PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY YIRUMA ON DECEMBER 11, 2020
Happy Holidays to you all!
I hope your Christmas is merry and the new year is happy.
Thank you for following my blog this past year. I look forward to spending 2021 with you as well.
Love,
Leenie
P.S. In case you haven’t heard, One Winter’s Eve is on sale for only $0.99 until Tuesday.
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.
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:
Continue reading Music Monday: Winter Wonderland (Bing Crosby)PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY PETER HOLLENS ON DECEMBER 14, 2014.
Christmas is almost here at the Brown residence. It won’t be an elaborate day of festivities. We tend to take a low key approach to the holiday. There will be presents — just a few, but not many — which we will unwrap once we ease our way into the day at a rather late hour. This will be followed by a Christmas breakfast with far too many indulgent items, and then later in the day, we will have a turkey dinner. It’s a lovely, relaxing day of rest for us — unless, of course, my husband has a job which must be completed when businesses are closed.
(He owns a cleaning business, and I have sat reading a book in the car as I waited for him to put a coat of wax on a floor before taking a drive to look at the Christmas lights while that coat of wax dries. Then, he’ll slip in another coat before we head home.)
For the next couple of weeks, I am intending to take it a bit easier than I normally do. I will still be writing and editing and such but at a more relaxed pace.
Continue reading Music Monday: Angels from the Realms of Glory – The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens and David ArchuletaI just added this song to my ‘Tis the Season playlist either last week or the week before. I’ve been doing a lot of listening to Christmas music while working lately, and this song is just so happy. It makes me want to sing along (which is only possible if doing things that don’t require concentration. I have a ‘Tis the Season instrumental playlist for that.) 🙂
PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY THOMAS RHETT ON NOVEMBER 19, 2019
This past week, I was busy getting First Blooms and Second Chances ready to send out and to publish, so there were several tasks that did not require the kind of concentration that writing does. Therefore, I did sing along with this song and many others.
(Waiting for the print previewer to open in Kindle Direct Publishing takes forever — usually more than one song and often long enough to switch over laundry 😉 )
Most of the publishing details for both the print and ebook versions of First Blooms have been completed. The print version just went live today (I am writing this on Saturday) I just need to submit a request to have the two versions linked on Amazon and to have a series page created since there are now two books in my Nature’s Fury and Delights series.
If you subscribe to my mailing list, make sure you check your inbox. You should have an email containing a link to download a free copy of First Blooms and Second Chances. If you are not on my mailing list, you can subscribe between now and January 2, 2020, and receive this book as part of your welcome gift.
Things are winding down on the frantic get-these-projects published front. I just have Her Secret Beau to work on soon. That book will publish in the new year.
I have not, however, gotten the next book in that series (Mr. Norman’s story) started as I had hoped. Maybe this week? Maybe next? Sometime soon that book needs to be started as I hope to begin posting chapters on Tuesdays shortly after the new year. (However, I also need to do some Christmas stuff. 🙂 So, my workdays will be fewer in number.)
I did get one more chapter of Kitty’s story written this week, which puts me at eight completed chapters and probably in a safe place to start giving some of my writing time to Mr. Norman’s story.
The only other writing-related note for this week is that it is my turn to post at Austen Authors this week, and I am sharing some samples from a few books — First Blooms and the three books I have on sale. (In case you missed it, I shared chapter one of Two Days before Christmas here on the blog on Friday.
Today, I think I will share chapter one from the second book in the Darcy Family Holidays series, One Winter’s Eve. (And the song choice kind of goes with the story — in a squint your eyes and don’t look too closely kind of way — since Caroline does find herself in the country for Christmas. 🙂 )
CHAPTER 1
Continue reading Music Monday: Christmas in the County (Thomas Rhett)Welcome to the month of December! The last month of the year! Can you believe it?
Since it is December, I am going to be posting Christmas songs all month long. Here’s the first one. I did pick this one for a specific reason.
On Thursday, I am going to be posting the first chapter of a Touches of Austen novelette called Frosted Windowpanes and every time I go to open that document, this song pops into my head because of frosted windowpanes line. 🙂
Frosted Windowpanes is one of the novelettes in this collection:
I am currently working on final edits for Mary: To Protect Her Heart because I have to have the final document uploaded to Amazon by Thursday, but after that is done, I will be doing final edits on this Nature’s Fury and Delights collection.
I wrote this book with a specific purpose. Even though it will be published, it’s a gift, first and foremost. I attempt to write a book to give to my mailing list each year. So far, I have succeeded three years in a row if you count this year. 🙂
I’ll mention this again on Thursday, but I’m not just giving the book to those who are currently on my mailing list, I am extending it to anyone who wishes to join that list before the end of December. I know not everyone is a mailing list sort of person. There are some who would rather purchase the book. (I know because that’s me. I’d rather buy. 🙂 Is it ok to admit that?)
For those interested in signing up to my mailing list, there is a link at the bottom of this post in the signature area where my Leenie B Books logo is.
In other news — one week from today, Mary: To Protect Her Heart will be live on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited. I just put Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy, Charles: To Discover His Purpose, and His Beautiful Bea into Kindle Unlimited. I’m a bit excited and nervous to see how this Kindle Unlimited experience goes.
For those who don’t know, Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service provided by Amazon. A reader pays a certain amount of money per month and can then borrow and read books that are part of the program. I don’t know much more about how it works as a reader since I am not a member of the program.
For the author of the book, being in the KU program means that his or her content is exclusively distributed through Amazon. It can be purchased just as any other book can be with the author receiving a royalty (35% or 70% depending on pricing), but it can also be borrowed with the author receiving a fraction of a cent per page read.
One of the last numbers I saw for how much was being paid per page was something like $0.004. That means a reader must read at least 3 pages before an author earns a penny.
Let’s say my book is short and only 90 pages long (because that is an easy number to work with in calculating this). If I am earning approximately a penny for every three pages read, I would receive about 30 cents for a complete read of that 90-page book.
That same book if it were sold for say $2.99 (the lowest allowed price for a 70% royalty payout), the author would receive about $2 for that book. That’s a big difference, isn’t it? Kindle Unlimited works best for long books because they have lots of pages or for books that are read by tons of people (more people than would normally purchase a book).
Since I write books on the shorter side, I’m a bit nervous about how much money these books will make. (This is a business after all. A business based on a passion, but a business none-the-less.)
My hope in putting these books in KU is to attract more readers to a series of stories that are not Pride and Prejudice based and that do not star Darcy and Elizabeth. It’s just easier to take a chance on a book when you’re borrowing and not seeing the money go out when you click on the book to read. (You’re still paying for the book with your subscription, but it feels free.)
If this experiment goes well, then I might be putting other books in the program. Time and statistics will tell.
I do not have a story excerpt for you again this week. I have been spending more time editing than writing. I’d say maybe next week, but I won’t bank on it. This week will have lots of editing time as well.
Have a great week. I hope you join me on Thursday for that first chapter of Frosted Windowpanes.
~*~*~
KOBO AMAZON NOOK IBOOKS MAILING LIST PATREON SOCIETY6
