Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 12

If Someone Steals Your Identity, These Things Will Help

I wish I didn’t have to make a blog post like this, but since I just went through a case of identity theft, I feel I should write this in case someone else ever goes through this situation and needs guidance.

This is not about someone stealing my books. This is a case where someone got a hold of my name, my social security number, my email address, and other personal information in order to get a credit card. I’m not sure how this happened. I try to be careful. But I did already have Lifelock. Even though I had Lifelock, there were some things I needed to do on my own. So even if you don’t have Lifelock, there are some steps you can do to help protect yourself. I’ll mention those first and then get back to Lifelock at the end of this post.

Create an account with the three main credit bureaus.

They are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can freeze your credit and create a fraud alert for free. While no one can guarantee freezing your credit will stop theft, it is better than doing nothing. If you aren’t going to take out debt any time soon, I recommend doing this even if you aren’t a victim of identity theft. If you think your personal information was compromised but aren’t sure, then you’ll want to also place an initial fraud alert. This alert is good for one year. It will make creditors aware that they should make an attempt to contact you directly before allowing any new forms of debt to open up in your name. Is this perfect? I’m sure it’s not, but it offers a better chance of being protected from theft.

When you freeze your credit, you will be given a code. If you decide to apply for a new credit card, mortgage, etc, you can use this code to unfreeze your credit so the creditor can check out your information. One credit bureau gave me the code in an email. The other sent me my code in the mail. Lifelock has a “lock” feature with TransUnion, so I just did that one through my Lifelock dashboard. But I’m sure TransUnion would be similar to the other two. These freezes and initial fraud alerts were easy to set up. And there’s no cost to do them.

I feel that the freeze and initial fraud alert are a good first step. But if you find out someone already took your identity and is using it for utilities, a credit card, or something else, you need to do more.

What if someone stole your identity and you need to fight back?

You have three things to do at this point. And these will take some time. On and off, this took me about two weeks. It took me a few days just to wrap my mind around what was happening and what to do about it. Shock really does immobilize you. Then you have to do a little at a time to get your brain moving in a proactive direction. I didn’t do all of this in one day. I had to do a little at a time.

1. Fill out the event with the Federal Trade Commission at https://www.identitytheft.gov/#/.

Complete the form as much as you can. For example, if you don’t know who stole your identity, you can’t complete that portion of the form. I didn’t know the person who stole my identity, but I knew the mailing address the credit card went to because this person used my email address when applying for the card. So I was able to supply that address even though I didn’t have the person’s real name. Be as specific as you can. Leave the rest blank.

When you are done with the form, print the completed form. I recommend printing out at leas two copies. You want one for your physical records. You will need a copy to send to one of the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion.) You might need a copy when filing a local police report. I had one ready for my local police department, but they didn’t take it. I’m sure this depends on your police department.

2. Go to your local police department to report the theft.

This turned out to be the step that took me the longest to do. I searched for police departments in my area. One was closed to the public. Another told me that I wasn’t in the jurisdiction. Thankfully, the person at this department was nice enough to tell me where to go. It was further out from my home than I expected. So save yourself time driving around and make some phone calls first. If you lost actual money, get a copy of the report. I didn’t lose anything. So I was fine with just having the officer’s business card with the report number written on it. In order to receive money back from Lifelock on the theft, I would have had to produce a physical copy of the report.

3. Place an extended fraud alert with one of the three credit bureaus.

The extended fraud alert is when you have actually been a victim of identity theft. You will need either a copy of the local police report OR a copy of the form from the Federal Trade Commission. You will need two forms of ID. You can use a driver’s license or a state issued ID. You can also use your social security card. (There were a couple of other options, but I don’t recall them off the top of my head.) You will need to make copies of these. I did mine in color. I’m not sure if they take a black-and-white copy or not. I also had to print out the form from Experian requesting to file the extended fraud alert.

Note: You only need to send all of this information to ONE of the three credit bureaus. The one you send all of this information to will notify the other two bureaus.

An extended fraud alert is free. It lasts for seven years. I did have to mail this information directly to the credit bureau. So it takes longer than placing the initial fraud alert.

Is a service like Lifelock worth it?

I recommend signing up for something like Lifelock to protect your identity if you can afford it. It does cost money to have something like Lifelock. Unlike the other things I did, this wasn’t free. But I chose to sign up years ago because I’d been dealing with people stealing my books. I figured if someone targeted my books, someone would eventually target me on a financial level.

I’m not going to say which bank this thief went through to get the credit card, but I will say that this bank ignored all of my phone calls and emails when I contacted them to report the theft. It was only because of Lifelock that I was able to have a conference call with them. Lifelock’s AI system did detect the fraud within a day of me getting the first email about the credit card. I did click the “No, it wasn’t me” right away, and then I received an email instructing me of what to do (reporting the theft to the Federal Trade Commission, going to my local police department, freezing my credit and placing the fraud alerts with the credit bureaus). While someone at Lifelock looked into my case, I took care of all of those things. It was about a week and a half before I received a phone call from someone at Lifelock. I don’t know how their system works, but they were making sure it was really “me” who said I didn’t apply for that credit card. Anyway, the call took about 20 minutes, and Lifelock was able to get me through to the bank to finally get that credit card closed out. Now Lifelock is getting that fraudulent credit card off of my credit report for me. I’m sure I could have done that part myself, but I’d rather let Lifelock do it. So that’s why I say Lifelock (or a similar service) is worth having if you can afford it.

If you can’t afford it, then at least you have the other steps I mentioned to help protect yourself. That’s why I figured I’d take the time to make this post. I hope no one here will need this information. It is stressful when stuff like this happens.

What I’m Up To These Days

I finally have Secret Admirer up on pre-order. It’s set for May 7.

This was my first time using Draft2Digital (D2D) for one of my romances. I have been using D2D for the short stories and YA thrillers. I didn’t really have to do much for formatting on those because they are short, and the longer stories were formatted by someone else. I am used to the Smashwords “meatgrinder”, so when I did my Smashwords system to upload to D2D, there was a snafu that kept showing up at the very end of one of my chapters. I spent a couple of hours trying to get around this without reformatting the entire book again, but it failed. So the other day, I finally bit the bullet and started over from scratch on the entire format. This time, I took into account the issues I ran into with D2D. Thankfully, that version turned out just right. Every time you go with a new system, it takes some time to learn it.

I will say the nice thing about D2D is that it lets you modify your interior ebook so that you can have a couple of fancy fonts and chapter headings. It also gives you the links to each retailer. I like both of those features a lot.

If you want to pre-order this book, here are the links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Smashwords

I did put it on Google Play, but it doesn’t appear to be live yet in the store. I will get this out on AI audio on Google Play as we get closer to May 7.

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Making Paperbacks

I’m going to focus on getting paperbacks set up through D2D now that I’ve removed them from KDP. (KDP is an extension of Amazon. D2D still puts paperbacks on Amazon. I got sick and tired of KDP messing up the look of my books. D2D’s quality is a lot better.)

Anyway, I have 78 paperbacks to do to get caught up with my romances. I have a total of 97 romances written. Secret Admirer is my 98th romance. This will be a nice side project.

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A Joint Blog Coming

I have decided my main goal at this point in time is to have fun with my books. While I have story ideas, I am going to slow down in writing. I’ll keep writing, but I’ll have less books coming out, at least for this year. I haven’t written anything since the beginning of January, and I don’t feel like I’m ready to get back to those stories. I’m just tired. It takes a lot out of a person to keep writing all the time. Even though I’ve given myself breaks and had a routine that worked, the pressure to keep at it has taken its toll. I need to step back. I have finally given myself permission to write when the muse, so to speak, strikes.

But I still want to be active online, and I still want to talk about books and do fun things with the books I’ve written and am writing. I think sharing a blog with Janet Nitsick will be a lot of fun. We’re working on setting it up right now, and we’re trying to think of things to make it engaging. I’ll share more about this in the near future.

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Still Homeschooling

I enjoy homeschooling. I almost became a teacher. When I was a kid, I used to play school with my little sister. So this is fun for me.

Anyone Out There in the Omaha Area Who Would Like to go to a Book Festival in July?

There is a writing group here in Nebraska where they are thinking of having a book festival on July 21-22. Right now, they are trying to get an idea of how much interest there would be for readers to meet up with local authors. The genres will vary, and it’s been years since I did anything with this writing group, but Janet Syas Nitsick, my author friend, is a member of the group and has been active in it all these years. She is the one who told me about this possible event.

Since I am back in Omaha, I can go to something like this and meet with readers in person. I thought it would be fun to hand out one free signed paperback to any of my readers who showed up to something like this so they could say hi to me. A lot of you have been with me since the early days in 2010 to 2012 when I was just learning the ropes of being a self-published author. And it’s because of you that I’m still doing this today. Believe me, your encouragement and support over the years has been greatly appreciated.

So I thought I’d see if anyone reading this would be interested in going to downtown Omaha to this festival. Please let me know in the comments. Then I can pass along the number of people who are interested to the people who are thinking of putting this event together.

Getting the Most Out of Writing

This morning while I was getting homeschool work ready for my kid, I came across this video. I had to stop everything I was doing because a blog post idea came to mind.

The video, ironically, is about 15 changes you can make so your home serves you better. The topic I want to discuss is how to make writing serve us better.

First off, this is an approach from someone who writes for passion. I no longer write to market. If you’re looking for a “writing to market” post, this isn’t for you.

Write things that inspire you.

When we write things that inspire us, writing is fun. When we are writing things for other people, writing is not as fun. Short term, you will probably do fine writing stuff for other people. But I’m looking at the long term. I’ve been publishing ebooks since 2009, and if you are going to keep at this for the long haul, you need to love what you are writing. All the money in the world doesn’t satisfy you when you get tired of what you’re writing.

Keep things fresh. If you are no longer interested in the stuff you have been writing, switch to something else. If you have branded yourself in a certain genre, look for a niche within the genre that will put a fresh new spin on what you write. For example, I was getting tired of Regencies until I realized I could incorporate gothic themes into it. I love romance, but I also love psychological thrillers and (to a lesser extent) the high emotion of fear found in horror. By blending the together, I find that I have a smaller audience (sales have declined to prove this), BUT I love these books and have a lot of fun writing them. Now, I don’t always feel the need to insert gothic themes into my Regencies. Sometimes I go back to writing a simple happy romance because that is the story I want to write at the moment. By inserting something fresh and new, I have found enjoyment in writing the regular old Regency formula.

Clean your writing space.

If the move I recently made to Nebraska taught me anything, it’s how much more at peace and motivated I have been AFTER throwing a lot of stuff out. I had no idea that letting stuff accumulate in my house actually made it harder for me to stay focused. I donated a ton of stuff and threw out the rest before making the move. When I chose decorations and furniture for the new house, I was intentional about it. I wanted a lot of free space and minimal decorations. My work space is the same. I have drawers where I will put things I need. I file things away immediately. I have been using a To Do List for years, but now I find that I get those items marked off a lot faster than I used to, and I think keeping things neater and cleaner have contributed to that.

When you eliminate clutter, something happens to you psychologically. You feel more relaxed, and you get more done because it’s easier to focus.

Don’t be afraid of letting stuff go.

There’s no sense in holding on to something that isn’t working for you. Even if something used to work, let it go if it’s no longer adding a benefit to your life. This can apply to writing and marketing. Too many times we keep doing something just because we always did it. It becomes a habit. We can fall into habits that are so comfortable that we hate not doing them anymore. But if this isn’t providing use to you, then there’s really no point in continuing on with it.

I’ll give three examples from my life (two on a professional level and one on a personal level). One, I love my Larson family in the historical western romances, but I’m tired of writing about them. I really wanted to write about Tom and Jessica Larson’s four girls, so I did. I had the excitement for that. But I have no desire to write about any of the other Larsons, even though I sell more historical western romances if I write about a Larson. Maybe some day I’ll want to write another Larson story, but at this point in time, I’m not interested, so I’m not going to do it. I have to let the Larsons go. Two, I used to see a great benefit from Booksprout, which is where readers will review ARCs. During the last couple of campaigns, I noticed that there wasn’t much interest in the books I put up, so I didn’t renew my subscription. I’ve been a Booksprout user for years. I think it’s a good service for a lot of authors. This could be because I’m writing to a smaller niche now. I know the books I’m currently writing appeal to less people. I have changed. I need my marketing strategy to adjust with those changes. Three, living in Montana wasn’t working for me. It hadn’t been working for me for a very long time. But it was easier to stay there because my house was paid off, I had permanent plates on my cars, and I knew the right places to go to for doctors, dentists, etc. Moving meant a lot of work and adjustments. It also meant a mortgage. But it was the best choice for me and my family. So I took myself out of my comfort zone and chose this route.

My point to all of that rambling is that sometimes you need to break free of those things that are no longer working, even if you have to take a risk in order to do it. You might not always make money by letting things go, but you might find that you’re level of satisfaction goes way up.

I was ready to hit publish when I thought of something else. Sometimes you need to let go of your perfect ideal of what your writing life should be like. I know goals are important. I suggest making goals within your control. You can’t control how many books you sell or how much money you make. You can only control how many books you write, what you write about, and where you publish your books. You can control what promotional opportunities you join, but you can’t control the outcome of those opportunities. My advice is to let go of goals you can’t control. The moment I let go of the “I will make $X every month” goal, my stress level went way down.

Take time to relax.

Easier said than done on some days, but this is a really good tool to helping you have energy and focus. You might have to say no to some things. Unlike AI, we can’t keep going nonstop. We need breaks. We need to replenish ourselves. I’m sure everyone needs a different amount of time. Someone might do well with one hour. Another person might need two hours. When you feel frazzled out, set aside to rest. See how long it takes for you to feel restless. That restlessness is usually a clue that you’re rested up. How many times in the day do you need to take a step back and relax?

Some of this depends on the demands you’re facing, of course. Some people lead busier lives than others. A person working and then trying to get some writing in will naturally have more to tackle than someone who doesn’t have to work to pay the bills. A person with small children will have more to tackle than someone with grown kids or no kids at all. Whatever your situation is, you can adapt your own time for relaxing. This will help your mind settle down. When you settle down, you will be better able to write your best work. If that means writing less, then write less. If you keep running all day long in the pursuit of getting as many books out as quickly as possible, you’ll burn yourself out if you’re not careful. I know because this happened to me a few years ago. Writers need rest.

I’m Still Alive

I kind of joke about this. I received a couple of emails asking if I was okay. To be fair, it has been a long time since I’ve blogged. We just got our beds on Friday. Long story short, the furniture salesman forgot to schedule us in for delivery, so that pushed things back. We are all now officially moved into the new house. I don’t know if many friendships could survive two months of being under the same roof, but Janet Nitsick, a wonderful friend who is also a historical western romance author, and I are still on good terms. The time just flew by, and I had a lot of fun staying with her. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been in Omaha since January 7th. It was definitely the right move. Looking back, I feel like it was a huge mistake to move to Montana. I’m back where I belong.

Even though I’m officially in my new home, there’s still stuff I need to do before I’m ready to get back to writing. My youngest opted to be homeschooled shortly after trying the high school in town. I had to look up homeschool laws and requirements for Nebraska since I was only familiar with the process in Montana. I am working on his assignments and trying to get him caught up in the required hours he needs for the semester. That’s taking up most of my free time. My guess is that I can’t even pick up on my writing for another week or two.

I was planning to have Secret Admirer out in March, but there’s no way I’m ready to even finish up with the edits and format for that story. So maybe April will be the month. In the meantime, Janet and I have come up with a really fun idea that I think some of you will enjoy. I’ll go more into that in a future post.

I saw that a couple of people commented on my last post, and I did read and enjoyed the comments, but it’s been so long that I made the post that I have decided to let them go unanswered. I’m sorry for that to those who commented. I’ll try to do a better job of responding in the future. I would like to focus on getting back to writing before I pick up on blogging regularly again. My guess is that I’ll have the time to sit and blog in another month. Because of that, I’m going to turn off comments for this post. I don’t want to forget to comment on two posts in a row. There’s still a few things I need to get done before I can get into a routine.

To those who emailed me asking if I’m okay, I appreciate the concern. Thankfully, everything is fine. I’m just busy, that’s all.

Writing for Passion Means Being Unique (And this is big plus in a world of change.)

Why AI Intimidated Me

Changes can suck. Once you get comfortable with something, you want to stick with it, especially if it’s something that has worked for you in the past. But, technology is advancing, and the landscape of writing and publishing is changing with it. When I first heard about AI tools for writing back in 2019, I panicked. Then I refused to acknowledge it. I spent the next two years pretending it didn’t exist.

The whole thing scared me. I didn’t like the idea of AI replacing me. I didn’t like the thought of AI replacing any human writer. Unlike people, AI doesn’t get tired, and AI doesn’t face burnout. AI can outpace every human writer, and at some point, it will probably be able to create a story specifically tailored to a reader’s every whim. Imagine a reader being able to fill out a form for everything they want in a story and AI creating it for that reader. I don’t know if such a story would be any good, but if AI learns by taking words human writers created, then it might be. What if retailers who sell books could utilize this AI software so they could produce stories on demand without having to give human authors a cut of the royalties? If AI can be as good as human writers but produce books faster and tailored to individual readers, then what could a human writer offer that would make their books worth buying? AI doesn’t need money. Human writers do. Human writers have to eat, put a roof over their heads, and wear clothes. If they don’t get paid, they can’t continue to write.

Benefits of Having AI

While I do have concerns about AI and where it’s heading, I can’t keep my head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. There was a time when I used to read road maps when going into unfamiliar territory. Today, the AI program on my phone will tell me in real time which lane I need, what light I need, and when to turn. I am unable to pay for a human narrator, but AI is allowing me to create audiobooks so I can listen to them. Since I can no longer read ebooks or paperbacks due to my eyes getting worse with age, this has given me a way to “read” my stories. I can also “read” other books because of AI narration. AI, while scary in some respects, has also opened up doors that have been good for me.

Times are changing. They were always changing. As much as we might not like it, we have to adapt. I have to adapt. This post is more for me than anyone else. I need to hear this so I can get past my apprehensions and learn how to use AI to improve my writing. I do believe that AI can help writers. I don’t think AI should write stories FOR authors, but I think that AI can ASSIST with the writing process. The one perk a human writer has is the “human” factor. A human writer can “feel” the story. A human can communicate authentically with a reader. Humans aren’t perfect, but the value of the human touch will always be special. Each human is unique.

Writing for Passion will be More Important in the Future

You can’t replace a human. You can come close, but you can’t replace someone who has come to mean a lot to you. I don’t care who this person is. It can be a parent, it can be a friend, or it can be someone in the public eye. When you develop a special attachment to someone, that person’s absence will always be there no matter how much you try to find someone else to replace that hole. After my mom died in 1995, I looked all over for a mother figure to fill that slot. That slot is still empty. Each friend I’ve had over the years and have lost touch with couldn’t be replaced, either. I have also developed attachments to public figures, like authors and actors. I might not have known these public figures personally, but the content they produced was important to me. When that person was no longer able to keep producing content, I missed that “special something” that person brought to the table. Other people might produce similar content, but they don’t produce it the exact way (with the same flavor and tone) that the original person did. As close as the others come, they are not “that” person.

Human writers are unique. Every human writer has their own personality, their own interests, their own weaknesses (for better or worse), their own way of looking at the world, and their own way of telling a story. AI isn’t going to replace that. Another human isn’t going to replace that. AI and another person might come close, but they will never be that specific writer. When you write to market, you take yourself out of the story because you are not writing stories you love; you are writing stories that you believe will sell the most copies possible. So you write with others in mind. You are not writing what most inspires you. There’s nothing wrong with that, but AI might one day be able to do that, too. If AI does it, then it’ll do it much faster than any human can. Will AI hurt write-for-passion writers? I’m sure it will, but writers who are focused on passion will be buffered better than those writing to market.

Writing to market means playing it safe. You’re always trying to please someone else. You’re not looking for unexpected twists and turns. You’re not willing to upset the critic. You are not going to take any chances. AI will be able to write to market, too. In fact, I’m sure that is how AI is going to be programmed. I’m sure there will be a time when AI will produce stories that are good enough for most readers to enjoy. I hate saying that, but I think that’s where this technology is heading. I’ve seen samples of AI work, and it’s not bad. It’s not ready for a complete story, but it can come up with poems and scenes that are okay. That AI technology is only going to improve from here.

A writer who writes for passion has the advantage of being unique. These writers are willing to take risks that those writing to market won’t. These writers will insert themselves into what they write. Readers who fall in love with these writers’ storytelling abilities will still want to buy from these writers because even if other writers can come close, no other writer (whether human or AI) can be exactly like this specific writer. Your unique voice matters. Putting your specific interests into your books matter. Allowing your creativity to go in directions it wants to go (instead of restraining it to fit what the market wants) matters. Writers who embrace passion take risks. They risk not appealing to the largest audience. They cater, for the most part, to a smaller audience, and while that audience is smaller, that audience is often more engaged and more loyal because that audience has connected on a personal level with the author. Writing for passion a slow build. It’s not sensational. It’s not going to impress anyone in the writing world. But if you can find your core group of readers who appreciate what you bring to the table, you have what it takes to withstand the changes that will come to the world of publishing.

How AI Can Help Writers Who Write for Passion

This year, I am going to experiment with using AI as a tool. I don’t plan for it to write for me. I will write the book. But what if I get stuck in a scene and want to brainstorm possible ways to proceed? I don’t always have a writing buddy to bounce ideas off of, and I can get stuck in a story for days or even a couple of weeks. What if I have trouble describing something? AI could help me cut down the time I currently spend on the internet looking up things like what a certain type of house looks like or how brandy tastes. What if AI could help me come up with names so I’m not repeating the same ones across stories? I’ve done over 100 books, and it is hard to come up with new names for characters. What if I want help coming up with the book description? I’d love some help coming up with words to better describe my book because my descriptions aren’t that great. I think AI could be useful as a “helper”, but I don’t see using it to write my stories for me. Writers who write for passion need to tell the story that is their vision, and they need to tell it their way. This is what separates passion writers from the writing-to-market crowd and from AI. Passion writers are square pegs that won’t fit in round holes. Things that don’t fit stand out. They are noticeable. They are memorable. They have intrinsic value to the people who love them.

I believe that writers who are embracing passion are much better off because they can’t be replaced. This is why I no longer fear AI technology in the writing world. I no longer have to bury my head in the sand and pretend AI doesn’t exist. I’m not sure how the changes will look, but the change is here. I’m sure the debate of copyright will be a big debate coming up. Can someone copyright a book AI writes? Who will own the material? What can be done with it? Will someone target a certain author and attempt to “mimic” that author by using AI software to write stories using that author’s backlist as material? (That is a scary thought, but with all of the scammers out there, I believe it’s only a matter of time before that one happens.) I think we’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg on AI and what it means for the future of writing. But we can better keep up with the changing landscape by writing stories true to ourselves.

Secret Admirer Will Be Removed from Pre-Order for a Short Time

I don’t know how many people are aware of the merger between Smashwords and Draft2Digital. The merger is going in stages, and later this year, authors will have to use the Draft2Digital dashboard to publish their books. I have been publishing through the Smashwords dashboard to get onto retailers like B&N, Kobo, Apple, Scribd, etc for over ten years. I do have a Draft2Digital account but have primarily used it for my pen name and for paperbacks.

Now that Smashwords’ authors are encouraged to start using Draft2Digital’s dashboard to publish their ebooks, I have decided to unpublish Secret Admirer from my Smashwords’ dashboard. I will then put it up on my Draft2Digital dashboard, so it will be on pre-order again. If you already pre-ordered it, the retailer will cancel the pre-order. You will not be charged for it. So you won’t be losing any money.

The book I am removing from pre-order temporarily:

Secret Admirer (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 1)

I have just officially moved from Montana to Omaha, Nebraska. The house in Montana sold, and the process went pretty smoothly. Moving is always a pain, but everything just fell into place with this move so it was the right thing to do. At the moment, I’m in the process of enrolling my youngest two in high school and getting things ready for the new house. My official date for moving into the new house is January 27.

I probably won’t be able to get this book back up on pre-order until February. Draft2Digital will probably issue a new ISBN for the book, so that means you will need to pre-order it again if you want it on pre-order. If you would rather wait until the book is released before getting it, I will make a post announcing when it’s out.

Another reason I decided to take Secret Admirer off of my Smashwords’ dashboard is that Secret Admirer is Book 1 of a series. I want all of the books in the series to link to each other. I think it’s easier to do that if the books are all published in the Draft2Digital dashboard. Having one book in the Smashwords dashboard but the rest in the Draft2Digital dashboard could confuse the retailers. This way, it’s a lot simpler. (I currently do not have the other books in the series on pre-order, so you don’t have to worry about those.)

Here is my list for the series:

I don’t know if I’ll be adding another book to this series or not. I think I might because I’d like to see Horatio (one of my characters in Secret Admirer) fall in love. My problem is that I currently have no plot for him that interests me. I have a great idea for a secondary character in Midnight Wedding, but I’m not sure his story belongs with this particular series. His story “feels” like it belongs to another series. When writing, I go by instinct. I can’t force someone into a series if they don’t fit there.

So that’s where everything stands at the moment. I’ll keep you updated on what happens with Secret Admirer and the other books in this series.

Heiress of Misfortune (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 3) is Now Available!

Can you believe I haven’t had a new book out since July? I haven’t gone that long between releases since I started publishing ebooks back in 2009.

Anyway, I’m happy to announce that Heiress of Misfortune is finally out, and better yet, it completes the Marriage by Necessity Series.

Here are the books in this series:

 

Here is the information for Heiress of Misfortune:

When Mr. Byron Tumilson was hired to protect Lady Eleanor from the person who is trying to kill her, the last thing he expected was to play the role of her suitor. But, as it turns out, that’s exactly what her father, the Duke of Dormondton, requires him to do. Her father wants her to have a successful first Season, and no one has shown any interest in her. He is convinced that if Byron pretends to be in love with her, then she’ll attract real suitors.

So Byron is stuck attending boring balls and lavish dinner parties under the guise of being a wealthy gentleman. As if that isn’t painful enough, he needs to find a way to make this wallflower of a lady into someone gentlemen will actually desire. At least, that’s what he most wants until Lady Eleanor pretties herself up and learns how to flirt. Then he starts to realize he’s fallen in love with her, and that’s the worst thing a nobody like him could do with a fine noble lady.

If interested, you can find the book through the links below.

Ebook version:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Smashwords

Google Play

Radish

Audiobook version (narrated by AI):

Google Play

As We Go into the New Year (A Writer Post)

I came across this video today, and while it’s not about writing, it inspired me to think of ways to apply this to us as writers.

1. Own less. Fewer possessions take up less energy and less time.

My writerly approach to this tip:

The more we try to do, the more we can get ourselves into trouble. We only have 24 hours in a day, and while it’s attractive to think about doing a whole list of things, it might not be realistic. This might be a good time to prioritize the things in your life. Even writers need time off from writing, publishing, and book promotion. In order to thrive in this environment long term, you have to get a proper balance. You need time for rest. You need time to eat well and exercise. You need time with family and friends. You need time for other interests. Maybe you even need time to work.

First of all, what are your goals? Second, what things do you do as a writer that gets you closer to your goals? Is there anything that ends up being a time suck? I can’t speak for other writers, but for me, my first goal is to write the next book because it’s what I enjoy doing the most and it’s my best marketing tool. (I don’t make as much money when I don’t publish a new book.) So writing is the priority. The biggest time suck for me is social media. In this case, the “possession” in my writing life is social media. By limiting my social media usage, I greatly improve my writing output.

I don’t know if that example resonates with anyone. Maybe there’s another area in your life that distracts you from the writerly goals you have. If so, can you eliminate it or limit it so that you can see more improvement toward reading those goals?

2. Watch less TV. (This includes You Tube, etc.)

Okay, this is just good advice in general. But here’s my writerly twist on it:

TV might provide inspiration to get your creative juices going. Writes often get inspiration from other creative sources. But I bet if we watched less of these things and focused more on writing the next book or maybe do a little more marketing, we’d get closer to our goals as writers. I like his approach to removing a small amount of TV. What would happen if you removed that TV viewing for an hour a week? What else could you be doing with that time? You know, it only takes an hour to write about 1,000 words if you can pull off 250 words every 15 minutes. There are 52 weeks in a year. You could write 52,000 words in one year simply by devoting an hour every week to writing instead of watching TV. Little changes can lead to big results.

3. Eat a healthier diet.

There’s not much of a writerly twist to put on this one. The better you eat, the better you’ll feel, and the better you feel, the better you’ll be for writing the next book and promoting it. I like the idea of adding a little change to the diet at a time.

4. Spend less money on unnecessary things.

My writerly twist:

Is there anything you’re spending money on as an author that isn’t giving you the results you want? Can you do something yourself instead? Can you barter services with someone? For example, I know someone who edits books in exchange for free covers. You don’t have to pay out for services if you can find a medium of exchange. You just need to be willing to put in the time to do the work for the other person.

Regarding marketing, tally up your return on investment. What are you doing to market your books? How long have you been doing these marketing strategies? How well are they paying out for you? I wouldn’t quit a certain marketing strategy right away. I’d give it about six months to a year to see if there’s a benefit to doing it. Writing is a long-term game. But if you’ve dedicated a serious amount of time and effort into something but aren’t seeing the results you’re looking for, then it may be time to call it quits.

5. Read more books.

My writerly thoughts:

I doubt most writers have a problem with reading books, but let’s say you are writing in a genre you’re not familiar with. Read the popular books in that genre. Figure out what those readers want. You can’t successfully tell a good story in a genre you’re not familiar with because you won’t know why readers love that particular genre. I hear of a lot of authors writing stuff they never read, and I don’t understand it. It’s always best to know what the expectations of your genre are. For example, these authors writing a love story where the main character dies or ends up breaking up with the other main character are missing the point of “romance”. I don’t care how many times these authors argue they wrote a romance. They did not write a romance. They wrote a love story. In romance, there is always a happy ending for the main characters. Always. This is a hard-and-fast rule for romance. If you miss this, you will piss off a lot of romance readers.

6. Become more generous.

My writerly thoughts:

In the video, he points out that the most fulfilled lives are those lived for others. I’m not saying you need to volunteer to do something for other writers all the time. Believe me, plenty of people will take advantage of your time and energy if you’re not careful. But there’s nothing wrong with sharing your knowledge with another writer, and there’s nothing wrong with lending encouragement if you can. Maybe an author is looking for a good pre-made cover site, and you happen to know of one. Or maybe someone is looking for a good editor, and you happen to know one. Why not speak up and let that writer know? This is where I think social media shines. The writing community is full of a lot of wonderful writers who will share their experience and knowledge with others. Be a part of it. And don’t just be someone who asks for information. Be willing to share it, too. We all do better when we help each other.

7. Ask more questions.

I don’t know where to go with this one from a writer’s perspective except maybe to ask yourself what plots work best for your interests and the characters you want to write about. If you love figuring out your characters outside of the story, maybe ask your characters questions in order to get to know them better. Oh, okay. Here’s a thought. Why not participate in writing groups? If you have a social media page, why not ask your readers questions to get know them better?

8. Complain less.

Talk about a hard one.

My writerly thoughts:

Maybe as an author, instead of complaining, look for solutions. Is there something you can change to make things better? Maybe you need to say no to something so you can say yes to more writing. What can you change to put you closer to your goals as a writer? Some things are out of our control. We can’t control the economy. We can’t control if readers want to read KU books or want to “wide” books. We can’t control who likes our books or the reviews that come in. We can market in ways to help boost our book’s exposure, but we can’t control who buys it. We can weigh the pros and cons of being in KU, wide, or both. We can weigh the pros and cons of writing to market or writing for passion. We can take a look at our marketing strategies and pinpoint what is working and what isn’t. Then we can take steps to go in the direction we want to end up. While I think there is a time and place to vent our frustrations, we could also focus some time and energy into what we can do to make things better.

9. Appreciate people important to you more.

My writerly twist:

Appreciate the process of writing the story more. Appreciate the journey you’re taking the characters on. Instead of thinking of the sales you hope to get, maybe spend more time simply enjoying the storytelling process. Get to know your characters. Savor each writing session you get to spend with them. When I tell non-writers that my characters feel like real people to me, they think I’m nuts, but I bet those of you who write understand exactly what I mean. It’s fun to get attached to the characters. It’s fun to learn who they are, and it’s fun to watch their story unfold. Appreciate the gift that writing is because it is a beautiful gift. Not everyone can tell a story.

10. Get more exercise.

I was wondering when he was going to bring this up. This piggybacks off of #3.

11. Pray more.

Writerly thought:

I didn’t expect this tangent from the video, but I guess the idea of taking quiet time out of the day would be the writerly aspect of this one. The creative mind flourishes on moments when we allow everything to go quiet around us. Too much going on all the time is probably bad for your health, too. It never hurts to rest.

12. Dream big.

Writerly thoughts:

Usually, people think of “more sales” in this area, but I’m going to go in a direction that is specific to writers who write for passion. How about this? When you write, don’t hold back. Dream big. Let the story take on whatever twist is best for it. As writers, we have a temptation to tone our books down to appease the people who might read them. That is what writing to market is all about, and it’s why I hate it. Writing to market prevents writers from being authentic because instead of being true to the vision you have for the story, you are writing a story with the reader’s vision in mind. While this might be a winning formula commercially, writing the story burning in our soul is a winning formula for our creativity.

Book sales rise and fall. Income is not consistent. This year, I made $20,000 less than I did last year. Back in 2015, this would have devastated me because I was focused on my sales. But back then, I wrote books where I was afraid to “dream big”. I didn’t follow the stories exactly the way I wanted them. I let the critic in the back of my mind tone some things down. Don’t get me wrong. I do like those stories. I even listen to some of them from time to time. But there is a huge difference in books I allowed to “go all the way” with my vision for the story and the books where I “held back” on some things. I no longer hold back. I give each and every story 100%. And I have never regretted writing those stories, nor do I ever wish I had done something in the story differently. Those books I wrote around the 2013-2017 time period when I was focus on the market aren’t making me much anymore. Each new book I have earns me the most money for the year. So the books I wrote in 2022 are earning more than the books written from 2013-2017. That’s why I’m always focused on writing the next story instead of spending a lot of time marketing. I would rather be writing the next book instead of marketing the older books anyway because writing is why I got into this gig. When you write for passion, your mindset is different from someone who write to market. I’m pretty sure someone writing to market is screaming, “Ruth, you NEED to market that backlist. Market hard.” I would rather write the next book. That’s where the fun is for me. So that’s what I do. Is there a trade-off? Yes. I am swapping marketing time and energy for writing. This is what makes me happy. And when I dream big for my stories, I am at my best as a writer. If dreaming big means more sales for you, then you should dream big in that area.

***

I want to get this post about before 2023 here in the US. Happy New Year’s, everyone! May we write our best books yet!

Examples of How I Get Story Ideas

In this post, I’m going to offer a couple examples of how I came up with ideas for stories. I will go with the most recent examples since they are fresh in my mind.

Idea #1: Brainstorming session with a friend.

Heiress of Misfortune (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 3)

Books in the Marriage by Necessity Series:

I believe it was in 2020 when I hit a dry spell with new ideas, so a good author friend (Stephannie Beman) helped me brainstorm. This particular book stemmed from that brainstorming session. We bounced ideas around with fresh new characters I had never done before in any of my Regencies. That is how Byron was born. Sometimes having the stories in a series figured out in advance helps you to set the stage for the overall series. You get to do a better job of developing the characters’ backgrounds so that when their book comes along, you already have a foundation in place. This is why I brought Byron into the other books in this series.

I had introduced the foundation for Miss Eris Tumilson’s story with a sentence I wrote in The Marriage Contract (Marriage by Fairytale Series: Book 1). In that book, one of the characters mentioned Miss Tumilson (a notorious spinster) finally getting married. So I thought I’d write her story in A Perilous Marriage and begin a new series. Yep, sometimes one little sentence is all it takes to spawn an idea for a new book.

Byron’s character was born before I started A Perilous Marriage, but A Perilous Marriage is where I introduced him. The plot of A Perilous Marriage is that Eris’ first husband died, and the hero (Mr. Charles Duff) suspects her of murder. So I thought it would be perfect to make her brother a Runner since he would have a hand in helping solve the crime. I didn’t feel that Bryon’s story was ready for the Book 2 slot. I wanted to give him a little more lead-up time, so I inserted Algernon and Reina’s story into this slot. (I’ll speak more about this book in a moment.) I got the chance to bring Byron into this story when it became clear that someone was trying to get rid of Algernon. When writing a series, I do look for opportunities to bring in key characters of that series to give them more “screen time” so people have a chance to develop an attachment to them.

In case someone starts looking for this book, it’s not out yet, but I do have it on pre-order. It’s due out January 7.

Idea #2: Inspiration from movies. (And how the idea will spin off into something else.)

The Cursed Earl (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 2)

Anyone hear of the Don Knott’s movie, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken? Sometimes a movie will give an author an idea for a story. This particular movie made me think, “What a cute romantic comedy this would be for one of my characters.” This book was supposed to be a gothic romantic comedy where the hero is out in a secluded country estate with the heroine, and he is supposed to believe the manor was haunted. If you read The Cursed Earl, you’ll think, “The Cursed Earl is NOTHING like that.” It’s true. This one went off the rails pretty much right away, and it just kept zooming off into the abyss. Halfway into the story, I gave up and embraced the fact that I would have to give this plot idea to someone else in another story.

As a fun fact, I tried this plot in the past with Perfectly Matched, too, except in Perfectly Matched, the hero was supposed to be worried the place was haunted in a house located in Omaha.

If you read Perfectly Matched, you know that I never went into that plot idea at all, though I did try to build up to it with that house Mark Larson showed Jim when he first moved to Nebraska. I had originally planned for the original owners of that house to be pretending to be ghosts to scare him and Patricia out of the home. (The motive never came to me since I didn’t go in the direction with the story.)

BUT, I have good news. I didn’t have to throw out the idea because of this book I’m currently writing…

Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)

After all this time of waiting for the right character to come along, I finally found a home for my plot, except I dropped the “ghost” idea because the hero is already superstitious and doesn’t need the “haunted” element to be paranoid that something bad is lurking around the corner. So I did adjust the plot to fit Lord Quinton (the hero). This is a book that definitely has some comedic moments, but unlike the movie that inspired it, this book has turned dark along the way.

The thing with ideas stemming from other forms of entertainment (movies and other books) is that a writer will start with the original idea presented, but as the story is being written, the execution of that idea will change as the story progresses. This is why you can give 100 writers in a room the same prompt but end up with a different story when they finish writing. Every writer will have their own interests in how to execute the tale. So when you read Midnight Wedding, you won’t recognize the movie this is inspired from. The setup is different. Instead of a town where the goal is to spend one night in a haunted house, the hero of my book has been hauled off to a remote country estate by the heroine and her two brothers, and they spend the entire book out there. The characters are all different. The hero isn’t goofy. He is serious. The brothers, while exasperated with the hero at times, aren’t trying to ruin his reputation. In fact, one of the brothers believes there might be a monster lurking around the manor, and the others are led to ask if the brother is getting drunk when he’s supposed to be sober or if his fears are based off of nightmares (rather than reality).

Idea #3: From the current work-in-progress.

Book has not been started yet so no cover or title to show.

This brings me to my last idea. While writing a scene in Midnight Wedding, I got an idea for a book that I will write in the future. Most ideas come to me while I am writing a book.

Sometimes a character or a scene will spawn a new story. For example, I fell in love with Dave Larson’s family, so I wrote about his siblings. I wasn’t planning to write other books about the Nebraska Larson family, but while writing Eye of the Beholder, Jessica talked about how clumsy Tom was and how she fell in love with him anyway, and I thought it would make for a cute story. Then I wrote about Joel in Tom’s story and loved how Tom and Joel interacted and had to write Joel’s story. It’s harder to come up with stories based off of characters because I have to wait until the right plot comes along to fit their personalities. This is why I can’t just write about a certain character, even if someone is interested in it. To this day, I still haven’t received the right plot to go with some past characters. And if I can’t get the right plot, I don’t write the book. The book will feel forced, and forced books end up boring.

To give a recent example, I wrote this paragraph in Midnight Wedding earlier this month:

         Oscar blinked as if he’d forgotten he’d brought the topic up. “Oh, well, shortly before we left London, Felix got drunk and made a lot of accusations about a gentleman’s sister. While there’s nothing to prove Felix’s claims, it did tarnish her reputation, and she lost a couple of suitors. Last time Felix saw this gentleman, the gentleman tried to haul him out of London to have a duel with him. Had I not been there to stop him, I’m sure he would have succeeded, and Felix would be dead. This gentleman is going to move to another country with his sister in hopes of preventing her from having to deal with the horrors of spinsterhood. They’ll be gone by May.”

As soon as I wrote this, I knew that Felix would end up going back to London and marrying this gentleman’s sister. I don’t know if that book will be in this current series I’m writing or if it’ll be in another series, but this is something I’m exciting about writing.