Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 43

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.

The Bride Price is Now Available!

I’m sorry I’m getting to this post so late. The book came out yesterday, but things were so hectic around my corner of the world.

What’s the Point of Reading a Book if There’s Little Content and Lots of Ads?

I can answer this question in four simple words:

There is no point.

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So what brings about this topic?

There’s a certain radio show I used to listen to a lot. It had great content, and a lot of the stuff was helpful. I could glean something worthwhile out of every show because there would be at least one caller who had a situation I could put in the, “You’ll need to know this in the future” category.

Over the past two weeks, I decided to go back to listening to this show. Instead of the podcast, I was using You Tube. This show has drastically changed. Now, it’s about 70% advertisement in some form. At the very beginning of the show, there’s two ads that run back to back for that particular show. (This is in addition to the ad You Tube will run at the beginning of the video.) So then about 15 minutes into the actual show, you think you’re going to finally get to the meat and potatoes of what the show is supposed to be about. Except, you don’t. There’s some customer who spends about 10 minutes bragging about how much the show helped him/her. So it’s really just another ad. Then we finally get to a call with actual substance, which is about 5 minutes, 10 if you’re lucky. Then we run off to another product the owner has available. And the cycle runs through this over the course of one hour.

So I figured out that in the course of one hour, a maximum of 20 minutes is actual content a listener can gain any benefit from. What’s awful is that most of the content isn’t even useful. Over the past two weeks, I think I might have gathered one thing that’s any benefit to me. So instead of getting something out of every show, which airs five times a week, I have to listen to two weeks’ worth of show to gain one new thing. This is a huge waste of my time.  I don’t know how this show manages to stay on the air, and I’m not going to listen to it anymore.

Anyway, this is going to bring me to the process of making a book because my brain is wired to look at things as both an author and a reader. (I can’t remove that part of my life from most topics because I love writing and reading a lot.)

Yesterday, I started thinking about some of the reviews I’ve seen on some books as I browsed through online retailers. Some authors apparently like to shove a lot of ads for their other books into the book they have published. There’s nothing wrong with some form of advertisement. How else are people going to know what an author has written? But these reviewers claim that these particular authors have about 30%-50% actual book and the rest is nothing but ads for other books. I can see how that would turn off a reader. When they’re downloading a book (especially if they paid for it), they expect most of that space to be filled with the story, just I as expected way more content from that radio show.

In my opinion, a book should have at least 90% story. The 10% can go to ads. Ideally, I think 95% is better for actual content. But this is my rule of thumb on this particular topic.

You can always link more information to your blog or website at the end of your book. Ebooks have made this especially easy. Just insert your url as a hyperlink (if you format the book yourself) or ask your formatter to do it for you. Then, if someone loves your book, they can click the link at the end of the book to find more details about your other books where you can post as many samples or other information as you want. That way, it’s a win-win. Readers don’t feel cheated, and you still give them the option to do more in-depth on what you offer.

I also think adding a link to an email list at the back of a book is a good idea. Then you can directly reach them when you have a special sale or a new release.  I also think it’s a good idea to include an entire list of books you’ve already published because if someone loves the book and wants to read more, they have the list right there. They don’t have to search for it. When I get excited about a new author, the first thing I do is see what else they’ve done. Some authors add a short description for each book.  The more books you have out, the harder it’s going to be to add a short description for every single book you’ve done. An alternative to this is to add a short description for the books in that specific series or that specific genre. You can add links to the series or individual books so the reader can find out more about them in more detail without adding a lot of space that is in your book.

With e-reading devices being electronically friendly, it’s easier than ever to use links to your blog or website to your advantage. I word on an Apple computer in Microsoft Word. The way I add links is to highlight the text I want to link to. Then I go to the toolbar. I go to Insert. Then I scroll down to Hyperlink. This is what pops up:

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You choose the “Web Page” option, which is in blue in the screen shot above. At the very top is the box for “Link To”. Either copy and paste the url into that box or manually type in the link you want people to go to.

That is how I add links to my sites when I format books. Depending on your program, you might have to do things differently.

You can use these links to add some fun stuff for the readers. Maybe you can offer a special short story, character interviews, pictures of characters, trivia about the book, or something else. It can become an interactive way to engage with your readers. Maybe you can ask a question and direct people to answer through the link. If you set up a page on your blog or website dedicated to receiving feedback from your readers, this could become a way to engage with them on a personal level.

I haven’t done any of these. I just thought of this stuff as I was writing this post, but there are things you can do to promote your other books without taking up a lot of valuable space in your book.

 

 

Putting Wanted: Mail Order Husband On Hold

I have been standing at a wall on this particular book for the past two months, and thought I’ve added a couple thousand words to it, in my gut, I know there’s something “off” about it. So I’m putting it aside.

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I rarely ever do that with a book, but sometimes a writer has to put something on hold and focus on something else. Fortunately, this wasn’t up on pre-order, so I have the luxury of doing that.

This is one good argument against doing a pre-order. I love doing pre-orders. They are a great way to get everything lined up in advance. BUT I can see there being a benefit to waiting until the book is done before doing anything with it. If I had put this thing on pre-order, I’d have to get it done even though it’s gone off track. I suspect it went off track about 10,000 words back. My word count in this book at the moment is 24,000 words. For me, I don’t usually know I’ve gone off track on a story until I’m 5,000 to 10,000 words away from the point where things went downhill. This happened in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, Boaz’s Wager, and Wagon Trail Bride. I ended up going back and rewriting major portions of that book. The thing was, back then, I was too stupid to realize I had gone off track, which meant I kept on writing until about 20,000 words needed to be scrapped. Those were not fun times. I hate doing that.

So having learned how my brain works, I’m going to stop right now while I only have 10,000 words to scrap. When it’s been over a month, and I’m still struggling with a book, it’s a red flag that I’m not taking the book in the right direction. I’m going to set this aside in a folder, and when the time is right, I’ll go back to it.

This, of course, means, I have a vacancy. I don’t like doubling up on books in the same series. For example, I don’t like writing Book 1 and Book 2 at the same time because something that happens in Book 1 might impact something I need to put in Book 2, but if I were to write those at the same time, I wouldn’t realize this until I’m deep in Book 2. This would require me to go back and scrap parts of Book 2 and rewrite it. So I have to start on a book that isn’t part of a series I’m currently working on. I don’t know what that book will be yet. I still need to get done with Married In Haste so I can have it ready for my editing team at the end of the month.

I am currently behind in my writing schedule. This hasn’t been helped by the fact that I hit a dead end on Wanted: Mail Order Husband. It has only made things a lot more frustrating, and the more frustrated I’ve been getting, the harder it’s been to write anything at all, even in stories where I know where I’m going. It’s difficult to write when you’re wound up so tight that you have trouble concentrating on anything.  I’m hoping that if I put this book aside, it’ll help relieve some of the pressure so that my creativity will come back. Right now I’m going to focus on Married In Haste and The Rejected Groom. I know I’m on the right tack in those books.

Like I said above, I am relieved that I never put this one up on pre-order. The pressure isn’t there to finish it. Going through this experience has me questioning whether or not pre-orders on a book is really that great of an idea. If the book is already finished, I guess I don’t see any harm in doing it. It is nice to have everything done on the day of release so all you have to do is let people know the book is available. To me, that is the main benefit of doing a pre-order. I’ve never seen massive sales from doing pre-orders. There is a slight bump, but it’s nothing to brag about. Now, if you’re a popular author with a large following, then pre-orders could be a powerful tool under your belt. But if you’re not comfortable doing a pre-order or don’t see any benefit to it, I see no reason to do it. I think pre-orders were supposed to be the next big thing in marketing, but I don’t think it ever panned out to be what people said it was supposed to be. (That’s my two cents for what it’s worth.)

The important thing is that the book should be one the author is proud of. Believe me, it’s no fun to have a book out there that you cringe about whenever you think about it. So for the sake of Wanted: Mail Order Husband, I’m not going to finish it at this time.

Updates on What I’m Doing

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve been in a writing routine. I did well this summer, and then in mid-August, I took a break. Since then, I’ve been struggling to get back into a solid writing routine. This is why I’m not a fan of long breaks. The longer the break, the harder it is to get back into the habit that’s already been established. Thankfully, I was still able to get some things accomplished over the last two months, which I’ll discuss below.

First of all, I’ve decided to keep writing stories at the length I’ve been doing all this time. I appreciate all of the comments people gave me on my last post. It means a lot to me that you took the time to let me know what you thought.

Second, I still prefer typing to dictation, but I do dictation when I have to. It’s easier for me to think a story out while I type. I guess it’s because my brain has been wired that way for years. Dictation is coming along easier, but I feel like I’m training my left hand to write when I’m right-hand dominant. It doesn’t come naturally.

Now, for the things I managed to get done over the past two months.

The Bride Price is due out October 28

(Some retailers haven’t updated the release date yet, but the update should be showing up in a week or two.)

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If you want to, you can pre-order a copy now:

Amazon

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

Smashwords

I finally have a release date on this. The story has been uploaded to all retailers. This is Book 1 in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series. This story has some great suspense in it that I really enjoyed writing. The romance came very easily for this particular couple. They fell in love right away. I tried to get them to hold off on saying the “L” word (love) until later in the story, but they fought me and prevailed. So if you’re looking for angst between the main characters, you aren’t going to find it in this particular story.

I did an entire outline on this book from beginning to end. Halfway into the story, the characters said they weren’t going to follow the outline I did. I give up on plotting. I didn’t really enjoy the process of it. The logical part of my brain still bucks against the creative part of my brain on this story because I let the creative part take control as soon as the characters started veering off course. I know this is hard for some understand, but the subconscious mind does a magnificent job of creating stories. I say it’s the characters who are running the show, but the truth is, it’s the subconscious part that is really at play on this stuff. All I learned from the experience of plotting a book is that I have a lot more fun and enjoyment from writing when I let my subconscious mind run the show. From now on, that is what I’m going to do.

Anyway, I see this book as the springboard into books 2 and 3 in this series, and those books will have plenty of angst between the hero and heroine. Not all stories are created equal. I can’t do formula romances where X + Y = Z because my subconscious mind doesn’t work that way. Each story is going to be its own entity. (This is why I wasn’t a good fit for romance publishers and had to self-publish my books. I couldn’t write romances to fit what they wanted.)

Enough about all of that, though. Let’s continue with what else is new.