A Meeting by the Stile, Heywood Hardy [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
This attitude in this picture is a brighter than the one in the first part of Two Days in November, but the title was perfect. :) This painting also has too many sisters in it because there are two, not three, sisters in my story and only one of those sisters is sitting at the stile when Darcy comes upon her during his morning ride.
~*~*~
She hoped he would exchange a few more pleasantries and be on his way, but he stopped, swung down from his horse, and came to stand across the stile from her. “Please, be seated. I do not wish to take you from your repose. Might I join you for a few moments?”
[from Two Days in November, A Pride and Prejudice Inspired Short Story]
Engraving from La Belle Assemblée, February 1, 1817. Unknown artist [Public domain] via Wikimedia.
The couple in the two lines below are not in the ballroom where the assembled masses are dancing, but rather tucked away in a music room where they can have a private conversation. This story, A Music Room Meeting, is one of six short Austen-inspired stories that comprise the book Teatime Tales, which is one of the books given as a welcome gift to those who join my mailing list. (It is also available for purchase so look for it at your favourite ebook retailer.)
~*~*~
She moved to stand near him. “Is this why you play instead of dancing?”
He closed his eyes. “How can I dance when others cannot?”
[from A Music Room Meeting, An Oxford Cottage Inspired Short Story]
~*~*~
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Tomorrow, in our Sweet Tuesday story, we will be meeting the hero of our story. Here is how chapter 2 begins…
“I do not see why Grace had to come with us.”
Walter Blakesley peeked over his morning paper to see the source of the comment. She was a fair-looking young lady with a pleasing figure and a dignified carriage. Not his sort. Such an air of grandeur was more likely than not accompanied by fits of temper when the chit did not get her way. He turned his attention back to the news from last night’s soirees.
“And leave her at home?”
Walter chuckled. The mother sounded shocked, but he reckoned that an opinionated young woman spouting her opinions should not come as a surprise to the young lady’s mother. He held his paper in place as if he were reading it but turned his attention to what he was certain was going to be an interesting conversation between mother and daughter as they strolled past where he sat in the garden.
“She has enough gowns for the number of soirees she will be attending. There is no need for her to follow us around from shop to shop.”
“I do not believe we are in a shop.”
He peeked around his paper so he could match a face with the voice of the young lady, most likely the aforementioned Grace, who had just spoken.
[from Her Secret Bea, Touches of Austen Book 3]
Published to Youtube by Katie Douglas on December 23, 2009.
I have heard this song by one of my favourite groups on the radio several times lately, and I thought it would make a perfect Father’s Day song. 🙂 So today’s song choice is for all those good men out there, whether real or imaginary. I am including the imaginary fellas here since I know that for my heroes, as well as many supporting characters, the ideas in this song hold true — maybe not at the beginning of a story, but most certainly by the end of a story. Therefore, it also seemed fitting to share this video today since tomorrow we are going to meet the hero of Her Secret Beau. Continue reading Music Monday: A Good Man (Emerson Drive)
Georgiana clung to Elizabeth. “You were so brave. I could not even look at them.”
“I was not brave, Georgiana. I was angry. I am angry. Come, we should try to get some rest.” She pulled the young girl onto the bed with her, wrapping her in her arms. “Your brother will find us.” Elizabeth ran her hand gently over Georgiana’s hair smoothing it away from her face with a soothing caress. Soon, she could hear the steady breathing of a sleeping child. It was only then that Elizabeth allowed her body to tremble and a tear to escape her eye before drifting off to sleep.
Note: For those who might be sensitive to flashes of light, the video is very "flashy."
Published to YouTube by Simply Three on September 22, 2017
From the title of the video and the excerpt from Oxford Cottage, can you tell what sort of tone the excerpt from Mary: To Protect Her Heart might have? 😉
This will be the last excerpt from Mary’s story that will be shared on my Monday posts, and I am leaving you with a bit of a spoiler from the portion of the story when trouble starts to brew and bubble over. But before I get to that, I have some exciting…
WRITING NEWS:
First, I want to tell you that there will not be a Wednesday post this week. I just did not have enough time to get everything done over the weekend, and so that is the item that got cut off the to-do list.
Second, I have an Austen Author’s post tomorrow. There will be an excerpt from and a chance to win a copy of Mary: To Protect Her Heart included in that post.
Third, I am not sure if all the stores will reflect this price at the time when this blog post goes live or not, but both Henry’s and Charles’s stories are on sale for $2.99 USD with other currencies adjusted accordingly. These will be on sale until Mary’s story publishes. And that info brings me to…
Fourth, Mary: To Protect Her Heart will be on pre-order by the end of the week. I have finished first round edits, and it has been sent to my first editor. I believe the publication date will be December 10, 2018.
Fifth, I have also finished first round edits on Nature’s Fury and Delights: Thunder, Mist, and Frost! They will be sold in a bundle of three novelettes instead of individually. I do not have the publication date set at this point. Mary has to be attended to first, so by next week, I should have a date for you. (Should being the important word there 😉 )
I did no new story writing this past week as I spent all my time editing, so there will not be a story excerpt with next Monday’s post, and at this point, I am not sure when I will be ready to start sharing from a new story as I haven’t gotten anything started. I have Loving Lydia on the to-write list as one of my next projects so that can be ready to start posting on Thursday’s in January, but I haven’t even thought about which other project will be started at the same time. It could be Tom Bertram’s story or something completely different. I’ll be giving that some thought this week.
In addition to the editing I was doing this week, I was also finalizing ebook covers for the two upcoming releases. And here is the first look at those covers.
A year ago this coming Thursday, I published my first book, Oxford Cottage. This video is a collection of quotations from that book. Many of them were submitted to me by readers. The song is one that I have listened to many times while writing. It is Secret Path by Brian Crain. (I adore his music!)
