Music Monday: The Only, High Valley

I had a different song in mind for today’s post until this one popped up on YouTube as a recommendation for me on Saturday morning. Well, I gave it a listen, and then hit repeat several times and added it to my “My Kinda Country” playlist on both YouTube and Spotify. 🙂 To say I like it is a bit of an understatement. LOL Added to the fact that I like the song (a lot) as a reason for posting it today, is the fact that it fits in tone and theme with what I have been writing this week.

You see, I typed the final word of the first draft of Enticing Miss Darcy on Friday night (or technically Saturday morning as it was after midnight)! And we all know how a romance ends, right? On a very happily ever after note, which I think this song has in spades. So, I shelved the other song to use another week, and instead, you get to listen to this one. 🙂

Frankly, between writing the ending of Enticing Miss Darcy (8000+words) and One Winter’s Eve releasing this past Thursday, not much else got done this week in my writing world. 😀 Of course, it’s not like that was a relaxed schedule of work! I sent out emails, posted about the book being available, created some graphics as well as another book excerpt video, kept an eye on how things were selling and watching for the print version to link with the ebook, and so on. It was busy. I even skipped writing more of Confounding Caroline this week because when I get to the certain point in a story, and I can see the end coming, I have to get it out in order to be able to relax. 🙂 And I just couldn’t fit adding to Confounding Caroline and concluding Enticing Miss Darcy in my available writing time.

Looking ahead to this coming week, I will be working on a short story that will be a bonus follow up sort of thing for a couple of original characters in Enticing Miss Darcy.  I will also begin my first pass edits on Enticing Miss Darcy so that by the end of this  week or the beginning of next week, I will be able to send it to my first reader and start the process of polishing for publication. The tentative publication date is March 6, 2018, with a short pre-order period before that.

Also this week, I will have to begin working on brainstorming what the next work in progress will be. I think it is going to be a Dash of Darcy story.

Since I am heading into a transition period between stories, there maybe be one or two Monday’s without a story excerpt as I want to keep this bonus short story to Enticing Miss Darcy secret, and I want to have the next work in progress well underway before I share from it. (I like to make certain I am happy with how a story is unfolding before I start sharing.) And honestly, I need a breather, which means I am going to not push too hard to get things written and planned this week. (or at least I am going to try not to push too hard LOL)

So, for the final time on a Music Monday, here is…

AN EXCERPT FROM Enticing Miss Darcy: 

[Remember, this is toward the end, so it could very likely contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.]

Jack stretched and squinted at the sun that shone through the window as the drapes were drawn open.

“There is a letter for you,” his man said with a nod toward the bedside table. 

Jack rubbed his eyes, pushed himself up to a sitting position, and took up the missive. Breaking the seal, he read:  

Jack

I expect you to call – early. Proper hours are for acquaintances not for future cousins. I shall send Alistair in search of you should you not arrive before eleven only because he will not let me leave the house today. In fact, I shall do well to be allowed to move from my chair. He is a dear though, is he not?

Anne

Jack rolled his eyes and shook his head as he chuckled at Anne’s message, then he read what his friend had added at the bottom.

She’s had very little sleep because she was worried about you, and I refused to rouse you in the middle of the night. Do come soon.

A-

The words brought a smile to Jack’s lips. His friend was such a doting husband! That staid and steady, practical Alistair Pratt had become such a gentleman was no surprise. The man had a heart capable of profound and enduring compassion. Jack knew that to find a place within the confines of close friendship with Alistair Pratt was to find a welcome of the most lasting kind – even if a person were to be a bit of a trial to the man’s patience, as Jack had been more than once over the years of their acquaintance. Alistair’s wife seemed to be cut from the same cloth, for Anne had accepted Jack as if he were a brother from the moment they had met. 

Jack looked at the clock. Nine! Already? He would have to hurry. He had no desire to have Alistair sent out looking for him simply because he had not fallen asleep until the sun was rising and had, therefore, slept later than was his normal wont.  Thankfully, he was not unaccustomed to preparing for his day with a bit of haste. He was not the sort to linger at his toilette or retie his cravat multiple times. He liked to be quick about his business. 

However, there was one thing for which he always paused not matter how quickly he might need to be in the morning. He would not, even for Alistair’s wife, leave his house without a proper cup of tea and several morsels of food. He knew that tea would most certainly be served by Anne, but, considering how loudly his stomach rumbled from the moment his eyes opened until he had taken his first bite of food, tea, and a few sweets or sandwiches would not be enough to ward off his hunger. It was better for him to spend the time necessary to break his fast at home and arrive for his call with a full stomach and a pleasant countenance even if it did delay him a few minutes longer than he would wish. For, he thought to himself, a hungry Jack was never as pleasant a Jack as a sated Jack. 

He popped the last of his breakfast into his mouth, chased it down with what remained of his tea, and taking up his hat, bid a cheery farewell to his butler.

It was a glorious day, and Jack drank in every bit of its delights as he rode the few blocks from his apartment to the Pratt’s townhouse.

True the wind today was a bit brisker than normal, and people scurried before it with collars pulled up and hats secured tightly by ribbons or hands, but, the sun was shining, no rain was falling, and Georgiana Darcy had not rejected Jack. That last fact could have turned even the darkest, most bitter, sleet- and ice-filled day of winter into a glorious day for Jack, for that is what hope could do when allowed to fester all night in the mind of a besotted gent.

He swung down from his mount and tossed the reins to a groom before bounding up the steps and tapping a short pattern on the door with the knocker.

~*~*~

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