Nature’s Fury and Delights – Page 3

Music Monday: Siúil a Rúin (Ella Roberts)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY ELLA ROBERTS ON FEBRUARY 25, 2020.

“Siúil a Rún” is a traditional Irish song, sung from the point of view of a woman lamenting a lover who has embarked on a military career, and indicating her willingness to support him. The song has English language verses and an Irish language chorus, a style known as macaronic. (source: Wikipedia)

The same Wikipedia article later said that some say the lover in this song was given a choice to either choose a military career or permanent exile, and he chose exile.

No matter what the reason, this song is about separated lovers and is a beautiful (though sad) piece of music.

I have chosen to pair this song with a story that might be very familiar to you if you read my Sweet Tuesday stories or read this story as a Thursday’s Three Hundred when I first began doing those stories.

In “Hope at Dawn”, the hero (Nicholas) and heroine (Kathleen) have been separated for a year. His suit was refused by her father and brother, and she was taken to Ireland, along with the match her father hoped she would settle on, while the hero remained behind in England.

I would imagine Kathleen’s heart cry during her separation from Nicholas sounded something like this song — beautiful and sad. However, Kathleen and Nicholas’s story does not remain sad — I write happily ever afters, you know. 😉

Hope at Dawn, Ch. 1

Hope at Dawn is one of four novelettes included in my *First Blooms and Second Chances* anthology.

As the sun slipped below the horizon, leaving its fiery glow resting upon the gently rolling black waters, Nicholas Sidemore spotted the boat for which he had been waiting, bobbing just on the edge of the sea ─ where the water dropped away and could be seen no longer. His heart raced at the sight of her, and he swallowed the fear that rose inside him as the vessel drew closer. It would not be long now ─ a few hours or perhaps a day ─ until he knew his fate.

Using the glow of his lantern to light the way, he carefully picked his way around the rocks lining the shore. Choosing a large one with a smooth top, he sat down. From this vantage point, he could easily see the entrance to the harbour and past it to the sea beyond.

The Saturday Broadsheet: Announcing the Arrival of Cherishing Kitty

Can you believe it is already May? In some ways, time seems to be clicking along really quickly for me, and in other ways, it is dragging its feet. Personally, I am looking forward to the warmer temperatures and new life that May brings to my part of the world, and I am hopeful that soon, we will all be allowed to go out and enjoy the loveliness that is May by taking drives and visiting parks and beaches.

Writing News

There’s not much to say here this week, although I think what I have to say is pretty exciting.

I put all my writing projects on pause except for Matching Mr. Darcy because I knew I was close to the end of that story, and I wanted to get it finished. I have. Matching Mr. Darcy is complete and is now in line behind His Irreplaceable Belle, waiting to be reread and then sent on through the getting-ready-for-publication process.

Since Cherishing Kitty has been published, I plan to begin working on rereading His Irreplaceable Belle this coming week. (I’d like to have it ready to publish by the end of the month.)

Publishing News

Cherishing Kitty

is now available for purchase in ebook and print.

Thank you to those who pre-ordered and have already purchased this book.

Purchase Cherishing Kitty at your favourite retailer

Book Promotions

These two books will become exclusively available on Amazon on May 11, 2020. To highlight this move, I have put these books on sale.

There are seven novelettes between the two books. Thunder, Mist, and Frost contains three Austen-inspired novelettes while First Blooms and Second Chances contains four sweet Regency novelettes.

You can find out more about these books and links for were they are available to purchase by visiting the landing page at this link.

Book Review

This review is for First Blooms and Second Chances.

Thank you, f4ewso45, for reading and reviewing both First Blooms and Second Chances and Thunder, Mist, and Frost. I’m pleased to know you enjoyed them both.

I really like that last line about the stories being engaging and using an economy of words. 🙂

Kindle Unlimited Changes in May

A Dash of Darcy and Companions Cottage Collection 2 will be leaving Kindle Unlimited on May 13, 2020. The following books will be moving to Kindle Unlimited. See my Books Currently in KU page on my blog for links to all the books currently available to read with your KU subscription.

Something Extra

I thought I would share a video with you this week. As you can see from the image below. I shared it on Tuesday on my Facebook page. There is information both about food and an interesting Georgian Era character in the video. The video is about 23 minutes long.

Have a good weekend! Be safe and well. I’ll see you on Monday.

MAILING LIST | PATREON | SOCIETY6

The Saturday Broadsheet for April 25, 2020

I hope you are staying safe and well. I and my family are safe and well, which, this week, means more than we have not contracted a virus because last weekend our province was the site of the worst mass shooting in Canada. To say it has been a challenging week is an understatement.

Be that as it may, I still went to work and did the things, and, below, you will find information about what I accomplished in my writing life this week, as well as publishing information and book sale news.

Writing News

Here’s an update on my writing I have with a short excerpt from two of them.

Her Convenient Forever: I wrote chapter three this week. So, I am on track to start posting that story on my blog on May 12 as I had hoped I would be. Here is an excerpt from chapter 3.

Music Monday: Christmas in the County (Thomas Rhett)

I 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

Music Monday: Little Drummer Boy (for King and Country)

I thought we would start off the season of Christmas music with a bang! This song should do that quite well.

Heads up: This is not your sweet and soft Christmas carol, and if you are sensitive to flashes of light, you might want to listen and not watch. If you follow my Facebook page, I did share this video on there last week because I just really enjoy this fun take on this classic song.

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY FOR KING AND COUNTRY ON NOV 9, 2018.

I have very little writing news at this moment. I was able to get two more chapters of Kitty and Lorcan’s story written this week. I had hoped to get three done, but that just did not work out. 🙂

I did complete my final read-through of First Blooms and Second Chances. This project, while it is going to be published soon, was written with the intention of being a gift to my mailing list and Patreon subscribers. If you happen to fall into one of those groups, be watching for your copy of this book to show up in your inbox this week before it goes live on any publishing platform.

If you are not a Leenie B Book News mailing list subscriber and you’d like to be, there is a link at the bottom of this post where you can join. Until January 6, 2020, one of the thank you gifts for subscribing will be First Blooms and Second Chances. (Or it will be as soon as I get that set up to send out after I have emailed the current subscribers — so many little details.)

The only other thing I wished to mention in the writing news section today is that there is now a print version available of The Choices Series compilation, and it has been linked to the ebook sales page and has had the page count updated there to match for both books. (It used to list the book as 400 and some pages and the 5.5 in x 8.5 in paperback I submitted was over 600 pages — this is why it is not always safe to assume that the page count Amazon is showing you is correct or even close, in this case.)

Well, since I do not have anything new that I am writing and since my writing news was rather short, I think I will share the first chapter from “Morning Mist”, which is a Sense and Sensibility variation novelette and is part of last year’s mailing list Christmas gift, Thunder, Mist, and Frost (Nature’s Fury and Delights, book 1).

CHAPTER 1