Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 102

Summer Giveaway Winners Announced!

It took me longer to get this posted because my kids have been bouncing off the walls for the past week.  It’s been so hot, we’ve spent most of our time inside.  Usually in the summer, I take them to the park every day unless it’s raining.

Anyway after going through random.org, I ended up with a list of winners, which I went through in order of the list until I got 10 winners for Rose Gordon’s Her Sudden Groom, 10 winners for one of Lauralynn Elliott’s books, and 14 winners for my upcoming Her Counterfeit Husband.  Some people wanted a copy of Rose Gordon’s book and mine while others wanted a copy of Lauralynn Elliott’s book and mine.  So I ran through the list until I could get 10 for Rose Gordon and 10 for Lauralynn Elliott.  As it turned out, there was some overlap with my upcoming book, which is why 14 people won Her Counterfeit Husband.

Hopefully that all made sense.

Since it’s almost 10pm my time, I’m going to gift these books out tomorrow.  Her Counterfeit Husband, of course, will be gifted when it’s published next month.  :D

Here’s the list of winners:

Anusha S – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and A Rocky Path by Lauralynn Elliott

Jeani Widish – Her Counterfeit Husband by me, Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon, and A Rocky Path by Lauralynn Elliott

Kesia Saenz – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon

Toyette Hazzard – Her Counterfeit Husband by me, Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon, and Starfane by Lauralynn Elliott

Ann Ferrell – Her Counterfeit Husband by me, Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon, and Guardian Vampire by Lauralynn Elliott

Anya Kelleye – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon

Zanza – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and Starfane by Lauralynn Elliott

Gail Palmere – Her Counterfeit Husband by me, Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon, and Guardian Vampire by Lauralynn Elliott

Nayda Torres – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon

Karen (the one who didn’t leave a last name) – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and Haunted Lake by Lauralynn Elliott

Diane Letourneau – Her Counterfeit Husband by me, Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon, and A Rocky Path by Lauralynn Elliott

Lori Weatherwax – Her Counterfeit Husband by me and Guardian Vampire by Lauralynn Elliott

Karen Mandina – Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon

Shayna Engel – Her Counterfeit Husband by me, Her Sudden Groom by Rose Gordon, and Guardian Vampire by Lauralynn Elliott

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To the winners: if I made a mistake in the books you said you wanted to win, please let me know in the comments below and I’ll make sure to gift the correct one(s).  :D

Updates: Her Counterfeit Husband, Mitch’s Win/Clayton’s Win, Bound by Honor Bound by Love, and A Most Unsuitable Husband

1.  Her Counterfeit Husband is finished!

Firs of all, no matter how many times I tried to interview the heroine (Anna) and the butler (Appleton), my mind went blank, so I give up on trying to do one.

I plan to work on smoothing out the first draft the rest of this week and onto the weekend.  With any luck, it’ll be off to the editor on Monday.  *fingers crossed*

I’m really happened with how the story turned out, and I can honestly say I had no idea it would end the way it did.  Well, obviously there was the happy ending.  We all know the hero and heroine end up together with the happily ever after, but how they got there was the part I didn’t know until I was writing it.  :D

It’s always scary and exciting to write when I don’t know what will happen next.  That’s why writing is mostly by instinct and the characters need to take the lead.  Fortunately, Anna and Jason are two very easy characters to work with because they led me right along.

2.  Clayton’s Win is back to Mitch’s Win but will Remain a Nebraska Book

Yes, I realize this is terribly confusing, but as I was reading through Isaac’s Decision to figure out Clayton’s background, I realized putting him as the hero would require a significant rewrite.  Clayton’s father worked at the paper, and Clayton had a job he was happy with there.  To remove him from that to plop him in a farm wouldn’t work well for his character.  Wiley was the friend who worked on a farm, but I already have him paired up for a young pregnant widow I briefly mentioned in Isaac’s Decision.  I’m thinking Clayton might end up with Eva Connealy.  And I can already see that this will pose a problem between Isaac and Clayton since Emily and Eva can’t stand each other.  :P

So I’m going to have to stay with Mitch.  But all I need to do is transfer it to Nebraska, and I can have Isaac befriend Mitch after Isaac’s Decision.  I can see how Emily and her little sister Lizzie (aka Elizabeth) can add some fun to the book, but they will be mostly in the heroine’s (Heather’s) point of view.

So long story short, I’m changing the title back to Mitch’s Win.  I know.  It’s confusing, but the solution doesn’t always present itself right away.

I already know, however, that Mitch’s brother will end up with one of Dave and Mary’s daughters, and Lizzie Craftsman will end up with Greg Wilson (who is introduced in Mitch’s Win).

3. Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

It’s coming slowly.  It might not end up as long as the books I’m used to writing, but I’ve never been a fan of reading a book that drags in the middle, and I refuse to write one that drags.  So if I can’t make a full-length novel, then so be it.  And that might be why it’s taking me so long to write it.  I’m already at 34,600, and the pacing is excellent up to this point, but I don’t have too much more to go in all honesty.  So I’m going to adjust the new word count goal to 50,000 words.  I know I have at least 15,000 words to go.  Any more than that is up to the characters.

4. A Most Unsuitable Husband

I’ll state upfront that Her Counterfeit Husband is not a comedy.  There might be a few humorous parts, but it’s more of a drama (similar to Shotgun Groom, Bid for a Bride, etc in tone).  I presented some harder issues in Her Counterfeit Husband, and without those harder issues, the book wouldn’t have turned out as well as it did.  But each story is different and some are more serious than others.

A Most Unsuitable Husband, however, is definitely a comedy.  It will be spicier on some levels because the storyline requires it and it’s fitting for a lady known as being a total wallflower to have a more sensually playful side to herself in order to fully develop as a character.  And honestly, who better than an uptight “librarian” type of character to bring some fun to a “rake’s” life, esp. when that “rake” is secretly afraid she’ll discover he has no idea how to please a woman in bed.  (Remember that jesting Lord Edon was doing with Lord Roderick in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife?)  That’s why I enjoyed that scene so much.  I just knew he was the one who was really inept in the bedroom.  But don’t worry.  The heroine in A Most Unsuitable Husband (Lady Catherine from The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife) will help him in this area.  I’m looking forward to it.  :D

5.  The next post I’ll do will be to announce the winners of the Summer Reading Giveaway.  :D

 

 

Will I Write Short Stories…Ever?

Someone asked me about doing a short story, and while I answered her, I thought other people probably have the same question so I’ll answer it in this post.

I have no plans to write short stories.  Far too many people are dissatisfied with short stories.  They want the stories to be longer.  I don’t know if this is true for all authors or just me, but in my experience, most people want me to write a full-length novel.  I see this based on sales, comments, reviews, and emails.  Plus, when I write a short story, I can also see many ways for it to expand.  There are some authors out there who specialize in short stories.  Writing a short story is an art.  It’s an art I don’t have a knack for.  I admire authors who can successfully pull off a short story.  I know they’re out there because I’ve seen them.  :D

I do best will full-length stories between 60,000 to 80,000 words.  Now, that range can vary.  I did write 114,000 words for Brave Beginnings, but that happened to be one of those books that never wanted to end and since the characters were guiding me, I went along with what they wanted.  But my average is 70,000 words, which is why I put my word count goal for every book I start at 70,000.  As I write the book, I get a better idea of whether it’ll be less or more than the 70,000-word goal.

So that’s why I don’t write short stories or novellas anymore.  Writing is an evolving process.  The more authors do it, the more they learn what works and what doesn’t.  This is why I’m constantly accessing my strengths and weaknesses and trying to focus on my strengths.  My strengths are full-length stand-alone historical western or Regency novels.  I also need to let my characters guide me as I go.  I can’t work with outlines until I’m about three chapters away from being done with a book, and that outline is basically keywords that remind me what comes next and keeps me on track to clean up loose ends. I’ve also learned that I can avoid rewriting if I take a break from a story if it stalls as I’m writing it.  I can’t write scenes ahead because they rarely work out because the characters often steer me in direction I never saw coming.  I have finally come to the point where I trust the characters to guide me, even if I worry (in the back of my mind) that they are screwing everything up.  Every time I’ve done it they’re way, it works out great.  Every time I didn’t, the story either needed to be rewritten or thrown out.

So basically, writing is not a one-size-fits-all venture, and not all books are the same because the characters have their own personalities.  And even though I’ve been writing romances since very late 2007, I am still learning something new every time I write a book.  This is why it seems like I’m changing my mind a lot.  I’m always going through and figuring out how to make my current story better than the last one I wrote, and part of that is figuring out what I write best and how I write it best.

Hope that all makes sense.  :D

Summer Reading Giveaway (Featuring Rose Gordon, Lauralynn Elliott, and My Next Book-Her Counterfeit Husband)

To celebrate summer reading, I thought it’d be fun to offer a couple of giveaways.  These will be ebook giveaways, and I’m only going to gift the ebooks from Amazon, B&N, or Smashwords.

What I’m Giving Away  - 1-3 books per winner

First is Rose Gordon.  For the month of July, she is going to donate the money she makes off of Her Sudden Groom to MS research.  I’d like to giveaway 10 ebook copies as a way to help her reach her $5000 goal.  For more information about why she’s doing this, go here.

Second is Lauralynn Elliott.  I’d like to offer 10 winners any one ebook she’s written.   So whichever one of her books you like, I’d like to gift you that particular one.  She’s written a few, so be sure to check her site to find the one you’d like to read most.  Click here to see her list of books.

Third is my upcoming book Her Counterfeit Husband.  I’m giving away this ebook to 10 people.  This won’t be out until next month.  I’m not sure when it’ll be out yet.  I was hoping to get it out by August 1, but I still haven’t finished it.  I’m close though.  I figure I have four scenes to go, but a couple of those scenes are long ones.  If I can manage it, I should be done before next weekend.  *fingers crossed*  Then it goes off to editing, etc.  So I’m giving a tentative date of mid-to-late August.

How This Giveaway Works

I am opening this giveaway up to 10 or more winners.  There are some people reading this blog who have already read Rose Gordon’s Her Sudden Groom, but they haven’t read one of Lauralynn Elliott’s books or read Her Counterfeit Husband.  So they will want to choose 1 Lauralynn Elloitt book and Her Counterfeit Husband.  Another person might not have read Her Sudden Groom and pick that one along with Her Counterfeit Husband.  Another person might want to pick Her Sudden Groom, one of Lauralynn Elliott’s books, and Her Counterfeit Husband.

So you can win one book per author listed.  Or you can choose one book from one author and one book from another author.  Or you can choose one book from only one author.  Hopefully all of that makes sense.

I have included everything I need to know in the form below.  If you are having trouble filling out the form, leave the information in a comment below.  If I don’t have an email, I can’t gift the ebook, so the email is a must.  Note: I do not collect emails.  I hate spam in my inbox, so I won’t use your email for anything other than gifting you the ebook(s).

How and when the winners will be picked:

To enter, just fill out the form.  I will use random.org to pick 10 winners per author.  The winners will be announced in one week, so be looking back here around July 22-23.  Good luck!

[contact-form]

Will There Be a Sequel to Suddenly a Bride? (Short Answer No and This is Why; Warning: This Is A Very Long Post)

This will end up on the FAQ section of this blog, but I thought I’d address it as a blog post so that I can link to it in the future in case someone who doesn’t read my blog asks the question.

The short answer: I’m not planning on it.

The (really, really) long answer:

I’m focusing on historical westerns and Regencies now.

Quick Update on Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

With Bound by Honor, Bound by Love, I am ending the Native American Romance Series.   If I ever get the urge to write another book to go with it, I’m open to it, but at the moment, nothing is happening there.  I’ll be doing good to finish Bound by Honor, Bound by Love because it’s been a very difficult book for me to write, mainly because the characters are taking forever to tell me what they want me to write next.  I feel like they keep writing me into a dead end, so I’ll stop writing that story and suddenly they’ll tell me where to go.  So it wasn’t really a dead end but the lack of ideas blocked me.  I’m currently going through my eighth dead end with that book, and I’m only halfway through it.  I like the story and how it’s going, but it is very slow.  If every book was as slow to write as this one, I’d publish one book a year.  Thank God most stories are easier to write.

Anyway, when Bound by Honor, Bound by Love is done, it will allow me to focus on the two series I love most: the Nebraska books and the Regencies.

Explaining the Nebraska Collection

These books are not written chronologically.  They’re written as the characters call to me write them, which is why every Nebraska book can be read as a stand-alone book.  I keep saying it, but I still get this question the most.  People want to know if they have to read the books in order.  The answer is no.  You don’t need to wait for me to write and publish Wagon Trail Bride before you start reading the other books.  If you do plan to do that, you’ll be waiting for 20 or so years to start the series because I expect to keep working on these books and writing them out of order since I don’t know which character will want their book written next.  My writing is all character driven.  I don’t know that makes sense, but it’s how I work.

I currently have 20 plot ideas for the Nebraska Collection.  That number keeps increasing every year because the more I write in the Nebraska world, the more ideas I keep getting.  At the moment, there are 9 books completed, and it was only supposed to be 1 book when I started (Eye of the Beholder).  But when I wrote that one, I got three other ideas (Tom and Jessica, Neil Craftsman, and Jenny’s books).

From those books, I got more ideas.  I can’t stop the ideas from coming.  Most of the time, they come at me while I’m writing.  Like when I was writing Her Heart’s Desire, I got the idea for Vivian and Hugh’s book.  I’m sure when I write their book, another character will pop up who’ll inspire another book.  Sometimes I get ideas while I’m asleep.  Bride of Second Chances was a dream I had one night.  I woke up and wrote it out.  And yes, sometimes I get ideas when I read another book or watch a movie and think, “What if it ended up differently?”

To sum up the characters I want to write for in the Nebraska Collection, here’s the list (I do get these questions from time to time so I figure I’ll include it here while I’m talking about the Nebraska books):

Amanda and Richard
Dave and Mary’s third book (I don’t plan to write any more books featuring Dave and Mary once I write their third book; since they started the whole Nebraska Collection, I feel a strong attachment to them)
Vivian and Hugh
Mark (Richard and Amanda’s twin son)
Anthony (Richard and Amanda’s twin son)
Annabelle (Richard and Amanda’s daughter)
Greg (Sally and Rick’s son) and Charlotte Connealy (Joseph and Margaret’s daughter)
Laura (Sally and Rick’s daughter)
Nelly (Tom and Jessica’s daughter)
Patricia  (Tom and Jessica’s daughter)
Erin  (Tom and Jessica’s daughter)
Daisy  (Tom and Jessica’s daughter)
Adam  (Mary and Dave’s son)
Rachel (Mary and Dave’s daughter)
Jacob  (Mary and Dave’s son)
Harriett (Mary and Dave’s daughter)
Rose (Mary and Dave’s daughter)
Eli  (Mary and Dave’s son)
Jeremy (Jenny’s son)
Carl  (Jenny and Owen’s son)
Emma (Jenny and Owen’s daughter)
Sepp (April’s brother in Shotgun Groom)
Nora (April’s daughter)
Hannah  (April and Joel’s daughter)
Levi  (April and Joel’s son)
Lilly  (April and Joel’s daughter)
Doug  (Joseph Connealy’s son)
Bob   (Joseph Connealy’s son)
Charles   (Joseph Connealy’s son)
Ben   (Joseph Connealy’s son)
Eva  (Joseph and Margaret Connealy’s daughter)
Clayton  (friend of Isaac Larson)
Wiley (friend of Isaac Larson)
Boaz and one of Dave and Mary’s daughters (Boaz is Clayton’s brother)
Luke  (Sarah Craftsman’s son)
Elizabeth  (Neil and Sarah Craftsman’s daughter) and Greg Wilson (the rewrite of The Keeping of Greg Wilson now titled Lizzie’s Gamble)
Stanley (Sarah and Neil Craftsman’s son)

I plan to match some of these characters up, which is why I say 20 ideas.  For example, Bob and Doug will be vying for one of Tom and Jessica’s daughters.  So there’s some overlap.  I’m not sure about Ma and Pa Larson.  That one is very iffy.

The Regency Collection

For the Regency series, I am working on Her Counterfeit Husband (with new characters) and just started A Most Unsuitable Husband (Lord Edon’s book).  From Her Counterfeit Husband, I introduce Candace who later goes on to marry Perry (Lord Clement from The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife).  I do have plans to write a book for Mister Robinson (from The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife) and Lady Richfield (from A Most Unsuitable Groom).  I am sure other characters will pop up, which will expand this series.  So I already have one Regency out and am working on two (one of which will be done in a week).  After that I have two other ideas.  I suspect this is one of those series where I’ll keep getting more and more ideas for as I go along and write the books.

So what does all of this have to do with Suddenly a Bride?

Given everything I want to do for the Nebraska and Regency Collections, I need to focus my energy and time there.  I have at least 25 stories between those two collections.  I average seven full-length novels a year.  That average is based off of four years of writing romances.  In that time, I have rewritten a couple of romances (Falling In Love With Her Husband, With This Ring, I Thee Dread, Romancing Adrienne) and experimented with converting the Virginia series (An Unlikely Place for Love, The Cold Wife, and An Inconvenient Marriage) to contemporary but realized it didn’t work and made them historicals again.  Doing all of that slowed me down.  I currently have 23 full-length romance novels and 3 (A Bride for Tom, A Husband for Margaret and A Chance in Time) novellas out (at the time of writing this post).

This is my fifth year of writing romances, so I have a pretty good handle on how many full-length novels I can write in a year.  So far this year, I have published four romances (Isaac’s Decision, Her Heart’s Desire, The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, and To Have and To Hold).  I am almost finished with the first draft of my fifth novel, and I think it’s safe to say two more (hopefully A Most Unsuitable Husband and Bound by Honor, Bound by Love, though Bound is more on the iffy side) is very doable before the year ends.

So if you consider I have 25 ideas between the Nebraska books and the Regencies, we’re looking at 3.5 years for me to write them.  Since I keep getting new ideas for those collections, I know the number is going to end up higher than that.  And there might be a freakish year where I can get very little writing done.  You just never know what the future will bring.

But I keep asking myself if I were to die next year, what books would I want to write this year, and that’s how I decide which books to write.  They have to be the ones that interest me the most.  At this point in time, contemporaries aren’t anywhere on the list.  I can’t say they’ll never ever be, but I tried to write two contemporaries earlier this year and my heart wasn’t in it.  That’s why I modified Suddenly a Bride so that there was no lead in for Mark and Lexi’s story.

However, I have a plan for the plot ideas

The two contemporaries I had unsuccessfully started were Runaway Bride and Just Good Friends.  The two plots were basically along these lines:

Runaway Bride – a heroine is supposed to marry someone but the hero snatches her away and marries her instead

Just Good Friends – two longtime friends pretend to be a couple due to the pressure from the heroine’s family to “settle down”

What I’m going to do is transfer those plot ideas to my historicals.  

Runaway Bride will work great as a historical western.  The heroine will be ready to marry a shady character when the hero (who loves her) kidnaps her and marries her instead.  I’m thinking it has the potential to be a comedy.

As for Just Good Friends, this will also probably become a historical western.  Take a woman who everyone thinks of as a spinster with a younger sister who is getting married and her family feels sorry for her because she’s never going to get married convincing a friend (who is planning to move somewhere else) to act like they’re going to get married (and she is planning to move out of Nebraska to homestead somewhere else–women back then could homestead without a husband, Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s relative did).  But she comes up with the scheme so her family won’t talk her out of homesteading and will finally leave her alone.  My younger sister got married before I did, so I know what a pain it is to hear, “Don’t you have anyone yet, Ruth?”  So I could see why the heroine would come up with such a plan.  For the record, I didn’t make anyone up.  I was tempted to, just to get relatives to back off, but I was good and stayed honest–and went to college away from home so I could have my own life.  This is another book which would make a great comedy.

Who knows what the future holds?

If (and that’s a very tentative “if”) I ever write the contemporaries, it’s going to be off in an unspecified time in the future.  I can’t predict when or if I’ll want to write Mark and Lexie’s story.  I have no idea.  All I know is that the desire to write it today isn’t there.  I tried; I failed.  If I forced it, the book would suck and who wants to read a book that sucks?  It’s not the right time, and maybe it never will be.  I have stories in my head that I’m not writing.  Some examples of books I have up in my head that I’m not writing is a sequel to Return of the Aliens; a prequel to Return of the Aliens, a couple of erotic romances, more fantasy books in the Queens of Raz series, fairy tale adaptations like the idea I have for how I wished Snow White would have gone, and more.  There are more ideas in my head than I will ever be able to write in a lifetime.  All I can do is pick the stories I want to write the most right now and focus on them.  Time is a finite resource, so all I can do is make the most of the time I got.

Winner of the Giveaway Announcement

Congratulations to Dawn Munday who won the giveaway!  I’ll be sending you an email in a few minutes to get your address so I can send you the books.  :D

Almost Done With the First Draft of Her Counterfeit Husband

I wanted to do an interview with Anna (heroine) and Appleton (the butler) in Her Counterfeit Husband this weekend, but I’ve been on a roll with writing it.  The hero is now learning the truth about his past, and I’m pretty much learning it along with him as the other characters reveal it.  I know it sounds crazy, but I didn’t know the details of the hero’s past and how he ended up beaten and left for dead in the forest until tonight as the hero is learning it.  That’s part of the thrill of writing a book.  Sometimes I don’t know what’s going to happen until I’m writing it.  :D

If all goes well, I’ll finish with the first draft by Saturday.  *fingers crossed*  Tomorrow, I’ll run off to spend the day with my writing group to check on how this story is working overall.   So I’m excited about going there tomorrow, especially since I’m almost done with the book.

I should be able to have the book out around August 1.  :D

Her Counterfeit Husband: Anna and Appleton’s Plan to Hide Her Husband’s Death

I’m getting close to the end of Her Counterfeit Husband.  I hope to have the first draft done in about a week (July 14).  *fingers crossed*  Today, I thought it’d be fun to post a snippet of the book and (hopefully) do an interview with Anna (the heroine) and Appleton (the butler) this weekend.

As a quick note: I do have small changes to make to this scene.  For example, the gentleman who’s identical to Anna’s husband will be in the middle of the forest road.  At the moment, I have him to the side of the road.  I have the notes down on what should be different, but I haven’t made the changes yet.  I prefer to wait until the first draft is done before I go back and change anything.  I also have done no proofreading on it.

Oh, and I haven’t drawn out a timeline for this story yet, so I’m not sure when it begins, but I’m thinking sometime in autumn.

Anna is the heroine (the Duchess of Watkins)

Appleton is the butler (and protective father figure)

Lord Mason is Anna’s brother-in-law (and he will factor more in the story later on)

Those disclaimers aside, here’s the part of the book where Anna buries her first husband…

Chapter Two

He’s dead.  Anna stared at her husband, hardly believing it.  Though death was, in itself, an ugly thing, she studied him.  His vacant eyes remained open, his pale skin had taken on a bluish tint, and he wasn’t breathing.  Even as part of her experienced an overwhelming feeling of relief, another part knew she had a much bigger problem waiting for her.

She glanced out the window.  Dawn still hadn’t come.  A look at the pocket watch on the table beside his bed told her it was just after midnight.  Her husband’s valet had walked out, and considering how many valets her husband had been through, she hadn’t been surprised when the last one quit.  Her husband had expected to hire another one once he got well, but this wouldn’t be the case now.

No.  Now, the next valet in this house would be Lord Mason’s.  Unless…  She bit her lower lip and walked to the window.  It was dark out there.  Not even a moon tonight.  Anyone could be out there, and there was no way she’d see him.  She reached up and gripped the curtains.  Did she dare?  Could she get away with it?  But she couldn’t do it alone.  Her husband was too heavy.  Even if he was weak and had lost considerable weight, she could never carry him out of the house and quietly dispose of his body.

What she needed was help from someone she could trust, someone who would keep her secret to their grave.  Appleton.  If there was anyone who’d understand her plight and help her, it was him.  She dropped the curtain back in place and turned from the window.  No.  She couldn’t ask Appleton to do such a devious thing.  Not when he was the one good thing in her life, the one person who’d helped her keep going when all she’d wanted to do was give up.  Her gaze fell to the scars on her wrists.  If he hadn’t found her when he did, she wouldn’t be here now.  And he’d saved her for what?  So her lot would fall to someone worse than her husband?

Her attention went back to her husband.  The Duke of Watkins.  She never did feel comfortable enough to call him by his title or his Christian name.  Six years.  For six years, she’d been under his thumb.  And as his last act of imprisoning her, he thought to hand her over to his disgusting brother.  Taking a deep breath, she walked over to him, each step slow and calculated as she thought of all the misery he’d caused her, and even now in death, he had a slight smile on his lips, as if laughing that he had gained one more victory over her.  When she reached him, she slapped him.

“You don’t win this one,” she hissed.  “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make sure your brother never becomes the duke.”

Feeling a new sense of determination, she crossed the room and slipped through the door leading to her bedchamber.  She hurried over to the cord on her wall that would ring the bell in Appleton’s room.  If she was going to act, she had to be quick.  The doctor would arrive in under eight hours, and the longer she waited, the harder it was going to be to succeed in her plan.

She reached her wardrobe and pulled out a black dress and cloak so she could blend into the dark night.  After she returned to her husband’s bedchamber, she waited by his door until she spied Appleton hurrying down the hall.  She motioned to him to enter the room, and he obeyed.

“Your grace?” he whispered.

She quickly shut the door and led him over to her husband.  “I found him like this thirty minutes ago.”

His expression grim, he said, “I don’t know whether to be relieved or not.”

“I can’t let his brother assume the title,” she whispered, glancing at her husband.

With a heavy sigh, he nodded.  “That wouldn’t be a wise idea.”

“It’s dark out there.  If you wore a covering and we wrapped him up in a dark blanket, we can carry him out of here and dispose of his body without anyone seeing us.”

He stared at her for a long moment, and she waited for his response, wondering if he’d agree or tell her it was impossible.  “What you’re suggesting is very unusual,” he slowly replied.

She tightened her hold on the edge of her cloak.  He wasn’t going to go along with it!

“However,” he began, causing her heart to leap with hope, “I see no other alternative than to quietly bury him, but we can’t hide the fact that he’s missing for long.  If he were to take a trip for an undetermined amount of time…”

Relieved he was going to help her, she nodded.  “We’ll do that.”

“We also need to take him off this property.  No one must ever find him.”

“I agree.”

“We’ll need to take a carriage.  There’s no way we can carry him as far as we need to.”

“Can we risk it without being seen?”

“There is an old carriage that no one uses.  It’s in the old stable.  I’ll get that one ready.  As for finding the horses, I’ll find that are hardly used.  You find a blanket, and when I get back, we’ll wrap him up and carry him down the servant stairs.  No one should see us this late at night.”

It sounded wonderful.  So wonderful, in fact, that it might actually work!  While he left the bedchamber, she searched through the room to find a suitable blanket to cover her husband up.

***

Their task was a morbid one.  Two hours past midnight, Anna held the lantern up as Appleton finished burying her husband.  He pounded the new mound of dirt over the spot in the forest, which was hidden by a group of trees half a mile from the path.

Appleton straightened his back and turned to her.  “I think we’re done.”

She stared at the spot where her husband was buried, finally feeling free.  Six of the worst years of her life were over.  She didn’t realize she was crying until Appleton removed his gloves so he could reach into his pocket and hand her a handkerchief.  Grateful to his everlasting kindness to her, she thanked him and wiped her face.

“It’s over, your grace,” he said, his voice soothing.

“As long as no one finds out, we’ll be all right,” she agreed.

In silence, the two turned to the path that would take them to their carriage.  So much had happened that day, and her exhaustion was quickly catching up to her.  Once they reached the carriage, she slipped into the carriage while he discarded his clothes and put on new ones.  From there, he led the horses carefully through the forest.  She closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of the seat.

Exhaustion was quickly taking over, but even so, she couldn’t sleep.  She wanted nothing more than to sink into the sweet bliss of dreams where she could forget everything from her tainted marriage to the misery that brought her and Appleton to covering up her husband’s death.  The entire night kept replaying itself in her mind.  As much as she prayed no one would ever find out what happened, she couldn’t help but worry someone would try to find her husband and learn the truth.  But maybe by then, she and Appleton could leave the country.  They could assume another identity.  Maybe by the time people realized her husband was dead, she and Appleton could be long gone.

The carriage came to a stop, startling her.  She bolted up in her seat and peered out the window, wondering if someone caught them.  Maybe someone saw them sneak out off the estate and followed them into this forest.  Her heartbeat accelerated in dread.  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  With a hard swallow, she told herself that whatever happened, she would make sure they knew this was her idea and she forced Appleton help her.  She’d do everything she could to absolve him from guilt.

The carriage door opened.  Her eyes flew open, but instead of someone else, she saw Appleton’s bewildered expression.  “What is it?” she asked him, tentatively peering out of the carriage to see if someone else was in the area.

“There’s a gentleman, your grace,” he told her.  He held his hand out to help her down.  “I can’t tell for sure, but he looks a lot like your husband.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, she followed him around the carriage.  He lifted the lantern so they could see the path in front of them.  She bent to avoid a tree branch and stepped over a dip in the road.  But then Appleton stopped and she came up beside him.  Her gaze went up ahead where a bloodied gentleman was lying unconscious off to the side of the road.

A scan of the wooded area revealed no one else was nearby.  “You said he looks like my husband?” she whispered.

“He’s been beaten, but there’s no denying the resemblance.”

Curious, she approached the gentleman.  He was lying on his back, his eyes closed and mouth open as he struggled for breath.  It was almost alarming to see him covered in blood, his lower lip swollen, his nose out of place, bruises lining the side of his face.  His clothes spoke of a commoner, but his face was horribly reminiscent of the husband she’d just buried.

She glanced at Appleton before she proceeded forward.  While Appleton held the lantern for her to see where she was gong, she approached the stranger and knelt beside him.  “Sir?”

He gave no response.  Uncertain, she looked back at Appleton.

“He might be the answer to our prayers, your grace,” Appleton softly told her.

Could he be?  She turned her attention to the stranger.  It was hard to tell in the dim light, but it seemed to be the same blond color as her husband’s.  She inspected the rest of him, sizing up his height and build.  If she wasn’t seeing it with her own eyes, she would never have believed it.  This stranger…this gentleman who was in no way of noble birth…could pass for her husband.

The stranger let out a slight moan of pain, and something in her snapped.  “We have to help him,” she told Appleton.

Appleton handed her the lantern.  She stood up and held it for him.  “He needs help.  If we’re not careful, we’re going to lose him.”

It took her a moment to realize he meant that this stranger could die if they didn’t tend to his wounds.  “But…  Who can we get to help him?  No one will believe my husband got beat up like this.”

“I have a friend we can go to who won’t ask questions.”

Surprised, she asked, “You do?”

With a kind smile, he lifted the stranger in his arms.  “An old friend.  I haven’t seen him in years.  He went to study medicine while I went to work for your husband’s father.”

“Will he be upset that we came to see him so late and unannounced?” she asked as he gingerly carried the stranger to the carriage.

“No.  I believe he’ll be too concerned about this gentleman’s wounds to think of the hour we’ll be coming to him.”

“But what will we say?  We can’t tell him we buried my husband and found this stranger on the road.”

“I’ll tell him this is your husband and he got into a nasty brawl.  I don’t think he’ll ask anything beyond that.”

“Then what?” she asked.

“Then we ask him if he’ll pretend he’s your husband.”

She halted in her tracks for a moment until she could comprehend what he was saying.  She quickly started walking again so she could open the carriage door for him.  After she removed her cloak and set it on the seat so it wouldn’t get dirty or bloody, Appleton set the stranger securely in the carriage.

Appleton turned to face her.  “Do you want to sit with him?”

She studied the stranger.  His head was tilted to the side and his eyes still closed.  She doubted he would wake up before they reached their destination.  “I’ll sit in here,” she decided.  And if nothing else, perhaps she could make sure he didn’t slide off the seat.

“If you change your mind, tap on the roof and I’ll stop,” Appleton replied.

With a nod, she let him help her into the carriage and sat by the stranger, close enough to help him remain in place if needed but far enough so she wouldn’t have to touch him.  As Appleton shut the door, she dared a good look at the stranger.

She couldn’t see anything but his silhouette, but even so, the likeness between him and her husband sent a chill up her spine.  Oh God, let this stranger be a kind gentleman, she prayed.  If they could just work out an agreement and get along amiably enough, it would solve all her problems.

The carriage moved forward, and she made sure the stranger didn’t fall out of his seat before she relaxed enough where her shoulders slouched.  She rubbed her eyes and thought of what an exhausting day it’d been.  So much had happened and was still happening.  She knew her life would never be the same again, but the question was would it be better or worse or more of the same?  She turned her gaze to the stranger who remained unconscious.  Only time would tell if she and Appleton had made a wise move or a tragic mistake.

Announcing a Giveaway: Enter for a Chance To Win Paperbacks!

How to Enter

So all the witnesses have testified in the court trail of Ruth Ann Nordin vs. Dave and Mary Larson.  To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is vote innocent or guilty.

“Innocent” means you side with Dave and Mary.

“Guilty” means you don’t side with Dave and Mary.

There is no right or wrong answer, and all votes are anonymous.  Just click “innocent” or “guilty” in the poll.  Then in the comments section below this post, say “I voted” and I’ll put you in the giveaway drawing.  I will need an email address in order to put you in the drawing because if I don’t have an email address, I can’t contact you.  I do not save email addresses, so you will not be spammed.  Once the giveaway is over, I will delete all comments with the email addresses.  Please answer only on this blog so I can be sure the entries are all in one place.

How I’ll pick the winner

I’m going to do a drawing at random.org.

What you will win

My paperback books that I am giving away are the entire South Dakota Series (Loving Eliza, Bid for a Bride, Bride of Second Chances) and the Virginia Series (An Unlikely Place for Love, The Cold Wife, An Inconvenient Marriage, Romancing Adrienne and Falling In Love With Her Husband.  I know Falling In Love With Her Husband isn’t a direct book in the series, but the characters start out living there and Todd makes a very brief appearance in An Inconvenient Marriage).

Rose Gordon has graciously volunteered her Groom Series paperbacks to the giveaway.  Those books are Her Sudden Groom, Her Reluctant Groom, Her Secondhand Groom, and Her Imperfect Groom.

All paperbacks are signed.  I’ve signed mine, and Rose has signed hers.  :D

When the winner will be announced:

Monday July 9.

Here are the witness accounts:

Ruth Ann Nordin’s Testimony: Part 1

Ruth Ann Nordin’s Testimony: Part 2

Tom Larson’s Testimony

Sally Larson’s Testimony

Mary Larson’s Testimony

Dave Larson’s Testimony

Richard Larson’s Testimony

Now for the Verdict:

Take Our Poll

Remember to leave a “I voted” comment with your email address below in the comments so I can enter you in the giveaway.

Richard Larson is at the Witness Stand

Rick: Do you have a witness to call up here, Tom?

Tom: Yes.  I have one, and then we’re done with the trial.

Rick: Thank God.  I was beginning to think this trial would never end.  So who are you calling up?

Tom: Richard Larson.

Richard: *comes up to the witness stand and sits down*

Tom: Do you think Dave and Mary had a good reason to fake his kidnapping?

Richard: No.

Tom: Objection, your honor!

Joel: Objection to his objection!

Rick: Oh for goodness’ sakes.  What’s going on here, Tom?

Tom: Richard is supposed to be on Dave and Mary’s side.  That’s why he’s up here.  He can’t say “No”.

Richard: Well, it’s the truth.  The whole thing is stupid, but I think Dave has a point in why we should listen to him.

Joel: *mutters* This ought to be good.

Rick: Settle down, Joel.  Go ahead, Richard.  Where are you going with this?

Richard: Well, if we all remember it’s Dave and Mary who started the whole Nebraska series.

Tom: Right.  So what about it?

Richard: Originally, Eye of the Beholder was supposed to be a romance between Neil Craftsman and Mary Peters.  Then in chapter two, Ruth thought the story would be better if Neil turned out to be a slimy character.  That’s where Dave came in.  Had there not been the friction between Dave and Neil, a lot of what makes the story as good as it is would’ve been lost.  The only reason Ruth did everything she did in that story was because she was listening to her characters.  So when Dave is asking for Ruth to listen to her characters, it’s because the stories are better if she does.

Tom: Yes, very good.

Richard: And if it hadn’t been for Eye of the Beholder, she never would have went on to write more Nebraska books.  Let’s face it.  We’re a lovable bunch of characters, and all of us in Eye of the Beholder wanted Ruth to write out books.  You and Jessica, Jenny, Joel, Sally and Rick, Isaac and Emily, and soon I’ll have a book.  None of this would be possible if Dave and Mary hadn’t taken the initiative and been willing to be the first characters to be in Ruth’s historical westerns.  It’s because of them Ruth fell in love with writing historical westerns.  It’s because of them people fell in love with the Nebraska books.  We can’t dismiss Mary and Dave’s contribution to Ruth’s career.  I mean, no one would even know who she is without them.

Tom: Thank you, Richard.  That’s all I have to ask, your honor.

Joel: *stands up and approaches Richard* How much did Dave and Mary pay you to say all that?

Richard: Nothing, Joel.  I am capable of independent thought.

Joel: Hmm…  And yet it’s taken you nine books into the Nebraska series before you came up with an idea for your own book?  Nine books?  The rest of us had ideas sooner than that.

Richard: What’s your point, pipsqueak?

Joel: My point is you’re late.  You overslept.  You need to get your life organized.  Aren’t you aware that the series is moving to our kids?  It started with Dave and Mary’s oldest, Isaac, and will soon be Isaac’s friend, Clayton’s turn.  You are the first book in the series unless Ruth does a book on our parents.  It takes you forever to come up with anything, and now you expect us to believe that you came up with that whole “Dave and Mary started it all” spiel without help?

Richard: That’s the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard.

Joel: Do you really believe if it hadn’t been for Dave and Mary that Ruth would never have come up with plots for our books?

Richard: She might have come up with the same plot ideas, but the characters would’ve been different.  We were all introduced in Eye of the Beholder.  Do you know why some of the characters in her other books never got stories of their own?  Because they didn’t scream loud enough at Ruth to write their books.  We’ve been the most vocal bunch of all her characters, which is why we have nine books so far and one in the works and mine will be number eleven.  None of that would be possible if Ruth hadn’t written Eye of the Beholder.  So we owe Dave and Mary our thanks for that.

Joel: Aren’t you worried that if Dave keeps bothering her, she’ll stop writing Nebraska books?

Richard: No.  The series is more than Dave and Mary now.  It’s also you, me, Tom, Sally, Jenny, and all of our children.  Dave and Mary are just two characters.  Ruth might not write anything else with them in it, but there’s too many of the rest of us and our intriguing plot lines for her to ignore.  George Lucas has Star Wars.  William Shatner has Star Trek.  Stephanie Meyer has Twilight.  CS Lewis has the Chronicles of Narnia.  Ruth has the Nebraska books.  Do you know what all of these people have in common?

Joel: *groans*

Richard: They all did other projects but one stands apart from all the rest.  Sure, Ruth might write other series with other characters, but when people think of her, they also think of the Larson family, and that’s something Dave and Mary has done for us.

Joel: I hate it when you’re around.  *turns to Rick* I have nothing else to ask, your honor.

***

This concludes the hearing.  Tomorrow, I’ll open up the giveaway to the verdict in whether or not Dave and Mary are guilty.