“More, Mama! More!”
Thomas Prescott heard the small child’s squeal of delight before he rounded the bend in the path and saw her, a small bundle of excitement, dancing with her hands in the air attempting to catch the white petals falling from the apple tree above.
Thomas stopped where he was. He would eventually have to continue on his way, but he did not wish to disturb the child’s fun just yet. He would let her twirl and giggle for a few moments longer before intruding on her play.
“More, Mama!” the child pleaded when the shower of petals slowed.
“One last shake,” the lady, who must be the child’s mother, said from her perch on a bench beneath the apple tree. “But we must save some flowers so that we can make apple pies for Christmas.” Rising up on her toes, she grasped a branch and gave it a gentle shake. The flurry of white petals caused by the action was met with clapping hands, bouncing curls, and happy laughter.
[From Apple Blossoms, an original sweet Regency romance short story, and the Sweet Tuesdays story for the next four weeks]
Provided to YouTube by CDBaby, October 19, 2015.
The excerpt above is how the new Sweet Tuesdays story, Apple Blossoms, begins — with Mr. Prescott, a bachelor, meeting his new neighbours, Miss Abigail Watson and her mother the widow Watson. This short story will be shared in four parts, starting tomorrow.
Apple Blossoms is a short story of about six thousand words. It has a complete story arc (beginning, middle, end sort of thing). It has characters that are developed, and the main character does grow (learns something new to him). There is a desire that the main character has, as well as obstacles (of his own creation) to overcome. In other words, it is a complete story.
However, because of the short length, the plot of a short story has to be kept tight so there are no side plots, and the number of characters is limited as is the time frame and the number of problems. It should be a sweet little tidbit which will (hopefully) leave you with a smile and a sigh. I hope you will join me for this story starting tomorrow.
Apple Blossoms will be one of the stories eventually included in my next Nature’s Fury and Delights collection whenever I get the rest of the stories written. 😀 I have really fallen down on that goal for this year. I have an inspirational image selected for the next story for the collection, but that is as far as I have gotten with that project. There have just been so many other things needing attention.
Let me tell you about some of those other things which have claimed my time this past week:
The print edition of His Darling Friend has been published a few days ahead of the release of the ebook so that I can request for Amazon to link the two editions, adjust page numbers, and create a series page that will show both His Darling Friend and His Beautiful Bea on one page. It has also given me time to adjust the description to contain the spaces I entered into it to make it look like multiple paragraphs but that Amazon took out between when I put them in and when the book published. (Yes, that is frustrating 🙂 to have to do work two or three times over.)
His Darling Friend has been removed from the blog since the book is publishing tomorrow, and Kindle Unlimited does not allow an author to have his or her work distributed anywhere else — even on their own blog. (That exclusivity is the one thing I really do not like about Kindle Unlimited.)
I have begun working on first round edits of A Scandal in Springtime, and hope to have that completed and the manuscript sent off to my first reader. If all goes well, that book should publish on June 4, 2019.
However, before that book publishes, I want to have a second Cottage Collection bundle of Dash of Darcy and Companions stories published on all vendors while the first Cottage Collection will be leaving all vendors except Amazon so that it can be made available in Kindle Unlimited for June, July, and August. There will be a reduced price sale on the first bundle on all vendors for a week or ten days before I have to remove the books from those other sellers. I will post information about that here on the blog, and I will send information out in my newsletter as well.
Speaking of Kindle Unlimited, the current bundle Darcy And… A Pride and Prejudice Variations Collection will be coming out of Kindle Unlimited on June 11, 2019. All the books in that collection, as well as the box set, will then be made available again in other stores that are not Amazon. This box set will not be put back in Kindle Unlimited this year. I might cycle it through KU again at some point next year. So, if you are a KU reader, now is the time to download that collection. My understanding is that you can keep it on your device and read it as part of your KU subscription even after the book is no longer listed in KU, and I will still get my $0.00445 or so per page you read. 🙂 (Yes, that is less than half a cent per page read. I did not accidentally hit too many zeros. 🙂 )
With all that going on, I wrote zero words on anything this week. (I do not count words I add in editing.) I have not had a zero word week in a long time! However, I did manage to put all my project notes into one Google Sheets document. 🙂 Organizing things like that is a stress reducer for me as I can leave them there instead of feeling like they need to be held in my mind. I have also discovered, it is a bit of a motivator as well since I REALLY enjoy crossing things off lists. LOL
I think that is all the writing news from the past week. It was a busy week, but it was also a week of feeling accomplished which is lovely. While I did not write any new story words this week, I have had time to think about both Persuading Miss Mary and the next Sweet Tuesday story some while doing fiddly work. Hopefully, that will help me when I finally get to sit down and begin writing them. 🙂 I’m getting a bit antsy to be writing again. I miss it. 🙂
Since I have not started anything new and have not sent this story off to an editor yet, I’ll share one last, tempting excerpt from A Scandal in Springtime. There may or may not be an excerpt in next Monday’s post. It really all depends on how this week goes. 🙂 So, I’ll make this excerpt a longer one.
AN EXCERPT FROM A Scandal in Springtime:
“What has you skulking in the garden?”
Trefor looked up from examining the ground to find his friend Charles Edwards standing next to him. “I did not hear you approach.”
“That is obvious. Now, what has you out here? Your sister is concerned which, in turn, means Evelyn is also worried.” He leaned against the balustrade next to where Trefor was looking out into the small garden.
“I cannot do this.” Trefor turned and motioned to the ballroom. “I think I might retire to the country early.”
“You know you cannot do that. There are two weddings you must attend.”
Trefor blew out a breath and shook his head. “I can return when needed. Aunt Gwladys can see to Connie and whatever needs doing there. Besides, I should see that her things are made ready to be delivered to Crawford’s. But if I stay in town, my aunt will expect me to escort her to every function so she can find me a wife.”
“And that is a problem because… you do not wish to find a wife?”
Trefor scrubbed his face with his hands. “No. I will need one eventually.”
“But you do not want one?” Charles pressed.
“No. I would very much like to marry – eventually – when I have found a lady who interests me in such a fashion. I do not want a pretty face with feathers for brains.” He wanted someone to whom he could talk about anything and everything, but also someone who he would wish to take to bed for pleasure and not just to dutifully sire the required heir.
“Miss Bennet is interesting.”
Charles was looking at him with that smug expression like he had at the literary meeting and just as he had in the hallway at Mrs. Verity’s. It was not a look Trefor felt needed a response.
“And she is pretty,” Charles added.
Trefor grunted his reluctant agreement.
“And I doubt she has feathers for brains if she is happy at a literary reading,” Charles said.
Again, Trefor grunted but added a shrug this time.
“She dances well.”
“And what does that qualify her for?” Trefor grumbled.
“You would always have an excellent dance partner.”
“I do not intend to dance once I am married.”
“You do plan to have children, do you not?”
“Of course.”
“And they will need to be introduced to society, will they not?”
“As long as I have boys, I shall not need to escort them.”
Charles chuckled. “You can no more guarantee that than you can determine the yield of next year’s wheat harvest.”
A scowl settled over Trefor’s face and mind. It was not that he never expected to dance again after he married. He quite liked a country dance now and again. However, he would not need to do it several times a month for several months of the year while his aunt whispered about this or that lady’s qualifications. He should just take a walk around the room, examine the ladies present, and pick the best of the lot so he could be done with it. Not unlike how he chose his horse – which had proven to be an excellent choice. Again, he scrubbed his face. He could not make this a business transaction. A wife was not something you put out to pasture if she was not a good fit.
“I just cannot do this any longer,” he muttered as he turned and looked out at the garden. “Do you know what I did tonight?” He glanced at Charles, who was still looking rather amused at his friend’s plight. What Trefor was about to say would likely send the fellow into peals of laughter that would double him over with their intensity.
“No, I really could not guess.” Charles turned to lean one hip on the balustrade so that he could look at Trefor.
A breeze rustled the branches below them.
“I nearly kissed her.” Trefor braced himself for the hilarity to come, but to his surprise, Charles was absolutely silent. “Miss Bennet,” Trefor clarified. Still, Charles said not a word for a full minute.
“At a ball?”
“Yes, yes, that is where we are,” Trefor snapped. “We were on the steps leading down to the ground floor.”
“Here? Tonight?”
It was as if his friend was slow of understanding. “Yes, when and where else would it have been? I have only known the vexing woman for two days.”
That caused his friend’s eyebrows to lift. “Vexing?”
There was no use in attempting to gingerly step around the subject, Edwards was not the sort to let a curious bit of news die until he had heard the whole story. He was frightfully curious.
“I cannot put two words together without my tongue running ahead of my brain – not that the grey matter between my ears is even capable of rational thought when she is present.” He shifted. “It is not as if I have not been in the presence of many pretty young debutantes. I have. And on each of those occasions, I have performed remarkably well – charmingly, even. But not with her. With her, I offend. I say things I did not know I had said, and I find myself nearly kissing a lady on the steps at a ball. And I cannot even apologize to her for my behavior since I will likely make it worse by saying something that I should not say or that she will not take as I meant it.”
Charles chuckled. “You could start with will you marry me and extend this delicious torture forever.”
“That will not do.”
“I do not see why not,” Charles retorted. “I would put money on it that even if you hie off to the country, she will follow you. However, I have sworn off bets, so you can keep your money.”
Trefor only shook his head and turned his attention to the garden.
“I never thought to hear you say that you kissed a lady at a ball,” Charles muttered.
“For good reason,” Trefor replied. “And it was almost kissed. Almost. I did not kiss her.” No matter how much he wished even now that he had. Good heavens! What was wrong with him? It was most probably due to the fact that he had spent far too much time with rapscallions like Edwards and Crawford. A bad apple was never improved by placing it with the good ones. He should have known that, eventually, the company he kept would cause him some trouble.
His brow furrowed. Reprobate friends and decaying morals aside, he needed to apologize to Miss Bennet for taking such liberties as he had. But how?
~*~*~
The music was lovely and I kept replaying it as I read the excerpt. They went very well together. Sigh! I love these guys. Their stories have been so much fun to read. Thank you for the hours of enjoyment. Don’t fret over taking a short break from writing… you needed the ‘pause’ so you could organize and collect your list of things to do. That will free up your mind now from the worry of it. Blessings on all the timelines and responsibilities. You are appreciated very much and we see all your hard work. Your fans adore your stories and I wish you nothing but success with all you new ventures.
Thank you. I’m not fretting as much as I am craving writing time 🙂 The organizing really was a big help, and I know I was productive even if it was not my favourite way of being productive (ie writing) 🙂 Of course, last night, I just remembered that I have a big promotion I am planning and need to have ready to go by the end of the week — should have checked my chart earlier in the day. LOL