L.L. Diamond

Hi everyone!  I just thought I would give everyone an October preview/update.  My new book is coming along.  I should be starting Chapter 24 today, and my betas are already hard at work proof-reading and making corrections to the initial chapters.  I’m also playing around with cover ideas, which is a horrible distraction from writing, but something I do about this far from the end.

The expat will be back with more travel guide posts, but I have no idea what they are.  Sick children and other obligations have prevented my explorations, but I hope to be back on the road this weekend.  There is an event that I am interested in attending soon.  It would mean a kind of repeat on the travel blog, but they would be portions that have not been discussed yet.  Hopefully, you won’t mind a bit of repetition if it means a new angle!

Last but certainly not least is the new Ask the Author spot!  October’s featured author will be Brenda J. Webb.

  

You are likely to be familiar with her stories, Fitzwilliam Darcy: An Honourable Gentleman and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s Forbidden Love.  She will be stopping by to answer your questions and promote her new book, Darcy and Elizabeth A Most Unlikely Couple.

If you know your question already, then by all means, PM me or leave me a comment on this post.  I will be putting out the formal call for your questions around mid-October.  If you do send me questions now, please indicate whether I can use your name (I can just use first names if you like) in the final transcript of the interview!

I have been meaning to move a few short stories to the site and I have one bugging me to get out of my brain.  Perhaps, I might have some time once I am done with this or during the weekend to get that one out.  It’s a bit silly, so I hope I can pull it off!

I hope you have a great October and enjoy those Fall colors!

Happy Reading!

Everything is changing!  When I created this blog, I imagined someone stumbling upon it every once in a while, but it didn’t really have direction other than writing.  Now that I’ve graduated and I don’t have school projects–a design website–due, I have had more time to spruce this one up.  Wordpress and I have kind of a love-hate relationship.  I always search through all of the options and never really see what I think is correct, and then I gripe about it for a while only to accidentally stumble upon it later.  Well, either I stumble across it or someone shows me.

I fully admit to rigging the header so I can use the background.  I know in web design, if you want an extra block of color, you add a <div> to your HTML and then put it in CSS, but I can’t access HTML.  I’m sure there’s a way of doing it, and when I one day get told or figure it out, I will share it with you so you can laugh with me.  Anyway, I’ve been sprucing things up and now it looks much more like a legitimate blog rather than something I threw together after doing my homework (*whistles while attempting an innocent look*).

I’m enjoying “The Expats Travel Guide.”  I go back and look up the history of these places and I learn even more about them. It’s been a win all around.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed some of it.  I hope you have too.

The big new news is my new “Ask the Author” segment!  I’m so excited for this!  I did not want to post the same questions as other blogs, and it would take too long to research everyone else’s anyway, so you ask what you want to know.  Our first victim is Sarah Johnson, author of Chosen (Leaving Bennet Behind: Volume 1), Snowstorms and Kissing Games, Captains Log, and the upcoming Just to Hear I Love You.  I am looking for people to message me questions right now, so check out my facebook page and send me a message!

I have also put up a spot for Guest Posts.  Do not feel like or have the time for an interview?  Then post an excerpt from your newest book, write a special scene, or tell us about something neat you learned during your research.  I am sure this crowd will appreciate something new from time to time!

I’m writing this post at 4am and I cannot sleep, so I had best try to catch some zzzz’s before I am expected to wake up!

This morning as I was debating whether to get out of bed or to stay under my nice cozy comforter, I was thinking of some of the clever ideas some people have had for their blogs.  I thought about a comment made on one of my photos on facebook that thanked me for posting photos for those who will never make it and I had an idea.  It may not be original by some standards, but it will be original to me.  My husband had thought of me collecting photos from around Britain and compiling them into a book.   There was a theme involved and such, and if I manage to compile the right photos, I might do it, but for now, I think I’ll stick with “The Expats Travel Guide”.  I may post more often at the beginning as I go back to May and post photos and observations from arriving here to the different places we visit along the way.  It will mostly be Britain, but given most of my followers are Janeites, I do not believe many of you will complain.  

I hope I do not offend any UK friends with my commentary, and I hope the rest of you might find some inspiration or get a kick out of it.

Leslie

Seriously, the place is beautiful!  To quote Mrs Gardiner, “If it were merely a fine house richly furnished,” said she, “I should not care about it myself; but the grounds are delightful. They have some of the finest woods in the country.”  Woods, a lake, temples, huge trees and I’ve heard that in spring the bluebells in the woods are beautiful.  I want to go back!  

It was an amazing 2 mile walk around the lake!

I am writing and up to chapter 16 on the newest book.  I’m excited about it.  It has some familiar components, I think, but taken in a completely different context.  Hopefully, everyone else will like it too!  

Lastly, I began a facebook profile under Leslie L. Diamond (L.L. Diamond) for anyone who wants to friend request me.  I had the author page you “like,” but most people seem to want to be friends instead.  That’s okay, I can deal with that!

I think I’ve adjusted–I think!  I’m driving, which I found daunting in the beginning, but I’ve managed to adjust (I hope!).  I probably have a bunch of British drivers behind me swearing, but I am just trying to get around!

I have had a great time seeing some of the local towns, some of the churches, and a few estates.  I’ve been to Oxburgh and Ickworth.  The photo above is me at Ickworth.  I’m a huge art fan and they have a self-portrait by Elizabeth Vigee-LeBrun that is amazing!

On another note, I am writing.  I am about 13 chapters in and I just keep plugging along.  I have been drawing too, but I need to come up with a profile drawing.  I have always sucked at anything but straight on.  I guess I’ll have to work it out.

A lot of news for me in the last month!  We moved all the way from Nebraska to England.  Just a little hop!  LOL!  I’m working today on catching up on a few things that I’ve been putting off in the hopes to get going again on writing.  We’re still stuck in temporary housing and it’s really hard to get much done.  This morning I was in one room working and also trying to stop arguments between my children in the other room.  It is raining today, and we don’t have a mode of transportation that I can use on my own.  We won’t even get started on me driving!  It has been interesting–to say the least!

Then Meredith posted the great picture of my book at the beach.

http://instagram.com/p/n9CTjDsxcI/

I knew that she would probably review A Matter of Chance soon, but I just happened to look to see what she was reading one day and there was the review.  4 out of 5 stars!  I’m my own worst critic, so I was excited to see that she liked it as much as she did.

http://austenesquereviews.com/2014/05/matter-chance.html

Today, since I’m getting some work done, I posted a short story here, and I’m actually blogging!  I also updated the photo in the header.  The last was a mill pond behind a vacation house where we stayed in Maine.  The new one is a view of the Cathedral in Ely from a park nearby.  I feel so productive today.  Maybe one day I’ll get used to keeping up multiple pages and sites.

 

I’ve been busy but I’m still around.  I’ve been trying to write, but we’re moving soon, and I simply haven’t had it in me to finish anything.  I’ve got several things started, so hopefully, once I get done with my degree (in May!), I’ll have more time to devote to it.

Thanks for hanging in there, and I’ll post more once the big move happens!

Leslie

I really am!  I was told to go for it, and I would find my voice. I’m still looking for it. (*looks around*) I know it’s here somewhere!

Anyway, I promise to try to do better. Perhaps when I graduate, which is at the end of this spring. I started classes today and I will be a busy girl the next few months. I have the normal classwork, client work (for the student AIGA chapter), and lastly, my thesis project. Oh! And I’m moving this spring. For now, the destination will be a mystery, but I promise to post a picture of me in the new location for this page.

Not that I needed any more on my plate, but I started a new book. It’s a bit different than my last two. I seem to completely change things when I start a new story. I’m excited and yet wary about it. I’ve never written what I consider high angst, but angst weenies beware! I guess I’ll find out while it’s being beta’d. I know that two of my betas from Rain and Retribution and A Matter of Chance will happily beta this new one. Lisa will make the usual fun comments in the margin that relate to sporks and penknives. Kristi will likely hide behind the blue sofa (If anyone doesn’t read on the JAFF boards, a blue sofa is a warning for high angst.).  Perhaps I’ll somehow send her some chocolates to make up for the stress.  Us angst weenies need to stick together!

As for news, Meredith at Austenesque Reviews is currently reading Rain and Retribution. I’m looking forward to her opinion and yet I will probably read it with my hands over my face, peeking between my fingers. I’ve had reviews on Amazon, of course, but this is the beginning of a whole new ball game. I’ll update should Meredith be kind and give me a glowing review.

I’ve also submitted both Rain and Retribution and A Matter of Chance to Diary of an Eccentric to review. Anna has been looking for new JAFF to read, and she emailed me back very quickly to let me know that she was interested in both.  Fingers crossed that she likes them!

Thanks for following!

Leslie

Well, just in case you didn’t know.  Let’s see.

In A Matter of Chance, Lizzy plays the second movement from Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique.  I studied this piece in high school and I will still pull it out to play it from time to time.  However, like Elizabeth Bennet, I don’t apply myself and practice.  I guess between three kids, a husband, school, and writing, it falls by the wayside at times.  Debussy’s Clair de Lune was a sentimental choice.  My mother played it a lot.  I think it was a bit like Sonata Pathetique to me.  She’d studied it and always liked it.  I’ve got the sheet music and played it a bit, but I’ve never practiced enough to be proficient at it.

I have that I’m an artist on a few things.  I already have a degree in Biology, but I decided to go back to school for a degree in Graphic Design a few years ago.  I’m finishing in May and when I’m not writing, I’m usually being an artist/designer.  I painted the watercolor on the front of A Matter of Chance (and the back for those who have the paperback.).  I love watercolor and I enjoyed using the way my instructor has described my work as the description for Lizzy’s work.

I’m sure there’s a lot more, but I think I’m going to leave it there for now.

 

 

One of my favorite paintings, still on the art board.  I’d just pulled off the art tape.

 

 

When I’m gearing up to write something new, I like to find writing challenges and such to get back into the swing of things.  This one is basically that there is one annoying person at that family dinner, get together, etc.  Of course, mine is a bit off from the challenge in that I kind of took it that anyone could be annoying to someone.  It’s Pride and Prejudice (I’ve been known to write Persuasion based short stories.) and it follows the rules or this particular challenge:  under 2,500 words and unbeta’d (no editor).  So with that, be kind because I’m not a punctuation/grammar whiz!

Anyway, I just thought you might like to tide you over until the next, so I posted it on the site

https://lldiamondwrites.com/everyones-a-delight/