Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 11
June 12, 2023
What I’m Working On
I am finally done with this book. It took me a little over a year to write the whole thing. That’s the longest it’s ever taken me to write a romance. Since it did take me so long, I had a celebration for completing it. Last week and this week, I’m working on the initial edits. After that, this goes out to the editing team. I haven’t picked an official date yet, but this will be published in late July. I plan to have it on pre-order for a week or two so that I have time to write the blog posts announcing its release and to get the links, etc.
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Still writing these two books:
It looks like I’ll finish Worth the Risk before I finish The Earl’s Jilted Bride because Worth the Risk is shorter. But The Earl’s Jilted Bride comes before Worth the Risk, so I’ll sit on Worth the Risk. I just did a scene in The Earl’s Jilted Bride that I’ll have to rewrite. As I’m editing Midnight Wedding, I realize that the main characters from Midnight Wedding can be back in London by the middle of The Earl’s Jilted Bride. Since I think it would be fun to include those two characters, I’m going to use them rewrite the scene with them in it. I’m not sure if the arrival of these two characters will change anything in The Earl’s Jilted Bride or not. Actually, as I write this, I realize there is something that can change, and it will add to the plot of the story. So I’m excited to be able to bring the main characters from Midnight Wedding into play in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I should warn everyone that Worth the Risk is an off-shoot (of sorts) because this takes place pretty much exclusively in the country. I don’t know if I will be able to wind this up in London. I’d like to, but it depends on how the climax of this story plays out.
I know that’s all vague, but mentioning the specifics would spoil the stories.
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Got a Cover for Book 5I have the receipt and the image, but I see it’s still on the site, so I want to be sure the transaction went through before posting it on this blog. I went ahead and got a premade cover. I didn’t feel like trying to make a cover from scratch. While I was at it, I bought two other Regency-era premade covers for future use.
I hope to start writing Book 5 later this week. I like writing three books at one time. I find when I work on one book, it often inspires me to do something in another book. For example, I wrote Nobody’s Fool (Book 2) and A Deceptive Wager (Book 3) at the same time. I wanted the heroine in Book 3 to have someone to help her in the “battle of wills” against her new husband. So I introduced this character in Book 2. Suddenly the hero had an uncle that I didn’t originally plan to create. 
It’s more enjoyable to bring in a character from an earlier book in the same series whenever possible because people will remember that character. Plus, as a writer, it’s like being able to say “hi” to an old friend.
Also, there are times I’m writing a story in one series that gives me an idea for a book I’m writing in another series. Nobody’s Fool is a Regency. Suitable for Marriage is a historical western. In Nobody’s Fool, the hero has no idea that the heroine is trying to get him to “fall out of love” with her. In Suitable for Marriage, the hero is very much aware of what the heroine is doing and plays along in order to spend time with her.
I’ve done things over times that have an overlap between stories like that, but those are the examples that came to mind while writing this post. Essentially, there is a lot of piggybacking that occurs when I write more than one book at a time, and I’ve found my sweet spot to be three books at once.
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My new mission is to figure out what stories I want to read.I have spent the last two weeks listening to the books I’ve written that I enjoy the most. When you write to market, the focus is on what other people want to read. Doing that for years has led to some of my burnout. There are other factors, but trying to produce work that I believe others want to read most is the main contributor because I am not allowing myself to write the stuff I want to read. While I enjoyed those books well enough, they aren’t the books I listen to over and over again.
Would you believe that Midnight Wedding is my 99th romance? I am almost at 100. I have used up many ideas that I was excited about writing. The nice thing about creativity is that ideas don’t completely go away. New ones do come to you. It can take some time, but I’ve found that being relaxed and consuming my own content helps with two questions: 1. what makes this one of my favorite stories and 2. what else would I like to read that I haven’t written yet?
In order to write from a place of passion, I think those two questions matter the most. It’s the opposite of what writers do when they write to market. Writing to market, you ask yourself these two questions: 1. what makes a story top the best selling charts on various retailers and 2. what can I do to give my own spin on it? I think it’s easier to write to market because it’s safer. You’re sticking with the tried and true. The tried and true works over and over again. That’s why we have so many retellings of stories like Beauty and the Beast. I enjoy some of the tired and true myself. I’ve written some of them and have enjoyed them a lot. So it’s not always bad to pursue the tried and true if there’s a way you can tell it that is going to excite you.
But there are times when you start to think it might be fun to take an idea that isn’t tried and true. Sometimes the most intriguing idea is one that you can’t really pin into a hole that makes it easy to market. I’ve been told that my romances aren’t really “romances” because I go into other plots. If you’re talking about the standard hero and heroine with the back-and-forth “does he/she or doesn’t he/she love me?” formula, then you’re right. Because the basic romance formula is that the two main characters aren’t guaranteed the other loves them until the end of the story. To me, that’s not interesting. There needs to be something more for me to want to write it. My favorite part of my stories are the romantic parts, and, to me, the romance is a big part of the story. There might be something else going on, but if you took the romance out, I wouldn’t want to read it. So essentially, I write romance. It’s the kind of romance I want to read.
While I have fun with the Regencies, I want to write a historical western. I just having pinned down the idea that gets me excited about writing it. I have plenty of ideas for what the market might want, but those aren’t that interesting to me. Somewhere on the edge of my consciousness, I can feel an idea for a historical western tickling my brain. It think there’s a gothic tone to it. I’d love to mix some gothic element to a historical western because I haven’t done it yet. Maybe I’ll have this set in Arizona. I’ve been there once for a Phoenix writer’s conference so I have an idea of what the terrain is like. I’ve have so much fun working on Midnight Wedding. I want something that gives me that kind of excitement in a historical western. I’m thinking of possibly a desert setting with a legend about ghosts or some kind of mythological story. And our cowboy is set out across the desert where he will have to encounter this. I’m not sure where the heroine would come in, but this story isn’t worth writing unless she’s there. I’ll keep working on it. I want something with danger, maybe a little humor, and a lot of romance. I’ll let you know if I finally get the set up I need to start the story.
June 7, 2023
My Thoughts on How to Navigate Changes in the Writing World (A Post for Writers)
I came across this really good article from Kristine Kathryn Rusch where she discusses how we can’t fight the future.
I agree that we can’t fight the future. Things are in a constant state of change. It’s been like that for as long as man’s been around. New things are always emerging. Someone had to invent the wheel. Someone had to invent the number 0. Someone had to invent paper to write on. As a human species, we’re always looking for ways to build upon what came before us. The way writers get their stories into the world will see its share of changes, just like everything else. I’m the first to admit that I don’t like change. I wish things would remain the same, but things don’t stay the same, so we have to figure out a way to adapt.
As I was listening to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s post, three main thoughts came to me that made me feel better about the future. I thought I would share them in this post in case they can help someone else.
1. Good storytelling matters.In a world that is constantly changing, this is the one constant we can depend on. I don’t care what format pops up with how books are consumed. Whether it’s oral, paperback, ebook, audio, serial, or visual, people still want a good story. They want to be entertained. If you can master the art of storytelling, you have a huge advantage. I realize that visibility is the problem. Finding an audience for our books is what we’ve always had to figure out. But if you have a poorly written story, it doesn’t matter how many people find it. If you’re not a good storyteller, you’ll never survive long term as a writer.
This is comforting news. And this is why I believe writing what we love is so important. When we love what we’re writing, we will naturally do our best work. The goal of writing for passion isn’t to appeal to every reader out there. The goal is to appeal to the readers who love the stuff you’re writing. I realize in an atmosphere that lauds the “six-figure author”, writing what you love isn’t sexy. But there is value in writing something that comes from the heart. A good story is timeless.
2. Take it in baby steps.There is so much out there available to us as writers. When I read through some posts in writing groups on marketing, I get overwhelmed by how much is out there, and there seems to be new things coming out all the time. That’s why I think it’s best to focus on one or two new things you see emerging. Ideally, the thing you choose is something you have an interest in. If you’re interested in it, you’re likely to make the most of it. Also, I think it should be something you understand.
Off the top of my head, the big changes I see coming are AI narration and AI to help with writing. Because of my eye issues, I am a huge fan of AI narration. I am working with that already. But, I’m not a fan of AI helping with writing unless you need help with a book description or if you’re brainstorming for ideas. I think the actual writing should be done by the writer. You don’t know how AI is getting the input to “write a story”. I realize that right now we’re still in the stages where AI’s storytelling is clunky and sometimes humorous, but you could be unknowingly plagiarizing from someone else’s work. If you do your own writing, you don’t have to worry about plagiarism because you’ll be doing the storytelling yourself. Another change I’ve heard about has something to do with blockchain. Even after listening to a podcast on it, I still don’t understand it, so I will not be doing it.
I think one day technology might take us to a time where we could use AI computerized actors to create a movie or TV episodes where people will be able to watch our story instead of reading it. I remember experimenting with a program back in 2010 (I think) where there were two computerized people in a static setting. If you put in the words for the people to say, the program would process it so that the people said whatever you wanted them to. Now these two people barely moved, and they sounded robotic. You couldn’t make anything decent from it. But it was fun to use this to create a couple of scenes from my books. I don’t remember the name of this program, but it was fun to play around with. I think the day will come where writers can create a character (looks, age, etc), create a setting for this character to be in, and create other characters for this character to interact with. Eventually, writers could create a movie from their books. This is something that would be a lot of fun, and AI would make this cost effective for the writer and the person who consumes the story.
Change can be scary, but it can be exciting, too. I think it’s just important to take things in small doses so you don’t get overwhelmed.
3. Work with your strengths.I think it’s best to work with your strengths when you decide what new thing you’re going to try out. I see no point in working in a weak area unless your goal is to improve it. For example, I’m weak in oral communication. That’s why I don’t bother with videos. I also don’t give speeches. I’ve tried them, and I sucked. I am much better off being the person behind the scenes. That’s why I have this blog, and I ended up writing speeches for others to give. I think wherever your strengths are, that is where you will do best.
You have to know yourself in order to best gear your marketing efforts to where they will do their best work. It’s not fun to take inventory of your shortcomings, but, by doing so, you can avoid a lot of frustration down the road. We are not all created equal. We all have our own unique set of talents. Just because someone is able to reach an audience by doing something, it doesn’t mean that method will be right for you. Say, for example, they swear by TikTok videos. Quite a few authors in a writing group on Facebook swear by them. Maybe they have an online presence that resonates with people. Some people shine in a video setting. That is their strength. If you have that gift, go for it. If you don’t, you can choose something that works better for you. Don’t let people talk you into doing something that doesn’t work for you, and don’t let people make you feel guilty if choose to do something that does work for you (but doesn’t work for them). It’s okay to go down your own path. The world is big enough for multiple ways of promoting your books.
May 25, 2023
Burnout and the Writer
I have mentioned burnout here and there on this blog over the years, but I’ve never really addressed how this has impacted me as a writer. As a teenager, I wrote stories, and that continued through college. I even wrote some stuff after I got married. But these were always “just for me” stories that I never intended to publish, so there was no pressure to keep writing. When I was done with the story, I was done. I didn’t write anything else until I felt like it. So from 1996 to 2006, I probably wrote seven novels and a few short stories. Back then, I wrote as the whim hit me, and then I rested until I felt the burning need to write again.
In late 2007, I finally gave into the desire to write romances. I held off for a long time in writing romance because in my family said romances were “trash”. I stuck with reputable genres like fantasy and thriller. That decision caused my writing output to explode. I had many story ideas built up within me for years, and I had trouble writing fast enough to keep up with them. I got into paperbacks in 2008 with Amazon (back when they had CreateSpace), and then I got my feet wet with ebooks in 2009 on Amazon and Smashwords. It was great. I felt like a kid at the world’s most amazing playground. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t restricted by what others told me I should or shouldn’t write. I also never thought anyone would read my stuff. I thought I was going to be the only person reading my books. That, ironically, made writing super easy. When you are just writing for you, your only concern is pleasing yourself. The inner critic doesn’t exist.
In late 2010, I started to see these strange $20-$50 deposits coming into my bank account. It took me a couple of months to figure out they were coming from Amazon. Suddenly, I was aware that people were reading my books. The first time someone commented on my first draft blog post, I was scared because I was no longer putting the story up in front of empty space. Someone was on the other side of the screen. I had to push past the fear to keep going, and it was not easy because the critic started to emerge at this point. Then the 1-star reviews came. The negative emails soon followed. I received positive feedback and reviews, too, but it’s always the negative that shines the brightest. I almost quit in 2011 because I no longer felt good enough to write stories. It didn’t matter if I loved my work. All that mattered was that someone out there hated it.
But I manged to push through the fear. It took time. It was not easy. But the creative well was still full. My biggest problem was what book to write because I had so many ideas. In 2012, sales exploded. This was a time when writing was super easy. I had the ideas, I had the motivation, and I was aware that people out there really did enjoy my work. I even got invited to do some interviews about self-publishing. I won’t lie. It was fun. 2013 through 2015 were harder even though I made more money because suddenly this was a “business”, and day after day, the message going out to me (and other authors) was that if we weren’t treating this like a business, then we weren’t “real” authors; we were just “hobbyists”. (They’d add that there was nothing wrong with being a hobbyist, but your opinion didn’t matter because you weren’t serious about writing or selling books.) Looking back, I can see how this mindset has hurt a lot of writers.
Anyway, I didn’t realize it at the time, but 2016 was when I started to burn out. The creative well was starting to get low. My income dropped for the first time ever. I blamed it on the fact that I had taken time off from writing to move to Montana. So I renewed my writing efforts. If I could just get more books out there, my income would return. I was so focused on the money that I missed the fact that my creative well was suffering. I wrote a lot of books to market around this time, mostly because I was out of ideas. I looked up plot ideas that were popular at the time and gave them my own spin. (I did this until 2018.) I studied up on how to write to market. I didn’t want to waste me time writing something that wasn’t going to make money, so I’d only pick stuff that I thought had the best chance of bringing me back to 2015 income level. Though I was writing the stories myself, the process felt more robotic than creative. The stories were all formula. I was just churning out the words. I always tried to be mindful of my parameters, and I tried not to go in any extreme that might alienate any of the readers. I also didn’t slow down the writing. I dictated a lot, and this only sped things up. It also made editing a nightmare.
I thought the reason I was crying a lot during this time had to do with my struggle to make the same money I was making back in 2013-2015. As I write this, I wonder if I was crying because my body was trying to tell me that I needed a break, that I was burning myself out. Giving up the money side of things did make me happier since I could stop writing those market books. I cried less. But the fact that I was exhausted and struggling to come up with story ideas created a different kind of dissatisfaction. I didn’t know what to do about it.
I do think choosing those passion projects and going outside the “safe zones” did enable me to keep going for as long as I did. I love the Marriage by Fairytale Series I wrote during this time because I went dark and deep with those stories while embracing the genre I still love most: romance. I also had the chance to go dark and deep with the Wyoming Series. The foundation for that series was partially created by Stephannie Beman, so I can’t take full credit for that one, but she did allow me to write out the entire series, and for that, I am grateful because it’s one of my favorite series to this day. So even during burnout, there can be moments when excitement peaks through and you’re able to do your best work. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.
The problem is, you end up using the last of your ideas when you don’t give your creative well time to fill back up. From 2008-2022, I’ve written 98 full-length romances. I’ve done one full-length thriller. I’ve done a few books in others genres, and I’ve written some shorts. I am exhausted. I barely have any new story ideas. I feel like I’m running on fumes. People ask me when I’ll have another historical western romance out. I don’t know. I don’t have a single idea for a historical western romance right now. My mind is a complete blank. The well has run dry on that one. And that’s scary because I worry that I’ll never get any water back in there. I have just a little bit of water left for the Regencies, and I’m going slow with them because I don’t want this well to dry up, too. Any creative wells for other genres is dry. I did consider writing another genre, but that landscape is as barren as everything else. All I have are four Regency stories in my arsenal, and I’ve been working on three of them for about a year.
When you’re in the writing “business”, you need to get books out all the time. You can run ads to help. You can put your books in multiple formats to get additional sources of income. Those help to buffer from serious financial loss, but they don’t prevent a good drop in income from happening. The real money comes from the new books. That’s why I believe a lot of authors will run to AI or a ghostwriter to help them write stories. (And I think AI will win out because AI is cheaper and faster.) The creative well dries up. You can’t keep going at a hectic pace forever. I used to think that taking two days off a week would buffer me from burnout, but it didn’t. It just delayed it. Taking a long break from writing so you can fill the creative well back up is not easy. It’s also not easy to slow down when you’re used to going fast. You feel guilty because people are waiting for the next book. You feel like a failure in the writing community because you couldn’t last. As a writer in the writing community, I’ve fizzled out. My time has come and gone. My opinion has, in writing groups, become irrelevant because I’m not on board with all of the new stuff, nor do I have the energy to get on board with it.
I don’t know what stage of burnout I’m in, but it’s terrible when you dread sitting at the computer. You tell yourself to “write through the pain” because “real writers bleed words on their paper”. That’s what other famous writers did, right? No one ever says what you’re supposed to do when you’re at the end of your rope and feeling like you’re starting to hate writing stories. And then you start to cry because this was the one thing in your life that you’ve loved since you were a teenager. Writing has defined me for most of my life. It’s the one big passion I’ve had. People usually have a couple of interests. My interest has just been writing. You take away the writer, you take away who I am. It used to come so easy, and now every word is like pulling teeth. I want to save my creative well. I want to love writing again. By taking it slow, I have had days where the light comes back. Today, I was excited about writing, and I had fun. Yesterday, things fizzled out, so I left the computer to watch TV and cook a meal that took two hours to make. On most days, I don’t even get on the computer to try. I believe this is the way out of burnout. I believe you need a lot of rest. I believe you need to spend time with family and loved ones. I believe you need to exercise and eat right. I also think it’s okay to keep writing through it. You just need to go slow. Take it one day at a time. Don’t force it. Just let the creative well fill up on its own time. I’m determined to beat this thing. I just need to be patient.
May 23, 2023
Marriage by Obligation Series will Get a Book 5
Those of you who’ve been following my blog for a while know that I’ve been on the fence about whether or not the Marriage by Obligation Series will have more than 4 books. Right now, these are the books I’ve been working on for this series:
During the course of writing in Midnight Wedding today, I realized that the story idea I have for the secondary character in Midnight Wedding would be best placed in this series. Specifically, it would fit in after Worth the Risk.
I’ve already picked the title, if it’ll fit nicely on the cover. (Sometimes you think a title will work until you see the way the words are placed on the cover, and then you realize you need to change the title.) I can’t use the cover I originally wanted because the title (The Duke’s Return) no longer works. The hero for Book 5 will be a marquess, not a duke. So I have to go with a new title and a new cover. At the moment, the title will be Anyone but You. The good news is that since I’m making this cover myself, I can adjust the title if I have to. My income has taken such a nosedive that I’m having to cut a lot of things from the budget, and paying cover artists is no longer an option. I will do my best to make it look pretty, but this won’t be a pre-made, and that will mean it won’t be as nice as The Duke’s Return. I have to let The Duke’s Return go because the story line no longer works. I would rather drop the story than force it because forcing a story means it will be awful. I am very happy with this particular series, so I believe it’ll reflect my best work.
Right now, I don’t have ideas for other stories. I expect that other ideas will come in time. The case of burnout I had was worse than I realized. It’s only now that I’m excited about writing again. I’m taking things slow as I recover from it. The last thing I want is a relapse.
May 15, 2023
The Rapid Release Craze is Hurting Authors and the Quality of Books
When I say rapid release, this is how I define it: Rapid release is where you set the goal of writing and publishing a new book every 6-8 weeks.
I understand why this craze came to be a thing. Readers can read a book or two a day. There is no effort in reading. It’s a passive activity, like watching TV. I mean, it can seem like effort if you’re not enjoying it, but if you aren’t enjoying it, you can stop doing it. As a rule, readers are choosing what to read. This is fun for them. It’s easy to consume this product.
Writing the book, however, is a lot different. It takes time to come up with the idea. Some ideas take years to properly develop. Then you have to figure out how to execute that idea in an entertaining way that will keep the reader engaged. (I get not all readers enjoy the same book, but there is always going to be someone out there who will enjoy the book that has been written.) Then there’s the matter of getting the cover, having the thing edited, formatted, and published. It takes time to do all of that. I honestly believe this is why so many writers are running to ghostwriters and AI to do the writing for them. It is hard to keep up with that hectic pace long term. You can do it short term, but when you’ve been at this for years, it takes a toll on you.
Some people write faster than others, but there is not a single person out there who is a robot, and sooner or later, real life shows up to knock you down. You can’t continually pump books out like a widget on an assembly line. Not on your own efforts, anyway. It’s not healthy. The human brain needs time to relax. The human body needs to move around. The human spirit needs emotional connection with other people. We can’t spend all of our time in front of a computer writing the next book. I believe walking and dictating a book takes away from the creative break that walking provides. I think, to be a healthy writer, we need to detach ourselves from our work on a regular basis. Otherwise, I think the writing becomes stale. For writing to be fresh, the creative part of the brain needs to rest. Sometimes I think the best thing we can do for our writing is to spend time with loved ones and/or doing something we love that has nothing to do with writing. The more fulfilled we are in other areas of our lives, the more fulfilling our stories will be. Writing for the long haul is a marathon, not a sprint.
I’m not a fan of ghostwriting. I think it makes you a publisher because you’re not writing the story. To be a writer, you need to write. But ghostwriting has become popular among the self-publishing crowd because of the rapid release craze. Writing has gone from something people did for love to something people do for money. When money is the focus, you want to do everything you can to keep those books coming out. Unless you have a side gig that pays the bills, you need those books to keep money pouring in. The problem with ghostwriters is that they want to be paid. I think AI is going to replace a lot of ghostwriters because AI doesn’t need to get paid. Sure, you’ll pay a subscription service to use AI, but that service is cheaper than paying a person to do the work. There’s a debate going on about whether AI can create stories worth reading. I think AI will be able to reach that level for those “write to market” books because AI is good at imitation. And writers who are motivated by money will want to use AI because there’s no way a human being can keep writing books on the rapid release schedule for years and years on end.
While AI books might satisfy for the moment, I don’t see how they can satisfy long term. I don’t believe the quality will be there in those books. I just don’t see how AI will ever be able to replace human creativity. I think AI books will be cookie cutter type of stories. They’ll be forgettable. If your goal is money, this works fine. You’re just looking to sell a widget.
At the end of the day, I think AI’s appeal will be for those authors looking for a short cut in creating a book. I don’t believe those books will have that great of quality. Maybe they’ll be polished, but the story itself will probably be lacking that human creative edge. AI might mimic a lot of things, but I don’t see how it can have “heart” in its work. I remember years ago (maybe a decade ago) when I was full of my own pride and thought I knew all there was to know about selling books. I was in the whole rapid release and make good money trip. To this day, I remember one of the comments I received from a writer who said that they would rather focus on getting a good story out there that would touch people long after they died. At the time, I told this person that I would rather make the money. Well, I did make the money. And that money is all gone. The dirty little secret no one seems to be willing to accept is that those highs don’t last forever. Sooner or later, things go back down.
All I know is that the books I wrote that I invested myself in still matter to me to this day, and a few readers out there still reread them. I don’t see how AI will ever be able to produce those types of books. To produce those books, you need your creativity to be at its best, and to do that, you will need to give yourself time to work on your health, work on your relationships, and work on other things that interest you. You can’t be glued to your computer all the time.
I started reading because it was an escape. The middle school years were rough for me. Long story short, those books I read were my friends. I put myself in those characters’ shoes and lived all sorts of adventures. Those stories still make me smile when I think back on them, and now I’m all grown up with kids who are reaching adulthood. But I remember those stories, and I still love them. I started writing because I loved reading first. Those stories helped make me the writer I am today. They will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m glad for the writers who took the time to write them, even though those books are no longer being published. Those books have been forgotten by the majority of people, just like our books someday may be forgotten by most people. But who knows if they will be remembered decades from now by a few? Maybe something you’ve written might change someone’s life for the better.
It is unfortunate that books have become nothing more than a widget to a lot of people. Storytelling is such a beautiful gift. When you write something that you love, the story means something. At the end of the day, people are still people. We need human connection. When I read a book the author loved writing, I feel that I get to know something about that author. That book is a part of who they are. When I get a chance to talk to that author, it makes me appreciate that person a lot more.
This human connection is what is lost when we’re in a rush to get books out there. There’s a difference between writing fast and rushing, and I’m talking about rushing. Rushing is about rapid release. Rushing hurts the quality of your work. And I believe that rushing ends up harming your physical and emotional health. The best long term strategy for a writer who wants to keep their love for writing alive is to take a deep breath, relax, and do what you can to nurture your creative spirit.
I write all of this after dealing with burnout for a couple of years now. I even got the point of hating the process of writing, even though I did enjoy the stories I was creating. I am just now getting to the point where I love writing again. It makes a huge difference when you love the process.
May 7, 2023
Secret Admirer is Now Available!
This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.
In this book, I do set up the other books that will follow in this series. Midnight Wedding will feature Lord Quinton and Miss Lydia Hamilton, The Earl’s Jilted Bride will feature Lady Carol and Lord Wright, and Worth the Risk will feature Mr. Reuben St. George and Miss Amelia Carnel. You might remember Lord Quinton from The Cursed Earl. (He was the hero’s best friend in that book.) Mr. Reuben St. George originally showed up in If It Takes a Scandal. (He was the sickly younger brother of Corin, aka Lord Durrant.) The main benefit of keeping all of these Regencies in the same world is that I get to bring past characters back. 
Here’s a list of all of the Regencies for quick reference in case you are trying to remember The Cursed Earl and If It Takes a Scandal. I use this list a lot as I write my books and plan upcoming ones.
Here is the description:
Lady Rachel, the sister of the very wealthy and highly esteemed Duke of Creighton, has entered her first Season with great anticipation. She loves wearing beautiful gowns. She loves talking to her friends. She loves going to balls and meeting gentlemen. This is going to be the most wonderful time of her life. When she starts receiving missives from a secret admirer, it turns out the Season is even better than she imagined. What lady, after all, can resist the appeal of a mysterious stranger expressing his deep and abiding love in her?
She sets out to enlist the help of an unlikely ally to find out who her secret admirer is. She knows it’s not appropriate to be discussing such personal information with the butler, but he is the only one she trusts to not tell anyone. Little does she realize the very one she’s confiding in is the very one she’s looking for. And there’s no way he’s telling her the truth since her brother, and the rest of London, would never approve the match.
If interested, here is where you can find it:
Google Play (Ebook)
May 4, 2023
Getting Back to Writing is a Slow Process
I’m happy to say I actually wrote today. Usually, this wouldn’t be news, but I have written (maybe) 5,000 words since before I left Montana on January 6. Moving really takes a whole lot of time. When you have children who are still in school, it’s worse because you have to line up their stuff, too. But I love being back in Nebraska, I love my new home and neighborhood, and I love being around my friends again. I have no doubt that this is where God wants me. I did a lot of praying late last year that He lead this whole thing, and it feels great knowing that I finally got it “right” when it comes to listening to God.
So anyway, today I did finally get something written in Midnight Wedding and The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I ran out of time to do anything with Worth the Risk.
My eyes have been bugging me, so I could only devote 2-3 hours on the computer today. I haven’t done much blogging because it requires me to be on the computer. This is also why I don’t go on social media a lot. I try to focus my attention on the things that are most important.
My children, of course, come before the writing, and since I’ve been homeschooling my youngest, most of my time on the computer has been spent preparing lessons for him. This week is our last week of homeschooling. I have already prepared all but one of his final exams.
That all being said, I have missed writing, and it was so much fun to get back into my characters’ world. When I haven’t written in a while, it feels like there’s a build up of pressure within me. Then, when I do finally write, that pressure is released. After that, I feel relaxed. I’m really hoping to get back into writing more that the homeschooling will be done. I have missed it.
April 21, 2023
Janet Syas Nitsick and I will be at the St. Matthews Church in Bellevue, Nebraska April 22, 2023
I don’t know if anyone reading this is in the Omaha area, but tomorrow from 9am to 3pm, I will be at the Spring Craft Fair at St. Matthew Catholic Parish. The address is 12330 S 36th St, Bellevue, NE 68123.
Janet will have all of her books for sales, and I will be her lovely assistant who will provide her with sandwiches and witty repartee so she doesn’t fall asleep. If you are able to stop by, it would be fun to say hi and connect a face with a name.
Tonight, Janet, Bev, and I set up the table. Aren’t those covers pretty?
Hope to see you there if you’re in the Omaha area!
April 19, 2023
Why Passion Matters More Than Ever
This morning, I actually had the time to browse some posts in a couple of writing groups, and I came across one that inspired this post. A writer in there lamented that their sales went way down in March. Now, not every writer experienced this. Some are seeing a drop in income; some aren’t. This has been the way it’s been for years. There will be writers who will thrive in times when others don’t. So I don’t startle easily anymore when I hear these reports. These reports, however, are a good wake up call on the “why” of why we write.
When you’re doing any kind of business, you run the risk of losing your ability to make income. Everything doesn’t keep getting better. Sometimes, no matter how much work you put into something or what new method you try, you won’t see results that you were hoping to. That’s why a rainy day fund is so important. If you can manage to have some extra set aside, then you breathe a lot easier when sales fall.
My sales have been dropping for quite some time now. I’ve been in burnout mode for a while, so I’ve naturally slowed down the writing. I’ve been torn between quitting all together or just throwing out all of the “critical voices” in my head so I will write exactly what I want in order to get that spark back. Despite all of my efforts over the past few years to shut those critical voices out, one or two keep coming back. There’s always that, “Well, someone won’t like this if I put it in the book,” or “Someone will expect this book to go in this direction and will be disappointed if I don’t write it this way,” thought that passes through my mind. I’d like to say that I’ve been strong enough to stand up to these thoughts, but I’m not. There have been times when I caved into the critical voice. Even the smallest detail put into a story can change how much I enjoy it.
I’ll give an example. Interview for a Wife. I published this in September 2021. I originally put in a scene where the heroine’s brother comes looking for her. Now, nothing came of the event. Nothing was supposed to. But it was supposed to explain more of what the heroine went through in her past to add a level of sympathy to her character. This added sympathy was supposed to make the reader (or at least me) happier that she ended up with the hero. So it was just something thrown in to tug on the emotional strings of the person reading the book. The critical voice told me that if I kept that in there, then people would be upset because I never really “did” anything with the brother. It was a fleeting scene that was there for a moment, and was supposed to be there for only a moment. The person editing my book echoed my critical voice. So I ended up removing it. I don’t think I kept the original scene even in my notes, so I can’t retroactively put it back in. And to this day, removing that snippet really bothers me. That book did not live up to the full potential of what I wanted it to be.
There comes a time when a writer is going to have to give serious thought to the “why” of writing. Removing money from the equation makes the “why” a lot easier to see. You see, money is a big incentive for writers to follow those critical thoughts. If we have spent time reading our genre, we know what the readers want. I spent years reading romance before I wrote one. Back when I started writing them, I didn’t think I’d ever make money, so it was easy to write whatever I wanted. The only reason I started writing romance was because I got frustrated over not being able to find the specific story with the specific characters that I wanted to read. I gave no thought to anyone else. I published the book so I could have a paperback copy, and later, when the Kindle came out, I wanted an ebook copy so I published the ebook. Those books that I wrote during that time lacked the correct historical touch. I’ve learned a lot since then and wouldn’t make the same mistakes today. But they are among my favorite stories as far as the story part goes. I was playing and having fun. I didn’t hold anything back. I didn’t start holding back until about 2012 to 2013 when it became clear to me that there was actually money in writing books. That’s when the critical voices took up residence in my head.
I formed an LLC, I started thinking like a business person, I started to pay attention to what I was writing, and I wrote a lot of my stuff to market. The more I wrote to market, the more I listened to those critical voices. Then I began to lose money in 2016, and it occurred to me that there was no guarantees with writing. Just because you go up, it doesn’t mean you stay up. That’s the expectation that writers have. We don’t expect to lose money, especially if we can run ads and publish more books.
Sometimes I think God allowed me to lose money in order to help me get my priorities back in order. You see, when I started out, I put a lot symbolism between God and the church (the Bride of Christ) in my work. Eye of the Beholder, for example, fits. God takes us in our ugliness of sin and makes us beautiful in how He has redeemed us. Then in His Redeeming Bride, I wanted to show that no matter how grave our past sins were, we can always find forgiveness with God. When I wrote those books, there was no critical voice stopping me from putting in what I wanted. Of course, I still wrote my cute little comedies that were meant to be light and fun. I think humor is good for the soul. Not every book I wrote was supposed to have a deeper meaning to it, but some of them did.
So anyway, as I made money, the world did seep in, and I did have a “falling away” of sorts with the close relationship I had with God. As the money dropped, I naturally went back to Him. That part was easy. God never makes it difficult to return to a close relationship with Him. But it is difficult to overcome the critical voices that tell you, “Ewe. You might not want to add that to the story. Someone’s not going to like it.” And that voice can be right. I made the decision to let a certain subplot span from Book 2 to Book 4 in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series. So I left things hanging in Book 3. I actually think the series was better by doing that because it helped me get the hero and heroine together in Book 4. But wow! People did NOT like the way I wrote The Perfect Wife at all. Even people who liked my other books complained about this one. The amount of negative comments I received on The Perfect Wife was more than I even got for how “1980-ish” An Inconvenient Marriage seemed. I didn’t think anything could top the complaints I got for An Inconvenient Marriage. I can actually laugh about this now, but it wasn’t all that fun at the time. So after The Perfect Wife bombed, those critical voices came right back into my head and took up residence again.
It is not easy to write for passion. It is one of the hardest things a writer will ever do because it opens you up to a lot of negative feedback. Unless you’re passionate about stories that naturally cater to the market. If you happen to love writing stuff that is popular, you’ll do fine writing for passion. For those of us who are round shapes trying to fit into a square hole, we will struggle. Our stories are not going to appeal to most people.
For anyone who took the time to read through this entire post and writes for passion, I would like to encourage you to keep going. You see, we are competing now with a world of AI. I heard KU just had its lowest payout ever. I think writers will start using AI to write books in order to produce more content because they’ll get scared when the money starts to dry up. This will be a natural reaction. If they’re writing for money, they will seek out ways to keep making it. But I can’t see how AI will ever match the creativity and passion that someone who loves what they’re writing can produce. We’re human. AI will never be human. We have the ability to put emotion into the words we write. We have the ability to write things that mean something to us. I realize that most people will be content reading stories that have been produced with AI’s help. A lot of people read books once. I think AI will give people that disposable fiction that they like reading. AI will be good at formula writing. Also, let’s face it. If a writer is rushed to keep getting stories out there in order to keep money flowing in, they will not have time to give a story the emotional backing that writing for passion produces. To write for passion, you do have to give all of yourself to a story. Those books aren’t popular with most people, but they will resonate with the person who wrote them, and, if God will it, those books will find the readers who will want to read them more than once.
So anyway, I have decided that my current work in progress, Midnight Wedding, will go to a level that I realize will not please a lot of romance readers. It is a romance, but there’s going to be a dark element to the story. Romance readers don’t really care for “dark”. I already received reviews on my gothic romances and some comments about it. But I’m going to write this book for me. This is an element I could leave out. I does nothing for the plot, but it does give the story the kind of gothic feel I want to read. And since this is my story, I’m going to put it in. Even if you can’t shut the critical voice off, you can shove it out the door. That’s what I am going to intentionally do from now on. I have a feeling this is going to be one of my favorite stories when all is said and done, and I’ll look back and be glad I went with my passion. As writers, it’s okay to write books specifically with us in mind.
April 7, 2023
April 2023 Newsletter
Oh boy. You can tell I am overwhelmed. I placed this post on the wrong blog. I’ll leave this here and link to this post over there. What a crazy time. 
The book I’m offering for free is A Perilous Marriage, but if you have already read it, there are other great books being offered as part of this promo, so I thought I’d pass them on. In case you have trouble with the links I provided, here is the direct url: https://litring.com/giveaway/for-the-love-of-reading-giveaway-2/
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Secret Admirer will be out May 7!
I have this book already done and uploaded, so I won’t need to push back the release date or remove the pre-order.
I’ll give more information about this next month when it comes out, but suffice it to say this is a titled person and servant romance. Specifically, the butler is in love with the lady. I thought it’d be fun to write something like this. I did a subplot years ago in Fairest of Them All with this setup, but I never got to write a romance where they involved the main characters.
This one is mostly cute. It would fit in well for an afternoon read when you want something light and fun. If it sounds interesting, you can pre-order it at these places:
Kobo (included in Plus)
I have not set it up on Radish yet, and it won’t be available on Scribd until May 7. I also still need to get it on audio format on Google Play. I do plan to get it on Kobo in audio, but that won’t be for some months. I have so much going on that I’m having trouble finding time to even write.
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Kobo Plus is expanding to the US and the UK!I have all of my romances as ebooks (and some in audio) on Kobo Plus. The best thing about Kobo Plus is that I don’t have to be exclusively on Kobo to be in that subscription program. The only reason I’m not in KU (over at Amazon) is because they require me to have my books exclusively on Amazon. I want my books to be as widely available as possible.
The neat thing is that Kobo Plus covers ebooks and audiobooks. I hope to have all of my books up there in audio by the end of the year. Right now, I’d say about half of my books are in audio. The move to Nebraska and getting settled in put a stop to my progress. I am homeschooling now, too, so I don’t expect to get back into uploading audiobooks until about June or July. I can’t afford an assistant, so I do all of this stuff myself.
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I am mostly done with the paperbacks!With the exception of a few books, I have finally gotten my romances set up on Draft2Digital in paperback form. Thankfully, Draft2Digital had a system to help me make interior files and covers. That was why I was able to get through it as fast as I did. I now have almost 100 romances. When you get that many books in your backlist, it takes a while to get them all out in a certain format.
Draft2Digital will put these on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I’m sure there still some old versions out there through secondary sellers.
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I haven’t forgotten these three books:
I haven’t been able to get more than a couple thousand words written since I left Montana in early January, and the only book I’ve been able to write in was Midnight Wedding. This is turning out to be a very slow year for me writing-wise.
The move took up a lot of time. Now that I’m settled in, I had to deal with some identity theft, and it looks like a dear friend and fellow author, Janet Syas Nitsick (who I’ve done anthologies with in the past) might lose her husband to cancer. I want to be there for her since she’s done so much for me in the past. I have not put these three books on pre-order because I have no idea when I’ll finish them.
I do not have a ghostwriter, and while I can see AI being good with helping me come up with book descriptions and doing some light brainstorming on where to go next with the plot, I have no intention of letting AI do the actual writing for me. I want all of my books to be my own creative work. I know some authors view books as a business, and they do very well with it. But I want each book to be written by me. I want everything I do with these books, including the promotion I do with them, to come from the heart. I know that makes for lousy business. I am not one of the authors making “six figures”. If you’re an author following my path, you probably won’t make a lot of money.
It’s just that I would rather take things slow and have these books mean something to me on a personal level. Back in 2010, I remember talking with an author who hated my writing style. She wanted to rewrite my books for me. I told her, “I will succeed or fail on my own merits.” I still feel that way today. So when you read my work, you will be getting “me”, not someone, or something, else. I don’t have a problem with other authors using ghostwriters or AI. I’m just saying that I’ve decided those things are not for me and the books I want to create.
Enough of that soapbox.
I hope everyone has a wonderful April!
