June Meeting Followup

On a beautiful sunny Saturday in June, over 20 members of the Central NJ JASNA chapter met for tea at Seabrook Village, hosted by Mildred Younger. Our guest speaker, former JASNA president, and author, Elsa Solender shared with us her newest book on Jane Austen.

Ms. Solender spoke about the difficulty that many authors have in finding Austen's voice and that the only author to ever come close is Patrick O'Brien, and it was he who said, to paraphrase, that she "had a very pretty kind of voice." So, that when it comes to writing, an author must try not to use modern phrases, words, or context, and she gave us an example of her own writing both in the modern style and then written as if in that time period. The illustration was quite illuminating and funny. She also mentioned that while Regency-style author Georgette Heyer did not write according to the actual time period constraints, she developed her own style of writing that is often mimiced as Regency-style.

Ms. Solender read to us, a selection from her own e-book, and shared with us the journey she took in getting it published via Amazon. She discussed the merits of e-publishing, and talked about her upcoming book tours. She stated that the most important part of publishing her book was the resonance that it had with her audience and that she enjoyed hearing what people felt the most about reading her book.

After the very engaging talk by Ms. Solender, we enjoyed a very wonderful tea put on by Mildred, complete with little finger sandwiches, scones, cookies, and even lemon curd made from a special French recipe. The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up on all the lastest reads, vacations, newest grandchildrens' antics, and yes, even work woes.

Our great thanks goes out to Ms. Solender for visiting us and for sharing with us her newest endeavor and to our Mildred for hosting such a lovely afternoon.

-Meredith