A Generation's Secrets is published!

 It's finally here! I went back to have a look at when I first started writing A Generation's Secrets, and it was March of 2019. So it was a little unbelievable to see it finally live on Amazon.

Many of you have participated in the online beta or typo squad, so I won't go into too much detail here, although you're welcome to read my review on Goodreads if you'd like more of my thoughts, and the description is below.

To celebrate, I'm going to be giving away five (5) copies of whichever book from the series you'd like, in whatever format it's available in. So for A Generation's Secrets, that is paperback and Kindle, while for A Constant Love, A Change of Legacies, and A Season Lost, you can have your choice of paperback, Kindle, or audiobook.

Enter using the Rafflecopter below and do let me know if you run into any issues.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and perhaps find some time to relax and read a book that's very dear to my heart! 😉

In the wake of a life-changing event, Georgiana and Elizabeth learn the secrets of the previous generation. A trip to America will reunite the former Bennet sisters, but when they gather at Pemberley, events there will leave their generation with its own secrets to hide. Fourth story in the Constant Love series.

Content warning: Readers should be aware that this story includes themes and scenes of miscarriage and stillbirth; death and mourning; spousal and child abuse; PTSD; slavery; sexual assault; and 19th century surgery.

Amazon link if you don't want to wait for the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writing update

I spent a LOT of time on Lady Anne's journal for A Generation's Secrets, all the while feeling odd because I wasn't making any progress on the main story. I did think it was important to finish a really solid draft of the journal, though, so that I could complete Lady Anne's arc as one unit. I have to admit, I cried when I got to the end. Spending that much time with one character, and particularly writing it all out long-hand, which I find to be more intimate, I suppose that was inevitable. For of course her last entry would be the last one before her death, and that meant that aside from filling gaps, our journey together was done. I might write Lady Anne Darcy again, in another work outside of this series, but not this particular characterization.

I typed up the entries, did I think three more as gap fills -- entries I'd realized later on were needed -- and by the time that was all done the journal came in at about 37,000 words, which is a not insubstantial novella! It will be integrated into the main story, though. I know many people were not tremendous fans of the dream sequences in Legacies (which make a little, tiny echo in this one), but I'm hoping the journal comes across as different because much of it is unknown for Elizabeth, and parts even for Darcy, and what Elizabeth reads has ramifications for their own lives (not to mention how it will impact Georgiana, who has long wondered about her mother). And while we know how it ends, Lady Anne and George Darcy's courtship is the book's primary love story.

And the really good news is that now that the journal is done, I'm on a real roll with the main body of work. It's up to 137,000 words now and I'm about halfway through the outline. So it's still on pace to be longer than A Season Lost, but how much longer is tough to tell at this point.

For those of you curious about Lady Anne's journal entries, I'd intended to post the excerpt I read at the Writer-Reader Get-Together when I wrote about that, and totally forgot. So here it is!

December 18, 1778

I do not know what is happening to me. Whenever I am in company with Mr. Darcy, I feel this strange dizziness and a churning in my stomach. It is not just that he is handsome, although he is, exceedingly so. He is so kind, and solicitous, and intelligent. I find it difficult to converse with strangers, but when I speak with him I never feel uncomfortable, as tho I have nothing to say. Even with the physical affect his presence has on me, I can still converse with him. Much of this is to his credit – he asks questions at just the right time to keep the conversation going. He seems to be one of those people who is exceedingly skilled in conversation. I admire it – O, I admire so much about him!

Today he expressed an interest in seeing the old castle, and Andrew said he would take him on a tour and invited Cathy and I to go with them. Cathy says he is a commoner and surely this is why she immediately said she had no interest in going through the droughty old castle, but I think I would have gone anywhere to spend more time in Mr. Darcy’s company, so I went with them. I think we were there for half the day and yet it felt like no time at all. Andrew and Mr. Darcy told me many tales of their travels but Mr. Darcy also asked me many questions about myself and what it was like to live at Stradbroke. I am given to understand that Pemberley, his family estate in Derbyshire, features a much newer house although the family have been in England since William the Conqueror – the former house has gone to ruin, he said. He quite enjoyed the castle and all its dusty corners because it is novel to him. He says he enjoys dining in the great hall for the same reason. I wish I could find his enthusiasm contagious in this. I would much rather live in a house where Robert Adam had recently designed the state rooms over old Stradbroke with its sad brick façade and old medieval furniture. I am always ashamed when we have people to visit, although at least that no longer happens with any frequency, since we have retrenched so much.

We also talked about my accomplishments and again he was very complimentary of my playing the harpsichord. He must think me terribly old-fashioned, although he has been kind about it. How I wish mama and papa would let me get a pianoforte instead, but they see it as an unnecessary expense. It makes me so angry at papa that he can lose five times the cost of a new pianoforte in one night at Almacks Club, and thus it is considered something I cannot have. I am sure all the other debutantes will have changed to that instrument and I only hope I will not be a laughingstock. Sometimes I wish for nothing more than to get away from Stradbroke, from debt and retrenchment and Cathy and papa.

I will not admit this anywhere but here, but over the past few days I have been wondering if it could be Mr. Darcy to rescue me. It is terribly forward of me! Yet everything about his situation save his lack of a title is so very eligible, and I would gladly give that up to be joined to such a man. I never believed in love at first sight but now I do wonder if it is indeed real. Or is this just an infatuation that will pass? I cannot tell at this time – I feel the desire to be in his company as much as I possibly can, and I have never felt that way about anyone before. I think his appearance of goodness must match what is inside his head and heart – Andrew would not have travelled with him for two years if it did not. And of course beyond my own feelings I am being very premature in presuming anything about his. He often initiates conversation with me, but he seems the sort of man who endeavours to make every member of his party comfortable in conversation, and perhaps he senses that I am least comfortable, even among my own family. And I know not whether he is even allowed to consider his own heart. It may be that there are other plans for him – plans involving a more well-dowered bride. All I know is that when he is gone I will miss him terribly, and I am glad that he has already promised to see us often in town during the season. His father is a member in the Commons and the whole family will be coming to town. Given his friendship with Andrew I have hopes of seeing him often.

More of what I've been up to

It's been a busy past couple of weekends for me! I did some more tall ship viewing at the Chestertown, Maryland Downrigging Festival, and got a lot of writing done, to boot, as I found staying in this historic town very inspiring:

I also attended the JAFF Writer-Reader Get-Together, and had a fantastic time. It was so great to get to meet up with readers, bloggers, and fellow writers, and talk about Austenesque writing and Jane Austen the whole weekend. I dressed up for tea, as I love to do:




They're gauging interest for a 2020 session, so if this sounds like fun but you weren't able to make it this year, please register!

Baltimore research

Well, as it turns out I made that trip to Baltimore sooner than expected! I learned that tall ship Lynx was going to be there along with Pride of Baltimore II. They're both types of schooners known as Baltimore clippers, and very much of interest to me at this point in my research. Still better, they were tied up at Fell's Point, the historic seaport and shipbuilding area of Baltimore, which turned out these schooners by the hundreds in the early 19th century. So I decided to go up and do a day sail on Pride of Baltimore II, since I'd been planning for a long time to do one on Lynx at another event a few weeks from now.

It was very weird to be going on a research trip that's only an hour away rather than a 7-8 hour flight. Unfortunately what I learned is that they were also doing a festival in Fell's Point, and it was a HUGE festival. Apparently it started as a way to raise money to keep Fell's Point from being razed for an interstate highway, but now that that threat is passed, it's just celebratory. So the views of a lot of the buildings were blocked by tents, although I was able to see some good examples of the architecture on the streets farther back. I think I'm going to pop up again at some point and do a history tour and get a better sense of what the harbour-front buildings look like normally.

Even though I didn't have to go all the way to England for this one, I did still manage to find the super-leaning old houses!

 

Some examples of the Georgian (called Federal-style here since we threw off George III) architecture of Fell's Point.

 

More house examples. There's no attempt whatsoever at the sort of architectural uniformity you see in places like London, in terrace houses. It looks like each one was built independently, to varying heights and styles. 

 

One thing that was strangely consistent was these passages, which all led to a sort of rear yard for all of the terraced houses. 

 

Lynx and Pride of Baltimore II tied up. I love moments like this where there are enough historic elements to mentally edit out the rest and envision this as a scene 200 years ago.

The sail was great, particularly getting to see Lynx with a full spread of canvas from the vantage point of another ship. It really gives a sense of how beautiful and fast these ships were, with their provocatively raked masts and sharp hulls.

Lynx looking absolutely lovely.

 

Lynx seen from Pride of Baltimore. That's Fort McHenry on the left, of Star Spangled Banner fame.

I also found a nice pub serving cask ale that was not too crowded with festival-goers, and made some good progress on the journal I wrote about at the end of my last post, so in a way it was like a little miniature English trip, except I made it by local commuter rail. All in all it was a very fun and productive time!

HMS Trincomalee tour

My latest Austen Authors post will be particularly apropos for those following the online beta for A Season Lost: we're continuing on my ship tours with HMS Trincomalee. This is a frigate a bit newer but of comparable size to HMS Caroline, and I've called out some things in the post so you can see visually elements from the story.

Guest post on childbirth at Austenesque Reviews

I'm over at Austenesque Reviews today with a guest post on childbirth, one of the big themes from A Change of Legacies.

Interview at Just Jane 1813

Hello, dear readers! If you head over to Just Jane 1813, you'll find an interview with me, including details about A Change of Legacies, and the entire Constant Love series.

An honor for A Constant Love, and a new way to follow me

So I am tremendously excited and honored to tell you all that A Constant Love has been named Just Jane 1813's "Favorite New JAFF Series 2015!" in the blog's Reviewer's Favorite awards for 2015. And you'll have some fun things to look forward to on that blog in 2016, including a Constant Love supplement from a unique POV. I'll link to it here when it's posted.


I also wanted to let readers know that I've now set up a Facebook page, where I'll be posting links to new blog entries and announcing publication of at least two and possibly three stories in 2016, beginning with A Change of Legacies, once I'm finally done editing it. So if Facebook is an easier place for you to follow me, you'll now have that option.

Un amour constant

I'm not sure how many French readers I have, or those who are bilingual, but for those of you who speak French, I have some amazing news. One of my readers has translated A Constant Love!

This will not be published to Amazon or B&N, but will instead sit alongside the original on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.

Readers who follow me at AHA may have noticed that the original version of A Constant Love was recently posted for removal from that site. I hope didn't seem like I'd gone back on my plan to have the original version of that still available online; the removal from that site was specific to some of its policies, and I do intend to continue to maintain it on FF.net and AoOO, now alongside its French sibling.

What to call Mr. Darcy

So once again I am not blogging about what I had intended to blog about, but this is one that I've been struggling with pretty much ever since I started writing in this genre. And that is what Elizabeth should call Mr. Darcy once they are married.

In the Constant Love series, I established that Elizabeth was having none of this Fitzwilliam nonsense early on:

“Darcy – ”

“Are you to call me Darcy, too?” he cried. “Can no one use my Christian name, not even my own wife?”

Elizabeth had spent much time meditating on what she would call him, when they were finally married, and “Fitzwilliam” had seemed too much, but she was surprised by the vehemence of his reaction.

“Darcy, you must own that Fitzwilliam has far too many syllables for everyday use. What did your parents call you?”

“Son,” he admitted, which filled her with mirth.

(Interestingly, only one reader has ever pointed out that Fitzwilliam is the same number of syllables as Elizabeth!)

I had multiple reasons for deciding to have her call him Darcy. The first and foremost is that to me, Mr. Darcy is Mr. Darcy. It's the identity he has developed throughout the entire novel in Pride and Prejudice. We've had this character for 200+ years, and none of us are on a Christian name basis with him! So to depart significantly from Mr. Darcy just seemed weird to me, and as Austen does refer to him as Darcy outside of dialogue, it seemed the least departure without Elizabeth calling him Mr. Darcy both in mixed company (when she would always call him Mr. Darcy) and among family or when they are alone.

The second is that there are already Fitzwilliams in the story. Presumably Jane Austen was not planning for there to be thousands of variations and continuations of her novel, so she never foresaw that having a character named Colonel Fitzwilliam and a character with the first name Fitzwilliam would create potential for confusion! To do a continuation, and add in even more people from the Fitzwilliam family into the mix just added to that potential for confusion.

And the third is that it somehow felt right to me that Elizabeth, who is not a conventional woman for that time, would call her husband what his male friends would. To me, it showed empowerment, and that her opinions are respected as much by him (if not more) as those of other men. And that he makes nothing more than a token protest and then allows her to continue to do so also says something about their married relationship dynamic.

I didn't get too many complaints about having done this, but there were a few readers who didn't like it, and I get that. In this new story that I've been working on, though, I've struggled with it once again. Elizabeth has been unhappily married (for a thankfully brief time) to Mr. Collins. That has changed her, and she's not exactly the same bold woman who married Mr. Darcy in ACL; one of the main themes of the story is how she returns to that, and Mr. Darcy's influence is, of course, a part of this.

So I ended up going with mostly Mr. Darcy, even once they are married, although by the time they reach this point, she is half-teasing when she calls him that. Every once and awhile, I did mix in a Fitzwilliam, and this time it felt right. Even then, it needed some explanation, and I expect every story where they make that transition to greater intimacy probably will:

“Well, Mr. Darcy, you have finally found a way to render me entirely speechless.”

“Are you still to call me Mr. Darcy, even now?”

“Why should I not? It is a name with which I have every possible pleasant association.”

“I hope it shall always continue to be.”

So I'm curious, readers -- which name do you prefer? I want to try a poll for the first time here!

What should Elizabeth call Mr. Darcy?

Mr. Darcy, all the time

Darcy, in private

Fitzwilliam, in private

It depends on the story

It doesn't really matter that much

Quiz Maker