Author: Leenie Brown

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).

Music Monday: My Heart’s in the Highlands, The Barra McNeils

Research and writing go hand in hand.  You read something that sparks an idea, and a story is born.  Or, you begin to write something and find you need to go in search of some details.  In the process, you can get lost for hours on interesting tangents, or you can stumble across exactly what you need in a relatively short amount of time.  Below is a song I stumbled across when I found I needed some details for my story on Friday evening.

Barramacneils. “My Heart’s in the Highlands.” YouTube. YouTube, 15 Mar. 2007. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.

I was working on With the Colonel’s Help.  In it, Darcy has loaned Elizabeth a book of poems written by William Wordsworth.  As my characters were settling in to ride to London, I decided it might be nice to have Darcy read to Elizabeth. But what was he going to read?

Thankfully, there are search engines to help with such issues.  I typed in my search phrase, pressed enter and ta-da! lots and lots of poems by Wordsworth. So, I picked “The Solitary Reaper”, read it, and liked it well enough to allow it to be what Darcy would read to Elizabeth.

But then Darcy had to ask what song the young lady in the poem might have been singing.

Oy! These characters! 🙂

So, it was off to do another search.

A random click of a mouse on a song title, “My Heart’s in the Highlands”, in a list of traditional Scottish songs brought me this bit of information:

Written by Burns in 1789 to a traditional Gaelic tune. Burns was a Lowland Scot from Ayrshire, but he toured in the Highlands for a month in 1787.

Ah, Robert Burns! Perfect.

Colonel Fitzwilliam, however, wished to sing the song.  Which brought me to another question: what does the song sound like when sung?

That required a trip to YouTube.

In the list of results, I noticed this one by The Barra McNeils. I knew that name and was familiar with their Celtic style of music. (They’re from Cape Breton.) So, I clicked play.

As you will see in the excerpt I have included below, the song goes well with the Wordsworth poem, and I have Colonel Fitzwilliam beginning to sing before asking Elizabeth to continue — so while you listen to the recording above, imagine the colonel starting the song with the chorus, and then Elizabeth picking it up on the verse and being joined by the others on the choruses.

I am including the words to the Robert Burns poem below so you can see the words that are being sung, and below that you will find the excerpt from this week’s writing session.

My Heart’s In The Highlands

Chorus:
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe –
My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go!

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of worth!
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Chorus

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover’d with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below.
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods!

Chorus

EXCERPT FROM With The Colonel’s Help:  Continue reading Music Monday: My Heart’s in the Highlands, The Barra McNeils


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