Tag: Leenie B Books

Music Monday: Period Drama, Once Upon a December

Welcome to December — the month in Pride and Prejudice where, in volumes I and II, Netherfield sits empty, Mr. Collins returns to Longbourn for a short visit, Jane receives Caroline’s letter about Bingley not returning, and the Gardiners come for Christmas and leave with Jane. What a dreadful month! But then, what a difference a year makes! For in volume III, all is right by December, making it an exceedingly happy month. In fact, the Gardiners are expected at Pemberley for Christmas.

lilian hearts. “• Period Drama | Once Upon a December ♡.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 June 2015, youtu.be/_SLyhgk6fp4.

I’ve been stuck in the month of December for some time now, writing-wise. Two Days before Christmas (TDBC), which I began writing on October 24, takes place in December.  It begins with Darcy’s arrival at home at the end of November and concludes on December 23. The sequel to TDBC, One Winter’s Eve (OWE), begins on December 23 and will conclude in January. However, I am still in December in that story, and I do not see me finishing the first draft of that story for another week and a half or two weeks — and then I will have to edit that book. By the time all is said and done for these two books, it will likely be halfway through January 2018, meaning I will have been in December for almost three months! 🙂  But I have to say, my stay in writing-land December has not been dreadful but, for the most part aside from a few misty-eyed moments, exceedingly delightful!

Starting today, I will be working feverishly on final edits to TDBC because my timeline for accomplishing tasks for that book has adjusted forward by an email I received from Draft2Digital, whom I use to publish on iBooks and Nook, informing me that to ensure books are processed before various companies shut down for the holidays, all books should be uploaded by December 11! Yikes!

Therefore, I hope to have a preorder setup with a final ebook version of the story uploaded by December 11 for Draft2Digital and by December 12 for Kindle and Kobo. Then, I will work on the print book to get it uploaded, proofed, and ready to release before December 21. Here’s hoping all goes according to plan! 🙂 (And I suppose I need to toss some finishing up school units and preparing for Christmas in there as well — I am going to be one busy girl!)

I may have to take a pause in writing OWE to get the editing done that needs doing this week, but I am hopeful that I will be able to continue rolling along in that story. It has been keeping me up at night as possible scenarios for dealing with a couple of “issues,” aka plot points like Wickham, have been attempting to work themselves out in my brain. However, I am enjoying the story. Colonel Fitzwilliam is pretty awesome — as always — and I am liking (yes, I said liking) Caroline. Getting to know the characters as I wish to portray them is one of the fun parts of a challenging couple such as this — it is also the source of the story-induced lack of sleep as the actions and decisions in the story have to be true to the characters who are revealing themselves to me as I write.

Below, is a lengthy portion from what I wrote this week. In this excerpt, Richard has also been attempting to discover Caroline’s character. He thinks he has reached a correct conclusion. Caroline insists he is mistaken. But who is right — the colonel (and Caroline needs to discover some things about herself) or Caroline (and Richard will have to form a new hypothesis)?

AN EXCERPT FROM One Winter’s Eve:  Continue reading Music Monday: Period Drama, Once Upon a December


Music Monday: What Kinda Love, Dallas Smith

What kind of love is this story going to have? What is it going to look like? How is it going to develop and be realized? How is it going to be demonstrated? Those are questions I and my characters often wrestle with I’m writing — such as we were this past week and will continue to do this next week. To be honest, my current work in progress, One Winter’s Eve, is pushing me a little more in this area than some do because this is not an easy couple. They shouldn’t really like each other, but they seem to. I really do wonder at this point in the story, what kind of love this one is going to be (which is what led me to share the song below 🙂 )

DallasSmithVEVO. “Dallas Smith – What Kinda Love.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Feb. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=csE5oAoDjow.

I’m going to share a little bit of Richard and Caroline’s relationship in the excerpt at the end of this post, but first I have some other writing news to share.

First and most importantly — This book goes “live” tomorrow!

Becoming Entangled can be preordered today and ordered tomorrow HERE.

The release day of any book is rather exciting because finally, the story gets to be enjoyed by others. Hopefully, Anne and Alistair will find many readers to enjoy their fun journey to happily ever after.  I know I loved writing their story and wanted to just stay there with them at the end of the book.

Next in excitement level on the writing list is the fact that Two Days before Christmas is out of my hands and into the hands of my first editor. That book will be out in December — and I have a kind of exciting plan for it, which I can’t tell you about yet.  🙂 Keeping exciting secrets is so hard! 🙂

I think that’s all the news I have, which means, we can now get to that story excerpt I told you I would share.

AN EXCERPT FROM One Winter’s Eve:  Continue reading Music Monday: What Kinda Love, Dallas Smith


Music Monday: Period Drama – Love Is A Battlefield

We are stepping back into the early Eighties for today’s musical selection, which someone has used to create a great period drama video with loads of dramas represented.  There is a”story” reason I selected this song today. However, before I get to that reason, let me give you an update on a couple of upcoming books.

Sossery. “Period Drama – Love Is A Battlefield.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Oct. 2012, youtu.be/fT67IfffM1w.
  • Becoming Entangled:

I have gotten the files uploaded to various digital retailers and one by one, they are putting the book on preorder as I am working on creating the print copy.  Release day is scheduled for November 28, 2017. Yes, I did decide to push the date out instead of trying to rush to keep my original date.

One of the things I had to do this week to get this ready was finish writing the “blurb,” aka the book description. Here is how that turned out:

Click image to find Becoming Entangled at your favourite store.

Can she scheme her way out of one betrothal and into another?

Anne de Bourgh wishes to dance until she is dizzy, walk until she is tired, and marry a particular gentleman who causes her heart to skitter and skip and flutter.  There is, however, one thing that stands between Anne and her aspirations — her mother.  

Nevertheless, when a young lady is determined, things such as a mother’s restraints and a long-standing betrothal are merely impediments to be circumvented.

Practical and cautious, Alistair Pratt is smitten with Anne and has been patiently biding his time until he can make his intentions known.  However, with his mother’s desire to see him married increasing, Alistair, when presented with a scandalous plan, throws caution to the wind to secure his love. 

But,  the course of true love never did run smooth.

When a gentleman with a grudge discovers the lover’s plans, things become tangled and twisted. Will a love that was meant to be find its happy conclusion, or will it end up as only a tale of what could have been?

One more thing about Becoming Entangled — It will be featured in my Austen Authors post this Tuesday (as in tomorrow). I have created some graphics about some of the research I did for this project, and I am including an excerpt and a giveaway with my post.

  • Two Days before Christmas: I have reached “the end” of the first draft and have begun working my way through it checking the story and catching a few typos and errors along the way before I send it to my story editor and then start the real detailed editing work.  I am still hopeful that this book will be out by December 19th.  It’s going to be a busy month!

And that brings me to One Winter’s Eve, the story that has slipped into my writing block of time which was left open by the completion of Two Days before Christmas (TDBC). TDBC hinted at a sequel as I was writing it, and I have decided to explore that idea and see where it takes me.  So far, it looks like I have a fight or is that battle on my hands.  😉 Do you see the song title connection? If not, I am pretty sure you will by the end of the last paragraph of this —

AN EXCERPT FROM One Winter’s Eve: 
Continue reading Music Monday: Period Drama – Love Is A Battlefield


Music Monday: Waiting for Christmas to Come, Johnny Reid

Last week, I mentioned that I have begun working on a story called Two Days before Christmas. Because this is a Christmas story, I have been listening to some “inspirational” music to get me thinking Christmasy thoughts.  The song below is one of those songs that makes me want to get out the decorations or bake some Christmas cake.  But, I don’t want to talk about that story in this post — although I will share an excerpt. No, today, I want to ask you a question.

JohnnyReidVEVO. “Johnny Reid – Waiting For Christmas To Come.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Dec. 2009, youtu.be/wT9mJTYq-P8.

Do you ever judge a book by its title? This is a question I have been thinking about this past week. You see, I have a book coming out this Thursday. You’re probably familiar with the story if you have been reading my blog because the book’s title is With the Colonel’s Help, the story that just finished posting on Thursday’s a few weeks ago.  We’ve now begun a new story titled Confounding Caroline.

Here’s why that book coming out and the new story that has started posting has me wondering if people judge a book by its title.  My first reader, who happens to be my sister and the Jane to my Lizzy, asked me during our conference call where she told me about things she thought needed some attention — “Do you think people will pass over this story because of the title? Will they think it is a story about Colonel Fitzwilliam and not Darcy?”

She knows, from what I have told her about my sales figures, that Darcy and Elizabeth stories usually sell much better than any of my other stories.  Darcy’s a favourite — which is understandable. He’s Darcy, after all. So, she has a point — she usually does. (She tends to be the annoyingly correct older sister at times 🙂 )

Adding to worry her question created, I read a comment somewhere from someone who saw a post about With the Colonel’s Help that said the person doesn’t normally read stories about the colonel.  Hmmm… My worry may be well-founded. 🙂

There is a trend to give stories titles with Darcy in them, or so it appears from the number of titles that show up with that name in them when you do a quick search. Again, titles with Darcy in them tend to sell better from what I have observed and been told. (He’s a favourite. 🙂 )

It’s not my practice to include Darcy in a title unless that book is one of my Dash of Darcy book. For those books, I require myself to include Mr. or Mrs. Darcy in the title because I want the connection between book and collection to be clear.

But normally, I choose a title that contains a theme of some sort or highlights something important to the story.  For example, the title With the Colonel’s Help lets the reader know that Colonel Fitzwilliam is instrumental in the story.  He is actually the hero — not the romantic hero, that role is filled by Darcy, but the person who brings about the happy conclusion for Darcy and Elizabeth.  Likewise, the title Confounding Caroline should let the readers know that Caroline is a problem that needs solving.

It might be of interest to note that even with my Dash of Darcy titles, I still have a theme referenced in them such as unravelling a character’s uptight manner or waking up to who someone is.

It’s important to me, as a writer, that my titles have a meaning, which is why I have chosen to keep With the Colonel’s Help as a title. Hopefully, when the book comes out, I will find out that I have worried for absolutely no reason.  🙂

Those are a few of my thoughts on why I name stories as I do.   What I would now like to know is what you think about titles. Just drop your opinion in the comment section.

But, before we get to that, I suppose you would like an excerpt from what I wrote this past week? In fact, I am going to share everything I wrote this week because I only managed to get in one writing session — yes, one! It was a very low writing week for me! I was editing With the Colonel’s Help and getting that ready to publish, and I had an Austen Author’s post to get ready as well. My day on Austen Authors is tomorrow! I’ve got a different sort of giveaway going on, so drop by to see what that’s about. But thankfully, I still have the excerpt below to share with you.

AN EXCERPT FROM Two Days before Christmas: 
Continue reading Music Monday: Waiting for Christmas to Come, Johnny Reid