Stealing the Baronet’s Daughter by Susan Kaye

Hello all! I am beyond excited, since today I am hosting a new author! But an author I have followed for years! Welcome Susan Kaye! It is a pleasure to host you, welcome to Interests of a Jane Austen Girl.

Susan has written a book within the world of Persuasion, which is one of two of my favourite Austen worlds! But I do warn you right now, that she is hitting us with quite a lot of spoilers!! For now, I will leave you in Susan’s creative hands. The stage is yours, Susan.

GUEST POST; Stealing a Baronet’s Daughter by Susan Kaye

!!MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!!

I included the violently ugly headline above because I have been publicly flogged for letting a cat or two out of the bag. I don’t care about spoilers. I am more interested in how a particular creative mind brings a movie or story to a close and spoiler are usually too bare bones to do that for me. If you are normal though, and don’t care for them, I’ll be spilling the beans on my book, Stealing the Baronet’s Daughter. You have been warned.

Years ago, I noticed that my writing process is very driven by writing fan fiction. Most of my stories are What-ifs. “What if I remove this small element over here, or I drop this tid bit right here…” Austen particular arcs and chronologies allow me the luxury of playing with those to my heart’s content. Authors who write from their own imaginations are certainly influenced by people and events they observe, but they don’t have a readymade structure to rearrange like I do. That being said, Stealing the Baronet’s Daughter isn’t one of those mix-and-match stories.

In the early days of the fandom, before, Facebook was the predominant meeting place for Austenites, there were lots of websites with message boards and storyboards to be had. My first online encounter with Austen was the Republic of Pemberley. (The site was deactivated long ago but the treasure trove of info is still accessible.) During my New-to-Austen explorer days I taped, (yes, with a VCR and VSH tape cassette), Persuasion playing Sunday night on Masterpiece Theater. When I watched it, I knew I had found my Austen “home.” I had been reading Pride and Prejudice fan fiction posted on Pemberley’s Bits of Ivory story board and had even attempted a L&D story. That went out the window upon seeing the 1995 adaptation of Persuasion.

I am a sucker for a self-made man, and a second chance at love. Persuasion gives me both in one place. Jackpot! I soon wrote my first fan fiction story: Plymouth. It is dreadful. It still resides on my hard drive, where it will stay unless I rewrite it someday. Anyway, other stories followed, and I enjoyed my newfound hobby. After a while I looked up and noticed that other sites were starting to make a little noise, so I went to various ones, signed up with my writing name of Susan Kaye—this is my real name, sort of—and took in the sites. I quickly discovered that some of the sites were created to have an outlet for adult fan fiction and speculative conversations about what Lizzy and Darcy might get up to in private. Not my thing but carry on. There were lots of sites back then, big and small. Eventually, I found one called Firthness.

The theme was Colin Firth, of course, but it wasn’t as hardcore Firth as you might think. Also, I think the membership skewed older than many of the others, so there was a quieter atmosphere. The current fandom can be pretty fractious and strident when it comes to discussions, but that was not the case with Firthness. The proprietress, Melly, did not tolerate raised voices or much cheek. For those of you who like a bumpy ride, it wasn’t boring. There were fewer adaptations to argue over, and less inclination to win the point.

I am finally coming to see how I decided to steal Anne Elliot.

Firthness had several writing challenges in the course of a year. One was to take an Austen hero and make him the bad guy in 100 words or less. (A drabble.) A good acquaintance, Grace, wrote a masterpiece about Frederick observing Louisa and considering how he might manipulate her. I don’t use the word “masterpiece” lightly. Grace was an attorney and could make you cry in just a few paragraphs.

A week or two later, the next challenge was issued. Take one of the brabbles and expand it to a short story. Grace’s story didn’t have a title, or I didn’t note it at the time, but I used it gladly. (I still get a feeling of excitement when I think of her writing.) I expanded it to a story called Shadows in a Brilliant Life. It was great fun to write. It wrote itself. That is when I realized that Austen had created a character who was, for me, her best hero, and could have been her foulest villain. Then I wondered if I could write a longer story in which Frederick appears to be a villain, meets Anne, leaves her wonder, is he or isn’t he, and then he saves the day.

I wasn’t able to do that. Oh, in Stealing Wentworth looks very much like a smuggler in the first chapters. And he’s convincing. He unexpectedly meets Anne and keeps her in the dark through a minor battle of ships at sea. And after saving her, they spend the night together crammed into an underground hide for smuggled goods. He watches over her when they spend a few nights with a sexy and vicious woman who heads a gang of smugglers. Where I failed was making him the ultimate hero of the story. In my opinion, the ultimate hero is Anne.

Anne is always cited as one of the nicest heroines and one that readers would like to befriend. I think she would be difficult because she doesn’t share herself much, but as I was writing this story, she asserted herself in a wonderful way. Anne found her voice and pushed back (hard) against her father, the Royal Navy, and even Frederick himself.

When I first started writing what was becoming a novel, I posted it on a story site, Beyond Austen. It was called, A Plan of His Own Making. Gad, how boring is that? It got a few comments now and then. I still liked the story but lost interest, only pulling it out now and then. One day, I realized I disliked the title and had to change it. After a few cruises through the thesaurus and muttering to myself, I came up with Stealing the Baronet’s Daughter.

Now, Wentworth doesn’t actually steal Anne. That is poetic license on my part. But I think it does capture the feel of the piece. And it certainly is better than the first title. By miles.

So, here is the evolution of one novel. Every author has some of these. I’m glad that Sophia gave me the chance to share this one.

BUY LINKS;

If I have stirred a bit of interest in you, Stealing the Baronet’s Daughter is available on Amazon.
KINDLE: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0CWFNF8QH/
PAPERBACK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY57ZTV4

CONTACT INFORMATION;

Shadows in a Brilliant Life is free to read on my blog at Susan Kaye Writer
https://susankayewriter.com/shadows-in-a-brilliant-life/

I will admit to loving the self-made Wentworth and Persuasion, as a book and as a variation world, and this book does sound rather wonderful, and smugglers/pirates, Wentworth and Anne romance and adventures on the high seas sounds like a pretty good mix! I will definitely get my hands on this book!