Brian Crain – Leenie Brown

Music Monday: Innocent Heart (Brian Crain)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY BRIAN CRAIN ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2016.

I decided to revisit a favorite artist for this week’s song selection. If you are a Spotify listener as I am, you can find this song there at this link.

Today, I am pairing this song with a story where I would say the heroine has a very innocent heart. It is a heart that is not looking in the right place for its forever love, but the guy sitting next to her and attempting to help her catch the attention of her crush and his brother will make certain by the end of the story that her heart finds its true home.

The story I am talking about is His Beautiful Bea, which is the first book in my Touches of Austen series, and the innocent heart belongs to Beatrice Tierney.

Important note: This book is currently on sale for $0.99 but ONLY until today. At some point tomorrow, that price will be going up!

If you have been reading my Sweet Tuesday stories, I think you will recognize a name or two in this chapter.

His Beautiful Bea, Chapter 2

“You are a fair sight to see,” Max said later that afternoon as he plopped down next to his sister on a couch in Stratsbury’s drawing room. He flicked her book. “You’ve not finished it yet?” he queried. “I half expected you to be ready to peruse the library before we leave today, but you have more than half the book left to read.”

Bea smiled at her brother. He was not a great reader. He preferred being out of doors and doing things to sitting and reading.

“I promise I shall not disappoint you,” she replied. “I have completed my book of poetry and would like to replace it. Sir Herbert has already promised me that I might. Will you help me choose a new book?”

Max shook his head and laughed. “Not likely. My knowledge of poetry is limited.” He stretched out his arms, resting them on the back of the sofa with one wrapped around her shoulders. “I know a few poets and poems, but not a vast array. You would be better to ask Everett or even Graeme. They would know more.”

“Then if I require assistance, my dear brother, I will ask one of them and not you.”

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: Softness and Light, Brian Crain

Pause your busy Monday for a couple of minutes and try this little imagination exercise. Click play on the video below. Then close your eyes and see if you can imagine yourself travelling in a carriage with the light filtering in through the window.

Briancrainfan. “Brian Crain – Softness and Light.” YouTube. YouTube, 07 June 2012. Web. 15 July 2017.

Were you able to see it? Isn’t this song perfect for a carriage ride on a sunny spring day? I found it to be.

In fact, it is this song and that exercise that I used to settle my brain into one of my writing sessions this week which resulted in the carriage ride shared in the excerpt at the end of this writing news update.

This week, I began working my way through my first round of edits for Henry’s story. I am just past the halfway point with that, and I am still loving that story! I hope to have my edits done before Wednesday this week so I can send that story off to my first reader. Because I am pushing to get that done, my writing sessions were shorter this past week.

As I mentioned last week, I was in need of a new story to write this week and had several options from which to choose. Well, I settled on one that I had attempted before and had given up on.

I’m not the sort that likes to give up. 😉 So, I am giving it one more shot — and so far, it seems like it is going to work. I wrestled with it for a day and then decided to discuss my concerns with a couple of writer friends. That was an excellent choice because a couple of helpful comments was all it took for me to have a lightbulb moment about how this story might be accomplished. We’ll see if it works out.

The story has a working title but as I am still very uncertain if that title will stick, I will just refer to it as Dash of Darcy 4 because it will be the fourth Dash of Darcy Collection Novella. (And if all goes according to plan, there will be at least one sequel and maybe two sequels to add to my Dash of Darcy Companion Stories Collection.)

As with all my Dash of Darcy novellas, the story departs from Pride and Prejudice at a specific point and then follows a new path to happily ever after for Darcy and Elizabeth. This story starts at the conclusion of Darcy’s disastrous proposal — before he can even leave the parsonage — and takes a one hundred eighty degree turn.

This novella is a reworking of three short stories I wrote several years ago. These stories — A Change of Heart, Just Three Words, and With My Whole Heart — can be found in their original forms in my short stories collection HERE. I can’t promise that all of what you read in these stories will end up in the final product as the story has to be expanded and some ideas might not work with the new plot additions, but these three stories are my starting point.

The following scene (currently the beginning of chapter 3) is entirely new material that I am adding to this story and follows the rewritten A Change of Heart (which has been expanded enough to be chapters 1 & 2).

EXCERPT FROM Dash of Darcy 4: Continue reading Music Monday: Softness and Light, Brian Crain

Music Monday: A Walk in the Forest, Brian Crain

I’m pulling out an old comfortable favourite for today’s post. This song and others by this composer just have a way of wrapping me up in my imagination and tucking me away to find a good story. So snuggle into the music, grab a cup of something warm and cozy, and let me tell you about what is happening in my writing world.

“A Walk in the Forest – Brian Crain.” YouTube. Ed. Connie K. YouTube, 28 Aug. 2009. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

This was a busy week at my home. March Break starts today, so there were lessons and test and essays that needed to be completed before the break. There were also appointments and gym sessions — well, only one as it turned out. And in between and around those things, I had to fit in some writing work. But, you know, that’s just how life is — busy and satisfying even when it get tiring and you just want a nap. I cannot complain. My life is good.

Last week started with a Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada meeting and workshop where we discussed dialogue and fan fiction. I enjoy those craft sessions. It is good to stop and think about what we as writers are doing.

Then on Monday, I made certain my Austen Authors blog post was ready. Tomorrow, March 14, I will be sharing that Mansfield Park scene I mentioned writing a couple of weeks ago. Be sure to stop by to have a read!

And then, I began on my list of writing projects. Currently, I have three projects underway.

Discovering Mr. Darcy is nearly ready to send to my last editor before publication. I had hoped to have this story out this month, but it is looking more like it will be April before that will happen. Right now, I am working on an epilogue at my first reader’s suggestion. However, my brain was a little short on creativity, so I have sought the excellent help of the members of Leenie’s Sweeties for ideas. This week, I will sift through their suggestions and get that written.

I have begun first round edits on At All Costs. I am through chapter 5, and I think, I may have begun posting this story on the forum at darcyandlizzy.com. As I am writing this post on Saturday afternoon while my guys are all off at work, I have not yet begun posting it. I assume I will get to that, but you know how life can be at times and what is planned is not what happens. The chapters have not changed drastically from what has been posted here…a few more details have been given and more of the typos have been eliminated.

My third project is probably going to be the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story when At All Costs wraps up at the end of April. It is called With the Colonel’s Help and is the story that I shared a portion of last week. I have only gotten a bit further in that story. I am now on chapter 2 and only part way through it. It is a good think I have until the end of April to have it ready to being posting. 🙂 However, even though I have not progressed as far as I would have liked to since last week. I will share a bit of chapter 2 below.

EXCERPT FROM With the Colonel’s Help: Continue reading Music Monday: A Walk in the Forest, Brian Crain

Music Monday: Kindred Spirits, Brian Crain

brian crain. “Brian Crain – Kindred Spirits.” YouTube. YouTube, 22 Mar. 2016.

THE LINK BETWEEN MUSIC AND STORY:

Brian Crain’s music often plays while I am writing. This week it was on nearly every day. There are so many of his songs that I absolutely love, and when it comes time to make a little video trailer for a book, I go to his collection to choice the background music. It has, after all, been the background music while I have written and edited. This week, I decided to make a quick video for my Choices series, and since each hero and heroine finds a true love and a kindred spirit, I had to use this song. So above, it the full song and below is the trailer I made which uses part of this song. I hope you enjoy it!

ABOUT THE SERIES:

This series is a re-imagining of Jane Austen’s classic tale, Pride and Prejudice. When Mr. Bennet makes a choice to help his eldest daughters find happiness, he sets off a chain of events that will affect the lives of all his daughters and many of Darcy’s relatives. Enjoy the stories as a Fitzwilliam family secret unfolds, new loves are formed in the face of opposition, and an old love is rekindled.

Music: Kindred Spirits by Brian Crain. Used with permission.

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