Author Carrie Bebris shares her considered opinions of how Jane Austen might have answered the AuthorView. Comments from Austen's own letters appear in italics.

MB: What or who inspired your novel?

'Miss Austen': As a child, I composed dozens of short works, mainly parodies of popular novels, for the amusement of my family. Though pretentious persons might look down upon novels as inferior to "serious literature" such as poetry and sermons, all my family are great novel-readers and not ashamed of being so. With their encouragement, I began to write novels. Among my early attempts was "First Impressions," the book that eventually became "Pride and Prejudice." "First Impressions" was an epistolary novel -- a story told through a series of letters. After my father offered it to a London publisher who rejected it unread, I set it aside, along with another novel ("Elinor and Marianne") that I had written about the same time. Years later, I revised both manuscripts into narrative form. "Elinor and Marianne" became "Sense and Sensibility," which was successful enough that both my publisher and the public welcomed another novel by the same author.

By the time I was revising "S&S" and "P&P," my father had died, leaving my mother, my unmarried sister, and I in reduced financial circumstances and dependent upon my brothers for our maintenance. The Bennet sisters in "P&P" face a similar fate if they do not marry—worse, for they have no brothers to help them. For most ladies in 1813, marriage is the only sure means of financial security. In Elizabeth Bennet, I wanted to create a heroine willing to sacrifice that security rather than sacrifice herself by marrying a man she could not respect, or who would not respect her.

MB: What do you like most about your novel?

'Miss Austen': Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know. I am also fond of Darcy. Like Mr. Bennet, I could not have married off my Lizzy to any one less worthy.

MB: Who is the most heroic person you know?

'Miss Austen': I greatly admire my brothers Frank and Charles, who are both currently serving in His Majesty's Navy during our war with France. Perhaps one day I shall write a novel with a naval captain as the hero.

MB: Who's your romance hero: Dark, brooding bad boy or white knight in shining armor?

'Miss Austen': Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked. Many of my contemporaries write novels in which the characters are All Good or Wholly Evil, but real human beings demonstrate more complexity than that. Even admirable individuals possess foibles and weaknesses. That having been said, my heroes are on the whole more White Knights than Bad Boys. They are men of integrity who act with honor even if doing so causes personal disadvantage. Mr. Darcy may seem a dark, brooding, proud man when Elizabeth first meets him, but in the end he indeed becomes Elizabeth's champion, rescuing her and her entire family from catastrophe.

MB: Answer the question you wish an interviewer would ask.

'Miss Austen': In truth, there are no questions I wish an interviewer would pose. I most earnestly desire to avoid public attention, which is why I publish my novels anonymously ("By a Lady"). How you, Ms. Buonfiglio, discovered my identity, I cannot fathom -- I can only speculate that perhaps one of my dear brothers, unable to contain his pride, divulged my secret to an acquaintance, and word spread. I expect the interest will be short-lived. Two hundred years from now, who will have heard of "Pride and Prejudice?"

Carrie Bebris is author of the delightful "Mr. and Mrs. Darcy" mysteries. Visit www.CarrieBebris.com to learn more about them and Carrie's other novels.

The newest "Darcy" mystery, "North by Northanger," hits the shelves in spring 2006.