I could use a little peace on this Monday morning. How about you? If so, click play, and listen to this pretty piano piece while you read about the exciting, yet not so peaceful, stuff going on in my writing life and then continue on reading to enjoy the first story excerpt from Master of Longbourn.
Landon, Louis. “Louis Landon Peaceful.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Mar. 2011, youtu.be/X2Z-dduUEaQ.
First up, writing news:
Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I have started doing live Saturday broadcasts on our Facebook group called Longbourn Literary Society. I know that not everyone is on Facebook, so I am attempting to download the videos after we finish and then upload them to YouTube. I have managed to figure out how to do it for three of our Saturday chats. The most recent one can be found HERE. They are conversational, and we’re just learning as we go. However, it’s been a blast doing these. If you have any questions for any of us, feel free to leave them in the comments here or on the YouTube video. We’ll do our best to answer them. [warning: They’re not short. We get very chatty.]
Mr. Darcy’s Comfort is in the process of being put on preorder. I finished a very long session of editing Saturday night just as the clock was striking midnight. As I write this post on Sunday night, I have submitted the files to one ebook sales platform and have two others to do. The print version will be worked on after the ebook has been put on preorder. The release day for this book is Thursday, April 26, 2018 — that’s just ten days away! But it should be enough time to get the print book ready to go. (I hope 😉 barring any technical issues)
Confounding Caroline concludes this week, and there will be no Thursday story for two weeks. I will be sending that manuscript to my final editor this week, and am still planning to have it ready to release by mid-May which is close to when the sequel Delighting Mrs. Bennet is set to start posting on Thursdays. It’s been a bit tricky to work on two new stories while having these other two so close to publication, so I will breathe a sigh of relief later this week when some of those items are off my plate, at least for a while. 🙂
I have started posting the sequel to Mr. Darcy’s Comfort on Patreon, and I am happy to report that I have just passed the 10K word mark on that story. I am enjoying this story so much. Here’s something you won’t hear very often — I’m loving Mr. Collins! Yep. Mr. Collins. He’s the romantic hero in this story, which is also something you won’t hear very often. LOL To me, he’s awkwardly endearing in this story. Until tonight, I had not decided on a title for this story, but since chapter one is in the back of Mr. Darcy’s Comfort, it had to have a title. I have had a list of titles and the one I chose, Master of Longbourn, has been “speaking to me” as I have been writing. It seems to encapsulate a good deal of the inner conflict poor Mr. Collins has been facing so far. Below is an excerpt from chapter two which I hope will give you a tiny taste of Mr. Collins’s character as I am writing him.
Whatever you do, when you read the excerpts I will be sharing, do not think of any of the versions of Mr. Collins you have seen in film or likely any you have read in various variations either. Come to this story with an open mind expecting that I will do as I always do and present a character to you that is perhaps a bit different than you expect with a backstory that makes him who he is and poses a challenge for him becoming who he wishes to be. Or in other words, remember who is writing this story. Leenie likes to shape and mould these less likable characters into something new and enjoyable. (And she’s hoping to do just that with her Mr. Collins.)
Here’s your first peek at my Mr. Collins. Enjoy!
AN EXCERPT FROM Master of Longbourn:
Collins glanced up from the book he was reading as Kitty entered the sitting room. Her dress reminded him of the sunshine as it bathed a meadow in its warm glow. He startled and cleared his throat while turning his eyes back to his book as a sigh attempted to escape the confines of his mind. He peeked up. It did not appear that she had noticed his moment of discomposure. For that, he sent up a small prayer of gratitude.
“Are you still reading sermons?” Mrs. Bennet inquired as she took a seat near him.
She was a nice enough lady, if a bit scattered at times, but he did not particularly relish a conversation with her just now. He wanted to pretend reading while in truth he observed the fair maiden near the window whose hair was shining like spun gold.
“My Mary has read many sermons,” Mrs. Bennet continued.
“That is very good,” Collins muttered as his eyes shifted to where Mary sat, glaring at him as she always did. Did her mother truly think that a daughter so obviously against a match could be swayed from her position by the commonality of reading materials?
“Oh, she is a very good girl.”
Mrs. Bennet’s look of reproof for that very good girl was in stark contrast to her tone of praise. Did the woman think him so simple as to be easily led? Did she think this way of all gentlemen or was it him in particular?
He closed his book and tapped his finger on its cover as he thought.
“You look very serious, Mr. Collins. I do hope you are contemplating some happy event.”
Only his training from the tutor under whom he studied kept him from shaking his head at her pathetic attempt to sway him with her tone and a quick glance toward her daughter.
“No, it was neither happy nor sad,” he replied with what he hoped was a pleasant expression. “I find I tire of reading sermons. It is delightful to indulge in a bit of poetry on occasion. The way some men can convey the beauty of the Almighty’s creation in so few words is one of the great mysteries. A true gift from God it is.” He clamped his lips closed before he babbled further. If she were not looking up at him from her stitching perhaps he would not feel this infernal need to speak so strongly. She made his heart and mind race so much faster than it normally did when uncomfortable. But, it was an agony he would willingly endure to be near her. He turned his mind to what Mrs. Bennet was saying.
“I had not thought it possible for a man such as yourself to grow weary of sermons. It is most remarkable.”
“A parson is merely a man, Mrs. Bennet,” he replied, stretching out his legs and folding his arms across his abdomen in a most comfortable fashion. “We are educated, of course, in the things of God and the church, but we are at the center of our very being merely men. While learning the things which we must to fulfill our role as guide and instructor is an honour and one of great import, we find all manner of common things to be of interest and even a source of pleasure. My tutor, Mr. James, for instance, liked nothing better than a good long ramble in the fields and forest as well as a hunt. We must be complete, he would say. Being of only one focus is not very useful to anyone, he would also say. A parishioner should feel at ease in your presence. That was another of his sayings. It makes one more interesting as a conversationalist when one breaks bread with his patron or patroness as well as other members of his parish.”
“Indeed!” That one word seemed to be the only thought Mrs. Bennet could form on such a surprising revelation.
“I am not a great hunter.” Collins bowed his head humbly. “But if one wishes to eat pheasant, one must learn to make a tolerable attempt at the sport.”
“Oh,” Mrs. Bennet gasped.
Mary snickered and bent her head closer to her book.
“I quite enjoy pheasant,” Kitty said. “Although I do not like the idea of having to shoot one. In fact, I should not be able to eat it if I did.”
“A tender heart is a welcome thing in a lady such as yourself,” Collins assured her. “I am certain that is why hunting is left to the gentlemen. Our sensibilities are not so easily engaged.”
“I should not mind shooting a pheasant and then eating it,” Lydia declared with a pointed look for her sister and one of disdain for Mr. Collins.
No matter how many times he had assured Miss Lydia that he was not going to remove them from their home when he claimed his inheritance, she did not seem willing to believe him. There was a scoffing, suspicious sharpness to her personality. However, that could be due to the fact that he was a stranger and her father was gravely ill.
“Then bravo for you,” he commented. He would not succumb to her taunts. The scripture did say that a soft answer turns away wrath, so he would endeavor to be kind and compassionate.
Lydia blinked. “You are not going to say it is not fitting for a lady?”
“No.” He opened his book. He knew ladies who accompanied their husbands on hunts. He did not care for such a wife himself, however.
“You are not going to say a thing?” Lydia pursued.
Collins shook his head and shrugged. “I see no need to say anything further.”
Her brows furrowed. “Not a thing?”
Again, he shook his head and added a smile.
“Lydia, do be polite,” Kitty scolded softly.
The reprimand was met with a decidedly annoyed huff.
“I thought you tired of sermons.” Elizabeth held out a book to him. “It is Lyrical Ballads. I thought you might enjoy Wordsworth’s writings.”
Collins snapped his book of sermons closed and took the book from Elizabeth. “Oh, I do. He is quite delightful.”
“He is,” Elizabeth agreed. “Mr. Darcy recommended this particular volume to me.”
The bookplate was inscribed with Fitzwilliam Darcy.
“Oh, I could not take his book from you.” Collins held it out to her.
“I have read it,” she assured him, “and Mr. Darcy would be pleased to be able to do you this small service.”
“You are very kind and so is Mr. Darcy.” Collins opened the book. Mr. Darcy liked poetry just as he did? This was good.
“You might be able to join he and Mr. Bingley for a hunt,” she offered. “I shall mention it to him.”
“That would be most pleasurable,” Collins replied.
A friend. He had a friend. A true friend. Miss Elizabeth would not lend him such a precious book and take up his cause by presenting him to Mr. Darcy if she were not a friend.
~*~*~
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Oh, this is a different Collins. Man… good thing you instructed us to wipe our minds of previous Collins impressions. I tried to do that and let you tell me how he was to be. Brava… I think I will like seeing this guy and how things fall in a story. Interesting. Thanks for sharing the delightful music. It started my morning time off on a good note [chuckle] while I enjoyed my coffee. Blessings with all the irons that you have in the fire. Wow… you are one busy lady. Hope all goes well with the launch and continued work that you have planned.
I’m glad you went into it with a clear mind on him. I am basing my Collins off the description in P&P — 25 (so young) and a large man (and I am not taking that to mean fat — tall and stocky is more how I am going with it, not as trim as others perhaps but not fat). And then I am taking his need to talk incessantly and with so many words along with his awkward actions and creating this uneasy, just wants to know where he fits kind of guy. He’s sometimes foolish on the outside when you look at him due to that awkwardness and the excessive talking, but on the inside he’s fairly sensible and quite human. I have been having a great time getting to know him and to learn about his family life that made him how he is.
Tall and stocky, i envision my cousin, who is tall even by modern standards, 6″9′, (yes, really) and though he did play sports as a teenager, he is not really a natural athlete, and has never had an athletic build.
Cool! Maybe not quite that tall — WOW! that’s tall. 😀 But that not a natural athlete idea would be very appropriate here for sure.
That’s a new sight… Quite opposite to all before. looking forward!
Definitely a different Collins. I’m glad you are looking forward to it. 🙂