Joan Stasbaugh Interview & Giveaway

Please help us welcome Joan Stasbaugh to Royal Reviews.

Thanks for your interest in LLGTJA, I would love to answer your questions.

Question 1- Tell us something about yourself, so that we can get to know you a bit better…

1. I've worked in book publishing for about twenty years and have been a Janeite for about that long. Yes, it was the 1995 Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth that got me to reading Jane Austen. One novel and I was hooked. Until recently I had my own publishing company, Jones Books, in Madison, Wisconsin, where I grew up. We published four Austen titles: In the Steps of Jane Austen, Tea with Jane Austen, In the Garden with Jane Austen and Jane Austen and Crime. Ten years of Jones Books was wonderful, but I recently moved to New York and am now senior editor at Abbeville Press, a publisher of fine art and illustrated books.

Question 2- Your book, A List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen, is out now—congrats! Could you tell us about it?

2. Why thank you! I like to think it's a happy blend of two preoccupations of mine: making lists (and reading anything with bullet points) and Jane Austen. Astonishingly (smiley face), no one else wrote this book so it fell to me. The book includes lists of family members, friends, places she traveled, her remaining artifacts, books in her library, balls she attended, poetry she wrote, first lines of everything she wrote, &c, &c, as JA would write.

Question 3- What inspired you to compile this a list of everything Jane Austen

3. In 2011 I had given a talk on Sense and Sensibility at the JASNA AGM (Jane Austen Society of North America Annual General Meeting, a mouthful!) in Fort Worth, Texas. Researching my topic was sheer joy, there are so many great books about her, however, at times I wished I had a handy little guide with "just facts." Voila, LLG.

Question 4- While doing research for this book did you find anything odd or interesting that stuck with you?

4. What really stood out is how many people she knew -- she had an enormous social circle -- and how much she traveled. She was a career gal, she wrote her books at home and went to London to proof them.

Question 5- Tell us about your first introduction to Jane Austen

5. Like it was for millions of others, as I mentioned above, the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice by screenwriter Andrew Davies got the ball rolling. There's no turning back...

Again, many thanks for giving me the time to talk my book!

Joan

  The Jane you thought you knew…

Jane Austen comes to life for the first time in list form

Have you ever wondered what books Jane Austen read? Or what her #1 pet peeve was?

Find the answers to these questions in The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen, coming this June 2013. Released just in time for the 200th Anniversary of Pride & Prejudice, author Joan Strasbaugh is a “hard-core fan” and known in Jane circles around the world.

Strasbaugh creates a portrait of this beloved author as a living, breathing human being; The List Lover’s Guide is perfect for any 18th century Brit lit buff. Austen aficionado or student of literature.

Lists like “Her Social Circle” and “Balls and Dances She Attended” weave a seamless portrait of the woman that Austen was — not based on her fictions, but on her facts.

While including extensive background information on the author (down to the very flowers she grew in her garden), the book also features juicy details like:

· Possible Suitors

· Who Broke Her Heart

· The Hearts She Broke

· Her Morbid Sense of Humor

· Jane’s Royal Ancestors

About the Author

Joan Strasbaugh has been a proud Janeite for half of her life. She now works as the senior editor of Abbeville Press in New York, and notably organized the Jane Austen in the 21st Century Humanities Festival at the University of Wisconsin. A former publisher at Jones Books, Strasbaugh also holds a membership to the Jane Austen Society of North America.

The List Lovers Guide to Jane Austen by Joan Strausbugh (published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, June 2013, ISBN 9781402282034, Trade Paperback, $12.99 U.S. / £8.99 UK) is available wherever books are sold.

I have 1 Copy of the book to giveaway.

Giveaway is open Worldwide

Ends June 25

To enter please leave your name and valid email address.

For Fun:

List a fun fact you know, or something that you have found odd, about Jane Austen, her novels, or her characters.

Best Wishes & Good Luck,

Angela