Touches of Austen – Leenie Brown

Weekend Reading Ideas as April Draws to a Close

Do you read on the weekend? That’s often when I have time to read — Sunday afternoons in particular.

As I head into the final weekend of April, I wanted to remind you about my book promotions – one of which ends this weekend – and to let you know about a couple of audiobook things.

In case, you need a few weekend reading suggestions. 😉

So, first, let’s get the promotion reminders out of the way.

The Kobo Spring/Autumn Reading Campaign ends on April 26, which means in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada the $0.99 price for Listen to Your Heart will disappear on Monday. If you were wanting to nab that book at that price, you have a day or so to do that. (And I did mark it to $0.99 on all sales platforms, not just Kobo.)

The series price drops for my Touches of Austen books ends on April 30. Those prices are as follows:

Her Secret Beau is $0.99 USD, CAD, AUD, NZD, EUR, GBP, with all other currencies also reduced
All the other single title books in the series are $2.99 USD (regular price $3.99), with all other currencies also reduced.

And remember that the Patreon free read and paid Patron downloads also end on April 30.

Go to the Book Promo Page HEre for links for these things

Find links for this book on the Promo Page or the Audiobook page

And then let me share with you that the audiobook edition of Frosted Windowpanes has been published!

So far, I have found links for it on Spotify, Kobo, Nook, and Everand, and of course, it is also part of all paid Patreon subscriptions or free to listen to on YouTube.

I have chosen to list the audiobook at the introductory cost of $2.99 in stores and $4.99 in library catalogues until the end of May. After that, the price will go up to $4.99 in stores and $9.99 in library catalogues.

As I have mentioned before and will mention again at some point, my audiobooks are read by Christopher E (E is for Elevenlabs), an authorized voice replica.

This means that the owner of the voice gets paid whenever his voice clone is used to create an audiobook. This is one way that some voice actors are choosing to diversify their income, and means that audiobook production costs for me are lower when it comes to dollars and cents, but higher when it comes to sweat equity and time in the production process.

Below is a short snippet of me working on one of the chapters for Frosted Windowpanes. This was during my first pass. It took me 8 minutes to get this paragraph to a point where I was willing to leave it and move on. Then, on the second pass through the manuscript, I spent a few more minutes (though I did not keep track of how long) on improving on what I had done during that first pass.

(There is no sound, because I work with a headset on so I can hear any small things that need to be taken out or changed.)

In other audiobook news…

This week I have marked all the Darcy And… stories with an a la carte price on ElevenReader. That means they are still available to listen to using a voice of your choosing if you’re a subscriber, but they are also now available to add to your library for $4.99 without having a subscription.

I have also just started to share Discovering Mr. Darcy as an Audiobook-by-the-Chapter on YouTube.

And that’s it for today.

Have a lovely weekend! I hope it includes some time to read (or listen) to a story.

<3 Leenie

Touches of Austen Crossword

Below a crossword puzzle of words and clues from my Touches of Austen series. These words can also be found in the Touches of Austen Wordsearch puzzle. So, if you need help guessing what the word it, there’s a word bank for that. 🙂

You may download and print out the puzzle to do on paper, or if you prefer, you can click the button at the bottom of the crossword that says “Let’s Play” to be taken to a web page where you can enter the words online. (Your progress goes away when you close the tab for the puzzle unless you create a free account. This is the same site where the wordsearch is found so if you made an account for that, this puzzle should work with that account.)

TOA Crossword Download

Let’s Play (Touches of Austen Crossword)

A Bit of April Fun with Touches of Austen

This month, my book promotions were scheduled to focus on my Touches of Austen series.

[IYKYK but if you don’t know… Touches of Austen stories are original, sweet (kisses-only) Regency romances that deliberately nod to various Austen novels.]

In other words, my free read at Patreon, my downloads for paid Patreon subscribers, and the $0.99 deal book were all supposed to be Touches of Austen books.

And they are.

But…

Things are kind of unsettled (shall we say) in our world at present.

The cost of living is marching ever upward at a steady and rather rapid pace.

It’s tax season here in Canada.

And it keeps raining, then, snowing, then, being warm, and then cold. Followed by a shuffle and repeat.

So, I thought perhaps right now, as April is starting, would be a grand time to inject a little fun and a few book savings.

I only decided this yesterday. 🙂 (Yes, it was raining. Again. And gas prices had just gone up. Again. LOL)

Here’s what I did:

First, I marked down the $0.99* book – Her Secret Beau – for the month. (*That’s $0.99 USD, GBP, CAD, EUR, NZD, AUD, with all other currencies also reduced)

Then, I got the downloads of that book and His Beautiful Bea organized and scheduled at Patreon. (Today, I made His Beautiful Bea free for all Patreon members (paid and free) to read this month.)

Next, I went to all the vendor platforms and reduced the prices on all the other books in the Touches of Austen series. They will be $1 off** for the month. (**That means every book except Her Secret Beau, is $1.99 GBP; $2.99 USD, EUR; $3.99 CAD, AUD, NZD, with all other currencies also reduced.)

Go to Current Book Promotions Page to find links

And finally, I decided to have some fun, so I created a wordsearch using words from my Touches of Austen series and added a page where you can download it (or access it online) to my website so I could share it with you all.

And now, I am sharing all that with you. 🙂

When the world went into lockdown a few years ago due to a certain virus, I reduced the prices of my books for several months (maybe a year?). I wanted to do something similar now since things are just as uncertain, if not more so.

But this time, I plan to do it month by month matching it up with my series highlight plans for as long as things are as they are or until I just can’t do it anymore. And, this time, I wanted to add some fun things along with the price reductions (hence, the wordsearch).

Hopefully, this will provide a little bit of lightness in a somewhat cloudy time. And maybe, it’ll just become a lovely monthly tradition.

Enjoy!

<3 Leenie

Touches of Austen Wordsearch

Want to have some fun? Below is a heart-shaped wordsearch that contains 35 words from my Touches of Austen series. The words can be forward, backward, or on a diagonal.

You may download and print out the wordsearch to do on paper (how I would do it), or if you prefer, you can click the button at the bottom of the wordsearch that says “Let’s Play” to be taken to a web page where you can circle the words online. (Your progress goes away when you close the tab for the wordsearch unless you create a free account.)

Words-from-Touches-of-Austen-Stories-177499096969cc3679948f6 Download

Let’s Play (Touches of Austen Wordsearch)

Writing While Wearing Jane Austen Coloured Glasses (Touches of Austen books 1 and 4)

In this video, I’m talking about my Touches of Austen series. Well, two books from it actually — His Beautiful Bea and His Irreplaceable Belle. These are two original sweet Regency romances that include some deliberate nods to one of my favourite authors — Jane Austen.

Enjoy!

Some Extras:

His Beautiful Bea is now available to listen to for free here on YouTube at this link:

There is also a short and sweet vignette that was inspired by the youngest Clayton brother and some things that happened in book 2 of the series. You can listen to that at this link: