Author: Leenie Brown

Leenie Brown fell in love with Jane Austen's works when she first read Sense and Sensibility followed immediately by Pride and Prejudice in her early teens. As the second of five daughters and an avid reader, she has always loved to see where her imagination takes her and to play with and write about the characters she meets along the way. In 2013, these two loves collided when she stumbled upon the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction. A year later, in 2014, she began writing her own Austen-inspired stories and began publishing them in 2015. Leenie lives in Nova Scotia, Canada with her two teenage boys and her very own Mr. Brown (a wonderful mix of all the best of Darcy, Bingley and Edmund with healthy dose of the teasing Mr. Tillney and just a dash of the scolding Mr. Knightley).

Music Monday: Emma 2009 – If You’re Not the One

Last year, I participated in Austen Authors’ read along of Emma. It was my second reading of the novel. It’s a very good story — but a long one, and, to be honest, one that I struggled with at times just because it seemed to not move along fast enough for me, and there were some characters (including Emma) who aggravated me. 🙂 However, I did find this second reading gave me a better appreciation for some of them.

Elementoffun. “Emma 2009 – If You’re Not the One.” YouTube. YouTube, 04 Jan. 2010. Web. 27 May 2017.

I think my favourite character was Miss Bates. She often shared some information in her long meanderings that hinted at what was really happening, and if other characters had paid closer to attention to her rather than tuning out her babblings, they might have discovered things before they did. But, Miss Bates was not a character designed to be listened to.  I find that so clever of Miss Austen to use such a character in this fashion.

Today, I have chosen to share one of the three aimagined scenes that I wrote during the read along. There is a place where Miss Bates leaves her house to meet up with Emma and is engaged in talking outside of her home for some time — since you know Miss Bates is not a lady of few words — and Frank and Jane are left alone with a slumbering Mrs. Bates.  Rebecca Jamison who was the discussion leader that week asked what we thought happened in that little interlude in chapter 28 when the two true lovers were left alone.  Below you will find my answer — in vignette format.

The reason I have chosen to share this particular piece of writing instead of something I wrote this week is because, well, my brain seems to be in a little slump, and it was occupied for most of the week with the publication of both Better Than She Deserved and At All Costs.

I did sit down with a story I wrote some time ago and have always wanted to extend into a novelette or novella, but as I started rewriting it, I was finding that the story was not capturing my imagination. I believe my writing suffers when I am not fully engaged in the story, so I decided to tuck that story away for now. I also think the story needs an expanded concept and better conflict/plot development before I go back to it.  This means, however, that I am back to needing to decide on a writing project.  So far, I haven’t landed on anything, and I am attempting to just relax and refill the creative well with things like music videos such as the one above, reading, movies, and fun activities.

So, while my brain rests and recovers from the workout I have given it of late, enjoy this little scene of what might have been in Emma.

An Interlude Between Acts: Continue reading Music Monday: Emma 2009 – If You’re Not the One


Music Monday: Pachelbel in the Garden

Happy Victoria Day! Today, the plan is that I will be spending some time in the garden with my husband getting some things cleaned up and planted.  I am not a great gardener, but I appreciate a good garden — and writing scenes that happen in gardens (see the excerpt below).  I also appreciate lovely, relaxing, imagination-stimulating music.  The video below is the soundtrack that has been playing in the background as I wrote this week.

Crystalkaleidoscope. “Pachelbel in the Garden (relaxing Music, Sounds of Nature).”YouTube. YouTube, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 20 May 2017.

Pachelbel’s Canon in D is a favourite of mine, so I was delighted to stumble across this music on YouTube this week.  It makes great background music, so click play and read on to see what I managed to accomplish this week.

It was another good productive week for me.  I finished edits on Better Than She Deserved.  I got the print copy of At All Costs finished, proofed, and approved — it is all ready for release day this THURSDAY! [You can get your copy at this link.] 🙂

And then, I managed to almost finish writing the first draft of the story I started last week! It is amazing how just a couple thousand words a day adds up! It appears that it is going to be a short novella, but I never expected it would be very long for a couple of reasons. First, I like LOVE novellas, and I tend to write what I like. Second, it is the first story of this type that I have written, so short seemed a good place to begin my learning journey.  (Of course, I might find I like writing these just as short novellas — there is a very good chance that might happen.)

Now, having reached nearly the end of that story, I am faced with the need to design a cover and give it a title.  I had given it a name that went well with the idea I had in mind as I began typing words into my document. However, the characters as I got to know them lead me down a different path. So, that title no longer fits the idea of the book. I think I am going to call it His Beautiful Bea because the main element that I took from Mansfield Park when planning this story was to model my heroine after the quiet, reserved Fanny Price. I have tried out a couple of other ideas and my mind keeps coming back to this one.

So, here is part of a garden scene from His Beautiful Bea that I wrote this week: Continue reading Music Monday: Pachelbel in the Garden


Music Monday: Mansfield Park, Friend of Mine

I’ve spent some time again this week watching period drama music videos between my editing and writing time — partially because I love them and partially because I needed a bit of inspiration as I began a new writing project, which I am excited to tell you about. 🙂 In fact, I am so excited, that the “excerpt” today is a full chapter.

Wantingyounear. “Mansfield Park – Friend of Mine.” YouTube. YouTube, 25 Apr. 2007. Web. 13 May 2017.

However, before I get to the new story, I will give you a quick update on a couple of other stories.  At All Costs is getting very nearly ready to be published.  In fact, I expect it will be available on May 25, which is about a week later than I had hoped. But I really want Better than She Deserved to be ready at the same time, and by pushing the publication date out by a week, I think I will be able to accomplish that.  Remember, that short novelette is going to be published but also used as a mailing list perk — for new subscribers and those with the excellent taste to already be part of that list. 😀  Be watching your inboxes both for info about a limited number of ARC’s for At All Cost and for your copy of Better Than She Deserved.

Now, on to the shiny new story. 🙂

At the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to write an Austenesque story — a story that had elements based on one of Austen’s novels but original characters and plot.  When I came to the end of Caroline’s story, the time just felt right for crossing that goal off of my list — no matter how anxious the thought of stepping out of the comfort of JAFF stories with its familiar palette of characters and plots as a base on which to build and instead, having a nearly blank canvas asking me to fill it with colour and form — with life and love.

I say the canvas is nearly blank because I am not leaving Jane behind — these stories will be categorized in my Touches of Austen series of books.

A Touches of Austen story will incorporate small touches from some Jane Austen Novel.  The one I am writing right now will pay homage to Mansfield Park.  The heroine in this story, Beatrice Tierney, will share some characteristics with Fanny Price.  The hero, Graeme Clayton, is loosely based on Tom Bertram — yes, Tom and not Edmund. Gasp! I couldn’t believe it either. I am a big Fanny and Edmund fan – and I had planned to match Bea with the younger of the Clayton brothers, but Graeme is not Tom, and his brother, Everett, is not Edmund.  And Beatrice is not Fanny.  So who are these characters? Here’s what I have at the moment.  However, you should be aware that these are working notes and subject to change as necessary.  🙂

The Tierney Family of Heathcote

 

 Father: Captain Tierney (navy)

Mother: Mrs. Tierney

Son: Maxwell (Max) Tierney (25, best friends with Everett Clayton)

Daughter:  Beatrice (Bea) Tierney ( 19, sweet and quiet, wishes to please, was a daddy’s girl so took the loss of her father hard, suffered a fever when young and has some lasting effects from it)

Cousins who are visiting:  Felicity (youngest, 17) and Grace (19, eldest and betrothed) Love
The Clayton family of Stratsbury Park Father:  Sir (needs a name) Clayton

Mother: Lady Clayton

1st Son: Graeme (27, more on the wild side ─ just too fun-loving)

2nd Son: Everett (25, looking for a wife before he takes his orders)

Can you see some of the influences of Austen in that list?  In addition to these touches of Austen, I have decided to set this story in 1814, which is the year Mansfield Park was published.

So, now, would you like a peek at Graeme and Beatrice in action? How about a look at the first chapter as it is right now?  Click the link to keep reading, and let me know what you think of the story so far. Do you see any other nods to Mansfield Park?  And, after reading, can you see why I chose to share the song I did today? (Oh, and please ignore the errors — this has not been edited much at this point.)

STORY EXCERPT from (it has no title just yet): 
Continue reading Music Monday: Mansfield Park, Friend of Mine