Pride and Prejudice and Children – PAMELA JANE

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The Query that got us Our Book Contract

For those of you interested in queries that succeeded in getting book contracts, here is Deborah and my original query for Pride and Prejudice and Kitties: Query PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND KITTIES humor, pop culture Finally, chick lit meets kit lit! Jane Austen is hot and cats are happening. Yet of the dozens of popular books on Jane Austen and scores of funny cat books, not one combines the enduring novelist with the endearing feline. The world is ready for “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” – a playful mash-up of the well-loved classic novel and the perverse perspective of the naughty, haughty kitty. Better than CliffsNotes: the adorable meets the absurd. In “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” wacky illustrations of cats in Regency settings are juxtaposed with the wicked humor of Jane. The book will follow the general outline of Pride and Prejudice. There are 61 chapters in Pride and Prejudice, and “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” will contain 2-1/2 pages for each chapter (a … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

A Writer’s Inner Cosmos or Don’t Underestimate Yourself!

Note: This post was originally published in a slightly altered form at womensmemoirs.com. My late kitty, Mittens, didn’t have much personality. As my friend and co-author, Debbie, once observed, “he’s one notch above a stuffed animal.” I argued for two notches, but she had a point. Poor guy. It wasn’t his fault that he was born with no street-smarts or even house-smarts, and slept 23-3/4 hours a day. He was also terribly timid and ran away meowing if he even saw an ant. The most dangerous thing he ever attacked was a Starbucks straw. So imagine my shock and amazement when Mittens caught and killed a mouse in our living room, just a few weeks before he died. It goes to show, you never know what someone is capable of. Furthermore, “what someone is capable of” is not fixed or finite; it changes and shifts as we evolve. I’ve seen this truth play out (to one mouse’s misfortune) in many … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Giving Thanks for Jane

Jane Austen is one of the ten reasons I’m glad I’m alive. Or maybe even one of five, right up there with love, the silliness of cats, and morning light in the trees. When I think about Jane Austen I feel gratitude for her wisdom, wit, and genius; her stories are about all of us, and her characters are all of us. (Have you ever caught yourself sounding horrifyingly like foolish, vulgar Mrs. Bennet or pedantic Mary? And haven’t we all been Emma Woodhouse at her very worst moment?) Jane, being Jane, understood the part gratitude plays in love: “But above all, above respect and esteem, there was a motive within her of goodwill which could not be overlooked. It was gratitude; gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.…Such a change … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

The Pride and Prejudice Primer

It’s fascinating how we look at TV and books as small children. Even when we understand them only partially, or barely at all, they become a part us and the meaning we make of the world. I was fairly strict about how much TV my daughter could watch when she was growing up. But whenever she was home sick, I let her watch the full BBC Pride and Prejudice – nearly six blessed hours of respite for both of us! Annelise was born in 1994 – a year before the P&P TV mini-series was made, so she started watching fairly young. She’s is a sophomore in college now and recently, when rewatching the series together, she reminded me about how I had explained one aspect of the film that puzzled her. It was the scene at the inn in Lampton where Darcy finds Elizabeth distraught over the news that Lydia has run off with Wickham: Darcy: You are not … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

How our “Pride and Prejudice and Kitties” Query Survived 75 Agents

Until now, we’ve generally referred to the query letter that sold our book, Pride and Prejudice and Kitties, as having been sent to “X” number of agents. But now, thanks to Galley Cat at Media Bistro, the word is out that our query letter was rejected by 75 agents well – 74 because we did finally sell the book. You can read our query here. Actually, during the submission process we did manage to capture the attention of several agents. The problem was that most were daunted by the logistics of taking 100 funny photographs of cats in Regency settings. Also, to be honest, it took Debbie and me several years to clarify and define our concept for the book. … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

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