The early brainstorming stages of Austentatious are a little fuzzy. Nicola was at all the meetings, as was Sean, looking very sexy indeed. The journal was there, too, not yet corrupted by the advice and magic of Jane Austen. What I do remember is being struck by the perfect, world-altering moment in which it occurred to me that maybe I should squeeze a little Austen into my Austin-set story. Maybe the journal, somehow channeling the still-spunky spirit of Jane Austen, i.e., Fairy Jane, could offer up useful bits of modern-day romantic advice. Bits that would throw a kink in the romantic works of the ever-so-sensible Nicola James. I adored this idea, and I was thrilled to get back to work.

After that, Jane pretty much took over. She nuanced her way into every aspect of the book, and I just went along for the ride. Austentatious is, in part, a (loosely interpreted) modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, and part homage to the wit and timelessness of Ms. Jane Austen. The dedication on the first page of the journal attributed to Ms. Austen was actually written by her, in a similar (although presumably not magical) journal given to her niece. Cool, huh? Stumbling across it and having it fit so perfectly with the story line of Austentatious, I could not help but consider it a little bit of magic from Fairy Jane herself.