A Good Memory is Unpardonable Launch Party

Every once in a while, a story just clicks for me. The plot pops into my head seemingly from nowhere, the writing flows with little effort, and I giggle half the time I’m writing it.

A Good Memory is Unpardonable is one of those books. This is the second time I have written over 70% of a certain book on my phone because I just couldn’t stop when I got started. Who needs a quiet space and a real keyboard, right? I wish I could do that all the time!

This book is not only special to me because of how much fun I had writing it, but also because it is, in my own little unconscious way, a celebration of love. According to Facebook, today is my birthday. Well… that’s a little bit of a fib. It’s actually my anniversary, and today is Number 20. I didn’t intend it to be that way when I sat down and started tinkering with this story, but all the threads pulled into place and I decided it was meant to be. So, because I’m just as giddy as Elizabeth on her 20th anniversary, and just as head over heels in love with my own guy as she could ever be with Darcy, I’ll share our wedding photo. We were such babies! (Guess what our favorite color was and still is?)

Because this is such a momentous occasion for both Elizabeth Darcy and for me, we put our heads together and came up with our best Secrets of a Happily Ever After. Be advised, results may vary. Everyone comes from a different place, and everyone has unique circumstances and hopes in life, so this is not at all meant to be an exhaustive and exclusive checklist. These are just a few examples of what has kept the love alive around here as well as at Pemberley. 😉

1: Choose someone you respect

    Elizabeth consented to a private interview, out in the garden, where we could be observed but not overheard. She stood mute and aloof, poised as an offended goddess and nearly as lovely to my already appreciative eyes. I will not say that my heart had determined to claim her by then, but it was probably well on its secret way to making itself her own. What I can surely confess is that I had come to hold her as a respected friend, one I had mortified and one whose opinion I valued.

2: Have a sense of humor

“A memoir? Whatever for?” were his precise words.

“Why, to keep for all posterity, so that when our great-grandchildren someday wish to know how we arrived at this point, they will have the pleasure of reading all the particulars.”

“They shall have the family lineage books in the library.”

“Those dry and dusty tomes? I would rather chew wood than force myself to read them. Besides, no one cares about who begat whom. They want to know how and why.”

“Well, the ‘how’ is a rather simple answer, and the why… I think they can figure out on their own.”

I tickled him into silence, the cheeky rascal, then I said, “Come, my love, surely we have a tale worth telling. Would you not have your descendants, who will no doubt share your… shall I say, ‘self-confidence,’ know your path to happiness?”

“If you are to throw my flaws in my face, perhaps you will not forget to mention your own impudence,” he growled… but it was a pleasant growl.

“Oh, naturally. Why, I can hardly pick up a pen without putting down something very tart indeed.”

“In that case, the thing will hardly be fit for polite company by the time we are finished writing it.”

I kissed him rather thoroughly and whispered, “I certainly hope not.”

Eventually, he did agree, though only after making me promise not to read what he has written until we have both finished. However, since he extracted that promise under duress—refer to my aforementioned reference to tickling—I do not feel particularly bound to it.

3: Be well-matched yet complementary to each other

“Indeed, I am the luckiest woman alive, but it is nothing short of a miracle that we ever married. I consider it yet another minor phenomenon that we did not kill each other that first year. We are identical opposites, I sometimes say—perfectly suited in character but woefully mismatched in personality. Perhaps that is precisely why we get on so well, for he is the earth to my feet and I the light in his sky.”

4: Apologize and forgive often

“Obviously, we did settle our differences, or I would not be writing this today, but it was not immediate. Rather, it was not immediately complete. We both apologized that very night, through tears (mine) and grinding teeth (his), but he struggled to reconcile himself to that apology for many days after. It was at least a week before he could smile again and almost that long before I could forget how severely he had spoken to me. But never once did he make plans to return early to London, nor did I wish for him to go.”

5: Have fun together!

“I have now spent twenty years losing chess games, attempting to read to her with her head on my chest, and trying to keep up with her quick mind in conversation. This morning, we had the pleasure of playing with our first grandchild in the nursery, so it is safe to say we have found our harmony together.”

6: Learn to love (or at least put up with) each other’s family

      “Young men, take note: it is not a wise tactic when trying to smooth the waters with your favored lady, to maintain yourself to be in the right, even as you declare your expectation that she should come to see the affair from your perspective. It will end sorely. To illustrate, I believe I said something about her mother’s lack of decorum, her father’s complete failure to govern his daughters, and her younger sisters’ indecent behavior concerning gentlemen. It did not matter that I was right at each point. In fact, in later years, she came to agree with me in nearly every particular (though she has taught me to love them despite their flaws, as she does).”

7: Have the same goals and pull together

“At one point, after the worst insults had flown, he came to stand beside me and his fingers, hidden behind his back, brushed mine in reassurance and gratitude. I would say that was the fateful moment when we both knew we were meant to wage life’s battles side by side.”

8: Don’t jump to the wrong conclusions

Him: (Advice from Richard) “No, Darcy, unless you have some other proof of her affections, I would have to say the attachment appears to be all on your side.”
Richard returned to London three days later. Not another word passed between us about Elizabeth, because the truth was, I was already living in hell, knowing he had been right.

Her: “Fitzwilliam seemed to lapse into a sort of melancholy after his cousin went away. He is very fond of Richard, and the tide of war was never far from our consciousness in those days. It was thought that Richard’s squadron was in no danger of immediate deployment, but one never knew. I expect everyone who counted a soldier among their dear folk prepared for each farewell to be their last.”

9: Lots of kissing!
  
“I was writing last night in my room (though she claims it is her room since she is always there) when my delicious Elizabeth pushed my pen away and slid into my lap, wearing nothing but a… well, not properly attired. She wrapped her arms around me and seduced me thoroughly, right there at my writing desk. I am not complaining in the least. Lucky is the man whose bride of two decades can still ignite him as my Elizabeth does me. But a curious constant I have discovered is that when a man is so effectively distracted, single-minded, and oblivious to all else—one might even use the word helpless—a woman may not necessarily be so.”

10: Think on the past only as its remembrance gives you pleasure

“I trust that the words we have written will find their way into the hands of future generations and that the proper measure of discernment will be applied in the reading of them. Though they are not in accord on all points, I believe the consistencies outweigh the discrepancies. When I pointed out the passages where we were in disagreement, Elizabeth only laughed and declared, “My dear, in cases such as these, a good memory is unpardonable.”

A Good Memory is Unpardonable goes live today on all major ebook channels. 

Snag your copy today, OR, Share some of your own Happily Ever After advice for a chance to win one of four copies of Unpardonable!