Tag: Music Monday

Music Monday: Rescue, Hunter Hayes

Today, I am sharing a video but not just because of the music (which is excellent). Rather, I am sharing it because of what is happening in the background while the music is being played.  You’ll have to watch to see what I am talking about.  (I find it fascinating to watch artists do this sort of thing.)  However, don’t get so caught up in the moment that you forget to keep scrolling after the video is over and miss the writing news and story excerpt I am including.  🙂

hunterhayes. “Hunter Hayes – Rescue (Official Music Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 29 June 2017.

As expected, this week was a slightly lower productivity week for me as I took time out to take a day trip to Fort Anne and Port-Royal National Historic sites (pictured below) with my husband and boys.

But in spite of this full day break from my normal routine and an evening spent out and about with my husband, I did manage to get some work done.

Here’s what I accomplished:

  • I came very close to finishing the first pass edits of Unravelling Mr. Darcy, so that should get sent to my first reader this week.
  • I wrote my post for Austen Authors for this Tuesday, which includes an excerpt of Henry’s story and a giveaway.
  • I bundled And Then Love, The Tenant’s Guest, So Very Unexpected, and At All Costs into a one book Willow Hall Romance collection and have uploaded it to Kindle at a special sales price (USD 3.99).  I will be uploading it to my various other vendors over the course of this week, but the special price is only on the Kindle edition and only available until September 5, 2017.
  • AND I added about 3,000 words to my work in progress — Confounding Caroline, which will become the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story once October gets here and from which I am sharing an excerpt below.

EXCERPT FROM Confounding Caroline:  Continue reading Music Monday: Rescue, Hunter Hayes


Music Monday: She’s More, Pride and Prejudice

Today, I thought I would share the last video that I added to my Music Meets Movies YouTube playlist today.  Now, I like country music — the newer style stuff, the stuff that is less “twangy,” — but this video was just so enjoyable and the song lyrics are just story-inspiring (IMO) that I couldn’t resist adding it to my list. So give it a listen and read on to see what is happening in my writing life.

wantingyounear. “Pride and Prejudice – She’s More.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Apr. 2008, youtu.be/LNiXUFSqexk.

This past week was a tad on the frustrating side as far as getting work done. There were a number of things that “popped up” and demanded attention. Some of which were really fun like the Thursday evening supper out and drive to Peggy’s Cove at sunset with my husband followed by an after-dark walk along the Halifax Waterfront. Others were not as enjoyable 🙂

(But then, what is as enjoyable as spending time with the guy you love?)

All of these unexpected things meant that almost all of Unravelling Mr. Darcy still needs first round edits — I only got one chapter done –, and my word count on the new story was a good bit lower than I had hoped it would be.  However, I did get some words written, and I am going to share a portion of those words with you below this short writing news section.

Two writing-related things that I have coming up this week are the release of Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy on Tuesday and a guest post on Diary of an Eccentric with an ebook giveaway on Wednesday.

On the non-writing-related side of life, I have a couple of day trips coming up, so I already know this will be a less productive week.  However, I’ll do my best to find time to write so that I have something to share with you next week.

Now, to share the last bit of what I wrote this week. This story is still the one that I plan to post on Thursdays here on the blog as soon as With the Colonel’s Help is finished.

AN EXCERPT FROM Confounding Caroline:  Continue reading Music Monday: She’s More, Pride and Prejudice


Music Monday: Wind, Brian Crain

When I write, I like to have instrumental music playing. This is not news to those who have been following my blog for any length of time. 🙂  I have several playlists of music that I can choose from when I sit down to write. Often, I pick randomly.  However, for this last story — the one I just finished the first draft of this week — I couldn’t pick a random piece of music. This story demanded I listen to Brian Crain.

29briancrain. “Brian Crain – Wind.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 July 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfu6k8IGOXU.

There were two albums my brain favoured for this story.  One was Piano and Light. The other, which contains the above song, was Piano Opus. A few minutes of closing my eyes and listening to either of these albums seemed just the thing to let my brain know it was time to write. Even when I sat down to write this blog post, I put on “Wind” and before the song was half over, my brain had calmed and was focused on writing. I think it is amazing how our bodies can learn to react to signals like that!

Now that you know why I am sharing this particular piece of music, let’s move on to the writing news for the week and then enjoy a story excerpt.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 15 from 3-5 pm EST, Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I are hosting an Austen in August Garden Party on Facebook. There will be opportunities to share some favourites, test your knowledge of Jane Austen’s novels in a scavenger hunt, and (hopefully) pick up one of our books in a giveaway. Giveaways (7 of them) will be scattered throughout the time, and you will have to be present to claim a book. You can join the party here:

Austen in August Garden Party.

Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy is now available for pre-orders with a release day scheduled for August 29.  You can pre-order that book at this link:

Henry: to Prove Himself Worthy.  

(Oh, by the way, this is one of the books I will be giving away at the party tomorrow.)

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have completed the first draft of Unravelling Mr. Darcy.  I have let it sit for a couple of days, and will begin working my way through the first round of edits this week.

While it was sitting, I started writing what will be the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story which is called Confounding Caroline and is excerpted below.

AN EXCERPT from Confounding Caroline:  Continue reading Music Monday: Wind, Brian Crain


Music Monday: Saint-Saëns ~ The Swan

I’m sharing two stumbled upon videos today — one is a music video and the other is a talk about music. I know you may not have time for both videos, so go ahead and listen to the music video as you read my writing news and the story excerpt. Then, when you have time (about 21 minutes of time) come back and listen to the second video. The speaker has some very good points that he presents in an entertaining fashion.

Brooklyn Duo. “Saint-Saëns: The Swan (Cello and Piano) – Brooklyn Duo.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 May 2015.
TEDtalksDirector. “The Transformative Power of Classical Music | Benjamin Zander.”YouTube, YouTube, 27 June 2008.

I feel like I have a lot of “disjointed” material to cover today, so I think I will use sections and headers instead of attempting to make to flow together cohesively. Up first…

Music

Let me tell you how I came upon the first video since that is one that has been added to my Music to Write By Playlist.  I went out with a friend this week. We did some shopping and had lunch.  One of the places we stopped at was a thrift store. I always peruse the CD rack when I go into thrift shops. I have found lots of good music that way.  This time was no exception. I came out with five CDs — four for when I am writing and one for my husband — and they only cost me $2.50 total! (I know, that’s a great bargain!)

One of those CDs is called “Provence: A Romantic Journey” which is comprised of fifteen French classical pieces of music.  The first song on that CD is the one in today’s music video.

(By the way for those who do listen to the second video, which was a YouTube suggestion to me this week, track 5 on my CD is the piano piece he plays in the video.)

Next…

Writing News

I had a good writing week this last week. I did not get as many words written as I wanted to. However, I did get a good number of words added to Dash of Darcy #4 (which has a title now…see below), and I managed to get half way through final edits for Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy.  I call that a good productive week!

August is scheduled to be a busy month of Tuesdays for me.  It started with the release of His Beautiful Bea and an Austen Authors post last Tuesday and will continue with a couple of book sales, a Facebook Austen in August Garden Party (August 15th from 3 PM ET to 5 PM ET), and a book release on August 22nd before finishing up with another Austen Authors post on August 29th.

The first book sale will be this Tuesday. It will be a TWO-DAY Kindle sale (or just about a two-day sale as it does take a bit of time before and after to get prices adjusted). Watch for details about this sale on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well as in your inbox if you are on my mailing list.

And now…

A STORY EXCERPT FROM Unravelling Mr. Darcy:   Continue reading Music Monday: Saint-Saëns ~ The Swan


Music Monday: Turn Around, Look at Me, The Vogues

Today’s musical selection is a song that a reader suggested would go very well with His Beautiful Bea.  Of course, as soon as she mentioned it in a comment on darcyandlizzy.com, I had to go on a YouTube search for it.  I found several versions of the song.  And you know what?  Carmalee was so right! This song is perfect for Graeme, absolutely perfect!  After listening to several of the versions, I settled on this video because I liked both the sound quality and the pictures. 🙂

MsDarlin45. “The Vogues – Turn Around Look at Me.” YouTube. YouTube, 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 July 2017.

His Beautiful Bea will be “LIVE” on all my sales channels tomorrow, August 1, 2017.

Also happening tomorrow:

It is my day at austenauthors.net, so there will be an excerpt — from the card playing scene for those who have been fortunate enough to read the book — and a giveaway as well as an explanation of what the Touches of Austen books are.

If you’ve been following my blog or have subscribed to my newsletter, you are very familiar with what a Touches of Austen book is. However; not everyone is. So, I will be explaining my take on Austenesque as it pertains to this collection of stories.

Hopefully, there will be those readers who will be daring enough to try something new from me and come to love Graeme and Bea as much as I do.  🙂

Getting everything ready for the print version of my release and making certain all the preorder things were in place took a good bit of time this week, but I still managed to learn some new stuff (Photoshop related), and I didn’t have to miss my writing time to do it!

I am about 10K shy of having the first draft of Dash of Darcy #4 done. (No, still no title — I need to see if the idea behind the working title still holds true when I reach the end before I commit to it.)

Dash of Darcy #4 is shaping up to be a fun tale with some commotion and upsets but nothing “dire” or “grave” or “life threateningly dramatic.” However, though these disturbances are more amusing than angst-inducing, they still do their work to draw out a different side of Darcy and to show him to Elizabeth as a man she can and does love.

(Side note: The story starts at the conclusion of that horrid proposal and refusal, so I think, ODC started out at the worst point in their story. And to me, when I consider the purpose of the story, there seems to be no need to delve deeper into drama. I believe the results can be achieved through lighter events.)

Below is a scene from this week’s writing that I think shows a bit of how Darcy is changing. Continue reading Music Monday: Turn Around, Look at Me, The Vogues