A Dickens of an Inspiration!

We are pleased to welcome back author Barbara Tiller Cole. Be sure to read through her guest post here and enter the giveaway!

 A Dickens of an Inspiration!

Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy

By Barbara Tiller Cole

First of all, I want to thank Dark Jane Austen Book Club for choosing Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy as their group read book of the month.  I have enjoyed getting to know the folks here at DJABC.  I will never forget the time that my husband rushed home with a copy of a hot off the press copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  He was so cute as he just knew he had found something I did not yet know about, and I didn’t.  I also had the lovely Evie Cotton’s brother draw the following caricature of she and I attempting to escape from the Zombies of Meryton.  Please visit DarcyholicDiversions.com as Dark Jane Austen and my blog are SWAPPING today and their post is on my blog

BTColerunsfromZombies

 

The year was 2008, and I in my long woolen cap had just settled down for some Holiday cheer.  When low to my humble eyes should appear, a succession of movies, an Ebenezer year.  

That was the way it began.  Over the course of one long weekend after Thanksgiving, I watched a cavalcade of Holiday movies, but most of them were variations of A Christmas Carol

The first is my all time favorite for the classic traditional story, and that is the one in which George C. Scott stars. For a true Dickens fan, or someone who really wants to experience some of the depth of Scrooges character, I can recommend this version. 

 I watched everything from Donald Duck…  

To the Muppets Christmas Carol… 

 I even watched the Soap Opera Queen, Susan Lucci herself in ‘Ebbie.’ 

 But as I am a comedian, I would say that it was actually Bill Murray’s Scrooged that probably had the most profound effect on my story.  Carol Kane’s ghost might have been a bit too silly for the Ghost of Darcy’s mother, Lady Anne. But just as Kane’s character is costumed to the nines, I imagine Darcy’s mother coming to him elegantly dressed and still beautiful (and hence the ghostly image of her on the new cover).  And, the Ghost of Christmas Future in Scrooged definitely inspired part of the ending of my novella.

Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy is not old and is not a miser as in Dickens tale, but he is every bit as angry and closed off from others as Scrooge is in the original.  He has fallen into deep and dark drunkenness; and as I work as an addiction therapist by day, I know what drunks are like.  My portrayal of a drunk and despairing Darcy is actually based on a combination of 3 past patients I worked with. 

If I had waited a couple of years to write my tale, I am sure that Jim Carey’s A Christmas Carol may have had an effect on me.  After all Colin is a character in the tale.  And the Ghosts of that tale were quite whimsical as well.

And finally the ending of my tale, the transformation complete for Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy, is hands down inspired the beaming face of Mr. Darcy right after his wedding in the BBC mini series.  

I am giving away both a softcover copy to US winners and an Ebook copy for International winners to Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy.  To enter just comment and tell me what is YOUR biggest Scrooge moment, or what your happiest childhood memory of a Christmas Past happens to be.  Winners will be selected by the lovely ladies here at Dark Jane Austen.

Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy

FEDFinalFrontPride and Prejudice meets A Christmas Carol A Jane Austen/Charles Dickens crossover story, Fitzwilliam Ebenezer Darcy takes the best of both classics and spins them into a delightful holiday yarn! F. E. Darcy has fallen into pitiful self-loathing and sorrowful angst-ridden despair; all of this due to this belief that he has lost forever the chance to marry the only woman he will ever love, Elizabeth Bennet. Seeing her son in such a state, the Ghost of Anne Darcy reaches out to him; informing him that three Ghosts would visit him and give him hope. Will these Spirits provide him with the courage to try again to win the esteem of his one true soul mate? Author blurb: Barbara Tiller Cole, an Atlanta native and author of the popular book White Lies and Other Half Truths, presents this family friendly classic, crediting her parents for fostering her love of both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Each Christmas Barbara’s father would sit and read Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol to the family. Her mother consistently challenged her to improve her mind by extensive reading, Jane Austen style. This book is dedicated to the memory of Cliff and Jeanne and the season they loved best.

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