Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 15

Haven’t Been Writing Lately

I put all writing on hold after I finished the first draft of Daisy’s book. That was close to the end of May. I’ve been having to clean up a lot of non-writing related stuff.

This is what I’ve been up to:

Making a family friend’s life story into a book.

I have been working on a paperback for a family friend. This is a book about his life, and he has a ton of pictures. All I can say is that formatting a paperback with a lot of pictures is a nightmare. Typing the text in from the pages of the binder and scanning the pictures into the computer were easier. I broke down and hired out for the formatting, and she had trouble, too. We went through about three rounds of “does this work?” before we came up with something that passes for a proof paperback copy. The cover artist I usually work with has been gone, so I’ve had to deal with this cover myself, and I’m currently on the third round. This morning, I got another “rejected” email. (I’ve been messing with making this cover on and off for two months.) This time it was the text being too close to the ISBN thing on the bottom right of the back cover. I hate making paperback wraparound covers. I’d rather just do the ebook cover on the front and the generic back cover, but since this book is uniquely special, I’m hoping to make this work. I think I finally have it. If not, I guess we’re stuck with a generic back cover.

I have no intention of being the publisher of this book. This is just to give this family friend a physical copy of the book so he can see it and point out anything else he wants to add or delete from it. My plan is to help him create his own D2D account where I will upload the files for him. From there, he can go directly into his dashboard to order any author copies and handle the copyright and tax stuff himself. There is no way I want to be a publisher for other people. I have enough problems managing my own work. I don’t want to take on someone else’s.

Teaching my deaf kid to drive.

I’m in Montana, and you need 50 total hours in the car before you can go to the DMV for a license. Now, I don’t know if this is only for those under 18, but all of my kids were under 18 when then got their licenses, and I had to tally up those hours for all of them. Fifty hours doesn’t sound like a lot, but by the time you’re done, you feel like you’ve been in sitting in that car forever. This is the last kid I’ve had to do this with, thankfully. Since he’s deaf, it’s been more of a challenge. I can’t just scream out if something goes wrong. I have to rely on hand signals or taking control of the wheel. Some things happen within seconds. Even with a hearing kid, this part of parenting is stressful. I held off on doing the bulk of the driving with him until school was out so I could put in some 2-3 hour chunks of time for the drives. He did take the class at the deaf school, but nothing really prepares you for driving like doing lots of driving. My goal is to get him a driver’s license by the time school starts.

One thing I did successfully accomplish getting done was the Google AI audiobooks.

I finished getting the AI audiobooks put up on Google, but it’s going to be SLOW going on Kobo. I have almost 100 romances, so this is not something that takes a day or two. Kobo requires a chapter to be uploaded at a time, and this looks like it’ll take about 2 or 3 hours per book. I’m waiting until I get back to writing so I can upload them while I’m typing away. Google took the epub file, let you edit the text, and converted the whole book pretty much right away. I could get a book done in 15-20 minutes. I got to say, I’m very impressed with Google Play’s system for making AI audiobooks. I was unable to get Eye of the Beholder or the Virginia Series up on Google Play because I signed contracts with a narrator at ACX back in 2020. Those books are locked in over there, meaning they can only be on Audible and iTunes. All of the other books are on Google Play and will (eventually) be on Kobo.

Radish is going to take forever.

I was working on getting my backlist up on Radish (again with almost 100 romances in my catalogue), but that is also time consuming because I have to break the book up into 1500-2500 word episodes. I had fun with it, but it takes up so much time that I had to cut back on it. Plus, something about the site bugs my eyes. I don’t know if it’s switching from the internet screen to my Word document screen, but when I finish uploading the episodes that make up the entire book (typically 20-30 episodes), my eyes get worn out.

Working on Daisy’s book.

The editor got it done, and it’s back to me. I haven’t had time to format it yet. I have no idea when this will be ready.

Making the most of the time with the kiddos.

I’ve been taking time out to walk with my kids since it’s summer and we can take advantage of the parks. I have a treadmill, but I prefer to be outside. I like the change in scenery. My oldest will be 20 in August, but he’s going to the local community college and working at a fast food place. My second is 18, has graduated high school, and has a full-time welding job. His goal is to save up the money to get his teaching degree in high school history. To cut on expenses for these kids, my husband and I agreed to let them stay here so they don’t have to rent. The third (that’s my deaf kid) will be a senior next year, and the fourth will be a junior. Anyway, I’ve been putting some of the “writing time” on hold to spend time with the kids because once they do move out, I don’t want to look back and say, “I wish I had spent that time with them when they were still here.” I heard that a lot from my father-in-law when he mentioned his own kids. I might not get everything right in this life, but this is one area I want to get right. I also spend time with my husband, but he doesn’t like to go for walks as much as the rest of us do. Plus, a lot of his time is spent helping his mom out now that his dad is gone.

Which brings me to another topic. I think each spouse needs to know how to manage and run a home in the event the other spouse dies. In my case, I pretty much run things. My husband was in South Korea for two years, and I’ve had to do everything myself. That was good training grounds. I know I’ll be okay if he dies. I think he’ll be okay if I go before him. But his mom is at a total loss. Her dad used to make all the decisions for her. Then her husband came along and did the same thing. This has been to her detriment. She panics over a lot of things that shouldn’t be major issues. As a result, her health has gone down, and it’s looking like she won’t be able to live on her own for long. I’m just the in-law, so I can’t intervene. All I can do is watch while her two sons pick up the slack. Anyway, it’s been eye opening on how important it is for both the husband and wife to know how to manage life if you have to be on your own.

When will I get back to writing again?

I wish I knew. I thought I’d be able to get back to things this week since I am officially done from my “writing break”, but there’s more stuff that keeps popping up. Then there’s the question of if it’s even worth it to write anything with inflation skyrocketing the way it is. Will people even want to buy books when they are struggling to buy groceries and gas? I can’t make all of my books free. I have bills to pay, too, and I need to put a price tag on my books to do that. Plus, I pay for edits and covers. It’s not even free for me to make books. I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like there’s much of a reason to get back to it. I might just finish up Heiress of Misfortune and be done with it. That way I will have completed all of the series that I started. Everything will be wrapped up. There will be no loose ends. I hate loose ends.

Be Careful If You’re Going to Hire a Ghostwriter

In my opinion, you’re much better off writing your own stuff because you know YOU 100% own your story. This becomes important when copyright issues pop up. But, I understand that some people want to use ghostwriters, so I am going to share a cautionary tale about an author and ghostwriters. Then I’ll follow this real life story up with some advice to best protect yourself.

In my last post, I made a reference to not wanting to put pre-orders up anymore on Amazon because I believed the new scam of the day was for scammers to arbitrarily pick authors’ pre-orders, claim infringement on them, and get Amazon to remove the pre-orders. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Amazon allowed scammers to do this because of all the things Amazon has put authors through in the past. I’m not saying other retailers don’t have their share of junk, but Amazon takes the cake when it comes to “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” in an indie’s career. But in this case, I was wrong about what I thought was going on. As long as you have written your book, it should be safe to put it on Amazon as a pre-order. And believe me, that is a huge relief.

But what if you hired a ghostwriter? Can you be confident that Amazon will not remove the pre-order? No, you can’t. Below, I’ll share why.

The incident below that really happened:

Author A made a plot for a story and sent it to Ghostwriter 1 to write out. Ghostwriter 1 sent that plot to Ghostwriter 2. Ghostwriter 2 wrote the story and sent the story to Ghostwriter 1. Ghostwriter 1 never paid Ghostwriter 2. Author A paid Ghostwriter 1. Ghostwriter 2 noticed the book on pre-order on Amazon and filed a copyright infringement complaint. In this case, Ghostwriter 2 has a legitimate case. Ghostwriter 2 was never paid. If Author A had just written the story, there wouldn’t be a problem. But here we are, and there is a problem. Author A is out the money paid to Ghostwriter 1, and Author A cannot publish the story. The most Author A could do against Ghostwriter 1 was to have Ghostwriter 1 removed from the site where Ghostwriter 1 was offering their services. (This won’t stop Ghostwriter 1 from assuming another name and continuing to work.) But that is outside Author A’s control.

Author A has the option of paying Ghostwriter 2 for the story. Yes, it sucks to double pay, but it’s also not Ghostwriter 2’s fault this happened. Ghostwriter 2 was just as scammed as Author A was. If Ghostwriter 2 doesn’t want to take payment, that is Ghostwriter 2’s right. Ghostwriter 2 never made an agreement with Author A. If Ghostwriter 2 refuses to sell the book to Author A, the only option Author A has is to come up with a brand new story. Yes, that also sucks, but I don’t see what else Author A can do at this point.

A side issue with the dangers of ghostwriting:

There are some ghostwriters out there who will take books currently out, copy the content, and sell that content to unsuspecting authors. A couple of years ago, one ghostwriter got caught doing this. Anyone can put a profile on a site and offer their “services” to authors. You need to vet them out before going with them.

Let’s talk about protecting yourself:

The big thing I’d recommend is asking the writing community or your author friends for trustworthy ghostwriters. I know some people are not a fan of Facebook. (I’m not a fan of it, either). But when it comes to the writing communities, Facebook is the best place to be. (Yes, you still want to research outside of Facebook, but Facebook is a great starting place.) I hate to say it, but MeWe isn’t that great for indie authors. Most writers there want a publisher. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a publisher, but if you are an indie author, Facebook still has the best writing groups geared specifically to you. I highly recommend the Wide for the Win group over there. That one is my personal favorite. There is a wealth of information there, and authors are more than happy to pass on recommendations for editors, cover artists, ghostwriters, etc that they have personally used.

Another tip is to do your own outline and give that to the ghostwriter. That way you know the story is your idea. Then be sure to read through the story when it comes back to you. To be safe, I would even go a step further and rewrite the story so that it’s in your voice. The more authentic this story is to you (the author), the better your chances are of buffering yourself from future problems.

If there is a specific ghostwriter you’re thinking about hiring, you could ask for a list of clients they worked for. I understand that some authors don’t want a ghostwriter to disclose this information, but maybe this ghostwriter has worked with some authors who are okay with sharing their names. Maybe this ghostwriter has a list of authors on their site. Check out the authors’ books, and if you feel up to it, contact the authors and ask about their experience. If you want to go a step further, ask the writing community about this particular ghostwriter. Chances are, the community might recognize him/her.

Get a contract if you want to be better protected. I have signed contracts in the past when the other party wanted our agreement in writing. I’ve done this for covers, edits, and for co-authoring books. I see nothing wrong with contracts as long as they protect both parties. This is up to your comfort level.

If you have successfully worked with a ghostwriter and have some ideas I didn’t think of, please share. While I have no intention of hiring a ghostwriter, it’s possible someone reading this post might want to.

What I’m Up To (AI Audiobooks, Copyright, No More Pre-Orders, Got a Book Finished)

Despite the lack of frequent posting over here, I have been keeping busy with book stuff. I’ll try not to ramble too long about it all.

I’m making AI Audiobooks on Google Play

I’m finally getting to this one. It was one of my main goals for 2022. I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to accomplish this. I thought I was going to have to buy some fancy software and work on learning it. Thankfully, Google Play opened up the option for authors to convert epubs to audiobooks. The system is slick. The technology is AI, so it’s digital. There is no human reading the book. While some people argue that they “need” a human voice, I don’t. I never did. I have been using the Kindle’s text-to-speech feature since 2010. You can get used to the robotic quality of the AI voice if you open yourself up to it.

The main perk to generating AI audiobooks over on Google Play is that I can now price audiobooks at the same price I have my ebooks at. I wasn’t able to do that before. The reason I can now is that it doesn’t cost me anything to make these audiobooks AND I can make it in 15-30 minutes. This is a huge win-win. It’s a win for me since I can finally get my books into audio format, and it’s a win for those who would like to listen to my audiobooks but haven’t been able to afford them.

At the moment, I’m about halfway through my books. I have almost 100 books, so it takes time to get these converted to audio. I am taking a break with writing to focus on this. I have found if I try to do these “business end” tasks while trying to write, I spread myself too thin and burn out.

I’m working on copyrighting some books.

The US Copyright Office has (again) modified their website, so it took me a little bit of time to navigate my way through it this weekend. Thankfully, I’ve done this enough times where it wasn’t too bad, but I do think if someone has never done this before, they will probably get confused. Yes, I know you own your copyright when you write your book, but there have been too many times when authors have been required to show proof of copyright to a retailer (mostly Amazon, though some author did get hit by Barnes & Noble a couple of months ago). The best way to prove your copyright is to file it with the US Copyright Office.

I realize the $65 standard registration fee is a good chunk of money, but I’m actually in favor of it because that fee will stop a thief from taking my work and trying to copyright it. In a world where theft is rampant, I like safeguards.

To put things in perspective, recently an author in a FB writing group got a false takedown notice on her pre-order. Now, a pre-order has no sample, so you can’t see the text. Yet, someone in another country claimed it was their book. Amazon removed her pre-order and said if she didn’t prove her copyright, they would not re-instate it. Amazon does not care about the specifics of the situation. If someone wrongly accuses you of theft, they will remove your book and tell you 1) prove your copyright OR 2) deal directly with the accuser and get the accuser to tell Amazon they were wrong. Guess what? This accuser isn’t backing down, and she has no US Copyright Registration Number. I’m telling you, that thread is every author’s worst nightmare. Don’t think a lawyer can help you if you get hit. One author spent $24,000 trying to settle things in his favor, but the person he was up against was in another country, and it didn’t work. In the end, he had to rewrite his book so Amazon would take it. Now that $65 to register your copyright doesn’t look so expensive.

I’m not doing pre-orders anymore.

In light of the situation with the author I mentioned above, I’m not going to do any more pre-orders. Instead, as soon as I’m done with the final draft, I will send it to the copyright office and just publish it right away. I don’t know if it’s rare that someone out there will claim copyright infringement on a pre-order, but I see no reason to look for problems. I’ve had enough times in the past of having to fight Amazon. You get hit enough from Amazon, and you don’t mess around anymore. I need to do whatever I can to protect my work.

I did finish the second draft for Daisy’s Prince Charming

And I have sent it off to my editor. I don’t know when I’ll be publishing this. It all depends on when I can get things ready for the copyright office.

Trivia for Suitable for Marriage

(Suitable for Marriage is Book 3 in the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series, and it features Tom and Jessica Larson’s third daughter, Erin.)

In this story, Alex knows Erin is trying to get rid of him and plays along with it in hopes he can eventually change her mind. I almost went with this plot in Nobody’s Fool (a Regency I wrote), but I decided to go with him being oblivious to the heroine’s schemes instead. That freed me up to use this particular plot for Suitable for Marriage.

Eva Connealy is the heroine in Boaz’s Wager, a book I wrote years ago. Suitable for Marriage takes place before Boaz’s Wager in the timeline. So I thought I’d have fun. At one point in Suitable for Marriage, she says, “Alex, I like you as a friend, but I have no desire to end up with someone who works with animals. I thought it over, and such a man is all wrong for me. I’d be much better off with a university professor, the conductor of a great big music hall, or a literary critic.” In Boaz’s Wager, she ends up with a man who trains horses who is in no way a professor, musically inclined, or a literary critic. In fact, it was Boaz’s friend who played the violin and made Boaz jealous when Eva gushed on and on about his friend’s talent. Since she ends up with someone who was completely unlike what she planned, I thought it’d be funny to put this section of dialogue in this book.

When I lived in Nebraska, tulips grew up every April in my front yard. Those things are hardy flowers that come back every year with no work at all. I loved them. That’s why Alex gives women tulips in this story.

In this book I wrote, “Some people love to read. Every time I read a book, I pretend I’m the person I’m reading about. It’s more fun that way.” I started reading this way in high school to make the boring books the teacher required me to read more interesting. Since then, I found it fun to do it with every book I read. When I write books, however, I never see myself as one of the characters.

As I was writing this book, I kept thinking that Daisy (Tom and Jessica’s youngest daughter) reminded me of someone. It wasn’t until I was editing the book during a scene where Daisy is in the barn with Erin and Alex that I realized she reminds me of Joel Larson. She’s a bit on the conceited side, and she has a mischievous spark in her.

When Erin and Daisy visit Patricia in Patricia’s large home, Daisy says, “Eva let me borrow a book where a distinguished gentleman hired a young lady to be a governess. The two fall in love, but it turned out he had a wife who went mad and was confined to the attic. Maybe there’s a secret wife hiding somewhere in a secret room here. Are we sure that Jim came to Omaha all by himself?” This book Daisy read was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.

I bring in Natalie (heroine in The Perfect Wife and Mark Larson’s wife) for a scene in this book.

There is a woman named Lisa who shows up in this book who says she can’t entertain a courtship with Alex because her cousin is mad at Alex for losing to him in a bull riding contest, and if she were to be with Alex, her family would give her grief over it. I know this seems far-fetched, but I have experienced a scenario similar to this in my own personal life. I can’t go into detail, but something that happened almost 20 years ago has pretty much made me the “black sheep” with a certain family member. There are petty people out there who will hold a grudge forever. Sometimes something from an author’s life will find its way on the page. Names, situations, and events are always changed, though.

Quite frankly, I was surprised that Nelly still worries whenever her sisters come by and see Val. I didn’t plan for her reaction to be the way it was, but every character has their quirks, and this is Nelly’s.

In this book, Tom Larson gives a reference to the time when Clyde ran off and left Jenny (Tom’s sister) when he was supposed to marry her. It is so much fun to have a cast of characters who have a history I’ve already written about so I can I bring the past up whenever I want. That’s what makes the Larson family and my Regency characters so enjoyable to write about. I never truly have to say good-bye to any of them.

At the end of this book, Tom argues with Jessica and Alex’s parents that a woman can have some say in whether the baby is going to be a girl or a boy. This is a reference back to Eye of the Beholder where he and Jessica have the same argument. I thought it’d be fun to bring it in for old time’s sake.

Since Tom had all daughters, I was going to give him all grandsons, but then I got to Daisy’s book, and that changed. Jessica will be getting some granddaughters in the future.

Suitable for Marriage is now available!

Fortunately, I managed to come up with a description for this book. With some books, it takes longer than others, and this was a hard one for me. I’ll put it in this blog post below.

This is Book 3 in the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series.

Here is the description:

Erin Larson has a problem that’s been following her since she was a child: Alex Matthews. For a reason she can’t explain, Alex has convinced himself that they will end up getting married. But she’d rather go through town in nothing but her chemise and petticoats before that happens.

With her two older sisters married, it’s her turn to find a husband. As long as Alex is lingering around, she’s not going to find the man of her dreams. What she needs is to find another young lady for Alex to turn his attention to. Then, and only then, will she be free.

Alex goes along with this little matchmaking scheme, knowing full well that if he plays his cards right, he’ll finally succeed in convincing Erin that they’re a perfect match.

*This is a cute romantic comedy.

If interested, this is where you can find it:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo (also in Kobo Plus)

Apple

Smashwords

Google Play

Scribd (a subscription book service)

Radish (comes out in episodes)

***

About Daisy’s Prince Charming:

I had a question about Daisy’s book, so I figured I’d address that in this post, just in case other people were wondering about it.

I am currently wrapping it up. I think I’ll finish the first draft this week. After that, I have to go through initial edits. At the moment, I’m hoping to get Daisy’s Prince Charming out in late July, but I won’t be sure until I get the pre-order up. And I won’t get the pre-order up until the book is all done. I do pre-orders because they help me organize blog posts in advance.

Updates on What I’m Doing

On a personal note:

My eyes have been bugging me quite a bit lately, so I’ve been making myself stay off the computer, my phone, and other electronic devices. I’ve been dealing with dry eye for years, and while the natural remedies work, the fact that I’m growing older means that the situation will get worse as time progresses. I have no qualms with getting older and the things that come with it, but I also believe in doing what I can to preserve what I have while I have it. I don’t like medications of any kind. I’ve seen too many people get dependent on medications. It’s as if once they get on them, they can’t get off because of severe side effects. I want to avoid that for myself if possible. I understand there’s a time and a place for medicine. My dad had schizophrenia. He needed medication to live a normal life. But I’m fortunate in that I currently don’t need anything. I’ve been able to manage things with a change in diet, everyday habits, and exercise over the years. God willing, that will continue.

So why am I bringing all of this up? My time on the internet hasn’t been that much to begin with, but it will have to be even less now. My priority is writing more books. That’s what I will focus on. I will come in to do blog posts, too, because I enjoy doing them. Also, it helps me sort out things I need to do with my stories or publishing them when I write out what’s going on in this blog. But my time online with other things is going to be less. I’m not sure what that will look like yet, except that uploading books to Radish is going to take longer and I won’t be on MeWe a lot. Thankfully, I have half of my books already on Radish by this point. I already take a while to respond to emails, so that will stay the same. It’s not that I don’t care about these things. I do. It’s just that if I am going to spend time writing, I have to sacrifice the other things.

I have done dictation, but the amount of time spent editing made this a horrendous experience, and though I did manage to speak the books out, I had a hard time “connecting” with the characters like I do when I type the story out. Those books are pretty much a blur in my mind, which is a shame because I didn’t really enjoy “writing” them. I prefer to spend my writing time enjoying the process of creating the story, and dictation doesn’t allow that for me. I think (and feel) best when I type.

Now for the stuff related to my books:

1. I might have to swap the release month for Heiress of Misfortune with Daisy’s Prince Charming.

 

At the moment, July is my target month to get one of these books out. I did have it set for Heiress of Misfortune since I’m farther along in this book, but the story line just keeps going. I do have an idea to shorten things, but the longer avenue is a lot more interesting to me, and if it’s more interesting to me, I’m guessing that will make it a better book. At the moment, I’m 56,000 words into this one. I’m not sure, but I think it’s going to need 70K+ words to complete it. I can’t do that and have it off to the editor by July, especially when I’m limited on how much time I can spend on the computer because of my eyes.

Daisy’s Prince Charming is turning into a shorter book than I expected. I’ll be hitting 42,000 in this one today, and there’s really only a couple more things that need to be done to wrap things up. This book doesn’t need to be over 50,000 words to be complete. Unless something pops up that requires me to be away from the computer for any length of time, I should be able to finish the first draft of this book well before the end of May, have the initial edits done, and send it to my editor by June 1.

I’ll keep you posted on how things play out with this situation.

2. I’m going to kill off a secondary character in the Marriage by Obligation Series.

(These books are not listed in any particular order except for Secret Admirer which is Book 1. I think this is what the order will be, but it could change. I’m not even sure if there will be a “The Duke’s Return” in the series. At the moment, I have a character I’m thinking will work here, but I need to write more to the series before I’m sure.)

Remember the trouble I’ve been having with knowing what to do with a certain duke who has been giving one of my poor characters grief? My original idea was to ship him off somewhere then bring him back. Then I thought I’d just kill him off because he serves no purpose as a main character. He’s turned out to be a character that isn’t all that interesting. I have no desire to work with him. But he serves a purpose to one of the heroines in this series, so I can’t just eliminate him from the series altogether. He has to show up in Secret Admirer.

I was thinking of going with a suicide, but that didn’t seem to fit. So I’m going to go with a murder. I know I’ve done a murder subplot before in other books, but there’s nothing else that works for what I want to happen in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I’m not exactly sure how the murder subplot fits in with that book yet, but my instinct tells me it will fit. So this particular character will be murdered.

3. I’m looking into AI for audiobooks.

As it turns out Google Play has invited me (and some other authors) to give AI narration a try. Google Play also said I can use these audio files to upload to other places, and Kobo also happens to allow for AI narrated books. An author said Apple does, too, but I have to look into that to be sure it’s true.

For now, I’m looking into going with Google Play and get things started. This requires some time at the computer listening to the AI and adjusting the text to get things pronounced right. That’s more a time commitment than something difficult, but I am currently looking into someone who can go through these books and listen to AI for me. I have a couple of people in mind. I have to trust this person because this person will have access to my password over on Google Play. If I can’t find someone, then I will give a try myself, but it will slow down the process since my time on the computer is limited.

I think AI narration is going to help a lot of authors, and it will help readers who can’t read books due to eyesight issues. I know for me that I can’t read books anymore. I can’t read an ebook on my device or a paperback anymore. I have to listen to books. I’ve been using my Kindle for years to listen to books this way. Kindle has AI narration wrapped in with the text-to-speech feature on the device. You do get used to the AI voice. After a while, you don’t even notice it’s AI. I get that there are people who will “never” listen to AI narration because the human voice is way better. That’s fine. I’m not doing this for people like that. I’m doing this for people like me. And since it’s AI, it’s affordable, which means I can charge a better price. It’s a win for me, it’s a win for people on a budget, and it’s a win for people with eyesight problems.

The Post Where I (Once Again) Talk About the Value of Writing for Passion

Skip if this topic is boring you. (I know I discuss this quite a bit.)

Writing to market is like this for a lot of writers:

Photo 39069786 © Fotosmile | Dreamstime.comThe downside of writing to market

I came across this comment about writing to market while browsing a writing group recently: “Writing to market means you have to write the same thing over and over. Talk about depressing!” This was by a writer who was writing to market, by the way.

Then, while on another venue, I saw this by a non-writer: “I make very good money, but I want to quit my job. The only thing stopping me is that I’m terrified to give up something safe for something that is risky (but could be rewarding).”

As a disclaimer, I modified the quotes above to protect the people who said them. I felt these two people listed powerful reasons why writing to market sucks. In the second quote, the person wasn’t a writer, but the same idea applies.

Writing to market boxes you in. While you have some wiggle room, you have to deliver on the expectations of the reader. You can’t veer too far off the path. The readers in your market are expecting a certain type of story. There is a formula you have to follow. If you are planning to reach the same audience with every book you write, you are, essentially, writing the same thing over and over. I don’t care how many little “extras” you allow for; in the end, you are limited in what you can write. I know this because I wrote this way for a while. Eventually, you run out of anything “new” or “fresh” you can write.

So why do authors write to market? Sales. It’s all about the money. Knowing you have a better chance of earning money is “safe”. Books written to market do sell. There’s a reason you see so many similar books on the market. Most readers tend to like the same kind of books. Publishers figured out early on that they maximized profit by delivering books that garnered the most readers. Back when I started publishing ebooks in 2009, there was no talk about writing to market in the indie author sphere. That came a couple of years later. Once you figure out there’s money in something, it’s natural to look for a way to maximize how much you can bring in.

Writing what you’re passionate about is risky, but it’s also a lot more rewarding than writing to market.

I don’t care how much authors report their sales, at the end of the day, nothing is more satisfying than going back over a book you wrote and being happy you wrote it. It’s really sad when you hear about authors never rereading books they wrote. I realize these authors don’t think it’s sad, but, to me, it’s sad. Sales don’t last. They fluctuate. A book is never a bestseller forever. Eventually, it fizzles out and loses popularity. This is the natural way of things. When I was a kid, my parents had a calendar of funny quotes, and one of my favorite quotes was, “Money talks. All mine says is good-bye.” Making money as a writer is like that. The money might flow in, but eventually, it leaves. It costs money to live, and it costs money to run a business. You have to keep pumping out books that will maximize your profits in order to stay ahead. It’s exhausting, especially when you run yourself into the ground like the writer above who hates what she is writing.

At the end of the day, the only real thing we have is the book. Our books will outlast us. None of us know how long we have in this life. I’m 47. My mom died at 48. I just found out a friend lost her adult son unexpectedly. People of all ages die for one reason or another. People tell me I’m grim when I mention death, but I don’t see it that way. The awareness of death is a reason to make each day count. Writing what I love means I am enjoying the small amount of years I’m allowed here on this Earth before I end up being reunited with my parents. Every day you dread what you’re doing is a day you aren’t happy. I realize not every part of the writing process is going to be fun. There’s always going to be something that sucks. But, overall, what do you want your days to be like? I think it’s far more important to have joy in a short life than to have misery in a long one.

So what kind of books do you really want to write? What is going to fulfill you? There is something to be said for feeding your soul. When you are doing things you enjoy, you’ll have a much better outlook on life than people who spend their time doing things they hate. When you’re happy, you physically feel better, you’re able to engage with people in a much more meaningful way, and you’re more likely to make better choices. You have one life. Choose how you spend your time wisely.

Focus on the Story (A Writing Craft Post)

There’s an expression that goes, “don’t miss the forest for the trees”. Basically, you don’t want to miss the overall story because of something insignificant. Of course, being a writer, I’m going to tie this into storytelling. The forest is your story. The trees are elements that take place within the story.

The story is the main thing you’re dealing with when you’re working in genre fiction. I don’t care what genre you’re writing. It can be romance. It can be fantasy. It can be horror. It can be any genre you want. Your goal as a writer is to keep someone so wrapped up in the story that they have trouble putting the book down. If you insert things in your story that aren’t necessary to advance the plot in some way, you run the risk of losing your reader.

Let me provide an example of what I’m talking about:

There was a book by an author that took place in the BC era. The story was supposed to be about this woman who eventually becomes a leader and wins a major victory in battle. This story begins when this main character is a child. That is fine, but along the way, the author ended up writing pages and pages of about the character threshing wheat before she became an adult. It read like a how-to manual on threshing wheat. It had nothing to do with the character’s development into a warrior. I think the author was so excited about the things this author learned about threshing wheat that the author wanted to share it with the world. That would have been better left out of the book. The author could have shared this in a blog post or a newsletter, but it had no purpose in the story. Now, if the character had been learning how to yield a sword, then it would have been appropriate. At least then, we could see some character development.

Here are other examples I’ve read over the years:

Pointless conversations that have nothing to do with character development or the story. (Usually, this is a basic, “Hi, how are you doing.” “Oh, I’m doing fine.” “Yeah, me too. But I needed that thirty-minute shower first. You know, to get the day started off right.” “I hear you. The alarm almost didn’t wake me up. I pressed snooze twice before the cat jumped on my head to wake me up.” “How is Fluffy?” “Fluffy is great. She got a new collar.” “Oh, did she? What does it look like?” “It’s pink with a cute little silver bell.” “How adorable. Maybe I should get a cat.” “You should. They are the best pets to have. I can take you to the pet store next week.” “I’ll take you up on that offer. By the way, I’m sorry I’m running late in picking you up. I just went to get some coffee.” “Coffee? I love coffee. Where did you get it?” And on and on it goes until you skim the scene to get back to the plot. The plot, in this example, is about two friends who are on their way to the creepy forest where they will be hunted by psychos. We don’t care about this cat who never shows up again in the story, and we don’t care what kind of coffee they drink. There’s no need to devote pages of a story to mindless chatter like this, and yet, I seem to come across it quite a bit.)

The character spends pages looking over a map but never takes a trip. (Why spend all that time on the map if you never have a need for it? That map was a useless element in the story.)

Describing every single thing in a town when the character only needs to go to one or two places in this town. (Who cares if there’s a windmill, how it looks, or how it operates if the character never goes there during the story?)

Describing a battle in detail when the story is not about the war but is about a woman’s development toward independence and love. (If the woman had fought in the battle, you could make this detailed battle scene work, but the woman wasn’t a soldier. She was helping another woman give birth during the battle. Yes, mention the fighting going on and how she is reacting to it is acceptable, but we don’t need to know what street or store is catching on fire, how many men are falling over dead, or the specific orders the soldiers are giving each other. Unless those soldiers are going to come in and pose a threat, we don’t need to know all these details.)

Here’s a good rule of thumb for good storytelling:

If it advances the plot, put it in. If it doesn’t advance the plot, leave it out.

If you put these non-essential elements in, you risk losing your reader. I realize there’s going to be some reader out there who will love all of the teeny-tiny details of some historical place or event, but most readers just want the story.

The story is your focus, and the characters are the way you will advance the story.

Only bring things into focus if they have something to do with the advancement of the story. I’ll give some examples below:

1. You want to reveal something about the character.

a. Say you have a character who is terrified of some kind of plant, but this character will have to go through a jungle to save his family. In that case, bring that terrifying plant into the story before the character runs off to the jungle. Show this character’s reaction to this plant when the character is in a safe environment. Then when he comes across this plant in the jungle, the stakes will be high when he is trying to save his family.

b. Another character example could be a character who notices little details others miss in order to solve homicide cases. In this case, the character would pick up on little things here and there in a room. The fact that this character is detecting these things prove this character is good at their job. It also shows the reader that these little things the character notices are clues, and the reader can use these clues to see if they can solve the crime before the big reveal.

2. You want to give hints that something in the setting will play a pivotal role later on in the story.

a. On the surface, your town might appear normal, but let’s say there are too many cats, and these cats end up being part of the conflict. You want to mention the cats early in the story. Mention all the trees they’re lurking in. Mention how they’re running across the street. Mention one cat in particular if it ends up playing a bigger role than the other cats later on in the story. You’re using these cats to build suspense, and suspense does wonders for advancing the plot.

b. If the story is about surviving a tornado, the character will need to know where he can hide when a tornado comes along in the story. Where is the storm cellar in this town? Where is the barn? Where is the general store where the character will need to find a loved one? In this case, we would need to know some of the layout of this town in advance.

c. Let’s say your villain loves a certain color or object. This color or object can be instrumental in the hero discovering the villain’s identity later in the story. Lay down little clues where this color or object pops up early in the story. For example, let’s say the villain likes music boxes. You can have a music box show up at a home the hero is visiting. The hero notices the music box and might even listen to the music. But the hero doesn’t give the music box any more thought until it’s time to track the villain down.

***

Final thought:

Writing a tight story essentially means you remove the excess stuff that doesn’t advance your plot. If you need to write non-essentials to create your story, you can still use those. Just remove them from the story and use them for blog posts, newsletters, in an “extra” section on your website, or in the back matter of your book. You can still use these if you want. I just don’t recommend using them in the story itself.

Nothing is Black and White (a personal reflection post)

Today’s post has nothing to do with writing or my books. It’s one where I speak about something on a personal note. Specially, I am going to discuss breastfeeding and giving birth.

This morning while I was doing my morning routine of tidying up around the house, I was listening to someone on a podcast who was talking about the baby formula shortage in the United States. This person said that this shortage is not a concern because, “Women have the ability to feed their babies.” My first inclination was to go on the internet and make a comment on this person’s podcast because despite what he thinks, this isn’t true. I tried breastfeeding my first two, and I was unsuccessful at it. With the first one, my milk ended up drying up, and I ended up giving him baby formula. With the second, I had decided that I hadn’t tried hard enough with the first, so I refused to give him any formula. I breastfed him every couple of hours. I followed the nurse’s advice down to the letter. But he wasn’t wetting his diaper. No matter how much I fed him, he just wasn’t getting enough, and I did have some milk, so I knew I was producing something. One day, I saw what I thought was blood in his diaper and ran down to the emergency room. It wasn’t blood, but it did turn out he was very dehydrated. He wasn’t getting enough to breast milk. I had done my best, but my best wasn’t enough for him. So I gave him formula, and, thankfully, everything turned out alright. After that experience, I never even bothered breastfeeding the other two.

Not all women can produce enough milk to feed their babies. Years after my children were born, I came across a post from a woman who had also been having trouble getting enough milk for her baby. Unfortunately, she didn’t seek out medical help. Her baby died. I wish I had been able to reach out to her before this happened. She was surrounded by people who told her to “keep at it” and “this is nature’s way” and “women’s bodies were made for feeding their children”. She was too ashamed to give her child formula. She made her post so that other women would give their babies formula if their bodies weren’t producing enough milk. Maybe “most” women can successfully breastfeed, but no “all” women can do it. I’m proof of it. That lady is proof it. Nothing is black and white.

Now let’s discuss birth. There seems to be a stigma against c-sections. Vaginal birth is considered the “natural” and “best” way to have a baby. I even had two people in my husband’s family who pretty much told me to never go with a c-section because it went against nature’s way and that my body was made to handle it. With my oldest, I was told he was larger than most. The doctor gave me the option of scheduling a c-section or inducing labor. I did a lot of praying on this, and I believe God steered me towards the c-section because I happened to come across of TV shows where women mentioned trying to give birth vaginally, but their babies got stuck. In one case, the baby’s shoulder got dislocated, and he never did get full use of his arm from the birth injury. In another case, the woman suffered from it. I don’t recall the specifics of that one except that the woman had to go through surgery and wasn’t the same ever again. Then I recalled the woman I had met while in college who’s baby got stuck. In her case, her child’s shoulder got dislocated, but he was able to gain full movement after some months. Anyway, I believe God was guiding me to go with a c-section, so I opted for that. I have never regretted that decision. I had c-sections with all of the others since they were all larger than average and I had them close together. (Kids are currently 20, 18, 17, and 16. They’re stair steps.) Years later, I met a woman who gave birth vaginally, and it tore her enough where even surgery didn’t sufficiently help her. She said she wished she had gone the c-section route and that I should never let anymore shame me for going “against nature”.

Not all women can handle a vaginal birth. Sometimes a c-section is best for the mother and the baby. Not all women’s bodies are made to handle it. I don’t know why, but that’s the way things are. I get tired when people try to shame a woman for choosing a c-section. I also get tired of women being shamed for buying formula for their child. I thought the goal was “healthy mother, healthy baby”, but apparently, it’s not.

And while I’m on this topic, something else came to mind. I communicated with a woman some years ago who went through menopause in her 20s. She worried that she would never be able to find a husband because she’ll never be able to have children. I also communicated with a woman who didn’t have a full reproductive system. I also communicated with a couple of women who had something going on with their bodies that made it impossible to carry a baby to term. That’s all heartbreaking, and I feel terrible for these poor women. Sure, most women can conceive and give birth, but not all of them can. And I noticed that society tends to punish women for not having children. Well, maybe those women can’t physically have them.

Nothing is black and white. There are a lot of grays in this world. We tend to think that if something is the norm, then it’s true for everyone, and that simply isn’t the case. I think we need to stop making assumptions about other people based on our experiences or what is socially expected. There’s a lot going on that we don’t know about. And quite frankly, what is going on in someone’s life is not our business. If someone wants to confide in us, fine. If not, that is their right. We are not entitled to the details of someone’s life.

All I’m asking is that instead of jumping to conclusions about a certain situation, it would be better to take a step back and realize we don’t have all of the information.

That’s it. I’m done ranting. I’ll return to posting my usual writing related posts.

The Loner’s Bride Trivia

If you haven’t read the book, you might want to do so before reading this post. It contains spoilers.

I wasn’t originally going to write Jeremiah’s romance because I was afraid people might not want to read a romance where the age difference between the hero and heroine is so great. (We’re talking a little over twenty years). When I was writing The Rancher’s Bride, I knew the only person who’d make a good match for Katie was Jeremiah. I had a conversation with a writer friend who said I should pair Katie up with someone else. I decided to not write about Jeremiah because I couldn’t imagine him with anyone else, and by not writing the book, I could keep him with Katie. Well, long story short, a couple of people assured me that they had no trouble with the age difference. After knowing that, I decided to write the book.

Since Abby taught Katie to read in The Rancher’s Bride, I decided to make Katie an avid reader in this story.

I brought Pearl into this story to show what happened to her. I like knowing she turned out okay after what happened to her parents in The Rancher’s Bride and thought other people might like an update on her. That was the only reason I added scenes with her in the book.

Thayne needing to do an emergency c-section on Abby was based on a story a teacher once told my class about a doctor doing that on his wife. I don’t remember the details about that story. All I remember is that this was before c-sections were a thing. He took the risk in doing this procedure because he didn’t want to lose her. I was impressed by how much this man loved his wife and wanted to save her. The wife and baby turned out okay, so it was a happy story.

Wade now has a ton of kids. I felt it fitting to give him a bunch of them after what he went through with losing Lloyd.

I wanted to see how Lloyd was doing, so I added that scene where he shows Katie what he and his younger brother wrote. I had to do some research on the Three Musketeers for it. I have not read the original book or subsequent books based off the original, and I haven’t seen any movies on it. This kind of thing doesn’t interest me. I’d say about 50% of the books my characters like aren’t my cup of tea. I find out what’s in the books through online research.

Speaking of stories, there were two fables I learned about while writing this book. The ones with the frog and the peacock were new to me. Instead of reading them, though, I watched videos on You Tube that told those stories. I did find an old version of the frog one and quoted from it since it would probably have been the actual version Katie read. (I gave credit to this book at the end of The Loner’s Bride.)

I did read Oedipus Rex in the past, and I actually enjoyed it, though I have no interest in the sequels.

During the writing of the book, I kept getting “Lone Man’s Pass” mixed up with “The Lone Trail”. I had to go through the search function in Word a few times to make sure I got it right.

When I started the rewrite of the Wyoming Series, I kept thinking I would have something erupt between the US Army and the Indian tribes. That’s why I mentioned the tension between the Army and Indians a couple of times in the series. However, that idea never found its way into the stories. I’m a bit disappointed, but you can’t force a story to go in a direction it doesn’t want to go.

While I was writing this book, I was also writing The Cursed Earl. The thing about a peacock feather being bad luck led me to writing about Katie thinking of the men in town as peacocks. What happens in one story can influence what happens in another.

I never came out and said it in the story, but those widows in the orphanage played matchmaker behind the scenes. Stella backed out of the outing with Jeremiah and the kids so that he would have to go with Katie. None of the widows believed Jeremiah and Katie were secretly engaged, but they pretended to in order to coax him into agreeing to marry Katie. They even suggested he did something inappropriate with Katie in the kitchen to stop him from backing out of the wedding. Clementine only “chaperoned” Jeremiah and Katie on one of the outings with the children because she didn’t want them to have a chance to talk, lest they agree to cancel the wedding because there was no truth behind the rumor.

The widows did not know that Katie started the rumor, and they never found out.

At one point, Mic tells Jeremiah, “You’re not an old man. You have plenty of years left. The reason you feel old is because of what’s up here.” Mic tapped his head. “It’s all in your mind.” This is my personal philosophy. I believe a lot of stuff starts in the head. I know there are some physical stuff we can’t get around. Disease, cancer, etc, are outside of our mental control, but a lot of what we tell ourselves does impact how we physically feel.

The reason Jeremiah shaved his beard is because the model on the cover doesn’t have a beard. I wanted him to match the cover.

I figured it was only fair that after all the restraint Jeremiah showed up to the wedding that he should be able to cast all restraint aside on the wedding night. Personally, I got a chuckle out of that scene, but my sense of humor is weird so who knows what other people thought?

The information about the Cassiopeia and Cepheus constellations is what I learned while homeschooling my youngest for his science class. (I never did get any good at spotting anything in the sky, even though the north star was easy to find. My son did a better job of it.) There are a couple of different versions of the Cassiopeia and Cepheus constellation myths. Being a romance writer, I preferred the romantic version. That’s the one I went with in this story.

I ended up giving Katie a girl since she spent so much time prettying Abby up in The Rancher’s Bride. I gave her boys first because Jeremiah was secretly worried he’d lose another child, and that fear would have been greater if he had a girl first. By having the boys come first, he was much more hopeful when the girl was born. (I realize this never made it into the story with him being worried and all, but his character did have that lingering fear in the back of his mind.)