Greetings, Austenites! It's been about a month since my last guest author was invited to share their new Austenesque work with us. Fortunately debut writer Leigh Dreyer has dropped by for a short visit to promote her Pride and Prejudice modern romance titled The Best Laid Flight Plans. Let's welcome Leigh and learn more about her through this interview.
A: I work as a speech pathologist, currently in the Las Vegas area. I work both in person and doing teletherapy (which I absolutely love) from my home. I write while my kids take naps and during teletherapy breaks. I also have just been the lead in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. I have an incredible husband who is a pilot in the Air Force and two amazing kids. My son is three and my daughter is eighteen months. Both my husband and I are Air Force brats, both children of pilots which makes for fun family get togethers.
Q: Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?
A: Elizabeth Bennet and "Fitz" William Darcy are well known to any regular JAFF readers, but in my novel it was fun to see them in the military, a culture with which I'm so familiar. When I've read Pride and Prejudice, I've often wondered what amazing things Elizabeth would do in a time where women could go and do anything a man could, and I loved seeing her go out and reach for her dreams.
Q: Which writers inspire you?
A: Jane Austen is the obvious answer, but I'm also inspired by so many JAFF authors. People like (in no particular order) Linda Wells, Joy King, Diana J Oaks, Maria Grace, Abigail Reynolds, Jenetta James, Karen Cox, Beau North, Jan Hahn, Elizabeth Ann West, Rose Fairbanks, etc. inspire me to fall more deeply in love with characters I already enjoy. I also love Diana Gabaldon, Neil Gaman, Aled Hossein, Tom Wolfe, William Makepeace Thackeray, Agatha Christie and CS Forester.
Q: What made you write and publish The Best Laid Flight Plans?
A: Well, I found JAFF while working in DC and riding the metro to and from work. I first read Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James and loved it. I then searched out others and enjoyed them as well. Soon I had my son and needed something to do at night while I was up with him (he was up more than five times a night until he was eighteen months old). I turned to JAFF. The stories were always interesting and captivating so they would keep me awake at two in the morning, so they were perfect.
My sister-in-law held a book club and I suggested she invite Diana J Oaks to the club and discuss One Thread Pulled (which is one of my very favourite novels). I went up to the meeting, had a fantastic time, and afterward off-handedly told my sister-in-law that I had this funny idea for Pride and Prejudice all set in pilot training. I really fell in love with the idea of a Captain "Fitz" William Darcy, with Fitz as his call sign (Call signs are an important part of pilot culture — for reference, please see Maverick and Goose from Top Gun). My dad was an instructor pilot for most of his Air Force career, I met my husband in pilot training, and my father-in-law was also a career Air Force pilot. She thought it was a great idea and really encouraged me, so I went home and started writing that week. I wrote during my kid's naps and finished my initial manuscript in about four months.
I have big dreams that one day it will become a Hallmark movie and make my mom and dad crazy proud.
Q: If this book is part of a series, can you tell us a little about it?
A: The Best Laid Flight Plans will be book one in a series (although I think it stands alone quite well). I really wanted to see the journey of Elizabeth Bennet and see how our dreams change based on factors outside our control. My Elizabeth is a strong, independent, woman who, unlike the original, doesn't need a man to help her move up or continue in the world and I think it is interesting to explore how love changes us.
Q: What are you working on at the minute and what is it about?
A: Book two, The Flight Path Less Travelled and a short story about how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet meet and get married. The Flight Path Less Travelled will start where The Best Laid Flight Plans ends and will continue the story to see where Elizabeth's dreams end up.
Q: Who helped you along the way?
A: I should probably state that the biggest help has been from my editor Christina Boyd of The Quill Ink. She has been fabulous and the book is so much better for her influence. Additionally, my husband, father and father-in-law have been incredibly instrumental in making the flying scenes accurate. My husband is a current USAF pilot so I have been taking notes at various Air Force activities that we've attended for the past year and a half or so for parts in my book. Additionally, my father is a Master Instructor Pilot and currently works at a pilot training base as a simulator instructor and he was able to give me a lot of the details of the numbers, etc. and it was a huge help. (Thanks guys!) I also had a fabulous group of friends and family who helped me along the way as beta readers.
Q: Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they came about.
A: The photo shoot was done in Utah at the Air Force museum at Hill Air Force Base. It was important to me to highlight Elizabeth as a female pilot. Females are so rare in the pilot world that I wanted to be able to see Elizabeth as I see her, a strong woman who is willing to work harder than anyone else to achieve what she sees for herself. I made the choice to have the little ringlets and her hair up in a kind of braid Mohawk, because I thought it was a fun throwback to the Regency hairstyles. The back cover is Darcy and I love his name tag and the idea of a compass for Elizabeth's journey.
Q: What is your favourite Jane Austen novel and why?
A: My favourite Jane Austen novel is Pride and Prejudice. I love Elizabeth and Darcy, of course, but honestly, Pride and Prejudice also has my favorite side characters. I have a big family and I love the dynamics of the Bennets — I can see each of my own siblings in Elizabeth's. I also love Colonel Fitzwilliam and Lady Catherine — who doesn't have a sort of embarrassing, slightly overbearing aunt and a cousin that has way more swag than any person really should. Personally, I could never really get into Mansfield Park — although I have certainly given it my best shot — and Emma always drove me a little crazy, until I read Karen M. Cox's I Could Write a Book which made me really begin to understand her as a character. I also harbour a deep love for Sense and Sensibility. I like to pretend that I'm an Elinor, but am probably just a Marianne who keeps her emotions under better regulation (I have yet to run after a man in a rain storm). I also love Persuasion, but I think that might be because my husband, who I dated long distance for two years, has been deployed several times, so I deeply understand the pining for years for someone not there.
Q: It's the trend that most JAFF authors choose to write stories based on Pride and Prejudice as it is the novel many Austenesque lovers identify with. Would you consider penning a non Pride and Prejudice fiction? If not, why not?
A: The Best Laid Flight Plans was always intended to be a Pride and Prejudice based novel, however, many of the side characters are pulled from Austen's other works. One of Elizabeth's instructors, for example, is a certain Captain Dashwood. I'm planning two sequels to this book and plan to bring in elements of Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. JAFF is really what pulled me into reading and enjoying Austen's other novels, so I would love to give someone else the gift so many authors have given me.
Q: Since The Best Laid Flight Plans is a modern novel, would you try your hand at writing historical based fiction, say during Regency era?
A: I would love to write a historical based fiction! In fact, that is probably 95% of what I read. I've been working on a short story with a working title of Mr. Bennet Takes a Bride about how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet met and were married. The challenge is making the language sound period appropriate. In regular life, I have a fairly casual manner of talking which makes working my way into the rich Georgian and Regency language somewhat difficult for me. I know it bothers me when authors don't get the language quite right so I want to make sure anything I put out is appropriate. That is actually why I wrote a modern. I had tried a few lines of a chapter or two of a Regency story and it never sat quite right. I wrote the first chapter of a modern and I was much happier with the result.
Q: Would you like to share anything else about yourself or Jane Austen?
A: Just briefly, that Jane Austen has been such a blessing in my life. The friends I have made in the JAFF and greater Jane Austen-loving community have been so supportive and loving — unless we are talking about '95 vs 2005 P&P movies... Let's just all be friends! — JAFF came to me in a time when I desperately needed a support network and finding friends in the characters written and in the authors, editors and other readers has been wonderful.
In this modern Pride and Prejudice variation, Captain William "Fitz" Darcy has just received a new assignment as an instructor pilot at Meryton Air Force Base. Soon he meets the intrepid 2nd Lieutenant Elizabeth Bennet, a new student at the base that he cannot keep out of his head. Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds Captain Darcy to be arrogant and prideful and attempts to avoid him at every turn. Despite Darcy's insulting manners, Elizabeth soars her way through pilot training, but can she soar her way into love as well?
Leigh Dreyer is a huge fan of Jane Austen variations and the JAFF community. She is blessed to have multi-generational military connections through herself and her husband, who she met in pilot training. She often describes her formative years in this way, "You know the Great Balls of Fire scene in Top Gun ("Goose you big stud!!!"), where Goose and Meg Ryan have their kid on the piano? I was that kid." Leigh lives with her pilot husband, a plane-obsessed son and a daughter who is almost walking.
Author Interview
Q: Thank you for agreeing to do an interview with me. If you don't mind, Leigh, please tell us a little about yourself and your background.A: I work as a speech pathologist, currently in the Las Vegas area. I work both in person and doing teletherapy (which I absolutely love) from my home. I write while my kids take naps and during teletherapy breaks. I also have just been the lead in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. I have an incredible husband who is a pilot in the Air Force and two amazing kids. My son is three and my daughter is eighteen months. Both my husband and I are Air Force brats, both children of pilots which makes for fun family get togethers.
Q: Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?
A: Elizabeth Bennet and "Fitz" William Darcy are well known to any regular JAFF readers, but in my novel it was fun to see them in the military, a culture with which I'm so familiar. When I've read Pride and Prejudice, I've often wondered what amazing things Elizabeth would do in a time where women could go and do anything a man could, and I loved seeing her go out and reach for her dreams.
Q: Which writers inspire you?
A: Jane Austen is the obvious answer, but I'm also inspired by so many JAFF authors. People like (in no particular order) Linda Wells, Joy King, Diana J Oaks, Maria Grace, Abigail Reynolds, Jenetta James, Karen Cox, Beau North, Jan Hahn, Elizabeth Ann West, Rose Fairbanks, etc. inspire me to fall more deeply in love with characters I already enjoy. I also love Diana Gabaldon, Neil Gaman, Aled Hossein, Tom Wolfe, William Makepeace Thackeray, Agatha Christie and CS Forester.
Q: What made you write and publish The Best Laid Flight Plans?
A: Well, I found JAFF while working in DC and riding the metro to and from work. I first read Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James and loved it. I then searched out others and enjoyed them as well. Soon I had my son and needed something to do at night while I was up with him (he was up more than five times a night until he was eighteen months old). I turned to JAFF. The stories were always interesting and captivating so they would keep me awake at two in the morning, so they were perfect.
My sister-in-law held a book club and I suggested she invite Diana J Oaks to the club and discuss One Thread Pulled (which is one of my very favourite novels). I went up to the meeting, had a fantastic time, and afterward off-handedly told my sister-in-law that I had this funny idea for Pride and Prejudice all set in pilot training. I really fell in love with the idea of a Captain "Fitz" William Darcy, with Fitz as his call sign (Call signs are an important part of pilot culture — for reference, please see Maverick and Goose from Top Gun). My dad was an instructor pilot for most of his Air Force career, I met my husband in pilot training, and my father-in-law was also a career Air Force pilot. She thought it was a great idea and really encouraged me, so I went home and started writing that week. I wrote during my kid's naps and finished my initial manuscript in about four months.
I have big dreams that one day it will become a Hallmark movie and make my mom and dad crazy proud.
Q: If this book is part of a series, can you tell us a little about it?
A: The Best Laid Flight Plans will be book one in a series (although I think it stands alone quite well). I really wanted to see the journey of Elizabeth Bennet and see how our dreams change based on factors outside our control. My Elizabeth is a strong, independent, woman who, unlike the original, doesn't need a man to help her move up or continue in the world and I think it is interesting to explore how love changes us.
Q: What are you working on at the minute and what is it about?
A: Book two, The Flight Path Less Travelled and a short story about how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet meet and get married. The Flight Path Less Travelled will start where The Best Laid Flight Plans ends and will continue the story to see where Elizabeth's dreams end up.
Q: Who helped you along the way?
A: I should probably state that the biggest help has been from my editor Christina Boyd of The Quill Ink. She has been fabulous and the book is so much better for her influence. Additionally, my husband, father and father-in-law have been incredibly instrumental in making the flying scenes accurate. My husband is a current USAF pilot so I have been taking notes at various Air Force activities that we've attended for the past year and a half or so for parts in my book. Additionally, my father is a Master Instructor Pilot and currently works at a pilot training base as a simulator instructor and he was able to give me a lot of the details of the numbers, etc. and it was a huge help. (Thanks guys!) I also had a fabulous group of friends and family who helped me along the way as beta readers.
Q: Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they came about.
A: The photo shoot was done in Utah at the Air Force museum at Hill Air Force Base. It was important to me to highlight Elizabeth as a female pilot. Females are so rare in the pilot world that I wanted to be able to see Elizabeth as I see her, a strong woman who is willing to work harder than anyone else to achieve what she sees for herself. I made the choice to have the little ringlets and her hair up in a kind of braid Mohawk, because I thought it was a fun throwback to the Regency hairstyles. The back cover is Darcy and I love his name tag and the idea of a compass for Elizabeth's journey.
Q: What is your favourite Jane Austen novel and why?
A: My favourite Jane Austen novel is Pride and Prejudice. I love Elizabeth and Darcy, of course, but honestly, Pride and Prejudice also has my favorite side characters. I have a big family and I love the dynamics of the Bennets — I can see each of my own siblings in Elizabeth's. I also love Colonel Fitzwilliam and Lady Catherine — who doesn't have a sort of embarrassing, slightly overbearing aunt and a cousin that has way more swag than any person really should. Personally, I could never really get into Mansfield Park — although I have certainly given it my best shot — and Emma always drove me a little crazy, until I read Karen M. Cox's I Could Write a Book which made me really begin to understand her as a character. I also harbour a deep love for Sense and Sensibility. I like to pretend that I'm an Elinor, but am probably just a Marianne who keeps her emotions under better regulation (I have yet to run after a man in a rain storm). I also love Persuasion, but I think that might be because my husband, who I dated long distance for two years, has been deployed several times, so I deeply understand the pining for years for someone not there.
Q: It's the trend that most JAFF authors choose to write stories based on Pride and Prejudice as it is the novel many Austenesque lovers identify with. Would you consider penning a non Pride and Prejudice fiction? If not, why not?
A: The Best Laid Flight Plans was always intended to be a Pride and Prejudice based novel, however, many of the side characters are pulled from Austen's other works. One of Elizabeth's instructors, for example, is a certain Captain Dashwood. I'm planning two sequels to this book and plan to bring in elements of Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. JAFF is really what pulled me into reading and enjoying Austen's other novels, so I would love to give someone else the gift so many authors have given me.
Q: Since The Best Laid Flight Plans is a modern novel, would you try your hand at writing historical based fiction, say during Regency era?
A: I would love to write a historical based fiction! In fact, that is probably 95% of what I read. I've been working on a short story with a working title of Mr. Bennet Takes a Bride about how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet met and were married. The challenge is making the language sound period appropriate. In regular life, I have a fairly casual manner of talking which makes working my way into the rich Georgian and Regency language somewhat difficult for me. I know it bothers me when authors don't get the language quite right so I want to make sure anything I put out is appropriate. That is actually why I wrote a modern. I had tried a few lines of a chapter or two of a Regency story and it never sat quite right. I wrote the first chapter of a modern and I was much happier with the result.
Q: Would you like to share anything else about yourself or Jane Austen?
A: Just briefly, that Jane Austen has been such a blessing in my life. The friends I have made in the JAFF and greater Jane Austen-loving community have been so supportive and loving — unless we are talking about '95 vs 2005 P&P movies... Let's just all be friends! — JAFF came to me in a time when I desperately needed a support network and finding friends in the characters written and in the authors, editors and other readers has been wonderful.
Book Blurb
Author Bio
Giveaway
Thank you so much for contacting and providing me the chance to ask some questions. It's a delight to get to know you better, Leigh. Readers, would you like to read The Best Laid Flight Plans for free? The author has generously offered an e-book edition and squadron patches of Darcy and Elizabeth. So take the opportunity to participate in the international giveaway by filling up the Rafflecopter form below.
Thank you so much for interviewing me! I can't wait to send someone those squadron patches and a free eBook!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview! This book hits all the right notes. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSounds exciting!
ReplyDeleteAs the granddaughter of an Air Force Master Sergeant, I love the idea of Elizabeth and Darcy with an Air Force theme. :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your debut novel!
Great interview, I am excited that there are sequels planned.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, Leigh and Sylvia. Thanks for sharing so much about yourself and your writing with us, Leigh. I love it when Austenesque writers bring in characters from Jane Austen's other works.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the wonderful, interesting interview.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. Can’t wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteWonderful interview. I am looking forward to this modern variation.
ReplyDelete