Dash of Darcy and Companions Collection – Page 5

Assessing Mr. Darcy Pre-order

Assessing Mr. Darcy has started to appear on some vendors for pre-order. Below is the cover image. If you click it, it will show you the vendor options. This link will continue to add vendors as they become available so it should be fairly accurate over time.

I have just a couple of notes for you regarding the pre-order:

First, I had to change the release day from October 25 to October 26 since by the time I got the files all ready to upload to draft2digital, which handles the publishing of this book to several vendors including Apple and Nook, the earliest date available for release on their site was October 26.

Second, I will be sending out a limited number of advance reader copies to my mailing list next week. At the same time or just before this email is sent, I will be making the book available to all my current Patrons on Patreon.

So what is this book about? Here’s the description as it will be found on the back of the book and on the sales page at various retailers:

Will her brother’s opinion keep her from finding true love?

The Bennet ladies are all eager anticipation. Netherfield has been let at last! And joy of all joys, it has been leased to a single young gentleman of good fortune! To Elizabeth’s delight, the new neighbor has not come alone but has brought with him a handsome friend. With any luck, if this gentleman proves to be more than just handsome, it will not only be Jane who finds a husband.

Fitzwilliam Darcy has heard many times over the past weeks about the fabled beauties of Longbourn from his friend who is leasing the estate next door. However, he is not prepared for just how unexaggerated those claims are when he meets two of the ladies from Longbourn and their brother while on a ride.

While Darcy and Elizabeth would like to get to know more about each other, Elizabeth’s brother is not as favourably inclined to the match. He knows a secret, and, unless he can learn to trust that anyone could ever be worthy of his beloved sister, his censure may just be the thing that keeps them apart forever.

Assessing Mr. Darcy is the first novel-length addition to my Dash of Darcy and Companions Collection of Pride and Prejudice inspired stories.

I have shared several excerpts from this book in my Music Monday posts while I was writing it. This link will take you to a search result for Assessing Mr. Darcy on this blog. While most of these will have excerpts, you should be aware that some might just have a mention of the book.

Music Monday: Another Man’s Gold (Dean Brody)

Georgiana’s eyes grew wide with understanding. “How dreadful!”

Mary nodded. “I felt a fool for having fallen for such a man.”

Georgiana stood with her hands on her hips. “But he was a deceiver! You could not have known.”

“I should have known when he chose me over my sisters,” Mary said quietly.

“Why?”

Mary smiled sadly at Georgiana. How did one explain one’s lack of beauty?

“Oh, no!” said Georgiana. “Stand here.” She pointed to a spot in front of the mirror. “I do not know what you looked like then, but look at yourself now. You are beautiful. Your cheeks are perfectly rosy. Your nose is small. Your eyes shine with your emotions, and your mouth is lovely ─ neither too thick nor too thin. And your figure…” Georgiana studied Mary for a moment. “Although you are not tall, your height is by no means deficient, and you have ─ Oh, I do not know how to say it politely ─ you have softness in all the proper places. You shall turn many heads this season, and one of them may possess that healing love of which you spoke.”

Mary’s cheeks were glowing quite rosy, and she had to blink against the tears that had formed in her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I have never before heard myself described as anything so pleasant.”

[from No Other Choice]

Published to YouTube by Dean Brody on May 23, 2014.

I have been enjoying having a tv hanging in my “office” and playing some YouTube videos while working. (We use the tv for our homeschool videos — that’s why it is there.)

As I have said before, writing time means songs with no words, but other work times, when I am making a graphic or doing something that does not require full mental engagement so that there is a little space open to enjoy the story a song might tell, I enjoy music with words. Dean Brody is EXCELLENT at telling stories with his songs.

This one, which I listened to this past week, has a beautiful story to it, and when I went through my viewing history, it seemed to be a great one to share — simply because it tells such a lovely story.

However, I have been challenging myself the last few weeks to see if I can come up with story excerpts from my stories that fit in some way with the music video I am sharing. I am not sure how long I can keep doing that, and I thought I had hit my limit when I chose this song to share. BUT then, I remembered this conversation between Mary and Georgiana in No Other Choice. I think it fits well enough. What do you think?

I’m still working on getting the new school schedule integrated with the writing schedule. Therefore, I do not have a lot of writing news to share today, as I did very little writing last week, and the writing I did, I ended up scrapping. It was good writing, but it just did not feel right for the story. So after two days of just letting it simmer, I could not shake the feeling and cut the words.

However, in more positive news, I have a title for Mary Crawford’s story. I have been pondering the ideas both for the title and about why Mary is as she is that you left in comments. Much of what you said really meshed with what I was thinking. Mary has not had an easy life as far as men go. Her examples of how men treat women have been tragic. As I was contemplating these things on Saturday morning, I thought, “She’s been attempting to protect her heart.” And that thought sent a little shiver of goosebumps up my arms, and I knew I had found her story’s title and the central theme.

Because I actually have a title for that story and I wrote no new words that I kept on Assessing Mr. Darcy, I’m going to share the first nearly five hundred words of Mary’s story.

Just one side note here before we continue to the excerpt. If you are a patron following Assessing Mr. Darcy on Patreon, I have two chapters that I have written before and did a bit of editing on during this past week; therefore, I will have two posts for that story this week. 🙂

Now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Mary: To Protect Her Heart: Continue reading Music Monday: Another Man’s Gold (Dean Brody)

Music Monday: To Make You Feel My Love (Northanger Abbey)

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.

[from Charles: To Discover His Purpose]

Published to YouTube by FallingforJJ on December 15, 2010.

This song seemed to fit the scene from which I took the quote above so well that I had to share both today. 🙂

The quote on this graphic is from the same scene as the one above.

Charles: To Discover His Purpose is ready to be delivered to ereader devices everywhere next Tuesday, August 28, 2018!

I finished the final edits and was able to get advance reader copies distributed this week. I am so relieved to have that done before I run away for a few days with my hubby. 🙂 I will be able to relax much better knowing that part of the publishing process is complete.

I would like to say the print book is almost ready, but it still has not been started beyond some formatting. Therefore, this time, the print book might arrive later than the ebook.

You can find a link to all my vendors by clicking this picture. There is also a description of the book there.

Charles’s story is the second in my Other Pens, Mansfield Park episodes. Mary Crawford’s story will be the third, but that is not yet started. It is waiting until after my vacation time is over.

I started a new story this past week. This one will be a Dash of Darcy story. There was a reader on Facebook who suggested making Mr. Collins into a member of the Bennet family from a young age, and I have taken that little idea for this story. I have no idea if I will even get close to what she had in mind when she gave me that suggestion, but so far, the story is really enjoyable. I should have enough of it written soon (maybe even by next Monday) to start sharing some excerpts here.

I should also tell you that I have almost finished my Dash of Darcy and Companions Collection re-organization project. This week I created two Companion Duos. These were also the result of a reader’s suggestion on Facebook. She had the Dash of Darcy Duos and was wondering if I would do a Companions Duo. I hadn’t thought to do that at that time, but after considering it, I created these two:

Duo 1 includes A Very Mary Christmas and Not an Heiress (both are Mary Bennet stories).

Duo 2 includes Becoming Entangled and Enticing Miss Darcy (both are sequels to Unravelling Mr. Darcy).

I only need to complete a few print copies for this collection, and the project is done! All the ebooks are ready and available.

And that’s it for the news this week. Even though I will be away for a few days this week, both Wordless Wednesday and Thursday’s Three Hundred will post as usual. I just might be slower responding to comments.

I hope you have a great week!

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Music Monday: North and South – What About Now (Daughtry)

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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