Kentucky Living Magazine Feature

My thanks to the folks at Kentucky Living Magazine for their author feature in this month’s magazine.  Kentucky Living is a statewide publication that covers various aspects of life in the Bluegrass.

This from the online page:

Jane Austen, Kentucky style

Karen Cox wrote her first book at the young age of 9, and continued to write through adulthood, but never shared her work.

This changed in 2006 when, being a devoted Jane Austen reader, she discovered Jane Austen fan fiction. Fan fiction is a largely Internet-based genre of present-day writers’ reworkings of classics by Austen as well as many other noted authors.

Cox read many retellings of her favorite Austen story, Pride and Prejudice, before taking her son’s challenge in 2009 to write and share her own. The result is 1932 (Meryton Press, $12.95 from www.amazon.com), a twist on the circumstances found in the classic tale.

Cox writes Elizabeth Bennet’s plight as one of poverty instead of plenty. Her family, like many others during the Depression, finds itself with no income, no home, and no plan. A move to fictional small town Meryton, Kentucky, changes everything as her family turns to farming, and rich William Darcy’s eye turns to Elizabeth.

“The story behind 1932 had been floating in my mind for some time before I started writing it,” Cox says. “The Great Depression in the U.S. has always been interesting to me. I grew up hearing tales about those years from my grandmothers, and I was always impressed by the bravery and resourcefulness of people living in that time. I wondered how my favorite characters would respond to that level of economic and societal upheaval and how it would change the dynamics between them. So, during a particularly long bout of winter weather that kept me ensconced at home, I hammered out the first draft of what would become 1932. I hope it conveys my appreciation for the fortitude of those who endured the Depression, and my belief that love, all types of love, can conquer the toughest obstacles.”

Cox’s efforts earned a bronze medal in the Romance category from the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Her next project was to write a 20th-century version of Persuasion, her second favorite Austen book, set in the Appalachian foothills. “Find Wonder in All Things (Meryton Press, $12.95 from www.amazon.com) is my take on Wentworth and Anne from the beginning of their history together and through the Persuasion story arc…and, trust me, it was not always easy to translate Anne Elliot into a modern setting and still have some respect for her. At several points, I just wanted to thump her on the head!”

Her persistence paid off. Find Wonder in All Things was recently named a gold medalist from the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

—Penny Woods