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).
Engraving from La Belle Assemblée, February 1, 1817. Unknown artist [Public domain] via Wikimedia.
The couple in the two lines below are not in the ballroom where the assembled masses are dancing, but rather tucked away in a music room where they can have a private conversation. This story, A Music Room Meeting, is one of six short Austen-inspired stories that comprise the book Teatime Tales, which is one of the books given as a welcome gift to those who join my mailing list. (It is also available for purchase so look for it at your favourite ebook retailer.)
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She moved to stand near him. “Is this why you play instead of dancing?”
He closed his eyes. “How can I dance when others cannot?”
[from A Music Room Meeting, An Oxford Cottage Inspired Short Story]
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Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada. It is a day when we remember both the end of World War I and all soldiers who have given their lives to ensure our continued freedom. In honor of the day, I would like to start with a moment of remembrance before getting to the normal Monday post items. Below is a beautiful violin version of “The Last Post”, which will be played at many, many cenotaphs today. There will also be readings of the poem “In Flander’s Fields.” If you wish to listen to this poem, there is a reading of it by Leonard Cohen at this link.
Published to YouTube by Rachel Bostock on April 27, 2016.
I am truly grateful for the sacrifice made by so many.
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Now, for my writing news:
This week on the blog, I will not have the normal Tuesday and Thursday stories for you as those concluded last week. I will be taking down both Persuading Miss Mary and Her Secret Beau soon, as I am working on getting them both ready for publication. I did not get a lot done on either of these this week as I spent the week being sick. Continue reading Music Monday: The Last Post – Violin
Signing the Register, Edmund Leighton [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
Mary doesn't do things flippantly. She considers consequences and motivations. She ponders things deeply, filtering them through her beliefs. And that is not going to change on her wedding day. Putting her name in that church register and saying her vows will all be done with the respect she feels is their due.
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“I, Mary Amelia Bennet,” she repeated, “take thee, Reginald Arthur Fitzwilliam to my wedded husband.” Mary glanced at the minister who prompted her with the next words. Her hand was trembling slightly in his. Wes squeezed her hand and was rewarded with a smile before she said the next words.
“To have and to hold, from this day forward.” She paused to take a breath. “For better or worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health.”
She once again paused to breath. She was nervous, but it was not because she was marrying him. Nor was it the size of the church and the crowd within it which had her trembling. She had confessed her trepidation over the service to him just yesterday, and he knew that she was not only repeating words and pledging herself to him, but she was also speaking to God.
[from Persuading Miss Mary, Marrying Elizabeth book 4]
…“How do we have guests?” Grace asked as she checked her appearance in the mirror while Walter straightened and fidgeted with his clothing. “I did not think anyone would know we had arrived back in town until at least tomorrow.”
In the mirror, she could see his grin. “What have you done?”
He shrugged and shook his head. “It is a secret,” he whispered…
[From Her Secret Beau, Touches of Austen book 3]
Published to YouTube by Daniel Jang on June 28, 2019
We have come to it — the week when both Grace’s and Mary’s stories draw to a close! I will have to take both stories off the blog soon as I am going to be getting them ready to publish. I will also be taking Apple Blossoms down for this same reason. So, make sure you get your reading done within the next week.
Another thing which is changing soon is the set of books in Kindle Unlimited. Willow Hall will be leaving Kindle Unlimited on November 19, 2019. If you are a KU subscriber, make sure you have all those books (or the box set) downloaded before that date. You can still read after that date if you have already downloaded the book. Continue reading Love Someone – Lukas Graham – Violine Cover (Daniel Jang)
