Just wanted to give you a quick update on my progress with The Ladies of Rosings Park. I’m up to 85,000 words now, which is probably about 85% complete. The happy ending is in sight, and I wish I could hole up in a nice hotel somewhere – one with comfy beds and room service, of course – and just write, write, write! That’s not in the cards, though, so I’ll have to do the best I can at home with the many interruptions that come along.

I intentionally interrupted my writing a couple of weeks ago, however,  to work on some art to be used for the book’s cover. I wanted to give my cover designer plenty of lead time to do what he does best. So I stepped away from the computer keyboard and pulled out paint and paintbrushes instead. You see the results (minus the superimposed title) above – a little 5X8″ acrylic.

This is my rendition of Belton House in Lincolnshire, England – a National Trust property. You will, I hope, recognize it as the manor house used in the 1995 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice as Rosings Park, Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s stately residence. Can you picture Lizzy walking up to this imposing structure for the first time while Mr. Collins rattles away about the impressive number of windows?

Elizabeth saw much to be pleased with, though she could not be in such raptures as Mr. Collins expected the scene to inspire and was but slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the house, and his relation of what the glazing altogether had originally cost Sir Lewis de Bourgh.

To learn more about The Ladies of Rosings Park, read this previous post: Number Eight is Underway.