Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 31

Breaking the Rules is Now Available!

The main characters in Breaking the Rules are Miss Lilly Lowell and Mr. Roger Morris. I introduced both of them in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, which I published way back in 2012. Over the years, I’ve had a couple of requests to write their story. I didn’t have the right plot to put them in until recently, so that’s why it took me so long to get to it.

You may want to read The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife first.

If you haven’t read The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, it’s free at all retailers so you can pick it up and read it first. (Links to the book are on this page.) The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife is Book 1 in the Marriage by Scandal Series.

I did recently change the cover. In case you don’t recognize the new cover, I thought I should post the old one. If you only found me after I changed covers, I’ll post the new one, too.

The old cover looked like this:

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The new cover looks like this:

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Is it necessary to read The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife? No. But if you want the backstory that goes with Lilly and Roger, you’ll want to. I don’t go heavily into their backstory in Breaking the Rules.

Another note I want to make about Breaking the Rules is that this book takes place BEFORE A Most Unsuitable Earl. That means that Ethan (Lord Edon) and Christopher (Mr. Robinson) are still SINGLE at the time of this book. This is very important to remember when reading Breaking the Rules. If I explain why, it’ll spoil some of the book.

With all that aside, I’ll finally get to the information about Breaking the Rules.

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Here’s the description:

They say a proper lady follows the rules. She lets the gentleman take the lead. She obeys her chaperone. She is soft spoken and careful in everything she says and does. She doesn’t intrude into a gentleman’s business. And she most certainly doesn’t become the object of scandal.

Miss Lilly Lowell has been careful to follow the rules all of her life. But the rules aren’t helping her now when she needs it most. She made the terrible mistake of spurning Mr. Morris’ attention, and now he’s looking for someone else to marry. Determined to get him back, she hatches a plan to make him fall in love with her again. And doing so will require her to start breaking some rules.

Hurt by Miss Lowell’s rejection, Mr. Roger Morris is seeking out another lady to court. But after endless social engagements, it starts to become clear to him that no one can take her place. Whether he likes it or not, he is doomed to love her. She is the perfect lady for him. But the last thing he wants to do is give in, especially when she creates a scandal that forces him to marry her.

This might just be a match made in hell. Or maybe, quite possibly, heaven…as long as Lilly can figure out a way to make things right.

Here is where you can find it:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play

Smashwords

Payhip

I did upload it to Google Play, but at this time, it’s not live in the store.

To Those Who Read The Stagecoach Bride

To the below, I sent out The Outlaw Bride to you on January 24. I got an email from two of you now who are claiming you never received this. I tried sending these files out again this morning, and they all ended up in a “donotreply” sender. I don’t know what is going on with the email program, but I’m unable to send the file. In the future, I’ll use my other email address.

I am so frustrated right now. Words just can’t even begin to explain. I also have kiddos buzzing around me because we’re supposed to go out to the store to pick up groceries. After that, the whole day is going to be hectic around here. I don’t have time to try to dig through all the emails and manually put everything in.

Okay, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to make The Outlaw’s Bride book free on Smashwords. It might take a day or two, but it’ll be free on B&N, Kobo, and Apple as well because Smashwords will update the price for me. I’ll set the book to $0.99 on Amazon. Amazon takes about a week or two to price match free. (Amazon won’t let me manually make the book free, but they will price match.)

I’m really sorry. I did send these files out on January 24, but apparently, no one got them, and I don’t know whether to cry or throw something, so I’m just going to make this blog post and give the link to the book page in this post so you can you can find the links to your retailer. Like I said, give it a while to go free on Amazon. But Smashwords will be right away. Apple should update within a few hours. I’m not sure how long B&N or Kobo will take, but I assume a day or two. I also set it free on Google Play. That should be going through any time now.

Here’s the page to The Outlaw’s Bride: https://ruthannnordinauthorblog.com/chronological-order-of-my-books/my-historical-westerns/wyoming-series/the-outlaws-bride-wyoming-series-book-1/

Again, I’m sorry. I thought those emails got sent out.

 

Loving Eliza Trivia

Thanks to those who mentioned an interest in learning more about Loving Eliza! I have down other books I’ll do trivia on in the future. Here’s the order: Bid for a Bride, Bride of Second Chances, A Bride for Tom, The Accidental Mail Order Bride, The Earl’s Wallflower Bride, The Marriage Contract, and Boaz’s Wager. I’ll work on more after those are done.

For now, let’s get to Loving Eliza!

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This is the book I wrote that launched my very first spin-off series from the Nebraska Series. Eliza was introduced in His Redeeming Bride as the prostitute Neil Craftsman often went to in the past. In the scene at the bar when she told Neil she only played along with the other men in tricking him because she had a son and that she didn’t want him to find out about her, I became interested in her character and wanted to learn more about her and her past. To do that, I had to give her a better future. That was how Loving Eliza was born.
I didn’t originally plan to make Loving Eliza the first book in a new series. It was supposed to be a standalone romance. One of my beta readers at the time, however, mentioned wanting to see Eliza have a child. I didn’t want to give John and Eliza a biological child because I personally knew a couple of people who weren’t able to have children, and I wanted to show that not every couple is able to have them. So what I opted to do was give John and Eliza a child to adopt. That was how Loving Eliza became the first book in the South Dakota Series.
I named the hero after my deaf son, John. I wanted to give the hero a disability, but I didn’t want to make him deaf like my son. I opted to make him mute. That way he could hear what Eliza, who was a chatterbox, was saying while also giving him trouble communicating so that people assumed he was mentally handicapped. The reason the people thought John was mentally handicapped was because a lot of people I came in contact with thought that about my son (including one of his teachers). This was a source of frustration for me at the time. Now I just tell people right away my son is deaf. It’s amazing how many people jump to conclusions about someone who can’t hear. (I’m sure parents of children with other disabilities get frustrated by the reactions of others, too.)
Another reason I made John mute was so that I could put myself into the shoes of a character who wanted to communicate with the world but had difficulty doing so. This was my attempt to gain better insight into what my son went through on a daily basis. The strategy worked. After that, the communication he and I shared improved significantly. While a writer might not know exactly what it’s like to be someone who is different from them, writing in that character’s point of view goes a long way to understanding that person a lot better. This is why I’m in full support of writers going outside their comfort zones and writing a character who is different from them. It opens the door of compassion when you put yourself into someone else’s position and imagine how the world is from their perspective.
Eliza, by far, was the easiest character I ever wrote. Every scene pretty much wrote itself. I got an appreciation for going deeply into a character’s point of view from this book, and ever since then, I have embraced this technique in all of my work.
Piggybacking off of the last point… When I write in a character’s point of view, I go through everything they do. It doesn’t matter what the scene is about or what the character is going through. So when Eliza was hungry, I was also hungry. Those scenes where she was struggling with hunger pangs were equally uncomfortable for me. I got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore and ate a full course meal before writing any more scenes where she was hungry, but while writing them, I would feel hungry anyway. I knew I wasn’t hungry, but my stomach would growl and pester me to eat. So when I finished the scenes, I would grab something to eat, and my stomach was finally satisfied. It’s amazing how the human brain can influence our body. Needless to say, Eliza and I were both relieved when she was no longer facing each scene hungry.

Asking for Topics for the Writing for Passion Book

I’ve been working on and off on a book that is motivational for authors who want to write for passion. Since some authors who love writing for passion check out this blog from time to time, I thought I’d ask for any topics you’d be interested in me discussing in this book. I’m going to make this book free, so there’s no sense in holding back on a topic that interests you. It’s also going to be a quick read. I’m looking at anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 words.

The goal of the book is to embrace a positive mindset about writing for passion. It’s not a “How To” book. It’s a motivational book.

I’ve just got through a couple of chapters. Here are the topics I’ve already covered:

A brief history of indie (aka Self) publishing over the past decade. (Basically, how writers went from a passion mindset to a “I need to make money” mindset. In other words, how did we get to the place where the focus went to money rather than the simple enjoyment of telling a story.)
Why chasing money won’t make you happy
Why looking to outside sources (awards, bestselling lists, and others’ opinions) don’t lead to happiness
Guarding your writing heart from the critic
Putting yourself in the best financial position you can to be less dependent on sales
Thinking like a writer instead of a publisher

Anyone see anything on the list they would like to see me discuss?

Ruined by the Earl Trivia

I had a request to do trivia on this book. Thanks to the person who requested it! It helps me to know what book to do trivia on if people let me know which book they’d like to see in one of these posts.

The Outlaw’s Bride is Now Available!

Before I forget, I will be doing trivia on Ruined by the Earl and the books in the South Dakota Series in the next couple of weeks.

With that aside, here’s the information for The Outlaw’s Bride.

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This is Book 1 in the Wyoming Series.

The background to this series is that Charles Gray and his men have stolen Wade Gray’s ranch, killed Wade’s wife, and kidnapped Wade’s son. He also arranged it so that Wade and Mic are outlaws. Charles left Abby alone since she’s a woman, so he doesn’t see her as a threat. Charles, Wade, Mic, and Abby all have the same father, but Charles has a different mother. So they’re all related, and Charles, being the oldest, felt he had the rights to the family ranch. But their father left the ranch to Wade. Wade, Mic, and Abby vow that they will rescue Wade’s child and then they’ll get the ranch back for Wade.

This plot series will be resolved during the course of the series, but it will take three books to complete. I just finished the second book (The Rancher’s Bride) and will start the third book (The Fugitive’s Bride) in the first week of February.

This is where The Outlaw’s Bride comes in:

The Outlaw’s Bride starts a year after the night Charles and his men took over the ranch. Abby gets word in town that Charles is expecting a mail-order bride by the name Lillian Christian, and she hurries to tell Mic and Wade since she doesn’t want to see an innocent woman ending up with him. Mic, who’s been isolated in his hideout, longs for companionship, so he decides he’ll marry her so she has a place to stay. The three, along with Jeremiah (their friend), intercepts the stagecoach before Lillian gets to town.  They are also determined to rescue Wade’s son in the upcoming weeks.

This is pretty much where the book starts, so I won’t go into it any more than that because then we’ll get into spoilers, and there are some people who never read the original version (The Stagecoach Bride). I don’t want to ruin anything for them.

This book is a historical western that shows the gritty side of the wild west, though the books following are more gritty than this one. I haven’t done Book 3 yet, but I expect that to be gritty as well. It does have romance, but it’s also more “western-ish” than what I usually do. I don’t know how to better explain it than that.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, here’s where you can find it:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play

Smashwords

Payhip (use coupon WMW69B5NB6 to get 75% off the $2.99 price) – offer good until January 31st

 

Updates on What I’m Working On

Before I dive into this, I want to mention a couple to things:

Larson Book List is Finally Here!

I finally got a “Larson Books” list composed on this blog. It’s in the menu bar at the top. This list tells you which Larson character is in which book, and I do give it in chronological order. I’ll be updating the list as I add more Larson books to my catalogue.

I wedged the Marriage by Design Series in between Book 1 and Book 2 of the Marriage by Design Series. This is why.

I also created a chronological list of the Regency books I’ve done. You see, in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, I introduced Lilly Lowell and Mr. Morris. Though I made it clear the two ended up together in the epilogue, I had a couple of people mention an interest in reading HOW the two ended up together. I held off on writing it until I had the perfect plot for their story. I never want to write a story unless I have the right plot for the right characters. Well, that finally all fell into place last year.

The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife takes place in 1813. A Most Unsuitable Earl takes place in 1815. The epilogue of The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife where Lilly and Mr. Morris are married takes place in 1814. So I had to wedge Breaking the Rules between The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife and A Most Unsuitable Earl.

While writing Breaking the Rules, I got interested in two of Lilly’s friends that I’m going to write. So Nobody’s Fool and A Deceptive Wager also fit between The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife and A Most Unsuitable Earl.

I updated covers for the Marriage by Scandal Series.

After saving my money for half a year, I was finally able to afford new covers that I feel are more visually appealing to the eye.

Here are the old covers:

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Here are the new covers:

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I realize this drives some people nuts that I go through and update old covers, but I didn’t like the look of the old covers. They were bugging me for the past four years. I just had to save up enough money in order to get the new ones. My next goal is to update the covers in the South Dakota Series because those are bugging me, too.

I like all of my other covers, so I don’t plan to make changes on those, at least not in the near future.

With that aside, here’s what I accomplished in the writing area:

Breaking the Rules (Marriage by Design Series: Book 1)

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I am still going through edits on this one, but my goal is to have it available at the end of next month.

The Rancher’s Bride (Wyoming Series: Book 2)

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I just finished the first draft of this one yesterday. I’m going to put this out in April. I need enough time to go through edits, but I switched my original plan to get The Duke’s Secluded Bride out before this book because the events in this book are closely tied to what happened at the end of The Outlaw’s Bride, which is Book 1 in this series.

The Duke’s Secluded Bride (Marriage by Fairytale Series: Book 5)

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I finished the first draft in the middle of last week! This will end the Marriage by Fairytale Series. I plan to have this out in June.

Books I’m going to work on next:

Nobody’s Fool

I ended up getting stuck for a few weeks on The Duke’s Secluded Bride, so I broke down and started Nobody’s Fool because I was wasting time staring at the computer and getting nowhere while I had scheduled time for The Duke’s Secluded Bride. I figured it was better to work on something than spin my wheels and getting nowhere.

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This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Design Series. It takes place right after Breaking the Rules.

Because I ran into that road block in The Duke’s Secluded Bride that lasted for over a month, I am going to keep three books in my “writing” list. I’m not going to restrict myself to two. Even with homeschooling, I do manage to get in a couple of hours a day for writing. After trial and error from the end of August to the end of November, I have finally worked out a good time management system to balance writing with homeschooling. I’m also lucky enough to have a kid who’s old enough to do some independent learning. I can give him assignments and have him do those in another room.

I’ll be starting these two books after February 1.

I have scheduled time off from writing for the next two weeks to give myself a break. This helps to avoid burnout. I’ll be getting back to Nobody’s Fool. I’ll also get to these:

The Fugitive’s Bride (Wyoming Series: Book 3)

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This is going to be Wade’s book.

I don’t know if there will be a Book 4 or not. I’ll have to see how this story goes. But I will be tying up a crucial loose end in Wade’s story.

Perfectly Matched (Husbands for the Larson Sisters: Book 2)

I have no cover for this yet.

This is going to be Patricia Larson’s story. She is Tom and Jessica’s second daughter. Remember Jim in Nelly’s Mail Order Husband who was Val’s good friend? Well, he didn’t end up marrying the woman Val thought he did. It turns out, he hopped the first train to Omaha and gave up the family fortune, thinking that Val’s sisters-in-law are all going to be rich because Val was too embarrassed to tell Jim the truth.

This is going to be a comedy.  I expect Patricia and Erin to initially fight over who gets to marry him. From there, I’ll see how things go. I know he ends up with Patricia because I already know who Erin will end up with. I gave a hint to that in Nelly’s story.  As for Daisy, she’s still too young to marry anyone. So it has to be Patricia. I have an idea of how things go from their wedding, but things can still shift around. Until I work on a book, it’s impossible to tell how things will go.

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That wraps up everything writing related going on at the moment.

Financial Independence (A Money Post)

This is a more general post, but it’s a topic I’m interested in because my dream is to get to the point where I can write books without having to worry if they’ll sell or not. This post is applicable to writers who would rather write for passion than try to write something you don’t like because it’ll sell. (There are times an author’s passion is what will sell, but that’s not always the case, and I’m focusing more on the authors whose passion doesn’t lead to sales.)

This post can also benefit anyone who would like to reach the point in their life where they can have enough money in order to 1.) not do a job they hate or 2.) trade the job they’re at for the thing that gives them passion. If you can work at something you are passionate about, that’s the ideal equation, but not everyone can obtain that balance.

So for those of you interested in this topic, I plan to do more posts like this in the future. My focus on this blog will still be what I’m writing because writing is my main passion, but I’ll be popping in from time to time with stuff I’m learning as I study the subject of financial independence. I figure there’s no point in investing so much of my time and energy into exploring this topic if I can’t at least pass on what I’m learning. It might be that someone might benefit from these posts, and if so, then that’s all the better. I love being able to help others whenever I can.

Alright, that aside, here we go with the initial post on the topic of financial independence.

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1. I think it’s important to define why money has value. (This is picking your reason for wanting to achieve financial independence in the first place.)

Money doesn’t have value because it’s money. The reason money has value is because money buys you freedom to pursue the kind of life you want. If you have enough money, you can afford to pursue what most makes you happy. So really, the more money you have, the more freedom you have to do what you want with your time.

You don’t have to be a millionaire to be happy. I’ve seen a lot of videos where the main goal for people who want to reach financial independence is to reach that coveted millionaire status. These remind me of the authors who keep saying that if you want to be a successful writer, you must make that magical six-figure income. Otherwise, you haven’t “made it”. This thinking, of course, just isn’t true. A successful writer is different for everyone. Some authors live a very frugal lifestyle and manage just fine with $20,000 to $30,000 a year. They’re making a living at their work, but they won’t get any pats on the back from authors who only acknowledge that coveted “six-figure income”.

But success in writing doesn’t always boil down to money. To me, being a successful writer is writing the kinds of books I feel will give God glory because this life is much more than me; this life is ultimately about Him. If I spend my time writing books that I would be ashamed to show Him when I die, then I have failed, regardless of how much money those books made. When others are entertained by what I write, then it’s icing on the cake. But no, my real goal is not money. However, I do need to pay bills and eat, and because of that, I need a plan to get to where I want to be.

Money is a bridge that allows you to do what is most in your heart. Think about what excites you. What is it that would make you want to jump out of bed first thing in the morning because you can’t wait to do it? That thing that most inspires you is the real purpose in reaching financial independence. I think if you keep your eye on the prize, it’ll make the journey a lot easier.

2. Now that you have a goal, the next thing to do is to create a plan.

I haven’t gotten far into this one yet, but just from my experience as a writer, I know that it’s a lot easier to reach a goal if you specify what it is you want to achieve and then break things up into smaller steps in order to get there.

I currently have a total of 92 books out. Back in 2009, my goal was write 100 books. I took that big goal that seemed like this big mountain at the time, and I broke that goal down into smaller, more obtainable ones. I started with the goal of 10 books. Back then, I wrote one chapter in the story each day that I sat down to write. When I hit 10 books, my goal went to 20 books. By the time I got to 20 books, I realized I tend to write books that are in the 50,000 to 70,000 word range. I began to figure out how many words I typically wrote in a day, and from there, I was able to get an idea of when a book would be ready for publication based on my average total word count for a book. So instead of writing a chapter, I would focus on reaching a certain word count each writing day. As I continued writing books, I discovered better ways of breaking things down into smaller goals.

The reason I rambled on about all of this is because finding the smaller steps to your big goal is going to take time. You’ll have to experiment with the small steps you come up with in order to see if they are realistic to your situation. For example, I have a husband who spends more than I do. I would do just fine with a bed, a desk, a computer, and cardboard boxes for everything else. This is how I was living before we got married. I did have a small TV and VCR for entertainment, but that was it. I didn’t need a lot of things. Even today, I prefer to minimize the things around me. My husband, on the other hand, likes to have more things. So we have to have work on compromising in order to be satisfied, and these compromises have taken a while to figure out. If it’s just you in the equation, you’ll get to your goal a lot faster. If you have others in the equation, it’s going to take longer if that person doesn’t see things the same way you do.

Also, when you’re looking at the smaller steps, you have to decide what little luxuries you value the most. I don’t believe in the “sacrifice it all” method, though some people have successfully done this. My mindset is that real change takes time, and if you deprive yourself of something you love, the temptation to give up is going to be greater. You’ll be giving up some things as  you go on your journey to financial independence, but you don’t have to give up everything. You can factor in a modest amount of wants. Figure out what you’re main “wants” are and eliminate the rest. For example, some people love to travel. It’s their big enjoyment in life. Other people would rather have expensive clothes than travel. And some people would be willing to give up travel and expensive clothes if they could eat out instead. If you can reward yourself for taking effective small steps to the big goal, I think progress will be smoother. This doesn’t mean you won’t have some setbacks. There will probably be setbacks. But those are easier to overcome if you have something to look forward to while you’re on your way to financial independence. Don’t be afraid of experimenting and finding new ways that work best for you.

3. So what should your big goal be? (This is your financial independence number.)

What I’ve learned so far in researching this topic is that you have to start with a list of your monthly expenses. This list mainly takes into account survival expenses, rather than everything you actually buy in a month, but you can adjust these numbers to include the “high value wants” you purchase in a month.

When you figure out how much you need a month, the next thing you do is look at what how much money you’ll need to satisfy one year’s worth of expenses. This is the stage where you are at Financial Security according the You Tube video I’m going to share below. It’s called “10 Levels of Financial Independence and Early Retirement” AKA “How to Escape the Rat Race”.

The explanation of Financial Security is at the 5 minute mark. The next stage is Financial Flexibility, and that is taking the annual income you need to survive and multiplying that number by 12.5. (The explanation for that is at the 6 minute mark.) The stage after this is Financial Independence, and that is taking the annual income you need to survive and multiplying that by 25. (You can find this starting around the 6:50 minute mark in the video.)

Now, I don’t think your “Financial Independence” number has to be 1 million dollars. If you live a modest lifestyle, you can easily get away with less than that much. I know I don’t need that much.

What you have to factor in is how much money you can spend and how much money you can save. That’s why the “Financial Independence” number will be different for everyone. Everyone’s situation is going to be different. I suggest sitting down and playing with the numbers. Start tracking your expenses for a couple of months. Find areas where you can cut back. Find areas where you want to keep spending. And remember to include your spouse and children into this equation (if you have them). Be realistic about this, and plan accordingly.

As a final note, I just want to emphasize that the goal in achieving financial independence isn’t to sit at home all day and do nothing. You don’t have to be scared about spending every single penny you have. Just be smart about how you spend your money. We’ll get more into this in the future, but for now, think of the kind of life you’d like to live that would give you the greatest satisfaction.

Since this post is a little over 1700 words, I’ll stop it here.

Other People (Another Writing for Passion Post)

Skip this post if you don’t want to hear me do another “writing for passion” post. (I received feedback a while back that someone was tired of reading these types of posts. So I figured I’d give the heads up in case this isn’t your cup of tea.)

His Redeeming Bride Trivia

Today I thought I’d give some trivia about this book…

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1. This was the last book I submitted to a publisher when I was thinking of going the traditional publishing route. (Eye of the Beholder was the first book I submitted.) The publisher didn’t like the fact that Neil and Sarah got along so early in the story. They wanted me rewrite the story to give them more angst and then resubmit it. I didn’t like that idea. I wanted the story to stay the way it was. I never rewrote it.

2. I did a lot of praying about the direction I should go with publishing during the 2008-2009 time frame. Did I self-publish or go with a traditional publisher? Everyone in my writing circle told me I should go the traditional route because self-publishing wasn’t for “real” authors. It was difficult to go against the crowd mindset. Deep down, I wanted to self-publish because I didn’t want a publisher coming in and changing my vision for my stories. So really, I was looking for a reason to self-publish, but it had to be a compelling one. I ended up going to God about it. I prayed to God that if He wanted me to go the traditional route, the publisher would accept the story as it was, but if He wanted me to self-publish, the publisher would reject the book or want me to change it. When the publisher wrote back and told me to change the story, I knew God was okay with me self-publishing. As long as God is fine with me doing something, I don’t pay attention to what others have to say.

3. Sarah Donner’s first husband is based off of one of my ex-boyfriends. He was very legalistic in his religious beliefs. There was no room for things like mercy and grace. Looking back, I can see that he had an unforgiving mindset, and he was actually cold to be around. There was a superficial level of affection, but there was nothing real behind it. I didn’t realize how things really were with him until I was with my husband.

4. The church Sarah was going to in the beginning of the story is based off a church I went to. This was years after the ex-boyfriend thing. The church was very legalistic, and the husband had 100% of the decision-making responsibilities. Wives had to do whatever the husband wanted. For example, I once asked the pastor, “What if my husband is making decisions that will end up running the family into bankruptcy? Are you saying that I should just let him do that?” The pastor said, “Yes. He is the head of the house.” Needless to say, I didn’t return to the church, but there are some denominations in the Christian faith that actually teach this kind of nonsense. Wives aren’t to blindly accept stupid decisions their husbands are making, and I get frustrated with pastors warping what the Bible says regarding this issue.

5. Preacher Amos represents legalism in the church. Preacher Peters represents mercy and grace.

6. I named Preacher Peters after the Apostle Peter in the New Testament of the Bible. Peter was the one who denied Jesus Christ three times before Jesus was crucified, and after Jesus’ resurrection, he received Jesus’ forgiveness. Peter went on to be a steadfast apostle, and historical records say he was crucified for his faith. I always thought of Peter as evidence that God extends second chances. To me, Peter is the best example of mercy and forgiveness in the Christian faith. This was what Neil Craftsman needed most, and it was Preacher Peters who offered him a second chance.

7. This was the first book I ever plotted in advance of writing it. This was based off of the advice of the leader in the writing group I was in at the time who loved to plot. I don’t have a copy of the outline since I lost a lot of files when my computer crashed, but I remember that the outline was based on the standard formula for romance books. The formula for romances that traditional publishers look for is simply this: there needs to be some kind of angst and frustration between the hero and heroine through most of the book. So in the outline, Neil and Sarah were supposed to be at odds with each other for 90% of the book. Well, Neil and Sarah started getting along at Chapter Six, and I spent some time trying to get them to NOT get along but kept ending up stalling out in the story. I finally ditched the outline and just went with the flow of the story, and I love the way it turned out. This book is a lot better. This book showed me that I’m just not a standard formula romance writer. In fact, some argue that my books really aren’t romances, and if you’re comparing my books to the average romance book out there, you would be right. But I still label them as romance because I feel the love between the two main characters are still front and center stage of all the other things that are going on around them.

8. Sarah wore a lot of dull colors in the beginning because an author friend of mind swore up and down that women did not wear any bright colors back in the 1800s.

9. Emily’s mother was not meant to show up in this book when I outlined it. Emily was supposed to continue to think her mother loved her until Isaac’s Decision. My original idea for Isaac’s Decision was for Emily to run off to see her mother and then realize her mother never loved her.

10. I came up with the idea for writing Loving Eliza when I was writing the scene where Neil at the saloon talking with Dan. Eliza had been planted in order to hurt Neil’s legal case in the custody battle he had with Emily’s mother. When Eliza told him, “Neil, I’m sorry.  They threatened to tell my son the truth about his birth. I gave him up for adoption twelve years ago, and I don’t want him to know about me.” I knew then and there that I’d write her story.

11. I intentionally kept Sarah’s thoughts closed off to the reader while writing the scene where Sarah “left” Neil after the scene at the saloon. This was when she went with Beatrice Donner. I also hid her thoughts when Neil was pounding on the door of Beatrice’s home in hopes of talking to her. I did this because I didn’t want people to know what she was planning. I wanted people to think she was really leaving him. I can’t remember ever closing off a character’s thoughts in any other book.

12. I felt so sorry for Neil during the scene early on in the book when Sarah gave birth to Luke and he was watching how happy she was to be a mother. He thought back to how Emily never received her mother’s love and wished things had been different. It was the loneliest moment he’d ever experienced in his entire life. He wanted so much to have a family like the one Dave and Mary had, but that never played out with Cassie. When it came time to end the story, I gave the birth of Elizabeth from Neil’s point of view. He was no longer an outsider to the good things happening around him. He was now a part of it. This completed his story that really started at the end of Eye of the Beholder.