Work in Progress – Page 4

Music Monday: The Woodshed is Full (Dean Brody)

Elizabeth could not agree more. Darcy’s love was the best Christmas gift she could have ever received, and every year, from that one forward, in addition to gifts being exchanged on Christmas morning in the Darcy home, gifts of the heart would be given as well. But these gifts, these special gifts of love, would neither be given nor received on Christmas morning but would always be shared, just as Georgiana’s had been — two days before Christmas.

[The final lines from Two Days Before Christmas]

Published to YouTube by Dean Brody, November 28, 2014.

Traditions. They are often a big part of the end of the year holiday season.

A tradition for me in my writing life, which is going on three years this week, is writing and giving a story to my readers on my email list. The process starts in the early fall as I decide on the story to be written. Then, I usually spend October writing and November editing, so that the book is ready to distribute in December.

This year, I started writing the first of the three novelettes in the book I am giving away in August. I wanted to learn how to write using dictation, so I knew the process would not be fast — and I was right. I wrote in small sections (while getting ready in the mornings). It was interesting how my brain was trying to get used to speaking a story rather than sending it through my fingers to the computer. (I am not sure that it is completely familiar with that process yet) The software also had to get used to my style of writing. (It’s getting better but still needs work.) Needless to say, these three stories needed a LOT of editing for typos and punctuation. 😀 However, it was a great learning experience, and I am going to do it again — after New Year’s.

Anyway… These three stories will be both given away to my mailing list and published to Amazon and on whichever of the other vendors are open and not on holiday hours. 🙂 (Thursday is the planned day if all goes well.)

If you wish to join my mailing list and pick up these stories for free, you can do that from now until the end of 2018.

I will be talking about this book and sharing an excerpt from each of the stories tomorrow, December 18, 2018, on Austen Authors.

Of course, I will also be posting a chapter of Frosted Windowpanes, which is one of the three stories in this collection. I will post the final chapter next week. Just because the book is being distributed this week does NOT mean I will not finish posting that story.

As you can probably guess, I was busy getting last edits done on Nature’s Fury and Delight’s: Thunder, Mist, and Frost this past week, but it was not all I was working on. I also…

sent off Delighting Mrs. Bennet to my final editor and have a tentative publication date set for January 10, 2019.

wrote the second chapter of Loving Lydia and scheduled the first chapter to post on January 3, 2019. 🙂

wrote chapter 3 of Tom: To Secure His Legacy — which means I think I am ready to start sharing a few snippets of that here. However, I cannot promise that I will have something to share each Monday during the holiday season. I think I will, but you know how busy it can be at this time of year. Therefore, I don’t want to make a promise I might not be able to keep. But anyway… Shall we take a peek at a few hundred words from Tom’s story?

AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy: (this is from chapter one) Continue reading Music Monday: The Woodshed is Full (Dean Brody)

Music Monday: Moonlight Sonata, Dan Gibson [Beethoven]

Below is a piece of music that Georgiana might have had in her music room since Ludwig van Beethoven completed Moonlight Sonata in 1801. This version of that sonata happened to be included on a CD that I picked up recently at a thrift store and has been playing in the background during part of my writing time this past week.

Phyllo GP. “Moonlight Sonata – Dan Gibson [Beethoven].” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Sept. 2012, youtu.be/FIVn7hmnfmc.

While my blog might have sat idle this past week, my fingers have not. I had a great week of writing, even after taking time off for Thanksgiving. There are perhaps a few projects that are not as far along as I would like them to be, but the short pause was refreshing. As of today, the blog is returning to its regular posting schedule, and, as promised, a new story, Confounding Caroline, will begin posting this Thursday.

If you look in the Thursday’s Three Hundred section, you will see that it is currently empty. That is because I have removed With the Colonel’s Help as I move down my publication checklist and get the book ready for release in just a couple of weeks. I had hoped to get a short preorder set up, but it’s not looking promising. However, the publication date of October 26 for the ebook version looks to be on schedule with the print version to follow shortly thereafter.

I was also able to complete the first draft of Becoming Entangled, the sequel to Unravelling Mr. Darcy. I will share an excerpt from that below. I expect this story to be published by the end of November — maybe in time for American Thanksgiving. We shall see.

I have started a brand new story called Two Days before Christmas, which features a spunky Georgiana whose Christmas wish is to see her brother happy even if it means doing some meddling. I am just a few thousand words into that one and would like one more week with it before sharing any excerpts. Of course, that means you will get a peek at that next Monday.

But for now, here is

AN EXCERPT from Becoming Entangled:

[Warning: this piece is from near the end of the book. Therefore, read at your own risk.] Continue reading

Music Monday: She’s More, Pride and Prejudice

Today, I thought I would share the last video that I added to my Music Meets Movies YouTube playlist today. Now, I like country music — the newer style stuff, the stuff that is less “twangy,” — but this video was just so enjoyable and the song lyrics are just story-inspiring (IMO) that I couldn’t resist adding it to my list. So give it a listen and read on to see what is happening in my writing life.

wantingyounear. “Pride and Prejudice – She’s More.” YouTube, YouTube, 7 Apr. 2008, youtu.be/LNiXUFSqexk.

This past week was a tad on the frustrating side as far as getting work done. There were a number of things that “popped up” and demanded attention. Some of which were really fun like the Thursday evening supper out and drive to Peggy’s Cove at sunset with my husband followed by an after-dark walk along the Halifax Waterfront. Others were not as enjoyable 🙂

(But then, what is as enjoyable as spending time with the guy you love?)

All of these unexpected things meant that almost all of Unravelling Mr. Darcy still needs first round edits — I only got one chapter done –, and my word count on the new story was a good bit lower than I had hoped it would be. However, I did get some words written, and I am going to share a portion of those words with you below this short writing news section.

Two writing-related things that I have coming up this week are the release of Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy on Tuesday and a guest post on Diary of an Eccentric with an ebook giveaway on Wednesday.

On the non-writing-related side of life, I have a couple of day trips coming up, so I already know this will be a less productive week. However, I’ll do my best to find time to write so that I have something to share with you next week.

Now, to share the last bit of what I wrote this week. This story is still the one that I plan to post on Thursdays here on the blog as soon as With the Colonel’s Help is finished.

AN EXCERPT FROM Confounding Caroline: Continue reading Music Monday: She’s More, Pride and Prejudice

Music Monday: Wind, Brian Crain

When I write, I like to have instrumental music playing. This is not news to those who have been following my blog for any length of time. 🙂 I have several playlists of music that I can choose from when I sit down to write. Often, I pick randomly. However, for this last story — the one I just finished the first draft of this week — I couldn’t pick a random piece of music. This story demanded I listen to Brian Crain.

29briancrain. “Brian Crain – Wind.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 July 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfu6k8IGOXU.

There were two albums my brain favoured for this story. One was Piano and Light. The other, which contains the above song, was Piano Opus. A few minutes of closing my eyes and listening to either of these albums seemed just the thing to let my brain know it was time to write. Even when I sat down to write this blog post, I put on “Wind” and before the song was half over, my brain had calmed and was focused on writing. I think it is amazing how our bodies can learn to react to signals like that!

Now that you know why I am sharing this particular piece of music, let’s move on to the writing news for the week and then enjoy a story excerpt.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 15 from 3-5 pm EST, Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I are hosting an Austen in August Garden Party on Facebook. There will be opportunities to share some favourites, test your knowledge of Jane Austen’s novels in a scavenger hunt, and (hopefully) pick up one of our books in a giveaway. Giveaways (7 of them) will be scattered throughout the time, and you will have to be present to claim a book. You can join the party here:

Austen in August Garden Party.

Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy is now available for pre-orders with a release day scheduled for August 29. You can pre-order that book at this link:

Henry: to Prove Himself Worthy.

(Oh, by the way, this is one of the books I will be giving away at the party tomorrow.)

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have completed the first draft of Unravelling Mr. Darcy. I have let it sit for a couple of days, and will begin working my way through the first round of edits this week.

While it was sitting, I started writing what will be the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story which is called Confounding Caroline and is excerpted below.

AN EXCERPT from Confounding Caroline: Continue reading Music Monday: Wind, Brian Crain

Music Monday: Saint-Saëns ~ The Swan

I’m sharing two stumbled upon videos today — one is a music video and the other is a talk about music. I know you may not have time for both videos, so go ahead and listen to the music video as you read my writing news and the story excerpt. Then, when you have time (about 21 minutes of time) come back and listen to the second video. The speaker has some very good points that he presents in an entertaining fashion.

Brooklyn Duo. “Saint-Saëns: The Swan (Cello and Piano) – Brooklyn Duo.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 May 2015.

TEDtalksDirector. “The Transformative Power of Classical Music | Benjamin Zander.”YouTube, YouTube, 27 June 2008.

I feel like I have a lot of “disjointed” material to cover today, so I think I will use sections and headers instead of attempting to make to flow together cohesively. Up first…

Music

Let me tell you how I came upon the first video since that is one that has been added to my Music to Write By Playlist. I went out with a friend this week. We did some shopping and had lunch. One of the places we stopped at was a thrift store. I always peruse the CD rack when I go into thrift shops. I have found lots of good music that way. This time was no exception. I came out with five CDs — four for when I am writing and one for my husband — and they only cost me $2.50 total! (I know, that’s a great bargain!)

One of those CDs is called “Provence: A Romantic Journey” which is comprised of fifteen French classical pieces of music. The first song on that CD is the one in today’s music video.

(By the way for those who do listen to the second video, which was a YouTube suggestion to me this week, track 5 on my CD is the piano piece he plays in the video.)

Next…

Writing News

I had a good writing week this last week. I did not get as many words written as I wanted to. However, I did get a good number of words added to Dash of Darcy #4 (which has a title now…see below), and I managed to get half way through final edits for Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy. I call that a good productive week!

August is scheduled to be a busy month of Tuesdays for me. It started with the release of His Beautiful Bea and an Austen Authors post last Tuesday and will continue with a couple of book sales, a Facebook Austen in August Garden Party (August 15th from 3 PM ET to 5 PM ET), and a book release on August 22nd before finishing up with another Austen Authors post on August 29th.

The first book sale will be this Tuesday. It will be a TWO-DAY Kindle sale (or just about a two-day sale as it does take a bit of time before and after to get prices adjusted). Watch for details about this sale on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as well as in your inbox if you are on my mailing list.

And now…

A STORY EXCERPT FROM Unravelling Mr. Darcy: Continue reading Music Monday: Saint-Saëns ~ The Swan