October 10, 2026
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving and welcome to one of my favourite months of the year! October is just beautiful here – the cool temps, the sunny days, the colours of the leaves! Sigh. It’s too bad that October only happens once per year. But then, if it happened more often, it wouldn’t be so special I guess. 🙂
Our garden is still growing. This weekend (Saturday morning to be precise), we hope to get some plastic attached to the large hoop house to see if we can extend the growing season for a few weeks and get our roma tomatoes to ripen. I just picked the first almost fully red one this past week, and I have seen a few changing colours so maybe it will be possible? This year is about experimenting, seeing what happens and learning as we go.
I have been settling into my part-time writer identity fairly well. (See this post if you want more info about that.) I have just completed my first full week of delivering for Uber Eats each morning for a few hours and then coming home to put in a few more hours at my writing job. I’ve been working towards doing this every day, so it’s nice to see that I was capable of doing it. And I expect it to become even easier to do as it just becomes a new routine.
As part of my new business plan, I have identified two core activities to do each day in my writing life. These top priority items are 1) one 30-minute writing time block and 2) one 1-hour audiobook production time block each day. So far, I’m finding this manageable. So with all that in mind… let’s get into my writing and audiobook news and all the regular Saturday Broadsheet info.
But first…
While we’re speaking of business plans, my friend Rose has some business news that she shared this month in the Sigh-worthy Romance Tearoom. You can see her goodbye/hello message here.
Okay, now on to my news.
IN WRITING NEWS
I have started sharing Lydia’s story on my Patreon page each Thursday. This past Thursday, chapter 5 posted, and I need to re-read and schedule chapter 8.
This week, I focused my 30-minute writing time slots on Harriet and the Colonel’s story, as well as writing this newsletter.
Next week, I’ll be back to Lydia’s story.
IN AUDIOBOOKS NEWS
If you subscribe to my website or my Substack, you already know that I have completed adding all 69 of my eBooks to ElevenReader. And since that project is done, I have started sharing links to my audiobooks on YouTube on my website and Substack. (They are already all on Patreon.)
The plan at present is to share one YouTube audiobook video each week. This past week, An Accomplished Lady (of the best sort) was the audiobook that was added.
I have been working on producing Not An Heiress as an audiobook and have been sharing that story as a by-the-chapter audiobook on YouTube. Yesterday, Chapter 7 posted over there, and after I complete this Saturday Broadsheet, I hope to complete the second pass of Chapter 8 so that I can get that made into a video and have it ready for next Friday. Chapter 8 is the final chapter in this story except for the epilogue, which I hope to have out the next week after Chapter 8, but Monday is a holiday, so it might be delayed a week.
IN BOOK PROMOTIONS
This month’s $0.99 book is Finally Mrs. Darcy. (That’s $0.99 USD, CAD, AUD, NZD, EUR, GBP, with all other currencies also reduced and on all my regular eBook retailers.)
OR…
You could get Finally Mrs. Darcy as one of your two eBooks to Keep as a paid Patreon member. Memberships start at $2 and unlock access to my full library of 69 eBooks, 14 audiobooks, and new releases first.
The other eBook to Keep for paid Patreon members this month is Unravelling Mr. Darcy, which also happens to be a free read for all free followers until the end of the month.
And now for…
SOMETHING NEW TO READ
In this section, we are on our way to London and taking a stop at a coaching inn.
Please remember that there are sections where previous chapters from all the Harriet and the Colonel stories can be read on whichever platform you subscribe to.
On my blog, look for Harriet and the Colonel in the menu options.
On Substack, look for the Harriet and the Colonel section on the home page.
On Patreon, look for On the Way to a Wedding in the collections tab.
Chapter 4 (part 1)
The carriage rattled to a stop in the courtyard of a familiar inn. It was the one where Harriet and her brother always stopped for an extended period when traveling from their estate to town or from town to their estate. In fact, it was the same inn at which she had stopped with Andrew and her father and mother when they were alive.
“That bench between the inn and the stables,” Richard whispered in Harriet’s ear, “is where Edmund met Elizabeth.”
Harriet smiled. That was her favourite place to sit with a sandwich on nice days when they stopped – Edmund enjoyed it as well. Yes, it smelled a bit of horses out here, but the tree lent a nice bit of shade when its leaves were still attached to its limbs, and the noise of horses, carriages, and the people who worked with them was preferable to the din that could grow quite raucous indoors.
“Are we taking a full half hour?” Richard asked Julian.
“Do you need it, dear?” Julian asked Samantha.
“Oh my, I would love a day and a half,” she replied as she rubbed her back. “I doubt a half hour would be any better than a quarter hour.” She smiled at Harriet.
“Do not rush on my account,” Harriet said. “I posted my message to Edmund at the last inn. It is well on its way to informing him to be careful.” She turned to Richard. “We will take the full half hour and a private room.”
“Does that meet with your approval?” Richard asked Julian.
Julian laughed. “I dare say it must if Harriet has decreed it to be necessary. She does know her sister well. Samantha would press on without a stop at all if she could.”
“This is true,” Samantha agreed. “I do not enjoy travelling overly much. I mean, the scenery is lovely, but the constant bumping along the road does make one grow weary. And in my current state, I find it makes me twice as weary.” She punctuated this with a small pat of her belly. “Harriet is likely wise to force me to take some time away from the carriage.” She sighed. “I am just anxious to see Edmund with my own eyes.”
“I still cannot believe that you have been involved in an intrigue that is adjacent to dangerous people.” This was not the first time Julian had scolded Harriet with a severe look as he had said something similar.
“I was perfectly safe,” Samantha replied. “And Harriet will do her best to keep herself safe, because if she does not, she will never get to marry her colonel.”
Richard chuckled at that just as he had each time Samantha had said the same thing in reply to Julian’s scolding.
“I promised Richard I would be careful,” Harriet replied as always. “And I would never lie to him, nor would I do anything to put my sister in danger.”
“Not purposefully,” Julian grumbled.
Harriet sighed.
“No one is going to be in danger,” Richard said as helped Harriet out of the carriage. “Edmund will be warned in time.”
He had taken Harriet’s troubling thought about Edmund being led into a trap with great seriousness. It was he who had decided that they needed to apprise Samantha and Julian about some of the details of their investigation. The results of doing so had been beneficial, since it had helped them start their journey earlier than originally planned, for both Samantha and Julian were anxious to be certain that Edmund was safe.
Together, the four of them entered the inn, and after a few minutes of waiting, were escorted to private room. It was less than five minutes later that a tea service was set out for them.
Their half hour had stretched to thirty-five minutes before Richard suggested that he and Harriet take a stroll of the yard before they re-entered the carriage.
And that was how they came to be almost to Harriet’s favourite bench when Samuels rode into the courtyard to request a new horse.
“He is alone again,” Harriet said, while Richard lifted a hand in greeting to draw the man’s attention to them. Thankfully, it worked and neither of them would have to hire a horse to ride after him to discover why he was here instead of in town.
“Colonel, Miss Phillips,” Samuels said as he approached them. “Are you headed to town? Lillesley mentioned you would be returning early to prepare for your wedding.” He added a wink to his words to indicate he knew precisely why they were travelling.
“Have you seen my brother recently?” Harriet asked as one might when coming upon a common acquaintance, but with a greater reason to ask than it being just a nicety.
Samuels nodded. “I was at Lillesley house just yesterday.”
“And he was well?” Harriet pressed.
Worry filled the man’s eyes. “He seemed to be. Is there a reason he might not be?” He glanced to the right for a moment before turning his attention to their left. “Have you learned something?”
“Nothing that I am sure you do not already know,” Harriet replied.
“[name] has a connection to Wickham,” Richard said softly. “I do not know if Lillesley knows that.”
Harriet’s mouth popped open on a small gasp. “That is important, is it not?” she said to herself more than the men with her.
“It is,” Samuels agreed. He shook his head as his cheeks puffed out and then, he expelled a breath. “Even more so now,” he added.
Nervous butterflies began a jig in Harriet’s belly. “Why do you say even more so now?”
Samuels knocked his hat against his leg, as if he were trying to rid it of dirt from the road. “He is why I am here.” He looked very much like he did not want to admit anything further, but he did. “No one of our lot has seen him in two days.”
Thank you so much for being my readers! Have a lovely weekend!
<3 Leenie
