Category: A Writer’s Life

Listen to my audiobooks for FREE on YouTube!

Posted onLeave a comment

Yes, you read that right! I’m putting my audiobooks on YouTube where you can listen to them for free. It’s equal parts exciting and terrifying, but I’m diving in and I’m hoping you’ll help me make a big enough splash.

Why put your audiobooks on YouTube for free? 

Great question, and one I’ve put A LOT of thought and research into over the past few months… 

Ultimately, it’s an experiment. 

My goal is to reach a wider audience. I enjoy using YouTube to find and learn about new things, so maybe having my audiobooks there will help new readers discover the world of Jane Austen fanfiction. How wide that audience is, I don’t know. I hope it’s enough to make this experiment successful so that more authors will follow suit. 

Until then, I’m willing to take one for the team because it means that I can make my stories available to readers on a fixed income and the visually impaired as well as anyone, like me, who is fascinated with the Regency era and Jane Austen fanfiction.  

Okay, then, so why aren’t all of your audiobooks on YouTube already?

I would love to put all of my audiobooks on YouTube immediately, but some of them are locked into contracts that don’t allow me to share… yet. 

Until those titles become available, I hope you enjoy what’s already available as well as my upcoming new releases! 

Wait, your newest release will be available on YouTube?!

Yes! In fact, Stevie Zimmerman signed the contract and is currently producing A Cleverly (Un)contrived Compromise. 

Are your audiobooks available anywhere else?

Yes. Besides Audible, I’m working on uploading them everywhere—even libraries!

Cool! How can I help?

The success of this experiment depends entirely on my audience, and that’s you! So please click here to visit my new YouTube channel, hit the Subscribe button, and enjoy listening! It’s that easy.

How Much Research Goes Into A Historical Novel?

Posted on

Isn’t history fascinating? I relish the opportunity to delve into the everyday details of the Regency period, and if you enjoy my books, you probably do too. If you’d like a glimpse into some of the research that goes into a novel, please read on.

Note: These are by no means all of my sources. I picked the links I thought you would enjoy the most, being both informative and entertaining.

Lady Lucas’ pug thinks some of that meringue would make a lovely treat for such a good girl.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Are you curious about the recipe that won Mr. Darcy’s heart? Click here to see the inspiration for Mr. Darcy’s favorite plum cake. Please let me know if you give this a try! I chickened out (pun intended!) when I saw how many eggs this recipe required. Hint: It’s A LOT.

So, of all the eggs…why a duck egg? To make a greater splat, of course! Do you want to see the difference in size between a chicken and a duck egg? Click here for a picture comparison, as well as a peek into the Austen’s garden where they would have kept poultry.

Speaking of eggs…

A Splendidly (Un)suitable Match had several Easter eggs. Did you find them?

Did you catch a song title by The Clash? It’s hard to imagine a British punk rock title fitting in a Regency era story, but it worked so well, I snuck it in and left it there for my eagle-eyed rock fan readers to find. 

Here’s another one: Several nods were given to All God’s Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Mrs. Hurst was inspired by one of his characters. And you might have recognized his name as the Meryton farrier. Here’s what I learned about the important role farriers played in the development of veterinary medicine!

Here’s a lovely picture of Princess Charlotte with her beloved Maltese, Lioni.

And finally, here’s a glimpse into the Regency parlor game Miss Bingley suggested—and which backfired in her face. Speaking of games…did you recognize Spillikins as Pick-Up Sticks? 

If you have no idea why I’m sharing these links with you, then click here to grab your copy of A Splendidly (Un)suitable Match! Colonel Fitzwilliam bets a guinea that you’ll chuckle at least once. 

9 Things Forget Me Not, Elizabeth Taught Me…

Posted on

A lot of the enjoyment I get from writing is in the research. Here are some of the gems I uncovered in my latest book!

Here are the Top 9 things I learned during the creation of Forget Me Not, Elizabeth:

Photo by Noah Boyer on Unsplash

1. Forget-me-nots haven’t always been so romantic.

The forget-me-not (translated from 1530s Old French ne m’oubliez mye) was worn by lovers to ensure they never forgot each other. However, these delicate, blue flowers were known as ‘scorpion-grass’ in England until the early 19th century. Not nearly as romantic…

2. The Royal Navy’s uniform was inspired by a woman. Fashion matters! (Says the person wearing a t-shirt and yoga pants…)

3. Ironically, the originator of the theory that a second blow to the head will cure amnesia…apparently died of a head injury.

4. As early as the 1700s, electronic stimulators were available to the public for treating the brain. Shocking!

5. Frankenstein was inspired by the experiments of 2 eccentric Italians who believed they could bring people back to life with electricity. The uncle-nephew duo’s experiments were both grotesque and extremely popular.

The Hospital of Bethlem [Bedlam], St. George’s Fields, Lambeth. Coloured engraving. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

6. Bedlam, the famous insane asylum, was a tourist attraction often compared to the Palace of Versailles.

The fancy façade disguised crumbling walls and deplorable living conditions for the patients inside.

7. Belladonna, or Nightshade, was the go-to beauty treatment for rich women.
The flowers made a lovely rouge and the oil, used as eyedrops, dilated the pupils, making eyes appear larger. The berries are sweet. Too bad they’re so very deadly.

Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash

8. If you want to attract a swarm of bees (like many people do), use a brood comb.

One of the gentlemanly pastimes of the Regency era was beekeeping, not so much for the bees but for the science. They might have used this method to attract bees and further their studies.

9. Mr. Collins was not a very nice beekeeper (according to the ’95 BBC film adaptation, anyway.) Regency beekeepers used straw skeps to house their hives, which, unfortunately for the bees, meant that collecting their honey was a murderous business.

What do forget-me-nots, uniforms, bees, belladonna, Bedlam, blows to the head, and Frankenstein have to do with Darcy and Lizzy?

Click here to get your copy.

Very Well, Miss Bates…

Posted onLeave a comment

I always liked Miss Bates. One needn’t worry about lack of conversation with her about…
  1. When I was little, I introduced myself as Cinderella Burger King. Later, I was Elrod Purple Clod.
  2. My mom is a writer, and my grandma is a voracious reader. She gave me my first writing journal when I was 7. I filled it with limericks.
  3. I’m an introvert who loves deep conversations/hates small talk and is often the first one out on the dance floor … and the first person to leave a party for home.

Okay, that’s enough about me.

How about you? What are your 3 things?