Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 35
July 2, 2019
Thoughts on Indie Publishing and The Value of Books
I read this quote in an interview Mark Coker did with Hannah Howe on Mom’s Favorite Reads that really resonated with me.
Traditional publishers judge books based on perceived commercial merit. They want to publish books that will sell. That’s how they stay in business. This means there’s a strong inclination within traditional publishing to measure a book’s worth based on sales. This leads publishers to take fewer risks on unknown authors. It leads them to publish more celebrity drivel. It causes them to reject books that serve smaller audiences. And it causes them to trade short term gains for long term losses.
As far as I’m concerned, this quote could be easily applied to indie publishers. An indie publisher is someone who publishes their own books. In my opinion, indie publishing has become traditional publishing all over again. In the indie world, sales are the big topic. The main question is, “How can I sell a book?” instead of “How can I write a good book?”
I get what Mark is saying. He’s pointing out that traditional publishing only publishes books that are going to make money. And he’s right. Back in 2009 and 2010 when I went to writer’s conferences, agents and editors of publishing houses admitted that a lot of great stories were rejected based on the fact that they couldn’t market it to a wide enough audience. They would rather take a book that was mediocre if they knew how to market it to the biggest audience possible because, at the end of the day, agents and editors needed to be paid. It wasn’t personal. It was just business.
When I look out at the current indie publishing landscape, I’m seeing the same theme all over again. “It’s not personal. It’s just business.” This is why some authors in the community have gone against their ethical beliefs. They have preached one thing for years, and suddenly, they changed course. They’re now doing things they once told other authors not to do, and they do it because of money. Then they justify their actions by saying, “It’s not personal. It’s just business.”
Sometimes I miss the “good old days” of indie publishing. This was when most people looked down on self-published authors. (This was back in the 2008-2010 era.) The criticism didn’t bother me. I was publishing what I wanted, and it’s a lot easier to enjoy writing when your main concern is telling the story the way you want (rather than letting the market—aka the widest audience possible–tell you what to write). The best thing about this time period was that other authors who were indie publishing had the same mindset I did. We were doing it for the love of writing. We were excited to bypass the publishers and see our books in the world, exactly as those books were meant to be. Meanwhile, all of the writers concerned with money and respectability kept submitting to traditional publishers. Unfortunately, we’re not getting those days back any time soon, and it does make it difficult to stay focused on the passion side of writing when you’re surrounded by people telling you to treat it as a business.
I’m tired of a book’s value being measured by how much money it brings in. I’m tired of authors comparing themselves to other authors, and I’m tired of the rat race where we’re all expected to make a certain amount of money every month if we want to be seen as “equal” to those who are “important” in the indie community. A writer is one who writes. It shouldn’t matter how the book is published or how much a book makes. Each book has value.
Now, Mark does say that each book has value. One of his goals as the founder of Smashowrds is to help authors figure out how to use best marketing practices in order to get more sales. But if that’s all someone reads in the interview he did at that blog, then I think you missed the bulk of what he’s saying.
The main meat of the interview is really based on the emotional well-being of the writer. He discusses things like how to be happy, pursuing your dreams, and other things that go beyond writing. I found the overall interview to be very inspiring. The best news is that writers have control over their emotional well-being. Sales are out of a writer’s control, and to focus on something that is outside one’s control isn’t a good idea. If sales are the things we strive for, then our well-being is dependent upon other people, then we’re going to be let down. We need to focus on what we can control.
I really like what Mark says here because it helps to put a book’s value in perspective:
My view is that if your book has the potential to change one person’s life, your book is just as important as some New York Times bestseller. Even if that one person is your mom, son, daughter or future grandchild.
Many books and authors aren’t fully appreciated for their genius until long after the author is dead. Books are meant to be immortal. Books that are ahead of their time won’t sell well, but they’re no less valuable to humanity. If anything, these books are gifts to the future of humanity.
I was recently listening to a podcast from a man who’s been dead for decades, but the work he laid out during his life has had a big impact on me today, and I know others have been better off from his work, too.
It’s short-sighted to get caught up in how a book is selling. It’s easy to miss the big picture. With the digital age, books have the potential to go out into places authors don’t even think about. Who knows what impact anyone’s book can have today, tomorrow, or hundreds of years from now?
This is where I go into a spiritual tangent, so if that’s not your thing, skip the rest of the post.
When I started writing romances back in 2007, I was determined to write them in a way that glorifies God. This is why my romances are the way they are. I don’t like to be preachy. I get turned off by preachy movies and books. I like a Christian theme so long as it doesn’t derail the whole story. Over the years, I noticed some of my books lean more in the spiritual direction than others. It just depended on the characters and plot. But at the end of the day, each book I write is one I want to do according to His leading. As much as it pains me to admit, I have taken my eyes off of Him. I’ve been putting my time and attention into the material side of writing, and it’s only led to frustration. To sum up King Solomon in Ecclesiastes, chasing material things is grasping for the wind.
So I’ve made a decision. As long as God is leading me to write, I’ll write. This is regardless of whether I hit 100 romance books. This is regardless of whether I get a job. I might not be able to write as fast if I get a job, but as long as He wants me to write, I’m going to do it. At the end of the day, all that matters is what He wants.
June 27, 2019
What if Someone is Trying to Claim Copyright to a Book You Wrote?
It’s about what to do if someone claims they own the copyright to the book you wrote, and they submit a takedown notice to a retailer to have your book removed. (And the retailer believes them!)
I don’t know how many authors have run into this scenario, but this week, it happened to me. My goal in writing this is to warn you so that you can be prepared in case it happens to you. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
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Earlier this week, I received an email from KDP saying that they wanted to make sure I was the copyright holder to my paperback book titled Falling In Love With Her Husband. I thought I had triggered something in the system when I changed the glossy format to matte for the book. I had heard other authors say stuff like this happened to them when they made similar changes, and that it was no big deal. All you had to do was reply with a, “Yes, I own the copyright,” and all was good.
So I did what had worked for other authors in the past.
But this situation was different. Why? Because in this instance, someone had claimed I had stolen my own book!
Yesterday morning, I got an email from KDP saying this:
Hello,
Thank you for the information you provided regarding the following book(s):
Falling In Love With Her Husband: A North Dakota Historical Romance
Ruth Ann Nordin (A2D76D4TTMXLJ0)
Prior to your submission, we received a notice and takedown for a book that matches to yours, from a third party claiming that the distribution of the book above was not properly authorized due to copyright infringement
We don’t involve ourselves in third party disputes and because we have not received any communication from the involved parties that the matter has been resolved, we have determined that we will not be making the book(s) available for sale on Amazon at this time.
We appreciate your understanding in this matter.
Fortunately, I had registered my book with the US Copyright Office, so I have the Certificate of Registration. I scanned it into my computer and then took a screenshot of my KDP dashboard showing the paperback linked to the ebook where you can see the dates of publication and the ASIN numbers for the paperback and ebook version. (Amazon refers to the ISBN as ASIN in my dashboard.)
As a side note, if this happens in the future, I’ll also add links to where my book is on other retailers. I didn’t think to do that yesterday.
So I attached these the Certificate of Registration for Falling In Love With Her Husband and the screen, along with this email:
The person who reported the takedown notice has stolen my book. I am attaching two things. One is the US Copyright Registration form, and the other a screenshot of my KDP dashboard that shows I have published this book originally through CreateSpace and that it was published in 2009. I am the copyright owner of this book. I am the only publisher of this book. I have not given permission to anyone else to publish this book.
Please check my KDP dashboard if you need further proof. You can compare the ebook to the paperback to see that I wrote the paperback.
My book’s url is this: https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Love-Her-Husband-Historical/dp/1441492461/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=falling+in+love+with+her+husband&qid=1561568183&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Please notice the date of publication and the fact that the ASIN is 1441492461. This matches the books ISBN.
The stolen book’s url is this: https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Love-Her-Husband-Historical/dp/B01F81R18Y . Notice the the ISBN does not match. Also, notice that this person (who has no rights to publish this book) does not even list out the book title the same way I do. I would never title (2009-04-24) in a title. I don’t know where “CreateSpace Independent Publis (1750)” is, but I suspect it is not in the United States.
I live in the United States. I have registered this book with the US Copyright Office. That copyright is effective as of June 19, 2011. I am sending an attachment of the scanned copyright certificate.
I’m reporting a takedown notice on the stolen book ( https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Love-Her-Husband-Historical/dp/B01F81R18Y). Whoever uploaded this is an imposter. He/she did not write the book. They have no rights to publish it.
Let me know if you need anything else on my end.
Thank you,
Ruth Ann Nordin
***
This is what KDP sent me a few hours later:
Congratulations! The following book(s) you recently submitted have been reviewed and were successfully passed:
“Falling In Love With Her Husband: A North Dakota Historical Romance ” ID: PRI-C1Y33J3X85V
The book(s) will soon be published on Amazon. Please allow up to 48 hours for the book(s) to become available in the Amazon Store.
We look forward to offering your book to millions of Amazon customers and wish you the best of luck in promoting and selling your work!
Thanks for using Amazon KDP
As of this moment, the stolen book is still up. I’m keeping an eye on it. Back in 2011, someone stole a couple of my books, and Amazon was refusing to take one of them down. I spent three weeks trying to get them listen to me, but they wouldn’t. So, I had to get a copyright lawyer to contact Amazon for me. Within an hour, the book was removed. Copyright lawyers can do some things I can’t with Amazon. I’ve decided that if that stolen book isn’t removed by next week, I’m going to get a copyright lawyer involved.
So, for what it’s worth, my advice to every author is to register your book’s copyright. In the US, that is the US Copyright Office. (If you live outside the US, I would look up whatever place you have available to do this, if there is one.) I know it takes time to do this, and I realize it can be expensive to many out there. It’s currently $55.00 to file online with the US Copyright Office, and since I make paperback versions, I have to buy two of them and mail them in. So when all is said and done, I spent almost $100 to register one book. If you don’t do paperbacks, you can just file the ebook version. But I would rather pay $100 to have proof on hand that I own the copyright to my own book so that when stuff like this happens, I’m ready for it.
Some people might say that my particular case is rare. Back in 2011 when I had three books stolen, people told me it was rare to have your books stolen. Yet in the following years, I’ve heard many stories of authors who have had books stolen from them and put up for sale on different retailers. (Most of the time, it’s Amazon, but no retailer is immune from this.)
Anyway, what might be rare right now could be commonplace tomorrow. It doesn’t hurt to have the copyright certificate on hand. Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but in case you do, it makes life a whole lot easier when you’re trying to prove you wrote the book.
June 25, 2019
Things I’m Currently Working On
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I also updated the book description.
On her 21st birthday, Ophelia was due to marry her guardian. Only she didn’t know it.
Miss Ophelia Crowe has led an extremely sheltered life. After her parents died when she was five, she went to live at her guardian’s country estate. She went on to live a life where everything was managed for her. From what she could wear to what activities she could do, each and every day had been carefully structured by the servants.
The problem was, she didn’t know who her guardian was.
Until the morning of her 21st birthday when the maids present her to him looking more like a doll than a lady who would like to have a say in her future. And a doll is exactly the way he treats her. She comes to realize just how much he’s structured her life so that she’s been trained to be the kind of wife he wants.
Well, she’s decided she won’t marry him. In a bold move, she runs off on a horse in the night in order to escape the fate everyone has set out for her ever since she was a child.
All Vicar Julian Roskin wants is to lead a quiet life. He’s caused enough trouble in the past. He doesn’t need any more problems. But, late one night, his safe and predictable world is turned upside down when a beautiful young lady ends up on his doorstep in need of protection. Protection, in this case, will require him to marry her.
Reason tells him not to do it. Nothing good can come from marriage to a lady he doesn’t know anything about. But something about her demands he take her up on her offer. Dare he take the risk, or should he do everything he can to send her back?
This is loosely inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood story.
Quick heads up about a special sale I’ll be running when this book releases.
I’m trying something new. I’m asking $3.99 (in USD) for this book on the retailers. But I’m going to offer in Payhip for 50% off. (Payhip is my own storefront that I just set up.) I can’t make a pre-order on Payhip, so this will have to be on the day it’s released. I’m going to put up a mobi and epub file so you can get this uploaded to your preferred e-reading device. So Payhip is the ONLY place where I’ll have this special promotion. Depending on the results of this promotion, I may or may not offer something similar in the future. This is just something new I’m trying out.
If you would rather pre-order this now from the retailer of your choice, here are the links:
***
I’m finally making paperbacks for
A Bride for Tom and A Husband for Margaret.
These are Books 2 and 3 in the Nebraska Series.
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I know it’s crazy that I haven’t done this yet. At one time, I had them both combined into one book, and I didn’t care much for that, so I had removed it from sale. But now that I have some extra time on my hands, I decided to make each one into a separate paperback since I’d rather have both in each individual book for my bookshelf.
This is one of the perks to taking a writing break. It frees me up to finally get to the tasks that I’ve been wanting to get to.
And speaking of getting to things that have been sitting on the back burner for a while, I am also working on this…
I’m in the process of getting my contemporary sweet romance, Online Proposal, ready for ebook and paperback.
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This story was first published in this anthology:
If you have this book, you already have Online Proposal.
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I have since gotten the rights back to Online Proposal, so I can publish it myself.
Now to explain why I am putting Online Proposal under Ruth Ann Nordin. Back when I thought I was going to write a series of G-rated romances, I created the pen name Barbara Joan Russell. I did this to help separate out the G-rated romances from the spicy ones. BUT then as I kept writing books, my characters didn’t want to go down the “only kiss” path. The only characters who complied were the ones in Online Proposal.
In 2016 when it became apparent I’m just not meant to be a G-rated romance author, I decided to make Barbara Joan Russell a YA thriller and fantasy writer instead of a romance one. So that, in a nutshell, is why I’m publishing Online Proposal under Ruth Ann Nordin.
Online Proposal is a novella, and it’s meant to be a quick and cute read. It’s a contemporary romance. As a side note, I doubt I’ll be writing any more contemporary romances because my heart is more into the historical ones. I like the “feel” of the time period more. I love my historical western and Regency worlds and want to spend all my time “playing” in them. For me, writing is play. I really do enjoy it.
***
I’m also in the process of transferring all of my pen name’s books to Smashwords and have shut down the pen name’s website.
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I just delisted these books from Draft 2 Digital. I’d rather have my ebooks all under the place. I also deleted the website for Barbara Joan Russell and have transferred the information for those books over to this blog.
I think I’ve finally learned my lesson. I just don’t have the time (or the desire) to maintain to author names. I might as well make the transition while I’m on my writing vacation. Now it’s just a matter of formatting these books to Smashwords and uploading them. Fortunately, the paperbacks and Amazon versions will stay intact. That makes the process of transferring much easier.
These were all stories I wrote before I started writing romances (except for Body Swap which is a short story). They might not reflect my most professional work, but I have an attachment to them and wanted to see them dusted off so I could have them on my Kindle and on my bookshelf. These are not counted in the goal I have for 100 books. Those 100 books are all going to be romances since romance is where my real passion lies.
***
Honestly, it feels good to finally clean things up and get better organized.
June 22, 2019
Possible Ideas of what I’ll Write This Fall
Earlier this month, I listed out the goals I wanted to accomplish this summer. One was to get my books up on Payhip. I did that. The other was to getting some books on Kobo. I did that. Then there was updating the book descriptions on The Wedding Pact, Fairest of Them All, Nelly’s Mail Order Husband, and Forever Yours. I just finished up with that this morning.
That leaves me with the final goal of coming up with a decision on what to write starting in late August when the kids go back to school. So this is what I’m currently leaning toward.
1. Book 5 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. (I don’t have a title yet.)
Here are the books so far:
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I want Marcy’s cousin (someone I introduced at the end of One Enchanted Evening) to find someone. I like the guy. The plot, thankfully, has come to me, and it’s going to have a wonderful gothic feel to it, which fits the tone of the other books in the series.
The basic idea is that he goes out to the country to marry a lady through an arrangement, and when he gets there, he quickly learns that her family is bordering on insanity. The lady is the only sane one, but they all think she’s the crazy one, and they have locked her away to keep her from running off. This is loosely based off the Rapunzel fairy tale. I don’t have much else than that except it would be cool if I can also blend in elements of the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” that I read years ago in college. For anyone who doesn’t know, that is where the villain is hunting the hero for sport. In my story, it would be fun if the hero’s life was in danger at some point.
But…even though I make plans before writing a book, the characters will ultimately decide where to take things.
2. A historical western romance where a very recently widowed woman with a kid or two (or is pregnant) has to get a husband ASAP or else she’ll lose the ranch.
Since she’s desperate, she agrees to take a man who was caught with a group of bandits. The man has no memory of who he is, and he’s in a serious situation. I’m thinking he’s going to be hanged if he doesn’t marry her. I’d have to set this out in the wilderness or something so that there would really be no options available to her but to marry him.
There are a lot of details that need to be ironed out. I’m not sure if this would be a serious story or a comedy. I’d have to start writing it to find out.
3. The Outlaw’s Bride
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My mind keeps going back to this one, and I might as well finish the rewrite. It was originally The Stagecoach Bride.
4. The Rancher’s Bride
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Yes, I did say that I wasn’t going to write four books at a time ever again, but I’m currently at chapter 11 (32,000 words) in The Outlaw’s Bride. I’m over halfway to the end. And I really want to write these two stories. II can get away with writing less per writing day in The Outlaw’s Bride since I am so far into it. Plus, I know how it ends. It’s just a matter of rewriting it out.
***
Those are the books I’m looking at right now for August-December. I tried to think of something for one of Tom’s daughters, but my mind is completely blank. I’m not going to write a story where I don’t know what the plot will be because I have no enthusiasm for it. So the Larsons will just have to wait.
June 17, 2019
A Look Into The Future
ID 146462023 © Andrewgenn | Dreamstime.com
I wasn’t sure how to title this post. As of late, I’ve been considering possible paths on what I want to be doing in the future. I’m still undecided, but I like to ramble from time to time on this blog because it helps me process the thoughts that are cycling through my mind. Yeah, I’ve tried to privately journal my thoughts, but it just doesn’t work as well for me. I’m not sure why. It just is what it is. This particular method of writing things down work best for me.
Okay, so the particular question that’s been going through my mind over the past year and a half is this: when will it be time to walk away from writing? Deep inside, I can feel that there will be a time when I walk away from it. I don’t know if that will be a break or if it’ll be permanent. But I can feel it welling up inside of me. I love to write, but I’ve been writing nonstop for the past 12 years. My average is producing six novels a year. (In romance, 50K is a full-length novel.)
I ran the numbers tonight, and the total romances (including a couple of novellas I’ve done) is 79. That number does include the novels I will publish later this year. I finished The Wedding Pact, Fairest of Them All, Nelly’s Mail Order Husband, and Forever Yours. If I total the amount of books I’ve done in other genres, the total comes to 92. (A few of those are novellas.) I’ve done six short stories. That’s all within 12 years.
I’ve enjoyed it immensely. Don’t get me wrong. I consider myself extremely blessed to have been able to live at a time when it was possible for me to publish my books regardless of content or length. I didn’t have to have a publisher telling me what I could and couldn’t do. I called the shots. It really is a marvelous time to be a writer.
That all being said, I am considering when I’ll “close shop” (so to speak). I would keep the books I’ve done up for sale as long as the retailers will let me. But I have been asking myself, “What do you want to do when the kids are all out of high school?” My youngest is now going into the 8th grade. That gives me five years to make a plan for the future. And one of the things I’m considering is hanging up the writing hat and doing something else. It might be time to transition to a new chapter in my life.
Anyway, at the moment, I have a goal of completing 100 romances. One of the dreams I had back in the Fall 2007 when I started writing romances was that I would publish 100 books before I died. Back then, I wasn’t thinking of whether they would be romances or include other genres. All I knew was that I wanted to have 100 books out. These weren’t short stories. These would be 100 paperbacks I wrote that I could put in my bookshelf and say, “That was a goal I accomplished in the course of my lifetime.” It was the #1 item in my bucket list. Being able to self-publish my books made that dream possible.
I thrive off of goals. I need something to shoot for. So tonight I sat down and realized I only need 21 more romances to reach a goal of 100 romances. That’s pretty exciting. My average is 6 novels a year. So if I work at that pace, I can reach that goal in 3.5 years. That puts me well in time for my goal to figure out what the next chapter of my life will look like once the kids are all graduated from high school.
Like I said, I don’t know what I’m going to end up doing. I’m just rambling so I can better organize my thoughts. 
June 12, 2019
My Romances are Now on Payhip!
Until recently, I didn’t know what Payhip was. An author friend introduced me to it. It’s a place where I can create my own store to sell my books directly to people. I’m offering mobi and epub files for all of my romances over there.
Here is my store link!
The downside is that I have no control over the order the books are listed on the storefront. They aren’t given in order according to series. I have 76 books up there, so it may take some searching to find a particular book. I did try to make things easier by breaking the books up into “Regency Romances”, “Historical Western Romances”, and “Contemporary Romances” categories. But as of right now, that is the best I can do.
Overall, I’m impressed with Payhip because of the features they offer.
Please Note: these are special deals I’m offering ONLY on Payhip:
1. I can give discounts if you mention the book on social media. If you share a paid book on a place like Facebook, you can save 25% off of it. So let’s say, you share the link for Kidnapping the Viscount. After you do that, you’ll get an option to save 25% off of it. I have set this feature up for all of my books.
2. I can offer cross promotions on my books. To test this feature out, I have one series that I’m offering this special on at the moment.
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I’ll run this special for a month. Today’s date is June 12, 2019. This deal will run until July 12, 2019.
If you purchase Wagon Trail Bride (Book 1) at the regular price ($2.99), you can save 50% off of The Marriage Agreement, 50% off Groom For Hire, and 50% off Forced Into Marriage. But this sale is only good until July 12, 2019. So instead of paying $11.96, you only pay $7.46 (which is a savings of $4.50 for the entire series).
Here’s the link to Wagon Trail Bride. Once you put the item in the cart, you’ll get the option to take advantage of the sale on the other books in the series. Look at the bottom right corner of the screen to click see the sales price on the other three books in the series. You’ll need to add each book individually to the cart, but the discount will automatically apply to each book if you use those links at the bottom right corner of the screen.
If there is a special you’d like to see on another series, let me know, and I’ll run it from July to August.
3. I can offer a coupon on a new release. I will try this out when The Wedding Pact is released on July 14.
June 8, 2019
Being True To Yourself May Not Be Easy, But It’s Worth It
Today’s post is inspired by the You Tube video I posted below. (The video is a little over seven minutes.)
Okay, so now for my take on this topic.
I think there is value in being honest with yourself and with those around you. This is something I’ve been working on recently. I had no idea that when I made the decision to write for passion in March 2018, I started a series of events that changed everything in my life. These changes weren’t just writing related; the changes are impacting how I deal with money, personal relationships, and my walk with God. I think once you start to seriously examine one area of your life, other areas end up coming into play. It’s like a domino effect.
But all of this did start with my decision to write for passion. Writing for passion requires honesty. It requires a writer to sit down and ask, “What do I really want to write?” On the surface, this seems like it would be easy to answer, but the reality is that the answer is surprisingly complicated because the writer has to come face to face with what he/she truly values in life. The writer has to tell the story in a way that lines up with what matters to him/her.
As soon as you start being true to yourself, you will upset some people. This can’t be avoided. Not everyone is going to like the changes you’re making. They would prefer you to stay the way you used to be. I think that’s because your new way of dealing with the world is not always compatible with the way those people deal with the world. This new path isn’t going to be a good fit with everyone in your life. Whatever your truth is, you will have people who don’t like it. That’s okay. Your mission is not to change other people’s minds. Your mission is to be true to who you are. If someone doesn’t like it, let them go.
Speaking as a writer, I have received criticisms from people ever since I decided to write for passion. Quite a few of them were pretty vocal in letting me know how much they hated my new characters and/or stories. When I wrote to market, I rarely received criticism. Now I receive it about every other month, and some people aren’t even kind in how they approach me. There is an upside to this. The more criticism you receive from other people, the tougher your skin gets. And I’m almost at the point now where the criticism doesn’t even bother me anymore. The thing that matters is that I wrote the story I wanted to write. So there might be that period of adjustment where you have to push through the negativity in order to continue down the path you started walking on. I think the criticisms are worth it because it’s fine tuning me as a writer.
Sometimes if you are catering your story to the greatest number of people (aka writing to market), you won’t be writing something that has the ability to touch people’s hearts. Stories that resonate with people are those in which the writer has invested him/herself into them. These are stories people will remember. These are stories that people will want to read over and over. These are stories where people are connected with the characters so intimately that they forget they’re even reading a book. I’m not looking to win popular approve or to make a lot of money. I’m looking for stories that matter to me and to those who like them. I will say that while I’ve had my share of critics, I have also received lovely feedback as well. The key is to focus on the positive.
Don’t be afraid of taking that first step toward being true to yourself. What matters is growing as a person. I’ve found that the first few steps are the hardest. There will be fear while you’re going into this. When I made the decision to write for passion, it was hard because I was giving up some nice money and I knew some people wouldn’t like my stories. I had days where I had to remove myself from the Internet just so I could be alone to figure myself out.
My original goal of being true to myself as a writer has led to my new goal of being true to myself as a person. (This is the domino effect in action.) Just recently, I have been working on establishing healthy boundaries in my personal life. And these were boundaries that I had overstepped and others had overstepped. No one is perfect. We all have room for improvement, and It can be difficult to speak the truth to someone else, even when you are being kind and respectful. But if you’re dealing with people who can’t accept you for who you truly are, then are they really worth associating with? The answer, of course, is no. You want to honor other people’s truth, but they should also honor yours. Otherwise, the relationship isn’t healthy. (As a side note, by honor I don’t mean “agreement”. I mean “respect”. You can agree to disagree and still maintain a good relationship with someone.)
The bottom line is that as soon as you start being true to yourself in one area, I think it starts this snowball where other areas of your life start coming into play. The road isn’t easy. There will be some pain along the way. But if you think about it, babies have to fall before they learn to walk. Children fall off the bike before they can ride. There will be scrapes along the way, but if you keep going, you’ll be much better off for it. And you never know… Maybe you’ll impact someone else’s life for the better, and they will impact someone else’s life for the better, too. You might just be one person, but you can make a difference.
June 4, 2019
Things I’m Working On For The Summer
I finished up the first drafts of the four books I was working on. Lesson learned from that experience is that I can’t work on four books at once and have time for exercise. LOL So in the future, my limit is three. But I am glad I did four books because these books will take me through the rest of the year.
Here’s what my publishing schedule looks like:
The Wedding Pact: July 14
This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series.
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Fairest of Them All: August (Publishing Month)
This is Book 4 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series.
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Nelly’s Mail Order Husband: September (Publishing Month)
This is the first book in the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series.
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Forever Yours: November (Publishing Month)
I’m going to try to slip this into the Nebraska Series. (Not sure if Amazon will let me do that. I know I can on the other retailers. Amazon can be a bit “touchy” when it comes to linking books in a series.)
COVER NOT DONE YET
(Cover artist will be working on it when her schedule is freed up.)
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I don’t have specific dates on exactly when Fairest of Them All, Nelly’s Mail Order Husband, and Forever Yours will be out. I’ll do that in the next few weeks. Right now, I have too many other things to focus on, which I’ll mention below.
Time to Think Of the Next Three Books I’ll Write
I’m taking the summer off from writing new books. My kids are now 16 (will be 17 in August), 15, 14, 13. I want to take advantage of the time I have with them. For the past three summers, I kept writing. I’ll still be engaged with the business side of writing, but those are things I can do a little at a time. Writing is more focused for me.
Anyway, during this time, I am going to thinking over what three books I’ll start on at the end of August.
I know I want to do another book for Tom and Jessica’s daughters. Nelly was the first one. Time to work on the second. 
June 1, 2019
From the Archives: The Best Ending
Warning: This Post Contains Spoilers!
I thought I’d do something different for a change and post memorable scenes from my past books. Today’s post is from If It Takes A Scandal. Out of all the books I’ve written so far, this one is my favorite ending. If you read the book, you know a certain group of meddling gentlemen had this trick coming to them. 
May 19, 2019
Kidnapping the Viscount is Available!
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This is the final book in the Marriage by Fate Series.
Here are all the books in the series:
Book 1: The Reclusive Earl
Book 2: Married In Haste
Book 3: Make Believe Bride
Book 4: The Perfect Duke
Book 5: Kidnapping the Viscount
This series wraps up the sub-plot with Ladies of Grace. I transition things from the point where Lady Eloise lost control of the group (in Married In Haste) to when Tara finally gained the advantage (in Kidnapping the Viscount). The group from this point will be much more positive.
I know this is a minor thing, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to get to ever since I wrote The Viscount’s Runaway Bride (Book 1 in the Marriage by Bargain Series). That was the book I introduced Lady Eloise and her group. As a side note, that book is free right now if you would like to see what Ladies of Grace was like in its beginning. Click on this page to get the links. The Viscount’s Runaway Bride is the first book on that page.
Sometimes it can take a couple of series to finally work out everything I had envisioned at the beginning. This is why these Regencies all take place in the same world.
Okay, so on to Kidnapping the Viscount. There really is more to this book than the Ladies of Grace group. At its core, Kidnapping the Viscount is a fun romantic comedy about a hero who is so determined to have the lady of his dreams that he’ll let her think she’s kidnapping him.
Here’s the description:
Miss Heather Duff met the love of her life. Then she let him go. And now she’s determined to get him back.
If there’s one thing Heather regrets, it’s that she let Lord Powell go. She listened to other people tell her what to do, so when Lord Powell proposed, she said no. It was the worst mistake she’s ever made, and now she’s determined to prove to Lord Powell that she wants a second chance.
Gill Easton, Viscount Powell, has never stopped loving Miss Duff. But a gentleman has his pride to protect. He can’t just let her walk back into his life as if nothing ever happened. And this puts him in a dilemma.
He’ll have to resort to unusual methods in order to get the lady of his dreams to marry him. In this case, the unusual method is to convince her to kidnap him…without letting her know he’s the one behind the whole scheme.
Don’t miss this romantic comedy featuring a feisty heroine, a hero who has to play hard to get, a meddling brother who doesn’t take even a minute to listen to what someone is trying to tell him, and a friend who doesn’t mind any kind of scandal so long as the cause is true love.
If this sounds like your kind of book, you can find it at these retailers:
