“What I would not give for a book or a bit of stitching,” Margaret said.
“I do not think I could enjoy either with all this rocking,” Mary said. She would do well to not become ill from the motion.
There was nothing to do besides pace their small confines in a staggering fashion as they attempted to grow accustomed to the motion of the ship or sleep. And so, they did one for a period of time, and then endeavoured to do the other when their legs grew weary. They huddled together as comfortably as they could in a corner they created by pushing around a couple of crates. It felt secluded and gave the illusion of being safe.
[from Mary: To Protect Her Heart]
Published to YouTube on November 14, 2017, by Jennifer Thomas.
*music ends at about 3:30 with information about the performer after that mark
As I mentioned last week, we are on a short break from any work in progress excerpts on Mondays as I am just beginning some new stories and have nothing ready to share. However, when I found this music video I just couldn’t help using a small excerpt from Mary’s story to go with it. (And I’ll admit to wanting to tempt everyone into reading her story. 😉 ) Those few lines above are from when the real trouble (and danger) begin in the story.
Mary: To Protect Her Heart is on pre-order for a special price until December 10, 2018. After December 10, the price will go up. Henry’s and Charles’s stories are also on sale until Mary’s release day, so this is a great time to pick up all the books in the series.
During the pre-order period, I will be working on the print edition, making final corrections to commas and typos, working on promotional graphics, and sending out a limited number of advance reader copies to my mailing list as well as sharing some of those ARCs in my Leenie’s Sweeties Facebook Group.
But that’s not all I am working on. At the same time, I need to get Nature’s Fury and Delights: Thunder, Mist, and Frost ready to publish on December 18 (my next Austen Authors post day), and I am working my way through the first round of edits on Delighting Mrs. Bennet, which will be published in early January 2019 (probably January 3 or 10). It is a busy but exciting time of year in my writing world.
You would think that all those activities would be enough to keep me scurrying and wondering how I will get it all done — and you’d be right 🙂 However, I just don’t feel right when I don’t get to write. 😀
So, I have started Tom Bertram’s story. I’ve only written about 1000 words so far, but I have done many hours of research before I wrote any of those words. (Yes, I am once again pushing myself to explore new things with this story. I really don’t know why I do this to myself. 🙂 I guess I just like the challenge of learning.)
By the end of this week, I hope I might be ready to start writing Loving Lydia. I want to get my first read through/edit of Delighting Mrs. Bennet done first, and I think I can have that finished by about Thursday if my schedule works. I think you might have some idea from where part of the conflict in Loving Lydia might stem after seeing Wednesday and Thursday’s posts.
Delighting Mrs. Bennet will conclude this Thursday. I will be leaving it up for about a week (and a few days since I do my blog post work on Saturdays) before removing it from the blog. That means there will be a month between when this story ends and Loving Lydia begins. But don’t worry. I am not going to skip any Thursday posts. I just happen to have something else planned for the month of December — which you can find out about next week. 😉
One last little writing news item that is not so little to me. I have always sold all my books on as many sales platforms as possible. However, based on past experience and my analysis of previous sales numbers as well as the direction in which I would like to go with my writing career, I am going to be pulling Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy, Charles: To Discover His Purpose, and His Beautiful Bea off all of my vendors except for Amazon so that I can place these books in the Kindle Unlimited program for at least 90 days. My hope in doing this is to make the stories available to a large group of readers who might feel more willing to take a chance on a Mansfield Park-based story by borrowing and reading it rather than committing money to something they don’t realize they will enjoy. (I mean, they will enjoy the stories. I just need to give them the chance to discover that they will enjoy them, ya know what I mean?) It wasn’t an easy choice to make. I am not a fan of the exclusivity that Amazon demands to be part of the Kindle Unlimited program, but, after talking to several people I respect, it seemed that trying this approach is a good business decision. I will be asking to have them removed from other sellers after Wednesday this week since Charles’s story is still in the Kobo Plus program until that day.
I’ll share more about the direction I would like to go in my writing career later — probably in January. For now, I’ll just say that I have always said I was an author of Austen-inspired and original fiction, and I think it’s time to start working more original fiction into my catalog of books. Don’t worry. I don’t plan to stop writing sweet stories. I’m just shifting a bit. But, I’ll explain more when I have more of a plan in place. I’m just starting to attempt the planning part. 🙂
I think that’s all the writing news I have for now.
Have a great week!
Leenie
~*~*~
KOBO AMAZON NOOK IBOOKS MAILING LIST PATREON SOCIETY6
OMG! You have so many things planned, I don’t know where to start. First, that music video was amazing. She is so talented. I know she said she became seasick during the filming, but I have to admit, I was a bit seasick just watching the video. Your plans for going to KU was very adventurous and a hard decision to make. Many of my online friends use KU so they will be pleased. I’ve sent them a message to keep their eyes open for your books. I am looking forward to the launch of Delighting Mrs. Bennet. I have followed that story and it is delightful. You chose your title well. Lydia’s story should be VERY interesting. I can’t wait. I’m glad you chose to do Tom’s story next. We don’t know a lot about him as a person. We see his actions before and after his accident. But what that entailed… we are sort of in the dark. It will be interesting to see your take on this. I am absolutely vibrating with excitement with all the news you’ve shared with us in this post. I wish you a blessed rest of the week and thank you for all your hard work.
Thank you for sharing the news with your online friends. That’s great! I am looking forward to the Lydia story. It should be interesting and likely a bit of a challenge to write — as will be Tom’s. 😀 His story is going to start at the end of Mary’s story, but I am hoping to have some memories and such in it that should help give a little glimpse of his time while ill.