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: Remembering You (Robin Spielberg)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY MEOWMEOWBB ON JUNE 25, 2011.

This is one of the songs on my Music to Write By playlist. It’s really pretty and has a wistful romantic air to it. It’s definitely just the right sort of music to get the writing mind working. I have decided to pair it today with this scene from His Darling Friend because Roger shares a sweet little remembrance about Victoria and a frog. Do you remember it from when it was the Sweet Tuesday story last year?

AN EXCERPT FROM His Darling Friend (Chapter 7):

“We will start from the top of the table, of course, with Amelia.” Mrs. Abernathy waited for her daughter to join her where she stood near the door to the drawing room in which all the houseguests were gathered to wait for dinner.

“Shall we see who it is who will dine with you?”

Miss Abernathy said an eager yes as her mother shook a bowl containing several small pieces of paper. She swirled her hand inside the bowl and pulled out a name. “Oh! How delightful! Mr. Carlyle.”

The gentleman straightened his jacket, crossed the room, and offered his arm to Miss Abernathy, whose waited only until her daughter and Mr. Carlyle had left the room before looking around and calling Victoria forward.

Of all the inane ideas! Roger crossed his arms and leaned against the wall near the window. The woman was obviously assigning gentleman dinner partners at random, but she was proceeding through the ladies based on status. Victoria was well-dowered. It was not something she published nor was it a fact she kept secret. He glowered at two gentlemen who had started whispering when Victoria’s name was called. He did not like it. His friend did not need any fortune hunters scampering after her.

“Mr. Clayton,” Mrs. Abernathy said.

Roger blew out a breath. It could be worse. She could have been stuck with Carlyle or one of those whispering gents.

Lady after lady was summoned forward and gentleman after gentleman was assigned as a partner.

“Is this not the best?” Grace said as she took Roger’s arm. “It is such a surprise! I do like surprises.”

“I do not,” Roger replied.

Grace giggled. “I will admit I had hoped I would be assigned someone different.”

“I hear Ainsley has a chit waiting for him at home,” Roger whispered.

Grace’s smile slid into a frown. “Does he indeed?”

“I have not asked him, of course, but that is what I have heard. We should proceed with caution.”

She tipped her head. “What do you mean we?”

Book Promos, A Preorder, and KU changes

Welcome to the inaugural edition of The Saturday Broadsheet — your weekly update on all that is happening in my writing life.

Writing News

I started my writing sessions this week by spending some time researching a few things for His Irreplaceable Belle. Mostly, these were visual inspiration items and picking character names.

As of this moment, as I write this post and before I get to my writing time today (if I get to it), I have only added one more chapter to the story, which brings me all the way to chapter two. 🙂

However, I am going to post the first chapter of that story here on my blog on this coming Tuesday. It’s already uploaded and just waiting to be released. And yes, that makes me nervous to start posting a story when so little of it has been written. Hopefully, I will get another chapter written tonight (although it’s looking doubtful), and a couple more chapters written next week, and then, I will feel more relaxed as I will be several weeks ahead. (I’ll also be able to get back to writing Kitty’s story then, too.)

Along with a bit of writing and research, I have also been super busy getting things ready for a couple of promotions. If you read my Friday Feature post yesterday, you already know about these things, but I am going to repeat those promos here anyway.

His Beautiful Bea (ebook) is FREE in the Kindle store until January 14, 2020.
The price of His Darling Friend (ebook) will be $0.99 USD (with other prices also reduced) starting Monday, January 13, 2020, until Friday, January 17, 2020.

The only other writing news item I have for you this week is that I have an Austen Authors post this coming Tuesday, which will be about Her Secret Bea and will include a giveaway of one copy of the ebook version of this story.

Publishing News

Her Secret Beau (ebook) is currently on preorder and will release on January 21, 2020. The print edition will release earlier because I would like to have the two editions linked and the page count corrected before the actual release day.

Wordless Wednesday Revisited

Do you remember this little fellow who likes to climb drapes, pounce on tables, and steal pretty things? I used this picture before with a few lines from Loving Lydia. You can find that post here.

The Butterfly by John Henry Dolph [Public domain] via Wikimedia

~*~*~

“Oh, how am I supposed to get you when you are under that?” Kitty gave a small stamp of her stockinged foot.

Oliver had slipped under a chest of drawers that held a clock, a lamp, and beautiful vase that stood waiting for a fresh bouquet of flowers.

She got down on her hands and knees and peeked under the piece of furniture.

“May I please have my ribbon?” she begged in as sweet a voice as she could muster when feeling as annoyed as she did.

[from Marrying Elizabeth book 5]

~*~*~

Marrying Elizabeth, books 1-4

MAILING LIST PATREON

Music Monday: My Luve is like a Red, Red Rose (Arr. Ešenvalds)

Happy New Year!

I am making a few changes to the Music Monday posts (which will cause some other changes on the blog). I’ll explain all that below.

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY VOCES8-TOPIC ON JANUARY 17, 2019

Every year as one year changes to the next, I evaluate what I am doing and look for ways to try to improve. Sometimes, I try new things. Sometimes, those new things work. Sometimes, they don’t. 🙂

Last year, I made a change to the blog and added Sweet Tuesdays. They have been going well, although, honestly, adding that third story to work on consistently with two others has been challenging. But it is a good challenge and has been worth the effort, I think. I plan to continue it.

This year, I am going to try shifting my writing news out of the Music Monday post and give it its own post called The Saturday Broadsheet. I’ve been typing up my weekly writing news for my mailing list for a couple of months now. I’ve been doing it on Thursdays, but the week isn’t over yet. There’s still one day of writing to be done. So, I think I will move writing those emails until Friday and then send them on Saturdays. If I am doing that for my mailing list, I should be able to easily copy out the information I want to post here on the blog on Saturdays at the same time.

This should (hopefully) streamline some things for me, and it should make my Monday posts focused more on the writing inspiration I find in music.

I figure it’s at least worth a try. If it doesn’t work, I can revert back to the way Monday posts have been, right?

I really don’t have a lot of writing news this Monday. I took a good bit of time off over the holidays — way more than I had intended to, but it was so good that I can’t really feel sorry I did it. 🙂 The only real writing-related thing that got done was my final proofread of Her Secret Beau. I’ll share details about the preorder and release and all that later this week. I would say Saturday — but…there will be a Friday Feature this week which is related to Her Secret Beau. 🙂

So, I’m not making any huge changes to the blog. Just a few small ones. You can let me know if you like them or loathe them in a month or so. 🙂 We have to try them for a while before we can say if we like them or not. That’s the rule. 🙂

Ok, so Mondays… I hope to bring you videos of music that inspires me while I am writing or which sparks writing ideas. I also want to highlight some of my already published works over the course of the year. (Did you know that Her Secret Beau will be the 43rd book I have published? I just need 9 more to cover a year of Mondays. Maybe by next year? LOL)

The video I shared today has a direct connection with one of the books I have written because Robert Burns’ poem “My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose” is a poem Darcy is reading in Netherfield’s library when a scheme is put into play to force him to marry Elizabeth.

Here’s how that scene goes. This lengthy excerpt is from Her Father’s Choice, Chapter 1.

Illustration from “Eugene Onegin” edition (1908) by Samokish-Sudakovskaya

Illustration from “Eugene Onegin” edition (1908); Elena Samokich-Soudkovskaïa [Public domain] via Wikimedia

Our couple takes a walk in the garden in chapter 4, and there is a bench involved. However, the couple in this painting look far happier than either Kitty or Lorcan will be during their walk in the garden.

~*~*~

“Are you well?” Kitty cried.

Mutely, he shook his head, for speech had left him.

“Do you wish to sit down?”

He nodded. Sitting was not exactly what he wished to do, but it was likely better than standing when the garden began to waver. She led him to a bench, and gratefully, he sank down onto it before his legs could fail him.

“Go on without me,” he said when he could once again speak now that his mind was no longer focused so intently on keeping him upright.

“But you are unwell,” she protested.

[from Marrying Elizabeth book 5]

~*~*~

Marrying Elizabeth, books 1-4