An Update

 Hello, dear readers, it's been a while! I have been neglecting my blog for two reasons. 

The first is that I finally made it back to England again earlier this year. It was so wonderful and inspiring to be back again after two years away during the pandemic, and I was fortunate to time my trip so that COVID case rates were low there and I could travel about pretty freely. More to come in the future, but for now here's a photo of Lacock, to whet your appetites. You may recognize it as a filming location both for the 1995 Pride and Prejudice as well as the first Downton Abbey movie. I stayed there several nights and it was wonderfully atmospheric.

Lovely Lacock

The second reason for my quiet time on the blog is I have been focused on getting a first draft done for The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy, which I finally completed yesterday and ugly cried a bit upon doing so. It still needs a lot of work before it will be ready for online beta – in addition to the usual gaps for names and such that I need to fill, there are sections relating to time on a packet boat and all of the legal bits that need me to refresh myself on my research and try to write them through accurately. 

I did not think it would take this long to complete, but my original estimate was that it was going to clock in between 125,000 and 150,000 words, and I am sure that it will come as a surprise (eye roll) to you all that it's come out at nearly 170,000 words instead. I've got some weekends coming up to devote to writing, however, so I'm hoping to work through the edits as quickly as I can and have it into online beta by this autumn.

JAFF Loves Ukraine: Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund

 Hi dear readers, if you haven't seen it already, I wanted to let you know about a wonderful fundraiser JAFF authors are doing for Ukraine. There is a Facebook fundraiser and also an Austen Variations page (different items are listed on each) for it but also flexibility if you wish to donate to different organizations. And there is a HUGE list of things you can get in exchange for donations of different amounts. Scroll down to Melanie Schertz's post in the Facebook fundraiser on March 2 to see the full list, which is continuing to be updated.

I have 10 ebooks ($10 donation) and 10 audiobooks ($15 donation) available, but more exciting is that I'm offering a cameo in my next book for a $50 donation. I can share with you here that it will be in The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy and I already have the female or male characters identified that would have your name (you'll be a Lady, Lord, or Sir!). There is flexibility in terms of whether you want your first, last, or full name listed.

So if you'd like to see your name in print AND help an important cause, this is your chance. 

Guest Post at Austenesque Reviews + Writing Update

 Gah, it's been so long since I've done a guest post somehow I neglected to post about it here in my blog! So if you didn't see the link on my social channels, I did a guest post at Austenesque Reviews on writing Lady Anne Darcy for A Generation's Secrets.

I had also been intending to give a blog / writing update. My original plan when I left Austen Authors was to keep posting in this blog about once a month, but I've quite fallen off of that pace in the push to publish A Generation's Secrets. I do still have a bit more from the Lake District left to post, but for the next few months I intend to focus more on restoring the posts that were lost when I left Austen Authors so that they're available in this blog. Unfortunately restoring them hasn't turned out to be as quick and simple as copying and pasting, but I had a lot of key posts that touch on various aspects of my books, so I want to ensure I get them back online.

I'm also making great progress on The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy. I took advantage of the long weekend in the USA last weekend to do a little writing getaway, and have ploughed right on past the 100,000 word mark – it's now at 114,540. Based on where I'm at in the outline I think it's going to clock in somewhere between 130,000 - 150,000 words, which is a much more reasonable length than I've been working in for my past few books! It will still be a while before I've filled all the gaps and edited it sufficiently for an online beta, but watch this space for more updates.

Giveaway winners

 Wow, I was blown away by the response to the giveaway! Thank you so much to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners: foreverHis, Kayla, Colleen, Christina, and Leigh.

I'll be reaching out to all of you by email so I can get you your choice of books.

And thanks again to everyone who's entered and shown interest in the series. As you all know, I love continuations and I'm delighted to see this much interest in one.

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

A Season Lost Audiobook

Well dear readers (and listeners!), it's been down to the wire as to whether we'd be done with the A Season Lost audiobook, or the Kindle and paperback versions of A Generation's Secrets.

You can probably tell by the title and link which won the race!

Verona Westbrook is back for round three (and she's planning to be on board for AGS when it's ready!) and I am so grateful to her for being willing to stick with a long series.

Now I'm going to be devoting more of my focus to the final proofing and publishing of A Generation's Secrets. I'm hoping it's just a matter of weeks before its out.

But first I'm celebrating with an audiobook giveaway! I'm giving away five copies, and you can chose your pick of any book in the series, so feel free to enter even if you haven't got any of the audiobooks so far. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter, and do let me know if you run into any issues...this is the first time I've tried it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Generation's Secrets Typo Squad

 Hello, dear readers! It's been a while!

I have not kept up with blog posts as I had intended to...between reviewing the audiobook files for A Season Lost, editing A Generation's Secrets, and writing The Crimes of Elizabeth Darcy, I haven't had time. And I'll admit to lacking a bit in motivation, as I'm looking at another year without a trip to England thanks to Delta, so it's tough to revisit my time in the Lakes.

But I am writing on a cheerier topic. I've got a "typo squad" draft ready of A Generation's Secrets, and I would love to have you join in and give it a read. This is a pretty darn close to final publication version of the story, and having some more sets of eyes on it I've found super helpful in past books. 

The idea is for you to simply read it naturally as you would any book, and just flag anything that jumps out at you. It will be particularly helpful with this one, since at 300,000+ words I'm pretty sure there are still some typos lurking in there.

So, if you're interested, please drop me a line at sophieturner1805 [at] gmail [dot] com so that I can get you either an ebook file or a PDF of the paperback. If you already volunteered during the online beta, you should have heard from me, but please do let me know if I've missed you on accident. It's been a long time since then and my memory's not perfect!

Please also be aware that in advance of (FINALLY) publishing the book I will be removing all but a preview from FF.net and Archive of Our Own. I am targeting September 4 for removal but will keep it up for additional days if I see anyone actively reading and commenting within the previous 24 hours.