Hi Lavender, I love your characters and the promise of this story. You've got a nice start with writing it. If you were writing in my category (young adult) you'd have a REALLY good start. Every genre has its own set of expectations. When writing for teens and young adults you'll almost always find short, snappy sentences. You'll also find a lot of new sentences that start with transition words like so, and , or but. That's what you've done at the beginning of your story. However, this isn't a novel for teens; it's a Victorian romance. Romance readers, and (I think) historical romance readers in particular, seem to like a more formal, wordier style. The words you choose and the way you structure your sentences can help establish tone and set the the story in the proper era. I played around with the first few paragraphs to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, but I'm no victorian romance writer so -- if I were you, I'd consider researching a few popular novels in the genre to get a better idea of what readers might expect: She would be coming to his classroom that afternoon. Henry Lastname set to putting things right, shelving a book here, straightening a pile of papers there as he tried to think about something, anything else. His opportunity to teach had come at the grace of a wealthy neighbor. Despite being born deaf, she’d thought him a bright child and had paid for his education. The chance to find books, to learn to communicate with others like himself, to establish a career as a teacher, it was all more than his family could have dreamed for him from their small tenant farm. Henry inspected his classroom with pride. He’d done well for himself, had gained the respect of the headmaster and the entire community. He knew he should be satisfied, but memories of the farm often crept in as he graded papers and settled petty disputes between the students in his charge. The lovely way the sun rose over the hills in the morning, the brilliant colors as it sank in the evening, and his horses -- how he longed to have his own horse again. Some days it was all he could think of … when he wasn’t thinking about the girl. The way she braided her lovely blonde hair around that pretty head of hers seemed to fill his own skull with all manner of indelicate thoughts. The yearning to run his fingers through those braids was chief among them. He reminded himself, yet again, how inappropriate this would be. Not only was Clara Lastname a student, she was also the daughter of an influential mayor of a nearby city. He was so involved in pushing away his thoughts that he jumped when he felt a soft touch on his shoulder. I hope you can get the idea from my pretty pitiful effort, lol. I don't read a lot of this genre, but I do read a lot of aspiring writers' works. You have a big head start on a lot of them. You have a nice way with dialogue and, even in this first chapter, you've already established the most important thing in romance writing -- chemistry. These two are full of it! Figuring out the voice of your story is all that's holding you back. I hope you'll accept my advice in the spirit it was intended. If I didn't think you had the ability to take this story to another level I wouldn't have bothered chiming in. Lavender Lass, you've got a good story to tell and the talent to tell it. P.S. A word about marketing if you don't mind. Just like there are genre expectations in the writing of the book, readers have expectations about the way a Victorian romance novel should look. Pretty women in beautiful dresses (and a bare chested man if you can find one) seem to be the norm. You might want to take a look at canva.com In just a few minutes I was able to put together this: To Share A Dream With You

If you have a pair or trio of small pictures that work well with the mirror frame and table (or a small wall shelf or box (perhaps with a door or drawer for hiding a cell phone and/or keys and/or hair brush for below the one small picture), you could leave the mirror vertical and hang it eye level but off center horizontally with a grouping of smaller items beside it. You might get some poster board and cut it to the shapes of your mirror, etc., and then use removable tape to test how they'll work spaced in different ways.

@marys235 - yes, that’s exactly what I mean! If the Vase is that narrow, your “gallery” of various smaller size of arts could be extended down the full length of the niche. Place the vase & experiment with paper cutouts to help visualize the look. If you have small paintings or pieces you could place them too for a better visual. The vase color & style as well as your decor would determine what kinds of frames & art you hang there. I’d use 3M Command strips for hanging since the pieces would be lightweight & that would give you flexibility to move the pieces around without making a dartboard out of the wall! 🙂. At the very least, my suggestion is probably the easiest to implement and will help you decide if you like the result or instead want to have shelving or another permanent change to the niche construction. And hey, if sometime down the road you see a piece that you fall in love with & that fills the space - well, you have the option to buy it!

I now have a very fancy laundry room with a wool rug. The runner looks very good in my second floor laundry. Here's a pic of the entry space without the rug. I'm now looking for suggestions for another rug. I can't go too light because I'll be coming in from the garage, but I would like something nice and soft to step on.