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).
At the Window, Hans Heyerdahl [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
I think this picture captures Kitty's current pensive (and sorrowful) air as she sits in her window seat in her bedroom at Longbourn. So many thoughts and feelings being secreted away!
~*~*~
She pulled her feet up and wrapped her arms around her knees as she rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. Sorrow wished to spill out of her, but she would not let it – at least, she would not until she climbed into bed. Then, knowing that no one would hear or see her, she would allow her heart to feel the cracks which scarred it. For now, she would strive to think of nothing – not of how all her sisters were married or soon would be, not of the soirees and possible matches which had been missed because she had been required to leave town before the end of the season, not of the dear friend she had left behind at Darcy House, and most especially, not of Mr. Langley. One tear sneaked out the corner of her eye, forcing her to brush it away.
I thought we would start off the season of Christmas music with a bang! This song should do that quite well.
Heads up: This is not your sweet and soft Christmas carol, and if you are sensitive to flashes of light, you might want to listen and not watch. If you follow my Facebook page, I did share this video on there last week because I just really enjoy this fun take on this classic song.
PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY FOR KING AND COUNTRY ON NOV 9, 2018.
I have very little writing news at this moment. I was able to get two more chapters of Kitty and Lorcan’s story written this week. I had hoped to get three done, but that just did not work out. 🙂
I did complete my final read-through of First Blooms and Second Chances. This project, while it is going to be published soon, was written with the intention of being a gift to my mailing list and Patreon subscribers. If you happen to fall into one of those groups, be watching for your copy of this book to show up in your inbox this week before it goes live on any publishing platform.
If you are not a Leenie B Book News mailing list subscriber and you’d like to be, there is a link at the bottom of this post where you can join. Until January 6, 2020, one of the thank you gifts for subscribing will be First Blooms and Second Chances. (Or it will be as soon as I get that set up to send out after I have emailed the current subscribers — so many little details.)
The only other thing I wished to mention in the writing news section today is that there is now a print version available of The Choices Series compilation, and it has been linked to the ebook sales page and has had the page count updated there to match for both books. (It used to list the book as 400 and some pages and the 5.5 in x 8.5 in paperback I submitted was over 600 pages — this is why it is not always safe to assume that the page count Amazon is showing you is correct or even close, in this case.)
Well, since I do not have anything new that I am writing and since my writing news was rather short, I think I will share the first chapter from “Morning Mist”, which is a Sense and Sensibility variation novelette and is part of last year’s mailing list Christmas gift, Thunder, Mist, and Frost (Nature’s Fury and Delights, book 1).
Un Adieu Poignant, Frederik Hendrik Kaemmerer [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.
Tomorrow's story begins with a parting so I thought this painting would be a good one to pair with the short prologue to this yet unnamed story.
~*~*~
“Are you certain this is what you want?”
Langley turned away from Lady Matlock to find Mr. Bennet observing him with great interest and a hint of compassion. He allowed himself to glance at Kitty…
He nodded as he turned back to her father. “It is.” This lie did not fall more easily from his lips than any of the others had so far today.
He sighed as he heard the tears that lay behind the softly spoken words. “I know. You are right. We must make sure she has everything she needs. It is as Father and Uncle Barrett would have wished.” He ran the back of a finger down the baby’s soft cheek. “She is sweet.”
Kathleen smiled at him. For all his size and grumbling, he was rather more of a kitten than a lion at times. “She is, and you’ll not be spoiling her, Douglas Witherfield.”
He laughed, a deep rumbling sound she had not heard much in the past year. “It is good to be home,” she said as she stepped into the apothecary shop.
[from “Hope at Dawn” from Nature’s Fury and Delights: First Blooms and Second Chances, publishing Dec. 2019]
PUBLISHED TO YOUTUBE BY BROOKLYN DUO ON MARCH 27, 2015
Today’s music video is another song from my Music to Write By playlist. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I only have a few items for my writing update. If you’re on my mailing list, you’ve already read these. Nothing much has changed since I sent that email to you on Friday.
Pride and Prejudice Chapter 15 Illustration by C.E. Brock (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons
~*~*~
An officer stood near the youngest Bennet sisters, while two other gentlemen stood on either side of Miss Elizabeth. The first was dressed in the dark garb of a parson and the second–Darcy clenched his jaw to keep from speaking.
[from Two Days in November, A Pride and Prejudice Inspired Short Story]
