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: Winter Wonderland (Bing Crosby)

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY CHRISTMASTIMETV ON OCTOBER 27, 2010

Songs like this make me nostalgic as they were always playing on the record player around Christmas time when I was young. 🙂 I hope you enjoy this Christmas classic.

As I mentioned in the last Monday post (which I wrote yesterday since I am scheduling this ahead of time and taking some work time off over the next two weeks), I have no writing news to share this week — other than to remind you that the Darcy Family Series is only on sale for a couple more days.

Click the image to find out more about the books and to find links for purchasing.

Since I have no writing news this week, I wanted to share something of interest with you.

I like watching videos on YouTube — especially educational sorts of videos like the one below. Not all that long ago I discovered these short 18th-century cooking videos. I love how they bring to life how things were done hundreds of years ago, and it helps me visualize the lives of my characters a bit better to see the work that went into eating and the variety of foods that might have been eaten.

The recipe in this video is an English recipe, and the cookbook in which it can be found is mentioned in the video and is also listed in this blog post on the website mentioned in this video. (The recipe book is a free ebook on Google Play.)

I thought a Christmas pie recipe would be appropriate to share considering the time of year it is. 🙂 (And his little girl in this video is just adorable.)

And not only am I going to share the above video with you today, but I am also going to share a portion from chapter 12 of For Peace of Mind — which my second published book and the book which first led me to start collecting old cookbooks in my Google Books Library. 🙂

At the beginning of this scene in which Darcy and Elizabeth exchange gifts, it mentions that the Bennets are expecting guests for a Christmas Eve dinner. I suppose it is entirely possible that they might have served a Christmas Pie on such an occasion, don’t you?

AN EXCERPT FROM For Peace of Mind:

A Courtly Interior (A. Stephan) 1870

A. Stephan [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons

Though this scene depicts the 18th century and our story is set in the 19th century, I picked it because it reminded me of the Bennets — a mother and father with five beautiful daughters. I can just hear Mr. Bennet saying “we have done very well for ourselves, have we not, Mrs. Bennet.” (Does anyone else wish to smooth that rug? 🙂 )

~*~*~

“It is Mother and Father’s anniversary. They will have been married twenty-four years next Thursday.”

“Oh, I had forgotten it was so soon!” That was indeed a day of great importance. “Are you planning a dinner for them?”

Since the time Jane was twelve, she had taken over the celebration preparations for their parent’s anniversary dinner. Before that, Mama had always arranged things.

“It may be the last dinner I get to plan.”

[from Marrying Elizabeth book 5]

~*~*~

Marrying Elizabeth, books 1-4

Music Monday: Angels from the Realms of Glory – The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens and David Archuleta

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY PETER HOLLENS ON DECEMBER 14, 2014.

Christmas is almost here at the Brown residence. It won’t be an elaborate day of festivities. We tend to take a low key approach to the holiday. There will be presents — just a few, but not many — which we will unwrap once we ease our way into the day at a rather late hour. This will be followed by a Christmas breakfast with far too many indulgent items, and then later in the day, we will have a turkey dinner. It’s a lovely, relaxing day of rest for us — unless, of course, my husband has a job which must be completed when businesses are closed.

(He owns a cleaning business, and I have sat reading a book in the car as I waited for him to put a coat of wax on a floor before taking a drive to look at the Christmas lights while that coat of wax dries. Then, he’ll slip in another coat before we head home.)

For the next couple of weeks, I am intending to take it a bit easier than I normally do. I will still be writing and editing and such but at a more relaxed pace.

Beechwood Park, Hertfordshire, 1818 (John Preston Neale)

~*~*~

Lorcan rubbed the back of his neck while he studied Netherfield. He had no great desire to go there, but he also did not wish to walk to Meryton or remain on the road. “And what if no one is in residence?”

“There will be staff, sir. They will be able to help you find accommodations. Send a footman to Meryton if there is an issue, and I will hire a carriage to collect you.”

“Very well,” Lorcan agreed. There really was not much else to do.

[from Marrying Elizabeth book 5]

~*~*~

Marrying Elizabeth, books 1-4

Music Monday: Christmas in the County (Thomas Rhett)

I just added this song to my ‘Tis the Season playlist either last week or the week before. I’ve been doing a lot of listening to Christmas music while working lately, and this song is just so happy. It makes me want to sing along (which is only possible if doing things that don’t require concentration. I have a ‘Tis the Season instrumental playlist for that.) 🙂

PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY THOMAS RHETT ON NOVEMBER 19, 2019

This past week, I was busy getting First Blooms and Second Chances ready to send out and to publish, so there were several tasks that did not require the kind of concentration that writing does. Therefore, I did sing along with this song and many others.

(Waiting for the print previewer to open in Kindle Direct Publishing takes forever — usually more than one song and often long enough to switch over laundry 😉 )

Most of the publishing details for both the print and ebook versions of First Blooms have been completed. The print version just went live today (I am writing this on Saturday) I just need to submit a request to have the two versions linked on Amazon and to have a series page created since there are now two books in my Nature’s Fury and Delights series.

If you subscribe to my mailing list, make sure you check your inbox. You should have an email containing a link to download a free copy of First Blooms and Second Chances. If you are not on my mailing list, you can subscribe between now and January 2, 2020, and receive this book as part of your welcome gift.

Things are winding down on the frantic get-these-projects published front. I just have Her Secret Beau to work on soon. That book will publish in the new year.

I have not, however, gotten the next book in that series (Mr. Norman’s story) started as I had hoped. Maybe this week? Maybe next? Sometime soon that book needs to be started as I hope to begin posting chapters on Tuesdays shortly after the new year. (However, I also need to do some Christmas stuff. 🙂 So, my workdays will be fewer in number.)

I did get one more chapter of Kitty’s story written this week, which puts me at eight completed chapters and probably in a safe place to start giving some of my writing time to Mr. Norman’s story.

The only other writing-related note for this week is that it is my turn to post at Austen Authors this week, and I am sharing some samples from a few books — First Blooms and the three books I have on sale. (In case you missed it, I shared chapter one of Two Days before Christmas here on the blog on Friday.

Today, I think I will share chapter one from the second book in the Darcy Family Holidays series, One Winter’s Eve. (And the song choice kind of goes with the story — in a squint your eyes and don’t look too closely kind of way — since Caroline does find herself in the country for Christmas. 🙂 )

CHAPTER 1