Category: Music Monday

Music Monday: The Christmas Waltz (The Carpenters)

“It’s that time of year

When the world falls in love;”

For me, that’s all year. 🙂 My world — of fictional characters, that is — always has someone falling in love. And today, the title of this song has something to do with the Christmas in July giveaway book which, of course, has someone falling in love.

Published on YouTube, December 19, 2012, by halfpint

Which book has a special dance in it that leads to a happily ever after? Here are the remaining books on my giveaway list:

A Very Mary Christmas

No Other Choice

One Winter’s Eve

Two Days Before Christmas

The book contains one of my favourite (original) characters…he’s a bit of a troublesome character for the heroine but totally sigh-worthy.

The answer and the link to claim one of five free copies of that book can be found after my writing news and just before this week’s story excerpt. (Go ahead, scroll down and see if you are a lucky reader, but please come back to read the stuff you skipped in the scrolling process 🙂 )

Here’s my news:

I’m still working on Delighting Mrs. Bennet. A proposal has been made and accepted, and our hero and heroine have learned some interesting information regarding Mrs. Bennet before she became Mrs. Bennet. Of course, it’s going to be the last part of September before we get to any of that because my last writing session will be edited today and scheduled for October 4! And no, the end of the tale has still not fully appeared. This one looks like it might cross that magical line between novella and novel — 40,000 words. Time will tell as I do not write stories to reach word counts, I write them to tell stories no matter how long or short that might be. 🙂

I have posted up to chapter 5 of Charles: To Prove Himself Worthy on Patreon. Chapter 6 is ready to edit and post, and chapter 7 is partially written. Charles is beginning to get a tiny bit caught in his own game — total snaring is yet to come.

I am still working on redoing covers and doing a bit of reorganizing of how the Dash of Darcy and Companion Stories are listed on vendors. Those tweaks will roll out over this month and be complete (finger’s crossed) by the end of the month.

I think that’s it for my writing news. Now, let me drop that link for the giveaway book and then add an excerpt from Charles’s story.

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM ONE OF THE 5 COPIES OF No Other Choice.

The copies are available on a first come, first serve basis until all five have been claimed or the link expires on Friday, July 13, 2018.

[Update: All 5 copies have been claimed!]

And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover His Purpose:  Continue reading Music Monday: The Christmas Waltz (The Carpenters)


Music Monday: Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Welcome to Christmas in July. Each Music Monday this month will feature Christmas music and a giveaway. Scroll down below the video for a few details.

Published on YouTube Oct 26, 2009, by Atlantic Records

I have five books which are set around Christmas:

A Very Mary Christmas

For Peace of Mind

No Other Choice

Two Days Before Christmas

One Winter’s Eve

Each Monday, I will leave a link in my Music Monday post which will have 5 copies of one of those books at it. (Books will be given away in random order — not in the order listed above.)

There are five Monday’s in July.

That’s a total of 25 books being given away — just like the day on which Christmas falls 🙂

Two other pieces of information you might wish to know:

Each Monday post is scheduled for 8:05 am Atlantic time.

The link will be located just before my story excerpt each week because I would like you to read the post, but feel free to read after you have clicked to see if any books remain. 🙂 I get it — being quick on the click is important here.

Now, let me tell you about how I decided on the musical selection for today.  I sent out an email to my mailing list to give them a heads up on this special month of Music Monday posts. I was, at that time, still undecided about what video I would share today. Well, before I had made my final selection, I received a reply to the email I sent out, and in that reply, there were two suggestions of groups with great Christmas music. One of those groups was Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the other one was Blackmore’s Night.  I went to YouTube and looked them both up and listened to a few songs. The song above I had never heard before, and it was so beautiful that I just had to use it today.  (In case you’re wondering, it’s quite likely that I might use one from the other group on another Monday.)

In other news…

Master of Longbourn has launched successfully and has several lovely reviews.  🙂

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 3, 2018, on Austen Authors, I will be discussing part of the plot structure of Master of Longbourn as it pertains to Mr. Collins’s inner journey.

I managed one day of writing on two stories this past week. So, not exactly a great success for the new writing routine, but it’s a good start.

I have Thursday Three Hundred posts scheduled all the way through September now, and still, Delighting Mrs. Bennet has not reached its conclusion.  That means the release date is still unknown and will likely not be any sooner than sometime in November.

The first three chapters of Charles’s story have been posted at Patreon, and I am beginning work on Chapter 4. I hope to get at least one more chapter completed and posted at Patreon this week.

Before I get to the excerpt from Charles’s story, here is the link where there are five copies of For Peace of Mind waiting to be claimed. The copies are available on a first come, first serve basis until all five have been claimed or the link expires on Friday, July 6, 2018.

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM ONE OF THE 5 COPIES OF For Peace of Mind.

[update: All five copies have found homes.]

And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover His Purpose: 
Continue reading Music Monday: Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)


Music Monday: Falling Slowly (Period Dramas)

“Why just last year, three young ladies made very eligible matches after I had shown them particular attention. I tell you, I am a good luck charm for the matrimonially-minded miss.” {Charles Edwards in Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy]

Those are just a few of the lines from Chapter 1 of Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy where we are introduced to Henry Crawford’s friend, Charles Edwards.

Posted on YouTube by FANNYJKL, May 18, 2018.

Why am I sharing a quote from that book when I have another book coming out this week?

Because Charles happens to be the next character who will be subjected to my particular sort of reformation and improvement. At present, he is a rake — a bad boy through and through.  But, we all know that that will change. 🙂

The above video is one that I have pinned to my Pinterest board for Charles’s story — but I’ll get to more information about that in a moment.

For now, I want to remind you that the story for another gentleman, William Collins, who underwent a transformation releases this Thursday, June 28, 2018! That’s only three more sleeps until Master of Longbourn goes LIVE. It is currently on pre-order and can be found at your favourite retailer by following this link.

There are a few advance reader reviews that you can read on Bookbub here. Thank you to those who read and reviewed early copies. 🙂

Ok, now back to Charles. 🙂

This week, I was able to get just under 5,000 words written on this new work in progress. Here’s what I can tell you about the story at the moment:

The title is Charles: To Discover His Purpose

The Hero and Heroine are Charles Edwards and Evelyn Barrett. As I said before, Charles is Henry’s friend (and also Trefor Linton’s friend). Evelyn is Constance Linton’s friend.

Charles is rakish. He’s drifting along through life having a great time.

Evelyn is a proper young lady — well, mostly — she does have a mischievous streak, and she can be direct in her words. She also has a carrying heart which sees her doing all manner of charity work.

As you can probably guess from that information, Charles is going to hit a rough patch in his easy, take-what-you-can-get life, and that rough patch’s name is Evelyn.  For him, it might start as a bit of a game to see if he can break the proper Evelyn and steal a kiss or two or more. But as Henry Crawford discovered in Mansfield Park, games such as this can be dangerous as they may end up breaking the player’s heart. (And yes, there is at least that one deliberate nod to Mansfield Park in this story. There may be more. Time will tell.)

Can you see how the song I shared today seems to fit with this story? Charles and Evelyn will be slowing falling for each other and there will be some games played and there will some struggle and there is a need for being pointed “home,” etc. That is why I chose this song to share as it’s theme feels like it fits well with Charles’s story.

Would you like to read a short excerpt from what I have written so far? If so, keep reading 🙂 This is a portion of what I wrote on Friday of last week. It’s part of chapter 2 and will be posted soon on Patreon. (Probably tomorrow)

This portion focuses on Evelyn and her not well-pleased mother.

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover his Purpose:  Continue reading Music Monday: Falling Slowly (Period Dramas)


Music Monday: Period Drama Men, Sharp Dressed Man

Bingley rose from his chair and crossed to the wardrobe. “Do you have a man?” he asked as he pulled the doors open.

“No, I cannot justify such a luxury.”

“You will need one,” Bingley said as he looked through Collins’s possessions. “However, we will have to make do for now. I know a thing or two.” He turned and looked at Collins with a grimace. “I think it would be best if my man had a go at your hair and taught you a few more knots.” He pointed to his own cravat. “A lady does like a well-turned-out gentleman.”

[From Master of Longbourn]
DreamyViper. “Period Drama Men // Sharp Dressed Man.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 July 2011, youtu.be/svKWGnrbVos.

Master of Longbourn is now on preorder with release day scheduled for June 28, 2018.

While Master of Longbourn has a lot of soft, sweet, and gentle moments in it, it also has a few scenes that should draw a smile or even a chuckle. Bingley tends to be the cause of those chuckles. He was such a pleasure to write in this story. He added the light-hearted balance that was needed.

Bingley laughed heartily. “You would like us to –”

“Be my tutors,” Collins pled. “I shall die a lonely old man as my father said if you do not.”

Bingley turns out to be a rather demanding tutor! 😀

However, it is not just the instruction Collins receives from his new found friends, Darcy and Bingley, that helps him to be successful. It is the acceptance he finds within the walls of Longbourn that truly propels him to transform from how he views himself to how he wishes to be.

The quotes above are from chapter 3. You can read chapter three as part of an extended preview until June 28, 2018, at this link.

In other news, I am still in the planning stages for Mr. Edwards’s story. No story words have been written on it. I’m hoping to change that this week. 🙂

I did add a few more thousand words to Delighting Mrs. Bennet last week. I am hoping to be able to work myself back into writing on two stories at a time since the cast of characters are so different. I started using a timer to limit the amount of time I was spending on Delighting Mrs. Bennet. I found myself enjoying the competition of beating the clock and still producing the number (and quality) of words I wanted to produce. 🙂 (I have a strong competitive streak even if just competing with myself. LOL)

Since the song this week is about being a sharp dresser, I thought I would share an excerpt from my writing that includes Bingley speaking about another person who is very aware of fashion. This excerpt will be included in the post on September 6.

AN EXCERPT FROM Delighting Mrs. Bennet:  Continue reading Music Monday: Period Drama Men, Sharp Dressed Man


Music Monday: Woman, Amen, Dierks Bentley

It’s Monday — again. Time for some music, a story excerpt (but not from my current work in progress), and some writing news which includes news of a limited time price reduction on one of my books. (No, I’m not going to tell you which book here. I am going to make you scroll down. 🙂 But today’s song choice and story excerpt go with that book.)

Bentley, Dierks. “Dierks Bentley – Woman, Amen (Audio).” YouTube, Dierks Bentley, 17 Jan. 2018, youtu.be/mXOTJ-tluUU.

Let’s start with some writing news. It might not be a lot of news, but, it’s kind of exciting. 🙂

First, Master of Longbourn is in the formatting stage of production. That means it will be on pre-order by the end of the week and advance reader copies will have been sent out. I’ll have all the ordering details for you next Monday.

Second, I have added an item to the menu here on the blog. There is a “Varied Thoughts on Writing” option there now. This link will take you to a journal where I am gathering together some of my Austen Authors posts that I have written about writing in general as well as specific to various books. I have only gotten last Tuesday’s post added to that journal so far. That post was about Master of Longbourn and how I developed my Mr. Collins.

Third, I have made a decision about which story is getting written next. It has no title yet, nor does it have any beginning story notes. It is, at this moment, just a decision. 🙂 Here it is:

~ I have decided that I am going to be writing Mr. Edwards’s story. ~

I hear some of you saying, “Who is Mr. Edwards?”

I am glad you asked.  Here is a story excerpt to help you know who he is:  Continue reading Music Monday: Woman, Amen, Dierks Bentley