Touches of Austen – Page 11

Music Monday: Luck Be A Lady (Emma and Mr. Knightley)

Today, we are going to start with just a small snippet from tomorrow’s Sweet Tuesday story.

“Pull the bell, please, Victoria,” Diana said as she took a seat at the desk near the window. “This message must get sent to Mrs. Love straightaway. We would not wish for her to worry that her daughter has gone missing.”

Victoria moved to do as requested while Grace set forth on an explanation of how her mother rarely worried about her. It was Felicity, it seemed, who was the cause for concern.

“And she was found in the garden – alone with Mr. Everett Clayton. She is fortunate that Mother was not there or the scolding that she would have had to endure!” Grace leaned forward and whispered. “She was not wearing her bonnet, and her cheeks were very rosy when she returned to the house. She will not tell me what she was doing, but I am not so stupid as she thinks. I have heard what happens in dark corners of gardens.”

To Victoria, it looked as if the young lady was quite interested in what happened in dark corners of gardens.

“Proper young ladies do not find themselves alone in gardens with gentlemen.” Diana’s tone was firm but gentle.

“Oh, no, of course not.” A smile tipped the right side of Grace’s mouth. “Unless she wishes to marry the gentleman.”

[from My Darling Friend, A Touches of Austen Novella]

Published to YouTube by Rosie McCann on December 27, 2015.

Jazz is not often a style of music I listen to, but when I heard this song, it just seemed to be a very Miss Grace Love sort of song. 🙂 So, naturally, I had to share it with the excerpt above.

Before I get to my news, I thought I would share the results from last week’s “How Do You Read” survey. There were not a great number of responses, but this is how the replies I received broke down.

I must also say that I enjoyed reading the comments left on the survey.

How would I answer these questions?

Well, I purchase through both Kindle and Kobo, but I also read on OverDrive as that one connects with my local libraries ebook catalog.

I do not have a Kindle Unlimited membership as I tend to be a slow reader and a re-reader so I would not save any money by having that membership. And I am about saving money! I remember reading one response that mentioned loving a book sale, and I couldn’t agree more! I love a good sale.

I am not a paperback reader. I prefer ebooks.

Well, enough of that survey. Thank you to all who took the 2 minutes or so to take it. I found it enjoyable to see your answers.

As far as writing news goes:

I am still slowly working on adding chapters to both Loving Lydia and His Darling Friend. Unfortunately, I have fallen behind where I would like to be, which is causing me some stress. But, it really cannot be helped. There is just a lot of none-writing writer stuff that needs doing.

I am also slowly working through final edits for Tom’s story, which is currently on pre-order! Yay! So, now, I must get the final manuscript ready to upload to Kindle by March 7 — four days before the release day, March 11, 2019.

One thing that is very important to note about this pre-order is that Tom’s story is listed at $2.99 USD* which is a special introductory price that will go up to $4.99 USD after the pre-order ends. (*Other currencies also reduced based on USD price.)

I have the new bundle I wish to put in Kindle Unlimited nearly formatted. I still need to get a cover made for it, write a blurb, and remove the books that will be in it from other vendors. But, it is coming along. I would like to have it ready to put in Kindle Unlimited by March 18th or so to mark my four-year publication anniversary.

I think that is all for my writing new for this week, so let me leave you with a longer excerpt from one of my published books.

I chose this excerpt because it features a young lady one might think would be as willing to compromise a fellow to get him to marry her as Miss Grace appears to be. However, this young lady is rather surprising and likely not at all as you might think.

I also chose to feature her because she made me get teary-eyed when I was writing this week. (And so far, in every story in which she has played a major role she has tugged at my heart and caused me to keep my tissue box close.)

AN EXCERPT FROM So Very Unexpected:
Continue reading Music Monday: Luck Be A Lady (Emma and Mr. Knightley)

Music Monday: The Last Dance (Samuel Sim – Emma 2009)

I am keeping to the same format as I did last week and sharing an excerpt from something I was working on this past week, and then sharing a longer excerpt from a published book at the end of the post. Both excerpts take place at balls just as the video does.

This first excerpt is from near the end of Tom: To Secure His Legacy:

“I am glad to hear it,” she replied.

He tipped his head slightly to one side, his brow furrowed.

“Truly,” she assured him.

That returned his smile to his face just as the music began. For the duration of the set, they spoke in snatches about things of little significance – flowers, the weather, the crush of people, and so on. It was perhaps the longest and best conversation about the mundane things of the world in which Faith had ever taken part.

“I fear I will not be able to offer another set to you,” Mr. Bertram said as they made their way from the floor. “Unless, of course, you do not mind strolling in the garden rather than dancing during the set.”

He was limping more than usual. His leg must be hurting him most grievously. He had performed admirably while dancing, even if his hopping and skipping had been a trifle awkward at times when he began favouring one leg over the other.

“I am not a walking stick,” Faith whispered, “but you may lean on me if you wish.”

“I am certain I can make it to where I left my cane,” he assured her with a smile.

“Do you even think it wise to walk in the garden? Would your leg not do better if you were to rest it?”

“You sounded very much like Mrs. Durward just now,” he replied with a laugh.

“I promise not to instruct you to sit by the fire.”

“Very well, then, shall we adjourn to the card room?”

She shook her head. “My brother has made me promise to dance as often as I am asked. I fear he might not think I was doing as he requested if I disappear from the ballroom. However, I would not be opposed to a short stroll of the garden and perhaps a small rest on a bench during some other dance tonight.” It was almost as close as she dared come to declaring her feelings for him, there was one more thing she could say in that regard. “I was sorry to have missed your call yesterday.”

They had reached the edge of the room, near the door to the corridor, and with a look over his shoulder, he led her into the hall.

“My brother…” she protested.

“Might be out here. I did not see him in the ballroom just now,” Mr. Bertram replied with a grin.

Published to YouTube by Lily C on March 18, 2018.

I have begun the final read-through of Tom’s story and have set a tentative release date for March 11, 2019. I say it is a tentative date, but I firmly believe that date will hold fast. I just like to leave a little wiggle room at this stage of things.

I have not started any new stories, nor do I actually plan to start one for at least another week. I have decided that some of the projects I have been putting off really should not be put off any longer and deserve attention.

One of those projects is the rearranging of some book bundle content. I am, for various reasons, going to be unpublishing two anthologies: New Beginnings and Despite the Circumstances, and creating a new anthology (title and cover to be revealed later).

This new anthology will include Oxford Cottage, For Peace of Mind, Through Every Storm, Listen To Your Heart, and With the Colonel’s Help. I plan to put this anthology in Kindle Unlimited for at least three months. While that is great news for Kindle Unlimited readers, it is not so great for readers who do not read through Amazon as I will be required to remove those books from all my other vendors. Kindle Unlimited demands exclusivity.

I am uncertain at this point if this collection will come out of Kindle Unlimited after the 90-day term is over or not. As I have mentioned in other Monday posts, I am shifting to work on things that are not Pride and Prejudice related more often this year. To do that, I have to try new tactics that might help keep royalties up where they need to be for me to draw my salary from my writing/publishing business, Leenie B Books.

Once again, I will say that removing books from other vendors and making them exclusive to Amazon has not been an easy decision, but I will not truly know if Kindle Unlimited can help keep royalties up unless I try it.

I have the Other Pens, Mansfield Park series and His Beautiful Bea in K.U. but they are not Pride and Prejudice based books and so have a smaller number of readers willing to give them a try. They are not doing poorly compared to how they did when non-exclusive, but the numbers are still on the lower end of things. So, I need to “experiment” with stories which have a larger reader base willing to read them.

If they do well, I might put other collections of books in Kindle Unlimited. This might be for an extended period of time or it might be on a rotating basis so that the books can be made available to readers on other platforms as well. I’m really uncertain how it is all going to work out, and there might be some bumps and missteps along the way.

To help me as I make some of my decisions, would you be willing to take a quick two-question survey? If so, you can find the survey at the link below. The questions are simple. Question one gives several options for ways you prefer to buy and read books. You can select as many options as apply to you. Question two gives you a blank to share anything you would like me to know about how you read that is not included in the survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BCJ3D3W

I will leave the survey open until Friday. Thank you to those who take the time to participate.

And, I think, that is all the news I have for you this week other than I am still working on His Darling Friend and Loving Lydia.

Oh, no! There is one more thing. I will have a Friday Feature worth checking out this Friday. 🙂

And now it is time for the second excerpt I promised at the top of this post.

Below is an excerpt from the epilogue to Willow Hall, which can be found at the end of At All Costs. I thought it went well with the mood set by the video above. However, it is from the end of a book, so read at your own risk. 🙂 Continue reading Music Monday: The Last Dance (Samuel Sim – Emma 2009)

Music Monday: Silent Worship (Emma 1996)

I’m flip-flopping this post just a tiny bit today, as I am starting with just a few lines from something I wrote last week and will end with an excerpt from an already published book.

The following lines are part of a chapter of His Darling Friend, which will post in a couple of weeks. However, since this story does contain touches of Jane Austen’s Emma it seemed to match quite well with the musical video clip below. (I have been watching a few Emma clips to get some inspiration lately. 🙂 )

“Then, it shall be perfect. Do you think we might try it now?” He motioned to the piano.

Victoria tamped down her irritation about having to play anything at all, handed the remaining sheets of music to Diana, and took her place at the instrument. The things one had to endure to please one’s mother!

Thirty minutes later, once Mr. Carlyle, who was as exacting as she had imaged him to be, was satisfied with both his performance and hers, Victoria was allowed to quit her spot at the piano.

“Of all the frustrating, arrogant men!” she complained in a whisper to Diana. “Did you hear him instructing me on how best to play?”

Published to YouTube by Movieclips on October 2, 2011.

A note about the song from Wikipedia:

“Silent Worship” is featured in the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma, where it is sung by Gwyneth Paltrow (as Emma) and Ewan McGregor (as Frank Churchill). Although Somervell’s 1928 English adaptation of the 1728 Handel aria was done more than a century after Austen’s 1815 novel, the original Italian aria was recorded in Jane Austen’s own handwritten songbooks. In the film, Somervell’s piano introduction to the song is shortened.

So, as you can tell, there is to be some sort of musical performance at the Abernathy House party. This week, I wrote the practice session chapter of His Darling Friend, and that is all I wrote on any story! It was a heavy editing week as far as stories go. Tom: To Secure His Legacy should be in the hands of my first reader before you read this on Monday morning. So, that moves one pressing project off my list of things to do for a while, which means I can hopefully start thinking and working on my other projects more — including deciding what new story is going to step into the lineup.

The only other item which I wrote this week was an Austen Authors blog post about His Darling Friend, which will post tomorrow, February 12, 2019. I wrote it to announce the beginning of a new, free-to-read, weekly story to those who might not always read my blog or who do not even know about my blog.

And that was it for my writing work this week. 🙂

Since I do not have a current work in progress story to share a longer excerpt from at present, I thought I would share an excerpt from an already published book. This scene is from Chapter 5 of Discovering Mr. Darcy where Colonel Fitzwilliam and Lady Catherine are “up to no good” (aka arranging a compromise 😉 ) and was chosen because it involves practicing the piano, which I think goes well with the excerpt from His Darling Friend and with the video.

AN EXCERPT FROM Discovering Mr. Darcy: Continue reading Music Monday: Silent Worship (Emma 1996)

Music Monday: Allan Walker “Sing Me to Sleep” Piano Cover (David Solis)

Graeme’s brows furrowed, and he shook his head in disbelief. “Of course, I love her. She’s Bea.” He moved to rise, but Shelton’s hand on his arm stopped him.

“No, not as a friend. She’s the one you spoke about when you visited, is she not?”

Graeme blew out a breath and turned to face his friend. “Bea loves my brother, and I only wish to see her happy.” No matter how the idea of his brother marrying Bea irritated him! She deserved better than a dolt who had to be convinced of her worth rather than recognizing it of his own volition.

Shelton nodded his head slowly as if he were considering what Graeme was saying, but Graeme knew better. Shelton was reasoning things out, piecing things together, and drawing conclusions. A gentleman did not survive as a rake and be generally well-liked as Shelton had without a keen mind.

“She loves my brother,” Graeme repeated. It had been foolish of him to speak to Shelton about a lady whom he found enchanting but was unavailable. However, his tongue had been loosened by alcohol that night after they had ridden out to purchase Shelton’s new hunter, and the things that Graeme had been pondering since the evening he had nearly kissed Bea during that blasted card game had come spilling out. He had been wise enough to leave out names, but still, he knew Shelton was no fool.

“You truly wish to see her happy?”

Graeme looked at Shelton warily. “Yes.”

Shelton smiled. “Then, capture her heart before your brother can break it.”

The hairs on the back of Graeme’s neck bristled. The smile Shelton was wearing was calculating. He had seen it before — often right before some poor chap was about to be fleeced or lose his lady.

“I consider myself the charitable sort,” Shelton continued, “and I am approaching that age where a wife will be expected. I could save her heart from harm.”

Graeme’s eyes narrowed. “You will stay away from her,” he growled.

Shelton chuckled, clearly enjoying taunting his friend. “Will you call me out if I do not?”

Graeme folded his arms and smirked in return. Shelton knew that Graeme would never call anyone out. It was, for one thing, illegal, and for another, Graeme was not the best shot nor all that adept with a sword. So to use a duel as a threat would be of no effect. However, there was a threat that Graeme knew would shake Shelton. “No, I will shoot your horse.”

[from His Beautiful Bea, A Touches of Austen Novella]

Published to YouTube by Solis Music on March 5, 2017.

Mr. Shelton in the above excerpt is getting his own story! His story will have some definite nods to Jane Austen’s Emma just like His Beautiful Bea had nods to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. And I am working on fleshing out an idea for a story for Bea’s brother Max that will have nods to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. That book will be released in the fall as part of a multi-author project which I cannot yet tell you about but am nervously excited about being part of. However, you can start reading Mr. Shelton’s story tomorrow right here on my blog. I have chapters 1-3 scheduled and should have chapters 4 and 5 written before the end of the week. (I missed writing a chapter last week — but more on that later.) The name of Mr. Shelton’s story will be His Darling Friend, and even the title has a bit of a nod to Emma in it. In Emma, Mr. Knightley calls Emma dearest and most beloved. I wanted something similar but did not want to use those words, and darling has the idea of being dear and beloved, so that is why I chose that word for the title.

Needless to say, I am a bit excited to begin sharing this story with you tomorrow. 🙂

His Beautiful Bea is going through a little bit of a makeover. I have given it another reading and cleaned up yet more typos and such (although no matter how often you proof, there always seems to be something that gets missed.) I have updated the file for the ebook and given the book a new cover! The print book will hopefully be ready before next Monday. There are a few more hoops to jump through to get that done than to do an ebook. For those who read in Kindle Unlimited, His Beautiful Bea is in that program and can be read using your subscription.

Now, for the reason I did not get a chapter of His Darling Friend written this past week:

I finished writing Tom: To Secure His Legacy!

Yes, I am excited about that as well! This week, I might be a bit less excited as I reread it before sending it off to my first reader to check for story issues. 😀

The bad part of this news is that I will not have any new story excerpts to share here on Mondays for probably two or three weeks as I need to pick a story to work on then start writing. 🙂

I have no idea what that next story will be at this point. Hopefully, I will have that figured out by next Monday as well. It seems I have a lot of things to do this week! 🙂

So, here, for the last time as a Music Monday work-in-progress, is…

AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy:

[note: Do not read if you do not like spoilers or excerpts that end on a bit of a teasing, tempting cliffhanger. 🙂 There is a limit to the amount and type of spoilers I am willing to share. 🙂 ] Continue reading

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)