MM: Persuasion – It is You I Have Loved (Dana Glover)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY KAVI P ON APRIL 26, 2011.

I selected this video to pair with a chapter of His Irreplaceable Belle, which publishes tomorrow, because that Touches of Austen story contains touches of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

You can preorder His Irreplaceable Belle here.

His Irreplaceable Belle, Chapter 3

The late afternoon sun felt wonderful and warming as Fritz turned his face towards it. The brightness that filtered through his eyelids was restorative. It had always drawn him forward from his often deep ponderings with a cheerfulness that was unparalleled by anything else, save for the smile of a particular lady.

However, he was not sitting in the garden to think about Belle. He was here to clear his mind and turn it towards the task at hand – finding a wife who was not Belle.

He drew a deep breath and released it. But neither the freshness of the spring air nor the intensity of the sun could chase away the dark shadow of sadness that passed across his heart at the thought.

“Mr. Norman.”

Fritz straightened himself and opened his eyes. “Mrs. Blakesley.” He stood.

“Please call me Grace. I think we will be good enough friends for such familiarity.” Grace Blakesley took a seat on the bench next to where Fritz had been leaning backward and enjoying the sunshine. “My husband does not mind if you call me by my Christian name, do you, Walter?”

Walter Blakesley chuckled as he shook his head. Was there a happier man in all of Bath? Fritz was certain he had not seen one – not even Mr. Clayton and Mr. Shelton, who were each, without a doubt, happily and contentedly married and awaiting the arrival of a child, shone quite like Blakesley did. Joy effused every part of Blakesley’s person.

“You may call my wife whatever she wishes for you to call her.”

“I hate to disappoint your wife, but I may have to insist upon Mrs. Blakesley,” Fritz said. “I assume you will not be discharging me as your physician, Blakesley, will you be?”

Blakesley guffawed. “And give up the best physician in Bath? I think not!”

A rather grumbly part of Fritz’s mind wished that people would stop referring to him as the best physician.

“Then, I assume you will also call on me if Mrs. Blakesley should ever be in need of care?”

“Of course.” The answer was given without a moment’s pause.

“In that case, Mrs. Blakesley, I will have to insist upon calling you Mrs. Blakesley. It would be too improper for us to be on friendlier terms.”

Mrs. Blakesley scowled. “I do not see why it should be considered improper.”

“There are many strictures which might seem ridiculous and yet we must abide by them. I would not wish to be thought of as unprofessional or lacking in decorum in any fashion.”

Mrs. Blakesley’s eyes grew wide. “Oh, yes, right. I completely understand.” She paused to peek at her husband who had finally taken a seat next to her rather than standing and surveying their surroundings.

The man was incurably curious.

“Mrs. Blakesley is a lovely name,” his friend’s wife said happily. “I quite like it.”

“I am glad to hear it,” Blakesley said.

“As am I,” Fritz inserted before the two with him forgot he was there.

Continue reading MM: Persuasion – It is You I Have Loved (Dana Glover)

TSB: Book News and Exercising at Home Regency Style

Oh, my! This has been a busy, busy week. Not much writing got done, but a lot of other tasks did. I’ll tell you more about that below, as well as about the books I have on sale, the book I have on preorder, and a little bit about a piece of exercise equipment that is mentioned in His Irreplaceable Belle. Ready to find out about all that? Here we go…

Writing News

This week, I wrote one chapter of Her Convenient Forever. That’s all I have gotten written so far this week. I hope to maybe have time to at least start a chapter of Protecting Miss Darcy later today, but we’ll see if there is time for that or not. Below is an excerpt from near the end of the chapter I wrote. The Loves have just arrived at Grenwood Hall to take a tour, and Mrs. Love is quite excited for the opportunity. (Little does she know just how eventful this tour will be — but I haven’t written that part yet, nor am I going to share that little secret.) 

“I thought that we could start our tour in the drawing room with a glass of lemonade and a biscuit if youwish.”

“I just ate something on the way here,” Felicity admitted softly. It was not something she would have admitted to just anyone, but Mr. Hedrington had not judged her harshly for being with child. Therefore, she suspected he would not care one bit if she had consumed a full meal while travelling the few miles from their cottage to his home. “However, I would not turn down a glass of lemonade.”

“Then, we shall have lemonade and save the biscuits for later.” He paused before he reached the door. “Did you get a good look at the façade? It is quite grand is it not?”

“It is lovely, simply lovely,” Felicity’s mother cried. “Mrs. Adams – do you know her?”

“I do,” Mr. Hedrington said.

“Mrs. Adams told me that the house and grounds were well proportioned, and she was right. Oh!” One of her hands rested just above her heart. “It is delightfully proportioned. Even spacing on the windows and each matching the other. The symmetry is exactly as it should be.”

Continue reading TSB: Book News and Exercising at Home Regency Style

Music Monday: Innocent Heart (Brian Crain)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY BRIAN CRAIN ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2016.

I decided to revisit a favorite artist for this week’s song selection. If you are a Spotify listener as I am, you can find this song there at this link.

Today, I am pairing this song with a story where I would say the heroine has a very innocent heart. It is a heart that is not looking in the right place for its forever love, but the guy sitting next to her and attempting to help her catch the attention of her crush and his brother will make certain by the end of the story that her heart finds its true home.

The story I am talking about is His Beautiful Bea, which is the first book in my Touches of Austen series, and the innocent heart belongs to Beatrice Tierney.

Important note: This book is currently on sale for $0.99 but ONLY until today. At some point tomorrow, that price will be going up!

If you have been reading my Sweet Tuesday stories, I think you will recognize a name or two in this chapter.

His Beautiful Bea, Chapter 2

Touches of Austen Book 1

“You are a fair sight to see,” Max said later that afternoon as he plopped down next to his sister on a couch in Stratsbury’s drawing room. He flicked her book. “You’ve not finished it yet?” he queried. “I half expected you to be ready to peruse the library before we leave today, but you have more than half the book left to read.”

Bea smiled at her brother. He was not a great reader. He preferred being out of doors and doing things to sitting and reading.

“I promise I shall not disappoint you,” she replied. “I have completed my book of poetry and would like to replace it. Sir Herbert has already promised me that I might. Will you help me choose a new book?”

Max shook his head and laughed. “Not likely. My knowledge of poetry is limited.” He stretched out his arms, resting them on the back of the sofa with one wrapped around her shoulders. “I know a few poets and poems, but not a vast array. You would be better to ask Everett or even Graeme. They would know more.”

“Then if I require assistance, my dear brother, I will ask one of them and not you.”

Continue reading Music Monday: Innocent Heart (Brian Crain)

The Saturday Broadsheet for February 1, 2020

^^That’s not the most creative title, is it? 🙂 I was running low on creativity when it came time to create this blog post. The clock just rolled past midnight here — which means it is now Saturday in Nova Scotia as I write this. I’m pretty sure that has a lot to do with why my creativity is running low.

Writing News

This week, with the help of a friend, I managed to add another chapter to both His Irreplaceable Belle and Marrying Elizabeth book 5. These chapters were not easy ones for me to write — not because the content of them was challenging but because I felt stuck, which, I think, happens at least once with every story. There were a few questions I needed to answer before moving on. This is where my very patient friend, Zoe Burton, helped me by being a sounding board when I needed to talk through some details. She also helped me come up with a possible title out of a long list of options for Marrying Elizabeth book 5.

No, I have not yet started that third writing project. Maybe I’ll get some planning done this coming week? Maybe. 🙂

Publishing News

There’s nothing new here. Just a reminder that Her Secret Beau is now available in the Kindle store for purchase or to read with your Kindle Unlimited subscription if you have one of those. 

Book Promotions

Listen to Your Heart (ebook edition) will be $0.99 from February 1-15, 2020.
This sale is across all sales channels and in all regions of the world with all currencies being reduced.
Continue reading The Saturday Broadsheet for February 1, 2020

And the Answer is… 📇 Survey Results and So Much More

In this edition of The Saturday Broadsheet: The January Kobo promo is running. I’ve got some writing decisions to make. And do you like giveaways? (If so, I’ve included something extra for last. 🙂 )

Writing News

This week, I added another chapter to both His Irreplaceable Belle and Marrying Elizabeth book 5

Last week when I wrote this email, I mentioned I hoped to get a chapter of His Irreplaceable Belle written after I completed writing the email. I am happy to report that I did get that chapter done. 

Also in last week’s Saturday Broadsheet, I asked for input about what I should consider writing next. (Only) 25 readers replied and I have those results below. According to the chart, it looks like a Darcy Family Holidays story could be what I work on next. However, the Teatime Tales story option is a rather close second in these results. Poor James Atwood will have to wait for his tale to be told until a bit later this year.

  Publishing News

Her Secret Beau is now available in the Kindle store for purchase or to read with your Kindle Unlimited subscription if you have one of those. 

Book Promotions

As I posted yesterday, I have three box sets included in a 40% off promotion at Kobo until January 27, 2020. [𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 16 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘴.] You must use the 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙙𝙚 𝙅𝘼𝙉𝘽𝙊𝙓 at checkout to get 40% off. You can find these three box sets at these links:

Dash of Darcy and Companions Cottage Collection 1 https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/a-dash-of-darcy-and-companions-cottage-collection-1


Dash of Darcy and Companions Cottage Collection 2 https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/a-dash-of-darcy-and-companions-cottage-collection-2


Darcy And… A Pride and Prejudice Variations Collection https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/darcy-and

I’m planning to do a few book promotions this year as part of working towards the business goals I have made my focus for 2020. Because of this, I have added a menu item (under the Leenie B Books option) here on the blog to keep track of the current promotions.

FYI: If you are a subscriber to my mailing list, you’ll often get early notice of upcoming sales — there is one coming up that I told my subscribers about, but I am not planning to release those details here until the promotions begin.

Book Review

Of course, I had to go with a review for Her Secret Beau since that book just released this week. 🙂  According to Amazon.com, this is the newest review on this book. Several have been posted already, which is exciting. At the time of my writing this post (Friday night), I think I have used all of the other reviews as posts on social media except for this one. I’m really trying not to miss any of the first reviews.

Back to the above review. Here are three things I love about this review:  

First, I really like the description of the books being perfect for a cold wintry (or rainy) afternoon. Like many of my books, these are on the shorter side of things. Her Secret Beau came in at 46,761 words which is the longest book to date in this series. The first two books, His Beautiful Bea and His Darling Friend were 22,402 and 32,221 words each respectively. 🙂 So if the trend continues, will the next one be over 50,000 words? 😀 Probably not, but one never knows.

Second, the review is very correct in saying that this is not a Jane Austen Fan Fiction story. They are original sweet Regency romances that happen to be written by an author who loves Jane Austen and has chosen to create a few characters and plot elements that nod to Miss Austen’s works. (I like the game aspect of weaving in those little hints of Austen and hoping that readers will have as much fun finding them as I did putting them in there. If I remember correctly, J.W. Garrett included some of these nods in her review.) 

Third, I’m glad this reviewer added that the plotline with Felicity is not wrapped up. This is an intentional “open loop” because that speed bump is scheduled to become a weaving, winding road of its own when I write Felicity’s story. I plan to get to her story as soon as I am done writing Mr. Norman’s story. (For those who have not read Her Secret Beau yet, Mr. Norman is a substantial secondary character in this book. And, also, what are you waiting for? LOL) 

These are all awesome things that give readers, who are deciding on whether or not to read this book, a few more details about what to expect and should help them make a well-informed decision. 

Are they looking for a nice long read? Or a quick read? 
Are they hoping for a retelling or variation of a Jane Austen book? Or something that is more Austenesque?
Are they really into reading series where there are some things left unresolved in one book and then picked up in another? Or do they prefer everything to be firmly finished in every book? 

This review will help them answer these questions, and that is wonderful. 

Thank you so much, AvidReaders for reading and reviewing Her Secret Beau

Something Extra for Last

My Book Cave Ereader/$50 Gift Card Giveaway

I have used My Book Cave to promote some of my book sales in 2019, and I intend to keep using them in 2020. In fact, I currently have a promotion scheduled with them. Anyway, they send me emails about promotion opportunities on a regular basis. Sometimes I read those emails, and sometimes I don’t. 🙂 Today, I read the email and found this lovely little tidbit. 

They are giving away a Nook or Kindle ereader or a $50 dollar gift card to iTunes, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon every month in 2020 unless you are outside of the US or Canada. International winners will receive the gift card option. You can enter to win at this link:

https://mybookcave.com/giveaways/ereader/


There is a spot to check if you want to join their mailing list, but if you read below that, it is not required and does not impact your chances of winning. I looked for this because I did not want to send you something with strings attached. 


That is it for this week. Have a lovely weekend! I’ll be back on Monday with some music and a story excerpt.

~*~*~

Leenie B Books
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