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Welcome to the Tuesday Author Interview with Christina Boyd for the Who, What, When, Where, and Why.
CHRISTINA: Back in 2007, I think, at the Vancouver, British Columbia Jane Austen Society of North America's (JASNA) Annual General Meeting (AGM), I met author Diana Birchall and asked her to sign my newly purchased, Mrs. Elton in America. I hadn't read the book yet as I had only purchased it at the Emporium that day. Mind, this was back when Jane Austen fanfiction was mostly online and not as prevalent as it is today. You can hardly imagine how excited I was to find a book in paperback (I didn't even have a Kindle back then, and there wasn't yet the rush of self-publishing), and the author was, in fact, present. I tracked the dear woman down in the middle of a ballroom (I know, I know. Books in a ballroom!) and asked her if she would please sign my book. She was ever so gracious. I had not started editing in the genre yet and didn't know what else to say other than, "Thank you” and skulked away. I did have the pleasure of meeting her again at the 2017 AGM in Huntington Beach, California and speak to her about her writing projects and how she had worked at Warner Bros. for years. Honestly, the woman has really lived and should write her own memoir. Now, of course, I follow her on Facebook and all her writing for the stage and biographies and more fanfiction.
When did you first think you had a book to write and how did you start?
DIANA: When I was about three years old. I’d already been taught to read by an adoring New York Jewish grandmother who brought me up, and was devouring books. It occurred to me with naïve excitement, “Someday, I’ll write a book myself!” So, when asked in first grade what I wanted to be when I grew up, I answered with confidence, “An authoress.” The teacher was amused and said, “That’s an old-fashioned word.” (No wonder. I picked it up reading Louisa May Alcott!) In fact, I already was aware that my other grandmother was an author. Onoto Watanna was the first Asian American novelist, and I grew up to write her scholarly biography. I didn’t know her, owing to a completely dysfunctional family saga, but in spite of all that, I was fortunate to be given the great gift of books by my two fairy grandmas. Always a reader above anything else (my professional career was actually as a reader - a story analyst at Warner Bros., reading novels), I was deep into my lifelong obsession with Jane Austen by twenty. I reread her hundreds, nay thousands of times, trying to take her apart minutely like an 18th century clock to see what made her run, in some vain hope of discovering the secret of her style. It was in 1985 that I won a writing contest in Persuasions, the journal of JASNA, by imitating the garrulous character Miss Bates in Emma. That made me think that I really might have a knack for this rather arcane accomplishment, and something like Emma’s own speed-of-an-arrow excited revelation shot through me: “Why don’t I try to write a whole book like that?”
CHRISTINA: Why am I not surprised? I love knowing you were a precocious child and already knew you wanted to write.
How has the publishing industry changed since you started?
DIANA: In a myriad ways, of course, but in the early days when I started writing Austenesque stories, there was no industry or market for sequels or fanfic. There were only a few isolated historical examples, such as 19th-century completions by Austen’s niece. Nothing based on Pride and Prejudice since around the Second World War. So, excited about my new idea, I wrote Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma and figured my publishing moment had come. So did my literary agent, who planned a bidding war. But then came the news that two sequels to P & P were being published by established authors to compete with each other - and the publishing world would not even consider a third. Can you imagine, when now there are thousands! I despaired. (Lay in the shape of a cross on the floor of my coffeehouse and howled like a coyote, I recall.) My book did get published in 1994 by a small English press, and Sourcebooks picked it up for American publication a few years later. So, it was a modest success but missed out on “the battle of the sequels.” The groundswell of lucrative self-publishing was still far in the future - this was before the growing spate of Jane Austen movies and the “Austen boom.” But I just kept on Austenizing in my own way. My In Defense of Mrs. Elton was the first internet serial Austenesque story and was published as the gift of the JASNA AGM in 1999.
The biography of my grandmother had a pleasant (academic) success, and I gave over a hundred talks about it, in places as varied as Yale, Oxford, Alaska, and Hollywood. Along the way, I’ve had a large output of Austen-related stories, essays, articles, and latterly, plays. My “You are Passionate, Jane” has had many dramatic readings around the country and at Chawton House Library in England, with myself in the part of Charlotte Bronte and Syrie James as Jane Austen. It was filmed and presented with discussion by the Jane Austen Summer Program and can be viewed online.
CHRISTINA: The more you reveal about yourself and all you have lived and written, the more I am in fear of turning into a gushing fangirl. Wow. Just wow.
Which comes first plot or characters?
DIANA: Always characters. Having the inspiration of Austen’s characters to start with is a delicious luxury, and once I get into a conversation with them, they don’t stop. It really is an odd sensation, but not unique; I know other Austenesque authors experience similar. The characters say what they want to say and writing it all down has almost an element of automatic writing. In the first draft, that is! The writing process is, for me, all bound up in dialogue, and I do a great deal of editing, to make sure it’s as true and authentic to Jane Austen in style as can possibly be done by (to paraphrase Jane Austen) “the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress” of the 21st century!
CHRISTINA: We are lucky writing comes fast and furious like that, as if we are simply taking dictation.
If you could tell your 21-year-old self anything, what would you share?
DIANA: I’d say something like, “You’re on the right track. But you tend to get discouraged, and that will play the devil with you. Don’t give up!” Although I am not religious, my mantra was always, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Now I would tell my younger self, “Triple that!” Another favorite is Alcott’s quote, “Work is my salvation, and I will always celebrate it.” That is really very useful.
CHRISTINA: Gosh, if you see my 21-year-old self, please tell her the same.
What is your current project or latest release?
DIANA: I write regularly for Austen Variations, a group of excellent and angelically collegial and talented Austenesque authors, writing a post a month. My novel The Bride of Northanger was published by that method and under their label, and I expect that my new book, The Darcys in Venice, will be published the same way in 2025. Here’s a link to their website for a sample. In this scene, Mr. Collins meets Lord Byron.
CHRISTINA: That looks fun! I read and reviewed The Bride of Northanger. Great mystery—perfect for Halloween season.
What makes you get up in the morning? What do you love?
DIANA: My darling husband of half a century, Peter, a poet, passed away last year, so it’s been a bit of a struggle to find my joie de vivre again. But it’s returning: it must, because life is finite and precious, and Peter would want it that way. I am blessed to have my dear son Paul, the librarian on Catalina Island, nearby. Like Mrs. Elton, I have “many resources,” including vitally interesting writing projects, and working with my son on a comprehensive archive and website of my husband’s lifetime poetry output. I’m doing a lot of traveling, and I come home to three feisty old lady tortie cats, Pindar, Martial, and Catullus.
CHRISTINA: Yes, I adore your rallying spirit. I never met your husband, but following you on Facebook, I was heartbroken at his passing. I am glad you are traveling again. I enjoy it when you share your adventures, food porn, and even your cats.
What do you think makes a
good story? And, advice for new writers?
DIANA: My forty-year career as a story analyst taught me that page-turning writing is worth its weight in rubies. To be hooked in, right from the start, and keep reading breathlessly to see what happens, was always what thiscase hardened reader looked for, enjoyed, and chose. If you can develop that quality, it’s priceless. I personally am not a great plotter, and prefer to dwell on characters and dialogue, hoping that wanting to know more about them will make for compelling reading. Jane Austen has it all, especially the breathtaking style that makes her so rewarding to study. You find new wonders with every reading: always a fabulous turn of phrase, wise observation, or subtle sly piece of wit that you missed before. She is a treasure trove, and that’s why I’ve always said she was my writing school and the best there could be. Reading her writing can only improve your own.
CHRISTINA: Yes! Thank you for sharing your advice of forty-years writing experience. I can't wait for you to read my work someday.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
DIANA: Well, I was something else. My “day job” at Warner Bros. was as much my career as my writing. I loved it and it was how I earned a living, which was why I never wanted to write primarily to make money. I was already doing that, and it’s been a gift to be able to write just what I wanted. Alongside reading so much commercial fiction, Jane Austen was the perfect refreshment, and I think I found a good way to balance my financial and artistic needs in a way that worked for me.
CHRISTINA: You are something else. I can't wait to read your memoir.
Have you gone on an author pilgrimage or research trip? Where and what was the most memorable moment?
DIANA: Oh yes, so many! I always wanted to live in England, the home of Jane Austen as well as the majority of my most revered beloved writers. I never did manage it, but, since I had that good day job, I was able to take a trip to England every year for forty years! I have visited Jane Austen sites well known and obscure, and they have enhanced my writing and enriched my life. Over the decades I have met many distinguished and interesting Austen scholars and family members, and enjoyed fabulous conferences, from the first JaneAusten seminar at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, to the play reading at Chawton House where I had the thrill of acting and hearing the audience laugh at the words I’d written and was speaking. One year I drove Joan Austen-Leigh all around to Austen sites, and was a fly on the wall listening to her chat with another Austen family descendant, Helen Lefroy, like two rival duchesses! I remember visiting Alwyn Austen and holding the famous watercolor by Cassandra of Jane Austen with her back turned, then owned by him. I was at early meetings at which the founding of Chawton House Library and the Jane Austen Centre at Bath were discussed; and I remember climbing the steps at Lyme with my husband (who caught me when I jumped). And climbing a glacier on a hike led by Juliet McMaster at the Lake Louise JASNA meeting of 1993, and…oh, there’s too much to tell. That is another story!
CHRISTINA: You have lived quite an extraordinary life. Your travels are some of my favorite Facebook posts. Well, and the food pictures. Yum. If you ever make it to the Pacific Northwest, I am sure I could find you a day hike with lots of scenic vistas. Maybe even a ferry ride over to Friday Harbor to visit the British and American camps. I'm sure there is some research we could find for you there.
Thank you so much for this wonderfully generous interview. You are a gift. I look forward to meeting you again in person one day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Diana Birchall worked for many years as a story analyst for Warner Bros. Studios, reading novels to see if they would make movies. Reading popular fiction went side by side with a lifetime of Jane Austen scholarship and writing Austenesque fiction both as homage and as close study of Jane Austen’s style. She is the author of Mrs. Darcy’s Dilemma, The Bride of Northanger, In Defense of Mrs. Elton and Mrs. Elton in America, as well as hundreds of short stories. Her Austenesque comedy plays have been performed in many cities, with “You Are Passionate, Jane,” a dialogue between Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte in Heaven, being presented at Chawton House Library in England. Diana has also written a scholarly biography of her grandmother, the first Asian American novelist, Onoto Watanna, and has lectured widely about her books. She grew up in New York City, and now lives in Santa Monica, California. Her husband Peter was a poet, and her son Paul is the librarian on Catalina Island.
It is a treat to get to know Diana better. This is a wonderful interview. Thank you, ladies.