Austen-Inspired – Page 29

Music Monday: Christmas Present, Andy Williams

Sadly, this is the last Monday of Christmas in July. It’s been lovely taking some time to think about Christmas during a very hot and humid month for us here in Nova Scotia. Today’s giveaway is not a surprise since there is only one book left on my list. It is a book that has to do with a gift of love that is given from brother to sister, so I thought this song would be perfect for today.

Published on Youtube by TheSorrowfulFlower on December 20, 2012.

The giveaway link, as always, is right below the writing news and before the story excerpt.

Writing News:

The biggest news I have for you this Monday is that Charles: To Discover His Purpose is starting its way through the polishing process. I do not have a firm date on publication yet, but I am hoping it will be toward the end of August. 😀 There is an excerpt from the story in tomorrow’s Austen Author’s post and the last Monday excerpt from it below.

That means, next week, I may (probably won’t) have a story excerpt on Monday. 🙁 I hope to spend this week seeing if I can complete Delighting Mrs. Bennet.

Are you wondering what I will be writing next? Me, too. 🙂 Actually, I know that one story I will be working on is Mary Crawford’s story, which follows Charles’s story in the Other Pens series. However, I am also trying to decide on another Dash of Darcy title…but so far, I’ve got nothin’. 🙂

My reorganizing of the Dash of Darcy and Companion Collection is on-going, though it is getting closer to completion.

And one last thing: For those of you who frequent Facebook, I wanted to let you know that Rose Fairbanks, Zoe Burton, and I are doing a weekly Jane Austen Trivia game in our Longbourn Literary Society group. Each week on Tuesday, we will be posting two trivia questions from a different novel. You will have until Friday to participate by commenting on the posts, and for your participation, you will be entered into a draw for a giveaway.

And now for the last…

CHRISTMAS IN JULY GIVEAWAY:

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM ONE OF THE 5 COPIES OF Two Days Before Christmas.

The copies are available on a first come, first serve basis until all five have been claimed or the link expires on Friday, August 3, 2018.

Update: All five copies of this book have found homes.

The following is from the last portion of the book. It may include some spoilers, although I did try to select something that doesn’t contain the most spoilery spoilers. (There are three important chapters after this excerpt.) However, you will still want to read at your own risk.

ONE LAST (longish) EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover His Purpose: Continue reading Music Monday: Christmas Present, Andy Williams

Music Monday: Winter, Blackmore’s Night

Can you tell by the title of this instrumental selection which book might be today’s giveaway book? Below the video is the list of remaining book choices.

Published on YouTube, October 30, 2010, by kirelafonos.

A Very Mary Christmas

One Winter’s Eve

Two Days Before Christmas

You can find out if you have the right book by scrolling down to just before the story excerpt, but please come back and read my news and the excerpt after you take your chances at getting a copy of today’s Christmas in July giveaway book.

BOOK NEWS:

Delighting Mrs. Bennet has reached an interesting (and slightly dangerous) place in its plot. I think I can see the end coming soon, but I’m not exactly certain how long it will take to get to that ending I can see. There are still a few things to take care of. (Not the least of which is making sure that all the characters are safe. 😉 ) I will have all of October filled with scheduled Thursday posts before the week is out!

Charles: To Discover His Purpose is progressing well. I have passed the 20,000 word mark, and I have posted through chapter 7 on Patreon and should have chapter 8 posted there later today before I edit chapter 9 and then start on chapter 10. 🙂 I’m really enjoying writing this story. Charles is proving to be an interesting fellow to understand and help find his best self.

The Dash of Darcy and Companion Stories are getting a bit of a reorganization. Instead of being two separate collections, I am combining them into one and numbering them. This should make them easier for readers to find on Amazon. So, if you are looking at them over this month, you will likely see some have the new combined collection listed as the series and then a book number. These are being numbered mostly in the order they were published. The only exception to that is I am putting bundles in the line after the books which they contain rather than farther following their publication dates. All of the titles except perhaps the two Dash of Darcy Duos will be getting new covers and all of the older titles will be getting backmatter updates. The stories will stay the same. I am not redoing the books in order, so things will look odd for a while as I am working on completing this large project. I hope to be done by the end of July, but I am not certain that is a realistic goal. It might be early August before it is finished.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY GIVEAWAY:

Did you guess the right book? 😀

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM ONE OF THE 5 COPIES OF One Winter’s Eve.

The copies are available on a first come, first serve basis until all five have been claimed or the link expires on Friday, July 20, 2018.

[update: All five copies of this book have found homes. 🙂 ]

I was able to work with a couple of young boys, who helped me reveal some things about our hero in this…

EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover His Purpose: Continue reading Music Monday: Winter, Blackmore’s Night

Music Monday: Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Welcome to Christmas in July. Each Music Monday this month will feature Christmas music and a giveaway. Scroll down below the video for a few details.

Published on YouTube Oct 26, 2009, by Atlantic Records

I have five books which are set around Christmas:

A Very Mary Christmas

For Peace of Mind

No Other Choice

Two Days Before Christmas

One Winter’s Eve

Each Monday, I will leave a link in my Music Monday post which will have 5 copies of one of those books at it. (Books will be given away in random order — not in the order listed above.)

There are five Monday’s in July.

That’s a total of 25 books being given away — just like the day on which Christmas falls 🙂

Two other pieces of information you might wish to know:

Each Monday post is scheduled for 8:05 am Atlantic time.

The link will be located just before my story excerpt each week because I would like you to read the post, but feel free to read after you have clicked to see if any books remain. 🙂 I get it — being quick on the click is important here.

Now, let me tell you about how I decided on the musical selection for today. I sent out an email to my mailing list to give them a heads up on this special month of Music Monday posts. I was, at that time, still undecided about what video I would share today. Well, before I had made my final selection, I received a reply to the email I sent out, and in that reply, there were two suggestions of groups with great Christmas music. One of those groups was Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the other one was Blackmore’s Night. I went to YouTube and looked them both up and listened to a few songs. The song above I had never heard before, and it was so beautiful that I just had to use it today. (In case you’re wondering, it’s quite likely that I might use one from the other group on another Monday.)

In other news…

Master of Longbourn has launched successfully and has several lovely reviews. 🙂

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 3, 2018, on Austen Authors, I will be discussing part of the plot structure of Master of Longbourn as it pertains to Mr. Collins’s inner journey.

I managed one day of writing on two stories this past week. So, not exactly a great success for the new writing routine, but it’s a good start.

I have Thursday Three Hundred posts scheduled all the way through September now, and still, Delighting Mrs. Bennet has not reached its conclusion. That means the release date is still unknown and will likely not be any sooner than sometime in November.

The first three chapters of Charles’s story have been posted at Patreon, and I am beginning work on Chapter 4. I hope to get at least one more chapter completed and posted at Patreon this week.

Before I get to the excerpt from Charles’s story, here is the link where there are five copies of For Peace of Mind waiting to be claimed. The copies are available on a first come, first serve basis until all five have been claimed or the link expires on Friday, July 6, 2018.

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM ONE OF THE 5 COPIES OF For Peace of Mind.

[update: All five copies have found homes.]

And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover His Purpose:
Continue reading Music Monday: Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Music Monday: Falling Slowly (Period Dramas)

“Why just last year, three young ladies made very eligible matches after I had shown them particular attention. I tell you, I am a good luck charm for the matrimonially-minded miss.” {Charles Edwards in Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy]

Those are just a few of the lines from Chapter 1 of Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy where we are introduced to Henry Crawford’s friend, Charles Edwards.

Posted on YouTube by FANNYJKL, May 18, 2018.

Why am I sharing a quote from that book when I have another book coming out this week?

Because Charles happens to be the next character who will be subjected to my particular sort of reformation and improvement. At present, he is a rake — a bad boy through and through. But, we all know that that will change. 🙂

The above video is one that I have pinned to my Pinterest board for Charles’s story — but I’ll get to more information about that in a moment.

For now, I want to remind you that the story for another gentleman, William Collins, who underwent a transformation releases this Thursday, June 28, 2018! That’s only three more sleeps until Master of Longbourn goes LIVE. It is currently on pre-order and can be found at your favourite retailer by following this link.

There are a few advance reader reviews that you can read on Bookbub here. Thank you to those who read and reviewed early copies. 🙂

Ok, now back to Charles. 🙂

This week, I was able to get just under 5,000 words written on this new work in progress. Here’s what I can tell you about the story at the moment:

The title is Charles: To Discover His Purpose

The Hero and Heroine are Charles Edwards and Evelyn Barrett. As I said before, Charles is Henry’s friend (and also Trefor Linton’s friend). Evelyn is Constance Linton’s friend.

Charles is rakish. He’s drifting along through life having a great time.

Evelyn is a proper young lady — well, mostly — she does have a mischievous streak, and she can be direct in her words. She also has a carrying heart which sees her doing all manner of charity work.

As you can probably guess from that information, Charles is going to hit a rough patch in his easy, take-what-you-can-get life, and that rough patch’s name is Evelyn. For him, it might start as a bit of a game to see if he can break the proper Evelyn and steal a kiss or two or more. But as Henry Crawford discovered in Mansfield Park, games such as this can be dangerous as they may end up breaking the player’s heart. (And yes, there is at least that one deliberate nod to Mansfield Park in this story. There may be more. Time will tell.)

Can you see how the song I shared today seems to fit with this story? Charles and Evelyn will be slowing falling for each other and there will be some games played and there will some struggle and there is a need for being pointed “home,” etc. That is why I chose this song to share as it’s theme feels like it fits well with Charles’s story.

Would you like to read a short excerpt from what I have written so far? If so, keep reading 🙂 This is a portion of what I wrote on Friday of last week. It’s part of chapter 2 and will be posted soon on Patreon. (Probably tomorrow)

This portion focuses on Evelyn and her not well-pleased mother.

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover his Purpose: Continue reading Music Monday: Falling Slowly (Period Dramas)

Music Monday: Something Just Like This, Instrumental Cover

Welcome to a new week. It’s time for a bit of music, some writing news, and an excerpt. Shall we get started?

Click play and read on. 🙂

Solís Music. “‘Something Just Like This’ The Chainsmokers & Coldplay – Piano Orchestral Pop Cover by David Solis.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 June 2017, youtu.be/4S5pqnv4EcE.

You can find the original version of this song by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay at this link if you wish to hear the words sung. In my mind, the lyrics really fit with the story I just finished writing and am sharing an excerpt at the end of this post, which is why I chose this song to share today.

Now, that I have told you there is a story connection to the music, let’s get to the writing news:

First of all, this happened last week…

Confounding Caroline is now available for pre-order! 🙂

And Delighting Mrs. Bennet, the sequel to this story started posting on Thursday.

It was truly a week of excitement because late Friday night, I finished writing Master of Longbourn, and I know I am the author, but it is such a good story. You’re going to have to read it. 🙂 Mr. Collins is just so surprisingly likable — truly. I have had early readers who have surprised themselves by saying things like “I really like Collins.” The final chapter and epilogue of the story will be posting this week on Patreon after I have had a chance to reread and polish them a little.

Before I get to the excerpt from Master of Longbourn, I want to remind you of what I said last week. This will be the last excerpt from this story, and I will likely not have an excerpt for the next two or three weeks or so. I am going to take some time to work on Delighting Mrs. Bennet, and then some other story will get started, although, at this very moment, I have not decided which one. 🙂 Maybe I will know by next Monday…maybe. 🙂

Now for…

AN EXCERPT (a longish excerpt) FROM Master of Longbourn: Continue reading Music Monday: Something Just Like This, Instrumental Cover