~*~*~
“He is very loyal to you,” Darcy added.
“He is.”
“So is my cousin.” Elizabeth barely heard the whispered words which Darcy spoke as he once again scratched Dash’s ear before turning his head to look at his sister. “Were you going to practice some music, Georgiana?”
[from Loving Lydia, book 3 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
~*~*~
Confounding Caroline, book 1 ~ Delighting Mrs. Bennet, book 2
I am keeping to the same format as I did last week and sharing an excerpt from something I was working on this past week, and then sharing a longer excerpt from a published book at the end of the post. Both excerpts take place at balls just as the video does.
This first excerpt is from near the end of Tom: To Secure His Legacy:
“I am glad to hear it,” she replied.
He tipped his head slightly to one side, his brow furrowed.
“Truly,” she assured him.
That returned his smile to his face just as the music began. For the duration of the set, they spoke in snatches about things of little significance – flowers, the weather, the crush of people, and so on. It was perhaps the longest and best conversation about the mundane things of the world in which Faith had ever taken part.
“I fear I will not be able to offer another set to you,” Mr. Bertram said as they made their way from the floor. “Unless, of course, you do not mind strolling in the garden rather than dancing during the set.”
He was limping more than usual. His leg must be hurting him most grievously. He had performed admirably while dancing, even if his hopping and skipping had been a trifle awkward at times when he began favouring one leg over the other.
“I am not a walking stick,” Faith whispered, “but you may lean on me if you wish.”
“I am certain I can make it to where I left my cane,” he assured her with a smile.
“Do you even think it wise to walk in the garden? Would your leg not do better if you were to rest it?”
“You sounded very much like Mrs. Durward just now,” he replied with a laugh.
“I promise not to instruct you to sit by the fire.”
“Very well, then, shall we adjourn to the card room?”
She shook her head. “My brother has made me promise to dance as often as I am asked. I fear he might not think I was doing as he requested if I disappear from the ballroom. However, I would not be opposed to a short stroll of the garden and perhaps a small rest on a bench during some other dance tonight.” It was almost as close as she dared come to declaring her feelings for him, there was one more thing she could say in that regard. “I was sorry to have missed your call yesterday.”
They had reached the edge of the room, near the door to the corridor, and with a look over his shoulder, he led her into the hall.
“My brother…” she protested.
“Might be out here. I did not see him in the ballroom just now,” Mr. Bertram replied with a grin.
I have begun the final read-through of Tom’s story and have set a tentative release date for March 11, 2019. I say it is a tentative date, but I firmly believe that date will hold fast. I just like to leave a little wiggle room at this stage of things.
I have not started any new stories, nor do I actually plan to start one for at least another week. I have decided that some of the projects I have been putting off really should not be put off any longer and deserve attention.
One of those projects is the rearranging of some book bundle content. I am, for various reasons, going to be unpublishing two anthologies: New Beginnings and Despite the Circumstances, and creating a new anthology (title and cover to be revealed later).
This new anthology will include Oxford Cottage, For Peace of Mind, Through Every Storm, Listen To Your Heart, and With the Colonel’s Help. I plan to put this anthology in Kindle Unlimited for at least three months. While that is great news for Kindle Unlimited readers, it is not so great for readers who do not read through Amazon as I will be required to remove those books from all my other vendors. Kindle Unlimited demands exclusivity.
I am uncertain at this point if this collection will come out of Kindle Unlimited after the 90-day term is over or not. As I have mentioned in other Monday posts, I am shifting to work on things that are not Pride and Prejudice related more often this year. To do that, I have to try new tactics that might help keep royalties up where they need to be for me to draw my salary from my writing/publishing business, Leenie B Books.
Once again, I will say that removing books from other vendors and making them exclusive to Amazon has not been an easy decision, but I will not truly know if Kindle Unlimited can help keep royalties up unless I try it.
I have the Other Pens, Mansfield Park series and His Beautiful Bea in K.U. but they are not Pride and Prejudice based books and so have a smaller number of readers willing to give them a try. They are not doing poorly compared to how they did when non-exclusive, but the numbers are still on the lower end of things. So, I need to “experiment” with stories which have a larger reader base willing to read them.
If they do well, I might put other collections of books in Kindle Unlimited. This might be for an extended period of time or it might be on a rotating basis so that the books can be made available to readers on other platforms as well. I’m really uncertain how it is all going to work out, and there might be some bumps and missteps along the way.
To help me as I make some of my decisions, would you be willing to take a quick two-question survey? If so, you can find the survey at the link below. The questions are simple. Question one gives several options for ways you prefer to buy and read books. You can select as many options as apply to you. Question two gives you a blank to share anything you would like me to know about how you read that is not included in the survey.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BCJ3D3W
I will leave the survey open until Friday. Thank you to those who take the time to participate.
And, I think, that is all the news I have for you this week other than I am still working on His Darling Friend and Loving Lydia.
Oh, no! There is one more thing. I will have a Friday Feature worth checking out this Friday. 🙂
And now it is time for the second excerpt I promised at the top of this post.
Below is an excerpt from the epilogue to Willow Hall, which can be found at the end of At All Costs. I thought it went well with the mood set by the video above. However, it is from the end of a book, so read at your own risk. 🙂 Continue reading Music Monday: The Last Dance (Samuel Sim – Emma 2009)
~*~*~
“He loves me,” Lydia said above Dash’s growl.
“You are not good enough for him,” Lady Catherine snapped.
Dash positioned himself in front of Lydia and barked, startling Lady Catherine.
[from Loving Lydia, book 3 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
~*~*~
Confounding Caroline, book 1 ~ Delighting Mrs. Bennet, book 2
I’m flip-flopping this post just a tiny bit today, as I am starting with just a few lines from something I wrote last week and will end with an excerpt from an already published book.
The following lines are part of a chapter of His Darling Friend, which will post in a couple of weeks. However, since this story does contain touches of Jane Austen’s Emma it seemed to match quite well with the musical video clip below. (I have been watching a few Emma clips to get some inspiration lately. 🙂 )
“Then, it shall be perfect. Do you think we might try it now?” He motioned to the piano.
Victoria tamped down her irritation about having to play anything at all, handed the remaining sheets of music to Diana, and took her place at the instrument. The things one had to endure to please one’s mother!
Thirty minutes later, once Mr. Carlyle, who was as exacting as she had imaged him to be, was satisfied with both his performance and hers, Victoria was allowed to quit her spot at the piano.
“Of all the frustrating, arrogant men!” she complained in a whisper to Diana. “Did you hear him instructing me on how best to play?”
A note about the song from Wikipedia:
“Silent Worship” is featured in the 1996 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma, where it is sung by Gwyneth Paltrow (as Emma) and Ewan McGregor (as Frank Churchill). Although Somervell’s 1928 English adaptation of the 1728 Handel aria was done more than a century after Austen’s 1815 novel, the original Italian aria was recorded in Jane Austen’s own handwritten songbooks. In the film, Somervell’s piano introduction to the song is shortened.
So, as you can tell, there is to be some sort of musical performance at the Abernathy House party. This week, I wrote the practice session chapter of His Darling Friend, and that is all I wrote on any story! It was a heavy editing week as far as stories go. Tom: To Secure His Legacy should be in the hands of my first reader before you read this on Monday morning. So, that moves one pressing project off my list of things to do for a while, which means I can hopefully start thinking and working on my other projects more — including deciding what new story is going to step into the lineup.
The only other item which I wrote this week was an Austen Authors blog post about His Darling Friend, which will post tomorrow, February 12, 2019. I wrote it to announce the beginning of a new, free-to-read, weekly story to those who might not always read my blog or who do not even know about my blog.
And that was it for my writing work this week. 🙂
Since I do not have a current work in progress story to share a longer excerpt from at present, I thought I would share an excerpt from an already published book. This scene is from Chapter 5 of Discovering Mr. Darcy where Colonel Fitzwilliam and Lady Catherine are “up to no good” (aka arranging a compromise 😉 ) and was chosen because it involves practicing the piano, which I think goes well with the excerpt from His Darling Friend and with the video.
AN EXCERPT FROM Discovering Mr. Darcy: Continue reading Music Monday: Silent Worship (Emma 1996)
~*~*~
“Darcy, what is the meaning of this?” Lady Catherine waved at the dog who was sniffing her shoes. “I nearly fell! It is not a proper way to be greeted. Not at all. Go on with you. Leave me be,” she said to Dash, and Dash being the dog that he was, cocked his head to the side, looking up at her, and moved not an inch.
[from Loving Lydia, book 3 in the Marrying Elizabeth Series]
~*~*~
Confounding Caroline, book 1 ~ Delighting Mrs. Bennet, book 2
