The Editrix Meets Her Public
We suppose you all have noticed the banner ad at the top of the page (and it’s a pretty good deal! ETA: the code should work now!), and we thought it time to announce our “If I Am A Wild Beast I Cannot Help It” World Tour 2007: Spanning the Globe from Philadelphia to Willow Grove! (That is quite hilarious if you are from the area. Trust us. Really!) We have set up a page at Tilneys and Trap-doors for our public appearances in support of our upcoming book, The Jane Austen Handbook: A Sensible Yet Elegant Guide to Her World, over the next month or so.
The Editrix will be signing books at the Quirk Books Booth at the Philadelphia Book Festival 2007 on Saturday, April 21, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (though the Book Festival goes on all day Saturday and Sunday). The booth will be located on 19th Street near Vine Street in Center City Philadelphia.
We also will be at the Jane Austen Book Fair at the Barnes & Noble store in Willow Grove, PA on Saturday, April 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. The Book Fair, which benefits JASNA’s Eastern Pennsylvania/Delaware Valley Region, will go on all day. If you plan to make any purchases at the store that day, please download this voucher (PDF); ten percent of all purchases (except for food items or gift cards) made at the store with the voucher on April 28 will go to JASNA. The Editrix and her friend Diane Wilkes, author of The Tarot of Jane Austen, will sign their books, and Diane tell us she will be doing fun tarot-card-related things, so we will have to come up with something diabolical, that is, equally wonderful. 
If you will not be able to come to either of these appearances, we will have signed bookplates available via snail mail. Details to follow!
April 10th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Oh! I would love to come. Instead I am looking forward to a signed bookplate.
Btw, I get all kind of weird error messages on quirkbooks.com.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Hmm…seems to be working for me. Try it again and let me know if you are still having trouble.
April 10th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
For me it’s not working either…
Good luck on your World Tour, Mags!
You should also come to Europe!
April 10th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Vouchers will benefit the region on all purchases but food and gift cards. Looking forward to having my copy signed in this second leg of your world tour.
April 10th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I’m looking for the “loudmouthed bespectacled redhead in the Team Tilney shirt tapping on her PDA” in Vancouver! JASNA October 2007! West Coast represents! Wooot! Pre-order from Amazon should come any day now….somehow I think I can smuggle your book over the Canadian border….
April 10th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
“The promotional code entered is not a valid promotional code.”
:’-( Quirk Books isn’t accepting “WWJD” from me.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Congrats Mags! I hope I will be able to come and see you on the 28th! Hopefully, I am not working. Big Hugs to you! I am soo proud!
April 10th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Hmm. Sorry about the code. I might have jumped the gun with putting it up. I’ve written to ask about it. It *will* be a good code at some point! I took down the banner for the time being.
April 11th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Congrads on your new book Mags- go set the globe on fire from Philadelephia to Willow Grove ! I breathlessly await my copy of The Jane Austen Handbook so I can be elegant yet sensible. Save little ol’ me a signed nameplate, awaiting details… Cheers to you
April 11th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
The WWJD code should work now!
April 12th, 2007 at 9:35 am
So, when is the movie deal being signed, or are you still in negotiations?
April 12th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I’m refusing Andrew Davies’ increasingly frantic phone calls, meaning to increase his love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females.
April 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am
But will one tease a respectable man ?
I bet AD would love to pay to persuade you not to publish.
April 12th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
The banner on top of the page isn’t clickable now. But oh well, perhaps it’s just my computer again!
I’m wondering if there is anyone else here who actually likes AD’s work? Because I do like it *hides from Mags and many others* but everyone else seems to hate him…..
April 12th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
D’OH! Thanks, I’ve fixed the banner.
I’m having a little fun with our friend, but as I said yesterday–no blanket commendation OR condemnation. Do we have to either love his work or hate it? Can’t we examine each project on its own merits? Some of them are better than others. Some are not very good at all. Some I have enjoyed. I did not care for Northanger Abbey, and upon examining why I did not like it, I realized that I don’t like some of the other Jane Austen adaptations as much as I thought I did. That’s why I said I’m turning into one of those cranky Janeites who hate the movies on general principles. I don’t *really* hate them, but I am almost always disappointed in some important way that keeps me from thoroughly enjoying them. I’m never disappointed by the novels themselves. This is not an attitude that I’ve held for years–it’s one that has developed, especially over the past couple of years when I’ve been studying the novels very closely and, of course, writing my book, which involved really immersing myself in the novels.
If you like his work, that’s fine (and please note I separate liking the work from liking the person). One of my goals with this blog is to encourage everyone to examine Jane Austen™ Brand Products critically–which will not result in everyone having the same opinion. Disagreeing is okay, you know; expecting everyone else to have the same opinion as you is a rather hopeless business.
I also think the Austen fandom tends to be indulgent toward AD because there is so much affection for his P&P adaptation. Jane’s novels deserve the very best, in my opinion, and they deserve to be treated with affection and respect, and we as fans deserve productions put on by those who love and respect the novels. In the past few years I think she’s been viewed more as a way to turn a quick buck or bring instant credibility to a project or an actor or a director or a production company or a network. And that’s a real shame.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Franka, I am with you. And I do have a crush on Colin Firth’s Darcy and I have a probably even bigger crush on Henry Tilney (in the book).
So if I am a strange creature, I’m certainly enjoying myself.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I think I just might come up for the book fair. I desperately need a change of scene and society. Hmmm? Willow Grove? Must consult Yahoo Maps.
Congrats on the publication of your book!!!
April 14th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Mags, congrats on your book tour. I wish I lived in PA! I was looking forward to the March release, but when the books I pre-ordered for the store did not arrive, I realized that the release had been delayed. Soooo, I must wait patiently a bit longer. Sigh!
Disappointed in Seattle
LA
April 19th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Sister of Mine,
You know I am Oh-so-proud of you on your accomplishment - I always knew you would do it someday. I’m must really say I’m getting a hoot of this World Tour business, tho.
Love,
Reets