Tag: Flat Jane Austen

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Flat Jane Austen Turns Four

jasnaewanid

. . . And Visits All 50 States!

by Michele Larrow, FJA’s Travel Coordinator

Header Image: FJA at the Burchart Gardens, Brentwood Bay, BC, at 2022 AGM in Victoria, photograph by Roseann Thompson

Flat Jane Austen (FJA) is a project our region started in August 2020 as a way for Janeites to connect during a time when many people were home due to the Covid lockdown. We made many copies of FJA over the past four years, in the original 6 inch size and the later 9 inch size. She was mailed to about 100 different hosts. Our hosts have taken her to teas, ballgames, dances, hiking, museums, libraries, and JASNA events. They shared pictures of FJA’s adventures on our website FJA page, in our Flat Jane Austen Facebook Group, or through other social media using #FlatJaneAusten or #FlatAusten hashtags. This spring, FJA has finally made it to all 50 states. She also has visited several Canadian provinces and been to much of Europe, as well as Iceland and Taiwan. FJA is still going strong. If you would like to host or re-host FJA, see our website FJA page and fill out the sign-up form. To celebrate her milestone of going to all 50 states, we’d like to highlight a few FJA hosts (in alphabetical order) who have brought us along on some fun adventures.

Lisa Angel, Georgia

Lisa has hosted FJA twice and took her all over the Atlanta area and other parts of Georgia–going to concerts, lacrosse games, a professional bull riding show, the CDC museum, and river tubing in Helena. She has also taken FJA to vacations in Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Utah. Perhaps most importantly, Lisa’s pup, Mr. Bingley, is a huge FJA fan.

Mr. Bingley and FJA attend a Braves/Orioles game in Atlanta
FJA in the Smokey Mountains, Tennessee
FJA in Madison, WI

Kirk Companion, Massachusetts

Kirk is a region member who heads the “Boston Branch” of the FJA project, with his own FJA. He spreads the word about FJA on his Austen in Boston social media. He has visited the most states of any host (28) and was the first to take FJA to visit Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota (the last three states were numbers 48, 49, and 50 on our map). Kirk also loves to travel to JASNA meetings in other states, including Alabama, Colorado, New York, Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Washington, and New Jersey.

JASNA Maryland Meeting with Juliette Wells
FJA and Flat Mr. Darcy go to North Dakota, state #50!
FJA on the Mississippi River, between Arkansas and Tennessee (Memphis in background)

Roseann Thompson, New Mexico

Roseann is a region member from New Mexico who has taken FJA to the 2021 AGM in Chicago, the 2022 AGM in Victoria, BC, and the 2023 AGM in Denver, CO. Through Roseann’s frequent postings from the AGMs, FJA helped those of us who aren’t able to attend share some of the excitement of being there. Roseann also has taken FJA to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (on mule), to the Four Corners Monument (NM, AZ, CO, and UT), and to Scotland with a stopover in Iceland.

FJA chats with Adrian Lukis (Mr. Wickham 1995) at the 2023 AGM
Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland
FJA rides a mule into the Grand Canyon, Arizona

Jeanette Watts, Illinois

In the spring and summer of 2022, Jeanette took FJA on her travels to several states including Delaware (first time visit), Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas. FJA had lots of fun and attended balls, went to museums, and visited historic sites.

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
Victorian Ball, Cincinnati, Ohio
Fort McHenry, Maryland

“A Thousand Thanks”

Thank you to all who helped with FJA: Jane Provinsal, co-RC for our region, thought of the FJA project and has created many wonderful posts with FJA for our social media. Debra Peck, region secretary at the time, designed and made up many copies of the original FJA. Christina Boyd, of The Quill Ink, helped to publicize our project and invited many JAFF authors to join our FJA Facebook group, some of whom have also hosted FJA. Many JASNA regions, including Georgia, Maryland, Hawai’i, Middle Tennessee, Utah, Metropolitan Kansas City, North Nevada, Wyoming, Vancouver, BC, and Puget Sound, have hosted FJA. Finally, thanks to everyone who has hosted FJA and those who followed along with her adventures.

Kirk Companion and Roseann Thompson unite 2 FJAs at the 2023 AGM in Denver, CO (photo courtesy of Roseann Thompson)
FJA and Flat Mr. Darcy enjoy our region’s Spring Tea 2024 (Jane Provinsal, photo)
FJA attends a JASNA Maryland meeting (photo from RC Jennifer Jones)
Mary Mintz, JASNA President, enjoys FJA at a presentation at JASNA Vermont (Kirk Companion, photo)
Middle Tennessee Region hosts FJA (Brenda Vaughan, photo)
FJA celebrates July 4th (Jane Provinsal, photo)
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Introducing: Flat Jane Austen!

JASNA EWANID SM

We have been working on a special project which combines friendship with something Jane Austen loved doing, writing letters, and are so pleased to share it with you today!

Introducing “Flat Jane Austen”!!!

In the last three years, we have loved developing friendships with you, whether on our various social media platforms or at our events, through your comments and emails. It has saddened us not to be able to meet in person for our usual lovely gatherings. In an effort to strengthen our friendships, provide a connection between members and the friends we have made in the Jane Austen world, and have a little fun while possibly staying closer to home than usual, we have set up this special project with Flat Austen, as we affectionately call her, an endeavor similar to the “Flat Stanley” activity popular with many school children.

Here’s how it works:

1. After you have read this post, if you wish to participate complete this form that adds you to our database for the project: https://forms.gle/GR6RnfiVvmodSDFm8 . If you have any questions, email us for the project at: FlatJaneAusten@gmail.com.
2. Let’s say Anne Elliot signs up first and gives us her address. Flat Austen travels to Anne’s home via the mail (hopefully not too bumpy or hot like a ride in a mail coach).
3. Anne and Flat Austen visit Anne’s house, yard, favorite places, famous places in Anne’s city, and Anne takes photos of Flat Austen there (and herself, if she wishes!). Maybe they have tea or make cookies or read a book or go on a boat! The sky is the limit (although please nothing which would scandalize someone like Mrs. Weston or Jane Bennet Bingley)!
4. Anne emails the photos to us at the email above so we can share them on social media & in a Google Photos album for everyone to see, and shares them on social media herself, if she wishes, using the hashtag #FlatJaneAusten. We give her the address of the next participant.
5. Anne writes a little note about where Flat Austen has visited on the sheet provided, puts it and Flat Austen in an envelope, (and maybe a little letter to the next recipient) and mails them to the next person on the list.
6. The next person receives Flat Austen in the mail and repeats the process! Each “visit” to someone’s house should last about 3 days at most (unless there are special circumstances—email us!).
7. We all wait to find out what lovely things Flat Austen has done with our wonderful friends and how far she has traveled! This can go on as long as people are interested.

If this sounds like fun to you, then fantastic! Please do sign up by completing this form: https://forms.gle/GR6RnfiVvmodSDFm8. This project does require you share a mailing address with us, give us permission to share it with someone else who will then send Flat Austen to you, and be willing to provide your own regular envelope and stamp to send her on to another person. We promise to keep your information confidential and only give it to the next person on the list. It will not be used for any nefarious purposes (We are NOT Willoughby, after all.)

If you are outside of the United States and wish to participate, please contact us and let us know. Hopefully the mail between countries will begin moving quickly again and we can open this up for international “travel.” 😉

If you wish to write a reply to the person who sent Flat Austen to you, then that’s absolutely lovely and completely in the spirit of this project and Jane Austen’s life! We hope this project can be a way to connect our region members until we can meet again in person.

Questions? If you want to create a Flat Austen project for your group, email us at FlatJaneAusten@gmail.com!

Keep an eye on #FlatJaneAusten & #FlatAusten on social media!