By George Pyne (1800 – 1884) Details on Google Art Project – UwEQxfU8YqFodA at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21907517
The scene below takes place in a sitting room that is for the private use of Charlotte and her sister Louisa. I thought this picture looked like it could be such a room. I also liked that this room is in Oxford since that is location around which His Sensible Heart takes place. The hero is still in school at Oxford. The heroine is at her father’s estate a few miles outside of Oxford.
This book is the sixth and final book (so far) in my Touches of Austen series. It’s an almost forced betrothal and marriage sort of story, a he falls first story, a she doesn’t like him (or so she says) story, and a story about how utterly sacrificial true love can be. There are nods to and mentions of Sense and Sensibility in this book, but it is a completely original story (as are all the stories in this series).
I’m including a full chapter of the story in this post to hopefully give you a good feel for who each of the main characters are.
I wanted to let you know that I have started to make some digitally narrated audiobooks to share on YouTube for those who would like to listen to them.
I know audiobooks are not everyone’s thing.
And then there’s the whole AI voice thing…
I know… Those two letters can cause quite a reaction, but before you automatically condemn me or this audiobook for those letters, let me assure you that my use of the AI voice I am using to create the audiobooks PAYS the voice actor.
You see, I’m using Elevenlabs to create these audiobooks, and Christopher, the narrator I have selected, is a professional voice actor, who of his own free accord, submitted a professional reading sample to Elevenlabs. They, then, made a professional clone of his voice, after which, with his full permission, they added his voice to their narrator voice library, and every time anyone uses Christopher to narrate their project, the voice actor gets paid for the use.
Now, obviously, the pay is not at the same rate that he would earn for a production that he is commissioned to do, but he is paid. And that means that when I’m making these audiobooks, I’m supporting a fellow creative. That’s important to me and is why I am doing my best to only select professional cloned voices as I make my audiobooks for both my pen names.
At present, I have selected to use Christopher for all my Leenie books because I find I rather enjoy listening to his voice read me stories, but who knows, that might change as I go on.
If I had time and more experience (and for fun and to offer a different version of audio), I might try using a mix of male and female voices to create a duet style audiobook, or I could pull out all the stops (and likely drive myself crazy) and use a different voice for each different character when they speak. 😀 Will that ever happen? I wouldn’t say never, but it does seem unlikely at present.
I’ve long wanted to have audiobooks, but I could never afford to do them. They’re not cheap, and I’d be paying with Canadian dollars which means they’re even more expensive for me. So, I had thought I’d never get to do them.
And then, my father’s wife (he remarried after my mother died) started losing sight in her one good eye (she’s been blind in one eye all her life), and her ability to read was slowly taken from her. That’s when I started to look at audiobooks as something more than just a nice thing to create if you can afford to do it.
So, I started to look for ways to do good quality productions at a fraction of the cost, and in that search, I came across Elevenlabs. After taking a short how-to course on using Elevenlabs to make audiobooks, I have arrived here at the beginning of a slow process of producing audio files.
I am starting my audiobook sharing on YouTube with the little vignettes that I’ve written for The Saturday Broadsheet. Since they are so short, it’s been a good way for me to practice my production and video making skills. I hope you will give at least one a listen and hopefully, you’ll find some enjoyment in these audiobooks. But, like I said; I know this won’t be for everyone. It’s not intended to be.
As I get each audiobook ready, I plan to schedule and share these videos on Saturdays on YouTube. So, if this is something that interest you, I’d love to have you subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification button so you won’t miss when I upload a new story.
I am posting the first vignette, Percival the Frog, below. You can listen to it here or click through to YouTube.
I do hope that this will make my books more accessible to more readers.
There are so many tasks that go into a published book, and today, I’m sharing the parts that are currently my most and least favourite parts of the publishing process.
Welcome to the September edition of the Saturday Broadsheet. If you read my SWR Tearoom post from September 2, you know all my updates. If you didn’t read it, there’s a link below so that you can (it has pictures 😉 ), but here are the highlights:
I’m still working on How to Marry…,Harriet and the Colonel, and the Oxford Cottage refresh. However, they are progressing very slowly at the moment since taking some time off and then having to do some beginning of the month stuff and catching up on emails and all after getting back to work took a bit of time to complete. I was able to start back to writing this week.
I’ve also been working on getting my backlist, non-KU books added to the collections section of Patreon for those readers who would like to subscribe to read them there, and I’ve added more books to the Leenie B Books Shop on Etsy. There is one other project that I’m working on, but I’ll leave news about that until another time when it’s ready to start sharing.
Needless to say, my writing life is busy!
As mentioned, I took some time off in August. During the last week, my husband and I took three days away from home and visited Yarmouth, NS. It was just a relaxed, no real plans sort of trip, which was lovely, except for ending up sick for a couple of days when I got home. I’m still battling the post virus issues that I’ve had for a couple of years, and it seems three days of extra activity, not eating homecooked food where I know all the ingredients, sleeping in a different bed, and all that goes with travelling was a bit too much. However, it did take three days to get to the too much part so I’m calling that a win as it’s definitely an improvement. 🙂
I think that’s it for my update. Now let’s get to the other regular entries to the newsletter. Make sure you hang around to the end if you want to read the newest installment of the Harriet and the Colonel story.
Wintertime night scene in the park. Author: psychoshadow. Image sourced from Depositphotos
This image that I found on Depositphotos feels like the story that I’m sharing from today in this post. It’s lonely and quiet. It’s rimmed with shadows that hide many things. And yet, it’s got that light which is chasing away those shadows and making the scene feel a little welcoming.
I’d say this story, Frosted Windowpanes, is like that. There’s a welcome to the scene in which the main character finds himself, but is it a lasting welcome or will the shadows of the past and circumstances of the present snuff out the glimmer of home? I can’t tell you how it happens because that would be spoiling the story. But, this is a Leenie Brown story and touched with inspiration from Persuasion, so you know the ending cannot be bleak, right?
Below is the first chapter of this four-chapter novelette from my Nature’s Fury and Delights Collection. For those who are familiar with my Willow Hall series, you’ll see a few names that should be familiar since Mr. Mullins’s estate is located in Derbyshire near Willow Hall and Kympton.
One more note before I let you read the beginning of the story: Frosted Windowpanes is the free Ream and Patreon read this month, so at the end of the chapter, I will include links to find it on those platforms (you do have to sign up as a free follower to access it there) and links to where the story is available in stores and such.
