Tag: Tom Bertram

Music Monday: Emma – Better Together (Jack Johnson)

Roger flopped back onto the grass and placed his hat over his eyes. “You will keep me safe from marauding females if I fall asleep, will you not?”

“Perhaps,” Victoria replied.

Roger lifted his hat and looked at her. She smiled in return, and he once again put his hat over his eyes. She would not let anyone accost him – at least, not anyone he did not wish to have accost him. The thought of him finally choosing someone to be his wife pricked her heart.

“You would not consider a parson, would you, Miss Hamilton?” Mr. Clayton asked.

“No, she would not,” Roger said from beneath his hat.

“I think I can speak for myself,” Victoria retorted.

[From tomorrow’s chapter of His Darling Friend, A Touches of Austen Novella]

Published to YouTube by Val on September 24, 2007

I really do not have a tie in between song and stories this week. I just happened to like this video. 🙂 So, let’s just get right into my writing news.

 

First, and absolutely most importantly…

Today is release day for Tom: To Secure His Legacy!

It is available in the Kindle store and in Kindle Unlimited. Currently, the price is reduced ($2.99 USD) and will remain that way until the end of the week, when it will go up ($4.99 USD). [All currencies are reduced and all currencies will be going up. I just could not list them all.]

Tomorrow, I will have a post about Tom’s story on Austen Authors. I hope you will drop by and maybe discover a few facts about coffeehouses, the London stock market, and how the two things go together.

Of course, don’t forget to also stop by and read Roger and Victoria’s story here tomorrow. 🙂 I managed to get caught up on this story this week! (But, I fell a week behind on Lydia’s story. 🙂 Eventually, it will all get caught up.)

Aside from writing two chapters of Roger’s story and getting my Austen Author’s post written. I started a new story! It has no title, and I have only written 1000 words or so. BUT… it is started! The plan so far has Kitty Bennet as the heroine and possibly Mr. Waller as the hero.

If you have read or when you read Tom’s story, there is a scene where Tom and Faith meet the Darcy’s (from Two Days Before Christmas) at a ball, and they have Mrs. Darcy’s sister Kitty with them because Kitty is visiting the Gardiners. The story I have just started will be set during this visit. The book will (probably) be the third in the Darcy Family Holidays series even though it stars a character from the Other Pens, Mansfield Park series. I am really enjoying having these two story worlds merging in places. I just love thinking of all these characters living in one big world.

I have removed Oxford Cottage, For Peace of Mind, Listen To Your Heart, Through Every Storm, and With the Colonel’s Help from all vendors except Amazon in preparation for the publication of Darcy and… A Pride and Prejudice Variations Anthology later this week. This anthology will be available in Kindle Unlimited for a minimum of three month. I have not committed to a definite plan on this yet as this is the first Pride and Prejudice work I have offered ever in Kindle Unlimited. Depending on how it does. If page reads stay high or sales are good, I might extend the Kindle Unlimited enrollment for a second three-month period. This is all a grand experiment at this point. But I know that just as there are some readers who only read in Kindle Unlimited, there are also parts of the world where buying books from Amazon is not a possibility. Therefore, I would love to figure out some way of rotating books through the Kindle Unlimited library and then back out to other distributors. I’ll do my best to keep you up-to-date on that here as well as in my newsletter.

And, that, I believe, is all my writing news for this week. I am still not far enough along in that new story to share from it. So, once again, here is an excerpt from a previously published story, and I think this excerpt might sort of go with the theme presented by today’s music choice of “Better Together” — even if not all the participants in this scene are terribly willing to cooperate 😀 and work together.

AN EXCERPT FROM One Winter’s Eve [Book Two of the Darcy Family Holiday’s Series]:  Continue reading Music Monday: Emma – Better Together (Jack Johnson)


Music Monday: The Ash Grove (The King’s Singers)

“I thought you enjoyed music,” Diana said.

“I do.”

“Then, you might wish to stop glaring as if you want to run through the next person to step up to the piano.”

Perhaps he did not wish to gravely injure the next person to perform, but there was Carlyle. Roger would not mind seeing that gentleman properly laid out on the lawn with some sort of wound.

“Mr. Carlyle has a lovely voice.” Diana had followed Roger’s glare and found the object of his discontent. “He is singing ‘The Ash Grove’ since Victoria is so familiar with that piece of music.”

Roger’s scowl deepened. That was the song he sang with Victoria.

[from His Darling Friend, a Touches of Austen novella]

 

Published to YouTube by oiznas on May 17, 2012

For today’s post, I reached into Georgiana’s Music Folder (a playlist I have on YouTube) and pulled out a song that makes an appearance in tomorrow’s chapter of His Darling Friend. As you can tell, Roger is not pleased to know that the song he usually sings with Victoria is going to be sung by Mr. Carlyle. 🙂  Make sure you stop by tomorrow see if Roger’s scowl continues to deepen or not. (I’m going with it continues to deepen. 😉 )

In writing news:

This week I got one more chapter of Loving Lydia written — one where Netherfield receives another surprise guest. 🙂  And I managed to write two more chapters of His Darling Friend so that I am almost as far ahead as I want to be. If I can write two more this week, I will be exactly where I want to be — four weeks ahead of posting.

Also this week, I finished final edits on Tom: To Secure His Legacy. Yay! That means I will be sending out Patreon and advance reader copies this week. My final files are due to be uploaded by Wednesday and the preorder will be over with in a week! That’s right! Tom’s story will be available to add to your bookshelf next Monday! It seems like it has been so long in coming.  [I’ll also be working on the print version this week.]

For my upcoming Kindle Unlimited bundle project that I wish to have out on or before March 18, I pulled down my two previous book bundles (Despite the Circumstances and New Beginnings) from all vendors to make way for this new arrangement of previously published stories. I also purchased a picture so I can start working on the cover image. I still need to write the book description and then remove the individual books from all vendors save Amazon. As a reminder, the books in this bundle will be Oxford Cottage, For Peace of Mind, Through Every Storm, Listen To Your Heart, and With the Colonel’s Help. 

This month was a bit lower on the writing new stories front. (Only 24,712 words written compared to the 43,088 words I wrote in January) My brain was tired. I tend to push until the well runs dry and needs refilling. 🙂

So, I have been doing some relaxing (sort of). I have been reading and watching movies and discovering new recipes to try. I have discovered that I can find recipes which fit with my many sensitivities in the realm of the paleo diet. 🙂 This has been truly exciting for me. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen several pictures of food.

This has been a very beneficial time. I am starting to feel that urge to push forward building again, and this morning (I am writing this on Friday), I actually found myself awake when I should have been sleeping because of a couple of new story ideas. 🙂 I might actually know what book I am going to be starting next. 🙂

Well, that’s all for my news, so let me leave you with a scene from one of my already published books that has two schemers making plans to see Darcy and Elizabeth come to an understanding.

AN EXCERPT FROM Discovering Mr. Darcy:  Continue reading Music Monday: The Ash Grove (The King’s Singers)


Music Monday: You Are (Aaron Goodvin)

Lucy’s hand flew to her heart and her eyes grew wide. “So much? Surely, that was not necessary.”

Philip took the items from her and placed them on the desk before taking her hands and drawing her to her feet and into his embrace. “For you, Mrs. Dobney, there is no price too high.”

“But…”

He placed a finger on her lips to stop her protest. “I have already had this argument with Darcy, and I assure you that neither he nor you will convince me that the money was spent in vain, for it has bought back your things and, I hope, something far more valuable, your peace. From this day forward, there is nothing left of what your uncle did which can harm you.”

She squeezed him tightly. “How can I ever thank you for such a thoughtful gift?”

He looked down into her eyes, which were peering up at him. “Love me, always, just as you do now.”

She shook her head and smiled at him. “I cannot promise not to love you more with every passing day, but I will always, always love you.”

[from And Then Love, book 1 in the Willow Hall Romance Series]
Published to YouTube by Aaron Goodvin on October 4, 2018.

This song was an earworm for me last week, and so I decided to share it with you. So thoughtful of me, I know. LOL It’s a sweet song with a catchy tune that I heard played a couple of times on the radio as I was making supper last week, and it stuck.

Above the video is an excerpt from one of my already published books, And Then Love. The excerpt is from the ending but had the right feel to go with the song today. If you have read that story, you might remember that Lucy approaches Phillip to ask him to marry her so she will not have to go live with a horrible uncle. He decides to help her, and over the course of the book comes to realize that marrying her is the best decision he has ever made.

[A little side note: When I say horrible uncle here, I mean nearly as bad as they come. I tapped into my dark side for a couple of characters in the Willow Hall Romance series, and Lucy’s uncle was one of them. As bad as they come is reserved for another despicable character in this series.]

Along with humming or singing the above song throughout last week, I also managed to get a good bit of writing done.

Tom: To Secure His Legacy is not quite finished, but it is so close to being done. I’m hopeful that three more chapters will complete it. Therefore, it should be done by the end of Friday. I hope to get three chapters of this story posted at Patreon this week instead of the two chapters I have been doing.

(Oh! You might be interested in the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, as well as Mrs. Darcy’s sister Kitty, showed up in one chapter of what I wrote for Tom’s story this week. The Mr. and Mrs. Darcy here are the ones from Two Days Before Christmas. I figured I should clarify that since I have several stories which end with a Mr. and Mrs. Darcy.)

Roger’s story now has three chapters, and if I get one more written this week (which is the plan), then that story will begin posting on Tuesdays here on my blog. If you look at the menu options, you will see that Sweet Tuesdays has been added as a choice. However, there are no posts there yet. I just needed to set up the link so I could tag it at the beginning of each chapter for those who might need to go back and read previous chapters.

I have a title for the story, and if you are on my mailing list, you will receive a January update from me that will share that title with you. Everyone else will have to wait until next Monday when I share it here. 🙂 [hint but not a very good one: The title is three words long and is a reference to something that is said in Emma.]

Those are the stories in progress with the most news. The other writing I did was…

I wrote another chapter of Loving Lydia, and a few hundred words of Apple Blossoms got dictated this week. Nothing very interesting or new is happening with those stories right now. (Well, news-wise. Story-wise there is interesting stuff happening with both. But I can’t tell you about that just yet. 😉 )

On quick reminder that the Kobo 40% off boxset sale ends on February 3 at 11:59 PM EST. The promo code to enter at check out is 40JAN. The two box sets which I have in this promotion are

The Choices Series which includes all four novellas in that series: Her Father’s Choice, No Other Choice, His Inconvenient Choice, and Her Heart’s Choice

A Dash of Darcy and Companions Cottage Collection (1) which includes five novellas: Finally Mrs. Darcy, Waking to Mr. Darcy, A Very Mary Christmas, Discovering Mr. Darcy, and Not an Heiress

And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy:

(This is from near the end of the story, so read at your own risk as it could contain some spoilers.)  Continue reading Music Monday: You Are (Aaron Goodvin)