wordless wednesday – Leenie Brown

Golden Summer (Kate Greenway)

A young woman waiting in a garden by the gate. Photographic print after Kate Greenaway. See page for author, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

I thought the picture above of a young woman in a garden would go well with the excerpt of Elizabeth in a garden below from The Tenant’s Guest.

Elizabeth stood just beyond a low border, watching Cecily play with her children in the garden. The ball rolled toward the large tree that shadowed the far corner, and Lucas Abbot, the elder brother at nearly four years of age, ran after it while Aiden Abbott, the younger brother and just three months past his first birthday, swayed slightly and then took one wobbly step followed by another equally unstable step before falling with a plop to the ground. The action of dropping so ungracefully to the ground did not please the young child. His scowl before he took to crawling after his brother made Elizabeth smile. He was a determined young man. A little fall was not going to stop him from pursuing his goal, which at this moment was the ball with which his brother was taunting him.

Cecily waved to Elizabeth. “Come, join us.”

Elizabeth, having just returned from what had proven to be a rather disturbing call at the parsonage and wishing for some time to think about all Lucy had shared with her, would have made her excuses and gone into the house. However, the motion of his mother had turned Aiden toward Elizabeth, and the ball was seemingly forgotten in favour of the new arrival.

“Izabef!” Lucas, ball in hand, reached her before his brother could. “Will you play ball with me, Izabef?”

Elizabeth tousled the boy’s hair. “Of course. Do you wish to run before I throw it?”

The young man’s head shook furiously from side to side. “I want to race it.”

“Very well.” Elizabeth took the ball from his hands and squatted down. “Ready,” she warned. “Go.”

The ball rolled along the grass, passing just beside Aiden, who stopped and sat, looking first at Elizabeth and then the ball — clearly unsure which should get his attention.

*The Tenant’s Guest* is on sale until the end of this month, and *And Then Love*, the book before this book is free until the end of next month. If you don’t have these two books, now’s the time to get them.

Weapons of the Peninsular War (video)

FYI: This video is 13:38 minutes long. (So grab a cuppa before you click play 😉 )

A week or so ago, when I was scrolling through YouTube looking for something to watch as I sipped some herbal tea before bed, this video was recommended to me because I’ve watched other History Hit videos. I found the information in this to be quite interesting since I have written stories that reference the Napoleonic Wars.

The story that immediately came to mind was Midnight with Mary (Sweet Extra 2) because the Peninsular War is mentioned a couple of times in it (even though it is a short novelette), and I did a fair bit of research reading before writing that book. In fact, I read about the people and battles mentioned in this video.

Here is the first time the Peninsular War is mentioned. The colonel and Mary have gone to call on a widow and friend of Mary’s to help her. (It’s a rather long excerpt. I hope you don’t mind. 😉 )

Henry Angelo, fencer

Tonight (Tuesday), as I was looking up something of interest to share on social media, I thought “I should share these things on my blog as well.” So, I am. I can’t guarantee it will be a weekly thing, but sporadically, at least, I think I’ll share things like this on here as well as on my social media accounts. I hope you don’t mind. 🙂

View of Bartlett’s Buildings in Holborn by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd

Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Well, here’s a rare occurrence these days — a Wednesday post! As I was getting chapter 3 ready to share, this picture popped into my head. I had seen it way back when I was researching things for His Inconvenient Choice, and I simply could not post tomorrow’s chapter without sharing this image with you. Here’s a little snippet from that chapter to go with the image:

The next morning, after a less than restful night of sleep, Richard stood in front of number eight Bartlett’s Buildings and checked the slip of paper in his hand once again to make sure he had arrived where he was supposed to be. It was a tidy little lane of houses, well-cared for, and quite respectable looking. It seemed as if it would be a perfectly acceptable place to live.

He raised his hand, rapped on the door, and waited. There was a shuffling inside, and then a friendly looking man with a quick smile and spectacles perched on his end of his nose opened the door.

[from His Inconvenient Choice]

Choices Series, Books 1-4

A Sneak Peek at Hatfield Falls

This image of a church in New Zealand in a field was purchased from DepositPhotos.

My new series, Hatfield Falls, written under the pen name Annilee Nelson, will not be set in New Zealand, but it will revolve around a church. That’s one reason why I picked this image for today’s post. Another reason I chose this image is that it reminds me of a church you might see here in Nova Scotia with trees all around and wildflowers growing nearby. I am setting this new series in a fictional Nova Scotia town called Hatfield Falls.

The family which is at the center of the series (at least to start) is closely tied to the church in Hatfield Falls since Mark Bennett, the father, is the pastor of that church. He is married to Amy who is a major Jane Austen fan and has named her six children after Austen characters. (I’m not going to tell you all of their names just yet, I think I’ll leave that for you to discover in the first book.)

This series will be a Christian romance series that adheres to the sweet classification I have written out in the article “Short and Sweet? What does that mean?” which can be found in the blog menu.

My faith has never been too far from my Leenie books. It’s there but often indirectly. In my Annilee books, it will be included directly just as part of the lives of the characters.

Now, here are the opening paragraphs from Hatfield Falls, Book 1, as they currently appear in the first draft of the story.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged –”

“Mother! It’s a cookie.” Will Bennett rubbed the sore spot between his eyes. His mother often made that part of his head hurt when she got into one of her moods, such as she was in today. “Even Edmund would tell you that that line is an excellent specimen for studying sarcasm. Therefore, if you say that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man with a cup of tea is in want of a cookie, does that not mean that a man in possession of a cup of tea is actually NOT looking for a cookie at all?”

He looked at his younger brother, Edmund, who nodded his agreement – not that their mother saw him do it. A verbal response would have been more effective.

“Fitzwilliam.” His mother used her scolding a toddler voice and wiggled the plate she held in front of him.

Why did she take such pleasure in tormenting him? Was not the eldest son supposed to be the most beloved? Not in the Bennett family – or at least, not in his mother’s eyes. That favoured position was held by Edmund who adored many of the same things their mother did – most notably, Pride and Prejudice and all things Jane Austen.

Will closed his eyes and sighed as he shook his head. “My name is not Fitzwilliam, Mother. It is William. Just William. No Fitz.”

His mother, Amy Bennett, a diminutive woman whose size belied her ability to be moved on a point if she did not wish to be moved, rolled her eyes and shot a displeased look at his father. “That is only because your father would not allow it.”

“Yes, I know, and that is why he is my favourite parent.”

So, what do you think? I hope it’s a fun start to what will be a fun series. 🙂 I have not yet finished the manuscript for this first book, but it’s well underway and slated to be published sometime in the autumn.

For now, you can always keep up with any Annilee updates on FB here or find Annilee on MeWe here. For those who prefer mailing lists, I’ll share a way to keep up with her that way in the next Saturday Broadsheet. 🙂 This is all very new and completely under construction. 🙂

MAILING LIST PATREON