All the Appearance of Goodness by Maria Grace

Good morning, dear readers!  My guest this week for Coffee with Colette is Maria Grace, another fellow Austen Author whom I had the pleasure of meeting last summer in the sweltering Atlanta heat with an entire JASNA ensemble. If you haven't read her work before, you're in for a special treat because her first novel - Darcy's Decision - is FREE for Kindle through Saturday! She just released her third novel, All the Appearance of Goodness - which I cannot wait to read - but today she is also going to tell you how hummingbirds figure not just into her writing but also in her getting a couple of black-belts as well! Maria is a true Renaissance woman you will definitely want to meet....

~Colette

I just released my third novel, and I’m on blog tour to let people know. Thanks, Colette, for inviting me to share with your readers!

I have to admit, it is such a strange thing to hear myself saying thing like I released my third novel; I am an author; I am writing full-time right now. I’m still looking around and trying to figure out how I got here. I am standing in the middle of it all and still not quite sure how it happened.

On the other hand, that has been the story of most things in my life. A stray idea comes zinging past,
a pretty little humming bird zooming through the wildflower fields of my mind. Oh, look, a pretty bird! And I’m off chasing it down with bulldog tenacity, usually not stopping until the pretty little birdy is perched on my nose and I’m wondering how in the world did I get here?

That’s how I ended up a college professor. I was halfway through my graduate program, sitting in a meeting with my dissertation chairman. He got a call from a local community college looking for an instructor. He looked at me and the pretty birdy zoomed right past and I was off. That adventure lasted for sixteen years.

My eldest son’s first year in middle school brought his first real experience with bullying, so we enrolled him and his brothers in martial arts. I was invited to attend the first week of classes with them. Guess what, that same little birdy popped his head in and five years later I have two black belts and a Chinese fighting fan on my wall. I never, ever thought I would do martial arts and never pictured myself as a black belt. I’m still not sure how that all came together, since I am still the same klutzy mom I was when I started.

Writing has pretty much followed the same path. My little buzzy-bird friend appears, often while I am out running, and he makes me follow him. Crafty little creature hates established paths and would much rather pick a trail through the woods where no one has gone before. So, the Austenesque stories I write are also a bit off the beaten path.

My academic training in sociology, economic, psychology and education makes me fascinated by what influences people and how a change in circumstances or a change in the way one responds to them can make a huge difference. So my little muse-y bird offers all sorts of pretty possibilities in the form of what-ifs.

For my first series, the what if was inspired by Darcy’s speech to Elizabeth after she accepts his proposal. He says he was given good principles but left to follow them in vanity and conceit. “What if he had someone to help him follow those principles from the beginning? What would have happened then?” That was all I needed! I took off with that story and ran with it.

In the first volume, Darcy’s Decision, Darcy’s good principles are challenged by the discovery of his father’s darkest secrets. (By the way, Volume I, Darcy's Decision is FREE on Amazon for Kindle Tuesday through Saturday!)

In the meantime, in The Future Mrs. Darcy, Elizabeth is challenged to step up and be more responsible to her sisters. She helps avert Lydia’s disaster as she faces her own prejudices in the process. In the third volume, Darcy and Elizabeth meet and face challenges from an entirely unexpected front. Will their improved characters be enough to see them through this challenge and become ‘our dear couple’ that we know and love?

Now that that little birdy has finally come to rest, never fear, several more have appeared to take his place. One is sitting on the manuscript in my drawer, waiting to be editing. He appeared while reading a brief biography of John Fielding.

Another one is sitting on the edge of my monitor, scolding me to get the current manuscript finished. Of course, he has to dodge the cats often, but since he first appeared while I was napping under three large cats, it isn’t too surprising. One more is hovering outside my office window, tempting me to put on my running shoes and follow him through the woods. I’m not quite sure where he’ll lead me, but I think we’re one the way to the vicarage of Kympton parish on the outskirts of Pemberley. I’ll keep you posted on the adventures of my feathered muse!

                                                          Thanks Colette!

About All The Appearance of Goodness

What is a young woman to do?

One handsome young man has all the goodness, while the other the appearance of it.  How is she to separate the gentleman from the cad?

When Darcy joins his friend, Bingley on a trip to Meryton, the last thing on his mind is finding a wife. Meeting Elizabeth Bennet changes all that, but a rival for his affections appears from a most unlikely quarter. He must overcome his naturally reticent disposition if he is to have a chance of winning her favor.

Elizabeth’s thoughts turn to love and marriage after her sister Mary’s engagement. In a few short weeks, she goes from knowing no eligible young men, to being courted by two. Both are handsome gentleman, but one conceals secrets and the other conceals his regard. Will she determine which is which before she commits to the wrong one?

Now available from Amazon for Kindle and paperback and Barnes & Noble for Nook.

About the Author

 

Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful.

She has one husband, two graduate degrees and two black belts, three sons, four undergraduate majors, five nieces, six cats, seven Regency-era fiction projects and notes for eight more writing projects in progress. To round out the list, she cooks for nine in order to accommodate the growing boys and usually makes ten meals at a time so she only cooks twice a month.

She can be contacted at:

email: author.MariaGrace@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/AuthorMariaGrace
On Amazon.com: amazon.com/author/mariagrace
Visit her website Random Bits of Fascination (AuthorMariaGrace.com)
On Twitter @WriteMariaGrace
On Pinterest : pinterest.com/mariagrace423
English Historical Fiction Authors