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The August 2026 Saturday Broadsheet

August 15, 2026

Hi. It’s the middle of August… already! 

My hubby is currently on holiday from his main job but has picked up some side jobs while he is off. We haven’t planned any day trips yet because he’s got those side jobs and because my car was having issues… again! 

It now has two new CV joints and is driving quieter than it has in a long time. It is currently waiting for a new oil pan to come in so they can replace the one that has a leak. 

snapshots of potatoes, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, and zucchini over a background collage of various garden plants and with the heading "the harvest begins"

The garden is growing, and we are slowly getting to enjoy some home-grown produce. We are also learning a lot and planning changes for next year. In fact, we may be rearranging the layout of our “hoop house” today. It’s on the schedule, but I am writing this on Friday, so anything could change our plans between now and then. We’d like to be able to reach both sides of the tomato plants for harvesting more easily. That’s the reason for the shuffling of things. (Again, it’s all part of the learning process.) 

In my writing life, I’m still plugging away at my various projects slowly. They are creeping forward, and I am planning to start sharing my Lydia story with my Patreon subscribers as a work in progress at the beginning of September on Thursdays. You do have to be a $2 or higher subscriber to gain access to that. 

And I have run into a little problem with my Harriet and the Colonel story, which I will tell you about when you get to that part of this Broadsheet. 

But first, in…

AUDIOBOOK NEWS

I told you last month that I had started adding the Touches of Austen series to ElevenReader. 

Collage of the six Touches of Austen book covers with the words "Touches of Austen now on ElevenReader" with a sketch of a pair of headphones and a web address bit.ly/Leenie-11R

That series is now complete, and I am currently working on adding my final collection of books to the ElevenReader platform. 

That’s my Sweet Possibilities and Sweet Extras books. 

Sweet Possibilities are my Pride and Prejudice meets Hallmark-style romance stories. They are Darcy and Elizabeth variations which employ some of the tropes you might find in a Hallmark or similar movie. Such as: shared inheritance, Christmas traditions that force people together, an unwelcome suitor showing up to stir up trouble, and matchmaking friends and relations. 

And each and every Sweet Possibility story has a Mary and the colonel Sweet Extra novelette sequel. 

Covers of the first four book covers in the Sweet Possibilities and Extras collection with the words "Sweet Possibilities and Extras now on ElevenReader" with a sketch of headphones and a web address bit.ly/Leenie-11R

As of this week, I have two such pairs uploaded to ElevenReader and three pairs left to upload. I am still only uploading one book per week, so it will be the end of September when I finally get that project completed. 

I am looking forward to finally having all my books listed at Elevenlabs as it provides greater accessibility for those who want or need their books to be read to them. 

YouTube thumbnail for Not an Heiress with a cover image and headphones on a light purple background. Includes the caption: Colonel Fitzwilliam would not be hers- no matter what her heart's desire was on the matter.

On YOUTUBE, chapter 1 of Not an Heiress posted yesterday. I have the next chapter scheduled and waiting for me to proof-listen to it to make sure no strange noises were added in the transfer from video creation software to my hard drive to YouTube. But that’s as far as I have gotten with work on that project as of this moment. 

Discovering Mr. Darcy is now available as an audiobook in several places (other than YouTube) and is listed at an introductory price both on retail stores and library catalogues until the end of August.  

Audiobook cover for Discovering Mr. Darcy with a list of the places where it can be found: Get it when you become a patron YouTube (free with ads) Kobo Spotify Nook Audiobooks Everand

BOOK NEWS

Book Promotions: 

A collage of book promotion graphics on a summery background with sand and seashells and boards painted aqua. The book graphics show the covers of Matching Mr. Darcy and With Quill and Ink. Both books are downloads for patrons this month, while Matching Mr. Darcy is the free read, and With Quill and Ink is $0.99 everywhere. The with Quill and Ink image also contains these story details: Love discovered through the pages of a late friend's private diary, A secret garden inheritance with a marriage stipulation, and A matchmaking house party and a list of eligible bachelors.

This month’s series highlight is my Sweet Possibilities series. 

With Quill and Ink is the $0.99 book this month – which can be found at a variety of stores and is reduced in all currencies. 

Matching Mr. Darcy is the Patreon follower FREE read this month and is also one of the two eBooks to Keep over there for subscribers. (With Quill and Ink is the other eBook to Keep.)

If you’re a subscription reader, Patreon is just one of the subscription places where you can read my books. In addition to Patreon, my books are included in the Kobo Plus and Everand subscription programs. 

SOMETHING NEW TO READ 

As I stated above, I have just found an issue with my Harriet and the Colonel story. I have been writing this new part as if it is to take place in the summer. However… 

I had intended it to match with Oxford Cottage at the time when Darcy and Elizabeth meet Lord Lillesley at an inn while travelling to London from Oxford Cottage. 

Um, that took place in October. Not summer. So, I will have to go back and adjust things in this story accordingly, but I’m going to write from here to the end as if it is early October and not the summer. This is just part of the story being a WIP. 🙂 

I will not be changing the chapters that I have shared at any of the places below, but the corrected timeline will appear in the final product. (And no, I have not yet named the gentleman suspected of being the ring leader. He is still just Mr. (name).)

Please remember that there are sections where previous chapters from all the Harriet and the Colonel stories can be read on whichever platform you subscribe to. 

On my blog, look for Harriet and the Colonel in the menu options. 

On Substack, look for the Harriet and the Colonel section on the home page. 

On Patreon, look for On the Way to a Wedding in the collections tab. 

On the way to a wedding title graphic with the title and an image of a Regency couple talking near the door to a garden

Chapter 3 (Part 1)

Two days later, Samantha and Harriet, along with her husband who had joined them just that morning, were returning from a walk in the garden when a rider approached the house.

“Who do you suppose that is?” Julian asked with a laugh, since Harriet was already nearly running toward the garden gate that would connect her to the driveway. But how could she not hurry when her colonel was nearly at her doorstep.

“I have a message for the lady of the house,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said as drew his horse to a stop near her. “It is an acceptance of your dinner invitation from Mrs. Darcy.” He swung down and withdrew a letter from his pocket. “She is anxious to meet you. Nearly as anxious as I was to see you – which is why I am playing the part of an express rider.”

He swept her into his arm and kissed her soundly before she had a chance to do any more than say, “You are here.” No other words of welcome were spoken. But did she care? Not one wit. Kissing was exactly how she had hoped to welcome him.

“Julian is here,” she said, once they had stopped kissing. “He and Samantha are in the garden sitting room.” She added this part after peeking over her shoulder to see if her sister and brother-in-law had followed her. Thankfully, they had not. “I am so glad you came.”

“You will need to thank your brother for that. He thought it would be a good show of things surrounding your returning to town a bit earlier than you normally do.” He wrapped her arm around his, and they began walking toward the gate to the garden. “Apparently, a dinner party has been arranged, since the Darcys will only be in town for a short time, before retiring to Pemberley for a few months. And I have not been granted any extended time away from my post – just a few days to see to the safety of my betrothed as she travels to join her brother.”

“That is a very good plan, and my brother concocted all that on his own, did he?”

Richard chuckled. “How could he have, since it was you who extended the invitation to the Darcys?  The rest was all his; although, I do believe Elizabeth had a hand in part of it in an indirect fashion.”

“Mrs. Darcy inspired part of my brother’s story about your arrival and my return?”

“You would have been impressed.” He led her down a path away from the door to the garden sitting room and began to regale her with the story of the mock abduction that he had helped Elizabeth stage at the inn where he was to meet with Lillesley. “It was after this that he decided to have me come here to accompany you to London as a good faith demonstration to Elizabeth that her words about protecting those in need of protection had not fallen on dull ears.”

Harriet shook her head as she smiled broadly. “You are correct, as you often are. I am quite impressed with Mrs. Darcy.” She drew a breath.

“She is expecting a child, but I am not to tell anyone,” Richard whispered. “Therefore, any scheming you may have in mind to do with your soon to be cousin through marriage will have to wait and likely be confined to safer pursuits that do not involve guns, knives, abductions, or criminals that are more hardened than a young child who steals a cookie or breaks a vase.”

“You do know that will not be easy, do you not?” Harriet almost teased. Her tone was teasing, but the truth that lay in the statement was just that – truth. “These past two months in the country have been rather boring, or at least they were until (name) called on us and Edmund departed for London.”

Richard has slowed his pace to nearly standing still. “What do you mean by that? What have you been doing while your brother was away?”

“I believe that Samantha and I have discovered who is behind the whole operation.” Or, at least, she hoped that what she had discovered from Mrs. Cooper’s visit was the final piece of their puzzle. For she truly wished to be a married woman before Christmas.

“You will need to elaborate on that,” his tone was rather demanding.

“We did not do anything dangerous,” she assured him. “It was merely a bit of tea and all the accoutrements that accompany such a call between ladies.”

“Gossip? You are basing your discovery on gossip?”

She shook her head. “My information is just that – details that hold a great deal in common with our current assignment. A flirtatious maid named Muriel, a family who took her to town, who had a son with a dangerously charming friend named George whose last name likely started with a W, and the head of that family is not at his estate presently. He is, rather, in town.”

“And you discovered this over a cup of tea?” Richard asked in surprise.

“Well, not the part about Mr. (name) being in town. That information was gained at the milliner’s shop. There are two other gentlemen in the area who are not in residence as would be normal, but the one who seems the most likely to be the person in whom we are interested is Mr. (name).” She shrugged. “Edmund would not tell me the name of the gentleman in town that he wished to see.”

“He had mentioned that to me, which is another reason he gave for me to come see you.”

“He expected me to discover what he would not tell me?”

Richard nodded.

Harriet smiled. “I am once again impressed. It seems my brother is finally realizing that I do possess some skills.”

Richard laughed. “I do believe he has. Although, he has always known you were clever.”

“Not that he ever wished to acknowledge it.” She shook her head. “That is not entirely true. He used to think it was a good thing, and then, he went away to war.” She snuggled into his side closer as they walked. “It changed him. And then Andrew died, and that also changed him. But he was not alone in changing. We all were touched by those things in different ways.”

“You are not just clever, my love. You are wise. And I do think your brother will come to realize that more and more as he settles into his new role. I will assist him in seeing it.”

Harriet laughed lightly. “Is that your way of telling me that I do not need to continue to prove my cleverness and wisdom to him?”

“You are wise,” Richard said before kissing her fingers. “Now, I do think we should enter the house and discuss our preparations for travel.”

—

Thank you so much for being my readers! Have a lovely weekend! 

<3 Leenie


On the Way to a Wedding, Ch 2 (part 2)

(There’s a new part of this story dropping Saturday in the Broadsheet, so it’s time to give last month’s part it’s own post so it can be found more easily.)

Find previous chapters (to previous Harriet and the Colonel stories) here.

For two days after their tete-a-tete in the garden, Harriet and Samantha made the trip to the village to see and be seen, but most importantly to talk and listen to those they met.

As far as the two ladies knew from these excursions, there were three men who were not at their country estates as would be their normal wont. One had gone to visit his brother who had suffered an accident while riding. Another had inherited a second small estate and was seeing to the setting up of things there. And the third was in London overseeing the remodeling of his townhouse.

All seemed perfectly reasonable reasons to stray from the normal pattern of things. However, that was the best way to cover one’s true intent when one did not wish for that intent to be discovered.

But was that not what she and Samantha had been doing, Harriet thought as the two of them settled into the drawing room at home for an afternoon of sewing. With any luck today would prove to be beneficial to ferret out which fellow was attempting to cover his nefarious business.

A carriage had been spotted in the driveway twenty minutes ago, so it was no surprise when guests were announced.

“Mrs. Cooper, Miss Cooper, it is lovely to see you. Did the ribbon you purchased match your dress as you wished it to do?” Harriet said in greeting as her guests took their seats.

Mrs. Cooper was known for her dedication to all things newsworthy, and so, Samantha, being the excellent sister that she was, had made certain to let the lady know that Harriet would soon be returning to town to finalize wedding preparations.

“Oh, it is perfection!” said Mrs. Cooper. “I dare say Audrey is going to be very sought after in town this season, for she will be well turned out.”

“That is excellent news,” Harriet replied, though she really was not interested in what sort of fashionable clothing Miss Cooper had procured for her wardrobe – or that is to say, she was not overly interested. She was a lady, after all, and did enjoy beautiful clothing. However, she had a mission to complete, and information that would aid her in the completion of her task was of more interest. Therefore, these mundane topics of conversation were necessary.

“I do hope she will be as successful as you have been,” Mrs. Cooper added with a smile before turning to Samantha, who was embellishing a baby bonnet. “I see the lace you purchased is being put to good use.”  

Harriet utilized this turn in the conversation to request that lemonade and seed cakes be brought in.

“Yes, it is,” her sister replied. “And I do think that my husband will not mind it even if this child is a boy.” Samantha chuckled softly. “Julian loves a fine piece of lace on one of my dresses, but he has little tolerance for any such adornments on little boys’ gowns. He is the youngest of four you see, and his older siblings were all girls. He was just as handsome then as he is now, and resembles his sisters so greatly, that if you were to take away his mature features and build and replace it with something softer – as a young boy usually is – and allow his hair to grow and curl as it is most naturally wishes to do, you can likely understand his misgivings about his son being mistaken for a daughter.”

“Did that happen to him often when he was young?” Miss Cooper asked.

“Until he was breeched, and even after that, he often heard comments about how he was just as pretty as his sisters – who, by the by, are beautiful.”

“Well, then, it is very understandable that he would stress that there is a difference in some fashion, whether it be colour or the number of ruffles and amount of lace,” Mrs. Cooper said. “My husband has never concerned himself with anything our children wear. He leaves that entirely up to me. Indeed, I am often asked to recommend colours to him when he is ordering a suit of clothes.” She smiled softly. “He does not see colour as we do.”

“Oh, indeed!” her daughter cried. “But then, my brother is the same. At one time, I thought all boys saw things wrong when I was a girl, but that is not true. I know that now.” She paused as the refreshments were brought in. “You know, Mother, it was a maid who first heard me say that boys do not see things right and corrected me.”

“Is that so? You never mentioned that to me before. Was it one of our maids?”

Miss Cooper nodded. “Her name was Muriel.”

Mrs. Cooper gasped. “I remember her.” She looked at Harriet and Samantha and lowered her voice. “She was not with us long. She was a little too friendly with some of my son Ambrose’s friends.” She shook her head. “She was quite pretty so her attentions were not easily turned away for some young men.”

“Did you dismiss her?” Samantha whispered.

“We did. I will not tolerate such things in my home.”

“That is understandable.” And commendable, Harriet added to herself. “Do you know if she found another position?” She asked this as she made certain that everyone had both lemonade and a seed cake.

Mrs. Cooper sighed. “I heard she eventually went to London with the (family name). Why they would hire a maid who was known to cavort with the gentlemen of the house, I do not know. But then, their son and that one friend of Ambrose’s were known philanderers, so I should not be surprised. Oh, what was his name?”  

That was interesting as Mr. (name) was the fellow who was, presently, in town and not at his estate. But that could be a coincidence.

“Was it the dangerously charming fellow?” her daughter asked.

“It was indeed,” her mother replied.

“I was only twelve at the time,” she explained to her hosts. “But even at that age, I could tell that he was far too charming, but my he was handsome. I dare say I have never seen any other gentleman who was as handsome as he was.” She sighed. “He was quite the dandy. A dandy named George something or other. I remember thinking his name was rather regal and fit him as the king of the charmers.” She laughed lightly.

“You do not remember his surname?” Harriet pressed.

She shook her head. “I do not. I think it started with a W or V maybe? I really could not say with any certainty, however. I just remember scribbling his initials on a scrap of paper and the last letter was one of the pointy ones. I never liked how I formed them, you see.”

And with that, Harriet knew she had found the piece of information she needed, but she could not let on to that fact, now, could she? So instead of smiling broadly and looking pointedly at her sister as she wished to do, she said, “It is not really important what his name is. For I do not need to worry about whether or not to accept a dance from him this season, and you would know him to see him, so you are safe as well.”

“Oh, indeed, I would avoid him if I saw him,” Miss Cooper assured Harriet.

“That is excellent to know. When will you be making the trip to town?” Samantha said, deftly steering the conversation in a less exciting and more mundane direction.

All the Harriet and the Colonel stories such as On the Way to a Wedding are Oxford Cottage companion stories.


August is full of Sweet Possibilities 

This month, I am highlighting my Sweet Possibilities series with a $0.99 book deal, as the Free read and Patreon downloads, and with a matching game that I added to my website. 

Sweet Possibilities is where my love of Jane Austen meets my love for Hallmark-style romance movies. They are all kisses-only Darcy and Elizabeth variations with some tropes that are familiar to Hallmark movies such as a shared inheritance, Christmas shopping and gatherings, matchmakers trying to push couples together, and at least one thwarted suitor who oversteps his place to stir up trouble. 

A collage of book promotion graphics on a summery background with sand and seashells and boards painted aqua. The book graphics show the covers of Matching Mr. Darcy and With Quill and Ink. Both books are downloads for patrons this month, while Matching Mr. Darcy is the free read, and With Quill and Ink is $0.99 everywhere. The with Quill and Ink image also contains these story details: Love discovered through the pages of a late friend's private diary, A secret garden inheritance with a marriage stipulation, and A matchmaking house party and a list of eligible bachelors.

With Quill and Ink is my $0.99 book this month. That is $0.99 USD, CAD, NZD, AUD, EUR, GBP, with all other currencies also reduced, and it is at all the eBook stores that carry my books. 

Matching Mr. Darcy is the free read at Patreon, and that book and With Quill and Ink are the patron downloads. 

Click here to Go to the Book Promotions Page

Along with these deals, I made a matching game for you to try. (It’s not an easy one, but hey, I’m not keeping scores and there will be no report cards. 🙂) It can be found on my website by clicking the screenshot of the game below. 

Screenshot of the Match Me to My Book game on my website. Includes a collage of Sweet Possibility covers at the top and then the instructions and a play button below.

While figuring out how to embed the game on my website I used a matching game I had already created for the Touches of Austen series. This one is easier, and can be found by clicking the screenshot of that game below. 

Screenshot of the Matchmaker, Matchmaker game on my website. Includes a collage of couples at the top and then the instructions and a play button below.

That’s it for now! Have a great weekend. I plan to be back next Saturday (Aug 15) with the August Broadsheet.

<3 Leenie


Match Me to My Book (Sweet Possibilities)

I don’t know about you, but I find seeing the cover helpful to remember the story. 🙂

LEVEL: Great at Remembering Details (aka Hard)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click play to start. You will be given a story item at the top and the titles of the Sweet Possibility books below. Click on the book title that matches the item. It will flash green if you are correct or red if you are incorrect. There will be three items per book.


Matchmaker! Matchmaker! (TOA)

LEVEL: Easy but fun (It likely won’t take you the full 30 seconds that have been allotted.)

INSTRUCTIONS: Click play to begin. You will be shown a hero’s name with a list of names of heroines below it. Click the name that completes the couple.