Published to YouTube The Alena31 on February 13, 2011.
I was listening to this song last week — watching this video, actually — and it brought to mind Jack and Georgiana’s story. I think you’ll recognize why this story came to mind when you read the chapter I am sharing below. 🙂
Enticing Miss Darcy, Chapter 3
“I am expected?” Jack asked with a surreptitious glance toward Georgiana.
“Not so much expected as hoped for,” Lady Margaret said with a smile. “Now, come sit here, my boy.” She motioned to a chair that was between her and her granddaughter.
“We are always pleased to have you call, Mr. Ralston,” Elizabeth said as she rose to pour the tea.
Jack did not miss the relieved look that passed between Georgiana and Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps not everyone was hoping to see him as much as Lady Margaret implied.
“I am always delighted to be accepted into your drawing room,” he replied. “It is the expected thing for a gentleman to call upon a lady after a soiree, is it not? They have not changed the rules of propriety and politeness on me since last season, have they?”
Lady Margaret chuckled. “They have not.”
“It is lovely of you to have called,” Georgiana added. “Did you enjoy the ball last evening?”
Jack inclined his head indicating that he had enjoyed himself. Calls, even when made at the home of someone whom you knew, were not particularly enjoyable. The conversation was always so stilted – for propriety’s sake and all that nonsense.
“It was a very enjoyable evening, although I did leave with emptier pockets than when I arrived.” His lips quirked up into a half-smirk. “Not that I minded so much. I had every intention of leaving my money with Mrs. Pratt.”
I thought today I would share a recent addition to my Music Meets Movies YouTube playlist. I had never heard this song before coming across this video, but I like it. It’s the sort of song that sparks the imagination, and we all know how I love a song that can do that. Even better is when that sort of song is accompanied by images from various period dramas as it is in this video. 🙂 There’s story inspiration all through this video, I think. I hope you enjoy it and then read on to hear my writing news and to take a peek at what I was writing this week. There are actually a couple of items I would like to have your opinion on if you are willing to give it.
In writing news…
I have begun edits on Confounding Caroline, and the further into it I go, the more assured I am that my instinct to end where I did was a good one. I have also done a bit of brainstorming for the sequel to that story which will probably be called Delighting Mrs. Bennet. My mind is currently working on a couple of questions that arose during my brainstorming, and I hope to find a bit of time this week to start writing that story as my brain continues to work on the questions. For me, sometimes (or is that often 😉 ) the answers are found as the story begins to take shape.
I am also still working on Mr. Darcy’s Comfort and beginning to wonder if it is indeed going to be a Dash of Darcy story or something longer.
I try not to set word count limits for my stories. I like them to go where they naturally want to go. They end where they end. I don’t fluff them up to hit a particular number nor do I cut out scenes to make them fit in a lower range of words.
Here’s my dilemma, and you can tell me what you think. My Dash of Darcy stories, to this point, have been about 25,000 words (some have been just over 26,000) or less. The concept of A Dash of Darcy stories is for them to be quick reads that fit into busy lives and for people like me who absolutely love novellas. If I wish to put Mr. Darcy’s Comfort in that collection, I may have to extend that upper limit. But that wouldn’t be such a bad thing though, right? Five or ten thousand more words would not make them too long to be a quick read that fits into a busy life, right? I’d love to hear your opinion on this.
Speaking of books in the Dash of Darcy series, they often have companion books and one of those sorts of books just released this past Thursday!
Enticing Miss Darcy is now published!And the first few reviews have been great! Thank you for that. After reading one review that listed Unravelling Mr. Darcy, Becoming Entangled, and Enticing Miss Darcy in order for other readers, I did make a change to the “series” title on these books. Normally, I just list them as either A Dash of Darcy or A Dash of Darcy Companion Story on the retail sites. However, I had worried about readers being able to easily find all three books, and that review let me know that that worry was probably founded in a real need. So, they are now listed as Unravelled, Entangled, and Enticed: A Dash of Darcy and Companions Trilogy and each book is numbered.
Another reader on Facebook asked if I was going to do A Dash of Darcy Companion Duos like I do with the Dash of Darcy stories.
I’d like to hear how you feel about book bundles. Do you think a book should only be “packaged” in a bundle once or would you be fine with the book being in a number of bundles as long as the bundle clearly states which books are contained in that bundle? The reason I ask is because I am thinking of doing some various collections just to offer a greater selection of purchasing options to readers. Frankly, I love a bargain and think book bundles are awesome since I can usually save a few dollars, and I like having options. However, I would like to hear other thoughts on it as well.
Here in Nova Scotia, it is March Break, so this week, I will get a reprieve from homeschooling, and my husband will be home more. However, it will still be a full week, so I decided we should start it with a calm and lovely piece of music that I first discovered while randomly listening to “more like this” songs on Spotify. (I enjoy discovering new songs that way.)
Let’s first cover a couple of things that are happening this week on Tuesday and Thursday which you might want to know about.
Tuesday, I will be at Austen Authors.
Thursday, March 15, 2018, is release day for this book! (It is on pre-order right now.)
Now on to an update about what I did in my writing time this past week.
I worked on getting things ready for the release of Enticing Miss Darcy rather than editing since I did not have a completed manuscript begging for my attention.
However, as of Friday, it seems that has changed, and I now have a story needing first round edits. You see, I have been waffling on what to do with Confounding Caroline. I felt like it was coming to an end as I have been writing on it the past few Fridays. But, I felt conflicted since it is not ending with an HEA ending but rather an HFN (Happy For Now) ending. No matter how I tried to not let that be true, it did not feel right for the story to introduce a new quest or goal for my main character. So, I allowed it to end — very sweetly and with the idea that there will be a story to follow. Therefore, I will be spending what editing time I have this week analyzing the story structure and beginning to reread, and I will be brainstorming how the next story (Delighting Mrs. Bennet) is going to progress. The final post for Confounding Caroline is currently scheduled for April 12th, and then, I will likely take a week or two break before starting to post the next story. This will give me time to actually get that story started and be enough of a distance into it to feel settled in the plot. That’s the “big” WIP news for the week, but it was not the only WIP I was working on.
I have gotten to chapter 6 in Mr. Darcy’s Comfort. Chapters 1-4 have been posted at Patreon, and chapter 5 will go up early this week. It has been taking me longer than two writing sessions to get each of these chapters done. I have really felt “bottlenecked”– as if something has been holding me back, and I suspect that it was making that decision about Confounding Caroline because there was a sense of relief once I finished writing Friday night (well early Saturday morning 🙂 ). Hopefully, this relief will translate to quicker writing, but it is March Break, so all bets are off as I will be spending time with my husband (and kids).
As I was writing Mr. Darcy’s Comfort this week, I moved from the melancholy tone that the story has had to this point to a more hopeful tone. A new character was introduced at Rosings — Mr. Collins :), and I have just returned to Longbourn to check in on Elizabeth before Darcy returns to the area. The excerpt below is part of what I wrote in Thursday’s writing session and is where I will be picking up the story tonight when I sit down to write.
This week as I was writing, I shared this video with my Dash of Darcy Readers group on Facebook and told them that it might just be the song I shared on Monday on my blog. And here it is. 🙂 Along with this video, I shared the following line from what I had been writing that evening:
“I could never forget you, even without these things,” he said to Anne. “You will always be in my heart. I may not have loved you as well as I should have, but I did love you.” [Doesn’t it go well with the song?]
I’m not sharing the scene in which you will find that line today. Instead, I am sharing the scene that follows immediately after it. However, that scene starts on a similar melancholy note. So, the song choice still seems to fit well.
But first, I must update you on the release of Enticing Miss Darcy. I have just uploaded the ebook files and set a release date of March 15, 2018. I made the decision to push the date out a week because there are some things I would like to do before the book releases and rushing it just to hit the deadline I had set was not going to be conducive to getting those things done. [And my back is doing better. It’s not 100% yet, but it is much improved. I have also figured out how to get work things done with some modifications. 😉 Now, I ‘m just trying to play catch up.]
Today’s musical selection is a cover of John Legend’s “All of Me” which I added to my Music to Write By playlists this week both on Spotify and YouTube. I’ve had one of those two playlists running this week as I was writing, and I did get a good bit of writing time in as well as some editing time.
However, it was not as much as I hoped for since I spent time doing some other necessary things, and they took longer than I expected. I have also been a bit less productive since I did something (I have no idea what) to my lower back/hip which has just made things a bit more challenging. However, I think I have some things figured out as far as position changes and such which will help. And the discomfort is very manageable at present, so that is very good. It has also impressed upon me the need to change positions more than I normally do (because I get into my work and forget — there is no forgetting with this 😉 ) So that is good as well.
Anyway, you are not here to hear about my back. 🙂 You are here to hear about my writing news and to read an excerpt — Yes! I have one this week!
I do not have too much news on the writing front to share.
The Kobo promotions end today. If you haven’t heard about them you can check out this Friday Feature post.
I have begun final edits on Enticing Miss Darcy, and I have started to post that story at darcyandlizzy.com. I still expect it to be ready in, at least, ebook format by March 6 if this week goes well. If this week is as slow as last week, that publication date might end up being one week later.
I have reached the end of chapter 3 (or about 8,000 words) in my current work in progress. This one will be the first Dash of Darcy story for 2018 and is called Mr. Darcy’s Comfort. Since I am happy with what I have written so far, I thought I would begin sharing from it today.
Chapter 1 has been posted for my Patrons to read, and Chapter 2 should be posted there either tonight or tomorrow during writing time. The sample below is from the end Chapter 2 and drops us into the middle of a sisterly conversation. This portion of the story is set at Netherfield while Jane is ill.
