“...and if my impression of his mood this morning was correct, he is sitting in the garden staring at the church.”
It was where Nicholas had sat every day for two weeks after the Witherfields had left. He had refused to eat more than once a day, and then, only because Jonathan had begged him to do so. To be perfectly honest, Jonathan had thought his brother was going to purposefully do himself harm during those days. It was why he had promised to be at tea today, for the expression his brother had worn this morning at their parting was so reminiscent of the way he had looked back then. [from Hope at Dawn]
PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY PHILIP WESLEY ON APRIL 27, 2015.
This is just one of the songs by this composer that I have on my Music to Write By playlist on Spotify. I thought it went well with the Through Every Storm chapters I am unlocking for this week. It also goes well with how our hero in Hope at Dawn is feeling at present.
It won’t take me very long to update you on what I got written this week because it was NOTHING. Not one single word of a new story was typed on the screen this week. That’s unusual for me, but there is a very good reason for my lack of writing. I edited or proofread somewhere around 65,000 words instead of writing. 🙂 That means Her Secret Beau is out of my hands for a while and Persuading Miss Mary is publishing — more details about that below.
I also spent time updating back matter (contact information and such) in all of the Choices books and got them enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. They will be available as part of the Kindle Unlimited subscription service until February 16, 2020.
This process of updating files took longer than it should since when I opened the files after upload to make sure they had not gotten scrambled in the transfer, I found myself getting sucked into the stories and reading far more than was necessary to simply check a file. 😀 I really enjoy that series, and if you are a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, I would suggest downloading the whole series compilation book so you can read one story right after the other, and I’ll also encourage you not to miss out on the epilogue which is at the end of book four. Those children are cute — and the necklace which played an important role in several stories in the series makes a final appearance in an interesting way. (That’s the visual inspiration for the necklace in the third picture below.)
As I mentioned above, Persuading Miss Mary is publishing. I have hit the publish button tonight (Sunday) on Kobo and Draft2Digital, who distribute to all the vendors who are not Amazon or Kobo, and I have the book listed for pre-order with a release day of Thursday, November 28, 2019, for Amazon. There are reasons for this discrepancy in publishing dates.
The main reason is that Draft2Digital would not give me a pre-order date because they require longer pre-orders. Then, there is the reason that I wanted to get a universal book link that gives all purchasing options ready before release day. I get those links from Draft2Digital. Another reason is that some of those vendors to whom Draft2Digital distributes are slow in getting things published. I would guess that some will not be published until after this Thursday. However, Apple and Nook will be faster than the others. [Kobo ended up not being a pre-order because of operator error. I hit the wrong button. :)]
And the final reason why some vendors will have the book published before Amazon is that I need to get the print book approved and published by Kindle Direct Publishing before I can link that version to the ebook version and get the page count corrected to match what the print number will be. That will take a few days, but it should be all done by Thursday. (I hope 🙂 ) There really are a lot of little details to coordinate for a release day, but I have many of them done already or scheduled to be done today.
This week, I have to get some writing done as I plan to start Kitty and Lorcan’s story next Thursday with a short prologue. I also need to print out and begin proofreading First Blooms and Second Chances, and I need to get the Willow Hall series returned to all my other vendors. So, I think it will be another busy week. 🙂
Below is an excerpt from the three chapters of Through Every Storm that I have “unlocked” for you this week. You can access these chapters with the password Tears until Saturday, November 30, 2019. I will have a password for the final two chapters next Monday.
This excerpt is from chapter 8 and is very much a dark night of the soul sort of moment for Wickham and Lydia.
“How much?” She closed her eyes for a moment, pain etched her face. “How much did he pay you to take me?”
His heart hammered within his chest. When he had first married her, he had not cared if she found out about the arrangement, but now… He swallowed. “My commission, my debts, and an additional three thousand pounds.” She flinched at each revelation.
“You…” She stepped back from him a pace. “You ruined me with no intention of marrying me?”
He nodded.
“You would have left me with child and in disgrace?”
“You were not with child.” He reached out to her, but she moved away.
“But I could have been, and you knew it.” She shook her head. “You banish me to a guest room because you do not want our children to be whispered about as you were. Yet, you would have left me with a child who would have been treated far worse.” She took another step away from him. “You fear for my reputation now, but you did not then. Why, George? Why now but not then?”
“Because it matters now, and it should have mattered then.”
“Oh, yes!” she shouted. “It matters now because you know of the children and because your business would suffer!”
Her fists were clenched at her sides, and his stomach roiled at the look of disgust on her face. Desperation clawed at his heart. He was failing. No, he had failed. That which mattered most to him was about to push him out of her life, and he had no idea how to stop her. He could hold her ─ force her to remain ─ but she would only be there in body. He saw her turning from him and grabbed her arm. “Lydia, please. It is not like that.”
She yanked her arm away. “You are not really going to try to tell me that you care for me, are you, George? For I can guarantee, I’ll not be falling for your pretty words again. I’ll not be played the fool any longer.” Tears flowed down her cheeks as she turned and ran from him. She could not bear to hear him say he loved her when she knew it was not true.
Wickham wanted to run after her, to make her understand how much he had changed and how much she now meant to him, but he could not. His feet were rooted to the ground, and he could not seem to draw a full breath. He stood watching her, his heart aching a bit more with each step she took.
“Papa?” A small hand grasped his.
His knees buckled, and he sank to the ground.
“Papa?” Louisa grabbed his face and looked at him.
He saw the fear in her eyes and smiled at her. “I am well. I just need a rest.”
She scrunched up her face and looked at him carefully. “You are not well. Mama is not well. And I am going to get help.” Before he could stop her, she had spun on her heels and was running.
“Louisa, come back,” he called as he pulled himself to his feet and soon overtook her. He snatched her up, crushing her to him. “Where are you going?”
“To get Aunt Kitty. She can make Mama feel better, and if Mama feels better, then you will feel better.” She thumped him on the chest. “You should have told her you loved her.” She thumped him again. “You should have told her. Why did you not tell her?”
“She would not have believed me,” he said softly as he stroked her hair.
“You still should have told her.” Her little body trembled as she gulped air between sobs.
He allowed his own tears to fall as he stood swaying and gently rubbing her back. “Louisa?” he said at last. “Do you really think Aunt Kitty could make Mama feel better?” He felt her head bob up and down against his shoulder. “Then, we shall go see Aunt Kitty.”
Here is the link to Through Every Storm:
througheverystorm.pressbooks.com
You will need to use the password Tears to unlock chapters 6, 7, and 8.
~*~*~
I listened to the music as I read the excerpt. Perfect choice. That was a good choice.Poor Wickham. Dang!! Did I really say that? Well, that was an excellent story. You have been busy. Thank you for all your hard work. Blessings on your writing/publishing schedule.
Thanks. Poor Wickham is not in a great place at present — he’s paying for his sins of the past and the cost is so much greater now that he loves his wife so strongly.
How I loved that book. I was tearing up and grabbing kleenex reading the excerpt. Dang, now I gotta go read that again. Loved the music. And the fact that you’re listening to that while writing Nicolas’ story.
I had to write Through Every Storm with a box of tissues next to me, and I also teared up reading this excerpt while getting this post ready with the above song playing. So I’m glad to know the emotion of the characters that I felt while writing transfers through the words to the reader.
Well, it worked for me. It was very emotional, but joyous in the end. Tissues indeed. I hadn’t yet realized you were the ‘redeem all the bad, silly, overlooked and neglected, writer.’
😀 I didn’t realize that at the time I wrote it either, but it was such an enjoyable challenge that I had to try it again with others.
Loved the scene with Louisa. I own the series and have read them all. I have always wanted to read a novel where Lydia finds out that Wickham was paid to marry her. This was priceless!
Thanks. I’m glad you liked it.