Have you ever had
conversations while teaching the waltz make it into one of your books? Do you
include a lot of dance scenes in your books?
While
I’m teaching I’m very focused on teaching, not directly that I can think of…
but I really ought to write a romantic comedy about a dance class. I’m very
tongue-in-cheek while I teach. Dancing is one of the great loves of my life,
and I want to teach people to love it as much as I do. So it needs to be fun. I’m
also aware the dancing is often seen as a mating ritual; most dance instructors
try to ignore that part. I don’t. So class tends to be filled with off-color
jokes and innuendos. It gets so that I say something and the class doubles over
in laughter, and I have to backtrack through what I said, and then say, “Oh.
Yeah. Well, YOU find a way to say that which doesn’t sound naughty…” My waltz
book has a very, very casual tone for a textbook. Because, again, the most
important thing is to keep it fun.
I
can’t NOT have dancing in my books. Wealth and Privilege and Brains
and Beauty begin with a birthday ball. I also fit in tidbits of
etiquette which Vintage dancers tend to know. But while Jane Austen Lied to
Me is a modern story, I had to throw in a dance. Had to, of course.
Jane Austen wrote about dances… It’s on page 220, and you can totally see I’m a
dance instructor. After the dance, they are talking about lead-follow skills,
one of the single most important things I stress in my classes. Then one of the
characters says “Dancing is a matter of trusting your partner.” The
entire scene is meant to reflect a scene in Emma, but at the same time,
it is very much me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
What
college girl doesn’t dream of meeting Mr. Darcy? Lizzie was certainly no
exception. But when Darcy Fitzwilliam comes into her life, he turns out to be
every bit as aggravating as Elizabeth Bennett’s Fitzwilliam Darcy. So what’s a
modern girl to do?
Jeanette
Watts’ satire pokes loving fun at Jane and all of us who worship the characters
who shall forever be our romantic ideals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Jeanette
Watts had been writing historic fiction when the inspiration for Jane Austen
Lied to Me hit her on the drive home from the Jane Austen Festival. The idea
was simply irresistible, and she put aside other writing projects in order to
focus on writing a satire, thinking it would be a "mental vacation."
It turned out to take every bit as much research to write a modern story as it
does to write a historical one.
She
has written television commercials, marketing newspapers, stage melodramas,
four screenplays, three novels, and a textbook on waltzing. When she isn’t writing, she teaches
social ballroom dances, refinishes various parts of her house, and sews
historical costumes and dance costumes for her Cancan troupe.
Links:
Webpage
Facebook
Twitter
@JeanetteAWatts
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