PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY HIGH VALLEY ON APRIL 29, 2019
I love this song, and I love this group’s music. Before you press play, you might want to know that the video, in my opinion, tells a lovely, but sad, story.
Now on to the reason I am sharing this song today. Every time I hear this play on the radio or my Spotify playlist, it always brings to mind the stories I have written where the “bad boy” finds his life of chasing a good time is just not as fulling as it once was.
And do you know which bad boy pops to mind first? Charles Edwards, the hero of Charles: To Discover His Purpose. That’s probably because he’s the most unapologetic about his roguish behaviour when the story starts. In fact, his whole purpose of hanging around the heroine, Evelyn, when the story begins is so that he can steal a kiss from her. Of course, this being a romance, you know he’s going to figure out that he wants a whole lot more than a kiss.
In the chapter I am sharing from that story today, Charles is still just that single man looking for a good time.
Charles breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the saloon on his way to the Lintons’ box. It had been a challenge to squeeze past people without being noticed too much.
“Edwards.” His long-time friend, Trefor Linton, drew up beside him. “You are not invisible no matter how you turn your collar or duck your head.” There was a hint of a laugh in his friend’s voice. “I have heard three young ladies tittering as you passed them.”
“I imagine I look a fright to them.”
“No,” said Constance, making her presence behind Charles known. “They seem to be in awe of your noble deed.”
Lucy’s hand flew to her heart and her eyes grew wide. “So much? Surely, that was not necessary.”
Philip took the items from her and placed them on the desk before taking her hands and drawing her to her feet and into his embrace. “For you, Mrs. Dobney, there is no price too high.”
“But…”
He placed a finger on her lips to stop her protest. “I have already had this argument with Darcy, and I assure you that neither he nor you will convince me that the money was spent in vain, for it has bought back your things and, I hope, something far more valuable, your peace. From this day forward, there is nothing left of what your uncle did which can harm you.”
She squeezed him tightly. “How can I ever thank you for such a thoughtful gift?”
He looked down into her eyes, which were peering up at him. “Love me, always, just as you do now.”
She shook her head and smiled at him. “I cannot promise not to love you more with every passing day, but I will always, always love you.”
Published to YouTube by Aaron Goodvin on October 4, 2018.
This song was an earworm for me last week, and so I decided to share it with you. So thoughtful of me, I know. LOL It’s a sweet song with a catchy tune that I heard played a couple of times on the radio as I was making supper last week, and it stuck.
Above the video is an excerpt from one of my already published books, And Then Love. The excerpt is from the ending but had the right feel to go with the song today. If you have read that story, you might remember that Lucy approaches Phillip to ask him to marry her so she will not have to go live with a horrible uncle. He decides to help her, and over the course of the book comes to realize that marrying her is the best decision he has ever made.
[A little side note: When I say horrible uncle here, I mean nearly as bad as they come. I tapped into my dark side for a couple of characters in the Willow Hall Romance series, and Lucy’s uncle was one of them. As bad as they come is reserved for another despicable character in this series.]
Along with humming or singing the above song throughout last week, I also managed to get a good bit of writing done.
Tom: To Secure His Legacy is not quite finished, but it is so close to being done. I’m hopeful that three more chapters will complete it. Therefore, it should be done by the end of Friday. I hope to get three chapters of this story posted at Patreon this week instead of the two chapters I have been doing.
(Oh! You might be interested in the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, as well as Mrs. Darcy’s sister Kitty, showed up in one chapter of what I wrote for Tom’s story this week. The Mr. and Mrs. Darcy here are the ones from Two Days Before Christmas. I figured I should clarify that since I have several stories which end with a Mr. and Mrs. Darcy.)
Roger’s story now has three chapters, and if I get one more written this week (which is the plan), then that story will begin posting on Tuesdays here on my blog. If you look at the menu options, you will see that Sweet Tuesdays has been added as a choice. However, there are no posts there yet. I just needed to set up the link so I could tag it at the beginning of each chapter for those who might need to go back and read previous chapters.
I have a title for the story, and if you are on my mailing list, you will receive a January update from me that will share that title with you. Everyone else will have to wait until next Monday when I share it here. 🙂 [hint but not a very good one: The title is three words long and is a reference to something that is said in Emma.]
Those are the stories in progress with the most news. The other writing I did was…
I wrote another chapter of Loving Lydia, and a few hundred words of Apple Blossoms got dictated this week. Nothing very interesting or new is happening with those stories right now. (Well, news-wise. Story-wise there is interesting stuff happening with both. But I can’t tell you about that just yet. 😉 )
On quick reminder that the Kobo 40% off boxset sale ends on February 3 at 11:59 PM EST. The promo code to enter at check out is 40JAN. The two box sets which I have in this promotion are
The Choices Series which includes all four novellas in that series: Her Father’s Choice, No Other Choice, His Inconvenient Choice, and Her Heart’s Choice
Today, I’m sharing a song that I listened to for the first time this past week. Yes, YouTube notified me that it had been uploaded the week before, but I didn’t actually take the time to listen to it until now. 🙂 Life. That wonderful thing that we get to live and struggle with each day just kept me from taking the few minutes needed to listen. And then life crowded out any mental memo to listen later. I’m sure that never happens to anyone but me, right? 🙂
I’m glad I finally just pushed a few things aside and listened. It’s a lovely song.
At first, when I decided to share this video, it was just because I liked it and not for any story connected reason. But as I listened to it over and over this week (that’s what I do for a while when I find a song I like), I realized that this song really fits with what I try to write about in my stories — that love that turns your attention from your own wants and desires to the wants and desires of another, that makes you worry about the other person’s happiness even before your own. So, while I didn’t think this would have a story connection, it does — to all of my stories. 🙂
Now that you know all that about this song, let me update you on what I did this past week in my writing life. I finished my first round edits/read-through of Confounding Caroline and have sent that on to my first reader to have her check it over for story stuff. I am not sure at this time when I will be publishing that as Mr. Darcy’s Comfort is supposed to be published first according to my planner. I think I am closing in on the ending for that story, so soon, I will be doing first round edits/read-through of that.
[sidenote: I really appreciate all the comments you left on last week’s Monday post about length.]
So one “finished” story and one almost finished story means I must be starting some new things, right?
Right.
I have started Delighting Mrs. Bennet which will be the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story (beginning May 10), and I am beginning to brainstorm some details for the story that will follow Mr. Darcy’s Comfort. I haven’t settled on a title for that one, but I can tell you it will start a less loved character and shine some new light on him.
In the world of selling books, New Beginnings which is an anthology of Finally Mrs. Darcy, For Peace of Mind, and Through Every Storm, can still be purchased for 40% off at Kobo if you use the 40DEAL promo code at check out. However, that sale ends today. You can read excerpts from those books in the last week’s Friday’s Feature.
There will be a Friday Feature this week as well. I have a book that will be included in a promotion on Kobo starting Thursday of this week. I am still waiting to get the promo code sent to me. I will, of course, send an email to my mailing list and post a graphic about it on social media as well as having an excerpt from the book here on the blog on Friday.
In the trying something new section of life, Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I have been trying out doing live videos on our Longbourn Literary Society on Facebook, and I have figured out how to add those videos to my YouTube channel so I can share them with those who are not on Facebook. You can find the live video from Saturday HERE. [Zoe read a short excerpt from her upcoming release in this week’s live.]
I think that is all the writing/book news and that means it is time to share a bit of what I wrote last week. Remember, this is getting toward the end of the story, so there could be spoilers. Read at your own risk. 🙂
This week, I spent a lot of time with “relaxation” music playing in my office. Why? One word. Edits. 🙂
SoothingRelaxation. “3 Hours of Beautiful Relaxing Instrumental Music – Study, Relax, Background ★31.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Mar. 2016. Web. 25 June 2017.
I have decided to give my story His Beautiful Bea one more going over before I send it off to be checked for commas, spelling, word usage, and the like.
I’m attempting to add a bit more emotional depth to the story. This story does not contain an enormous, spectacular conflict. There is conflict, but it’s internal to the main characters.
I would describe the story as a gentle realization of love. Nothing horrible happens. No one faces death or disowning. There are no refused proposals. The setting and the action of the story is all rather pleasant and agreeable. The battle lies in the hero recognizing those odd feelings for what they are while the heroine grows to understand that what she thought was love, was nothing more than infatuation.
In my opinion, this is the sort of story that needs extra attention paid to the emotional details, and that is what I am trying to do on this last pass through my manuscript — give those details the attention they are due. Will I be successful? I don’t know because each reader will have to decide that for him or herself. I can only make certain the story is to my liking before I send it out into the big, scary world. 🙂
All the attention to minute details and being self-critical required when editing tends to leave my brain in desperate need of soothing. However, when you add the fact that both the story I am editing and the one I am writing are “new forms” of stories (one being Austenesque, which I have never done, and both based on Mansfield Park instead of the more comfortable Pride and Prejudice), and you get one very stressed out Leenie! 🙂 Therefore, relaxation music was NECESSARY.
The above composition was what was playing during my last writing session on Friday when I was writing the excerpt below.
Happy Victoria Day! Today, the plan is that I will be spending some time in the garden with my husband getting some things cleaned up and planted. I am not a great gardener, but I appreciate a good garden — and writing scenes that happen in gardens (see the excerpt below). I also appreciate lovely, relaxing, imagination-stimulating music. The video below is the soundtrack that has been playing in the background as I wrote this week.
Crystalkaleidoscope. “Pachelbel in the Garden (relaxing Music, Sounds of Nature).”YouTube. YouTube, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 20 May 2017.
Pachelbel’s Canon in D is a favourite of mine, so I was delighted to stumble across this music on YouTube this week. It makes great background music, so click play and read on to see what I managed to accomplish this week.
It was another good productive week for me. I finished edits on Better Than She Deserved. I got the print copy of At All Costs finished, proofed, and approved — it is all ready for release day this THURSDAY! [You can get your copy at this link.] 🙂
And then, I managed to almost finish writing the first draft of the story I started last week! It is amazing how just a couple thousand words a day adds up! It appears that it is going to be a short novella, but I never expected it would be very long for a couple of reasons. First, I like LOVE novellas, and I tend to write what I like. Second, it is the first story of this type that I have written, so short seemed a good place to begin my learning journey. (Of course, I might find I like writing these just as short novellas — there is a very good chance that might happen.)
Now, having reached nearly the end of that story, I am faced with the need to design a cover and give it a title. I had given it a name that went well with the idea I had in mind as I began typing words into my document. However, the characters as I got to know them lead me down a different path. So, that title no longer fits the idea of the book. I think I am going to call it His Beautiful Bea because the main element that I took from Mansfield Park when planning this story was to model my heroine after the quiet, reserved Fanny Price. I have tried out a couple of other ideas and my mind keeps coming back to this one.
