Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 16

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)

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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.

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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.)

Back to Writing

I’m happy to say I’m back to writing. While I have to admit that one of the reasons I did not get much written in March was due to all of the books I uploaded to Radish, I have been getting more help from the people around here.

A note about Radish:

I do enjoy the site, and it’s been fun making episodes from my books, but it’s turned into a lot more work than I anticipated. I was trying to get 1-2 books up a day. In March, I got 42 up. I bundled a couple of series into one “Story” since the books in that series were so interconnected that if you miss events in one book, some of the events in the other books won’t make as much sense.

Anyway, since uploading books to Radish do take more time than I anticipated, I have decided to upload 1-2 books a week instead of every day. If anyone here reads my stories on Radish, let me know the ones you are most interested in reading, and I’ll put those at the top of the list. Right now, I’m posting whatever books pique my interest at the moment.

The latest developments in my writing:

This book took a turn I didn’t expect this week. The original plan a friend helped me outline is getting tossed out. (When I say “outline”, I mean we chatted about how the story would play out. I didn’t do anything formal with it.) The hero and heroine will still marry, but it won’t be through some clumsy incident the heroine has in a public place. Also, the villain will not be targeting the person I thought he or she would target. I have to come up with a new motive for the villain and why the villain is targeting this other person. I figure I’m just about halfway into the book, if not a little under halfway. There’s still time to work through the snags, but I only discover that way out by writing. I can’t do it by plotting.

Regarding the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series, my original plan was to give Tom all grandsons, but at the end of Suitable for Marriage (which comes out in May), Jessica went through the hassle of painting all the cribs for her future grandchildren pink. Up to now, all of Daisy’s sisters have sons. I believe there are six grandsons at this point in the timeline. Daisy is the youngest of the four daughters Tom and Jessica had. I’m about to write a scene where Daisy takes a look at the pink crib that is left. (The other cribs went to the three daughters as they had children.) Otis and Daisy will be staying with Tom and Jessica so Tom can have help on the farm. Anyway, I think I might give Tom a granddaughter at this point because I feel sorry for Jessica who has her heart set on having a granddaughter. I figure, “Why not give her one or two?” I’d hate to see her have to paint another crib blue after she went through the trouble of painting four of them pink.

Remember my dilemma over what to do with the duke who was supposed to be the hero of this book? If not, I made a post about it. I decided to go with an option I’ve never used before: I’m going to kill him off. Now whether the death looks like a suicide or is a suicide, I don’t know. It’s too early in the Marriage by Obligation Series to tell. But this will make the story for the heroine who was supposed to marry him that much more interesting to me. Not only did she dread marrying him, but now she’ll wonder if the idea of marrying her made him kill himself. Pairing her up with a hero who had a bad first marriage which resulted in adultery will be the perfect combination. Two scarred characters who need someone to love them. I’m looking forward to writing it.

Will this kill the possibility of writing The Duke’s Return (since the intended hero for it is dead)? I don’t know yet. I do have a duke that I introduce in Book 1 of this series which is Secret Admirer. I’m currently writing Secret Admirer right now.

The duke in Secret Admirer is the heroine’s brother. I had no set story for him. I’ll have to keep writing this series to figure out if he fits in here. I don’t always write about characters I introduce because there is no intriguing plot for them. I need a plot that excites me in order to write it, and those plots have to go to the characters with the right personality traits.

So The Duke’s Return may or may not be written, but either way, the original hero slotted for the book will not be getting the role.

Don’t Apologize for Writing the Book that You Love (A Post for Writers)

The thing about writing is that quality is subjective. The longer you’ve been publishing books and receiving feedback, the easier it is to remember this. But for newer writers, it’s not so easy. I was in a writing group recently where a significant number of authors felt like they had to apologize to readers for writing their books the way they did.

I have one question for you, the writer, when you’re confronted with a random person who didn’t like your book:

Do you love the book?

If so, keep the book as it is, and don’t apologize for writing it.

You are under no obligation to write a book just to please a certain kind of person. This is your book. You are the creator. You get the final say in what happens in it and what doesn’t happen in it. I am tired of watching writers berate themselves for writing stuff someone doesn’t like. So what if that person doesn’t like the book? It’s not their book. They didn’t write it. They can go find another book by another writer that they can enjoy instead. Or, if they are that picky, they can write their own book. There is no reason for you to rewrite your book to satisfy this person. Also, there is no reason to stop writing because of this person.

That person’s problem with your book is their problem. It is not your problem. You are not responsible for how someone feels when they read your book. What they think of the book says way more about them than it does you. Yes, I know that some readers are mean. They will nitpick at every little thing, and they don’t mind being vocal about their grievances. It hurts. I used to answer these readers’ comments, but in the end, it turned into a total waste of time. I never won anyone over by addressing their grievances. I never won anyone over by rewriting my book to satisfy them. (I did this back in 2011 or 2012.) I think all I did was embolden these particular group of readers to go around criticizing other writers. In my opinion, you’re better off ignoring these people. Would you let someone into your house who is criticizing you? No. Your email inbox, your social media page, and your blog/website are your personal “homes” on the internet. You have a right to only answer positive people.

“Oh, but Ruth, what if their complaint is valid?” you might be asking.

Their complaint is not valid IF you love the book the way it already is. Your opinion is the only one that matters. You’re the author. You’re the one invested in this book. You put in your time, your emotions, and your talent into this book. This other person contributed nothing to its creation. They didn’t pay for the cover. They didn’t pay for the editor. They didn’t format the thing for you. They didn’t publish it. They’re not taking the risk it won’t sell. Let the person’s opinion go. Focus on what you enjoy about the book instead. If you love the book, it has value.

The only reason you should change anything in your book is because YOU want to change something.

I don’t know if this post comes off as harsh. I know how badly writers (esp. new ones) want to please the reader. No one wants to be told their book is a piece of crap. No one wants to get that 1-star review. But if we were to write the book that made that particular person happy, it would be a totally different book. It wouldn’t be the book we love. Books have meaning to the people who create them. That meaning is more important than money, and it’s more important than someone’s approval.

I’m on a Writing Strike

When you work at home, the people in your life pawn off all of the errands on you. Even though my family is aware that I am not wasting time at the computer, everything is pretty much up to me, whether it has to do with taking someone in to the doctor/dentist, dealing with the accountant, helping my kids learn to drive, repairing vehicles/the house, dealing with the school, and on and on it goes. On top of this, I haven’t been up to full health, so I’ve been struggling to get to the computer anyway. I also deal with little things here and there with my books that have nothing to do with the actual writing part of things. I know I’m seriously behind on emails. I am just so swamped with everything else that I just can’t get to it. And it wasn’t like I was quick to answer emails in the past when I was doing good. So it’s even worse now.

In short, I am way too stressed and overwhelmed. The rising prices on things has not helped one single bit. I realize some of you are on fixed incomes, and I feel like I’m in the same boat because I can’t even save $100 in my savings account. I am the primary breadwinner in the family, and you’d think that would get my family to pitch in to help, but it doesn’t. I have spoken to my family at length on this, but it has done no good. I am left to the final resort, which is to go on strike with my writing. I think that is the only way they will realize how important my job is around here. They seem to think that it takes no effort to get these books out. I wish I could just snap my fingers and have books written up in a few days, but writing doesn’t work like that.

So I am going to stop writing. I’ll still upload books to Radish. That is my current full-time project. It takes a while to separate books out into episodes. I’ve been at this for a month and still have over half of my books to put over there. I’ll still engage online with people. I’ll still gather my tax info so I can meet with the accountant every quarter. But I’m not going to write.

I know the other flipside of the coin is that I just don’t take care of the house or meals. I tried that. That did not faze these people. They were fine living in a pig sty and living off of junk food. All that scenario did was stress me out even more. I need a clean house, and I need good meals. Those are necessary for my sanity. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is the writing strike.

I don’t know how long this will last. I already have Suitable for Marriage up on pre-order. At this point in time, that’s my last projected book to go out there. I have a couple of books on pre-order that I will just keep bumping back. I am thinking that when these people around here realize how much money won’t be coming in, they’ll finally step up to the plate. That’s my hope. All I know is that I can’t keep going on like this. I am going to end up running myself into the ground, and I’m sure that will do even more damage to my health. I love my family. Really I do. But sometimes you just got to say “enough”. And I’ve had enough.

I Hit a Snafu in the Marriage by Obligation Series

The funny thing is that the situation that created the snafu is the reason I created the series to begin with. How is that for ironic?

Okay, so here’s the setup I was going for in this series.

Years ago I had this idea for a psychological thriller where a detective marries a woman who he begins to believe killed her first husband. When I realized I had written myself into a corner in the story, I trashed it. Then a couple of years later I was talking about this idea with my author friend Stephannie Beman, and she and I started a co-written historical western romance loosely based on the idea. It had morphed quite a bit, actually, from the original concept. Things didn’t work out with the co-written stuff, and I did buy the rights to the stuff we had worked on because I liked the setup she and I created.

The basic premise turned into a situation where a man was betrothed to a woman, but he jilted her before the wedding because he resented being forced into the marriage by their parents. So the parents arrange for her to marry his younger brother instead, and the younger brother was mean to her. So mean, in fact, that the hero could be suspicious that she killed the brother in order to get rid of him. And he goes about trying to prove she did it.

Anyway, I thought, “That setup could work in the Regency world.” So I created the Marriage by Obligation Series. Only, I needed to set things up for the hero to come back (after running off to avoid marriage) in Books 1 and 2 in the series. So I brainstormed and came up with ideas for Books 1 and 2 to set the stage for Book 3. Book 3 is the book where the hero returns.

This is how the original 3 books looked:

   

As I’ve been writing Book 1, which is Secret Admirer, I have developed other characters that have given me ideas for two more books that will fit into the series. These characters, whether I was aware of it or not while writing them into this series, has prompted the fate of the jilted heroine to go in another direction. I am no longer interested in writing about a hero who has to make amends for ditching the heroine at the altar and then having to return to make things right with her. I’d rather have her end up with someone else. And I’m thinking Lord Wright (the widower with a daughter who had a bad first marriage) could be perfect for her. I like the setup I have for Lord Wright. I’ve decided his story will be Book 3 in this series now.

I also want to finally write Reuben St. George’s story, which I’m now slotting for Book 4 in this series.

So what happens to the original Book 3 (The Duke’s Return)?

I’m not sure what to do about The Duke’s Return yet. I can write him out if the setup in Secret Admirer or Midnight Wedding (Book 2) has no space for him. Or I can let him “slip” out into sight to never been seen again. Or I could have him return, perhaps injured and a recluse, to be paired up with someone else. I do have a slot for a lady I brought into Secret Admirer that is open. I had thought to pair her up with someone else in another series, but she might work with this hero who resented being forced into a marriage.

I’ll have to keep writing to figure out the right direction to take. All I know is that Book 3’s original idea is getting trashed. I honestly don’t know how plotters do it. What if the idea suddenly gets boring? What on earth do you do? Do you go back to the drawing board and re-plot the whole series? If I had taken the time to work through all the ins-and-outs of these three books ahead of time, I would be upset with the time that I would have wasted. I might go slower while writing a book because there are times when I have to step away from the computer to mull over what happens next, but at least that time is spent on exercise, cleaning the house, with family/friends, non-writing tasks that have to do with my books, or something else that is productive. I didn’t use that time on a story/series that had to be thrown out. I get that plotters think pansters are nuts for not having a plan, but honestly, I’d much rather do it my way. My way offers flexibility to change things at a moment’s notice without committing time and effort into a story line or a series arc that fell apart.

So anyway, I’ll figure something out, and if I have to make this a 4-book series instead of a 5-book series, that is fine. I just want to work on stories that I am passionate about writing. Life is too short to stick with an idea that no longer excites me. I’m going to revisit the historical western Stephannie and I worked on and see if that is a better way to tackle the original idea I had. All I know is that it doesn’t fit in the Regency world. It might have to be in a setting that is more “westerny” where you can get into the nitty gritty stuff you can’t tackle in Regencies.

In the meantime, I have tentatively placed The Duke’s Return at the very end of this series. So at the moment, this is what the series arrangement looks like: