I had an interesting conversation with a fellow nurse. She saw the cover of my book for Mr. Darcy’s Promise and she said how accomplished I was. I scoffed. Truly I did. Me? Accomplished? No way. She then rattled off how I was a nurse, working full time, own my own house with chickens and rabbits and dogs, refinished my basement, garden, and on top of it all, wrote three books – the first of which will be published in July. Mr. Darcy’s Promise is on schedule to be published at the end of July on Amazon.com.

Let us examine one of my favorite scenes of Pride and Prejudice. Miss Bingley defines an accomplished woman as someone who has a “thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages” and then adds that “she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions.” Then Darcy slightly agrees by saying “All this she must possess . . .” but the next phrase is key . . .  He says, “she must add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading”. The key word is substantial. I believe he was somewhat mocking Miss Bingley’s superficial declaration of what an accomplished lady must possess.  He puts an emphasis on the fact that Miss Bingley spoke of non-important things, however, Darcy focused on more substantial things; the mind.  We know that Elizabeth was reading a book at the very time. So was our mysterious beloved hero paying Elizabeth a compliment? I believe so. He was trying to mark the distinct difference between Elizabeth and Miss Bingley. He was paying Elizabeth one of his most profound compliments. He was saying that he only knew half-a-dozen accomplished women, and Elizabeth was one of them! She of course did not catch his compliment, and as the book is riddled with misconceptions and misunderstandings due to poor first impressions, Elizabeth puts his kind compliment in the context of her perception of his prideful nature and responds, “I am no longer surprised at your knowing ONLY six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing ANY.” Her wit intrigued Darcy to the point of a battle verbally. He stated she was so severe on her own sex to doubt the possibility. She snapped back that she “never saw such a woman.” This is one of my favorite scenes in the BBC movie because Darcy sits back and just admires Elizabeth while Miss Bingley and Miss Hurst cry about the injustice of her implied doubt. This last section really struck home when I reread the scene.

The actual words Jane Austen narrates are, “Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley cried out against the injustice of her implied doubt, and were both protesting that they knew many women who answered this description.” So I thought about this scene when my friend said I was accomplished. I thought of my involuntary scoff and obvious rebuttal to her kind compliment. I definitely had doubt.  So much so that I had to ask myself, what makes a woman accomplished now?

I think it is not a list of talents or titles or milestones. I agree with Darcy on this that an accomplished woman is one that has something substantial. So what is that something substantial? For one it would be a charitable heart. For another it would be her readiness to stand up for what she believes. For another it would be the fight for her dreams. For another it would be to humbly teach her children right from wrong. For another it would be to endure her trials faithfully. For another it would be to do her best in everything she aims. To me, this is what makes a woman accomplished.

Nevertheless, I must say that I admire those who do have the talents, titles, and milestones. For one, Rebecca Watkins just finished the painting of my cover for Mr. Darcy’s Promise. For another, my sister Betsy owns her own structural engineering business and is a professor at a University. For another, my mother is celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary in October. These talents, titles, and milestones cannot be overlooked in my eyes. But each of these ladies I admire also have that something substantial.  So even in the face of possessing these talents, titles, and milestones, they have become incredible women who have improved their mind, heart, soul or spirit. So what makes a woman accomplished now? That little something substantial.

Jeanna Ellsworth

Hey Lady Publications

I did it. I submitted my third book to publishers. One might be discouraged with the fact that my other two books were declined by the publishers. But I did it anyway. I tried again. To Refine Like Silver has now been submitted to three publishers and one more by Saturday. And now I wait.

I find myself slightly more apprehensive about submitting this book than the other two. Perhaps because it is a little unique.  Not only do I take the reader on a romantic love story where our dear favorite couple fall in love, but I have a very strong subplot that is very spiritual. It is a prequel to Pride and Prejudice in that Elizabeth meets Darcy in Derbyshire before he ever comes to Hertfordshire. I also make some adjustments to Elizabeth’s background. I asked myself, “In canon, why is Elizabeth so confident and courageous? What made her that way?” So in To Refine Like Silver, I give her a reason. Several reasons in fact. I make it painfully obvious that she has struggled with serious life challenges and yet she has learned to conquer everything that has come her way. And it is only because she struggled so deeply that she is able to be that wonderful  glowing support to Darcy and Georgiana. She grew from her trials and she teaches her lessons she learned along the way to the Darcys. So as we see Darcy fall madly and irresistibly in love with her glowing personality, we get to see him adopt some of her beliefs and he too learns a valuable lesson. That lesson is that our trials should not be lamented because in reality, our trials do not define us, rather that they refine us.

So I felt very strongly that I should write the book exactly as I did. First and foremost, it was  a love story, second it was a spiritual journey of enlightenment where more than one of our favorite characters evolve into a better, even more lovable and memorable (is that possible?) person. This meant that I had to put a great deal of my personal beliefs in it, much of which I have learned through my own trials. Much of which is directly linked to my personal belief in God. God? You ask? Yes. I wrote a JAFF book that has a strong spiritual theme and therefor has personal thoughts and feelings that were at one point literal life savers in getting me through my own trials. So all those mottos, all those quotable self-help sticky notes on my mirror all those years, all those prayers I sent in His direction . . .they all got permanently etched into my laptop. I now have a love story with elements of my testimony interlaced through it.

So this is the core reason I took a moment longer to pause before I hit the send button to the publishers this morning. My heart is on those pages. My lessons I’ve learned are now available for anyone to see. This really isn’t such a bad thing, but it did cause me to pause. Could I handle the criticism of something so personal? In the end, I did hit send. As Jane Austen narrates, “Elizabeth’s  courage did not fail her.” For Elizabeth, she was going to meet the great Lady Catherine. For me, I was exposing a deeply personal belief system. I have been uploading it chapter by chapter on www.Meryton.com/A Happy Assembly and have had very good comments. Many of which were telling me how I have touched them with my story. There have been a few who felt it was a little too religious, maybe even preachy, but since I consider it as having a spiritual subplot rather than a religious subplot, I took it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless I am confident that the love story is a good one and if I happen to touch even one life with my thoughts and lessons I weave into it then it was worth the journey.

So I am here to stand strong in the face of possible–– and from my history, probable––  refusals, and make the attempt anyway. I believe I was to write it the way I did for a reason. I believe in God. How could I not write God as the reason for Elizabeth’s courage? For God has been the reason for my courage under fire. With all that said, I did hit the send button with a deep breath and an enormous heartfelt prayer. After all, I have learned the hard way that having courage to stand up for what you believe is the only way to live your life. So whether or not anyone ever accepts it for publishing, I know that I held strong and was courageous enough to one, write it, two, send it out for others to pick apart. My courage did not fail me.

Jeanna Ellsworth

Hey Lady Publications