Tag: Sweet Regency Romance

Music Monday: Can’t Help Falling in Love, The Piano Guys

I have made a few additions to my Music to Write By Playlist over the last few weeks.  One of those songs is the one below. Not only is it a new song on my playlist and beautifully performed, but the idea of the song’s lyrics kind of goes with the story I have been working on this week.

ThePianoGuys. “Can’t Help Falling in Love (Elvis) – The Piano Guys.” YouTube. YouTube, 16 Mar. 2012. Web. 01 July 2017.

But first, one writing news note — Tomorrow, June 4, 2017, is my day to post at Austen Authors. I will be talking about a favourite movie I watched last week and sharing a bit of history about Canada while I explain what I admire about the antagonist of the film.  I hope you get a chance to stop by.

Now, back to why I chose the video above.

If you have been following along with the Monday posts, you know I have been focusing on Mansfield Park related stories and that the subject my current work in progress is Henry Crawford.  I am attempting to help him find happiness.  His disastrous affair with Maria Bertram and the subsequent loss of any hope of ever gaining Fanny Price’s love left him somewhat miserable according to Jane Austen.

…we may fairly consider a man of sense, like Henry Crawford, to be providing for himself no small portion of vexation and regret: vexation that must rise sometimes to self-reproach, self-reproach, and regret to wretchedness, in having so requited hospitality, so injured family peace, so forfeited his best, most estimable, and endeared acquaintance, and so lost the woman whom he had rationally as well as passionately loved.

Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park (p. 334). . Kindle Edition.

Now, in Mansfied Park, Henry was not supposed to fall in love with Fanny. He was supposed to make her fall in love with him — I’m not sure what he planned to do after she fell in love with him. Break her heart, perhaps? It seemed rather important for Henry to be loved by women and looked at with fondness. I mean, it is the coldness of his reception from Mrs. Rushworth that makes him wish to make her Miss Bertram, the girl who loved him, once more.

My story is based on the premise that Henry’s wretchedness was his turning point, and after some soul-searching, he has begun his transformation into a respectable fellow before page one of my story. From there, he must prove that he is worthy of a respectable lady.  He has enlisted the help of a friend’s sister to help him learn the sort of gentlemen a respectable lady prefers.

He and she are both warned that such arrangements can be dangerous. Hearts can become engaged where you least expect them to.  Henry should know this from his time with Fanny, but…sigh…Henry seems a bit of a slow learner on that count.  He finds himself once again falling in love with a lady he never intended to love.

EXCERPT from Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy: Continue reading Music Monday: Can’t Help Falling in Love, The Piano Guys


Music Monday: Starlit Dream, Peder B Helland

This week, I spent a lot of time with “relaxation” music playing in my office. Why?  One word. Edits. 🙂

SoothingRelaxation. “3 Hours of Beautiful Relaxing Instrumental Music – Study, Relax, Background ★31.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Mar. 2016. Web. 25 June 2017.

I have decided to give my story His Beautiful Bea one more going over before I send it off to be checked for commas, spelling, word usage, and the like.

I’m attempting to add a bit more emotional depth to the story. This story does not contain an enormous, spectacular conflict.  There is conflict, but it’s internal to the main characters.

I would describe the story as a gentle realization of love. Nothing horrible happens.  No one faces death or disowning.  There are no refused proposals. The setting and the action of the story is all rather pleasant and agreeable. The battle lies in the hero recognizing those odd feelings for what they are while the heroine grows to understand that what she thought was love, was nothing more than infatuation.

In my opinion, this is the sort of story that needs extra attention paid to the emotional details, and that is what I am trying to do on this last pass through my manuscript — give those details the attention they are due. Will I be successful? I don’t know because each reader will have to decide that for him or herself.  I can only make certain the story is to my liking before I send it out into the big, scary world. 🙂

All the attention to minute details and being self-critical required when editing tends to leave my brain in desperate need of soothing.  However, when you add the fact that both the story I am editing and the one I am writing are “new forms” of stories (one being Austenesque, which I have never done, and both based on Mansfield Park instead of the more comfortable Pride and Prejudice), and you get one very stressed out Leenie! 🙂 Therefore, relaxation music was NECESSARY.

The above composition was what was playing during my last writing session on Friday when I was writing the excerpt below.

EXCERPT from Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy: Continue reading Music Monday: Starlit Dream, Peder B Helland


Music Monday: Who I Am with You, Chris Young

We’re taking a walk down a country road for this Music Monday song choice.  It is not a particularly soft and gentle piece of music like I tend to post. It has parts that are mellow but then other parts have a harder edge to them. Why I am highlighting and dissecting the tone of the song? Because it is part of the inspiration I am taking from this piece of music as I am working on my current work in progress.

ChrisYoungVEVO. “Chris Young – Who I Am With You (Lyric Video).” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 June 2017.

You see, just as this song is a mix of tones, the hero that I am writing is also a mixture of seemingly conflicting parts.  He is charming and coming to terms with what appears to be a softer heart than he thought he had, but he’s not timid, nor is he the sort to back down from what needs to be done — he possesses strength. However, he is at that “I’ve been lost” stage of his life. He has pursued a particular lifestyle for all of his life and has found that it is not satisfying. It has brought him pain and disappointment, and he is searching for a way to be the man he wants to be.

In the portion of story that I wrote Friday night and am sharing below, our hero, Henry, has come to the conclusion that he needs help to become what he desires, and he has decided on asking Constance and her Aunt Gwladys for assistance. He will hopefully embody the lyrics from the above song “who I am with you, is who I want to be” and  “a better man is who I am with you.”

AN EXCERPT FROM Henry: To Prove Himself Worthy  (The excerpt is about 1,200 words, and yes, the story now has a title. 🙂 ) Continue reading Music Monday: Who I Am with You, Chris Young


Music Monday: Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield

This week I was “staring at the blank page before me.” 🙂

As I mentioned last week, I took a few days off to allow my brain time to relax. So, this week, after requiring myself to take one day of absolutely no work (Monday),  I decided it was time to start working the brain back into the writing schedule.

NBedingfieldVEVO. “Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten.” YouTube. YouTube, 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 04 June 2017.

The process actually started with writing my blog post for Austen Authors — which you can read tomorrow. It is about Not an Heiress and includes three excerpts from the story.

Then, I turned my mind to an idea that was sparked this comment by Patty on last Monday’s blog post.

An idea for a story, could you write a piece that made Crawford redeemable?

Hmmm…Could I? It was a thought that gave me goosebumps — still does. And that is a good thing.  That’s what happens when excitement mixed with apprehension skitters through me. 🙂

So, I went in search of the answer…and that process looked like this:

I started by spending a good deal of time on Tuesday rereading portions of Mansfield Park and taking notes.

Then, I messaged a couple of author friends, and they very kindly let me discuss Mansfield Park, Henry Crawford, and various plotting sort of things. (It just helps to “talk it out” some. 🙂 )

After that, I needed time to think and mull over my thoughts — but I forced myself to begin writing a possible scene, just a piece.

This was followed by another period of thinking which consists of finding a relaxed position — often lying on my bed with a notebook next to me for jotting down thoughts ;), turning on specific music that I use just for this purpose, and letting various scenes play out in my mind.

Then it was back to writing.

Have I discovered the answer to the question of whether or not I can reform Henry Crawford?

Maybe. I think so. I hope so. 🙂

This is where the apprehension comes into play. The story is starting after the conclusion of Mansfield Park. Henry has had some time to regret Fanny and has made some changes. But…am I drawing on the small nuances of potentially noteworthy character in him as I see them in canon and developing them in a believable way?

There’s only one way to find out — write the story. 🙂

Here’s a look a the first thousand words of Henry’s story:   Continue reading Music Monday: Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield


Music Monday: Pachelbel in the Garden

Happy Victoria Day! Today, the plan is that I will be spending some time in the garden with my husband getting some things cleaned up and planted.  I am not a great gardener, but I appreciate a good garden — and writing scenes that happen in gardens (see the excerpt below).  I also appreciate lovely, relaxing, imagination-stimulating music.  The video below is the soundtrack that has been playing in the background as I wrote this week.

Crystalkaleidoscope. “Pachelbel in the Garden (relaxing Music, Sounds of Nature).”YouTube. YouTube, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 20 May 2017.

Pachelbel’s Canon in D is a favourite of mine, so I was delighted to stumble across this music on YouTube this week.  It makes great background music, so click play and read on to see what I managed to accomplish this week.

It was another good productive week for me.  I finished edits on Better Than She Deserved.  I got the print copy of At All Costs finished, proofed, and approved — it is all ready for release day this THURSDAY! [You can get your copy at this link.] 🙂

And then, I managed to almost finish writing the first draft of the story I started last week! It is amazing how just a couple thousand words a day adds up! It appears that it is going to be a short novella, but I never expected it would be very long for a couple of reasons. First, I like LOVE novellas, and I tend to write what I like. Second, it is the first story of this type that I have written, so short seemed a good place to begin my learning journey.  (Of course, I might find I like writing these just as short novellas — there is a very good chance that might happen.)

Now, having reached nearly the end of that story, I am faced with the need to design a cover and give it a title.  I had given it a name that went well with the idea I had in mind as I began typing words into my document. However, the characters as I got to know them lead me down a different path. So, that title no longer fits the idea of the book. I think I am going to call it His Beautiful Bea because the main element that I took from Mansfield Park when planning this story was to model my heroine after the quiet, reserved Fanny Price. I have tried out a couple of other ideas and my mind keeps coming back to this one.

So, here is part of a garden scene from His Beautiful Bea that I wrote this week: Continue reading Music Monday: Pachelbel in the Garden