Jane's Acceptance Speech

Emma Thompson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5prYhXQtCk

'I am not romantic, you know'

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/documentary-podcast-ver-brief-encounter-emily-sheeran-patrick-duignan-courts-marraige.html

Dublin 1913. A man who has come into money has marriage on his mind…and ends up in court when he changes his mind. Great listening! Hang on for the song at the end.

Colonel Brandon - stay home tonight!

I need this like I need a hole in my head.

I have sent Brandon on a walk down to the area of Fleet Prison, which is where he might have found Eliza…I do not know why I did this. He is in a great agitation today; a lot has happened in his life; and none of it is good. This is where his feet take him…where are you going, Brandon? You belong in the drawing room! The Club! Your lodgings in St. James Street! It is a cold night, I beg you – stay in – but no, you would be gone, and now I have to research this very different part of Town…

Underworld, street lighting, watchemen, constables? Pickpockets…housing – did this part of London survive the Great Fire of 1666? Dogs, pigs, Babies crying; the sound of Bow Bells...

The Fleet River – now a sewer, was flowing then. And by the sounds of it, a lot of it was on the streets -

Wake Chawton with a Sweet Tune, Jane!

Again, browsing Strasbaugh’s ‘The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen’ I came by a song Arne’s 'Overture to Artaxerxes'.

Jane practiced piano in the mornings - I can’t but wonder if she woke Chawton Cottage with this music which sounds eclectic for it’s time: Sorry, Jane, I would’ve shouted down the stairs for you to play something sweeter! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Chg_nMkjiU

Handel's ‘Ask if yon Damask Rose be Sweet’, might be just my morning cup of tea.
 Here’s my preferred Alarm Song, with Lyrics and Orchestra, on a channel named Austen Music.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXxoP7bgIrA&list=PLTbMXzrF3-J5lroJKA8LcRv3pIKNy5WoC

Jane Austen's Music Collection

In browsing Joan Strasbaugh’s ‘The List Lover’s Guide to Jane Austen’ I came by a song in JA’s music book, Mrs. Hamilton of Pencaitland’s Strathspey.

(CelticJaneite has never heard the word Strathspey. She doesn’t know where Pencaitland is. But she once had a boyfriend named Hamilton, so she is not completely ignorant, in fact, for a time, she wondered if she would like to be Mrs. Hamilton, if she had, she might have heard of a Strathspey sooner).
WIKIPEDIA: A strathspey is a type of dance tune in 4/4 time. It is similar to a hornpipe but slower and more stately, and contains many dot-cut 'snaps.

Off to YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNJ35z0iTJA (the music starts at 1:40)

Oh so they are Strathspeys! I am familiar with the tunes. The 2^nd tune is one which I learned as a child, with the profound lyrics ‘oh the cat has a gumboil, a toothache, a bellyache, a pain in his left leg, a pimple on his toe!’ Sorry all Cat Lovers, I don’t like it either…but I think the ''cat'' was a human, maybe the crotchety Laird or the King - I was reminded recently of ‘Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie…kissed the girls and made them cry…the Prince Regent?

Back to Mrs. Hamilton’s Strathspey”: here is one version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDFKE2AwZnk

Oh dear, Precedence! Coming by fascinating little details.

Writing is difficult in Summer...not only does the fine weather call me outside, but the laptop gets hot and then I get likewise...
Otherwise, Sequel coming along very well. I had to do some research into a subject about which I knew little - the British Army - the East India Company - so that various references I make will be accurate. Isn't it difficult to get to that one tiny little detail...then exultation when you find it, buried.
The novel is set in a particular time period - 1796-7.
A minor character who is a self-important name-dropper is giving me all kinds of challenges. References to men in power who he claims to have influence with have to be accurate as to their availability at that time! I  had Lord Cornwallis writing from India when he was in fact back in England in 1797.
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org is a tremendous help and it has little bios that are interesting and anecdotal.
MINOR PLOT SPOILER: This character is also about to become a knight. Lo and Behold, a wonderful resource was an actual book, all online, 'the Knights of England'  This gentleman is hoping he will be dubbed along with Horatio Nelson, who I have found out, received a great honour in June 1797.
But best of all, the book below inspired me. It lists a dilemma that society had when somebody was 'gazetted' i.e. named in the Gazette, but not yet invested. Where to seat him at table?
http://www.archive.org/stream/knightsofengland01shawuoft/knightsofengland01shawuoft_djvu.txt

To my delight, you can view the old Gazettes from the period online. Yes, newspapers, in full, with the fancy 'f' they used for 's' and all. There are lists of military officers, lists of society members, and a great deal of Bankruptcy notices. They are quite hard to read even when magnified, but you get the feeling that you can be right back there in 1797. Mr. Palmer, perhaps, liked to read the Bankruptcy Notices!

e-Publishing

If I haven't been posting, it is because I have been writing! DELAFORD (part 1) is well underway. I borrowed 'e-publishing for dummies' from the library, cos that is what I may do with DELAFORD. Since I already have a print-on-demand book, and have Light the Way Home half-ready to go as an e-book, it shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish.
I am so happy that the days of packing a box full of your manuscript and shipping off your darlings are OVER. And not forgetting the return postage. It could turn out to be quite expensive. What a haul that was. And for nothing...one of the publishers, who expressed an interest in my manuscript, subsequently lost it. It disappeared when the reader who had it went to Australia. Hopefully it was not published over there! The name of that m/s was Someone Like Sean. (Someone Loike Sean?) I felt very sore at this loss for a while. Because the new person I dealt with was not half as nice and just gave me the runaround, so I gave up on that one.
It took a while for traditional publishing to catch on to electronic submissions, but even they could see the advantages of not having offices filled with reams of paper. I have ZERO interest in a publisher or agent who demands paper copies. I don't want to get published THAT much. Not anymore.