Sweet Regency Romance – Page 43

Music Monday: Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Welcome to Christmas in July. Each Music Monday this month will feature Christmas music and a giveaway. Scroll down below the video for a few details.

Published on YouTube Oct 26, 2009, by Atlantic Records

I have five books which are set around Christmas:

A Very Mary Christmas

For Peace of Mind

No Other Choice

Two Days Before Christmas

One Winter’s Eve

Each Monday, I will leave a link in my Music Monday post which will have 5 copies of one of those books at it. (Books will be given away in random order — not in the order listed above.)

There are five Monday’s in July.

That’s a total of 25 books being given away — just like the day on which Christmas falls 🙂

Two other pieces of information you might wish to know:

Each Monday post is scheduled for 8:05 am Atlantic time.

The link will be located just before my story excerpt each week because I would like you to read the post, but feel free to read after you have clicked to see if any books remain. 🙂 I get it — being quick on the click is important here.

Now, let me tell you about how I decided on the musical selection for today. I sent out an email to my mailing list to give them a heads up on this special month of Music Monday posts. I was, at that time, still undecided about what video I would share today. Well, before I had made my final selection, I received a reply to the email I sent out, and in that reply, there were two suggestions of groups with great Christmas music. One of those groups was Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the other one was Blackmore’s Night. I went to YouTube and looked them both up and listened to a few songs. The song above I had never heard before, and it was so beautiful that I just had to use it today. (In case you’re wondering, it’s quite likely that I might use one from the other group on another Monday.)

In other news…

Master of Longbourn has launched successfully and has several lovely reviews. 🙂

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 3, 2018, on Austen Authors, I will be discussing part of the plot structure of Master of Longbourn as it pertains to Mr. Collins’s inner journey.

I managed one day of writing on two stories this past week. So, not exactly a great success for the new writing routine, but it’s a good start.

I have Thursday Three Hundred posts scheduled all the way through September now, and still, Delighting Mrs. Bennet has not reached its conclusion. That means the release date is still unknown and will likely not be any sooner than sometime in November.

The first three chapters of Charles’s story have been posted at Patreon, and I am beginning work on Chapter 4. I hope to get at least one more chapter completed and posted at Patreon this week.

Before I get to the excerpt from Charles’s story, here is the link where there are five copies of For Peace of Mind waiting to be claimed. The copies are available on a first come, first serve basis until all five have been claimed or the link expires on Friday, July 6, 2018.

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM ONE OF THE 5 COPIES OF For Peace of Mind.

[update: All five copies have found homes.]

And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover His Purpose:
Continue reading Music Monday: Christmas Canon (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

Music Monday: Falling Slowly (Period Dramas)

“Why just last year, three young ladies made very eligible matches after I had shown them particular attention. I tell you, I am a good luck charm for the matrimonially-minded miss.” {Charles Edwards in Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy]

Those are just a few of the lines from Chapter 1 of Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy where we are introduced to Henry Crawford’s friend, Charles Edwards.

Posted on YouTube by FANNYJKL, May 18, 2018.

Why am I sharing a quote from that book when I have another book coming out this week?

Because Charles happens to be the next character who will be subjected to my particular sort of reformation and improvement. At present, he is a rake — a bad boy through and through. But, we all know that that will change. 🙂

The above video is one that I have pinned to my Pinterest board for Charles’s story — but I’ll get to more information about that in a moment.

For now, I want to remind you that the story for another gentleman, William Collins, who underwent a transformation releases this Thursday, June 28, 2018! That’s only three more sleeps until Master of Longbourn goes LIVE. It is currently on pre-order and can be found at your favourite retailer by following this link.

There are a few advance reader reviews that you can read on Bookbub here. Thank you to those who read and reviewed early copies. 🙂

Ok, now back to Charles. 🙂

This week, I was able to get just under 5,000 words written on this new work in progress. Here’s what I can tell you about the story at the moment:

The title is Charles: To Discover His Purpose

The Hero and Heroine are Charles Edwards and Evelyn Barrett. As I said before, Charles is Henry’s friend (and also Trefor Linton’s friend). Evelyn is Constance Linton’s friend.

Charles is rakish. He’s drifting along through life having a great time.

Evelyn is a proper young lady — well, mostly — she does have a mischievous streak, and she can be direct in her words. She also has a carrying heart which sees her doing all manner of charity work.

As you can probably guess from that information, Charles is going to hit a rough patch in his easy, take-what-you-can-get life, and that rough patch’s name is Evelyn. For him, it might start as a bit of a game to see if he can break the proper Evelyn and steal a kiss or two or more. But as Henry Crawford discovered in Mansfield Park, games such as this can be dangerous as they may end up breaking the player’s heart. (And yes, there is at least that one deliberate nod to Mansfield Park in this story. There may be more. Time will tell.)

Can you see how the song I shared today seems to fit with this story? Charles and Evelyn will be slowing falling for each other and there will be some games played and there will some struggle and there is a need for being pointed “home,” etc. That is why I chose this song to share as it’s theme feels like it fits well with Charles’s story.

Would you like to read a short excerpt from what I have written so far? If so, keep reading 🙂 This is a portion of what I wrote on Friday of last week. It’s part of chapter 2 and will be posted soon on Patreon. (Probably tomorrow)

This portion focuses on Evelyn and her not well-pleased mother.

AN EXCERPT FROM Charles: To Discover his Purpose: Continue reading Music Monday: Falling Slowly (Period Dramas)

Music Monday: Pride & Prejudice: My Confession

Welcome to a new week and a new month! Today, I have a surprise as well as a small snippet (about 400 words) from what I was writing this past week. I also have this gorgeous song and well-done video that I found. Josh Groban, the singer, is among my favourites. (I have lots of favourites in many genres. 🙂 )

Pride & Prejudice: My Confession from darcywil on Vimeo.

The title of the song will go with the bit of story I plan to share, so stay tuned to see if you can make the connection. However, first, I want to share a little bit of writing news. I really don’t have a lot to share today, so it shouldn’t take long.

Master of Longbourn is still with my final editor. I expect to have that back later this week to begin working on last fixes, and then I can get a preorder set up. I’m wavering between a June 21 and June 28 release day. I guess it will depend on how much fixing I need to do when I get the manuscript back. 🙂

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, I will be revealing the cover for Master of Longbourn at Austen Authors. I will also be sharing some about how I created my dear Mr. Collins. 🙂 I really do like him — my version of him, that is. Kitty is one lucky girl — truly! I think you’ll agree when you finally get to read the whole story.

And that’s it. I have no other writing news to share with you. Amazing, huh? 😀 This week, I intend to start considering what I will be publishing next. Will it be a sequel to Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy or will it be another Touches of Austen story (like His Beautiful Bea) inspired this time by either Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility or will it be something else entirely? Oh, it’s like looking into a box of chocolates and not knowing which one to select! So many delicious options! 🙂 Speaking of sweet things…

Here’s the surprise: Today is my youngest son’s birthday. So, in honour of him, I am giving away on a first come, first serve basis 5 copies of the two books I mentioned above. Just click the links, and the first five blog readers who do will be able to download the books. (Links expire next Monday)

Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy

His Beautiful Bea

While I may not know what I will be writing next, one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that this week, I will continue working on Delighting Mrs. Bennet. The following snippet is from what I wrote on Friday and will not be posting until August 2! Yes, I am that far ahead, which is why it is time to start thinking about a non-blog story.

Ready to make a connection between song title and story? If so, read on.

A SNIPPET FROM Delighting Mrs. Bennet: Continue reading Music Monday: Pride & Prejudice: My Confession

Music Monday: Something Just Like This, Instrumental Cover

Welcome to a new week. It’s time for a bit of music, some writing news, and an excerpt. Shall we get started?

Click play and read on. 🙂

Solís Music. “‘Something Just Like This’ The Chainsmokers & Coldplay – Piano Orchestral Pop Cover by David Solis.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 June 2017, youtu.be/4S5pqnv4EcE.

You can find the original version of this song by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay at this link if you wish to hear the words sung. In my mind, the lyrics really fit with the story I just finished writing and am sharing an excerpt at the end of this post, which is why I chose this song to share today.

Now, that I have told you there is a story connection to the music, let’s get to the writing news:

First of all, this happened last week…

Confounding Caroline is now available for pre-order! 🙂

And Delighting Mrs. Bennet, the sequel to this story started posting on Thursday.

It was truly a week of excitement because late Friday night, I finished writing Master of Longbourn, and I know I am the author, but it is such a good story. You’re going to have to read it. 🙂 Mr. Collins is just so surprisingly likable — truly. I have had early readers who have surprised themselves by saying things like “I really like Collins.” The final chapter and epilogue of the story will be posting this week on Patreon after I have had a chance to reread and polish them a little.

Before I get to the excerpt from Master of Longbourn, I want to remind you of what I said last week. This will be the last excerpt from this story, and I will likely not have an excerpt for the next two or three weeks or so. I am going to take some time to work on Delighting Mrs. Bennet, and then some other story will get started, although, at this very moment, I have not decided which one. 🙂 Maybe I will know by next Monday…maybe. 🙂

Now for…

AN EXCERPT (a longish excerpt) FROM Master of Longbourn: Continue reading Music Monday: Something Just Like This, Instrumental Cover

Music Monday: Period Dramas – At the Beginning

Welcome to the beginning of a new week full of possibilities. As I look forward to the week ahead, I like to start by taking inventory of where I am by looking back at what I accomplished last week. It’s a lot easier to know where you are going if you know where you are starting. 🙂

But first…

Some musical inspiration…

videosbyloo. “Period Dramas – At the Beginning (PDC).” YouTube, YouTube, 17 June 2011, youtu.be/jMLlkAMLV-Q.

And then…

Writing News:

Mr. Darcy’s Comfort released, successfully, last week on Thursday. 🙂 You can find out more about the book as well as a link that will provide all my vendor options at this link:

https://books2read.com/b/3GYBBr

My writing time focused only on Master of Longbourn this week because I actually took two nights off from writing. I did not take them off completely. I still did some other book business work, but no story was written. Launching a book can be draining (so much excitement is tiring 🙂 ) and when I combined that with a lack of sleep (because my body does that sometimes), I ended up with a mushy, not terribly creative brain. And that is not good for writing. 🙂 So, after fighting the idea for a while (I’m no quitter, you see :D) I gave in and allowed the brain to do things other than create imaginary worlds. Hopefully, this week, I will get in all five writing sessions.

Because of the book release, I did not do my regular editing time. I gave that time to book release sorts of things such as creating a graphic, posting an excerpt (which I am using for marketing purposes), sending out an email to my mailing list, making sure I had the book added to my book page and a few other things like that. (I have a list. It’s rather long.)

But that was last week, and though I will need to keep doing some marketing work for the new book, this week during editing period, I plan to begin final edits on Confounding Caroline since I have them back from my editor. I should have a publication date firmed up by next Monday!

I have also begun a project of updating book covers and reorganizing some things. This project will not be completed any time soon, but it has begun. I started by updating the cover for Listen to Your Heart. The story inside has not changed, although I did update the book list in the backmatter and added an excerpt from And Then Love.

And lastly, I created a bundle of stories — a box set of Dash of Darcy and Companion Stories. This bundle contains Finally Mrs. Darcy, Waking to Mr. Darcy, A Very Mary Christmas, Discovering Mr. Darcy, and Not an Heiress.

I have only uploaded this bundle to Kobo so far since I wish to apply to have it included in a promotion in May, but this week, I will be attempting to add it to other vendors. In fact, between when I am writing this Saturday night and Monday when you are reading this, I might have gotten part of that done. There will be a print version eventually.

Phew! You know, now that I have listed all that out I can understand better why I was so tired by the end of the day on Thursday. When I’m just working on this and that steadily through a week, I don’t see how much I am actually doing. Little by little, consistent, steady effort adds up!

Now, for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Master of Longbourn: Continue reading Music Monday: Period Dramas – At the Beginning