Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Interview with C P Odom +Giveaway


Today I have the privilege of having debut author C.P. Odom with me. His premiere novel, A Most Civil Proposal, is a Pride and Prejudice variation that explores what would happen if Mr. Darcy realized the folly in expressing the “struggles” he had to overcome before allowing his ardent love for Elizabeth to rule.

Meryton Press has kindly offered one trade Paperback for GIVEAWAY. To enter, leave a comment or question for Mr. Odom along with your email address so I know how to contact the winner.


On Meryton Press’s site you mention that it was after watching part of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series that had you wanting to know what happened during the part you missed, which led to you reading Austen’s most popular novel as well as watching both the 1995 and 2005 adaptations in their entirety. Which parts of Austen’s work held you captivated and which story elements had you thinking of writing your own variation?

Before I answer that, I need to lay a little groundwork.  Over the years, I’ve enjoyed a number of romantic films such as “An Affair to Remember,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “The Princess Bride,” etc.  I’ve been kidded a few times for liking movies that some people rather inelegantly refer to as “chick-flicks,” but I figure that my “Guy Credentials” (former Marine, football player, etc.) are good enough so that I can watch whatever I want.  Anyway, “You’ve Got Mail” is one of my favorites, and if you’ve ever seen the movie, you know that the director, Nora Ephron, implicitly included a lot of “Pride and Prejudice” elements in the plot and even explicitly mentions Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennet, and Mr. Darcy.  However, at the time, I hadn’t read “P&P.”  Thus, while I enjoyed “You’ve Got Mail,” I didn’t “get” the references to the “P&P” elements.

Anyway, one weekend day I nodded off watching TV and woke up midway through the “Pride & Prejudice” mini-series.  Half asleep, I started watching this heretofore unknown movie and caught references to “Mr. Darcy,” “Lizzy,” and “Mrs. Bennet.”  I was so ignorant that it took a while before I realized what I was watching, but it was the connection to “You’ve Got Mail” that first piqued my interest.  However, even after watching the rest of the movie, I didn’t know why Elizabeth Bennet was so upset with Mr. Darcy, who was this Mr. Wickham, etc., etc.

To assuage my curiosity, I dug out my first wife’s copy of “P&P,” read it, and later watched both the 1979 and the 1995 miniseries.  My present wife kind of smiled tolerantly and kept on watching her own favorites (which usually involved vampires somewhere, such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and let me go my own way.  Then one day on a whim, I did a search online for sequels to “P&P” and found Jane Austen fan fiction.  I happened to get lucky and read several pretty good stories, and my interest was again piqued.  One reason for my interest is that I read a lot of science fiction, including a sub-genre called Alternative History (such as, what if the South had won the Civil War?).  Clearly, Jane Austen fan fiction leans heavily on such topics, which in turn led me to wonder, “What would have happened if Darcy hadn’t been a jerk when he proposed?”

The more I thought on it, the deeper I got, and I was soon jotting down notes of what parts of the story might have turned out differently.  Before long, I started fleshing out my notes with backstory elements and dialogue, and some months later, I started posting the initial chapters of “A Most Civil Proposal” online.  It took a while to finish posting since I hadn’t finished the story when I started, but eventually, I got it done to generally positive comments.

My wife continues to smile tolerantly, but she still hasn’t read any of my stories.  Perhaps if I put some vampires in a story?  “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” has already been done, but what about vampires?  Elizabeth Bennet the Vampire Slayer anybody?

The idea of Mr. Darcy realizing how supercilious his initial proposal to Elizabeth sounded and therefore changing it to a more civil proposal sounds interesting. What inspired your muse to come up with this topic?

As for Darcy recognizing how supercilious he was being, well, he wasn’t quite there yet (no surprise there!) before the proposal, but he did manage to realize how objectionable it would be to say to her, “In vain I have struggled.  It will not do.  My feelings will not be repressed.”  He resolves to be more gentle, but he still has some edges that he needs to have polished off.  In this variation, Elizabeth is more the sandpaper than the hammer, which is partly due to the civility of his proposal.

For the question of what inspired my muse, the answer is that I myself have struggled with my mouth leading a life of its own.  In my job, I wanted to move into engineering management, and speaking first and thinking afterward is kind of an obstacle to such a goal.  So I had to train myself to imagine how what I wanted to say might sound to the other person BEFORE I actually said it.  It took a while, needless to say, but I did get better.  When I read the proposal passage in “P&P,” that training led me to think, “There ought to be some way to make this less objectionable,” which then led to imagining Darcy making a civil proposal and what would transpire from that.  But just making a civil proposal didn’t mean he was instantly a smoothie.  To paraphrase Mrs. Gardiner, it would take a good wife to teach him such things.

Who is your favorite P&P character?

     It’s a close race between Elizabeth Bennet and Col. Fitzwilliam.  EB is attractive to me as a guy because she’s spirited and optimistic at a time when such characteristics were rather unusual, but I think I have to give the award to Col. Fitzwilliam, because he appeals to me as an author for a rather strange reason, which is that we really don’t know too much about him.  EB, Darcy, Bingley, Mr. Bennet, etc., are all sketched fairly completely by JA, but I can almost make Col. Fitzwilliam whatever I please, as long as he remains a younger son, an army officer (we don’t know it it’s Lt. Col or Col., for example), & shares guardianship of Georgiana.

Who’s your least favorite character?

     Bingley, without a doubt, because he’s a wimp.  Getting talked out of marrying Jane because she might be indifferent?  Pulleaze!  He’ll find that out when he makes an offer, and, if she accepts him, then she cannot be too indifferent.  He doesn’t deserve her.

What is your favorite Jane Austen quote?

     There’s a lot of competition, but I think Mr. Bennet’s comment when he refuses to make EB marry Mr. Collins is at the top of the list:  “An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth.  From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents.  Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”
     Classic.

If you lived during Austen's time, what is the one thing you would dislike the most and the one thing you would most enjoy?

        Probably my least favorite thing would be the social stratification, which prevented enterprising people from achieving their dreams by hard work and effort.  That is despite the fact that I know that Regency England was a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of Europe.

     My favorite thing is probably the civility and manners that were part of social interaction.  I think good manners are the grease that make any society work.  All societies are inherently unwieldy, and “frankness” and “telling it like it is” are highly overrated “virtues.”  Too many people today use them to justify rudeness and arrogance.


***GIVEAWAY TIME***
Meryton Press is kindly offering ONE TRADE PAPERBACK of A Most Civil Proposal to one lucy commenter (US only). Simply leave a comment or question for C.P. Odom. Also, please provide your email address so I know how to contact the winner. For extra entires, tweet about the giveaway and provide the Twitter link to your tweet. Giveaway ends Monday, March 18. Best of luck!! =)



From the publisher:

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." When Fitzwilliam Darcy spoke these words to Elizabeth Bennet as part of his marriage proposal, they expressed his concealed feelings completely, but their meaning was at odds with the rest of his prideful and arrogant offer of marriage. It was therefore rather easy for Elizabeth to reject his offer in much the same manner. But what if Darcy, never one at ease when trying to speak of inner sentiments, had realized beforehand how his intended proposal would sound to the young woman he hoped to make his bride? What if he had attempted a much more civil and thoughtful proposal of marriage? Could Elizabeth Bennet have coldly and angrily rejected an offer made in such a manner? A Most Civil Proposal, a variation on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", examines and explores how the lives of the two main characters and their families and friends might have turned out differently had Darcy realized his error beforehand and thus avoided being so forcefully instructed and corrected by the love of his life.

21 comments:

  1. Great interview, Jakki!

    I loved hearing your responses, Colin Odom. It is fascinating to hear these questions answered from a man's point of view. I especially liked hearing about your favorite and least favorite characters and why.

    Your book sounds very good from what I have read about it. It is on my TBR list for sure. Congratulations on its publication.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Now I am going to have watch You've Got Mail again! :)

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    1. Sorry, Jakki. Forgot my email address.
      jbtaylor12(at)gmail(dot)com
      I also tweeted.
      https://twitter.com/JanetBTaylor1/status/311501233900879872

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    2. Hi Janet! Thanks for stopping by. I think AMCP sounds like a good book as well. And you are right; it is interesting to gain responses to these questions from a man's POV.

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  2. I love these what if stories they are my favorite kinds

    thank you for giveaway!

    Patkf2007 [at] hotmail [dot] com

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    1. Good luck with the giveaway, BookLuver! These are my favorite kinds as well.

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    2. I also like the 'what-if' stories. P&P lends itself quite well to that kind of treatment since there are a lot of key elements that involve a lot of coincidences, such as EB happening to stop by Pemberley just as Darcy arrives a day early. It's almost impossible to avoid thinking about what would have happened if that meeting doesn't take place, and I confess to having used it a couple of times. But it didn't interfere with my enjoyment of P&P, any more than it interfered with my enjoyment of J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings (lots of 'nick of time' coincidences there, too). Good authors have to convince the reader to willingly suspend disbelief, and those authors do so.

      Colin

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  3. This is going right onto my goodreads-jane-austen-to-read-shelf! Sounds wonderful!
    Thanks for the interesting interview!

    (I´m not entering the giveaway. You know where I live, Jakki ;))

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    1. Yes, Katrin, this book does sound wonderful! I am looking forward to reading this one (whenever I may get a chance, that is). :)

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  4. This is a great interview! I haven't seen You've Got Mail since long before I got sucked into the JA fanfiction universe so I may have to watch it again one of these days.

    So does this mean that Jane might end up with Colonel Fitzwilliam instead of Mr Bingley? As nice a guy as Bingley is, I admit I often enjoy variations where Jane ends up with someone else with a stronger personality.

    Thanks for the giveaway! I'm off to tweet.

    monicaperry00 at gmail dot com

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    1. Monica, I have never seen You've Got Mail. I guess I am an anomaly considering I have never seen The Princess Bride either. At least you can keep me company on that one. ;)
      Oh, I agree! I do enjoy seeing Jane end up with Col. Fitz or someone else from time to time!
      Good luck in the giveaway! =)

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    2. Jakki, you have to be careful with the Princess Bride. It has been known to result in lifelong addiction, the inability to change the channel if you happen upon it at any point in the movie, and to quote extensive pieces of the dialogue with other addicts, leaving those non-afficianados to look at you in confusion!

      Colin

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  5. https://mobile.twitter.com/jaffobsession/status/311572611702353920?p=v

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  6. Thanks for the generous offer. Us guys have to stick together don't we? I'm the "chik-lit-man-fan" and am old enough to read anything I want without fear of censure. Why read some depressing trash when you can read a re-imagining of the timeless classic with a happy ending to boot? Life's too short to be encumbered by a depressing story. Stick this one on my to-read list.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Jeffrey. I'm a "my glass is half-full" kind of guy like you, both with regard to what I read and what I like to watch on TV and at the movies.

      Cheers, Colin

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  7. I remember being hugely impressed when I read this story online many years ago. I would love to win a paper copy to read it again and enjoy cuddled up with a glass of wine! cpnclprashe at yahoo

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  8. Lovely interview, Jakki! I am so excited to read this book. It sounds wonderful! Thanks for the giveaway!!
    kellik115(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  9. tweeted again

    https://mobile.twitter.com/jaffobsession/status/312289307933171712?p=v

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  10. Great interview! I am constantly on the lookout for new P&P alternative versions. This sounds wonderful.
    Kathy
    Babykathy1961@aol.com

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  11. Great interview! I am constantly on the lookout for new P&P alternative versions. This sounds wonderful.
    Kathy
    Babykathy1961@aol.com

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  12. I realize that the time for getting a free book out of this is past. I hope, though, that you will still take a look at my comments.

    I'm not sure if I got something mixed up, but it looked to me like when Georgiana took Elizabeth to the dressmaker to order her wedding dress Elizabeth chose something pink. That in itself surprised me a little, I didn't know that women did not yet confine themselves to white in 1812. But then when Darcy got her first glimpse of his bride, she was in green. Is it possible that the dressmaker got mixed up about the order or something and when she went for her fitting Wednesday night and saw it was not the pink she ordered it was too late to start over or something? Anyway, I was a little surprised.

    I somehow was imagining that the author of this book was female. By the time I realized the author was a guy, I had already read the book. It's funny that the changeup in the color of Elizabeth's wedding dress didn't give me the least clue as to the gender of the author! Now that I know, though, I think it is a very understandable mistake--assuming that you made the mistake I think you did. Why should a former marine/football player pay the least attention to the color of the lady's wedding dress? Not something I picture the ex-military men of my acquaintance bothering about. What's surprising to me is that you would want to write a book like this.

    I have no regrets about having bought the book. Considering the day and age in which we live, it upholds an amazingly high standard of speech and conduct. I have been a fan of P&P ever since I saw the 1980 BBC version on Masterpiece Theater more than 30 years ago. After that, I read P&P and eventually all her other novels, including the fragments, and over the years I have reread most of them many times, but I suppose P&P the most. I suppose P&P will always be my favorite. But your empowerment of the protaganists is AWESOME!!!! Down with Wickham and his power over the Bennet family. If you're going to write a work of fiction, why not empower your good guys? It was a very fun, enjoyable read. You fleshed out JE's characters in a way that I have to believe would do her heart good. I love, LOVE, LOVE the fact that someone who has this kind of vision would rewrite this timeless work and give these beloved characters this kind of development!!!!

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    1. Hi Camille,
      Your question about the wedding dress changing from pink to green really floored me, because I was certain that I meant for the dress to be green. I just checked my proof copy, and it says that the ladies settled on a dress of "pale green silk." Later on, on the day of the wedding, Darcy thinks that "the pearls around her neck complemented her pale green dress exquisitely." Thus, I have to think your eyes saw green but your mind read pink - perhaps it was the "pale green" that made it seem like pink. As for the color, my research said that white didn't become standard for wedding dresses until well after Regency times. In fact, most brides didn't have a special dress made for their weddings but simply wore their Sunday best. As for the color choice, you're right that I'm not at my best when picking colors - but I do have a dear wife who chose the color (after I explained it shouldn't be white, that is!)

      As for writing a book like this, I always had the urge to write, but, being an engineer and a science fiction reader, I always thought it would be a space opera, not a romance. But I also came to love P&P, and I still think the 1980 BBC version you referred to is the best I've seen. I know the ladies like Colin Firth as Darcy, and I agree he makes a great Darcy, but I believe Elizabeth Garvie made a more believable Elizabeth than Jennifer Ehle. Personal preference, of course, though I'm not really satisfied with any of the P&P versions that I've seen. Interestingly, the BBC made at least two other miniseries of P&P (1967 & 1952), and the 1952 version starred, if you can believe it, Peter Cushing (of Dracula and Star Wars fame) as DARCY! Unbelievable - I wish that version was available. You can find clips of the 1967 version on Youtube if you search, but it looks pretty underwhelming.

      Anyway, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed my modest efforts. And, since Meryton Press is interested in another book from me, perhaps we'll correspond again another time.

      Cheers, Colin

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