Sweet Extras – Leenie Brown

A Travelling Coach and Pair (Henry Bunbury)

Travelling Coach and Pair, Henry Bunbury, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

This drawing is the sort that will make me enlarge the image just to look at all the little lines that comprise the details in it. I also enjoy that it almost looks as if it could be moving.

I chose to share it today because Pretending to Love Mary begins in travelling coach, and I wanted to share the first few paragraphs of that story with you.

If you’re on my mailing list, you may have already read this story because I sent out an email with a link to download a copy yesterday. If you’re a Booksprout reviewer, you might have picked up a copy of the novelette to review. (Twenty out of the thirty-five review copies were claimed the last time I looked.)

If you’d like to join my mailing list, and you do so before March 7th (which is the release day for Pretending to Love Mary, you could also get a copy of this story for free.

If you’d rather just purchase the book, it’s on pre-order now.

With all that said, here’s the beginning of the book to pique your curiosity. 🙂

La Maison De Musique (Pierre Carrier-Belleuse)

La Maison de Musique (The Music House) by Pierre Carrier-Belleuse, c. 1901. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The young lady above could be Miss Mary in my book Christmas in Gracechurch Street.

(Even if, as I look at this image while typing this, the dress reminds me a bit of one that Wes did not approve of Mary wearing in Persuading Miss Mary, but I digress. LOL)

You see, the Mary in Christmas in Gracechurch Street changes when she gets to town with Elizabeth. She becomes more fashionable, and well, as you can see from this excerpt, much more proficient with music. She’s been hiding a quite a few things actually, and discovering this new Mary was fun when I was writing.

Well… it was fun for me. It might have been a little less fun and more shocking and occasionally disconcerting for her sister. But then, I suppose that made it more fun for me. 🙂 Ah, my poor characters. Forced to entertain me before they entertain you.

In this excerpt, which is set in a music room at Matlock House, we are at the darker part of the romance for Elizabeth, which is why the first line is what it is. To find out what has happened to make Elizabeth wish to cry, you’ll have to read the book. 😉

Weapons of the Peninsular War (video)

FYI: This video is 13:38 minutes long. (So grab a cuppa before you click play 😉 )

A week or so ago, when I was scrolling through YouTube looking for something to watch as I sipped some herbal tea before bed, this video was recommended to me because I’ve watched other History Hit videos. I found the information in this to be quite interesting since I have written stories that reference the Napoleonic Wars.

The story that immediately came to mind was Midnight with Mary (Sweet Extra 2) because the Peninsular War is mentioned a couple of times in it (even though it is a short novelette), and I did a fair bit of research reading before writing that book. In fact, I read about the people and battles mentioned in this video.

Here is the first time the Peninsular War is mentioned. The colonel and Mary have gone to call on a widow and friend of Mary’s to help her. (It’s a rather long excerpt. I hope you don’t mind. 😉 )

The January 2022 Saturday Broadsheet

The Saturday Broadsheet, with all my writing life updates, is now available at the link at the bottom of this short post.

In this issue of the Broadsheet you will find:

Info about what, if anything, is posting on my blog.
Info about my writing and publishing news, including a link for subscribers to a free download, links for where to find my newest releases, and a first glimpse at a NEW Teatime Tales story.
Info about any book promotions: I have one book on sale for the next week and have two included in a multi-author promotion.
And an entertaining and informative video about shortbreads.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE January 2022 SATURDAY BROADSHEET

Have a great weekend!

I hope you have time to read a book.

A Winter Story (Brian Crain cover by Yiruma)

Welcome to a brand new week. Shall we start it with some relaxing piano music and a quote from a story?

How does a fellow tell his pretty new friend that he would like to be more than just friends? That’s the colonel’s dilemma in Moonlight, Mistletoe, and Mary. He’s quite smitten with his new friend, as you might be able to tell from the quote below.

Moonlight, Mistletoe, and Mary is a novelette-length sequel to Matching Mr. Darcy. It can be purchased at your favourite retailer or downloaded as part of the welcome library when you subscribe to my mailing list.

MAILING LIST PATREON