the time) and began selling them one by one out of our garage. Had it not been for the Internet I doubt we would have sold many books at all.

Putting it on Amazon was the ultimate test. We knew there would be those who would be horrified, not just at a P&P sequel, but the explicitness of The Bar Sinister. Again, I credit my husband’s encouragement for daring to publish what I knew some might believe was heresy. Had he disapproved, it would have been merely a lark – pages locked in a drawer to one day embarrass my children.

I truly did not want to rattle anyone’s cage. In fact I did everything possible to fly under the radar, going so far as posting an advisory against the faint of heart from purchasing it. (I could point out here that like Mrs. Bennetsome enjoy their fits and nerves more than any other occupation, but I won’t.)  I would have liked to sell only from my own website to avoid a semi-public thrashing. But, alas, once I decided to sell TBS on Amazon, all that changed.

The minute it went up, the hue and cry could be heard on several continents. Many took my book as nothing less than a defilement of poor Miss Austen (and thus their) good name. The level of vitriol was quite off-putting. There seemed to be no middle ground – readers either loved TBS or despised it.

And I came to understand that amongst Jane Austen followers there is an element that could only be described as “lunatic fringe.” Although I received no outright death threats, some were ominous enough to consider checking the ignition of my car for incendiary devices.

Another lady carped that men didn’t have sex outside of marriage during the Regency Era. (Ha) Another inquiring mind leapt in another direction. She was incensed that I had never employed the same euphemism twice for Mr. Darcy’s manly instrument. Actually, this was a private joke of mine. I had collected pages of euphemisms that men have concocted to call their dearest member over the years.  I was awestruck that this reader had gone to the trouble to note that I hadn’t – However, I was lost to find the insult in doing so.

 Given the chance, I explain that I didn’t have the guts (or the talent) to replicate Jane Austen either in wit or dialog, so I wrote my book with a wink and a sense of fun (I mean, really, does anyone employ the term “purple-helmeted-warrior of love” seriously?). Fortunately, more seemed to “get it” than not. I have come to understand that some of the naysayers simply didn’t know what to make of the book. Time has even allowed a few converts.

 We would still be peddling them had I not received a call from Deb Werksman of Sourcebooks inquiring if the rights to TBS were available.  I replied (forefinger to chin), “er, Maybe.”

With more good sense than I usually display, I accepted their offer. That gave us a chance to correct the editing and resurrect the working title Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife.  Their initial run, however, was a tentative 7,500 copies. MDTAW (2004) and Darcy & Elizabeth (2006) the Ruling Passion (2011) and New Pleasures (2016) have now sold well over 350,000 copies – and been published in four languages.

One drawback to having my books carried on the shelves of B&N was that this greater notoriety led to a substantial write up in the local newspaper (with an accompanying photo of my husband and I in a mock-up of the cover of MDTAW).

As my husband and I are known as a reputable and sedate couple, when this came out it was to the amazement of friends, neighbors, and family. (We found their surprise utterly hilarious.) But then for the most part, farm folk are the forgiving type – so long as it doesn’t scare the cows who cares?

This also allowed legitimate reviewers a chance to weigh in on the subject. Most of them were surprisingly generous. Booklist, Library Journal –even the Chicago Tribune all gave good notices. While One Canadian newspaper reviewer generally liked the book, she suggested that Mr. Darcy’s penis was actually another character in the book! (I had to laugh because it’s so true.

I say now is as I said then: If you believe that Jane Austen sequels are inherently wrong, I respect your position. However, I am quite annoyed by those who insist that I shouldn’t have written my books because my interpretation of the characters does not agree with theirs. 500 sequels of far-ranging storylines proves that there are readers enough for them all.

 When called to address the groundswell of vituperation I once received, I am reminded of the man who was tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. --When asked how he felt. He replied, if it wasn’t for the honor of the thing I’d just as soon walked.