Fresno Famous

Editor's note: This story was written by Jill Coppler and originally ran in the Jan. 15 issue of {Talk.

Sharon Lathan of Hanford would devour any science fiction and fantasy novel she could get her hands on, but she steered clear of the romance genre.

Sure, she liked the occasional chick flick, but she says the petty drama and predictability didn't hold her attention for long.

That is, until she discovered Jane Austen.

Lathan and a friend headed into the local movie theater in November 2005 to see Joe Wrigh's film adaptation of Jane Austen's famous romance, Pride and Prejudice. Lathan says she was entirely captivated. She saw the movie a dozen more times, all the while desperate to know what was to happen next for the tale's two lovers, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Lathan began to search the Internet for Austen fan fiction — continuation stories written by literature devotees — and she found the gamut. Yes, there's even Austen-inspired vampire-themed sequels — not what Lathan had in mind.

So she wrote her own.

“My saga is the only one focused on the happily ever after, it's very theme-oriented,” she says. Lathan began sharing her version of the ever after of the Darcy's online. Before long, her small fan base was encouraging her to publish the short stories.

Despite what felt like a long litany of rejection letters to the budding author, by June 2007 Lathan secured a six-book contract with Sourcebooks, a large Illinois-based independent publisher.

In March, her first book was released, Mr. and Mrs. Fitwilliam Darcy. By September, her second, Loving Mr. Darcy, was on bookshelves and her third, My Dearest Mr. Darcy, made its debut Jan. 1. The books follow the couple from wedding night through their early married years.

“At first you feel like it takes forever, and then, suddenly, it's a whirlwind,” Lathan says of her pursuit to print. “I had to learn as I went.” That meant stepping into a whole new world of working with editors and publicity people, and travelling for conferences and book signings.

Lathan, a registered nurse by trade, says it's the support of her family that has allowed her to juggle it all.

“We, as a family, have always been an integral unit. We shift the responsibility as needed. There's no one person's job around here,” says Lathan's husband, Steve. The couple have two children, a 22-year-old daughter, Emily, and a 17-year-old son, Kyle.
“When you love somebody, you want them to be the best that they can be,” Steve says.

It doesn't hurt Steve is an unabashed fan of his wife's novels. Steve says one of his greatest moments was seeing his wife's books on shelves at Target.

“It's like seeing your own child,” she says. “You know how much work went into it.”

The couple say that a lot of their marriage has ended up in the books.

“The books are about becoming one and about staying in love and passionate about one another,” Sharon says. “A good, healthy, long-term relationship is not seen as often in modern romance stories.”

Having fans helps, too.

Maggie Schimelpfening of Visalia says she was devouring any Pride and Prejudice material she could get her hands on when she picked up Lathan's series and noticed the author is a South Valley neighbor.
Schimelpfening contacted Lathan and the two became fast friends.

“She's just so sweet,” Schimelpfening says. “I was really excited to meet her. This couldn't happen to a nicer person.”

The two now meet once a month for coffee and talk books.

“The way she writes is so vivid you can picture everything. And I enjoy the happily ever after. There's no unrealistic conflict,” Schimelpfening says.

As for Lathan, she doesn't consider her self among the ranks of Austen, but she supports the efforts of fan fiction — how new fiction, based on old, can reignite interest in the classics.

“I think it's great,” she says. “It's people showing their passion for the subject and expressing their creativity. How could that be a bad thing?”

For now, she's finishing up the next few books and hopes to delve deeper into sideline characters. She also hopes to travel to England one day to see, firsthand, the sites she describes in her books.