Walter looked up the hall and then down. Seeing it was empty, he pulled Grace into his arms for a quick embrace – not long enough by half but enough to assure himself that she was truly there with him. Two days of travelling and stopping at inns in search of her had been two very long days.
“Do not ever leave me again,” he whispered before releasing her. He grasped her face between his hands. “Promise me, you will not leave me.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. Again, it was far from how he wished to kiss her.
[from Her Secret Beau, Touches of Austen book 3]Published to YouTube by LYRICS on October 10, 2014.
Sometimes when I am looking for a song to share on Mondays, I get sucked into YouTube for hours (and that is no exaggeration). I love music, and I find it very inspiring to my imagination. Tonight (Sunday night) was one of those nights. I finally came across this song about an hour and a half after opening YouTube. 🙂 On my home screen, YouTube likes to show me “The Best of…” for various talent shows. I occasionally give in to my curiosity and click on them. While I was listening to a group on one of those videos, I thought, “Oh, I haven’t listened to any tenors music lately. I should do that.” That is how I came to be listening to the Canadian Tenors. When I heard this song, I knew I had to share it with you because it immediately made me think of Walter Blakesley. The lines above the song are how tomorrow’s chapter of Her Secret Beau begins.
There are only two chapters of both Her Secret Beau and Persuading Miss Mary left to read. One of those chapters will be posted this week, and the other will be posted next week.
I am just about finished rereading Mary’s story and should have that off to my first reader by Wednesday. Then, I will start the reread of Grace’s story. I still do not have any publication dates in my calendar for these two stories. However, I would expect to be able to publish Persuading Miss Mary by the end of November or beginning of December. Her Secret Beau might have to wait until January as I am hoping to have another Nature’s Fury and Delights collection of stories ready to publish in December. I am hoping to have the first three Marrying Elizabeth books bundled together into a compilation bundle before Persuading Miss Mary publishes. Those are my hopeful goals, which I indeed do hope become actual accomplishments. 🙂
I completed the new writing project I mentioned last Monday. It ended up being just over 12,000 words long and will be part of the Nature’s Fury and Delights collection that I am planning to have ready for December. Apple Blossoms will also be part of that collection, as will Hope at Dawn, which, five years ago, was my very first ever Thursday’s Three Hundred story. I am intending to go back through that story and do some editing if need be. Until recently, Hope at Dawn was a bonus story included in the back of And Then Love. I took that out of there when I redid the covers and files this year.
I am toying with the idea of posting that story here on the blog after the current Tuesday and Thursday stories conclude since I do not have new ones waiting to post just yet, and I hate to leave you with no story to read during the week. That would make two stories in the Nature’s Fury and Delights collection which have been shared here on my blog. Therefore, I am planning to make this collection four stories long instead of three, which means I have another story to write. I’d love to get it done or almost done this week, but realistically, it will probably take until next week since I haven’t even decided on which story it will be. I’ll let you know how it is going next Monday. 🙂
Addie’s story is doing well. It is not flying off the shelves or garnering huge numbers of pages read, but it is being downloaded at a steady drip. 🙂 And when I compare the ranking numbers for her story against those of the other books in the series, she is definitely holding her own. While, of course, I would be thrilled to pieces if her story was making bestselling lists and flying out the door :), I am pleased to see the success that is there. I am going to be putting some effort and money into seeing if I can get this series to pick up its sales so that it can remain feasible to continue writing in that story world.
I think that is the end of my writing news for this week — a lot of plans and possibilities. 🙂 So now, I think I will share an excerpt from the story I just finished writing this past Friday. This is the only excerpt I plan to share from this story before it is published. It is an original sweet Regency romance.
AN EXCERPT FROM A Lily for Midwinter:
“I heard Flitcroft instructing a footman to see something sent by express.” Frederick’s mother kept her eyes on her dinner plate and meticulously cut her venison into tiny pieces while she pried into her son’s life.
“A letter was misdirected, and I wished to have it returned as quickly as possible.” The roasted celeriac was particularly good this evening, nearly as tasty as the mushrooms in butter sauce. Nearly, but not quite.
“Who was it for?” His younger sister’s fork on which was skewered both a slice of venison and a mushroom hung just over her plate as she turned to her attention to her brother.
She was far too curious by half, in his opinion, and his mother did little to curb such behaviour. In fact, his mother was looking just as expectantly at him as his sister was.
“The directions were somewhat spoiled by the rain.”
“You could not make them out at all?” She finally popped her bite of food into her mouth. He should be free from questions from her for a minute or two.
He shook his head. “The names were the worse for the wear, I am afraid. The person for whom the letter was intended has the initials S.G. That is all I know other than the sender’s name is Lily.
“Lily?” A curious look passed between his mother and sister. “That is a very pretty name, do you not think, Rosalie?”
“Simply lovely. I would imagine the lady who bears such a name to be quite delicate, much like this cup.” She lifted her teacup and took a sip.
Why she refused to have wine with her meal, he did not know. But she did. It was always tea with dinner and wine with a bit of something sweet later. It was completely against how things should be done if you asked him.
“See how it is so delicately painted?” She held the cup in his direction. “There is not a garish flower on here. Just simple rosebuds twining around each other in a field of white, bordered by a golden band.”
Roses were a favourite in his family, and all the cups and saucers in this particular set of dishes paid homage to his grandmother’s favourite flower.
“She did not sound delicate,” Frederick muttered, returning to his delightful mushrooms. His sister could be so fanciful.
“What did you say, Freddie?” Rosalie skewered her brother with a pointed look.
“I said that she did not sound delicate,” he repeated as he attempted to avoid both his sister’s and his mother’s raised brows. “I read the letter,” he admitted.
“You did what?”
He winced at his mother’s sharp tone.
“I know that it is rude to read someone else’s correspondence, and yet it was necessary.” It was also rude to read the words written in a journal which was not his, and it was also beyond the pale to stand close enough to someone’s shoulder so that he could read a letter as it was being written. How many times had his curious nature won him that lecture as a child? “I was looking to see if I could discover to whom the letter was addressed so that I might find its rightful owner. It was intended for some lady named Sally. That is all I know.”
“No, it is not,” Rosalie said, her lips were pursed with displeasure when he looked at her. “You said Lily did not sound delicate, and there must be a reason for such disparagement of a lady you do not even know.”
“I was not disparaging,” he defended.
“You said she was not delicate.”
“Exactly.” That was not a disparagement. It was a statement of observation. And there was, in his mind, absolutely nothing wrong with being considered not delicate. In fact, if he were pushed to be blunt, he’d rather have a lady who was not delicate.
“Delicate means easily broken. Miss Lily did not sound easily broken.”
She sounded rather as if she might be capable of withstanding a great deal of disagreeableness with just a sardonic word and a roll of her eyes. The thought brought a smile to his lips. He might like to meet this Lily.
“A lady may be delicate and strong,” his mother cautioned, drawing his mind back to the conversation at hand rather than allowing him to continue imagining Miss Lily. “A teacup holds very hot water without so much as a whimper of complaint. Fine features and manners do not indicate a lack of fortitude.”
Frederick sighed, loudly, purposefully, and with a look of exasperation for his mother. “I am certain that is true. Could we please not make this into a lesson on what I should be looking for in a wife?”
~*~*~
Delightful post. After a day spent at the Dr’s ofc… that music was so soothing. I loved it. Congratulations on the completion of your stories. I know crunch time is always stressful. Soon you will launch them right out the door and it will be another story excerpt we will be reading. I wish you well.
Glad the music could be helpful for you. I just started that fourth short story/novelette tonight. It’s just a germ of an idea right now, but maybe if it sprouts and grows, I’ll have a new story excerpt to share next week. I don’t know which is more stressful — getting the completed books out the door or deciding what to write next and getting it started. 🙂 It’s good stress either way. 🙂 Thanks for the well wishes.