What If Jane Austen Lived Now?

Well, first we know she would have a very creative blog ;)  She would dress very chic, like no other blogger out there and she would be the best seller in romantic novels.

With the advent of health products, Jane would have been able to live past the young age she died and we would have been inundated by stories from a more mature Jane who had at least a few encounters with men and these light affairs, albeit non-contact, would have been integrated into her later stories.  I think she still would have been a lady, confident and what many call an old maid or a prude when it came to relationships with men.

She would still have kept herself out of the public's eye and kept fresh from any ridicule, been well loved by her captive audience for her sweet nature and maintain her innocence when looking through the eyes of romance.

Now with that being said, how would have Pride and Prejudice turned out from eyes of the society of England in our time from Jane Austen's point of view?  Would we be reading that story in 2213?  It seems that stories by now have all been told and to see Pride and Prejudice written for the first time in 2013, it may become lost in much of the thousands of books published every year.  It would have to be heavily marketed or have a very unique outlook on the high society of England with a movie coming out soon to give it that added exposure and audience.

Seeing a Pride and Prejudice for the first time ever in our decade, Jane would have already had her audience and written other books in other words, in order for Pride and Prejudice to have the impact it has now, she would have to be a Danielle Steele or a Nicolas Spark ladies hungering for a new release for it to even be recognized.

What type of story would it have been?  What about the couples falling in love with no contact and then getting married after just meeting? I think to have the innocence and quick rushes to the altar without even dating in our age would be hard to swallow.  It would have to be a part of that society where courting was acceptable without necessarily dating before taking the plunge, which I did so in my update in "Black Pride".

A second thing I found that doesn't translate well to our century is that everyone was in a rush before they were 20 to be married off or they were going to die. The fact we live longer these days than in Austen's century, I had to move my character's age into her late 30s where desperation of not being married may have more relevance.  Even now, being unmarried in your late 20 is not an "old maid" as Charlotte had said she was.

And thirdly, what I found didn't merge into our century was the fact nobody had outside interest.  As many critics say of the novel, it's just a book about women walking around in rooms and talking about relationships.  This was befitting superbly rich inheritance babies.  Even now, Paris Hilton has found her calling in fashion bags and reality shows.  They would all have their own businesses and actually work taking a lot of the scrutiny of just focusing on relationships.

When rewriting I was shocked that this was the only things that I found hesitation with when bringing Elizabeth and the gang to our time in black society.  That's pretty darn good for a 200-year old tale.  The book even has "call" someone and "ring" the door that translates with ease in the advent of the iPod.

I think Jane wishes that she could do an update or a sequel with her story getting greater buzz than billion dollar movies premiering   I hope I do her proud.  I won't even begin to publish until I get the best draft I can.  An artist is never finished with a masterpiece, they just know when it's time to share it with the world and soon that time will come.

Enjoy your rocking weekend everyone and thank you for coming along for the ride!  Think you know what you would do with your update of Pride and Prejudice, let us know what you would add or take away...see you next Saturday!

XX,
Denise Rochelle

Did Mr. Darcy Have Lust or Love?

Religious posts say that they don't fear Jesus and lust is the devil's hand tool and the reason relationships don't last. True.  How do we tell the difference?  That was the question posted?

To first answer this question, we need to truly understand what is Lust and what is True Love.

Lust comes without commitment and is easy to obtain yet it does not last.  This is because of selfishness that the two feel these feelings and it is not based on the other person. It is based on obtaining this feeling only for themselves without regard to how the other feels, almost like a spell.





Love is the opposite and takes time to invest. 

"Lust is at first sight." I don't know.  Maybe, but I know of people who have true love that knew someone was the one from the minute they saw them.

Now Mr. Darcy didn't not have a relationship with the Elizabeth character yet, halfway through the book he says that he can no longer control his emotions and tells her that he wants to marry her and despite all of the reasons not too.  This kind of sounds like lust to me.  But where love at sight may have lust at its roots, when the couple turns their feelings for the other out of want and not neediness, and it becomes unselfish in their desires to be with the other, then this is love.

"Because lust satisfies a temporary need and takes less time."

Lust is overwhelming just like our Mr. Darcy experienced.  But so is love.  So how can one tell the difference of a man who falls in love with a woman from the first moment they meet and ends up asking for marriage with only a few outings together?

I think if the two fulfill the others needs and live for the other, this is possible.  I also saw where people have their ideal person all their life in the back of their mind even if they do not pursue this type of person for a relationship and when they see them in the street, they see the exact match of their own internal workings and they know immediately, this is far from lust.

It is almost a survival instinct from cavemen times whatever that means.

I thought the best explanation was:

"Lust is like a windows start up program, it's running right off the first look...now love takes some getting into the program and once you start feeling it, you have no control." :)


My Writing Week

I must say after 30 years, LITERALLY, of writing everyday whether professionally or from imagination, I finally understand the process of writing.  You can teach an old dog new tricks.  After all, if the old fart is willing to learn, they can do about anything in their old age. ;)  Anyway, what have I learned exactly?

I learned to relax with the story.

I went from taking months and months to bang out a decent first draft to having a story rewritten twice within a week and once a month and then to stop dead in my tracks and not being able to approach the story.  I started to panic that I would never be able to let the story rise to the possibilities from its basic standard, characterization and written word.

Now since receiving this gift directly from God in October, I have started to see that the story is being worked on somewhere and at the right time it will come back to me and I can approach it with a pure heart, no worries, no panic and give it the best rewrite.

Damn, I mean darn the deadline I gave myself of having a good 3rd or 4th draft finished ready for a self-publish read over.

Forget rushing the process.

If I say "Black Pride" is my baby, maybe it will take 9 months.  I just have this urge to have it out into the world while 2013 is still present for some reason, possibly the 200th year anniversary of "Pride and Prejudice" being this year brings it to a full circle somehow and brings good fortune.

After watching a series of movie trailers (I usually do this for inspiration to envision my own story as a trailer) I starting to see the story outside my head.

I see that to approach it, there will be some character changes, race changes and a few scenes I have to completely write, but coming from a person who takes many years on a horrible story rewriting from different angles, I know I have something here.  Believe me, I know how NOT to write.

So, that is my week. Thanks for joining.  If you ever want to give a shoutout or give your input, then leave me a message or post.  Or follow me in Twitterland twitter.com/iamdenisemorris.  Talk to you later!  See you next Saturday!




XOXO,
Denise Rochelle

The "Old Maid" Stigma is Gone Forever, Yahh!!

Jane Austin lived in a time when one of her characters, Charlotte, was willing to marry a boar of a husband because she was almost 30.  There was a time not being married by 25 was societal suicide.  Now, Hollywood stars and actresses at their first and second go at marriage well into their mid 40s are successfully having children or hiring someone to have their children, ha, ha.

I wonder when this stigma went away?  I am 39 never been married, no children and I remember when people were pushing me around the 29 year old mark in this way, "Why don't you go have one of these" "You don't have to have a husband, just go have a baby".    Twice I was told the latter by two separate women who didn't know one another and had that idea pegged times three different daddies.  That is fine and dandy, but I just knew that I should wait.

Especially since we are no longer in the era of life-long marriages and "I do forever only once."  I wanted from the start the only once.  I think around the, let's see I have to think about this one, age 38 that I did start to get a little frightened.  Not that I wouldn't find someone, that's easy, but that I wouldn't be able to live to see my grandchildren, then secondly that maybe I wouldn't find the one that I had dreamed in the back of my mind.  Then around 39 I was at the point where I said two things, if Jesus could die single so could I and I was ready to settle with having a cat that loved me as long as I could live well enough to leave something behind for the world.

I almost forgot the "Are you a lesbian?" "do you think you are too good for others than maybe you need to look at yourself can't be something wrong with everyone you were with" "You are going to wait too late and not have any chance to have children" "women who wait until 40 usually don't have good eggs" blah, blah.  These are burned on my mind.

But something happened when I look back.  I must have had a guardian angel or just had louder alarm bells, but no matter what, there was always a disynchronization  with the guys I tried to date or court or marry.  Something major would pull them away, they would completely not be interested without a chance of going forward if I liked them or I completely was disinterested despite their affections or good looks never even changing for a second.  I was destined to repel anyone before the month mark.  Thanks goodness, whew.

I survived the Old Maid era of Jane Eyre, Jane Austin and...tell me if there is some other famous Jane from the 1800s, please.

So, why this talk of old maids concerning Pride and Prejudice when all the sisters were married off at a decent age?  Because a man recently asked if it was okay to be 35 single, never married and no kids.

My character in Black Pride is exactly that age and being like her creator she has decided that that is just okay with her and she is not going to change her high standards one bit, not even for Mr. Darcy.

Of course Lizzy and Mr. Darcy get rid of their edgy bits and pride in order to come together and it was worth the wait.  I can finally say the same as my real life Mr. Darcy and I get rid of the dark stuff that we mirror for the other just like the Pride and Prejudice couple.

Glad to live in a new era of not having to hurry up and marry because while you are married to the just for now guy or disillusioned from all the heartbreaks, you might miss your mister Darcy with all his ego and yours ready to be blown away!!  Dreams do come true, we have to do a lot of work on cleaning ourselves until it happens just never change your high standards or break them.

Until next Saturday,
Denise Rochelle

Men Why Do You Shut Down?

"Men Why Do You Shut Down or get distant when you are going through something?"
Quick answers were, "For your protection", "We don't like drama/fighting", "It's a man thing/we were made that way", "Women are all about feelings and men are all about solutions." These were the quick and light answers.

 Hi, everyone, hope you are keeping warm this week as the temperatures remind us that it is indeed winter.




Yet again, I look toward the Facebook forum of anonymized questions answered by VERY vocal posters naming off their opinions.  This week, the question was to men only.  But like many posts, some women would answer for the men. .. (scratches head) yes, I understand in this day and age some women have to take up the role of man and woman in the family when they are left as a single mother, but I don't see single father's on any of those posts answering for the women-only questions.

And men made that exact point several times.  Many, many posted that the women needed to stop answering for the men and sometimes, LOL right after that post a woman will say, "Because of their ego." man.  How funny we women are, ha, ha sorry, men.  Some say that they try to explain to a woman how they are feeling,but instead get a woman 'in the face' talking bad things to them instead of just listening and understanding.

A few men out of 100 posts said that, "Women will shut down in relations with women because women will not listen to us anyway.  As you can see the question was posed to men and the women answered for them.  If women took time out to just listen to their man/husband/male friend, I'm pretty sure a lot more men would open up if they felt they were being heard!"

Well, those of you who like the Pride and Prejudice series have grown to like a man that has no ability to say a single word of what he is feeling inside- in the right way.  When he did finally decide to say a word, he always was making the situation a mess or hurting someone's feelings - mostly Elizabeth's.

Of course this inept beast describes Mr. Darcy. When we first meet Mr. Darcy at the dance, he is so cold and arrogant and owns the whole world.  He barely even returns conversation to his friend who tries to get him engaged in the party and away from the corner.

Then of course we see later that Mr. Darcy for most of the book was hiding his true feelings for Elizabeth so when his feelings of love came out with force he fumbles it all up.  Mr. Darcy is a prime example of a man who could not get in touch with his feminine side to talk to the girl he wanted to marry until the very end.

What would our Mr. Darcy be like if he was communicative?  He wouldn't be as loveable when we finally witness that because of his deep love for Elizabeth he changed to overcome this fallacy within himself.

Think about it.  If from the beginning Mr. Darcy could just give in to his wants, there would be no character growth, no tension - no 200 year-later blog about the story.  We need these elements in a story, our brain needs this dissonance or conflict on paper - the ups and downs.

Without a character who completely shut down his emotions, Pride and Prejudice would not have triumphed as much in all of our hearts.

Just as one man poster suggested, don't be so critical to your man, be quiet and understanding and just listen and we might not have to ask this question in the future.  And stop answering and speaking for the men is another step, ha, ha.

Unfortunately, I have had writer's block for the last two weeks even though it is just to rewrite the whole second draft for self-publish to get interested reader's feedback.  If they can ignore the misspelled words and grammatical mistakes.

As my romantic life changes and I enter Pride and Prejudice territory for the first time in my life, my viewpoint of my story grows.  Hey, I think that will be a great post in the future.  "How Online Relationships Could Change Pride and Prejudice".  Just a thought.

Have a fun one enjoy the rest of your four-day weekend!  

Denise Rochelle M.