Recently over facebook I was able to sit down with Brittany Wiscombe. Brittany Wiscombe is a writer/producer known for:
 

Singing with Angels

Austentatious

Nowhere Safe

16 Stones

Snow Beast

Scents and Sensibility

Christmas Angel

Rescued

Turn Around

Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-Day Tale

Everything You Want

Brittany has written some of the most endearing movies I have ever seen. And I'm so happy that she is the first of my “Austen Writer Interviews.” I had so many questions.  Austentatious is a family-friendly sitcom where some of our favorite Jane Austen characters are combined in the modern day.

Who came up with the idea for the show?

I can't remember who came up with the idea specifically, but it was a combination of my brother, my sister and me. My sister and I are Jane Austen fans, and all of us are always collaborating.

How long does the show take to write?

Each episode took a week or two to write, with revisions and fine-tuning.

When did your show start, because I noticed a difference from episode three or four. Suddenly everyone's hair was longer and two of the actresses had different colored hair. Was that due to budget constraints or did it take awhile for the show to get picked up?
 

I can't remember when it started but we did take a break in between episodes 3 and 4 to see which avenue for the show would be best. Once we decided on how best to release it to the public, we went back into production and finished up Season 1.

I used to like to write plays and Jane Austen is my favorite and I'm interested in how productions come to be. I have seen some of your company's other works like Scents and Sensibility a modern comedy version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility that came out a few years ago. Can you tell me about some of your other work? Is there anything you'd like to tell me about the production, sets or actors?
 

Some of my other work is "Christmas Angel," which I really like the feel of that story. I wrote a drama called "Nowhere Safe" that incorporated cyberbullying, and I think that turned out really well. "Scents and Sensibility" of course was a fun story--I'd love to do more around the Jane Austen arena, and that's why I love "Austentatious"--it incorporates multiple stories and characters! Nothing really extraordinary about production--the actors we work with are wonderful. I love the chemistry between Emma and Grant (Knightley).  The actor who plays Colin was so delightfully awkward in his performance. It was hard to keep a straight-face as we filmed.

What influenced you to go entirety digital? Unlike some digital platforms like digital theater based out of London, you do have a DVD out, which is awesome. Can you tell me anything about the DVD and its special features?

We do have a DVD out with season 1. It has been in Walmart and online stores and others (Amazon, etc). Digital though is such a timely way to release a series now. It coincides with how people watch series now.

Most importantly with so many storylines left untapped, will there be a season two?

We want to do a season 2. We have avenues already planned for the storylines, but whether we do it or not will depend on how many people are asking for it and if the digital "stations" want a second season too.

I rather love that this is a family show, it's so adorable.

There's enough things that are dark or racy in entertainment. What's great about Jane Austen is that fans don't expect that. There's plenty of drama in life but it doesn't need to be magnified so that it's inappropriate for family viewing.

I totally agree. I have to have a plug for your show which has a nearly 5 star rating on Amazon, you can buy the DVD or buy and download the episodes from Amazon from as law as .99 per episode. For 10 to twenty dollars you can own the show without even leaving your home. 15.99 for HD if you buy the entire season and 9.99 for SD. Which of course is how I watched all of season 1.

Thank you for your time and your wonderful show.

It's been so long since I updated this blog and it's because I've taking on fulltime writing.  I have a book out on Amazon.com The Funny Little Zombie Book: The Complete book of Terribly Cheesy and Sometimes Offensive Zombie Jokes. 

Before you ask, yes there is a Jane Austen Zombie Joke Chapter and it is my most popular chapter of my nearly 600 joke book.

I am working on writing another Jane Austen style book complete with zombies, but I didn't come here to talk about myself.  I am starting a series on Famous and Fabulous Jane Austen Writers.

My first Interviewee is Brittany Wiscombe, who is a writer/producer known for:

Singing with Angels

Austentatious

Nowhere Safe

16 Stones

Snow Beast

Scents and Sensibility

Christmas Angel

Rescued

Turn Around

Beauty and the Beast: A Latter-Day Tale

Everything You Want

Shoot for Darcy Not Mr Collins

Shoot for Darcy Not Mr Collins

Love or Not

this lens' photo Everyone wants to fall in love, but picking the right person can be extremely difficult. How can you tell what you're feeling is real and not just a trick of your mind or your heart. A fancy that you yourself have created to stop from being lonely. Many of us have been responsible for our own one sided romances. These romances often only hurt ourselves.

Jane Austen understood such things and by looking at the sometimes dysfunctional relationships in Pride and Prejudice you can better understand the world of love and mistrust.

Mr. Collins

When I say shoot for Mr. Darcy and not Mr. Collins, I am not talking about wealth. Mr. Collins had a littleness in his character that would make him ill suited to be a good match for almost anyone.

Miss Lucas was not a very pretty woman, she was 27 and if she hadn’t married she would have been a large financial strain on her family since women would not leave their family homes unless they were married or employed as a governess. Which because of their sightly higher status would have been impossible for her.

He might have been her best or only choice in the end, but she wasn’t his only choice. Mary Bennet was even attractive than Miss Lucas, but she liked him. If he had taken better care he would have had a wife who actually loved him.



Mr. Bennet

It is not just women who pick the wrong spouse for themselves in Pride and Prejudice. Look at Mr. Bennet, he married his wife when they were young and his dear wife was not in ill humor yet. Mr. Bennet was a fun, sweet, humorous and intelligent fellow, his wife who was only in good humor while they were young in love and in no fear of having their estate entailed away after his death never understood him. Not even after 25 years of marriage. Her only goal in life was to have her five daughters married well, his goal is that they did not marry the wrong person as he did. Especially Eliza, because she was his favorite and Jane was his second favorite. He loves all his children, but they were a lot like his wife. Eliza had his smarts and wit, while Jane had the kindest heart of anyone in the household.



The Gardners

Darcy and Eliza were not the only true love match in this book. Though they lived in the cheap side of London, Mr. and Mrs. Gardner had money to travel and a deep love for each other and the rest of their family.

The Gardners became a favorite at Pemberly, because they were the means of bringing Darcy and Eliza back together, if they had not taken Eliza to the lake counties they may not have married.

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Poor Lydia

And here we have the worst choice of all. Lydia choosing to runaway with Wickman. Why did he do it, sure he was in debt to his eyeballs and was soon going to have to move on anyway. Was it revenge, did he somehow know Darcy’s attraction to Eliza? I’m sure he realized by the change of Eliza’s countenance that she knew of his dealings with Mr. Darcy’s sister.



Charles and Jane

Charles and Jane were perfect for one another and seemed to fall in love at once, but interference from his family friends and his own fear of rejection almost ended their romance before it could start.

If it were not for Darcy telling Charles the truth about all that have happened these characters would have ended up sad and alone.



Love at Last

Love alone is never enough to change someone, it was the lack of Eliza’s love that changed Darcy in the end. He was forced by her strong words to him after her refusal that made him look at himself in the mirror and for the first time he did not like what he saw. He always thought of himself as a good person, he then had to realize how wrong his pride really was.

She had to get over her pride and prejudices, to realize that he really was a good person despite his blundering attempts to win her heart. She had to realize she didn’t know herself as well as she thought.

In the end they loved each other dearer than any other couple in this book and isn’t that what we’re all after, a good happy ending.



Guestbook Comments

Sylvestermouse Mar 24, 2012 @ 12:04 pm

It is a sad reality that often life circumstances, such as Charlotte's, intrude into many lives and people often cannot or simply do not wait until they find a good match for marriage. Tis also true, one must know themselves before they can know who they will be happy walking through life with.

Dec 01, 2011 @ 7:43 pm

To love with all your heart is the dream, especially if you're getting a whole heart back, the best of all possible endings indeed!

MintySea Oct 24, 2011 @ 3:11 pm

I like my husband better than Darcey :-) not offence to Mr. Darcey :-)

A full year of Jane Austen

More Austen than you can handle in one Year You might think that there are only six novels by Jane Austen and you would be correct, but there is an entire world of Jane Austen out there that I would like to tell you about. More movies come out every few years, there are web shows, TV shows with Regency and Jane Austen episodes.

There is also works of Jane Austen that you may have never even heard about. Short stories, and plays she created when she was a wild minded teenager. There are also a few stories she never finished.

Jane Austen On Dvd These are only the list of movies that have been released on DVD or video. You can get a more complete list on imbd.com, some of these were plays that were aired and may have not been taped at the time. 1. Pride and Prejudice 1940. 2. Sense and Sensibility 1971 (very good). 3. Persuasion 1971 4. Emma 1972 5. Pride and Prejudice 1980 6. Jane Austen in Manhattan 1980 (terrible movie) 7. Sense and Sensibility 1981 8. Mansfield Park 1983 9. Northanger Abbey 1986 10. Persuasion 1995 11. Pride and Prejudice 1995 12. Sense and Sensibility 1995 13. Emma TV 1996 20. Emma 1997 21. Mansfield Park 1999 22. I have found it (S & S) 2000 23. Bridget Jones’s Diary 2001 24. Pride and Prejudice 2003 25. Bride and Prejudice 2004 26. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 2004 27. Pride and Prejudice 2005 28. Becoming Jane 2007 29. Mansfield Park 2007 30. Northanger Abbey 2007 31. Persuasion 2007 32. Sense and Sensibility 2008 33. Miss Austen Regrets 2008 34. Lost in Austen 2008 35. Emma 2009 36. Aisha (Emma) 2010 37. From Prada to Nada (S and S) 2011 38. A modern Pride and Prejudice 2011 (haven’t seen it due to high cost and mixed reviews) 39. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (YouTube) 40. Emma Approved (YouTube) 41. Scents and Sensibility 2012 42. Austenland 2014 There are three Jane Austen musicals here Pride and Prejudice has only played regionally and Emma has played Cal and regionally, and the last I added was a school play set to modern music that fit the scenes they were doing. There are also Jane Austen Parodies online.