Music Monday: Ode to Joy to the World (The Piano Guys)

Merry Christmas!

Published to YouTube by ThePianoGuys on November 16, 2017.

I thought we should start this day before Christmas with a rousing, joyous song, and this arrangement of Ode to Joy and Joy to the World certainly fit that description! So click play and let your spirits be lifted as you read my writing news and enjoy a small excerpt from Tom’s story.

WRITING NEWS:

Frosted Windowpanes concludes this Thursday. I published this novelette along with two others last Thursday. (One is a Pride and Prejudice Variation and the second is a Sense and Sensibility Variation) This bundle of stories was also given out to my mailing list subscribers. If you wish to subscribe and get this collection of three novelettes as a gift, you can do that here:

Click the picture to be taken to the form to subscribe.

This mailing list offer is only good for another week. So if you’re a mailing list sort of person, sign up soon. If, however, you are not a mailing list sort of person and would prefer to purchase the book, you can do that here:

books2read.com/u/mvKkqX

Here’s a little bonus info thing for the curious (like me 😉 ):

Wondering how long a novelette is? This handy chart can help. I got this one from Wikipedia. I use a slightly modified version of these numbers for classification purposes.

I know that for one Romance Writers of America award (I think it is the RITA contest), they use 20,000 to 40,000 as the word count range for a novella. Therefore, since I write romance novellas, I use the RWA numbers for novellas, which means a novelette for me goes up to 19,999 words. The novelettes in my Nature's Fury and Delights book are between about 9,200 and 11,675 words.  :)

I think it is important to note that classifications can vary by genre. (The above chart is not a romance genre chart.) There is no one set guideline. I just thought you might like to know how  I am classifying my stories. :)

And one more thing I must include here before returning you to your regularly scheduled Music Monday post: Neither word count nor page count defines a good story -- story structure does that. ;) But that's a whole other discussion (and a topic I love discussing).

Ok, now back to my writing news:

Next Thursday, Loving Lydia will begin. I have written three Thursday posts of Loving Lydia so far, and hope to get another one written this week so that I am a month ahead of what is posting.

I have received the final edits for Delighting Mrs. Bennet back from my proofreader and will be starting on those this week. I hope to have the preorder set up for this book by next Monday — However, it is the holiday season so my plans may not go as scheduled. I’ll let you know next Monday. I still expect to have this book published on January 10, 2019.

My writing time was very limited this past week due to the book coming out on Thursday and Christmas preparations. However, I did manage to complete two chapters of Tom’s story. (I began one of those chapters last week, so really I only wrote one and two-thirds chapters. 🙂 ) I’m hoping to get at least that much written this week, but again, all story production plans are subject to change this week. [I will begin posting this on Patreon after the holidays are over.]

While working on Tom’s story this week, I discovered that dictation is a great way for me to do story brainstorming. There is something that happens when I talk out loud to myself that helps the ideas come together and start to connect better than any other method I have used previously. It was kind of exciting to see. I had noticed that using dictation when brainstorming for Lydia’s story had seemed to help, but I wasn’t sure if it was a fluke or not. It appears it is not. I think my brain works best this way. (And figuring out how my brain works best is exciting stuff to me.)

And now for…

AN EXCERPT FROM Tom: To Secure His Legacy: (This is the first look at our heroine) Continue reading Music Monday: Ode to Joy to the World (The Piano Guys)

Music Monday: Easter Parade, Judy Garland

I found a clip on YouTube of a song that I thought was appropriate for this particular Monday morning. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it — and don’t forget to scroll on down and read my updates and a story excerpt (if you dare 😉 since it may contain spoilers).

Maldonado, Gregory. “In Your Easter Bonnet – Judy Garland (Easter Parade).” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Apr. 2011, youtu.be/lYac9O3GYTM.

Writing News:

Confounding Caroline: THE scene posts this Thursday. You know — the one where Caroline falls into a betrothal. There are only two more posts after that one, and we will be ready for a new story to start posting after a short hiatus. Confounding Caroline is back from my first reader and just waiting for me to give it some attention before it goes off for the next round of edits. However, it has to wait since I must first attend to…

Mr. Darcy’s Comfort: I finished the first draft of this story on Thursday of this past week. I have begun to reread it and do a bit of polishing in preparation for sending it to my first reader. I hope to have it off to her by the end of tonight or maybe tomorrow. I will be posting the last chapter of the story on Patreon tonight. It took me a little longer to get this story written than expected, but I am still hoping to release it in April. However, it will probably toward the end of the month with a preorder up by April 17th or so.

That means both writing projects are now editing projects. Therefore, I have begun working on two new stories.

Delighting Mrs. Bennet: This will be the next Thursday story and will pick up Darcy and Elizabeth’s story from where it left off in Confounding Caroline. Plans for this story include some hopefully fun twists as well as a naughty little puppy. 🙂

The Sequel to Mr. Darcy’s Comfort: I have had some “conversations” with the characters, and I have some goals, conflict, and motivation sorts of ideas roughly sketched out. However, I have not written a word of this story yet. That will hopefully happen tonight, although my husband is off today, so it might be tomorrow before I get to begin. This story holds promise to be a fun story as well and will star another character that most readers do not particularly like. (Why do I feel compelled to work with the trying characters? :D) Hopefully, there will be a few readers willing to try it because it should be an entertaining read.

That’s it. A lot of transitioning from one project to another. Next week, there may not a story excerpt because I don’t think I will be far enough into either story to be comfortable with sharing from them. Today, the excerpt is from the end of the story, so read at your own risk.

AN EXCERPT FROM Mr. Darcy’s Comfort: Continue reading Music Monday: Easter Parade, Judy Garland

Music Monday: All About Her, Paul Brandt

Today, I’m sharing a song that I listened to for the first time this past week. Yes, YouTube notified me that it had been uploaded the week before, but I didn’t actually take the time to listen to it until now. 🙂 Life. That wonderful thing that we get to live and struggle with each day just kept me from taking the few minutes needed to listen. And then life crowded out any mental memo to listen later. I’m sure that never happens to anyone but me, right? 🙂

I’m glad I finally just pushed a few things aside and listened. It’s a lovely song.

At first, when I decided to share this video, it was just because I liked it and not for any story connected reason. But as I listened to it over and over this week (that’s what I do for a while when I find a song I like), I realized that this song really fits with what I try to write about in my stories — that love that turns your attention from your own wants and desires to the wants and desires of another, that makes you worry about the other person’s happiness even before your own. So, while I didn’t think this would have a story connection, it does — to all of my stories. 🙂

Now that you know all that about this song, let me update you on what I did this past week in my writing life. I finished my first round edits/read-through of Confounding Caroline and have sent that on to my first reader to have her check it over for story stuff. I am not sure at this time when I will be publishing that as Mr. Darcy’s Comfort is supposed to be published first according to my planner. I think I am closing in on the ending for that story, so soon, I will be doing first round edits/read-through of that.

[sidenote: I really appreciate all the comments you left on last week’s Monday post about length.]

So one “finished” story and one almost finished story means I must be starting some new things, right?

Right.

I have started Delighting Mrs. Bennet which will be the next Thursday’s Three Hundred story (beginning May 10), and I am beginning to brainstorm some details for the story that will follow Mr. Darcy’s Comfort. I haven’t settled on a title for that one, but I can tell you it will start a less loved character and shine some new light on him.

In the world of selling books, New Beginnings which is an anthology of Finally Mrs. Darcy, For Peace of Mind, and Through Every Storm, can still be purchased for 40% off at Kobo if you use the 40DEAL promo code at check out. However, that sale ends today. You can read excerpts from those books in the last week’s Friday’s Feature.

There will be a Friday Feature this week as well. I have a book that will be included in a promotion on Kobo starting Thursday of this week. I am still waiting to get the promo code sent to me. I will, of course, send an email to my mailing list and post a graphic about it on social media as well as having an excerpt from the book here on the blog on Friday.

In the trying something new section of life, Zoe Burton, Rose Fairbanks, and I have been trying out doing live videos on our Longbourn Literary Society on Facebook, and I have figured out how to add those videos to my YouTube channel so I can share them with those who are not on Facebook. You can find the live video from Saturday HERE. [Zoe read a short excerpt from her upcoming release in this week’s live.]

I think that is all the writing/book news and that means it is time to share a bit of what I wrote last week. Remember, this is getting toward the end of the story, so there could be spoilers. Read at your own risk. 🙂

AN EXCERPT FROM Mr. Darcy’s Comfort: Continue reading Music Monday: All About Her, Paul Brandt

Music Monday: The Only, High Valley

I had a different song in mind for today’s post until this one popped up on YouTube as a recommendation for me on Saturday morning. Well, I gave it a listen, and then hit repeat several times and added it to my “My Kinda Country” playlist on both YouTube and Spotify. 🙂 To say I like it is a bit of an understatement. LOL Added to the fact that I like the song (a lot) as a reason for posting it today, is the fact that it fits in tone and theme with what I have been writing this week.

You see, I typed the final word of the first draft of Enticing Miss Darcy on Friday night (or technically Saturday morning as it was after midnight)! And we all know how a romance ends, right? On a very happily ever after note, which I think this song has in spades. So, I shelved the other song to use another week, and instead, you get to listen to this one. 🙂

Frankly, between writing the ending of Enticing Miss Darcy (8000+words) and One Winter’s Eve releasing this past Thursday, not much else got done this week in my writing world. 😀 Of course, it’s not like that was a relaxed schedule of work! I sent out emails, posted about the book being available, created some graphics as well as another book excerpt video, kept an eye on how things were selling and watching for the print version to link with the ebook, and so on. It was busy. I even skipped writing more of Confounding Caroline this week because when I get to the certain point in a story, and I can see the end coming, I have to get it out in order to be able to relax. 🙂 And I just couldn’t fit adding to Confounding Caroline and concluding Enticing Miss Darcy in my available writing time.

Looking ahead to this coming week, I will be working on a short story that will be a bonus follow up sort of thing for a couple of original characters in Enticing Miss Darcy. I will also begin my first pass edits on Enticing Miss Darcy so that by the end of this week or the beginning of next week, I will be able to send it to my first reader and start the process of polishing for publication. The tentative publication date is March 6, 2018, with a short pre-order period before that.

Also this week, I will have to begin working on brainstorming what the next work in progress will be. I think it is going to be a Dash of Darcy story.

Since I am heading into a transition period between stories, there maybe be one or two Monday’s without a story excerpt as I want to keep this bonus short story to Enticing Miss Darcy secret, and I want to have the next work in progress well underway before I share from it. (I like to make certain I am happy with how a story is unfolding before I start sharing.) And honestly, I need a breather, which means I am going to not push too hard to get things written and planned this week. (or at least I am going to try not to push too hard LOL)

So, for the final time on a Music Monday, here is…

AN EXCERPT FROM Enticing Miss Darcy:

[Remember, this is toward the end, so it could very likely contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.] Continue reading

Music Monday: Bitter Sweet Symphony, David Garrett

Has it only been a week since last Monday? That busy week felt much longer than just seven days! 🙂 But, again, I am not complaining. It was a great week! However, I am hoping for a slightly less busy week this week.

DavidGarrettVEVO. “David Garrett – Bitter Sweet Symphony (Official Video).” YouTube, YouTube, 25 Aug. 2017, youtu.be/z_UfPY8NXkM.

I only have one major thing on the agenda for this week — the release of One Winter’s Eve! I’m so excited to finally be able to share this story with everyone! One of the things (and there was a long list of them) that I did this past week to start getting ready to let everyone know about One Winter’s Eve was to create this video excerpt from the story. I hope to get another little snippet of text made into a video this week. I enjoy making them, and I think it’s a slightly more fun way to read a short excerpt. 🙂

One Winter’s Eve is currently on preorder at your favourite retailer at this link.

In other writing news, I was able to get in five days of writing time — four were spent on Enticing Miss Darcy, and one was spent on Confounding Caroline. I managed to get two chapters of Enticing Miss Darcy posted to Patreon, and what I wrote for Confounding Caroline is awaiting a reread later this week before I schedule it on the blog and Patreon.

I think that’s all the writing news I have for now. [That seems like so few words for all the busyness of last week. :)] So that means it is time for me to share an excerpt from what I wrote during my last writing session. This portion has not yet been shared on Patreon, but it will be (probably tomorrow). We have reached a slightly sad part of the story for Georgiana, but sometimes a lady needs a bit of a jolt to help her see what she needs to see. And, of course, this short, momentary pain will make the end result much sweeter. (And that is why I have chosen the song I chose for today — well, that and I happen to like the song. :).

AN EXCERPT FROM Enticing Miss Darcy: Continue reading Music Monday: Bitter Sweet Symphony, David Garrett