Merry Christmas!

Published to YouTube by ThePianoGuys on November 16, 2017.

I thought we should start this day before Christmas with a rousing, joyous song, and this arrangement of Ode to Joy and Joy to the World certainly fit that description! So click play and let your spirits be lifted as you read my writing news and enjoy a small excerpt from Tom’s story.

WRITING NEWS: 

Frosted Windowpanes concludes this Thursday. I published this novelette along with two others last Thursday. (One is a Pride and Prejudice Variation and the second is a Sense and Sensibility Variation) This bundle of stories was also given out to my mailing list subscribers. If you wish to subscribe and get this collection of three novelettes as a gift, you can do that here:

This mailing list offer is only good for another week. So if you’re a mailing list sort of person, sign up soon. If, however, you are not a mailing list sort of person and would prefer to purchase the book, you can do that here:

books2read.com/u/mvKkqX

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Here’s a little bonus info thing for the curious (like me 😉 ):

Wondering how long a novelette is? This handy chart can help. I got this one from Wikipedia. I use a slightly modified version of these numbers for classification purposes.

I know that for one Romance Writers of America award (I think it is the RITA contest), they use 20,000 to 40,000 as the word count range for a novella. Therefore, since I write romance novellas, I use the RWA numbers for novellas, which means a novelette for me goes up to 19,999 words. The novelettes in my Nature's Fury and Delights book are between about 9,200 and 11,675 words.  :)

I think it is important to note that classifications can vary by genre. (The above chart is not a romance genre chart.) There is no one set guideline. I just thought you might like to know how  I am classifying my stories. :)

And one more thing I must include here before returning you to your regularly scheduled Music Monday post: Neither word count nor page count defines a good story -- story structure does that. ;) But that's a whole other discussion (and a topic I love discussing).

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Ok, now back to my writing news:

Next Thursday, Loving Lydia will begin.  I have written three Thursday posts of Loving Lydia so far, and hope to get another one written this week so that I am a month ahead of what is posting.

I have received the final edits for Delighting Mrs. Bennet back from my proofreader and will be starting on those this week. I hope to have the preorder set up for this book by next Monday — However, it is the holiday season so my plans may not go as scheduled. I’ll let you know next Monday. I still expect to have this book published on January 10, 2019.

My writing time was very limited this past week due to the book coming out on Thursday and Christmas preparations. However, I did manage to complete two chapters of Tom’s story. (I began one of those chapters last week, so really I only wrote one and two-thirds chapters. 🙂 ) I’m hoping to get at least that much written this week, but again, all story production plans are subject to change this week. [I will begin posting this on Patreon after the holidays are over.]

While working on Tom’s story this week, I discovered that dictation is a great way for me to do story brainstorming. There is something that happens when I talk out loud to myself that helps the ideas come together and start to connect better than any other method I have used previously. It was kind of exciting to see. I had noticed that using dictation when brainstorming for Lydia’s story had seemed to help, but I wasn’t sure if it was a fluke or not. It appears it is not. I think my brain works best this way. (And figuring out how my brain works best is exciting stuff to me.)

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And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy: (This is the first look at our heroine)

“I do not know why you do not just spend your days in a tea room,” Robert Eldridge said as he climbed into the hired hack after his sister, Faith. “And in gentleman’s clothes?” He shook his head. “I am likely the daftest brother ever to allow you to do this.”

“If it were not for your inability to keep money in its proper place rather than in the hands of your friends and any barmaid who will have you, I could spend my days in tea rooms, wearing a proper day dress.” Faith crossed her arms and glared at him. “You know as well as I do that as a lady to be seen in a coffeehouse conducting business on the behalf of my family would not be spoken of in a favourable fashion. Therefore, I must disguise myself.”

“You have twenty thousand pounds, someone would marry you.”

Robert was perhaps the daftest brother in all of England. He struggled to understand both numbers and her. She did not just want to marry someone whose coffers needed propping up. She wanted a gentleman who knew how to keep his money and his wife safe and happy. Her father had been able to almost accomplish such a thing. He had done well in managing his accounts. She knew. She had seen them. And as far as she could tell, her mother had been happy. However, where her father had failed was in passing on his abilities to his heir. She shook her head. If only she were really a gentleman and not just wearing gentleman’s clothing, her father’s estate would not be in the state it was now. She understood numbers, and she was far more disciplined than her younger brother about most things in life. However, she was merely a daughter for whom her father had provided handsomely, but to whom he would not leave his fortune.

“What?” Robert asked when Faith only continued to glare at him in silence. “It is true. You have not yet lost your bloom, you are accomplished, and you have a fortune. What else could any Englishman wish for in a wife?”

“You are an idiot,” Faith replied. “I should like to be more than a pretty plaything to put on display who funds her husband’s enjoyments.”

“Must you speak so plainly? It is really not proper.”

Faith raised a brow as the carriage rocked as it went around a corner. “I must speak plainly, or you might not understand.”

“How many times do I have to apologize for my losses at that card game?”

“Or your losses on the horses. Or the purchasing of a box at the theatre, which I have yet to sit in for a play. Or for leaving me to tend to your friend while you went gallivanting to heaven knows where!”

“It was a cockfight,” he muttered.

She shook her head. Of all the stupid things to do when a friend was injured and ill! It had been a year. She should likely attempt to not yell at him each time she remembered the incident. However, she could not. Mr. Bertram had come so close to dying! It was fortunate that she had been able to find a way to alert his family to the need to come collect him. She could not imagine having to lie so near to death with no one to sit watch and pray for her recovery. Oh, she knew Mr. Bertram was as reckless as Robert. That was how Mr. Bertram had sustained his injury and why he had fallen ill. He had not cared for himself as he ought. He had been drinking far too much and spending too many hours chasing pleasure rather than being sensible and sleeping as he should. She shook her head again.

“I just cannot fathom how you could be so heartless,” she said to her brother.

“He had fallen. I did not know he would not follow us in a few days.”

She rolled her eyes. “You could have waited with him and let the others go on without you.”

Robert’s head drooped, but he nodded. He looked very much like a penitent child. Drat him! She wanted to stay angry with him. She did not wish to feel like a peevish governess.

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