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| Welcome to Magic, Myth, & Mischief in celebration of fairy tales, mythology, and fantastic beasts of lore such as dragons, fae, mermaids, and unicorns! Join our celebration daily at A Backwards Story and That Artsy Reader Girl! Check out our daily schedule of events at ABS and TARG! Stop back all week long for fun author interviews, exciting giveaways, reviews, and more! Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Join the fun by adding your own links here! Enter the BIG giveaway here!!! Instagram Challenge! |
I'm REALLY excited for today's guest post, bookworms!!! I ADORE Julie Eshbaugh and am SO happy she's stopping by for a guest post. She's an amazing person and her books explore a time period I haven't seen in YA before. You want wooly mammoths and sabertooth tigers? Here you go, have at 'em!!! ♥
Even better? If you live in or around Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, etc., Julie will be at the Barnes and Noble near Philadelphia that frequently hosts Sarah J. Maas in conversation with Meghan Rogers (whose books are tagged as "James Bond starring a teenage girl!") this Sunday, September 24th, at 1 pm!
New to the world of IVORY AND BONE? We've spotlighted the first book and fully reviewed the sequel over here! ^.~
Visit her at:
Retelling Jane Austen in a Completely New Way
by Julie Eshbaugh
by Julie Eshbaugh
I’m so excited to be a part of Magic, Myth and Mischief! Thanks so much for inviting me to share some thoughts about retelling Jane Austen in a new way.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with my debut, Ivory and Bone, it’s a prehistoric fantasy loosely inspired by Pride and Prejudice. As crazy as that may sound, it all started with Mr. Darcy.
Mr. Darcy is near the top of my list of all-time favorite characters—I love his evolution as he’s influenced by Elizabeth Bennet, and I’ve always been struck by the way that these two characters are so relatable, even to contemporary readers. It made me wonder if people have always behaved in certain ways, even before recorded history. Would it be surprising to imagine that young men and women felt attracted, offended, hopeful, disappointed, and confused by love, at any time in human history? I suspect that people have always felt all these things, so I dropped my own female version of Mr. Darcy into my prehistoric world in the form of Mya, and gave her Kol, a boy somewhat inspired by Elizabeth Bennet.
When readers imagine a book inspired by Austen, they might think of drawing room conversation, an emphasis on manners, and the effects of the rigid customs of the time. In setting a P&P inspired story in a world about as far from Regency England as can be imagined, I found that there is room for family politics, competition between suitors, and those Austen-esque moments of awkward embarrassment in any setting. From the Neolithic age to the Regency period to the contemporary world, the outward expression of the human heart may have changed, but reading Jane Austen (as well as the Bronte sisters, Shakespeare, Dickens… even the Bible,) has taught me that the content of the human heart has not.
Though Ivory and Bone took inspiration from Pride and Prejudice, it’s not a true retelling, and in fact, it was at first going to be my own little secret. I considered the allusions no more than hidden homages to one of my favorite books that only some, if any, readers would recognize. Once I shared the P&P connection, though, I saw how much readers enjoyed looking for the allusions and how it connected the book to its inspiration. It’s been fun for me to hear about the similarities readers have found, especially when they recognize something I’ve almost forgotten was there.
That’s the thing about every story, but especially retellings—they have their inspiration, but then they take on a life all their own. Kol and Mya certainly grew beyond the boundaries of “prehistoric, gender-flipped Lizzie and Darcy,” and in Obsidian and Stars, the sequel to Ivory and Bone, they leave the Austen connection behind. Well… mostly. They are still two young people trying to figure out their feelings for each other within the confines of their society’s expectations, so in that way they still owe a lot to Jane Austen.
Remember to come out and see Julie Eshbaugh this Sunday, September 24th, at 1 p.m. if you live near or can travel to Philadelphia, PA! ♥♥♥
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O F F I C I A L I N F O:
Title: IVORY AND BONE
Author: Julie Eshbaugh
Release Date: June 7, 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
SUMMARY:
Two clans. Only one will survive.
The only life seventeen-year-old Kol knows is hunting at the foot of the Great Ice with his brothers. But food is becoming scarce, and without another clan to align with, Kol, his family, and their entire group are facing an uncertain future.
Traveling from the south, Mya and her family arrive at Kol’s camp with a trail of hurt and loss behind them, and hope for a new beginning. When Kol meets Mya, her strength, independence, and beauty instantly captivate him, igniting a desire for much more than survival.
Then on a hunt, Kol makes a grave mistake that jeopardizes the relationship that he and Mya have only just started to build. Mya was guarded to begin with—and for good reason—but no apology or gesture is enough for her to forgive him. Soon after, another clan arrives on their shores. And when Mya spots Lo, a daughter of this new clan, her anger intensifies, adding to the already simmering tension between families. After befriending Lo, Kol learns of a dark history between Lo and Mya that is rooted in the tangle of their pasts.
When violence erupts, Kol is forced to choose between fighting alongside Mya or trusting Lo’s claims. And when things quickly turn deadly, it becomes clear that this was a war that one of them had been planning all along.
Title: OBSIDIAN AND STARS
Author: Julie Eshbaugh
Release Date: June 13, 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
SUMMARY:
In the sequel to IVORY AND BONE—the prehistoric fantasy novel that New York Times bestselling author Amie Kaufman described as a “richly crafted world of life-and-death stakes”—the story shifts to Mya’s viewpoint as vengeful adversaries force her to flee the life she once knew.
After surviving the chaotic battle that erupted after Lo and the Bosha clan attacked, now Mya is looking ahead to her future with Kol. All the things that once felt so uncertain are finally falling into place. But the same night as Kol and Mya’s betrothal announcement, Mya’s brother Chev reveals his plan to marry his youngest sister Lees to his friend Morsk. The only way to avoid this terrible turn of events, Morsk informs Mya when he corners her later, is for Mya to take Lees’ place and marry him herself.
Refusing to marry anyone other than her beloved, and in an effort to protect her sister, Mya runs away to a secret island with Lees. And though it seems like the safest place to hide until things back home blow over, Mya soon realizes she’s been followed. Lurking deep in the recesses of this dangerous place are rivals from Mya’s past whose thirst for revenge exceeds all reason.
With the lives of her loved ones on the line, Mya must make a move before the enemies of her past become the undoing of her future.
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GIVEAWAY
During Magic, Myth, & Mischief,
we're giving away a book of YOUR CHOICE
from the event!
It could be a book by IVORY AND BONE or OBSIDIAN AND STARS)
we're giving away a book of YOUR CHOICE
from the event!
It could be a book by IVORY AND BONE or OBSIDIAN AND STARS)
This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL to any country that Book Depository ships to. You can also claim an e-book as a prize; it doesn't have to be a physical copy!
You must be at least 13 years old to enter or have a parent's permission!
Enter now!
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