Your debut novel Of Love & Beer is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Why did you choose to write a retelling and why specifically Pride and Prejudice?
This actually starts with Pride and Prejudice. Every time I’ve read it, or any of Jane Austen’s novels (and I’ve reread them a lot), I’ve always spent days afterwards thinking about how a modern version might go. But until recently, I didn’t have the confidence to try it. About five years ago, things go so chaotic with politics that I got overwhelmed. I think now it was a kind of depression I went into, but it manifested by me turning away from all media except Pride and Prejudice variations which I had recently discovered. After reading nothing but what is essentially Jane Austen fan fiction for nearly six months, I woke up one day and just thought, “I could do this. I could write an Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy story.” For a while I debated whether to do a variation set in the Regency period like most of the books I’d read, or to do a retelling. The retelling won out partly because I’d been thinking of that for so many years, and partly because since I’d never written a romance novel before, I mistakenly thought it’d be easier to already have a basic structure and plot points to follow.
Of Love & Beer is set in the world of craft beer breweries. What made you choose that particular setting?
This is a good question because I don’t even drink beer myself. I’m a teetotaler. But my husband loves craft beer and is a home brewer. And we have friends who also love craft beer, so it was something I was somewhat familiar with. When I looked at P&P to update it, I decided that for Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bennet, being a gentleman was essentially their job. They were both in the same profession, as it were, just at different levels. So I looked around me, trying to decide what career Ellis and Dean could be in that would be same but have different levels that could lead to a snobbishness on Dean’s part. I went through multiple kinds of careers before I decided on the beer industry. Originally they were both going to be brewers, just at different sized businesses. But I couldn’t work out the snobbishness that I see as inherent to Darcy’s disdain for Elizabeth. And since I live in the middle of wine country, I ended up going with beer vs wine.
You’ve done a lot of research on beer making. Could you share a fun fact that you’ve learned?
Oh my goodness! I have so many. For the last couple of years I even had a weekly post on Instagram that was a fun fact that I’d learned. Okay, let’s see . . . It turns out that yeast, which is primarily used to ferment the malt, also produces esters which contribute to the flavor of a beer. For example, Hefeweizen’s are known for their distinct banana flavor, and that comes from the yeast they use. Another thing I learned is that beer making was originally a domestic task, which means that women were the original and primary brewers until hops, which acts as a preservative, became a universal ingredient, allowing beer to be made in larger quantities and transported. Meaning, until there was serious money to be made in selling beer. Then men took it away from women. An interesting and sadly ironic twist to that is that it was largely through the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th Century German abbess, that the preservative properties of hops became known and adopted. So the knowledge of a woman who loved beer, and studied it, and wrote about it, ended up helping lead to women being excluded from the production of it. To the point where today, most people think beer is a man's drink and give female brewers very little respect.
How did you come up with the names of your characters?
Even though this book is based on Pride and Prejudice, I didn’t want it to be so tied to that story that people who hadn’t read it or seen the movies would feel like it wasn't for them. So I decided to change the names. But I wanted them to be related in some way. As I was drafting, before I’d chosen names, I used initials. So Elizabeth was E and Darcy was D. D easily became Dean because Dean sounds like D. I wanted a name for Elizabeth that still had E-L in it. I got the idea for Ellis from a young cousin, Anne Ellis. For the last names, I used their P&P homes. So Mr. Darcy’s Pemberly became Dean’s last name, Pembrook. And Elizabeth’s Longbourn became Bourne for Ellis. For most of the other characters, it was a similar process of turning their initials into names. For some of the men, I flipped the initials, so Charles Bingley became Ben Charleston, William Collins is Collin Williams and Wallace Cooke (I split that character into two). Charlotte Lucas became Lucy and Carmen (I split her into two characters, too). George Wickham became Wiley Griggs. At first I had George as his last name, but I didn't really like that, so I changed it. And the name Wickham gives a slight hint that he’s a wicked man, so when I came across the name Wiley, I thought that was perfect. CF is Colonel Fitzwilliam in P&P, but I pretty early on decided to make that character a woman, but then I couldn’t decide on a name for so long that eventually the initials grew on me, and I decided to keep them.
Why did you choose to self-publish your novel?
I chose to self-publish in part because getting traditionally published can take a really long time, if it ever happens. And self-publishing has grown into a viable and respectable option—most of the books I read these days are self-published. The other part of why I ultimately chose self-publishing is that from what I have learned, even if you do get a traditional publisher, unless they think you’re going to be the next Nora Roberts or Stephen King, you are still responsible for something like 80% of the marketing. But, assuming your book makes back whatever advance they give you, you only make 25% or so in royalties. Whereas in self-publishing, you can earn a much higher royalty rate—70% in some cases. So I decided that if I had to do all the work myself anyway, I should get the higher royalty.
What has been the most difficult aspect of self-publishing? What has been the most rewarding?
Time management. Time management is definitely the hardest part. There is so much to do. Probably the hardest single task was setting up my website. The most rewarding? The sense of accomplishment. At each stage, that has been such an amazing feeling. Finished the first draft? Yes! I did it. Got a website? Yes! I did it. Finishing all the edits? Yes! I did it. Got the book up on Amazon? Yes! I did it! It’s also really rewarding being at this point where other people are starting to read the book and liking it. That is an amazing feeling too. It’s not just my parents and my best friend who think it’s a good story. That is very validating.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I don’t know if it counts as a ritual, but I meet with a writing group every day for two hours via Zoom. We found each other during National Novel Writing Month in 2020, during the Covid lockdowns, so Zoom was the only way for us to meet. This worked out well for me because there wasn’t a NaNoWriMo group in my town, but since the meetups were all on Zoom, I was able to join a group in a nearby city. But we liked it so much that we still meet every day from noon to 2 p.m. It has helped because we hold each other accountable. Every day, I have to articulate what my goal is and then at the end of the time, they ask how I did towards that goal. There’s no judgement if I don’t meet my goal, but there’s always encouragement. I’m really grateful I found them.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Writing seems like such a solitary endeavor. And when you are putting words to paper, so to speak, I guess it is. But the whole thing doesn’t have to be. I, like a lot of writers, am an introvert, so it’s sort of natural to shy away from reaching out. I still feel that. Even as I try to make connections with other authors on platforms like Instagram. But I think the best advice I ever got, which was what encouraged me to join different groups during NaNoWriMo, was to find a community. Just having other writers to talk to, to ask questions of, to bounce ideas off, is so helpful. It makes what seems like a daunting task feel more doable. I think it helps us get out of our heads when we’re feeling like an imposter.
Also, it really is true that all first drafts suck. I know we all think we’ll be the exception, but we’re not. I’m so glad I hired an editor. She (Lacey Braziel) was able to see things I couldn’t because I was too close to the story. So just let go of the need to make the first draft perfect. It won’t be, and that’s okay. That’s what revision and editing are for.
What is your favorite genre, book, and/or author?
This won’t be a shocker, but my favorite author is Jane Austen 😁 At the moment, my favorite genre is romance. Besides Pride and Prejudice, some of my favorite books are The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, His Dark Materials series by Phillip Pullman, The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende, and Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall.
What are you working on next?
My goal is to do retellings of all six of Jane Austen’s complete novels. So next up is Persuasion. It’s a second chance romance, so I’m also planning to write a short story or novella that tells the first chance.
And finally, where can the readers find your book and more information about you?
If anyone wants to find me, I’m on all of these places:
Website: https://amandadarcyauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amandadarcyauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandadarcywrites/
Amazon Author page: https://rb.gy/5b2s14
Goodreads Author page: https://rb.gy/0njabl
BookBub Author page: https://rb.gy/6s1kvq
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