Mr. Darcy Doesn't Get It - Chapter 1

This post previously appeared on Austen Authors.

It’s the dog days of summer and much too hot to read–or write–anything serious. Below is the first chapter from a short story/novella/novel I have been working on for about a year. In the story, Austen expert, Chris O’Malley, meets the very real Mr. Darcy at a convention in Baltimore in 2011. Why is Mr. Darcy there? Because back in the Regency Era, the master of Pemberley is in hot water with Elizabeth Bennet. Not only did he insult her at the Meryton assembly, but he messed up the timeline for Pride and Prejudice. If he can’t convince Chris O’Malley to help him, he is in danger of losing the girl.

Chapter 1

Before going on stage, Chris took one last look in the mirror of the ladies’ room of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor Hotel. She was nervous enough without having to worry about unruly hair and badly applied lipstick. The previous year, while appearing on a panel discussing Regency fashion, a woman in the audience had challenged Chris’s use of the word couturier in an article she had written for a Regency Era magazine three years earlier. The correct term wasmodiste as couturier would not be coined until the Edwardian Age. Chris had caught the mistake herself, but not before the magazine had gone to press. Like a dog worrying a bone, her inquisitor wouldn’t let it go, waving the offending article in her hand with religious-like fervor.

Connections - Jane Austen and Three's A Crowd

Three's A Crowd is now available to Amazon Kindle Prime members for free. Please check it out.

Last week, I posted a part of an Amazon review from William Curnutt, an Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer, but there was more to the story. William is the husband of Austen Author Kara Louise. Kara and I were "chatting" by e-mail when she told me about William and Amazon. I asked if he read mysteries, and then I was sorry I did because I had put her on the spot. So I didn't say anything else, hoping she would forget I had asked. But then I was pleasantly surprised to find out that William had read my mystery and really enjoyed it. This was particularly gratifying because William is a former volunteer police chaplain, and I'll let him tell you about it. Here's the review in full:

My wife has gotten to know Mary Simonsen through her Jane Austen fan fiction writing. When Mary came out with this novel my wife suggested that I read it and provide a review as an encouragement to Mary. My fear was whether I would like the book or not, I didn't want to give a bad review :)

I was very pleasantly pleased with the Novel. Detective Patrick Shea provides us with a solid British Police Detective who is compassionate, loyal, strong willed and frankly, good at his job. Along with his partner Molly they provide a great dual of police work.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Authors love reviews. There’s nothing like a four or five-star review to brighten up a writer’s day. This is especially true of books that have been around for a while. In the past two weeks, I have received some terrific reviews for an older novel and short story and a new release. As a result, I am experiencing an embarrassment of riches.

The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy by Luthien at My Love for Jane Austen – 5 Stars:

I highly recommend any books written by Mary as it is truly an engaging read. My only regret is that I should have read [The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy] rather than waiting for more than a year later. I am looking forward to Mary’s next novel which is A Wife for Mr. Darcy.

Read Luthien’s full review here.

The Language of the Fan by Kimberly at Reflections of a Book Addict – 4 Stars:

Simonsen always leaves me wanting more, and that’s exactly how I felt upon completing The Language of the Fan.

Read Kimberly’s full review here.

Three’s A Crowd by Cinta Garcia at Cinta’s Corner – 4 Stars:

The characters are quite realistic. You feel you can meet them in the streets and have a chat with them. They have well-developed personalities… You really can get an image of them in your mind. A very enjoyable reading, I recommend it to everybody who likes a good mystery. I am already waiting for the next installment of Patrick Shea’s adventures.

Read Cinta’s full review here.

Three’s A Crowd by William Curnutt, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer – 4 Stars - William is a former volunteer police chaplain:

What I enjoyed most is that the crimes that Detective Shea was solving were not heinous, they were not vicious, they were the everyday small items that police officers handle all the time… But Mary wrote the story in such a way as to draw you in, give you enough excitement to keep you turning the pages and enough reality to make you want to see a good outcome for both Detective Shea and his one time girlfriend.

This is a great story and I look forward to reading more Detective Shea novels…. If you know any police officers, you might give them this book as a gift because they will "Get It" as they read Three’s A Crowd.

Read William Curnutt’s full review here.

It’s been a great two weeks. J

Anne Elliot - I'm a Tweaker

I wrote my novel, Anne Elliot, A New Beginning, about two and a half years ago. Since that time, I think I have improved as a writer. So when I went to update the back of the book where I post my "bio" and "other books by Mary Simonsen," I decided to reread the book. And the tweaking began. Although the story remains unchanged, it is tighter and more compact--not an unnecessary word in my retelling of Anne Elliot's story.

This novel is a unique Persuasion re-imagining in that Anne Elliot is a jogger. Yes, a jogger! Once she has been declared to be a spinster by her family, she decides to set off in a new direction. The confidence she gains from becoming a long-distance runner changes her life and the lives of everyone around her, including Captain Frederick Wentworth.

To reintroduce my novel to my readers, I have put the newly edited book on Kindle and Nook for $1.59. If you haven't read my story, I hope you will have a look.

Winner of Three's A Crowd

The winner of an e-book copy of Three's A Crowd is Suzan. Thank you to everyone who celebrated the release of my first mystery with me. I really appreciate it. Mary

Three's A Crowd - Excerpt and Giveaway

Today, I have a post on Austen Authors to celebrate the release of my first mystery, Three's a Crowd in which I am interviewed by none other than the great one herself, Jane Austen. I hope you will stop by for a visit. 

From the back jacket: In Three’s A Crowd, we are introduced to Detective Sergeant Patrick Shea, a rising young star at the Hampden Station Criminal Investigation Department, and someone whose career is being fast tracked by the Metropolitan Police in London. With his eye on an appointment to a Murder Investigation Team with New Scotland Yard, Shea is doing everything by the book. Unfortunately, Patrick’s love life is a bit of a mess and gets messier when he learns that his former lover, Annie Jameson, has been assaulted on someone else’s patch. Will his involvement in the under-the-radar investigation of the attack on his ex-girlfriend put his career in jeopardy and possibly her life as well?

Below is an excerpt from Three’s A Crowd. If you leave a comment, you will be entered in a giveaway for a Kindle e-book of my mystery. BE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS.  No e-mail address - no can win. The winner will be announced on June 25.

Chapter 4

As soon as his shift was over, Patrick drove to see Annie at Queen Mary’s Hospital, an ugly box of a building set down in the middle of Putney near Roehampton University. Before going up to her room, he bought a bouquet of flowers from the hospital gift shop, little changed from the last time he had visited it when he was stationed at Renwick. As a detective constable, he had spent untold hours in the accident and emergency room interviewing victims of car accidents, assault, and domestic violence or taking statements from young people who had gone out on a lash, drinking nearly toxic levels of alcohol. While he waited for the medical staff to finish treating the victim and/or suspect, Patrick passed the time by flirting with the nurses, counting on his reddish-blond hair and blue eyes to draw their attention. The endless hours coppers spent sitting in an A and E waiting room were the reasons why so many of them married nurses.

Giveaway and Guest Post on English Historical Authors

I hope you will join me at English Historical Authors where I have a guest post on the history of Scotland Yard as a way of celebrating the release of my first mystery, Three's A Crowd. I will be giving away two Kindle e-books. So please stop by and enter. Thanks.

First Review for Three's A Crowd!

From So Little Time...:

Mary Simonsen has stepped out of the Austen world and into a modern English detective story with Three's a Crowd...  It’s a modern, edgy mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Detective Sergeant Patrick Shea is one hot copper! He works for the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in London's Metropolitan Police... 

I adore Patrick Shea! He’s cute, with a smile that would get him almost anything...at least from the ladies, but I didn’t find him at all cocky, just a genuine good-guy. He also has a good sense of humor which is a good thing because with his good-looks and that charming smile, the guys at the station (or nick as it’s called) often found something to poke fun at him with, especially after he receives a rose from a burglar that he has just captured! 

Three's a Crowd is a novella meant to introduce us to Patrick Shea. That does not mean it is lacking in any way; it felt complete. There are a few side stories (routine cases), which keep the story moving along as the main story builds. I found I really enjoyed getting to know Patrick and the rest of the characters in this story. I am looking forward to reading more in this series! 

To read the complete review, please visit Candy's blog, So Little Time...

Mystery Debut - I'm So Excited

Today is a big day for me. I launch my first mystery, Three's A Crowd, A Patrick Shea Mystery, on Candy Morton's blog, So Little Time... where I will be giving away two Kindle e-books. I've wanted to write a mystery for decades. (Yes, I'm old enough to say "decades.") I will also be giving away two e-books on English Historical Fiction Authors on June 15, and later in the month, on my own blog, so stay tuned. If you can't wait for a giveaway, Three's A Crowd is available in e-book format on Amazon for only .99! I couldn't price it any lower because Amazon won't let me. I hope you will give it a try.

Available on Amazon Kindle

Bath - Where Classical Architecture Meets the Druids

During my parade of the Circus in Bath, I met Thomas, a historian who leads tours of the ancient Roman city. He was a fountain of information, including the fact that The Circus was meant to represent the sun while The Crescent was representative of the moon. When I got home, I looked it up. Here is what I learned from The Heritage Journal.

Bath is famed for its neo-classical architecture but what underpins the thinking of the 18th century architect John Wood the Elder when he drew the designs for The Circus is a strange mish-mash of legend and myth, this of course is the age of the new ‘druidism’ that took hold when such figures as William Stukeley called such places as Stonehenge the Druidical Temple.

A Visit to Jane Austen Centre in Bath

Paul and Bath Guide

I arrived at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath on a day where it was umbrella up and umbrella down, umbrella up and umbrella down, etc. It was getting late in the day, and the tours had just ended. This is pretty much how my husband and I travel. We have not toured some of the best known tourist sites in the world. An example: When we were in Paris in 1985, it was Memorial Day weekend, just as in the States. We did not know that everything shuts down in France for the holiday, including the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, etc. It was suggested by a French woman that we visit the Arch de Triomphe where the U.S. Air Force band would be playing. Ah, the irony! (We did visit these sites on our most recent trip. We only had to wait 27 years!)

But back to the Centre. With their doors closing, I only had time to thank the greeter at the door, a handsome man dressed from top hat to Hessian boots, who is possibly the most photographed man in England. We picked up a map of locations of Bath’s great sites and the houses in which Austen had lived (one of them right down the street as it turns out). In looking around the gift shop, we noticed that the Centre was not averse to promoting the film and television adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, etc. Colin Firth was everywhere, including his portrait as Mr. Darcy.

A Personal Story of Decoration Day

My great great grandfather, William Mahady, was the first of my family to arrive in America. He left County Mayo in the northwest of Ireland around 1840, probably sailing from Queenstown (now Cork) in the far south. He made the voyage in a wooden ship with his older sister, Catherine. They arrived in New York City and traveled up the Hudson River where Catherine was employed as a domestic for a family who lived near West Point. William probably went to work on the D&H Canal that would eventually connect the coalfields of Pennsylvania with the Hudson River and New York City.

In 1854, when he married his wife, Mary Loftus, he was one of thousands of workers living in a workers’ camp near to the rails bein layed  for the D&H Railroad. In the 1860 census, he is living in Minooka, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town south of Scranton where all my Irish ancestors from Cork and Galway would also settle. He was one of the first to inhabit this tiny hamlet.

Brighton Pavilion and George IV

I recently visited the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and all I can say is that it is one heck of a place. The interiors are heavily influenced by British concepts of what they thought China looked like. The exterior definitely leans towards India, and the whole thing has the feel of one of those dreams you just can’t explain and wonder how these images ever got into your brain.

As a lover of history, I could not help but think of the vast, and I do mean vast, sums of money spent on this pleasure palace at a time when the country was in a financial crisis. These were the years after the end of the Napoleonic wars. The men who had marched and sailed against the Emperor of the French were now out of a job, and many of them were badly maimed and in need of medical attention and, most definitely, in need of financial assistance. Because England was no longer feeding large armies, prices for corn (any grain) and meat on the hoof had plummeted throwing farmers into bankruptcy and putting laborers on the road. Yet, here was their king acting like a kid with a Regency Era credit card.

Although the Pavilion is within easy walking distance of the beach, because the king’s presence attracted tourists to Brighton, George IV, growing fatter by the day, rarely went out in public. And it wasn’t as if he had an ocean view. His descendant, Victoria, noted that from her rooms only the slightest glimpse of the channel could be seen.

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Louvre

I recently traveled to Paris with my husband and younger daughter, Kate, to visit the great museums and to walk one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But a funny thing happened on the way to a nighttime view of the Louvre. On May 6, the French went to the polls and elected a new president, Francois Hollande. We were out and about when the election results were announced. Our first hint that something big was about to happen was when car horns started going off. The second was when we were in the Place de la Concorde and found TV camera lights trained on US! We thought, "What a welcome!" But as the crowd grew, we realized that this was not a French welcoming committee. Before you knew it, the three of us were parading with thousands of  Parisians shouting "Vive le France!" We walked merrily along, enjoying the enthusiasm of the crowd, but when the numbers started approaching 10,000, we decided to leave the French to their celebrations. It was quite a night, the merrymaking going on for hours.

Can you find Paul, Kate, and me in the picture? I'll give you a hint. We are center right, just above the white marquee.

Mary Simonsen, Mystery Writer

Dear Friends, I have penned my first story, Three's A Crowd, a British police procedural. Here is a description:

In Three’s A Crowd, we are introduced to Detective Sergeant Patrick Shea, a rising young star at the Hampden Station Criminal Investigation Department, and someone whose career is being fast tracked by the Metropolitan Police in London. With his eye on an appointment to a Murder Investigation Team with New Scotland Yard, Shea is doing everything by the book. Unfortunately, Patrick’s love life is a bit of a mess and gets messier when he learns that his former lover, Annie Jameson, has been assaulted on someone else’s patch. Will his involvement in the under-the-radar investigation of the attack on his ex-girlfriend put his career in jeopardy and possibly her life as well?

Although Three's A Crowd will not be published until early June, I'm so excited that I have finished it that I wanted to share. My daughter and I are still tweaking the cover, so please stay tuned. I'll have more info later in May.

P.S. I'd love to hear what you think about the cover. Thanks.

Post on Austen Authors

Tomorrow, I will be writing about Jane Austen as a good old country girl on Austen Authors. If Jane Austen were a fan of country music, what songs would she listen to? Find out.

Also, in celebration of Mother's Day and the start of the summer season, I am discounting the e-book of Becoming Elizabeth Darcy from $5.99 to $2.99 through the month of May. I hope you will take a look.

Available on Barnes and Noble
Available on Amazon

Anniversary of La Marseillaise

Can you listen to the French national anthem without wanting to jump out of your seat? When you hear its pulsing rhythms, you can picture the men and women at the barricades ala Les Miserables? How about Victor Lazlo singing La Marseillaise at Rick's Saloon incurring the wrath of the Germans? This song causes you to react, which was the point. Below is the history of the anthem taken in its entirety from Wikipedia. (I didn't even bother to paraphrase.)

de Lisle singing his composition
for Mayor of Strousbourg

On 25 April 1792, the mayor of Strasbourg requested his guest. Rouget de Lisle. compose a song “that will rally our soldiers from all over to defend their homeland that is under threat.” That evening, de Lisle wrote Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin and dedicated the song to Marshal Nicolas Luckner, a Bavarian in French service from Cham. The melody soon became the rallying call to the French Revolution and was adopted as La Marseillaise after the melody was first sung on the streets by volunteers (fédérés) from Marseille. These fédérés were making their entryway into the city of Paris on 30 July 1792 after a young volunteer from Montpelier named Francois Mireur had sung it at a patriotic gathering in Marseille, and the troops adopted it as the marching song of the National Guard of Marseille. A newly graduated medical doctor, Mireur later became a general under Napoleon a nd died in Egypt at age 28.

New Blogger in Town

I am pleased to announce that my dear friend, Jakki Leatherberry, has started her own book review blog: Leatherbound Reviews. Today is her big day, and I hope you will stop by and welcome her to the blogging world.

Happy Birthday, Richard Trevithick - Who?

Trevithick's steam circus.

In 1808, Richard Trevithick (1771 - 1833) publicized his steam railway locomotive expertise by building a new locomotive called 'Catch me who can.' He ran it on a circular track just south of the present day Euston Square tube station in London. The site in Bloomsbury has recently been identified archaeologically as that occupied by the Chadwick Building, part of University College London.

Admission to the "steam circus" was one shilling including a ride and it was intended to show that rail travel was faster than by horse. However, the venture suffered from weak tracks and a lot of black smoke. Public interest was limited.

Trevithick was disappointed by the response and designed no more railway locomotives. It was not until 1812 that twin cylinder steam locomotives, built by Matthew Murray in Holbeck, successfully started replacing horses for hauling coal wagons on the Middleton Railway from Middleton colliery to Leeds, West Yorkshire.

If you look closely at the sketch or click on this link to see the enlarged photo on Wikipedia, you will note that many of the men are still sporting the old-fashioned coats worn by the "fops" and not the more stylish cutaway favored by Beau Brummell, a style of dress that we associate with Mr. Darcy.

Review of Mr. Darcy's Bite

I am pleased as punch at the review I received from Jane Austen Sequels and Prequels for Mr. Darcy's Bite:

There are no angry mob scenes, no rabid wolf attacks but this is a moving love story about, love and understanding conquering even the largest obstacles. Definitely a recommended read.

For the full review, please click here.


Also, I am posting on Austen Authors today. I talk about my journey to becoming a writer of Austen re-imaginings. It's riveting. :)