Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 42

Trying Some New Things This Year

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been listening to different podcasts geared for writers.  I’m always looking for ways to be more efficient with my time.

1. Edit As I Write

The idea is that you do the creative writing part on Day 1. Then on Day 2, you spend 15-30 minutes going over Day 1’s writing. You rewrite, delete, and proof anything that pops up as needing work. Then you continue writing the story. On Day 3, you go over Day 2’s stuff then write. And etc, etc.

The reason I want to try this is because going back over my story once I finish it takes me a long time to do. It’s easy for me to be motivated to write. I love that part. I’m not a fan of the editing stage. It’s necessary. I do it so that I have a second draft to hand over to my editing team.

I’m sure this will slow down my average daily word count. Based on last year’s word count total of 518,794 words, I average 1,421 words a day. Now, I’m not in the camp of authors who believe you need to write every single day. I do better if I take about two days off a week. Those aren’t scheduled days. Sometimes I have time to work on the weekends. Sometimes I have so many errands to run during the week, I can’t get to writing even though the kids are in school. So I write on days when I have the time.

Also, I don’t make the same word count every day that I write. On some days, I write as little as 250 words.  On other days, I manage to get almost 4,000 words in. Rarely do I hit more than that. But this isn’t about churning out as many words as possible in a single day. It’s about being a marathon writer.

Now that I’m adding the “edit as you go” approach, I’m not sure how that will change my word count during the year. The nice thing is I have a daily writing journal that my friend Stephannie Beman made. So I can keep track of my progress, and at the end of the year, I can see how things have played out. I’ve been using her journals for a few years now, and it has really helped me stay on target for my writing goals for the year. I highly recommend it to writers who would like to have a “one stop” place for keeping their projects organized.

2. Writing More For Pleasure And Less To Market

For those who don’t know, there is a HUGE discussion in the writing community over which is better: writing for pleasure or writing to market. Writing to market is when you tailor your storyline (character tropes, plots, etc) to the market you intend to sell to. Some genres (and certain elements within that genre) are more popular than others. So often, writers will go to the market they believe have the best sales potential. I happened to get lucky because my first love is the historical romance market. Writing historical westerns and Regencies were already something I got immense pleasure in. What I would do is narrow down certain storylines and character tropes that I thought would appeal to the most people.

And then I ran out of ideas. And worse than that, I got burnt out because I was chasing trends.

Now, that’s not to say I didn’t have fun while doing this. I did. But I think it’s only something I can do once in a while. I don’t think it’s something I can do all the time. I get energized when I write stuff I’m passionate about. These stories tend not to sell as well as the others I write. So I had to make a choice. Do I continue to write to market or do I concentrate on storylines that I’m itching to write?

Just so everyone knows, there is no right answer in this discussion. This is something every author has to decide for him/herself. This year, I’m going to take on stories that most appeal to me. I’ll see how things go. When I write what I want, I never run out of ideas, and I don’t get so exhausted that I take a couple of weeks to a month to regroup. I’m sure some authors can write to market and stay energized. We all write differently, and we’re motivated by different things. I’m going to try writing for passion this year, and I’ll see where that takes me.

3. I’ll Be Giving Some Time and Attention To My Pen Name

I’m still going to work primarily in romance. Like I said, it’s my first love. Always has been. Always will be. But my second love is thriller and horror, especially in the YA area. Some have a paranormal edge. Not really vampires and werewolves. But there’s some magic involved that seems somewhat reminiscent of fantasy. I’m currently having a couple of author friends familiar with those genres read over the old stuff I did back in 2004-2006 to tell me where those stories fit. I’m also going over and rewriting them as needed.

This pen name is not going to be my main focus because it’s not where I make money. But I thought it would be fun to branch out and do something different. It’s part of my decision to write more for pleasure and less to market. Since I don’t want my pen name’s stuff to get mixed up with my romance stuff, I’m separating them out. This is why I have the pen name, and I created a different website for that name.

I have learned a lot over the nine years I got into publishing ebooks, and what I’ve learned is that books need to target the right audience. It doesn’t mean an author has to write what is super popular in that market, but the story, the covers, and the description have to fit in with that genre and what the market expects. For example, as a reader, when someone tells me they wrote a romance, and I find out the romance is only 30% of the entire story or the main characters don’t end up together, I get pissed because it was not a romance. Romance has certain rules. Other genres have certain rules, too.

That is why I’m having outside help in giving me direction and guidance with this pen name. I want to fulfill the promise I’m making when I market my YA books to a certain audience. Case in point, the other day I learned that 16 and 17 is the ideal age for characters in the Teen market. My characters were 18. The first thing I did was lower their ages to 17. Based on the research this YA author did, 18 is a black hole because the character is technically an adult, but that’s yet too young to qualify for the New Adult market (which is more in the early 20s). There are a lot of things I’m going to have to learn in this new genre I’m dipping my toes into.

Anyway, I was listening to a certain podcast, and the author, who’s has decades of experience, said that a writer should focus on the story they want to write and then ask others where the books fit (genre-wise). So that’s what I’m currently doing.

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As for what I’m going to be doing that is the same…

I am going to stay wide.  That means I will keep publishing my books on all the retailers I can. The big ones are Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords. There are smaller ones, like Scribd, Inktera, Library Direct, Overdrive, and others. At this time, Smashwords doesn’t distribute to Google Play. My small publisher has the books I have with them over at Google Play. I’d like to get more of my books over there, but we’ll see.

Anyway, I say all of this because I had considered putting some of my new books in Kindle Unlimited. I posed a question about it on my profile page on Facebook and again in my private Facebook group. About 65-70% of the people said they go to Amazon for their books, and there were some who said they would only read my stuff if it was in KU. But after serious discussions with other authors (some KU, some not), prayer, and research, I decided to stay wide.

I understand why some authors are in KU. I certainly don’t blame them for it. I was awfully tempted to join myself. But, deep down, I feel that the decision is not right for me. So I’ll miss out on some readers who will never check my stuff out since I won’t be in KU.

One thing I’ve learned in the past nine years of self-publishing ebooks is that there are a lot of hard decisions authors have to make. Nothing is black and white. There will be pros and cons to every choice.  I’m hoping that self-publishing across all retailers will still be a viable option for many years to come. I don’t know if it’ll play out like that. Depending on who you listen to, you’ll hear different opinions.

What I gathered from my research over the past couple of weeks is that nothing is guaranteed. You have to do what you think is best, and you have to work hard. The surest way to kill a writing career is to give up writing. My plan is to write until God calls me home. I don’t mean this to sound grim. I would like to die while doing what I love most, and for me, that is writing. I can’t remember who the author was that died at the desk while writing his next book, but I thought, “That is the way I want to go.” If I can do that, then it means I had a lot of fun right up until the very end.

Married In Haste is Now Available!

First of all, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Because of you, 2017 was a wonderful year. (I know I say this a lot, but honestly, I wouldn’t be writing books today if it weren’t for the support and encouragement you guys have given me over the years. There were times I almost gave up. Because of you, I didn’t. Words can’t describe how grateful I am to all of you.) I’m looking forward to 2018 because I know you’ll continue with me.

Now on to today’s post. I am finally getting around to announcing this book’s release. I’m slightly behind schedule, but The Rejected Groom is still coming out in February, so all is good.

Never A Dull Moment When You’re Writing

I wasn’t sure what to title this post. It’s not something dedicated to a particular topic, except my rambling about working. I recently listened to a couple of podcasts where Dean Wesley Smith was interviewed, and he’s right that writing isn’t work. It is play. But I have to tell the people in my life that I’m working or else they won’t give me time to write. Anyone who’s ever worked at home knows that people assume you aren’t doing anything because you’re home. It’s not like you go out, clock in at an office, and leave at a certain time. People who work at home don’t have set hours, and because of that, it’s harder to convince others that you can’t drop everything to do whatever they want.

Over the course of ten years of seriously writing books, I’ve come to learn that 95% of the time, the stuff the people in my life interrupt me about are distractions. Such distractions include, but are not limited to, talking about something they saw on TV/read in an article, wanting you to check some You Tube video, or venting about something that happened to them. These are all things that can wait until you’re done, but because you are home, you’re not “busy”, and since you’re not “busy”, you have all the time in the world to listen to them. Talking to people who also work at home, I’ve learned they go through similar distractions. And it makes doing the tasks on our list harder to accomplish in any given day. Add kids to the mix, and it’s twice as hard because kids don’t understand time management.

This week has been like pulling teeth to get anything done. My kids are off school, and every fifteen minutes, someone in my house is interrupting me. It’s been insane. I’d say over half the interruptions have to do with some fight one of the kids is having with his brother. (I have four sons, and since one is deaf, there are A LOT of misunderstandings in this house. Most of my time is clearing up those misunderstandings.) I often think that if I were a standup comedian, my platform would be “Kidtastrophes” because every little thing is a huge thing around here. Trust me, there is a lot of humor in the kinds of things kids complain about. But since I hate public speaking, I am never going to run those standup routines that periodically go through my mind during the day.

I already knew going into this Christmas break that I wouldn’t get any writing done, so I have put all of my romances on hold. But I like to stay busy. I can’t just sit and watch the TV. I need something to do or else I’ll go crazy. It’s too cold to go for walks. Across the US, it sounds like a lot of states are getting record lows. (Montana is having its share of the cold weather, along with snow.) So I have to stay inside.

I decided to work on a pet writing project. I’m in the process of editing an old Young Adult Fantasy trilogy that I wrote back in 2004. Yeah, that long ago. And I can tell you that my writing has changed a lot since then. I thought this was going to be an easy edit. It’s turned into a lot of rewrites and massive edits. I’m halfway into Book 2. The reason I’m making as much progress as I am is because each book is novella.

Anyway, the other day I did the covers for this trilogy while on the phone with my good friend, Janet Nitsick. (I can’t just sit and talk on the phone, either. I need to do something while on the phone, so I did the covers. Graphics are easy to work with while I’m talking on the phone since they don’t require a lot of attention.) So the covers are done, and while I’m not sure they will appeal to the YA fantasy crowd, they appeal to me so I’m using them. I did do my research, and I think it’s a doable compromise since some YA fantasy fit that look.

About once or twice a year, I allow myself a pet writing project to work on. I find doing these projects help me stay fresh and creative. I guess taking a break from romance helps me to fill up my creative tank in the romance genre. This is probably why I love reading outside the romance genre. Romance is, and always will be, my first love, but I enjoy other genres, too. Ironically, I read more nonfiction than fiction in my spare time. Most of it does have to do with my Christian faith (I read the Bible regularly). I also read books on the proper management of money (because I’m not good with this area of my life), and I read books on writing and book promotion, which probably doesn’t surprise anyone reading this post.  I used to read a ton of fiction, but once I really got into writing, that dropped significantly. I guess it’s my mind’s way of trying to find a good balance. I can’t just focus on one thing. I need to have a couple of things going on at any one time. So writing fiction and reading nonfiction gives me a balance.

I’m not going to put this pet project under Ruth Ann Nordin. I’ve done a couple of pet projects under that name, and I think it only adds to people’s confusion because I’m a romance writer. So for this pet project, I’m going to go with a pen name. I have one clean contemporary romance under Barbara Joan Russell, and I haven’t done anything with it since. I’ve decided to give that pen name this pet project. I have a couple more stories that I wrote back in 2005-2007 that I’ll be editing, and I’ll put those under the pen name. I figure this will take a couple of years. These stories were originally published with the vanity presses. This was before Amazon and Smashwords came along to change the way authors published their stuff.  That was a huge game changer in the publishing industry. Other publishing platforms (Kobo Writing Life, Nook Press, Draft 2 Digital, iBooks, etc) have come along since then, but Amazon and Smashwords were the original places to publish ebooks that made it easy to get books into the world.

From time to time, I get asked, “Do you get an editor?” Yes. I do for every single one of my books. The pet projects are no different. I’ve already hired two editors to work on the trilogy I’m currently working through. By this time next week, I plan to be done with my initial edits of the trilogy. Then the editors will go through them. That will free me up to return to working on romances again.

Tomorrow, Married In Haste is coming out, but I’m going to delay the blog post announcing its release until Monday. I’m currently busy on this pet project, so all I can do tomorrow is send out the email with the special epilogue to those of you on my email list. I’ll also post the special epilogue to those of you in the private Facebook group I share with Janet Nitsick.

One of the keys to balancing all of the stuff on my To Do List is to dedicate one or two non-writing things to do each day.  If I try to do everything in one day, I’d go crazy. This is also why I can take a while to get to people on Facebook and in the emails. I’m not ignoring anyone. I’m just wading through everything I have to get done. I don’t have a personal assistant. I do it myself. I know some authors have assistants, but I like doing things on my own. Except for editing, book covers, and taxes. On those three things, I do contract out. (Sometimes I also hire out for book descriptions if I can’t figure out what to put down.)

So yeah… I never have a dull moment in my neck of the woods.

New Cover for The Marriage Contract

First off, The Marriage Contract is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. I just started this series, so I don’t know how many people are aware of it yet.

More Updates on What I’m Doing

I am almost done with the epilogue that goes with Married In Haste (Marriage by Fate: Book 2).

(This book is coming out December 30!)

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Click here to pre-order!

The only people who get this epilogue are those on my email list and those who are in my private Facebook group. (If any of those links don’t work, let me know.)

I have MailChimp handle the details on the email sign up because they want to make sure I’m not putting someone on my list who doesn’t want to be there. I used to put people manually in when people signed up, but I think handing the reins to them to do this is a lot better. I only send out an email through MailChimp when I have a new release out. I don’t want to clog up people’s inboxes. I average nine to ten new releases a years, so that gives you an idea of how many emails you can expect from me.

As for the Facebook group, this is the best way to give me feedback. I do ask for feedback once in a while. For example, I got ideas on the Married In Haste epilogue from the people in the group. I find it to be a very relaxing and casual way to communicate with others, and I think the atmosphere is very pleasant because the people over there are wonderful. Anyway, this group is something you ask to join and Janet or I will approve it. We do try to be careful about who we let in because of the amount of phony accounts that pop on on Facebook, so if we haven’t approved you, please send me (https://www.facebook.com/ruthannnordin) a message and let me know you have read my books or Janet’s books. That way we know you’re safe to let into the group. I recently had someone duplicate my profile on Facebook, and a few awesome people ran to protect me. It really meant a lot that they were looking out for me. The least I can do is protect you guys, too.

The Rejected Groom (Misled Mail Order Brides: Book 2) is still projected for an early February release.
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Click here to pre-order!

I haven’t set a new date yet, but it’s definitely coming out before June 2. I like to wait until the book is all done and ready to upload to do that. At the moment, it’s only on pre-order at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks. For those of you who love the Larson family, this one is Anthony (aka Tony) Larson’s romance. Tony is one of Richard and Amanda’s twin sons.  I’m currently working on the other twin’s story (The Perfect Wife).

Make Believe Bride (Marriage by Fate: Book 3) looks like it’ll be out around April.
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Click here to pre-order!

I thought The Marriage Contract (Marriage by Fairytale: Book 1) was going to be out sooner, but Make Believe Bride suddenly gained momentum, and I’m now further ahead in that story.

The hero of this story is Lord Whitney, and for those of you on my email list and in my private Facebook group, you might remember he was in the special epilogue that went with If It Takes A Scandal. He was the one who returned Corin’s pocket watch that Corin lost to Stephen so he wouldn’t get caught in the scandal with Celia. Candace ended up searching for the pocket watch, and finally found it becauase of Lord Whitney. Hopefully, that rings a bell.

Anyway, he also made a very brief appearance in The Reclusive Earl (Marriage by Fate: Book 1). He was the gentelman who bored Opal to death when he was dancing with her at the ball. I liked him, so I wanted to give him a story, and this one fits perfectly.

I thought this was going to be a comedy because the plot is that the hero and heroine are pretending to be engaged so that the boring hero can finally get friends. But today I wrote a scene that had me in tears. This is not going to be a comedy. It’s going to be a serious book with a lot of struggles the hero and heroine are going through. The heroine has a lot of stuff going on with her father, her self-esteem, and her mother who’s given up on even living.

I didn’t see this coming when I started this book, but it’s the direction the characters are taking, and I’ve learned to wade through the unknown by trusting my gut while writing. Since this is a romance, the cover still fits the story. There is going to be a happy ending. Things are going to greatly improve for the hero and heroine. I think both characters are going to help each other grow in ways that I haven’t seen for a while in my stories. Usually, there’s one character that pretty much stays constant, but in this case, both characters will change dramatically during the course of the story. It’s surprises like this that make writing by the seat of my pants so much fun.

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Since this post has gotten pretty long and one of my kids keeps coming up to me, I’m going to end things here.

Updates on What I’m Doing

I was supposed to make this post on Sunday, but my kids were constantly demanding my attention and we kept losing Internet. Then on Monday and Tuesday, I was playing catch up on finalizing The Rejected Groom for my editing team and doing the book keeping for November.

So today (at long last), I’m finally getting this post up.

The Rejected Groom first draft is now done!

Tony and Velma have just gotten their happily ever after!

This is Book 2 in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series. Book 1 is The Bride Price. Book 3 will be The Perfect Wife.

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I honestly didn’t think I was going to finish this book until mid-to-late December, but from November 12th on, the story took off. The characters told me exactly what they wanted to do, and when characters do that, writing is easy and fast. I wish all stories were like that.

I really enjoyed this couple. Other couples I have immensely enjoyed writing have been John and Eliza (from Loving Eliza), Dave and Mary (from Eye of the Beholder and To Have And To Hold), Perry and Paula (from The Earl’s Scandalous Wife), Sebastian and Celia (from Taming The Viscountess), Chogan and Julia (from Brave Beginnings), and Jake and Sue (from An Inconvenient Marriage). Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy all of the couples, but the ones listed above wrote the stories for me. I didn’t have to wait and think on the storyline. Even before I sat down to write, I already knew what was going to happen next. Because of that, I feel like I have a better connection to them than other couples. Writing takes on a magical quality, and I always feel sad when their stories end.

Since I had this strong connection to Tony and Velma, I ended up writing about 3,200 words a day for the past two weeks. I couldn’t even take a day off. The story was burning inside of me, and I had to keep writing every day. If I didn’t write, I wouldn’t have gotten any sleep. (It also helped A LOT that I didn’t go online while I was writing.)

Now that I’m finished with the first draft, I’m taking the rest of the month off to edit this book. Then I’ll have it ready for my wonderful editing team. I haven’t decided on a release date yet. With Christmas being a busy time, I’m going to give my editing team longer to work through my book. Usually, I give them a month, but in this case, I think I’ll do a month and a half. So I’m thinking an early February release date will be best.

This means I’m officially done with NaNoWriMo. I ended up finishing at just over 60,000 words. That wouldn’t have happened if Tony and Velma weren’t so easy to work with.

Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten about Married In Haste.

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This is due out December 30. I’ll upload it within the next couple of weeks to Amazon, and I’ll update the release date on iBooks, Kobo, B&N, and Smashwords when I upload the book. Once I’m done with initial edits in The Rejection Groom, I’ll focus on getting this one uploaded.

Looking Ahead for 2018

Right now I’m trying to get an idea of what my publishing schedule will be for 2018. (Or at least the first half of 2018. It’s hard for me to plan beyond six months.)

So this is what I’ve come up with…

Married In Haste will be out December 30

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This is close enough to January 1 that I’m adding it to this list.  This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Fate Series. Book 1 is The Reclusive Earl. This is a Regency.

This is Brad Bachman (aka Lord Youngtown)’s romance. Brad was introduced in The Rake’s Vow (Marriage by Bargain: Book 2). He was Loretta’s older brother. In this book, we see the beginning of the end for Lady Eloise.

The Rejected Groom is projected to be out late February

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This is Book 2 in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series. Book 1 is The Bride Price. This is a historical western. This is Anthony (Tony) Larson’s romance. Tony is one of the twin boys of Richard and Amanda Larson. Richard and Amanda’s romance was Wagon Trail Bride (Pioneer Series: Book 1).

The Marriage Contract is expected out either March or April

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This is going to be the start of a brand new Regency series.  It is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. This is going to be Mr. Stephen Bachman’s romance. Stephen was introduced in The Rake’s Vow, and he plays a major role in Married In Haste. He is the younger brother of Loretta and Brad.

It takes place five years after the Marriage by Fate Series, so I don’t know if I’m going to end up going back through the five years and filling them in with other series. I’ll have to see how the storylines play out.

Make Believe Bride is expected out in May or June

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This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Fate Series. It follows Married In Haste. In this we get to see what happens to Lady Eloise in more detail because Lady Stacey (the heroine in this book) is in Lady Eloise’s group. We will get to see some old Regency characters like Catherine (from A Most Unsuitable Earl: Marriage by Scandal: Book 2), Agatha (from His Reluctant Lady: Marriage by Scandal: Book 3), Loretta (from The Rake’s Vow), and Celia (from Taming The Viscountess: Marriage by Bargain: Book 3). We’ll see some old familiar faces from the gentlemen, too, but I routinely bring them back into my Regencies.

All of my Regencies take place in the same world. If you go to this page, you will see all of the books and the order they take place.

Right now I’m hoping to add a fourth book to this series, but at this time, I don’t have a solid plot line. So  I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not.

The Perfect Wife is due out next summer (June – August)

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This will be Book 3 in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series.  This is Mark Larson’s romance.  I might or might not do a romance for Tony and Mark’s little sister, Annabelle. I have a vague idea for her, but it might not pan out.

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I had to drop three books from the list.

1. Wanted: Mail Order Husband

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I already posted about this one. The story went off track for this one. I’m not sure what happened here. I love the premise of the story, and I want to do what’s best for it. I think when I’m done with the Misled Mail Order Brides Series, I’ll come back and see if I can get this one straightened out.

2. The Outlaw’s Bride

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I’m not “dropping” it altogether. I’m just not going to have this one out next summer like I had planned. This one is going to be longer because I’m not charging a price for this book. I had some recent financial setbacks, and this has forced me to focus on books that have the best chance of making money. Since this is a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride and I bought the rights to it from the co-author, I promised I would make this one free so that people who purchased the original won’t feel cheated by having to buy this one, too. The main story will be the same, but there are a lot of changes. I am rewriting the entire story so that it crafts around my voice. Otherwise, the other books in the series will end too different.

Right now I’m only at 16,000 words. I have a long way to go. I only get to this book if I have time. I am currently 1.5 months behind my original writing schedule, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I only manage to get 30,000 words into this book by this time next year.

3. The Rancher’s Bride

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Since this book follows The Outlaw’s Bride, it’s obvious why I put this on the shelf. I won’t be touching it any time in the near future.

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I understand there are some of you who are itching to read the books I’ve dropped from 2018, but the time constraints hold me back from behind able to get them out that soon. I write books that average 60,000 – 65,000 words. Some of them are in the 50,000 range and some are in the 70,000 range. But I am not a novella writer. And I can only write so fast. I know there are some really good authors who manage 1-2 books a month, but I can’t do that.

My usual book output is 7-9 a year. That’s the best I can do. I would love to be able to go faster. I thought dictation was going to allow me to do that, but I ended up draining all of my energy this summer by dictating 4,000 to 5,000 words a day. My pace is best at 2,000 to 3,000 words a day and taking 2-3 days off a week to work on non-writing activities.  So because of this, I have to be selective in what projects I invest my time into.

And as much as I’d love to say money doesn’t matter, the truth is, it does. I’m going to continue publishing wide. I was considering putting a book or two into Amazon KU, but I ended up deciding to keep publishing them on all retailers. Some of you have been with me for years, and you shop at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and Smashwords. I posed a couple of questions on Facebook to find out where you are buying my books from, and I was surprised by how wide the diversity was.  I don’t want to shut anyone out.

So in order to keep things going, I am focusing more on Regencies since they sell better. I’ll still do some historical westerns. (I love both genres a lot.) I’m also going to test a higher price on The Marriage Contract. During the pre-order phase, I’ll have it marked at $2.99. After it’s released, the price will go to $3.99. I think it’ll stay $2.99 for the first couple of days after the release, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take for the price changes to take effect across all retailers. I want those of you who’ve stuck with me to be able to still get the book at $2.99. That’s why I’m not going to ask $3.99 during the pre-order phase.  I want to see if upping the price will help offset some of the loses I’ve taken from not being in KU. Since KU, I have lost almost half of my Amazon income. It’s gotten better since I’ve focused on Regencies, but it’s not what it used to be. I’m not complaining. I’m just explaining why I’m doing the price change for The Marriage Contract after it’s released.

Finally Getting to A Storyline I’ve Been Wanting to Do For a Long Time

A long time for me is two years. In the world of writing, things happen so fast that even a year ago seems like old news. So technically, this hasn’t been a “long” time that I’ve been itching to get around to this kind of book.

This is going to be a gothic romance set in the Regency world with a Beauty and Beast spin to it. The reason I’m labeling it a Regency is because it takes place in the same world as my other Regencies. I want people to easily connect this story with the other books it belongs to.

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Though I don’t have a series title on the cover yet, it is going to be Book 1 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series. Since about 2014, I’ve been wanting to do a series of books based loosely off of familiar fairytales. Up to now, I haven’t found the right setting to place all of these fairytale ideas into. The original versions of these fairytales were darker than the versions you see in the cartoons. The original versions are the kind of feel I’m aiming to dive into. In my opinion, they reach deeper into the dark corridors of the human soul.

I love doing light and comedic, but from time to time, I like to explore the darker side of life. This is why I self-publish. I don’t want to be boxed in by what a publisher wants. I want to be able to write any kind of story I want. Sometime I want light and funny. Sometimes I don’t. Self-publishing offers me the flexibility to do what I feel like at the time. It also frees me up to let the characters lead the way.

So for this particular storyline, I want several things:

I want a hero who is in deep emotional pain from his past. I want the heroine to be running from someone is trying to harm her. I want the villain to threaten someone’s life in the course of the story. In this case, I think the hero is at risk, though it might expand beyond that. I also want her to wonder if the hero killed his first wife (even though we all know he didn’t because this is a romance).  But I want the suspicion to be there. I want him to wear a mask because his face has been disfigured. I want him to be a recluse from society. I want the heroine to be with child so she’s vulnerable and in need of help. Last of all, I want there to be a happy ending despite all of the danger and mystery these two are going to face during the course of the story. Not all of the original fairytales ended on a happy note. I love happy endings, so I’m going to put happy endings at the end of all of these books.

I’ve been able to pull various elements of this entire idea in different stories. The Accidental Mail Order Bride had the scarred hero. Brave Beginnings had a villain who was suspected of killing his wife. His Redeeming Bride had a vulnerable heroine who had a newborn to care for.

It’s not until now that I can finally fit all of these elements into one story. I’m working on a puzzle of all the things I’ve wanted to put together into one story for the past two years.  All I need to do is connect the pieces together, which is already happening without me trying for it. I’m not doing any plotting. I’m letting my subconscious mind do the work, and it’s going great.

This is what pansters do. They let their subconscious brain do the creative work. I didn’t appreciate this until I plotted The Bride Price from beginning to end.  I realize plotters think pansters are nuts, but believe me, the subconscious mind is a wonderful storyteller. Authors who write by this method and learn to trust the process end up thrilled by what happens while they’re writing. The story comes together in a magical way. While working on The Bride Price, I discovered that plotting ruined storytelling for me. I actually hated writing. I couldn’t pin down why this was happening until I found out another author  who is a panster had a similar problem when she plotted a book.

I didn’t say anything on this blog about my struggle with The Bride Price at the time it was happening because I didn’t want people to hate The Bride Price. I was afraid it would influence how people read that story. But now that it’s been out, I can publicly say that book was like pulling teeth the entire time I was working on it. Going back to letting my subconscious mind lead the way has given me my joy back. I am finally having fun writing again.

Back to The Marriage Contract….

This book is going to be Stephen Bachman’s romance. I introduced Stephen in The Rake’s Vow. He was the heroine’s younger brother. Stephen also plays a prominent role in Married In Haste. I can’t tell you any more than that because there would be huge spoilers that would ruin the book, and Married In Haste is due out around December 30. Right now it’s with my awesome editing team.

Anyway, it’s fun to finally be able to fit in all of the things I’ve been wanting to put together. I’m almost at Chapter 3 of The Marriage Contract right now, and I am loving every single moment I spend in that world. Even better, I have picked which fairytale I’m going to springboard off for Book 2 in this series. That will be Cinderella, and I already have the heroine and hero picked out for that book.

As a final note, I did struggle with whether to use “fairy tale” or “fairytale”. I realize one version is used primarily as a noun and the other an adjective, but in the end, I figured I would use “fairytale” because it looks more aestetically pleasing to me. My creative side would rather do it this way, so I’m going with it.

I decided to do NaNoWriMo This Year

But, I am going to work on three books. I can no longer work on just one book at a time. I will write slowly in one book while I’m waiting for more ideas to come, so I need at least two other books to help even things out. So I’m bending the rules to fit how I best work. I don’t know if this is technically allowed, but I figure it doesn’t hurt anyone if I do it this way.

My goal is to write 50,000 words total across all three books. So if I can reach about 16,667 words per novel, then I’ll reach my goals. Of course, I can vary that up across novels. I can do 10,000 in one and 20,000 in the others. Or I can do 5,000 in one, 15,000 in another, and 30,000 in the third. I’m not going to worry about which story gets which word count. I’m just going to write in the story until I run out of ideas for it.

If anyone else is doing NaNaWriMo, let me know so I can add you as a writing buddy. My profile is at https://nanowrimo.org/participants/ru... if you’d like to add me.

Okay, so here are the three books I’m going to be working on.

Not surprisingly, The Rejected Groom is one of them.

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I’m currently at 15,124 words in this. I thought I was further along in the story than that, but it’s barely even started.  This book comes after The Bride Price. I’d love to have it out in February. *fingers crossed*

This next one follows Married In Haste. 

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I have nothing written yet for this one. I just finished the primary edits on Married In Haste and sent it out to my awesome editing team. I ended up rewriting minor portions of this one, so it took me longer than usual to get through. I’m very happy with the way Married In Haste turned out, so I’m glad I did those rewrites.

I’m going to start another brand new book.

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As I was finishing Married In Haste, I got super excited about an idea I had for Stephen Bachman (Brad’s younger brother), but his story takes place 5 years after Married In Haste. So I have to start his book in a new series. Stephen reminds me a lot of Neil Craftsman. He’s not exactly like Neil. He does have his differences. But he is one of those characters who will have to be battered up pretty good before he’s ready to be mature. I love working on characters with serious flaws that need to be worked out.

So you can probably pick up on how eager I am to dive into this story. That’s why I’m going to go ahead and do it even though this will mean I’ll be working on two different Regency series at the same time again.

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Just so everyone knows, I’m not going to stress the 50,000 word goal. I’ll aim for it, but if I don’t reach it, that’s fine. Some words is better than nothing at all.