Leenie Brown fell in love with Jane Austen's works when she first read Sense and Sensibility followed immediately by Pride and Prejudice in her early teens. As the second of five daughters and an avid reader, she has always loved to see where her imagination takes her and to play with and write about the characters she meets along the way. In 2013, these two loves collided when she stumbled upon the world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction. A year later, in 2014, she began writing her own Austen-inspired stories and began publishing them in 2015. Leenie lives in Nova Scotia, Canada with her two teenage boys and her very own Mr. Brown (a wonderful mix of all the best of Darcy, Bingley and Edmund with healthy dose of the teasing Mr. Tillney and just a dash of the scolding Mr. Knightley).
Posted on YouTube by RegencyDancesOrg with this note:
The Duke of Wellington's Dancers dancing the cotillion 'Le Rouët à filer' (the Spinning Wheel) at Townhill Park House on 28th June 2016 during a dress rehearsal. From XXIV New Cotillons, 1768, by James Longman. Music performed by The Birmingham Baroque Collective. Note the feeling of controlled perpetual motion.
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“Ah! Do we have more dancers?” The slight, blonde-haired master cried in delight, clapping his hands together.
“Miss Elizabeth, this is Mr. Hughes. Mr. Hughes, Miss Elizabeth Bennet.”
“Why just last year, three young ladies made very eligible matches after I had shown them particular attention. I tell you, I am a good luck charm for the matrimonially-minded miss.” {Charles Edwards in Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy]
Those are just a few of the lines from Chapter 1 of Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy where we are introduced to Henry Crawford’s friend, Charles Edwards.
Posted on YouTube by FANNYJKL, May 18, 2018.
Why am I sharing a quote from that book when I have another book coming out this week?
Because Charles happens to be the next character who will be subjected to my particular sort of reformation and improvement. At present, he is a rake — a bad boy through and through. But, we all know that that will change. 🙂
For now, I want to remind you that the story for another gentleman, William Collins, who underwent a transformation releases this Thursday, June 28, 2018! That’s only three more sleeps until Master of Longbourngoes LIVE. It is currently on pre-order and can be found at your favourite retailer by following this link.
There are a few advance reader reviews that you can read on Bookbub here. Thank you to those who read and reviewed early copies. 🙂
Ok, now back to Charles. 🙂
This week, I was able to get just under 5,000 words written on this new work in progress. Here’s what I can tell you about the story at the moment:
The title is Charles: To Discover His Purpose
The Hero and Heroine are Charles Edwards and Evelyn Barrett. As I said before, Charles is Henry’s friend (and also Trefor Linton’s friend). Evelyn is Constance Linton’s friend.
Charles is rakish. He’s drifting along through life having a great time.
Evelyn is a proper young lady — well, mostly — she does have a mischievous streak, and she can be direct in her words. She also has a carrying heart which sees her doing all manner of charity work.
As you can probably guess from that information, Charles is going to hit a rough patch in his easy, take-what-you-can-get life, and that rough patch’s name is Evelyn. For him, it might start as a bit of a game to see if he can break the proper Evelyn and steal a kiss or two or more. But as Henry Crawford discovered in Mansfield Park, games such as this can be dangerous as they may end up breaking the player’s heart. (And yes, there is at least that one deliberate nod to Mansfield Park in this story. There may be more. Time will tell.)
Can you see how the song I shared today seems to fit with this story? Charles and Evelyn will be slowing falling for each other and there will be some games played and there will some struggle and there is a need for being pointed “home,” etc. That is why I chose this song to share as it’s theme feels like it fits well with Charles’s story.
Would you like to read a short excerpt from what I have written so far? If so, keep reading 🙂 This is a portion of what I wrote on Friday of last week. It’s part of chapter 2 and will be posted soon on Patreon. (Probably tomorrow)
This portion focuses on Evelyn and her not well-pleased mother.
Emile-Pierre Metzmacher – Her First Steps, 1878; [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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At this Mrs. Bennet giggled, and then, with a slight arch to her right eyebrow responded in a whisper, “I should not say it, for I would not wish to hinder your regard for her, but there are few who can force Elizabeth to do that which she does not wish to do. She is a very determined young lady and has been so since before she was in leading strings.”
To Darcy’s surprise, there was a look of pride on the woman’s face that seemed to run contrary to her disparaging words.
Bingley rose from his chair and crossed to the wardrobe. “Do you have a man?” he asked as he pulled the doors open.
“No, I cannot justify such a luxury.”
“You will need one,” Bingley said as he looked through Collins’s possessions. “However, we will have to make do for now. I know a thing or two.” He turned and looked at Collins with a grimace. “I think it would be best if my man had a go at your hair and taught you a few more knots.” He pointed to his own cravat. “A lady does like a well-turned-out gentleman.”
[From Master of Longbourn]
DreamyViper. “Period Drama Men // Sharp Dressed Man.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 July 2011, youtu.be/svKWGnrbVos.
While Master of Longbourn has a lot of soft, sweet, and gentle moments in it, it also has a few scenes that should draw a smile or even a chuckle. Bingley tends to be the cause of those chuckles. He was such a pleasure to write in this story. He added the light-hearted balance that was needed.
Bingley laughed heartily. “You would like us to –”
“Be my tutors,” Collins pled. “I shall die a lonely old man as my father said if you do not.”
Bingley turns out to be a rather demanding tutor! 😀
However, it is not just the instruction Collins receives from his new found friends, Darcy and Bingley, that helps him to be successful. It is the acceptance he finds within the walls of Longbourn that truly propels him to transform from how he views himself to how he wishes to be.
The quotes above are from chapter 3. You can read chapter three as part of an extended preview until June 28, 2018, at this link.
In other news, I am still in the planning stages for Mr. Edwards’s story. No story words have been written on it. I’m hoping to change that this week. 🙂
I did add a few more thousand words to Delighting Mrs. Bennet last week. I am hoping to be able to work myself back into writing on two stories at a time since the cast of characters are so different. I started using a timer to limit the amount of time I was spending on Delighting Mrs. Bennet. I found myself enjoying the competition of beating the clock and still producing the number (and quality) of words I wanted to produce. 🙂 (I have a strong competitive streak even if just competing with myself. LOL)
Since the song this week is about being a sharp dresser, I thought I would share an excerpt from my writing that includes Bingley speaking about another person who is very aware of fashion. This excerpt will be included in the post on September 6.
