Austen-Inspired – Page 23

Music Monday: My Luve is like a Red, Red Rose (Arr. Ešenvalds)

Happy New Year!

I am making a few changes to the Music Monday posts (which will cause some other changes on the blog). I’ll explain all that below.

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY VOCES8-TOPIC ON JANUARY 17, 2019

Every year as one year changes to the next, I evaluate what I am doing and look for ways to try to improve. Sometimes, I try new things. Sometimes, those new things work. Sometimes, they don’t. 🙂

Last year, I made a change to the blog and added Sweet Tuesdays. They have been going well, although, honestly, adding that third story to work on consistently with two others has been challenging. But it is a good challenge and has been worth the effort, I think. I plan to continue it.

This year, I am going to try shifting my writing news out of the Music Monday post and give it its own post called The Saturday Broadsheet. I’ve been typing up my weekly writing news for my mailing list for a couple of months now. I’ve been doing it on Thursdays, but the week isn’t over yet. There’s still one day of writing to be done. So, I think I will move writing those emails until Friday and then send them on Saturdays. If I am doing that for my mailing list, I should be able to easily copy out the information I want to post here on the blog on Saturdays at the same time.

This should (hopefully) streamline some things for me, and it should make my Monday posts focused more on the writing inspiration I find in music.

I figure it’s at least worth a try. If it doesn’t work, I can revert back to the way Monday posts have been, right?

I really don’t have a lot of writing news this Monday. I took a good bit of time off over the holidays — way more than I had intended to, but it was so good that I can’t really feel sorry I did it. 🙂 The only real writing-related thing that got done was my final proofread of Her Secret Beau. I’ll share details about the preorder and release and all that later this week. I would say Saturday — but…there will be a Friday Feature this week which is related to Her Secret Beau. 🙂

So, I’m not making any huge changes to the blog. Just a few small ones. You can let me know if you like them or loathe them in a month or so. 🙂 We have to try them for a while before we can say if we like them or not. That’s the rule. 🙂

Ok, so Mondays… I hope to bring you videos of music that inspires me while I am writing or which sparks writing ideas. I also want to highlight some of my already published works over the course of the year. (Did you know that Her Secret Beau will be the 43rd book I have published? I just need 9 more to cover a year of Mondays. Maybe by next year? LOL)

The video I shared today has a direct connection with one of the books I have written because Robert Burns’ poem “My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose” is a poem Darcy is reading in Netherfield’s library when a scheme is put into play to force him to marry Elizabeth.

Here’s how that scene goes. This lengthy excerpt is from Her Father’s Choice, Chapter 1.

Music Monday: Winter Wonderland (Bing Crosby)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY CHRISTMASTIMETV ON OCTOBER 27, 2010

Songs like this make me nostalgic as they were always playing on the record player around Christmas time when I was young. 🙂 I hope you enjoy this Christmas classic.

As I mentioned in the last Monday post (which I wrote yesterday since I am scheduling this ahead of time and taking some work time off over the next two weeks), I have no writing news to share this week — other than to remind you that the Darcy Family Series is only on sale for a couple more days.

Click the image to find out more about the books and to find links for purchasing.

Since I have no writing news this week, I wanted to share something of interest with you.

I like watching videos on YouTube — especially educational sorts of videos like the one below. Not all that long ago I discovered these short 18th-century cooking videos. I love how they bring to life how things were done hundreds of years ago, and it helps me visualize the lives of my characters a bit better to see the work that went into eating and the variety of foods that might have been eaten.

The recipe in this video is an English recipe, and the cookbook in which it can be found is mentioned in the video and is also listed in this blog post on the website mentioned in this video. (The recipe book is a free ebook on Google Play.)

I thought a Christmas pie recipe would be appropriate to share considering the time of year it is. 🙂 (And his little girl in this video is just adorable.)

And not only am I going to share the above video with you today, but I am also going to share a portion from chapter 12 of For Peace of Mind — which my second published book and the book which first led me to start collecting old cookbooks in my Google Books Library. 🙂

At the beginning of this scene in which Darcy and Elizabeth exchange gifts, it mentions that the Bennets are expecting guests for a Christmas Eve dinner. I suppose it is entirely possible that they might have served a Christmas Pie on such an occasion, don’t you?

AN EXCERPT FROM For Peace of Mind:

Pride and Prejudice Ch. 15 Illustration (C.E. Brock)

Pride and Prejudice Chapter 15 Illustration by C.E. Brock (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

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An officer stood near the youngest Bennet sisters, while two other gentlemen stood on either side of Miss Elizabeth. The first was dressed in the dark garb of a parson and the second–Darcy clenched his jaw to keep from speaking.

[from Two Days in November, A Pride and Prejudice Inspired Short Story]

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Two Days in November can be found in Teatime Tales.

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A Meeting by the Stile (Heywood Hardy)

This attitude in this picture is a brighter than the one in the first part of Two Days in November, but the title was perfect. :) This painting also has too many sisters in it because there are two, not three, sisters in my story and only one of those sisters is sitting at the stile when Darcy comes upon her during his morning ride.

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She hoped he would exchange a few more pleasantries and be on his way, but he stopped, swung down from his horse, and came to stand across the stile from her. “Please, be seated. I do not wish to take you from your repose. Might I join you for a few moments?”

[from Two Days in November, A Pride and Prejudice Inspired Short Story]

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Charles: To Discover His Purpose is FREE in the Kindle store until tomorrow.

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Engraving from La Belle Assemblée, February 1, 1817

The couple in the two lines below are not in the ballroom where the assembled masses are dancing, but rather tucked away in a music room where they can have a private conversation. This story, A Music Room Meeting, is one of six short Austen-inspired stories that comprise the book Teatime Tales, which is one of the books given as a welcome gift to those who join my mailing list. (It is also available for purchase so look for it at your favourite ebook retailer.)

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She moved to stand near him. “Is this why you play instead of dancing?”

He closed his eyes. “How can I dance when others cannot?”

[from A Music Room Meeting, An Oxford Cottage Inspired Short Story]

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