Introduction to: I Remember Love

I Remember Love is a continuation of the movie Becoming Jane. As I had wanted it to end. Of course, messing with history is not easy, but I cried my eyes out when Tom and Jane did not end up together (even though I knew they wouldn't). So, with Tom and Jane talking away in my head and the song I remember love by Sarah Dawn Finer in my ears I started scribbling on a story.

It is, as stated before, a continuation of the story. A kind of alternate universe. What could happen if they happened to find themselves in each other's company again. And with Tom's daughter being an avid admirer of Jane Austen's work and very curious about her father's former relationship with said authoress. 

A sneakpeak:

Chapter 1

April 1814
Seeing him that evening had brought back all the feelings and memories she thought she had repressed forever. Now they came bubbling up to the surface again. Once again she began questioning her actions and choices of that dreadful day all those years ago. The look on his face when she left, it had broken her heart. It was for the best, she had thought then. She had to be the sensible one. But had it been the right decision? He was now married, had been so for quite some time, and lived happily in Ireland with a large family and had a fine law career. Life had been good to him. She had been following his progress in secrecy. Not that her own life had turned out bad. She led a small life, valuable but small. She was a rather successful author. Her latest novel had been published the year before and now she found it hard to remain anonymous. There had been a time when she had doubted her writing abilities. It had been a Christmas holiday many years ago, and a certain gentleman from Ireland had entered her home, taking her by storm and changed her life forever.

Read more here.

This was the first story I published at fanfiction.net. I had only written for a more private audience before (a Young Americans' fangroup called JaHammers [Jake & Hamilton]). As always you are worried about what people might think and react. I was eagerly awaiting reviews and very disappointed when it took some time. Then I realised the time difference. And a few hours later the first reviews were in:

Reader Dancingpuppy1014 said:

OMG! You got me hooked period i want to know more
its a fresh idea from all the pretty much same story line i have been reading.
People should write more of these after the story type I mean its kinda getting annoying that i always see the same story line I mean why not do something fresh new and exiting.

Well you have my vote to continue and i will be waiting for the next chappies

Reader NBL said:

[...]I am going to be completely honest in the fact that I skimmed your story the first time through because I didn't believe that this was different from all the other Becoming Jane stories I have read in the fact that they are reunited and live happily ever after in some alternate universe (nothing against you!) due to some stroke of luck. Or they just pine over the times they were together. You combine the two, however, making it seem plausible that there is a story that isn't cheesy, or meloncholy, but rather hopefully bittersweet. I commend you. I obviously went back to the beginning to read it word for word and absorb everything the second time through. :)

In this first chapter, I like how you start where the movie left the audience. The continuation is great. It's also rather ironic that Tom's daughter has such a deep curiousity for Miss Austen. The memories definitely rise in up in the starcrossed lovers, but they don't come off as stammering teenagers around each other, rather learned adults, as they should be (in my opinion). I really like how you played the scene out. :)

And more like them came. Now I have written 42 complete chapters and are well on the way of chapter 43, the last one. It feels a bit sad of course, to let a story end. I have actually tried to end it earlier, but my dear readers rallied against it, and I was only too happy to oblige.

One thing I have noticed when I write is that the story kind of writes itself. The characters really live their own little life, and often doesn't behave the way I had planned. Tom and Jane, for example, was so much more obstinate than I had imagined.

I think the major difficulty for me is that English is not my first language, and though I fancy myself pretty good, the grammar is not always as it should be. But I hope my readers can overlook those errors and look to the story itself. :)