A Dash of Darcy Companion Story – Page 2

Music Monday: Period Drama Men, Sharp Dressed Man

Bingley rose from his chair and crossed to the wardrobe. “Do you have a man?” he asked as he pulled the doors open.

“No, I cannot justify such a luxury.”

“You will need one,” Bingley said as he looked through Collins’s possessions. “However, we will have to make do for now. I know a thing or two.” He turned and looked at Collins with a grimace. “I think it would be best if my man had a go at your hair and taught you a few more knots.” He pointed to his own cravat. “A lady does like a well-turned-out gentleman.”

[From Master of Longbourn]

DreamyViper. “Period Drama Men // Sharp Dressed Man.” YouTube, YouTube, 24 July 2011, youtu.be/svKWGnrbVos.

Master of Longbourn is now on preorder with release day scheduled for June 28, 2018.

While Master of Longbourn has a lot of soft, sweet, and gentle moments in it, it also has a few scenes that should draw a smile or even a chuckle. Bingley tends to be the cause of those chuckles. He was such a pleasure to write in this story. He added the light-hearted balance that was needed.

Bingley laughed heartily. “You would like us to –”

“Be my tutors,” Collins pled. “I shall die a lonely old man as my father said if you do not.”

Bingley turns out to be a rather demanding tutor! 😀

However, it is not just the instruction Collins receives from his new found friends, Darcy and Bingley, that helps him to be successful. It is the acceptance he finds within the walls of Longbourn that truly propels him to transform from how he views himself to how he wishes to be.

The quotes above are from chapter 3. You can read chapter three as part of an extended preview until June 28, 2018, at this link.

In other news, I am still in the planning stages for Mr. Edwards’s story. No story words have been written on it. I’m hoping to change that this week. 🙂

I did add a few more thousand words to Delighting Mrs. Bennet last week. I am hoping to be able to work myself back into writing on two stories at a time since the cast of characters are so different. I started using a timer to limit the amount of time I was spending on Delighting Mrs. Bennet. I found myself enjoying the competition of beating the clock and still producing the number (and quality) of words I wanted to produce. 🙂 (I have a strong competitive streak even if just competing with myself. LOL)

Since the song this week is about being a sharp dresser, I thought I would share an excerpt from my writing that includes Bingley speaking about another person who is very aware of fashion. This excerpt will be included in the post on September 6.

AN EXCERPT FROM Delighting Mrs. Bennet: Continue reading Music Monday: Period Drama Men, Sharp Dressed Man

Music Monday: The Young Victoria

Happy Victoria Day! In honour of the day, I have found a music video with some scenes from one of my favourite movies — The Young Victoria.

I’m sure the Pride and Prejudice fans among us will recognize the actor who plays Prince Albert. 🙂 Who knew Wickham would rise so far! LOL 😉

I do not have a writing excerpt for you today, but I do have some writing news:

Here in Canada, the Victoria Day long weekend is the unofficial start to summer and the cottage season, and I know that Memorial Day is similar for those in the US. Spanning the time from Victoria Day to Memorial Day, Kobo is running a 40% off selected boxsets promotion, and one of my books is part of the “selected boxsets.” Just use the promo code 40MAY when purchasing A Dash of Darcy and Companions Cottage Collection 1 between now and May 28, 2018, to save 40% off the purchase price. The offer is good worldwide.

This collection includes: Finally Mrs. Darcy, Waking to Mr. Darcy, A Very Mary Christmas, Discovering Mr. Darcy, and Not an Heiress.

On Thursday of this week…

Click image to find this book at your favourite store.

Confounding Caroline will be released. Those who have preordered will have the book delivered to them, and those who like to purchase after the release day can do just that.

Which brings me to the reason why there is no writing excerpt this week. Master of Longbourn has gone to my first editor, and hopefully by the end of the week will be with my second editor. I haven’t selected a definite release date yet, but I expect it will be about one month from today or just a few days after that. Therefore, since it is in editing, I do not have anything to share from it, and…

Delighting Mrs. Bennet, which I was working on last week and am continuing to work on this week, is our current Thursday story, and I don’t want to give anything away, so I do not have anything to share from it either.

I must say, I did not get a great deal of writing done on that story this week, but I did do some brainstorming about the plot and how things might play out for a couple of characters. You (and I) will have to wait to see what happens, but there is at least one interesting little idea that popped up while I was writing on Friday. It’s one of those “Oh! This could be fun!” ideas that is accompanied by a “I wonder how many readers will find it as fun as I do?” worry. I can’t say more than that right now, other than it is an unusual pairing idea that may or may not work as I am currently thinking. These characters do tend to change things as I settle into understanding them and figure out what they will and won’t do.

I hope you have a good week! I’m hoping that since I spent that time on doing some brainstorming this past week, this week will be a better word count week despite the few last things I need to get done before Confounding Caroline’s release day.

Until next time…

Happy Reading!

Leenie

~*~*~

KOBO AMAZON NOOK IBOOKS MAILING LIST PATREON SOCIETY6

Music Monday: Period Dramas – At the Beginning

Welcome to the beginning of a new week full of possibilities. As I look forward to the week ahead, I like to start by taking inventory of where I am by looking back at what I accomplished last week. It’s a lot easier to know where you are going if you know where you are starting. 🙂

But first…

Some musical inspiration…

videosbyloo. “Period Dramas – At the Beginning (PDC).” YouTube, YouTube, 17 June 2011, youtu.be/jMLlkAMLV-Q.

And then…

Writing News:

Mr. Darcy’s Comfort released, successfully, last week on Thursday. 🙂 You can find out more about the book as well as a link that will provide all my vendor options at this link:

https://books2read.com/b/3GYBBr

My writing time focused only on Master of Longbourn this week because I actually took two nights off from writing. I did not take them off completely. I still did some other book business work, but no story was written. Launching a book can be draining (so much excitement is tiring 🙂 ) and when I combined that with a lack of sleep (because my body does that sometimes), I ended up with a mushy, not terribly creative brain. And that is not good for writing. 🙂 So, after fighting the idea for a while (I’m no quitter, you see :D) I gave in and allowed the brain to do things other than create imaginary worlds. Hopefully, this week, I will get in all five writing sessions.

Because of the book release, I did not do my regular editing time. I gave that time to book release sorts of things such as creating a graphic, posting an excerpt (which I am using for marketing purposes), sending out an email to my mailing list, making sure I had the book added to my book page and a few other things like that. (I have a list. It’s rather long.)

But that was last week, and though I will need to keep doing some marketing work for the new book, this week during editing period, I plan to begin final edits on Confounding Caroline since I have them back from my editor. I should have a publication date firmed up by next Monday!

I have also begun a project of updating book covers and reorganizing some things. This project will not be completed any time soon, but it has begun. I started by updating the cover for Listen to Your Heart. The story inside has not changed, although I did update the book list in the backmatter and added an excerpt from And Then Love.

And lastly, I created a bundle of stories — a box set of Dash of Darcy and Companion Stories. This bundle contains Finally Mrs. Darcy, Waking to Mr. Darcy, A Very Mary Christmas, Discovering Mr. Darcy, and Not an Heiress.

I have only uploaded this bundle to Kobo so far since I wish to apply to have it included in a promotion in May, but this week, I will be attempting to add it to other vendors. In fact, between when I am writing this Saturday night and Monday when you are reading this, I might have gotten part of that done. There will be a print version eventually.

Phew! You know, now that I have listed all that out I can understand better why I was so tired by the end of the day on Thursday. When I’m just working on this and that steadily through a week, I don’t see how much I am actually doing. Little by little, consistent, steady effort adds up!

Now, for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Master of Longbourn: Continue reading Music Monday: Period Dramas – At the Beginning

Music Monday: Falling for You (Northanger Abbey)

I adore Northanger Abbey. It’s one of my favourite Jane Austen novels. I enjoy Catherine’s sweet nature and her youth and naivety (not to mention her imagination 🙂 ), and I find Henry’s teasing yet loving personality delightful.

As I was looking for a period drama montage video to share today, I watched a couple of Northanger Abbey videos, and I began to realize that Kitty in my work in progress shares some traits with Catherine — none of which were planned. Of course, they share the same name — that was not my doing ;), but they also share a love of novels and a sweet youthfulness. And both will end up with a clergyman. However, that similarity brings with it a contrast for Kitty’s parson, Mr. Collins, will be a former parson and welcomed heir to an estate while we know that Catherine’s parson, Mr. Tilney, is a son who has fallen out of favour with his father and is in the process of becoming a parson. The gentlemen have other differences as well, such as Mr. Tillney is confident while Mr. Collins is not. Their fathers, however, might have something in common.

Before I share an excerpt of my current work in progress, I need to share a little bit of writing news.

First, I want to remind you that Confounding Caroline has finished and there will be a two-week break between stories. Therefore, there will be no Thursday post this week. Delighting Mrs. Bennet will start posting on May 10.

Second, Mr. Darcy’s Comfort is currently on pre-order and will go live this Thursday! (The paperback is already live.) You can find Mr. Darcy’s Comfort at your favourite retailer by using this link: https://books2read.com/u/3GYBBr

If you wish to read a preview of Mr. Darcy’s Comfort, which is an extended preview until Thursday, you can do that at this link: https://mrdarcyscomfort.pressbooks.com/

I think that is all the news I have for you today, so let’s get to that excerpt, shall we? This clip gives a small bit of background info about Collins but also gives us a glimpse of Kitty’s personality.

AN EXCERPT FROM Master of Longbourn:
Continue reading Music Monday: Falling for You (Northanger Abbey)

Music Monday: Peaceful, Louis Landon

I could use a little peace on this Monday morning. How about you? If so, click play, and listen to this pretty piano piece while you read about the exciting, yet not so peaceful, stuff going on in my writing life and then continue on reading to enjoy the first story excerpt from Master of Longbourn.

Landon, Louis. “Louis Landon Peaceful.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Mar. 2011, youtu.be/X2Z-dduUEaQ.

First up, writing news:

Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I have started doing live Saturday broadcasts on our Facebook group called Longbourn Literary Society. I know that not everyone is on Facebook, so I am attempting to download the videos after we finish and then upload them to YouTube. I have managed to figure out how to do it for three of our Saturday chats. The most recent one can be found HERE. They are conversational, and we’re just learning as we go. However, it’s been a blast doing these. If you have any questions for any of us, feel free to leave them in the comments here or on the YouTube video. We’ll do our best to answer them. [warning: They’re not short. We get very chatty.]

Mr. Darcy’s Comfort is in the process of being put on preorder. I finished a very long session of editing Saturday night just as the clock was striking midnight. As I write this post on Sunday night, I have submitted the files to one ebook sales platform and have two others to do. The print version will be worked on after the ebook has been put on preorder. The release day for this book is Thursday, April 26, 2018 — that’s just ten days away! But it should be enough time to get the print book ready to go. (I hope 😉 barring any technical issues)

Confounding Caroline concludes this week, and there will be no Thursday story for two weeks. I will be sending that manuscript to my final editor this week, and am still planning to have it ready to release by mid-May which is close to when the sequel Delighting Mrs. Bennet is set to start posting on Thursdays. It’s been a bit tricky to work on two new stories while having these other two so close to publication, so I will breathe a sigh of relief later this week when some of those items are off my plate, at least for a while. 🙂

I have started posting the sequel to Mr. Darcy’s Comfort on Patreon, and I am happy to report that I have just passed the 10K word mark on that story. I am enjoying this story so much. Here’s something you won’t hear very often — I’m loving Mr. Collins! Yep. Mr. Collins. He’s the romantic hero in this story, which is also something you won’t hear very often. LOL To me, he’s awkwardly endearing in this story. Until tonight, I had not decided on a title for this story, but since chapter one is in the back of Mr. Darcy’s Comfort, it had to have a title. I have had a list of titles and the one I chose, Master of Longbourn, has been “speaking to me” as I have been writing. It seems to encapsulate a good deal of the inner conflict poor Mr. Collins has been facing so far. Below is an excerpt from chapter two which I hope will give you a tiny taste of Mr. Collins’s character as I am writing him.

Whatever you do, when you read the excerpts I will be sharing, do not think of any of the versions of Mr. Collins you have seen in film or likely any you have read in various variations either. Come to this story with an open mind expecting that I will do as I always do and present a character to you that is perhaps a bit different than you expect with a backstory that makes him who he is and poses a challenge for him becoming who he wishes to be. Or in other words, remember who is writing this story. Leenie likes to shape and mould these less likable characters into something new and enjoyable. (And she’s hoping to do just that with her Mr. Collins.)

Here’s your first peek at my Mr. Collins. Enjoy!

AN EXCERPT FROM Master of Longbourn: Continue reading Music Monday: Peaceful, Louis Landon