A new twist on the Jane Austen/ChickLit discussion
Alert Janeite Joan wrote to alert us to a new book deal from Publisher’s Weekly:
Newbery Honor winner for YA novel Princess Academy Shannon Hale’s AUSTENLAND, about a young New York woman named Jane who can never seem to find the right man — perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy as played by Colin Firth — who goes on a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, to Amanda Katz at Bloomsbury, in a two-book deal, by Nadia Cornier at Firebrand Literary (NA).
We suppose it is better than Yet Another navel-gazing essay on whether Jane Austen wrote ChickLit, though we are not sure whether to be amused or appalled. This could be really fun, but let’s face it, there is SO much scope for sheer eye-sporking suckage here that it really is quite breathtaking.
We’ll cross our fingers and hope for fun, because despite the popular apprehension the Editrix really is a glass-half-full kind of gal, and besides we are fresh out of sporks.
February 17th, 2006 at 10:19 am
My first post–but I’m a long-time AustenBlog fan! =) Shannon Hale is a fantastic writer so I think we can look forward to this one–if anyone can make it work and not inspire need of sporks, it’s her. Hooray!
February 17th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Hooray! I second Heather P. If our beloved Jane is safe anywhere, it would be in the hands of Shannon Hale! She is a wonderful author, with a great sense of humor. If you haven’t read any of her books, I recommed you check them out. “Goose Girl” is my favorite. It’s a retelling of the Bro’s Grimm tale of the same name. She reminds me somewhat of Robin McKinley in her early days. I have met Shannon at book signings and she is a riot! She can most definitely snark with the best of them. I really think you’ll like her work.