“And I will tell you our reason,” she added, “and all about it. I am come on to give you notice that Papa and Mamma are out of spirits this evening, especially Mamma. She is thinking so much of poor Richard! And we agreed it would be best to have the harp, for it seems …
“Hell is a city much like London — A populous and smoky city.” Percy Bysshe Shelley* The excerpt below is taken from the opening paragraphs of Chapter I of Charles Dickens’s Bleak House. It is a brilliant description of what London was like in 1852-53 when Bleak House was serialized. However, it is not that far …
It is Michaelmas and Anne’s thoughts turn toward Kellynch and the Crofts who have now taken residence there. “Would you care for some blackberry jam?” Charles Hayter asked, lifting the dish in her direction. Oh bother, she must stop daydreaming before someone at the dinner took notice or worse, offense! Anne smiled, “Thank you, yes. …
I’ve been intrigued by the relationship between sisters for as long as I’ve been a writer. It’s a bit odd, actually, because I don’t have a sister myself (just one awesome younger brother). And, yet, despite having watched sister-to-sister dynamics with fascination in real life, I still didn’t expect so many sister pairs to turn …
The party at the Great House was sometimes increased by other company. The neighbourhood was not large, but the Musgroves were visited by every body, and had more dinner parties, and more callers, more visitors by invitation and by chance, than any other family. They were more completely popular. The girls were wild for dancing; …
Never had Anne had so many seeking her ear and her counsel. But as much as things were different, many things remained unchanged. Anne pulled her shawl around her shoulders more tightly and slipped outside, the sun still so low on the horizon, only the servants were about. A fresh breeze teased, begging her to come …
The first draft of my new story Alone with Mr. Darcy is now over 55,000 words long (yay!). It’s been a slow process since Darcy and Elizabeth have been particularly rebellious about following the plot line, so I’ve had to cut long stretches of what I’ve written. It’s frustrating to edit out several weeks worth of writing, …
We are told in chapter 3 of Persuasion how the Crofts learned Kellynch was for let, but we are not told how Captain Wentworth heard they had taken it. Presumably, it would have been in a letter from his sister, and would have come as quite a shock. It arrived in the morning post – …
I’ve been waiting for over a year to finally get to release THE ROAD AND BEYOND, which is the expanded book-club edition of The Road to You! Why is there a new version, and what’s in it, you ask? Well, when I first released The Road to You, my coming-of-age romantic mystery published last October, the …
Today is the official launch of Dying to Write, a Patrick Shea mystery. (My unofficial launch was in May before I went on a six-thousand-mile road trip.) Dying to Write is the fourth in the Patrick Shea mystery series. Ordinarily, a British police procedural would not be a good fit for an Austen-centered blog. However, …
Recent Comments