Welcome to August. 🙂 Today, I have a movie meets music selection with a rocky edge to it. I chose it for a few of the lyrics that seem to go with the story I just completed writing. Here are the lyrics, and below the video, you’ll find a few lines of the story which I hope will help you see how this song seems to fit the plight Charles Edwards finds himself in at the end of Charles: To Discover His Purpose.
…can we see beyond the scars
And make it to the dawn?
AND
What if you’re making me all that I was meant to be?
AND
This broken heart can still survive
With a touch of your grace
AND (finally)
For all my life, I am yours
Published to YouTube by Elva Dögg Guðmundsdóttir on September 21, 2008.
“You, Miss Barrett, are perhaps the most compassionate, yet uncompromising, lady I have ever met. You do not only do great things, but you demand them as well. You inspire me to be a better man. You,” his lips curled into a small smile, “with all your scolding and reprimanding, have caused me to find something at which I am good…”
AND
“I will not present any other offer to you from this day forward. I will simply leave you with the option of choosing me. If someday, I should be so fortunate as to earn your good opinion as well as your heart, you have only to tell me, and I will be yours for time and eternity. I will not charm anything from you, Evelyn. Never from you. I will only ever take what you wish to give me, even if at this moment it is anger and distrust.”
Charles’s story is with my first reader, and I expect to get her notes on it this week. It has finished posting at Patreon, and I am hoping to get the preorder set up by the end of this week so that it can go live next Tuesday.
Charles’s ebook cover is all ready to go, and a cover reveal to my mailing list and here on the blog are scheduled for next Monday.
I do, however, still need to write a blurb before I can set up that preorder. So, that will be on my to-do list this week.
Writing-wise, I took it a bit easy this week. I allowed myself a full week of non-writing days. During those days, I worked on other things, such as…
I was able to get more of the Dash of Darcy and Companions Collection re-covered. I still need to create a couple of print covers for ebooks which already have their new covers, and I have to create two Companions Duos. That’s all that is left on that project. I’ll be very glad when this updating project is complete. It was a big job.
I spent some time playing with graphics and working on a few items for my Society6 store, BonnyLassCreatives. I figured since it is now August and school will be starting soon, I would work on making some stickers, notebooks, and note cards for my shop. I added a few new designs but only a few. However, it was the creative break my brain needed to relax after the completion of one story and slowly come back to ready to write.
By Wednesday of this week, after seven non-writing days, I was itching to get back to some story. Mary Crawford will be the focus of my next Other Pens book, and my mind has started to work on figuring out her whys. So, I have not written anything for her yet. I did work on Delighting Mrs. Bennet on Thursday and Friday, and I think that story is nearly complete. I will focus on it this week because I think it really only requires a few thousand more words.
Since I do not yet have a story from which I can pull an excerpt, there isn’t one for today and won’t be one again next week. So, instead, I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my stickers, note cards, and notebooks as well as this question:
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I’m currently working on figuring out Mary Crawford’s “need” and her motivation. They are usually intricately woven together. I have some ideas about her, but I would be fascinated to hear what you think about — How did Mary Crawford become who she is? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
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KOBO AMAZON NOOK IBOOKS MAILING LIST PATREON SOCIETY6
Beautiful music choice and I love the N&S video selection.
Mary Crawford: needs and motivation:
I once read something to the effect… we are who we are, because of, or in spite of, past experiences… [by: Anonymous]. That was Mary Crawford’s situation. What happened to push her and her brother in the direction they chose? The loss of their parents and their influence would be traumatic for the Crawford siblings. They would be forced, as dependents, to live with their relations. Mary would have a front row seat as she watched her beloved aunt suffer at the hands of the Admiral, who had no use [respect] for women or girls. She would then watch from the sidelines as his actions, behavior, and attitude influenced her impressionable brother. Remember she left after the aunt died because he brought his mistress into the house. I imagine she swore she would never be at the mercy of a man in that way… ever. She would control her own destiny and would marry only for the best advantage. Nothing less than a title, connections and/or fortune would tempt her.
N&S is such a good book and mini-series. 🙂
I agree about Mary. Losing parents and being subjected to the admiral and his wife would be traumatic and might make a young girl swear to never be treated that way. I wonder, though, what her mother and father were like. I can’t remember if the book says how young she was when she lost her parents. I will have to look that up. If she didn’t know them and the admiral was all she knew for her whole life, I would imagine she would perhaps be more jaded than if she had known parents who might have had a better relationship and then was subjected to the admiral. In the latter case, she might have more of a longing for what could be because she knows what is possible. Maybe that plays a role in what she sees in Edmund. He’s the opposite of the admiral, but he has no real fortune or title (unless his brother dies). Could she have been a daddy’s girl who lost the one good man in her life? Maybe Edmund even reminded her of her father? And then, there is the influence of her friends in town. There are so many things and options to consider. 🙂
I’ve been hit and miss through the “Charles” postings as this new job gets its water wings so I’m excited for the full book to come out so I can sink in.
Mary. I always think of her as Caro’s cousin. But instead of wanting to be the IT of the ton, she wants to write her own future. I have always seen her as the product of the time plus environment. Brought us as a bit of chattel…seeing the women in her family disrespected and misused, which really wasn’t that uncommon for the period. So she decides she is going to do things HER way. Then not being taught to be good and upright, she has no qualms about the things that ultimately come betwixt she and Edmund. Her motivation is to be respected, to be an equal and not subservient to a man. To feel that she is writing her story on her own terms. But I think she’s also never been loved. I see YOUR Mary seeing the love that Henry/Constance and Charles/Evelyn have, as well as others, and wanting it desperately which wars with her desire to never be that weak because she doesn’t understand the strength…
Okay, getting off my thought box. LOL. glad you got some brain rejuving time. Very important stuff!
I like your take on her motivation. I also think that my Mary could very easily be conflicted in such a fashion. She’s also lost her brother at the moment and I think that could also play a part in making her feel like a compass without a needle. And her brother has become the opposite of what he was shown in the example of the admiral. Perhaps she never thought that was truly possible. She does say that he’s a heartbreaker at one point in MP, I think — maybe not those words but the idea is there. This is a great direction for me to start thinking in. 🙂
From reading posts, I think she is the female equivalent of her uncle and brother. She sees the uncle demean women and watched her brother do it too.
Then she comes upon Mansfield Park, she sees Edmund treat women differently. She likes how he makes her feel. She also sees the relationship he has with Fanny. I think she feels threatened by her. Fanny has Edmund’s and her brother’s attention and does not act like Mary. Mary sees the respect these men give to Fanny. Could she be impressed with these behaviors? Is this Fanny’s weakness?
Then her brother turns on her. This has to devastate her. Why did he do it? What is so wrong with her to cause this breach? Again a “Fanny” has taken her brother from her. This has to turn her world upside down.
Excellent thoughts. She might now be considering what these “Fanny” sorts of women have that she does not — and that the admiral’s wife did not have. I agree she must be reeling at this point. And I do see what could be fear of Fanny in Mansfield Park. I think for all the airs of confidence Mary puts on, she has her own set of insecurities.