Music Monday: Dance of the Imagination (Greg Maroney)

Guess what starts tomorrow? 😀

Grace Love was not the sort of lady who sat on the side during dances. She was not the sort of lady who stayed at home when there was an outing to the park. She was not the sort of lady who avoided any sort of fun. Or, at least, she had not been such a lady until now. And all it had taken for Grace’s world to change had been one house party.

With eyes narrowed, she watched the progress of her sister’s hat as the carriage Felicity was perched in made its way down the street.

“Grace, dear, do not spill your tea on that chair.”

“Of course, Mama.” Grace pulled her attention back to the sitting room in the house they were renting for the season and away from her treacherous sister.

[from Her Secret Bea, Touches of Austen Book 3]

Provided to YouTube by CDBaby. Published on YouTube on July 5, 2015.

I had considered attempting to find songs with either the word secret or whisper in the title for each week that this story posts. However, I do not know how many weeks that will be, and I thought I might get bored of that. 😀 So, I might toss in a few secretively titled songs over the weeks but not every week. This week, I have selected a song that is on my Music to Write By playlist on Spotify that has a title which reflects what must happen as a story is being written. The imagination must dance! 🙂

And my imagination has been dancing. I am not sure how many conversations Mary and Wes have had in my mind this week. It all has to do with future possibilities, however, and not the portion of the story I am currently writing. They are even making it a bit of a challenge to focus on any other story but theirs. But then, we should expect Lord Westonbury to be a bit troublesome, shouldn’t we? LOL 

That being said, I did manage to write a chapter of Her Secret Beau this week, as well as writing two chapters of Persuading Miss Mary and editing the remaining chapters of Loving Lydia so I could get that sent off to my first reader for feedback. That brings me to the fact that realistically, I do not see Loving Lydia being ready to publish on June 18th as I had hoped.

My writing life is beginning to feel like it is coming back to a more normal pace rather than the frantic rush it has been of late with books releasing and moving into and out of Kindle Unlimited.

Remember that this Tuesday, June 11, 2019, Darcy and… A Pride and Prejudice Variations Collection will be leaving Kindle Unlimited and will not be back in there for at least this year. Of course, as mentioned last week, A Dash of Darcy Cottage Collection 1 will be in Kindle Unlimited for the summer. The books contained in that collection are Finally Mrs. Darcy, Waking to Mr. Darcy, A Very Mary Christmas, Discovering Mr. Darcy, and Not an Heiress. (See the Books Currently in Kindle Unlimited Page for links directly to the books.)

This second collection entering KU will give me a better idea as to whether rotating through KU is worth the effort or not. The first collection did very, very well, in my opinion, as it allowed me the time needed to work on the projects I was working on without too much stress about royalties not meeting the minimum number required for my budgets to run without a deficit. However, that could have been a fluke, so I’m interested to see how this new collection does.

I know that some might be curious to know if my newest release is doing well or not. Unfortunately, A Scandal in Springtime has not been doing overly well. It has sold ok — it hasn’t “tanked” — but it has sold less well than I would have hoped. However, that’s ok.  I don’t mind slow steady sales (steady being the important word there 😉 ), and I know I have not publicized it as much as I likely should have. However, there is excellent news, for the first reviews on it have been good. Readers are enjoying it — and that is the point of the story — to entertain readers. 🙂

And I think that brings us to the end of my writing news as I still have not started a third work in progress. (I’m beginning to get a bit nervous about that LOL)

In personal news that will impact my blog, my husband and I are going to take some time this week to celebrate our 27th anniversary. Because of this time away, next week (June 20), there will be no Thursday story post. I’ve put a note about that at the beginning of this week’s chapter of Persuading Miss Mary as a reminder, and I will likely mention it again next Monday.

And now for an excerpt from His Beautiful Bea, which is where we first met Grace Love. (Back before she came to dislike her sister as she does in the story that starts tomorrow)

“Oh, la,” Grace said dolefully.

Bea closed her eyes and drew a calming breath in preparation for whatever complaint she was about to hear. Then, she fixed a smile on her face as she lifted her eyes from her workbasket to her cousin.

“I had such hopes of visiting the meadow,” Grace rose and walked to the window where Bea sat. “Mr. Everett Clayton described it so well that I am certain I have never seen anything so lovely in all my life.”

“We picnicked there the last time you were here.” Bea kept her voice soft in an attempt to mollify some of Grace’s disappointment and hopefully, prevent another declaration about how hideous it was that it was raining on a day when the delight of a picnic was anticipated.

“Oh, but I am certain it has changed so much in two years that I shall not recognize it. Things are that way, you know,” Grace pulled her eyes away from the greyness of the day and turned them toward her cousin. “When you see them all the time, you forget how much they have changed and how delightful they can be.” She sighed and sat down next to Bea. “I am certain I shall find it much altered.”

Bea could not help smiling at the forlorn look on Grace’s face and the wistful tone of her voice. She sounded very much like a young girl, and Bea found she could not fault Grace for being unable to contain her disappointment as she should. Grace was, after all, merely seventeen, and not all ladies matured as quickly as Bea had, especially not ladies who still had both their mother and their father to dote on them.

“Beatrice likes to paint on rainy days,” Mrs. Tierney offered. Bea could tell by the tightness of her mother’s expression that having young ladies about who were not averse to grumbling and complaining was beginning to wear on her. Neither Bea nor Max had ever been the sort of children to carry on about a disappointment for long.

“There are supplies in the schoolroom.” Mrs. Tierney suggested, her smile softening as she looked at her daughter. “Although Beatrice has not had a lesson in almost two years, I cannot bring myself to redo the room just yet, and so it remains, waiting to be used on days like today.”

Bea caught her frown before her mother could see it. Her father had insisted that the schoolroom be made up specifically for Bea, and she was loath to share it. It was her room, her bastion of solitude. However, she knew sharing her personal refuge would benefit not only her cousins but also her mother, and bringing pleasure to her mother was not something Bea would refuse to do. So with more excitement than she felt at the prospect, she agreed with her mother and insisted that her cousins join her in painting.

“Max will return soon,” Mrs. Tierney added encouragingly. “I am certain he would be willing to sit for a silhouette or a portrait.”

This brought a delighted squeal from Grace. “Felicity is the very best at taking likenesses. Mr. Bailey complimented her on her work all the time when she was at school and even used one of her pieces to demonstrate how a likeness should be done.”

To Bea, it appeared that, according to Grace, Felicity was always the best at one thing or another. Felicity’s samplers were the best and most elaborate. Felicity knew just the right ribbon to add to a hat to make it the envy of her friends. Felicity had the best taste in gowns and music. It was most frustrating! Bea sighed softly and directed her frustration to carefully organizing her work basket before tucking it away and leading her cousins to the schoolroom and seeing that they had everything they needed to be entertained.

Then, as Felicity and Grace chattered about some roses that were prized for their colour, Bea got out her landscape and set out her own painting supplies.

“Oh, those are lovely,” Grace said, coming to look inside the wooden box of brushes that had been a gift from Lady Clayton to Bea on her last birthday. “These are nearly as nice as the ones Miss Abernathy has, Felicity.” Grace turned to her sister. “Come, take a look. You will like them.”

Felicity’s left brow rose and her lips pursed in an expression that declared she certainly could not be bothered to cross the room to look at a set of anything.

“A brush is a brush. It is not the tools that make the artist great but the technique the artist uses and the talent she possesses. I tell Amelia — Miss Abernathy — ” she explained to Bea, “that all the time. And truly, Grace, it is not as if Amelia can paint better because of her brushes. She possesses no talent. Her work is still dreadful. It is fortunate she is so skilled at playing the harp and dancing, or she would be in a sorry state. What man would wish to marry a lady with no accomplishments whatsoever?”

“One who wishes for her thirty thousand, I suppose,” replied Grace, causing both herself and her sister to titter.

“Is Miss Abernathy someone from your school?” Bea asked in an attempt to participate in her cousins’ conversation.

“Oh, she is my dearest friend,” said Felicity. “We were in school together, and now we attend all the soirees together. We are nearly inseparable. In fact, I have missed her dreadfully these past weeks.”

Bea tipped her head and studied her painting, deciding both where to put some flowers and how her cousin could speak as she was about Miss Amelia Abernathy and yet claim to be her particular friend. This was why it was challenging to participate in discussions with her cousins. Their ways were so foreign to her. “When will you see her again?”

“Oh, in a fortnight. We are to travel to her father’s home in Kent when we leave here for a house party. It will be very exciting. We might even both find a husband while we are there,” Felicity replied.

“If we both still require one,” Grace whispered with a knowing smile.

Felicity’s cheeks coloured as she glanced at Bea and then gave her sister a sharp look.

Bea picked up her brush and attempted to ignore the implication of Grace’s words. Everett had been most attentive to Felicity for the past five days since their first introduction. He had walked with her, played cards with her, sang while she played the piano, and even taken Bea’s book of verses to read to Felicity. Bea made a show of concentrating on the flowers she was planting in the garden on her canvas, and said, “A house party will be exciting, I am sure.”

“Oh, indeed!” exclaimed Grace before beginning a litany of things that she just knew would happen at this party. This, in turn, led into another recital of many of the interesting bits of gossip from the season. This meandering stream of stories which were of great interest to the Misses Loves and of little interest to Beatrice continued until there was a soft tapping at the door and in walked Max, followed closely by Everett and Graeme.

A story about an unfortunate gentleman who had been rejected twice by the same lady ended abruptly and was replaced with excited exclamations of greeting and cries of how dreadfully dull the day had been without the gentleman for company.

~*~*~

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