Not Copy-n-Paste Austenish

Back in November I got this blind date with a book at Writer's Block in Winter Garden. The thing that sold me on it was the description, especially the final bullet point.

It turned out to be The Monstrous Kind by Ludia Gregovic, a gothic fantasy romance extremely loosely based on Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (basically, one setting.)

Definitely got a lot of hype, but was it worth it?

Upfront let me say that I am a fan of Jane Austen, and in the past I have actually borrowed an element from her universe for a ghost writing gig. While her works are in the public domain, which means anyone can do pretty much anything they like to them with impunity, there are still some ethical problems with that. I am not a fan of writers who cut and paste her work, reword it just enough to escape plagiarism, and then claim the work as their own original work. It's a practice I find disrespectful and dishonest as well as disgusting.

Thankfully Austen only inspired this author, who took an idea and one minor setting from that work and then ran with it, building an entirely new and original universe, characters, conflicts and romance (I did the same with another setting in the series I wrote for my client.) For that I applaud her; if you want to do the same I'd recommend reading this book to see how she did it, which is I believe the most ethical way to write in someone else's universe.

As for my opinions on the story, I have to tread a little lightly here, as this is the author's first novel. She also works as an editor at one of the publishers that I've worked for, so professional courtesy is kind of a must. It's well-written if a bit overly earnest (most first novels are.) The main character was quite unlikeable for me, but I hung in and finished the story because the world-building was very well done (partly thanks to Jane Austen.) I also liked some of the other characters, and the plotting was solid. I have no doubt the author will do well in the future.

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Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

Valerean

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