Jane Austen and Julia Quinn

All week, we'll be asking chick lit writers to talk about their own Austen obsessions, and how Jane has influenced them…

Julia Quinn got started as a romance author by asking herself: What Would Jane Do?

I was holding a scalpel, dissecting the unfriendly end of a human cadaver, when it occurred to me: I don't want to be Madame Curie.  I want to be Lizzie Bennet.  I want to be Elinor Dashwood.  I want to be Jane Austen.

So I did it.  I ditched medical school.  I threw out my science textbooks.

I glued myself to my computer.  (Surely Jane - practical Jane - would choose a computer.)  And I wrote...

Eleven years later, I'm still writing. I still want to be Lizzie Bennet (I blame Matthew MacFadyen for that), and yes, I still want to be Jane.

But when I sit down at my keyboard and plunk my characters down in a regency ballroom, I get to be a little bit Janeish, and that's good enough for me....

Julia Quinn is the author of the New York Times bestseller ‘On The Way To The Wedding’, and has been compared to Helen Fielding by Time magazine.

Came straight to this page? Visit www.trashionista.com for more female fiction news, reviews and interviews.