Rachel Givney, author of Jane in Love, answers our Ten Terrifying Questions!

Rachel Givney is the author of Jane in Love, a modern-day reimagining of the life of one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Jane Austen. She’s a writer and filmmaker originally from Sydney, Australia (currently based in Melbourne). She has worked on Offspring, The Warriors, McLeod’s Daughters, Rescue: Special Ops and All Saints. Her films have been official selections at the Sydney Film Festival, Flickerfest and many more.

Today, Rachel’s on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions. Read on!

Rachel Givney

1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I grew up in Cronulla, a beachside suburb of Sydney. I’m the eldest of five kids, had an idyllic childhood. I have wonderful parents who never said anything when I rode my bike to the local movie shop (I’m showing my age now) and hired out 10 DVDs (they had a deal) and would watch them, one after the other, from Friday evening to Sunday night. I did this, every weekend, from the ages of 12 to 26, when I finally moved out.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

Director, Director, Director. I saw Kindergarten Cop and decided I wanted to make movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I still do.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?

I knew everything at eighteen, absolutely everything! The CSIRO should have taken me away for experiments, I was that clever. Now I’m over double that age, and I must have forgotten so many things, because all I know now, is that I know basically nothing.

4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Kindergarten Cop (of course).

5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?

I had an idea about a time-travelling Jane Austen who must choose between love and her books. A few people said it would make a good book, and that I should write it as a novel, so I said to those people, “Fine, I will then!”

6. Please tell us about your latest novel, Jane in Love.

When Jane Austen accidentally travels to the present day and falls in love with a modern-day man, all her books begin disappearing from the shelves. Ultimately, she must decide whether to stay in the present – where she is happy, or return to her own time, where she will become “Jane Austen”.

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

I hope they are entertained and moved!

In the novel, the main character, Jane, must choose between her books and love. I first read a Jane Austen novel when I was fifteen, with no knowledge of the author. I felt disarmed when I discovered the writer of such beautiful, witty love stories never married or had any children. I wondered, does a writer – namely a female one – need to be unhappy to create art? And if Jane Austen had to choose between the heart and the pen, what would she choose?

That’s how Jane in Love was born. I hope the reader feels as torn by the dilemma as the character does, and roots for her.

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?

I most admire those women who likely wrote at the expense of a husband and family, those early pioneers like the Bronte Sisters, Emily Dickinson, Louisa May Alcott and Jane Austen herself. These women often either had disastrous romantic lives, or none at all. Who knows if Jane Austen really did ever fall in love, or made a concerted choice between writing and a relationship / family, but we do know she accepted a proposal of marriage in 1802 from Harris Bigg-Wither, a wealthy friend of the family, only to withdraw her acceptance the next day. I’d argue that considering the era she lived in, had Austen had a husband and children, she probably would have made a great wife and a wonderful mum, and likely never have published a thing.

Jane in Love is, in many ways, a love letter to all these women who pursued a writing career at a time when such things were frowned upon.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

To improve always, to tell a great story.

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

“Don’t get it right, get it written.”

Get the first draft written down – it doesn’t matter if it’s terrible, just finish it. The old cliché is true, any art is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Once you have that first draft written, it’s much easier to go back and edit.

Thanks Rachel!

Jane in Love

by Rachel Givney

At age twenty-eight, Jane Austen should be seeking a suitable husband, but all she wants to do is write. She is forced to take extreme measures in her quest to find true love – which lands her in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

Magically, she finds herself in modern-day England, where horseless steel carriages line the streets and people wear very little clothing. She forms a new best friend in fading film star Sofia Wentworth, and a genuine love interest in Sofia’s brother Fred...

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