What do Jane Austen, Dr. Quinn, Battlestar Galactica, Napolean Dynamite, and Twilight all have in common?

AUSTENLAND!

The long awaited movie finally comes out August 16th in LA/NY. Harkins has a release date for Aug 23rd and I hope it will be nationwide.  I think tea & crumpets before the movie will be a great way to celebrate the occasion. 

In 2007 I found this fabulous book about an obsessed Jane Austen fan and I knew I needed to read it. As fate would have it the author Shannon Hale was going to be at Changing Hands Bookstore that very evening. I lived an hour and a half away from Tempe but decided to go. As I sat in the audience I turned to see Stephenie Meyer amongst us. Shannon Hale is very funny and through-out the whole book event she held her young baby as she told how it all began. Shannon said the story Austenland started out as a short story and she continued to work on it for 10 years. That gave me a little hope that not all great writers develop their story and publish it quickly. I’m paraphrasing a little bit but Stephenie Meyer asked Shannon how she came up with the book idea because it was brilliant and Shannon said, “Someone write this down, Stephenie Meyer’s thinks it’s brilliant.” 
When I had Shannon Hale sign my book I told her how I had by chance come across the book and she wrote in my book: 

She was right the universe pulled me right into this book and I enjoyed everything about it. 

I reread Austenland in preparation for the movie release and loved it all over again. 

Here is the movie site:  http://www.sonyclassics.com/austenland/site/

Here is author Shannon Hale's website:  http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html

I can't take credit for this picture. It's from Shannon's website but I was at this event so we can say this is my mental picture I took. And I can say, I was there when these two great authors came together and the idea of turning this book into a movie was born. Shannon is the author and Stephenie's film company Fickle Fish produced the movie. This movie will be true girl power. So excited!!