The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
by Syrie James

List Price: $13.95
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780061341427
Publisher: Avon

Syrie James has long been a fan and scholar of British literature of the 19th century, and of Jane Austen in particular. She was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and moved west at age one because her father didn't like shoveling snow. "My parents loved traveling," Syrie says. "I was lucky enough to live in France for two years as a child, and I’d visited more than two dozen countries by age eight --- an amazing experience."

Syrie grew up in San Jose, California. When she was in the sixth grade, her grandparents gave her a battered old typewriter, and she wrote her first book. "Thankfully," Syrie says, "I never showed it to anyone. But I was hooked. Creating stories and characters, and retreating into my imagination, was thrilling to me. I knew at that moment that I wanted to be a writer."

At about the same time, Syrie fell in love with the theater. She wrote and performed in plays and musicals throughout high school and college, and wrote for her school and university newspapers. She was Valedictorian of her high school class, and graduated cum laude from U.C. Davis with a B.A. in English and Communications, where she was awarded a Departmental Citation for Outstanding Accomplishment in English. Syrie discovered her knack for reproducing the cadence, tone and language of a British author from a previous century in a college English class, when she turned in her first paper --- an essay she wrote in the style of author Henry Fielding. Her professor told her: "I'm giving you an A+. You don't need this class. Don't come back." She went back anyway, and became a T.A.

Syrie married her college sweetheart, Bill James, and she considers their sons Ryan and Jeff to be her finest achievements. When she and her family moved to Los Angeles, it seemed a natural progression to write a screenplay. That first script immediately launched a screenwriting career which has spanned nearly two decades. Syrie is currently a member of the Writers Guild of America, Romance Writers of America, the Jane Austen Society of North America and the New Playwrights Foundation. She sold nineteen screenplays and teleplays to Tri-Star Pictures, Fox Family Films, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX TV and the Lifetime Network, before returning to her roots and becoming a novelist. The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is her first work of historical fiction. "I’ve always been a voracious reader," Syrie says. She particularly enjoys historical fiction, women's fiction, biography, memoir and historical romance. She decided to combined all her first loves, and write about Jane. "I had traveled extensively throughout England. I’d read and loved all of Jane Austen’s novels, and I’d seen every Jane Austen movie or mini-series ever made, some many times over. But her life story was filled with gaps, and left me unsatisfied. I found it hard to believe that this brilliant woman, who gave the world such wonderful and romantic stories, never fell in love herself. I decided to write the book that I wanted to read: to give Jane Austen a deep and loving connection with the man who was her soul mate, even if, in the end (as in history), they were unable to marry." Syrie says she knew that Jane must tell the tale herself.

"The publication of my novel, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, fulfills one of the greatest dreams of my life," Syrie says. "Researching and writing the novel was a true labour of love. I am delighted to be able to share that story with everyone who harbors a similar passion for Jane."

Syrie is currently working on her next novel for Avon.

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