Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 10

Thanks for the feedback…and an update on my eye situation and my game plan going forward.

I appreciate the feedback I received in the poll I posted close to two weeks ago. There’s so much information out there on the internet telling authors what to do. Given my limitations, I can only do so much. There’s no point in wasting my time on avenues no one here is interested in.

Ebooks

I already have been doing this, but it’s nice to see where people prefer to get my books so I know where to focus my efforts. I have had no real interest over at Payhip. I will start linking BookFunnel to new releases on Payhip. I don’t know if the couple of people who said they were interested in BookFunnel are interested in buying through BookFunnel at Payhip. I did add Secret Admirer to BookFunnel as a “direct sale”. I will address this more below in the “BookFunnel” portion of this post.

But in the meantime, I will continue to keep uploading my books on as many retailer sites as I am able to, and I’m very happy to see that a variety of retailers were selected in the poll I ran.

Paperbacks

It’s going to be a slow process because I have so many books, but I have found someone to help me with making the paperback covers look better. I am focusing my efforts on the new books and will slowly go through the old ones. I had to stop using Amazon’s dashboard to make paperbacks. I switched everything to Draft2Digital, and they use Ingram’s printing system. The books can still be sent out to retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If I think about it, I’ll add links over here on my blog as I get these new additions up. (I might forget, so if there is a specific paperback you want to buy, let me know either in a comment on this blog or by filling out this form: https://ruthannnordinbooks.com/contact/ from my main website.

Audiobooks

I’m happy to see interest in these. These days, I can only “read” books that are in audio form unless they are short stories. I have everything up on Google Play and some on Kobo. I don’t know if anyone is interested in the Kobo audiobooks. I know I have an interest at Google Play because I can see that in my dashboard. I can only put audiobooks on Apple through Draft2Digital, and right now, I only have Secret Admirer and Midnight Wedding in that dashboard. The other romances are on my Smashwords dashboard. As for Audible and Amazon, that is all through ACX, and at the moment, they do not allow AI (or digital) narration. When they open that up to authors and allow me to use their AI technology to create audiobooks there, I will do so, BUT only if this option allows me to be wide with the audiobooks. I will not be exclusive to any retailer. I want my books to be widely available because not everyone wants to use the same retailer.

BookFunnel

I already put my ebooks on multiple retailers, but the one place I haven’t done that garnered interest was BookFunnel. That one will be slow going because I can only be on the computer a couple days a week. I have given this thought and have decided I will focus first on the books I currently have available for free since ARCs and the group promos are the most popular features on that site. I did set up a sales page for Secret Admirer over there at this link if anyone wants to see it. Ironically, the only way I can do a “direct sale” on BookFunnel is through Payhip, and I already have my books available over there. I don’t know how beneficial adding a “purchase direct” option is. This is the link for that. I am new to BookFunnel. Perhaps there is an easier way around this, but at the moment, I am having trouble making this easy to find within BookFunnel itself.

My guess is that I have to join group promos to be easy to find over there.

I haven’t tried to run an ARC or post a landing page over there yet. I can only handle one thing at a time. My priority is getting new books out there, and I’ve been struggling with this. I do want to figure out how to run an ARC campaign, but right now, I haven’t had the time to scroll through the information on doing this.

Regarding my eyes and my plan moving forward:

I went in for an eye check with an ophthalmologist last week to compare the results with what the optometrist found. The results didn’t find much difference, except that in addition to the narrow tear ducts, I also don’t produce enough oil under my eyelids. While this is good news, I have to figure out how to best take care of them.

One thing I am looking into is altering my diet. I believe that the healthier I am, the better my eyes will be. While eye drops are an option, I would rather not rely on them if I don’t have to. (By the way, the ophthalmologist warned against eye drops for “red eye” like the Visine I used to take. Those particular drops damage the eyes. So avoid anything that takes care of “red eyes”. You’re better off with something like Systane Complete.)

My second plan is to restrict all screen time. This will mean writing less books, and I am pretty much done marketing in any meaningful way. Getting off of social media was a smart move. I was slow in responding to emails before, so I feel bad that I’ll be even slower now, but even screen time on the phone has it’s problems. It all strains my eyes. Reading things on paper or in magazines also strain my eyes. I just can’t do these things like I used to. If I can’t listen to it, it’s pretty much out of the question. This is a challenge since I have always been more of a visual learner. For example, when I could read the Bible, I understood is so much better than I am now that I have to listen to it. Fiction is easier, and I can get engaged well with those in audio. But nonfiction, like the Bible, is something else.

My third plan is to incorporate a lot of outdoor time to my schedule. I have found that going out for walks has had a great impact on improving my eyes, especially when it’s warm and sunny out. Thankfully, I am in state now where there is a longer summer season. In Montana, it got cold around early October, and I was not able to start back up with my walks until some time in April. In Nebraska, the length of time for walking extends longer. I was able to start walking this year in March, and there were days in February where it was warm enough (with my coat on, of course) where I could get out.

My goal will be publishing three books a year.

I think I can make this happen. Last year, I was very slow. This year, I have been slow, too. I think my new pace is just going to be three books a year. I used to handle six to eight, and while a part of me is disheartened that I have to slow down, I’ll have to adjust to this. Even dictating won’t change this. I stumble with talking a blog post or a book just like I stumble at listening to nonfiction. It doesn’t come easily to me. Also, in dictation, there are errors that pop up that require more editing time to resolve. I might find I’m better off typing slower instead of having to edit something that’s been dictated. Whatever is the easiest way, I’ll do that. I’m sure there will be some trial and error on this front as I proceed forward.

I am going to aim for three days a week on the computer. I used to do five. Those five days were also fit with about five hours (on and off as I did chores). Now I am going to limit myself to three hours on my computer day. This includes writing, editing, marketing, emails, and stuff for the accountant. That will make things tighter on how much I can get done. I am not sure how I will balance all of this yet. My son isn’t really all that interested in helping me out, though he has been my “eyes” in the last blog post and in a few emails. He was also the one who told me what features BookFunnel had before I signed up for it. But this isn’t a passion for him like it is for me. I can’t even begin to describe how “excited” he was to read The Earl’s Jilted Bride for me so I could edit it through him. I had to keep asking him to slow down and speak up since all he wanted to do was get it over with. My husband has even less interest in it. These are initial edits, and initial edits are where rewrites happen. So it’s not a simple proofread.

I was hoping to get The Earl’s Jilted Bride out in September. I think I’ll have to wait for October now. Worth the Risk is planned for January. My edits used to take one month. Now they are going to two months. I admit this is frustrating, but I need to remember the quality of the book is more important than speed, and it’s not worth damaging my eyes more than I’ve already damaged them with all of the screen time I’ve put them under for the past 15 years.

What avenue(s) would you like to see my books published in?

I’ve been listening to different articles and podcasts on the many places authors can put their books and what formats authors can use to get their books out into the world. There are a lot of options out there, and it can get quite overwhelming. I am not interested in trying to reach out to the entire world. My main concern is reaching you, the readers of this blog. Below, I am going to place a couple of polls. It would help me out a lot if you would answer them. It’s possible that I am missing something, so feedback in the comments would be most appreciated.

Method in Storytelling: Adding Layers to Your Work

I recently watched the movie Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Upfront, I’ll warn everyone that this is a really dark story. It’s classified as horror, and yes, there are some “icky” moments, though it’s not really a slasher kind of film. There are strong psychological elements that dominate over the physical gore, and it’s these psychological elements that make the story a good one. There are several posts a person could write about this particular movie, but I want to discuss the value of adding layers to a story because this movie does that in a brilliant way.

Before I go into that, I’ll sum up the story. Years ago, there was a barber named Benjamin Barker who had a wife (Lucy) and baby daughter (Johanna). A judge happened to lust after his wife, so he convicted Benjamin of a crime he didn’t commit then sent him off with the hopes Lucy would be with him. The movie opens with Benjamin’s return, except now he calls himself Sweeny Todd, and he looks for his wife and daughter, only to be told that Lucy poisoned herself. Meanwhile, Johanna is now the judge’s ward. Sweeny vows to get his revenge on the judge by slitting his throat.

That pretty much sets the stage for the movie.

Spoilers ahead…

I will be spoiling this movie as I dive into the layers I discovered while watching it. Keep in mind that not every story will be able to incorporate these layers. It might be that only one layer will work. It might be a layer I didn’t mention here will work better for your specific story. Each story is unique and should be given the layer(s) best suited for it. Never try to force a layer into your story that shouldn’t be there. The best stories are organically written. You don’t want to force the story to be something it’s not intended to be.

Some layers to consider in storytelling that I found in the movie:

Put in something that readers won’t know until the end that changes the entire reading experience when they read the book again.

The best compliment a reader can get is that their story was so good that someone read it again. After watching this movie the first time, I had to go back and watch it again because I knew that if I watched it a second time after knowing the “twist”, then the movie would be a different experience. As stated above, not every story will have this twist in it, but it is a layer that is effective. But if you can use that “twist”, it will change the reading experience the second time around. Below, I’ll explain what I mean.

In this movie, there is a homeless woman who pops up from time to time. She doesn’t have a large role. She seems to be an “add on” that is just there, like wallpaper in a room. For most of the movie, I even kept wondering why she was even there. It turns out that this woman was Lucy. You don’t find this out until the final scene, and the moment I found out this homeless woman’s identity, I knew I was going to have to watch the movie again so I could put that piece of the puzzle into the story. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Lovett tells Sweeny Todd that Lucy poisoned herself. At the end, we find out Mrs. Lovett didn’t add that Lucy survived the attempted suicide. Now it makes sense why this homeless woman was outside the judge’s house watching Johanna in the window and why this homeless woman knew the house was locked up tight (hinting that Lucy had made attempts to get her daughter out of there but was unable to.) Now it also makes sense as to why Mrs. Lovett is constantly telling the boy to “throw the woman out” every time the homeless woman showed up in her shop. Mrs. Lovett knows who Lucy is and is determined to keep Lucy and Sweeny Todd apart. So it’s really fascinating what little things you notice the second time around that you didn’t notice before.

It was fun to go back and pick out these details, and I suspect readers would have a fun time doing the same in your story if you can manage to put something or someone into the story that works like this.

Have characters doing the same thing but in different ways.

I think of this technique as a compare and contrast sort of strategy in storytelling.

In the movie, it doesn’t seem like it from the start, but it turns out that Mrs. Lovett is just like the judge. While you know the judge is corrupt and driven by lust from the beginning, you are led to believe that Mrs. Lovett, while amoral, sincerely has Sweeny Todd’s best interest at heart. It’s not until the end that you realize both the judge and Mrs. Lovett are doing the same thing in different ways. Both want to keep Sweeny Todd and Lucy apart. While the judge sends Sweeny away for life on a trumped up charge, Mrs. Lovett simply chooses to let Sweeny think that Lucy is dead. So the goal is the same. The methods are different. And this adds an interesting layer to the story. While Sweeny knows his enemy is the judge, he thinks Mrs. Lovett is his friend.

Again, this can’t be used in every story, but if you can use it, then it’ll add another layer to the story you’re telling.

Have characters say the same words but make those words have different meanings.

Another layer I found in this movie is that Sweeny’s “love” for his blades is mirrored by Mrs. Lovett’s love for him. This is best appreciated while watching the way the two actors perform the song “My Friends”. It’s obvious he has no interest in her while she shows an interest in him.

At times, they sing the same lyrics. For example, “You’re warm in my hand” and “splendors you never have dreamed all your days” have different meanings to him and to her.

A fun storytelling technique is having characters the same thing that only the readers knows conveys different meanings. This is the benefit of third person point of view, by the way. In first person, you can’t get this duality because you’re only in one character’s head through the entire story. But in third person, you’re able to get into two or more characters’ heads, and that can help you use this particular layer if it fits what you’re doing.

Another layer that isn’t in the movie but I find fun is this:

Have something that only the reader knows. It can be that only one character (or even none) know something, and during the course of the story, it’s never reveals to another character. I’ll give an example. I wrote a story years back where a secondary character is believed to have murdered his wife, but it’s only when I gave a flashback scene from that character’s point of view that the reader realizes her death was an accident. That secondary character ended up dying, and the other characters went on believing he murdered her. So it’s a secret only the reader gets to discover. You can use this strategy in many ways, and in some cases, it can change the way the reader views the character or the story, even even both. It depends on how it fits into the storyline.

My point is that not every single thing needs to be spelled out on the page. There doesn’t always need to be this “big reveal” moment between two characters for the story to be effective. In fact, sometimes it’s what the character doesn’t say (or doesn’t even know) that makes the story better.

Show the struggle between good and evil within one character.

Another layer I found in the movie is the struggle between grief (and the “good” side of Sweeny) vs. the need for vengeance (the “evil” side of Sweeny). The song Epiphany best shows this, though we do get other hints at it during the movie. I’m sharing the song because it makes this struggle stand out the best. Sweeny goes back and forth in this song from mourning his wife’s death and the fact that he can’t see his daughter versus the need for revenge, which he believes will give him peace.

The evil side wins in this movie, which it must if there is to be a movie with this kind of plot. It’s only at the very end where Sweeny comes to his senses, as it were, and realizes he’s turned into a monster. The theme of this story is how revenge ends up ruining you, and the story does this theme very well.

Maybe your story will call for the evil to win out, too. I write romance, so good always triumphs in the character, but there are stories that must go the other way. It depends on the story’s purpose. As a writer, you’re going for the biggest impact because the biggest impact is what makes the story strong. Strong stories are memorable stories. They might not be the ones that sell the most, but they are the ones that have the biggest emotional impact on those who enjoy them. Though tragic and dark, I love this story. I keep going back to it to dive deeper into the storytelling elements I found, and there are more elements than the layers.

Regarding the emotional struggle within a character, you shouldn’t have every character in your story struggle. You need some, like Mrs. Lovett and the judge, who remain constant in order to best appreciate the struggle that one character is going through. If every character struggles in the story, then the story gets convoluted. Then the story loses its impact because the reader has to experience “angst” for a bunch of characters. Keep it simple. Sweeny is the only one who struggles in this movie, and, as a result, it makes him a more compelling character.

***

A final note:

I don’t suggest you watch the movie if you don’t have the stomach for it. It contains blood and a nod toward cannibalism. These are not easy subjects. It’s definitely a mature movie. But if you want to see what good storytelling is like, this movie is an excellent example of it. For one, each character has a purpose. Two, the main characters are well-developed. Three, there are no loose ends. Four, the ending delivers. Mrs. Lovett dies. The judge dies. Lucy, though innocent in all of this, dies, but it’s through her death that Sweeny realizes he’s become a monster, and that final moment of clarity is satisfying to see. It’s proof, I think, that there was a piece of Benjamin still left in him. Once upon a time, I read that a tragic ending can be the best ending for a story if it satisfies. Typically, tragedies don’t deliver, but this one did.

Midnight Wedding is Now Available!

This is the 2nd book in the Marriage by Obligation Series!

(To view all of the books in this series, go to this link.)

Guy Milton, the Earl of Quinton, has been kidnapped in the middle of the night by a beautiful blonde lady and her two redheaded brothers. If you’ve read The Cursed Earl and Secret Admirer, then you’ll recall Guy never does anything without carefully consider all of the consequences. So imagine how he must feel being forced out of London in the middle of the night and taken to a country estate filled with all sorts of things the spell doom.

This romance mixes the gothic genre with humor. Other gothic romances I’ve done have been in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. (These books included The Marriage Contract, One Enchanted Evening, The Wedding Pact, Fairest of Them All, and The Duke’s Secluded Bride.) Other comedic romances I’ve done are Kidnapping the Viscount, Nobody’s Fool, His Reluctant Lady, and Taming the Viscountess. If you enjoyed those books, you should enjoy this one, too.

Characters featured in this book are as follows:

Guy Milton (Lord Quinton) – He’s our hero and a firm believer in superstition. He doesn’t do anything without carefully considering his options.

Lydia Hamilton – She’s the heroine. With her family’s estate teetering on bankruptcy, she’s desperate to marry someone. To her brothers’ bafflement, she picks the one gentleman that no other lady would approach with a ten-foot pole.

Felix Hamilton (Lord Roland) – Lydia’s older brother. Not given to superstition, he has to spend the next month stuck at his country estate while Guy looks for bad luck in every nook and cranny. This is not a task that is easy for someone who values reason and logic…except when it comes to monsters.

Oscar Hamilton – Lydia’s younger brother. Besides, Lydia, he is the most unaffected by Guy’s “quirks”. Guy would like to say he’s not affected by Oscar, but Oscar is a sloppy eater who would be happy working alongside rats if Guy didn’t insist he set out some traps.

If this sounds like your type of book, you can find it here:

Ebook Version:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play

Smashwords

Scribd

Radish

Audiobook Version (Narrated by AI):

Google Play

*I will post a link when this is on audio in the Apple store.

Is Having a Blog Worth It? (A Writer Post)

Today I saw a writer pose the question about whether or not having a blog is a waste of time.

Blogs are optional

The answer is simple. If you are expecting your blog to sell books for you, then yes, it’s a waste of time. Do NOT expect a blog to sell your books. If, however, you are looking to share things that inspire you or/and post updates about the stuff you’re working on, then blogging is worth your time. It really depends on your purpose in having a blog.

Websites are a must

Regardless of whether you have a blog or not, you should have a website. There should be a place readers can find a list of your books, what those books are about, and where they can find them. This makes life easier for them. I don’t know how many times I’ve been disappointed when I found a new author but realized they had no website where I could find a list of their books. I don’t want to browse through their catalogue on an online store. I want the list in an easy to find place on the author’s website. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I just want to know what the series is, and, if the books are in a series, I’d like to know the series and what order the books are in. That’s really it. Contact information, about the author, etc, are optional.

Email lists are recommended

Now, I am not the kind of person who opens every email I get. I can’t. My eyes would kill me if I did. But when an author I like has a new book out, this is the best way for the author to let me know about it. I don’t think the frequency of emails matters so much when it comes to selling a book. It depends on the writer. Some writers are conversational and tell good stories about their lives. They do well with frequent emails. Other writers, like myself, have no idea what to say in an email. Even on a personal level, I struggle with this. So I just send an email when I have a new book out. There is also a middle-of-the-road approach. Some authors send an email once a month giving updates on what they’re doing. I have made a blog dedicated to this so that people don’t have to subscribe to an email if they only want to see an update once a month. But this depends on the writer. With all that said, I do recommend having some way you can reach your readers in their inbox. So give readers the option of signing up for your email list.

Let’s say you decide to blog. Here are some tips I have found useful over the years:

1. Write about your current works in progress.

It’s not enough to make “buy my books” posts. That is what you can do in the email list. You can announce a new release on a blog, but I would not have that be the only time I make a post. Let your readers know what you’re working on and any neat things that pop up while writing the story. Teasers are fine, but I think it’s more fun to talk about the characters like they’re real people. It’s also fun to find out stuff that went into writing the book. What inspired the book? What twists and turns did you find the story taking that you didn’t expect? (Don’t give spoilers. Just hint at them.) Did you expect a character to have a certain personality but found out the character’s personality was different? Is there something in your story that has a personal meaning to you? (For example, did you choose a certain colored shirt or put in a cameo that stemmed from real life? Another example, did you name a character from someone in real life that you care about?) Was there a certain theme you put into the story that makes it significant to you? Do certain characters represent someone or something that deepens the meaning of the story? (For example, in one story I wrote years ago, one character represented the unyielding quality of judgement while another character represented Jesus Christ’s grace and mercy.) I find the layers put into a story makes it more fun to write. Don’t be afraid of putting layers into your work and discussing that in your blog.

These “extras” add to the flavor of the story while you’re writing it. They don’t “sell” the book, but they let readers get insight into the stories they won’t get simply by reading them.

2. People can sign up for to receive the posts in their inbox without subscribing to an email list.

Put an option for people to receive emails when you make a blog post. I get frustrated when authors don’t do this. I might not remember to come by to check out a blog post. I need reminders. If I need reminders, then other people probably do, too. Make it easy for people to know when you make a new post.

3. Reply to comments.

I understand why writers who have 30+ comments per blog post would not have time to reply to every comment. Most of us, however, do not have a lot of people making comments on every blog post. So when a comment comes in, acknowledge it. If the person was nice, let the person know you’re glad they decided to stop by and say something. You will develop relationships with these people over time. (Ignore and block the jerks. This is your blog. You don’t need to take abuse from anyone.)

4. Be professional.

I realize that in today’s culture, it’s easy to get into a shouting match while online, but your writing blog should be a place where you are cordial at all times. (That’s why you block the jerks who try to rile you up.) You are not selling your books, but you do represent them. The way you write posts give a lot of information about you. I can tell which writer is pleasant and which writer is not pleasant by the posts they create. You have no idea who is coming by to read your posts. If you start bashing a certain political group, a certain religion, or some other belief, it doesn’t cast you in a good light.

For example, I remember the author who made a blog post saying that only stupid people believe in God. This was almost ten years ago now, and I still remember that blog post, and I remember his name. The ironic thing is that I thought his books sounded pretty neat, and I was ready to buy one until I read that blog post. He wrote science fiction. If he wrote books on atheism, I could see the point of him making that blog post, but atheists weren’t his target audience. I don’t know how he thought this would be a good selling point. But it’s things like this that will alienate you from your potential readers. Unless your books are geared toward a certain audience, there’s no point in criticizing someone’s belief system. You may not mean to go directly after that person, but they will probably feel attacked. Why would someone who feels attacked want to buy your books?

I realize we’re not perfect. God knows I have had my fair share of sin. But we should strive to be professional when we’re on the blog (or even on social media) because, at the end of the day, we represent our books.

5. Share things that inspire you.

The blog isn’t just for others. It can also be for you. And it doesn’t have to be just about your books. What are things that you find interesting? For me, it’s talking about writing issues. I don’t think there’s enough blog posts that address the benefits of writing for passion. It seems that the main focus is on writing to make money. That’s fine if writers want to do that, but I feel like there’s a void out there for authors who, like me, want to write for passion. I find it encouraging when I happen to come across a blog post from a writer who writes for passion. I write the posts for myself, and I write them for other writers who may be feeling the way I am. So if there’s something you feel is lacking out there, you can contribute it to the world.

6. Think of this as fun, not as a marketing gimmick.

Blogging will be a pain if you are thinking of it as a promotional tool. Instead of looking at it as a business strategy, think of it as something you do in your leisure time. It should relax you. Imagine yourself in your living room talking to a friend. The best part of this is that this “friend” is happy to let you ramble. Even if no one reads the blog post, there is value in it because you feel better after writing it. Maybe in addition to writing books for passion, we ought to think of blogging as a passion project, too.

Update on My Eyes and What This Means for My Online Activity

Regarding the situation with my eyes, I recently saw an eye doctor. I did wonder if he would find a cataract, glaucoma, or some other damage to the eye since I am 48. I try to protect my eyes as much as I can, but you can’t fight all of the effects of getting older. This thing will my dry eye has gotten progressively worse over the years. I thought there might be another situation I was dealing with. It turns out there isn’t anything wrong with my eyes. I was very relieved to hear it.

My tear ducts going from my eyes down to my nose are narrow, and age did factor into that. As I’ve gotten older, they’ve gotten more narrow. All I can do is mitigate the situation the best I can. I don’t want to do surgery to widen them. I don’t think I’m at the point where it’s necessary, and the eye doctor agrees. I have warm compresses, which I’ve been using for years, but I was told about eyelid scrubs to use before bed to help keep the eyelids clean. I have a new eyeglass prescription coming. (My last one was two years ago, so there’s not much difference there, but I did request that the lenses be coated to make computer use easier. My current pair, while coated, have tiny scratches on the lenses, and I’m sure that doesn’t help.)

I haven’t figured out how much time to devote to the computer. I can’t do as much as I used to. That’s been the biggest problem I’ve been tackling. I did go to settings, as two people on here suggested, and made the computer screen as “warm” as it’ll go. This helped. I also got a new pair for my old prescription a month ago with a new layer on it to protect me from eye strain. That helped, too. But there’s really only so much I can do.

My eyes fare better when I’m away from the computer. So I’m trying to figure out the best way to proceed. My eyes seem to do okay when I stick with the Word document. That’s good news because I need Word to write. My eyes don’t do as well when I go on the internet. I don’t know what it is about the websites that make my eyes get tired, but if I spent more than an hour on the internet, I can feel the strain in my eyes, even with the “warm” screen and my lenses to protect against eye strain. I don’t think I can stay completely off social media. I have a couple of people I keep in touch with on MeWe and Facebook. (I’m on Facebook under my pen name.) But the days of me posting and reading other people’s posts have to stop. The time I spend on email isn’t much, but I need that social media time to devote to emails. Emails are hard for me. They strain my eyes a lot, so I try not to do them more than a couple times a week, and when I do, I can only answer so many of them at a time before I need to get away from the computer. I need to do these blog posts because it’s how I let people know what is going on with my books and when my books will be out. It’s pretty much the only marketing I do for my books. Plus, I do enjoy the comments.

It’s frustrating, to say the least, that I have to choose what to do and what not to do. I’m sure it seems like I’m not interested in people. Please understand that if I take time to respond to a comment or email, I am interested. I just can’t be online as much as I’d like to. I always thought once my kids were grown up, I’d be able to devote more time online. It’s not turning out that way. As disappointed as I am, I have to accept my limitations. My priority has to be the books. If I do nothing else, I will keep writing those. The next priority is this blog. Writing here helps me focus. I usually figure out what to do next in a story or get a new story idea from posting here. Writing in a private journal doesn’t have the same benefit. I don’t know why. But I also love talking about the benefits of writing for passion because that reminds of why I enjoy writing. This keeps me centered and focused. If I can help others, that’s a plus. The other stuff I do will come as my eyes allow.

Updates on What I’m Doing

Quick reminder on the order of the books in the series I’m currently working on:

Marriage by Obligation Series:

Love Under Desert Skies Series:

More to Come in this series

Midnight Wedding is almost ready for pre-order

Even though I’m no longer making the long pre-orders like I used to, I want to keep using the pre-order feature because it gives me time to get the links, blog posts, and the email announcement ready. This book is back from the editor. I’m going through it now to finalize it. My goal is to have it up on pre-order by the end of this week.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride will take on a twist

And I already know some people will not like this twist, but it’s one that I (as a creator) feel is better for this particular story. While working on the first draft blog post years ago, I used to get comments from people who said something along the lines of, “I can’t wait to find out that character to tell the other character about that thing from their past.” (I’m being vague because that kind of comment came from several different people on different stories. I realize the “big reveal” from something in someone’s past is important to readers, especially when it comes to stuff between the hero and heroine.

Regarding The Earl’s Jilted Bride, I think it’s more important that the hero’s big secret is only revealed to the reader. Now, this is not even a secret to the reader going into the book. In the description, I come out and say the child he has isn’t really his. To protect the child, he makes everyone think it’s his. But no one else in the story knows this. And I’ve decided that not even the heroine will find out. Whether or not the heroine knows has no bearing on the story at all. Because of that, I thought, “I really want this to be something only the reader ever knows.” It’s a decision I made as a creative, and I enjoy the story more because of it. Another time I employed this writing strategy was in Brave Beginnings. The characters in that story believed Ernest killed his first wife, but it turned out that her death was an accident. Only Ernest and the reader ever knew the truth.

Sometimes not revealing things to another character is just as important as revealing them. The key is to know when that creates the biggest impact for the story. I think the story is stronger with only the readers knowing this information. It is the foundation upon which the hero behaves and feels during a significant portion of the story. If the reader doesn’t know this, then his actions won’t make any sense. So keep that in mind when you read the book. This will not have one of those “big reveal” moments.

I will probably finish Worth the Risk before I finish The Earl’s Jilted Bride

Thought Worth the Risk is Book 4 in this series, I am closer to being finished with it than I am with The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I have about three more scenes left to write in this one. I have probably three to five chapters left to write for The Earl’s Jilted Bride. Worth the Risk is longer than Secret Admirer, but it’ll be shorter than Midnight Wedding and The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I even went back and fleshed out some of this story. I felt I was rushing to the end. This fleshing out didn’t add fluff. It rounded out the romance between the hero and heroine better. I have the final conflict coming up, but I feel that the story needs one more scene before I get there. So I need one more scene to get to the conflict. Then I need the scene showing the resolution and happy ending. (Hey, what do you know? I can plot a little bit after all.) Anyway, I expect to finish up with this by the end of next week. I won’t publish it before The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I will go through the editing process on it, though, so it’s ready for me to put on pre-order when I get The Earl’s Jilted Bride up.

Tagalong Bride is off to a great start

This is my Love Under Desert Skies Series. Tagalong Bride is Book 1. I am aiming for comedy, and it seems like we’re heading in that direction, but it’s hard to know for certain this early in the story. The hero has just found out his sister is lost in Arizona. The heroine overheard him talking to his mother about it and insisted on coming along. Frankly, I was surprised. I didn’t think the heroine was so assertive when starting this story, but she’s turning out to be someone who can speak up for herself. She does believe the hero loves her. He is determined to act the part of the devoted husband, though he only married her for her family’s money. I have a suspicion that once he realizes how much this little lady can assert herself when necessary, he’ll become attracted to her. But we’ll see as the story progresses.

I already know I’ll be writing a story for the hero’s sister who has been abducted by a group of bandits when they see gold coins in her drawstring purse. I don’t know any more than that right now since I am only in Chapter 2 of this book. I don’t know who she ends up with. She was supposed to marry someone out in Bullhead City, Arizona when her train got overtaken by the bandits just east of Flagstaff. Usually, I pair up the heroine with someone other than the man she was supposed to marry in these scenarios, but it might be nice if the man she was supposed to marry actually tracks her down and marries her this time. We’ll see if things play out that way during the course of the series. Until I’m actually writing scenes with the sister, I can’t say what direction this will all go.

I think there’s going to be another character popping up at some point in this book who might have a story of his own in this series, too. I’m hoping this character will be a funny character to work with. My initial idea is that he will be. Until I introduce him on the page, I won’t know for sure.

We’ll see how this series branches out in due time.

Ways to Kill Your Creativity (A Writer Post)

Background to my journey and the breakthrough moment that changed everything:

It’s amazing how long I was dealing with functional burnout. (I was burned out but still able to keep writing.) Looking back, I believe it started in 2014. That’s when writing started to feel like a job where I had to sit down at a computer and crank out a certain number of words before I was allowed to be done for the day.

I didn’t realize I was going into burnout. I kept pressing through it because you’re supposed to bleed on the paper, right? Writers who are serious about writing keep writing, even when they don’t feel like it. This mindset is known as “butt in chair” to some writers in the community. Well, in 2021, I reached the point of burnout where I hated writing. I wanted out because it was killing me. My creative well had dried up. I was running on fumes. However, I didn’t want to leave a series unfinished, so I made a plan for enough stories to finish the historical westerns and Regencies up. That way, I wouldn’t leave anyone what happened next to a certain character I brought up that needed their story told.

I honestly didn’t think I’d ever enjoy the process of writing again, and if I did ever get to the point of enjoying the process of writing, it would take a year or more to get there. But, surprisingly, it didn’t. In fact, it was almost overnight when things flipped around. All I did was ask myself, “What do I want to read?” Then I started thinking of the stories I wanted to read, and it was like a light switch got turned on.

I stopped asking myself, “What do I want to write?” I’d been asking myself that for a couple of years, and it obviously wasn’t working. But looking at the stories from a reader’s perspective changed everything. I am my own reader. I am the person I need to write for. Naturally, writers care about their readers. But I think writers can hurt their creativity by asking the wrong questions when they write. Instead of, “What cover will they like?”, ask “What cover do I like?” Instead of, “What kind of character will they like?”, ask “What kind of character do I want to read about?” Instead of, “What kind of story should I write?”, ask “What kind of story do I want to read?”

I don’t know if that will help anyone else, but it helped me. Now I enjoy writing again. I can’t wait to get to the computer. I hate getting off (though I do because my eyes need the rest and real life does pop up). At least when I’m off the computer now, I long to get back on here so I can write. I would much rather have that longing to work on the story than to be relieved that I get a break from it because writing is “a job”.

Blog topic actually starts here:

Now that I know what to do to kill one’s creativity, I’m going to share them. Often, they sneak up on you without you even realizing it. I did all of these for years. In addition to asking yourself, “What do I want to read,” I think it’s important to watch out for the things below.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #1: Write for other people

I know I’ve been preaching this already on this blog, but I don’t feel this gets enough attention in the writing community. When you write for other people, you browse what’s popular and find a way to wiggle those things into a story that is your own creation.

A lot of writers, myself included, thought if we could just merge what’s popular with something we’re interested in–you know, to give it that slant we can enjoy–then we’ll be able to straddle the writing-to-market and the writing-for-passion fence. In the end, this method doesn’t work because you end up drained anyway. Why? Because you’re still writing what other people want to read instead of writing what you want to read. Some writers go all-in with this writing for other people thing and only write what the market wants. I believe they burn out a lot faster. You can’t force yourself to enjoy something you don’t.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #2: Focus on the money

I am so tired of hearing the phrase six-figure author. I’ve made six figures, and I was miserable. Money does not equal enjoyment while writing the story. It doesn’t even make you happy with the books you produce. I’ve seen comments from authors who confessed they hated what they were writing but felt trapped because those are the books that are making them money. I never ended up hating my books. It was the act of writing that I ended up hating. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to hate both writing the story and the story itself. I don’t care how good the money is, eventually the emotional drain will catch up to you if you’re not having fun.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #3: Neglect people you love and non-writing things you enjoy

If you are stuck on your computer all day and every day, you won’t give your mind time to rest. The creative well needs time to fill back up. I don’t agree with this nonsense about writing every day. I no longer agree with having to write a certain amount of words a day. I used to be into the word thing, but I can now see that I was putting pressure on myself that was contributing to my burnout. Give yourself a nice and comfortable pace that allows you to write while also having time to spend with loved ones and to pursue other forms of entertainment. By surrounding ourselves with people we love, we are building connections that will enrich us emotionally. By engaging in other forms of entertainment, we are expanding our minds. Doing something else will make us whole as human beings. This wholeness will help us write better stories, and it might even help us enjoy the process of writing since we’re not doing it all the time.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #4: Neglect your health

The longer you’re stagnant at the computer, the more you can write. I get that. It takes time to exercise. It takes time to shop for good quality foods and then prepare meals at home. But if you’re neglecting your health, you are going for short-term gains. You might get more books out, and, as a result, make more money, but what happens when you get sick? You can’t buy good health. When we give our bodies the right nutrients and exercise, we’re fueling our bodies and our minds. We’ll probably also be able to think more clearly so we can write better stories, too.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #5: Focus on the news

If there’s one thing that will ruin your creative edge, it’s paying close attention to the news. I agree that it’s good to be aware of what is happening. You want to be an informed voter. But you can’t get so caught up in the drama of it that you lose your creative edge. I can’t speak for other countries, but here in the United States, news is set up like a soap opera. Look at the headlines on any given day, and you’ll swear that it’s the end of the world every time a politician does or says something. This is all geared to getting you to focus on it because the advertisers are spending their money to get you on these platforms. I understand the psychological reasons for the keywords these people are using. But it’s stirring up a lot of anger and strife, and it’s not healthy. This drama is bound to have an affect on you if you allow it. To save your creativity, you need to take breaks from it. Some people will need longer breaks than others, but definitely take breaks. Find something you enjoy that gets you away from it all. Spend time with loved ones.

Ways to Kill Your Creativity #6: Be online all the time

With technology at your fingertips, I get how easy it is to be online all the time, but it’s not healthy. For one, we are less likely to get up and move when we’re online. Two, we’re less likely to spend time with loved ones when we’re online. (I don’t care what people say. There is something to be said for connecting with people in person. We are physical beings, and we need physical contact with others.) Three, social media is as bad as the news. It’s a lot of drama. This drama can be a huge time suck. You start out reading or watching one thing, and before you know it, an hour has gone by. When I disengage from the online world, I get a lot more written, and I find it a lot easier to write those words. If I get online, I end up writing less, and I have a harder time coming up with what will happen next in the story. I set aside a certain amount of time I’ll be online. Some days, I never hop online at all. My writing has gotten much better because of it.

What I’m Working On

I was going to wait for a few days to make this post, but I’m too excited to wait, so here I am.

I have Secret Admirer on audiobook at Google Play and Apple.

Secret Admirer (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 1)

Both are narrated by AI. Google Play has been allowing me to upload my ebook to create a digitally narrated audiobook for some time now. Draft2Digital just opened an option for authors (of romance and other fiction) to create digitally narrated audiobooks to Apple. (As a side note: It looks like pricing is set by Draft2Digital or Apple on the Apple store. I was able to price directly on Google Play.)

Google Play audiobook

Apple audiobook

Right now I only have Secret Admirer (my romance) as on ebook on Draft2Digital. My other romances are still uploaded through Smashwords. I have to wait for Draft2Digital to move my books from Smashwords to their system before I can convert my other romances into audiobooks to put on Apple. (Draft2Digital bought Smashwords so they’re merging together.) Anyway, I am excited about getting my books into more avenues. It takes time to do this. For one, I can’t afford a personal assistant to do the legwork for me. Two, I need to limit my screen time because of my eyes. And three, these options are not opening up to authors right away. It’s taking some time. So please bear with me.

If anyone here wants Secret Admirer on audiobook on Kobo, please let me know. I’ve heard from people who want audiobooks on Amazon, Google Play, and Apple, but nothing about Kobo. I’m not excluding Kobo audiobook listeners. I just don’t know if any are out there. As for Amazon, they are not allowed digital narration at this time. I’m sure they eventually will. In the meantime, the Kindle does have a text-to-speech feature that is enabled on my ebooks. (I listened to books for years with my Kindle.)

Midnight Wedding is still in edits

Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)

And I still haven’t picked a release date, but I am planning for it to be at the end of July.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride is coming along nicely

The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3)

I didn’t think I’d be able to fit in the characters from Midnight Wedding into this book since the timeline elapsed a bit, but I just finished a scene where we see Lydia after she comes back from her elopement with Lord Quinton. So I’m able to do some follow-up from Midnight Wedding in this book. I guess this makes this a series where it’s best to read the books in order, but I think most of my series are like that. I’d like to get Lord Wright and Lord Quinton together at another dinner party in this book. I don’t know about anyone else, but the dinner party scene where the two show up in Secret Admirer is my favorite scene in the whole book.

Anyway, I know I’m over the halfway point. The hero is about to discover the secret the heroine’s been keeping. (I can’t say more without spoiling it, but I’m looking forward to it because it’s one of those high-tense scenes.)

Worth the Risk took an unexpected turn

Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4)

Sometimes people say that my books are predictable. Well, maybe my books are predictable to them, but they aren’t to me. I go into my books not sure of what will happen, and a lot of times, my characters will take me in a direction I didn’t see coming. That’s what happened to me this week when I was writing this book. I thought I was pretty much done, and then the characters made a decision I didn’t expect. (Yes, I know my characters aren’t “real”, but the fun of writing is pretending they are. I’m tired of hearing authors complain when authors like me who write by the seat of our pants say our characters did something unexpected. If you want to sit down and plot the book ahead of time, go ahead. I prefer to be surprised when I write my books.) And I like the direction this book is going. Now I have some new possibilities before me that I didn’t have before, and that will make this book more interesting to me as I write it.

Here is Book 5 of the Marriage by Obligation Series:

If you read Midnight Wedding, you’ll come across Lydia’s brother, Felix. Felix is the hero of this story. I can’t say more about it until after Midnight Wedding it out. I don’t want to spoil that book for you.

And finally…

I now have a historical western romance I’m excited about writing!

I have decided I wanted to go in a whole new direction with a western. I have been sticking to Nebraska a lot lately, and I think that put me in a rut. (Though, I will say I enjoyed writing about Tom and Jessica’s daughters a lot. That is one of my favorite series.) But still, I needed to wipe the slate clean and do something different.

So I’m going to go to the Arizona desert. I’ve never been there before in my books. This will be exciting. The hero and heroine are from Philadelphia, so they’ve never been out west. I think that will make this book funny in many ways.

The main focus of the story will be on the hero and heroine. The hero isn’t the least bit attracted to the heroine, but he marries her because she’s a wealthy heiress. Only the hero and the hero’s sister know that their father died with a lot of debt. The sister ran off to be a mail-order bride in Arizona. The hero stayed in Philadelphia to save the family name and to make sure their mother would be provided for. Well, on his wedding day, news come to him that his sister went missing in Arizona. He is worried about his sister, of course, because he packs right away to find her. But he also realizes this is the perfect chance to avoid his new bride. The bride, on the other hand, is in love with him and thinks he’s in love with her, so she packs for the trip and seeks out to find his sister with him. This is a comedy, so the setup will be fun. The hero is determined to keep up the pretense of being in love with her. He realizes he owes her a lot for saving his family from ruin. He’s not heartless. But he will struggle with playing the role of the doting husband. Until…of course…he starts to actually fall in love with her. This is a romance. We all know he will eventually fall in love with her. But it’s the “how” that is going to be the fun part.

I expect things to really get fun when the two arrive in Arizona and are told the canyon is haunted with some legend I’ll create to make things interesting. I’d like there to be a little danger in this somewhere.

I’ve decided to call this book Tagalong Bride. I realize the word “tagalong” wasn’t out until about 1900 which is before this book takes place, but I’m calling it Tagalong Bride anyway because I like it. I searched for other words but nothing fits like this one does. I want something that conveys a comedy romance about a bride who is pretty much tagging along with her new husband even though he doesn’t want her there. I chose the cover to let people know there will be sex in the book. Even after all of this time, I get people who think my books (esp. the westerns) will have no sex scenes in them and they’ll 1 star the book for it. I have to let the cover do the talking for me.

“What Kind of Book Do I Want to Read?” An important question for anyone who writes for passion.

For years, I kept asking myself, “What kind of book do THEY want to read?” This question is geared for writing to market, and once this question becomes your focus, it is hard to get away from it. Even when you make a break from writing to market, this question finds its way back into the idea stage of planning a book. Unless you’re the kind of person who can write to market long term, this question will end up crushing your creative spirit. It doesn’t kill it right away. It takes time. But, eventually, it will kill it. I had exhausted every single idea I had in my arsenal by the beginning of last year. I did write a couple of pure passion projects, which is how I believe I managed for as long as I did.

I didn’t make this public, but I did confide to a few close friends that I was planning to quit the writing thing. I’d come to the end of my rope. I ran out of ideas. Worse than that, I ran out of the desire to write. During 2022, I actually told my husband and kids on several occasions that if I never wrote another book for as long as I lived, that would be okay with me. This is why I didn’t start a new series. It’s why I decided to just finish up the remaining Regency series I had started. Then I could walk away from writing all together without leaving any loose ends behind. The plan was to finish all three books in December then release the books through 2023. Then I would retire my blog and walk away from it all. The only thing that stopped me from finishing those books was the move I made. That forced me to stop everything for a few months.

The desire to actually quit writing was something I never thought I’d face. When I was a teenager, I thought I was going to write until the day I died because it was the one thing that I enjoyed no matter what else was going on. But that’s what the simple question, “What kind of book do THEY want to read?” did to me. It killed my passion. For the past few years, I have been struggling to get back to the place of purely writing for passion. I came close a few times. I think An Earl in Time is where I succeeded 100%, but that was meant to be a non-market story. It was a time travel romance with fairytale elements. There’s no real market for it. Knowing that ahead of time eliminated the question completely from my mind. All of the other books were your basic Regencies and historical western romances. The genre I write in is the most popular one there is. On a subconscious level, I knew it, so that stupid question kept pestering me.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been discussing my struggle with eliminating that stupid critical voice. It’s the critical voice that tells you that you need to write to market. The critical voice essentially says that if your book can’t appeal to others, it’s not worth writing. So that’s how you let the question, “What kind of book do THEY want to read?” seeps into you even if you don’t want it.

I’ve been struggling to come up with an idea for a historical western romance that I could get excited about. On my last blog post, I was discussing my works in progress, and then I got to the portion of the blog where I started rambling about a historical western setup that would be fun to write. I kept asking myself, “What kind of book do I want to read?” I’m not going to lie. This was a hard question to answer because my critical voice wanted to replace it with “What kind of book do THEY want to read?” But as I wrote that blog post, I got a spark for a historical western. I haven’t had a spark in that genre for over a year. I ran with that spark and kept writing to figure out where it would get me. Now I have an idea I’m really excited about.

It’s amazing how a simple change in a sentence can open new doors. Every time I start to wonder if I should go in this direction or that, I dry up. So then, I consciously ask myself, “What kind of book do I want to read?” Then the creativity starts to flow again. I don’t expect the path to be easy. If anything, the process of being a writer has its ups and downs, but in some way, I feel like I’ve come full circle. Back in 2009 when I started indie publishing, I never thought about the market. I only thought about what I wanted for my books. The writing came so easily, and it excited me. I couldn’t wait to get on the computer to see where the story would take me next. I am just now starting to get that kind of excitement back. In the past week, I got four new ideas for books (two Regency for a new series I want to start at the end of this year and two historical westerns for a new series I plan to start at the end of summer).

I have tried many things to get back into the writing for passion mindset, and nothing has seemed to work as well as the question, “What kind of book do I want to read?” If you’re struggling in this area, then I recommend at least giving it a try. I realize it might not work for others in the same way it’s worked for me, but since it has been working, I thought I’d share it.

Also, I have decided I’m not making deadlines like I used to. I’m not going to force myself to write when I’m not in the mood. I’m going to make time for family and friends. I’ll just get these books out at a pace that fits. I’ll do pre-orders but only after the final draft is done. At that point, I’ll set a release date and upload the book. Then I have time to work on the blog post and my email list announcing the book is out. I believe I’ll do my best work when I’m not stressing myself out over it.