A truth universally acknowledged…

...for Knots in the String.

Is there anyone who can’t recall the scene in Pride and Prejudice (1995 TV series) when Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy emerges from the pond, his fine lawn shirt and tight-fitting breeches clinging to him as if he had been poured into them?

This was no doubt the moment when any woman would have said, ‘It is indeed a truth universally acknowledged… (insert own perceptions at this point.)’

Austen revealed so much of class distinction of the times, the role of women, the value or not of education, always with crystal clear observations and a very dry wit. Perhaps she was the Jilly Cooper of her generation, who knows? Dirtying her muslin hems amongst the elite and ordinary whilst Cooper was burning her bra and running rings round contemporary British class, top to bottom.

Austen and I had an off-the-wall relationship not long after I was first published in 2010.

With no profile, new to social media and needing to try and establish a brand without an agent, two new, highly creative, online friends and myself decided to hold a Regency Masked Ball, inspired by Austen…

… online… on my blog!

The plot thickened further when one learned that Patricia Sweet was in California, USA, Rebecca Bingham was in Maryland, USA, and I was in Tasmania, Australia and that they were as keen to lift their online profiles as I.

We didn’t just touch the edges of this idea. We dived off the deep end.

We issued digital Regency invitations and received online replies! Many of them.

We wrote chapters for a weekly story, a kind of Regency fantasy set in Venice, the denouement of which was to be revealed at the Masked Ball.

Each of the 3 female characters, (us), partnered with strange (and very attractive men). We planned games, challenges, music and dance, real prizes.

The 3 hour programme went like this:

The Direttore opens the ball with a short speech and then partners Marie Burton from www.theburtonreview.com in The Etcetera (please note that on the night there will be a dance card page with the appropriate links to music and dancing)

Competition 1: Describe your escort, leaving no curl uncurled, no cleft chin unclefted, and no aquiline nose un . . . aquilined, I suppose

Competition 2: Scavenger Hunt final question

Another chapter from the infamous Masked Ball novella.

Scavenger Hunt post final answer

Dance: The Gelderlander

Competition 3: What are your gown and mask like?  Please be as effusive in your description as you please.

Competition 4:  Fan and glove code answer post

Dance: Mr.Beveridge’s Maggott.

One more chapter of the novella.

Dance: The Raji!

Competition 5: What etiquette would you re-introduce to 21st century society and why?

Dance: The Tango

Penultimate chapter of the novella.

Dance: The De Lesseps Dance

A Stupendous Supper.

Dance: The Dancing Queen

Final Competition: What is it about the heroes of literature that makes them so appealing to the empowered and enfranchised women of the 21st century.

Dance: The Aznavour

The end of the novella.

Thank you, a brief look at the next day’s prize giving and goodnight.

Phew!!!!

Rebecca was our technical mastermind, researching everything to fit into the Regency timeframe. She diligently worked out global timezones, links, specific page formats, and continuity. Pat was our chief designer, set-maker and partner-in-crime. I was in the middle of editing my second book, but took brackets of time to write this ridiculously spoofish Regency fantasy on my blog. Periodically, Pat and Rebecca would contribute marvellous chapters from their character’s POV.

Things came together despite that Wordpress lost many images we had been using for competitions. They found them again, but our bosoms heaved in distress, I can tell you, and we found the need to pull smelling salts from our reticules. But we really began to believe that we could pull this off, technology not withstanding.

Being a former theatre costumier, Pat Sweet designed our ‘costumes’ and thereby our personas, introducing the most wonderful quirkiness for which she is well-known. Thus the narrative had meat on its bones, so to speak.

When Ball Day/Night arrived (very early AM in Australia), my husband (an ex-broadcaster) produced us for three hours with a stopwatch down to the absolute second so that none of our participants across the globe missed a second. We had two computers running - one for production and one for presentation and when we were done, I rang both Pat and Rebecca, hearing their voices for the first-ever time. What a lovely thing!

It was the most astonishing experience, and I look at it now and wonder how we managed it. I was more than grateful to have built global friendships and a reader base, and I will never forget how crazy-brave Pat, Rebecca and I were! I think I crawled into bed at 4 AM my time when we had finally finished on air!

The absolute icing on the cake was a published miniature book called The Masked Ball from Pat’s Bo Press. The editions (three – plain, luxury, deluxe) were snapped up by miniature book collectors across the world.

Meeting Rebecca and Pat at that time in my life was serendipitous to say the least, and I owe them both more than they can ever imagine. Best of all, we are still digital friends. I have a collection of Bo Press miniature books and objêts that I treasure, and I have a silver medallion Rebecca gave me after the Ball and which hangs from my car keys so that daily I’m reminded of a special time and special people.

It’s hard to imagine that anything could be as off-the-wall as The Masked Ball, but the next Austenesque adventure really did qualify for derring-do.

I joined a whole host of folk around the world in writing an Austen-style novella on Twitter. Each writer had to post their tweet on a set day at a set time in 140 characters under the hashtag #A4T, following on meticulously from the last tweet, so that the story flowed and made sense. No one could pre-write because we had to see what would precede us and flow straight on from that tweet. To say the least, it was spontaneity on steroids.

Such mammoth organisation – I really admire the two people who conceived and managed this, because I know what it took for Rebecca, Pat and myself to produce ours.

The story, A Ball at Pemberley, begins:

Chapter I

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that no diversion on earth so delights young people as the prospect of a ball, and a ball at Pemberley, that fine and celebrated house, in the beautiful county of Derbyshire, was a recreation devoutly to be wished!

The story is available online for those Janeites amongst us.

Since those heady Austenesque years, Pat has gone from strength to strength with her miniature press, publishing not just books but magnificent miniature medieval artifacts and her work can be seen via Facebook. Rebecca has re-ignited her own finely articulated press, sending the most sought-after miniature books into the collector’s world.

Me? I wrote a few more novels. I still do. Creating fictional worlds and entertaining readers who want to escape from the mad and bad of the world.

So may I say: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that one should always take advantage of unique chances that can broaden one’s life and outlook. If not, one would live in a box and wherein lies the enjoyment of that?’

Now! Golly!

What music?

Not exactly Regency, perhaps meant to be medieval with Regency overtones (and terribly anachronistic) but let’s face it, it’s a wonderfully fun piece of ‘historical’(!) dance music.