Want a free short story? I’m offering one today as part of the Austen Variations Advent Calendar. If you haven’t checked that out yet, you’re missing out on lots of Austenesque free reads, games, and puzzles. But in the meantime, you can get my stories here!

My gift today is one of my short stories, “The Most Natural Thing”. This is an old story that has appeared in an anthology, but never as freestanding before. It will only be available to download through Dec. 17 as part of my own Jane Austen’s 250 Birthday celebrations. Keep an eye out, because I’ll have more freebies coming up soon, including some free books and cool giveaways!

“The Most Natural Thing” is an odd duck in my writing. I wrote it many years ago at a time when ‘Dark Darcy’ stories were popular in the on-line JAFF community. In those stories, Darcy was given a golden opportunity to take advantage of Elizabeth Bennet’s misfortunes – and he did. Even though some of those stories were well written, I just couldn’t imagine Darcy behaving that way, so I decided to see what would happen if I put my Mr. Darcy in the shoes of the ‘Dark Darcy.’  No surprise that I was proud of him! Later I extended this to a novelette in three parts, but this is the original story.

Sorry, I’m limited to 250 e-pub downloads [ETA: All gone! Those went fast!] but there’s no limit to pdf downloads! Click on the version you want to download.

E-pub

PDF

In case you’ve missed it, Under the Netherfield Mistletoe is available now in Kindle Unlimited! My new short novella holiday is getting great reviews, and I’m thrilled to say that we’re adding a French translation to the German and Spanish ones already in progress! I’ve never had translators jump on a story this fast before, and it’s very exciting. I hope you’ll check it out!