Now's your time, Dan...

[Peter Ahlstrom]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/arts/18arts-AUSTENMEETSA_BRF.html?_r=2&ref=arts

For some viewers the idea of another Jane Austen-inspired period drama is sufficiently monstrous, but a coming film project seeks to update the formula with actual monsters, Variety reported. The movie “Pride and Predator,” directed by Will Clark and written by Mr. Clark with Andrew Kemble and John Pape, will juxtapose brooding aristocrats with a brutal alien that lands in 1800s-era Britain, attacking residents and leaving them with neither sense nor sensibility. The film, to be produced by Elton John’s Rocket Pictures, is the latest work to mix the hoary costume genre with elements of horror. A book called “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” credited to Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and published by Quirk Books, will combine the Austen novel with “all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action.” And a coming novel by Michael Thomas Ford called “Jane Bites Back” depicts Austen as a frustrated vampire, taking revenge on those who have made money from her work.

[maxonennis]

Pitch A Night of Blacker Darkness to every publishing house NOW!

[Silk]

Seems to be a lot of this going around lately.

Go get 'em, Fell.

[Reaves]

lol yeah, I saw this on Patrick Rothfuss' blog. He's just like, "yeah...I find myself not caring."

[Silk]

That's where I saw it too.  I had a similar reaction.

[Nessa]

It sounds like hack work to me. I guess we'll see.

[Silk]

Cue lame pun about hack and slash.

I'll be interested to hear anyone's reactions should they check it out. I anticipate apathy will prevent me from doing so myself.

(Now, if Dan were to write us one of these... )

[readerMom]

I knew it was going mainstream (and getting more annoying) when Wait. . .Wait Don't Tell Me had it on the program a couple of weeks ago.

[Fellfrosch]

As an armchair Austen scholar (and a horror writer to boot), I have to admit that I'm actually really intrigued by this sudden surge in Austen/horror mash-ups. Assuming that they are actually done well, with the right style of language and enough Austen-style cleverness, these ideas might turn out to be really cool.

On the other hand, this is just one more example of other people getting famous with ideas that I had first (for example, Dead Like Me and Dexter). I really can't wait for the day when I finally scoop someone else, instead of the other way around.

[Silk]

Yeah, it's one of those things that sounds like it COULD be interesting, given the right stuff. It'd just be so very, very easy to do wrong.

We're all waiting for the day when you scoop someone else, too. With bated breath.

[Miyabi]

Ha ha.  I have a friend who would freak if she knew people were writing things like that. She loves Jane Austin.

[ryos]

Wait...Austen wasn't already a horror writer? Her works sure fill me with dread...

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is selling now (very well, apparently) and Amazon has their Search Inside previews up. I read the first couple pages, and it's pretty darn amusing.

[Chaos]

My local Barnes and Noble had a table full of Jane Austen stuff, and with it there were a couple of copies of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies there. My friends got a huge kick out of it.

[Fellfrosch]

So: because Ookla was totally right about the market timing, I sent this book to my agent, she loved it, I did some rewrites, and we are now shopping it around. So here's hoping.