Just over a year ago, on May 31, 2025, I posted the following idea to several JAFF Facebook groups:

I have an idea for a P&P variation that I would like to write as a collaboration, so I’m looking for authors who might be interested.

It’s a Groundhog Day trope that starts with Darcy’s Kent proposal. When D&E wake up the next morning, one of them (Darcy or Elizabeth) goes into the library (at Rosings or the parsonage at Hunsford) and selects a book, which happens to be a P&P variation. Whatever happens in that variation is how the aftermath plays out.

The idea is that each participating author would write a chapter describing what happens in the aftermath of Darcy’s proposal (ideally with some of the stories going rather far afield). The next morning, D&E would wake up and choose another book, with another author’s version. This would continue until one of them chooses a variation in which they reconcile their differences and end up on the path to marriage.

When D or E chooses the book, the author named in the story would be the actual author IRL, and the title would be whatever that author had chosen. Each story would be in its own author’s voice rather than attempting a common style. Besides being an amusing plot, it would also serve to give readers a sampling of several authors’ writing.

If you’re interested in participating (or if you think I’m out of my mind and you’d like to tell me so), comment and/or DM me.

I received several replies from authors who were interested in participating. In the end, ten authors signed on to join me in writing the book: Suzannah Addison, Hazel R Banks, Lily Bernard, Louise Bigler (my wife), Leigh Dreyer, Diane Ferguson, Melissa Anne, Natasja Rose, Stephanie Vale, and D.C. Williams.

Besides my wife Louise, I had met a few of the other authors twice at a weekend JAFF convention, but I had never met most of them until we started working together. Any sane person might think that putting together a team of volunteers through a “Who wants to join the team?” Facebook post would be doomed from the start. As it turned out, nothing could be further from the truth. We have worked quite well together for the entire year, free from acrimony, tension, or hard feelings!

I attribute much of this to the JAFF community. Nearly everyone I have met in the community is friendly, supportive, and pleasant to be around. (And I try to be the same way!) I imagine that some of this comes from spending so much time in Jane Austen’s world, particularly the world of Pride & Prejudice. Every character in Pride & Prejudice is flawed in some way (perhaps except for Mrs. Gardiner). We are so used to writing their stories that we all know instinctively how to not to be a George Wickham, a Lady Catherine de Bourgh, or a Caroline Bingley.

Some of what has made the collaboration work are intentional decisions about how the project would proceed. As the person who came up with the idea for the book, I became the de facto project manager (or, as Lily Bernard quipped, the “Fearless Cat Herder,” or “FCH”). Frankly, this was (and continues to be) terrifying—I have published exactly one JAFF novel, and most of the other authors have published several. So in organizing things, I kept a few things in mind:

• As much as possible, decisions have been made by consensus. Every time I thought the team wanted to defer to me as the FCH, I did my best to pull back and make sure everyone had a voice. Also, being the lone male author in the group, I needed to be particularly careful not to take over discussions.
• Authors thrive on autonomy. We all love our characters and our writing—our words are our babies, and we can get quite protective of them. To protect everyone’s autonomy, each author’s chapters are that author’s alone. Any of us were free to suggest changes or highlight things we thought needed attention, but final editorial control of each chapter remained with its author.
• Similarly, projects like this thrive on mutual trust. We have made it clear that we trust each other to accept each other’s feedback, but to make the decision of how to respond to it for themselves. We have trusted each author to attempt to address the feedback, but more importantly to be true to their own vision of their chapter. If an author decided not to address a particular piece of feedback, that is a valid decision, not to be made lightly, but to be respected.
• Feedback needed to be consistently friendly and supportive, and I think all of us did an excellent job with this. All of us made a point of regularly telling each other what we like about the team and about working together, so the environment has remained safe and collaborative.

In terms of the process itself, we started by brainstorming plot ideas. We organized them into what we thought was a workable order, and decided what Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s arcs should be. Louise put together a set of documents that were tremendously useful in organizing and reorganizing this as the stories developed. Once the brainstorming was complete, we chose chapters and started writing. The original goal was for each of us to write one or two. (I ended up absorbing a couple more because a couple of authors had to drop out of the project after they had chosen their chapters.)

When we had drafts of our chapters, we hired an editor do developmental edits, line edits and proofreading. She worked with each author individually, sharing feedback on each chapter only with its own author to ensure that no one felt self-conscious about the edits for their chapters. Once our editor was finished with the developmental and line edits, we combined the chapters, and only then were we able to read the novel in what was close to its final form.

Once the book was assembled, we read through it ourselves. We made comments about things we found in each other’s chapters, but only the author of each chapter was empowered to actually change the text. After authors had time to make changes in response to each other’s comments (plus the comments of two beta readers), we held two “adjudication meetings”, in which we went through the unresolved comments and came to consensus about what to do about each one.

The result is a book that is a genuine collaboration. Each author’s own voice shines through their chapters, and each author’s stories are truly their own. Yet the book is not just an anthology. It has a story line, Darcy and Elizabeth both have arcs, and although their paths through those arcs are twisted and tangled, the story holds together as a true Pride & Prejudice “enemies-to-lovers” vagary.

I am immensely proud of and grateful for every one of my ten co-authors. It feels like we have known each other for much longer than just a year, and the project has been a joy from its inception to the present day, just a couple of weeks before release.

You can pre-order a copy from Amazon to read the final result for yourself. I hope you enjoy reading as much as we have enjoyed the process of creating it!