Music Monday: Turn Around, Look at Me, The Vogues

Today’s musical selection is a song that a reader suggested would go very well with His Beautiful Bea.  Of course, as soon as she mentioned it in a comment on darcyandlizzy.com, I had to go on a YouTube search for it.  I found several versions of the song.  And you know what?  Carmalee was so right! This song is perfect for Graeme, absolutely perfect!  After listening to several of the versions, I settled on this video because I liked both the sound quality and the pictures. 🙂

MsDarlin45. “The Vogues – Turn Around Look at Me.” YouTube. YouTube, 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 July 2017.

His Beautiful Bea will be “LIVE” on all my sales channels tomorrow, August 1, 2017.

Also happening tomorrow:

It is my day at austenauthors.net, so there will be an excerpt — from the card playing scene for those who have been fortunate enough to read the book — and a giveaway as well as an explanation of what the Touches of Austen books are.

If you’ve been following my blog or have subscribed to my newsletter, you are very familiar with what a Touches of Austen book is. However; not everyone is. So, I will be explaining my take on Austenesque as it pertains to this collection of stories.

Hopefully, there will be those readers who will be daring enough to try something new from me and come to love Graeme and Bea as much as I do.  🙂

Getting everything ready for the print version of my release and making certain all the preorder things were in place took a good bit of time this week, but I still managed to learn some new stuff (Photoshop related), and I didn’t have to miss my writing time to do it!

I am about 10K shy of having the first draft of Dash of Darcy #4 done. (No, still no title — I need to see if the idea behind the working title still holds true when I reach the end before I commit to it.)

Dash of Darcy #4 is shaping up to be a fun tale with some commotion and upsets but nothing “dire” or “grave” or “life threateningly dramatic.” However, though these disturbances are more amusing than angst-inducing, they still do their work to draw out a different side of Darcy and to show him to Elizabeth as a man she can and does love.

(Side note: The story starts at the conclusion of that horrid proposal and refusal, so I think, ODC started out at the worst point in their story. And to me, when I consider the purpose of the story, there seems to be no need to delve deeper into drama. I believe the results can be achieved through lighter events.)

Below is a scene from this week’s writing that I think shows a bit of how Darcy is changing. Continue reading Music Monday: Turn Around, Look at Me, The Vogues


Wordless Wednesday: The Colonel’s Boots and Coat

Uniform Coats, Sword, and Boots, Uniacke Estate Museum, Mount Uniacke, NS; picture taken by Leenie Brown

Another bonus “picture” made from the picture above and with a quote from tomorrow’s story installment

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Leenie B Books

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Music Monday: SHINE, The Washboard Union

This is not the song I had thought I would be sharing today.  However, when it popped up in my YouTube notifications, I changed my original plans because I have heard this on the radio lately, and I have been eagerly awaiting the video so that I could share it. I love how upbeat both the tune and the words are. It’s a great pick me up song for any time of the day, but I do think Monday mornings are probably more in need of picking up than most (except maybe Wednesday afternoons as your energy flags in that midweek slump — or is that just me?)

TheWashboardUnion. “The Washboard Union – Shine – Official Lyric Video.” YouTube. YouTube, 21 July 2017. Web. 22 July 2017.

So, while you’re tapping your toes to this happy song, let me tell you briefly what I have been up to this past week in my writing life.

During my editing block:

First, I finished first round edits on Henry’s story and sent it to my first reader, who messaged me that she enjoyed it and has some notes for me, which we will discuss probably this evening.

Then, I pulled up the copy of His Beautiful Bea with all its line edits and began a final read through of that before working on the formatting.  It looks like everything but the print edition should be ready for release day, August 1, 2017. (Hopefully, by the time this post goes live, both the e-book and print files will be uploaded and just awaiting review and proofing for appearance.)

I also sent out a sneak peek at chapters one and two of His Beautiful Bea to my mailing list, and I set up a Touches of Austen Readers Group on Facebook where readers can discuss elements of Austen they find in the book as they read.

Note: If you would like to read my explanation of what the Touches of Austen Collection of books is and the first chapter of His Beautiful Bea, you can do that at this link: His Beautiful Bea Preview

I’m rather excited about taking this step into writing Austenesque stories.  I just hope I survive the Mrs. Bennet-like fit of nerves that accompanies doing something new!

And then in my writing block:

I’m still working on what will be my next Dash of Darcy novella. I think I might have finished the cutting and splicing of the previous stories into the new story phase at least for now, and depending on how long this story ends up being in the end, I am at the “one-third to one-half done” mark. 🙂

The excerpt below is an entirely new part that I added to the story this week. (No, the story does not yet have an official title. 🙂 )

EXCERPT from Dash of Darcy #4 Continue reading Music Monday: SHINE, The Washboard Union


Wordless Wednesday: Writing Desk and Letter

Writing desk in the library at Uniacke Estate Museum Park, Mount Uniacke, Nova Scotia; Photograph taken by Leenie Brown

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A hint about the link between the selection of today’s Wordless Wednesday picture and tomorrow’s Thursday Three Hundred story

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Leenie B Books

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Music Monday: Softness and Light, Brian Crain

Pause your busy Monday for a couple of minutes and try this little imagination exercise.  Click play on the video below. Then close your eyes and see if you can imagine yourself travelling in a carriage with the light filtering in through the window.

Briancrainfan. “Brian Crain – Softness and Light.” YouTube. YouTube, 07 June 2012. Web. 15 July 2017.

Were you able to see it?  Isn’t this song perfect for a carriage ride on a sunny spring day? I found it to be.

In fact, it is this song and that exercise that I used to settle my brain into one of my writing sessions this week which resulted in the carriage ride shared in the excerpt at the end of this writing news update.

This week, I began working my way through my first round of edits for Henry’s story.  I am just past the halfway point with that, and I am still loving that story! I hope to have my edits done before Wednesday this week so I can send that story off to my first reader.  Because I am pushing to get that done, my writing sessions were shorter this past week.

As I mentioned last week, I was in need of a new story to write this week and had several options from which to choose.  Well, I settled on one that I had attempted before and had given up on.

I’m not the sort that likes to give up. 😉 So, I am giving it one more shot — and so far, it seems like it is going to work.  I wrestled with it for a day and then decided to discuss my concerns with a couple of writer friends.  That was an excellent choice because a couple of helpful comments was all it took for me to have a lightbulb moment about how this story might be accomplished.  We’ll see if it works out.

The story has a working title but as I am still very uncertain if that title will stick, I will just refer to it as Dash of Darcy 4 because it will be the fourth Dash of Darcy Collection Novella. (And if all goes according to plan, there will be at least one sequel and maybe two sequels to add to my Dash of Darcy Companion Stories Collection.)

As with all my Dash of Darcy novellas, the story departs from Pride and Prejudice at a specific point and then follows a new path to happily ever after for Darcy and Elizabeth. This story starts at the conclusion of Darcy’s disastrous proposal — before he can even leave the parsonage — and takes a one hundred eighty degree turn.

This novella is a reworking of three short stories I wrote several years ago.  These stories — A Change of Heart, Just Three Words, and With My Whole Heart — can be found in their original forms in my short stories collection HERE.  I can’t promise that all of what you read in these stories will end up in the final product as the story has to be expanded and some ideas might not work with the new plot additions, but these three stories are my starting point.

The following scene (currently the beginning of chapter 3) is entirely new material that I am adding to this story and follows the rewritten A Change of Heart (which has been expanded enough to be chapters 1 & 2).

EXCERPT FROM Dash of Darcy 4 Continue reading Music Monday: Softness and Light, Brian Crain