“Diana,” he called to his sister before he followed the Uptons into the library.
She turned toward him.
“I’m sorry.”
She stood looking expectantly at him.
“For making a mess of things.”
She smiled at him.
“You will tell Victoria that?
[from His Darling Friend, A Touches of Austen Novella, and the current Sweet Tuesdays story]
Published to YouTube by xxnumber27xx on February 10, 2013.
Tomorrow’s chapter of His Darling Friend is the final chapter. The book will be going on pre-order tomorrow, and so, ahead of that, I have password protected most of the chapter posts so that Amazon will hopefully not flag the story as being available elsewhere and refuse to list it until the story is removed. The password for all protected chapters of His Darling Friend is ROGER2019.
In other writing news:
I have exciting news once again as I think A Scandal in Springtime has reached its end. I now need to read through it and make certain that it is done while making improvements and catching typos and such. This will be the first “official” editing pass. I edit as I go, rereading the previous day’s work before starting a new writing time. So, technically, it has been edited once already. 🙂
In conjunction with A Scandal in Springtime, I wrote a short story that will be a bonus read for those on my mailing list. In A Scandal in Springtime, Kitty is writing a story, and I needed to know how that story went so that I could reference it at various places. It is a sort of fairytale/fantasy story.
I have been working my way through a final read-through of His Darling Friend, and I hope that by the time this post goes live, I will have finished that since I do want to put that book up on pre-order tomorrow. I have set a release date of May 14, 2019. This book will be available in Kindle Unlimited.
In order to have time to work extra on Kitty’s story and Roger’s story, I did not start the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story, Persuading Miss Mary, yet. I will hopefully begin planning and writing that on Thursday.
Continuing to look forward to this upcoming week, I will be doing a fair bit of editing and planning since all my current works in progress have at least a complete first draft.
The most pressing decision will be figuring out what story will be the next Sweet Tuesday story. I have a short story that will act as a buffer of sorts between Roger’s story and whatever is next, but I would really like to have whatever story is next started before the week is over.
I will also need to decide which story will be taking the place of A Scandal in Springtime in my writing schedule, but that could wait a week to allow time to reread A Scandal in Springtime. 🙂
I’ll be honest, contemplating all of that all at once is daunting! However, I’ll just take it one small bit at a time and hopefully, survive the planning process. 😀
One last thing before I leave you with a story excerpt — Tomorrow is my day at Austen Authors, and my post is about showing and not telling and how it can enhance the reader’s experience. I will be using examples from Loving Lydia and His Darling Friend in it. I hope you will drop by and have a read. If you find you enjoy the post, remember to click the like at the bottom of that post’s page or if you’re the chatty sort, I’d love it if you’d leave a comment. 🙂
And now for an excerpt from A Scandal in Springtime
Mr. Linton took note of the dancers taking their places for the second half of the set. “Will you dance with me for the next set?” he asked Kitty. “I would be pleased if you did.”
“Yes,” Kitty answered. No one else had approached her yet – likely because Mr. Darcy was dancing. There was something about Mr. Darcy that caused other gentlemen to approach cautiously. Perhaps they had not yet learned that Mr. Darcy was not as dour as he appeared.
“You will?”
“Why are you surprised?” No gentleman had ever questioned an acceptance before.
He shrugged. “I do not know. I suppose I expected you to make me wait until the third or fourth set to prove you did not need my help in securing a partner or some such thing.”
Kitty laughed. “I wish I had thought of that. My sister Lydia likely would have. She is the best at scheming.”
“Are the two of you close?” Mrs. Kendrick inquired.
“We are. Lydia is not quite two years younger than me, and we have always been friends.”
“But you seem incapable of scheming.” Mr. Linton watched the dancers as he spoke.
Was he questioning her intelligence?
His eyes grew wide as he glanced her direction. Her face must be speaking of her displeasure at being thought stupid.
“I meant that you seem too sincere to be a schemer. It was a compliment.” His brows furrowed. “Not that I am criticizing your sister in any fashion either,” he added before sighing. “It is a pity that conversation is necessary at these soirees, for I seem to be lacking the skill necessary to acquit myself as a polite gentleman.” He shook his head. “I am not generally so offensive.”
“He is not,” his aunt agreed. “Unless, of course, you are Mr. Edwards or Mr. Crawford and in need of a reprimand. Then, Trefor would be the first to point out the error of your ways.”
Kitty could tell from the smile that Mrs. Kendrick wore that she truly loved her nephew, and if a lady like Mrs. Kendrick, whom Kitty had decided she admired shortly after they had met this morning, loved Mr. Linton then he was likely not always as he appeared.
She sighed silently. That was not going to make it any easier to torture him on his quest to get the log from the great tree.
“Who is that gentleman standing close to the musicians?” Kitty asked. “He has been watching me, and I must admit he is rather handsome if a bit shorter than I would like.”
“Mr. Densmore,” Trefor replied. “He is upstanding, but his estate could use some work — or so I hear. So if you have a good dowry, securing him would not be too challenging.”
Kitty leaned toward Mrs. Kendrick. “Does he always give his opinion of gentlemen so freely to ladies?”
Mrs. Kendrick chuckled. “No. Other than his sister, I believe you are the only lady who has ever been given such advice.”
“It is very odd,” Kitty whispered. “Not that it is unwelcomed intelligence.”
“Do you have a substantial dowry?” Mrs. Kendrick asked.
Kitty shook her head.
“But you are Mr. Darcy’s sister now, so that will make some think that you might have a hefty purse,” Mrs. Kendrick continued.
Well, that was most certainly unwelcome news. “Do you think Mr. Linton could tell me which ones are fortune hunters so that I do not hope where there is none?”
“Gladly,” Mr. Linton whispered. “I would hold up my fan while having such a conversation to keep the interested from attempting to decipher what is being said.”
There was so much to remember here in town! Kitty opened her fan and held it up.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Anything to be of service, Miss Bennet,” he replied with a relaxed smile.
Until this point, she had not seen him smile so easily, and what a beautiful smile it was, tipping up higher on the right than on the left while the sincerity of his words shone in his eyes.
“Ah, we have only a few more patterns and then it is our turn, Miss Bennet.”
“Do you dance as well as you converse?” Kitty teased.
Mr. Linton chuckled. “Usually, yes, but then, usually I am not bumbling my words as I seem to do when I am with you.” He glanced down at her feet. “I do hope your toes survive.”
Kitty laughed. “That is not very reassuring.”
“Indeed, it is not, but it is the truth.”
“And Trefor is nothing if not honest,” his aunt inserted.
Kitty poked her feet out a little further. “These are new slippers. I have only worn them to one other ball while in town.”
Mr. Linton stood and held out his hand to her as the dancers who were on the floor began to exit it. “I shall do my best not to ruin them.”
~*~*~
Lovely music, although that is not my favorite of the Emma movies.
You must have a very logical/analytical mind to keep up with all the things on your list. Or you have a whiteboard in your office full of lists, charts, and diagrams of things to do. LOL!! My head spins every time you tell us of your To-Do list. Whew!
Now as to the conversation with Diana … ‘You will tell Victoria that?’ You are leaving us with that??? OMG! Please tell me all is not lost. Man… I am so looking forward to this book.
I like this Kitty and her venture. Lost of good stuff to look forward to. Blessings on the launch of this next book and all those that follow.
A whiteboard would probably be a good idea 🙂 I have a calendar and a clipboard with lists and charts — very similar to how I tried to keep things straight when teaching. I wish I was better at it actually because sometimes things get missed. However, creating these posts each week does help me keep on top of a lot of my work. (I don’t list all the administrative book business stuff here, but, at least, it helps me track my current big projects 🙂 )