Leenie Brown

Morning Dress for April 1801

From *The Lady’s Monthly Museum*. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

She looked at the faces which stared back at her in disbelief. “I am not fit for bedlam, if that is what you are thinking. I know it is a sudden turnabout, but a turnabout it is. I have made my choice and am moving forward. How is it you said it, Richard? The past is in the past? And that is where it shall stay.”

“And you are certain of this, Catherine?” questioned Lady Matlock. “You are not just taking the role expected of you for the sake of the family?”

“Good heavens, no!” Lady Catherine shook her head. “I have spent far too many years doing as the family expects. Is not a lady in her dotage allowed to do the unexpected? In three weeks, I shall hand over the care of Rosings to the younger set and shall begin to take my ease.”

[from Listen to Your Heart]

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Austen Couples – I Knew I Loved You (Savage Garden)

A new month = a new music theme on Mondays. 🙂 For the month of April, all the music videos will be fan-created music homages to stories that have been put on film or were written for film. We’re starting with a montage of Austen characters. Therefore, I picked a line from a story of mine which pairs the same characters as Austen did in her work.

My choices were Darcy and Lizzy, Jane and Bingley, Lydia and Wickham, Marrianne and Colonel Brandon. I chose…

These four lines are from a novelette I wrote called Morning Mist which began with the questions: “What if Marianne met the colonel before she met Willoughby and what if the setting where they met played into Marianne’s love of the romantic?” The lines above are from that first meeting in a misty meadow one morning.

Morning Mist is currently only available in the anthology Thunder, Mist, and Frost. However, I have been contemplating breaking the anthology apart and making each title available separately, and I think this might happen later this year since it would give readers more options.

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April (Matthaus Merian)

Monatsbilder (labour of the months) c1622.
Matthäus Merian, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

“What are you reading?” Mr. Wesley sat down next to his daughter on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the walled garden.

The sun was slowly climbing its way into the sky. Dew still clung to the plants in the beds that circled the fountain except for where they were interrupted by walkways.

Charlotte flipped her book open to the title page of the novel she was not presently reading but was, instead, using as a concealment device.

“I thought you had already finished this book?”

Charlotte could feel her cheeks warming under her father’s skeptical look. “I did, but I wished to read it again. There are so many different details that stand out when one reads a book a second or third time.”

“I will not deny that. In fact, I will say it is because you already know the path the story will take, and because of that, you can pay attention to the scenery along the way instead of just attempting to find the destination. However, it appeared to me as if you were not actually reading about the Dashwoods.”

She sighed and opened the book to where a letter was tucked between the pages. “It is silly,” she said.

Her father took the book from her and examined the letter. “Why is reading Mr. Chapman’s letter silly?”

[from His Sensible Heart by Leenie Brown]

Now Available.
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Reel Around the Sun (Riverdance)

I just couldn’t let a month of Celtic music pass without including some Irish dancing. 🙂 It’s so fun to watch.

I decided to pair a line from a conversation that is had between Fritz and Miss Wesley at a ball. (Dancing is the connection here. 😉 ) This line also connects to a book that I have on preorder until Wednesday where Miss Wesley and the gentleman she is adamant she cannot like are the heroine and hero.

<<Fritz and Belle’s story where we first meet Charlotte and Miles (Belle’s little brother).

Charlotte and Miles’s story >>

His Irreplaceable Belle is an original sweet Regency romance that nods to Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Belle’s father did not approve of Fritz and schemed to separate the two of them. Years later, they are reunited in this story.

Similarly, Miles’s father (same father as above) does not approve of Charlotte and does his scheming best to separate the two young lovers. His Sensible Heart contains small touches of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, like a very sensible heroine with a less sensible sister.

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A Good Drop (Eduard Hermann Lotz)

Eduard Hermann Lotz (* 1818), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Tom shook his head. “My apologies, but you will have to explain that.”

“It means she is not indifferent to me, and I have hope of succeeding if I stay my course.”

“I had no doubt you would succeed,” Tom replied.

“Yes, you did.” He lifted his mug. “To success,” he said before taking a large draught of his ale.

“To success,” Tom repeated. However, his mug was empty, so the toast was not so effective as it could have been.

[from His Sensible Heart, Touches of Austen book 6]