Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 45

First Draft of If It Takes A Scandal is Done!

Today, I finished the first draft for If It Takes A Scandal (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 4)!  

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In case any of you wondered where I’ve been hiding, I’ve been working on finishing this book.  This is why I haven’t gone to my inbox lately.  I am behind on emails and on Facebook.  Over the weekend, I plan to have someone help me catch up on this stuff.  It’ll still be me answering, but the person is going to take what I dictate and polish it up so it’s legible.  Otherwise, people might not know what I’m trying to say.  Sometimes the dictation comes up with the strangest things.  For example, “Lord Erandon” in dictation comes out “Lorde random”.  No matter how much I try to correct this, it doesn’t work.

My priority has always been writing and editing the books, but I’m going to slower than I was before at getting back to people, so please be patient with me. I’m in the process of training my husband on how to figure out what my job is so he can help me.  I also need to update my website, which I’m going to have to train him on as well.  I’m sure other tasks will pop up that I’ll need to work with him on.

So…What Series Will I Work On Next?

I haven’t made up my mind on this.  I typically work on three different series at a time.  Recently, I have added a fourth series.  That’s the one that is a rewrite of the series Stephennie Beman and I started together with The Stagecoach Bride.

Anyway, now that I just finished the Marriage by Bargain Series (with If It Takes A Scandal), that leaves me with an opening.

Here are the series I’m working on right now:

Misled Mail Order Brides Series.  This is a historical western series.

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I’m on Book 1: The Bride Price.  (This is Sep’s romance.  Sep was Joel Larson’s brother-in-law in Shotgun Groom.)

Marriage by Fate Series. This is a Regency series.

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I am currently on Book 2: Married In Haste.  (This is Brad Bachman’s romance.  Brad was Loretta’s brother in The Rake’s Vow.)

Wyoming Series.  This is a historical western series.

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I am currently working on Book 1: The Outlaw’s Bride.  This is a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride that Stephannie Beman and I did together.

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So, the way I see it, I have two options.

Here’s the first option:

I could start on Book 2 (The Rancher’s Wife) in the Wyoming Series so that I can get it done sooner.  My plan is to publish The Outlaw’s Bride and The Rancher’s Bride together.  Book 3 and Book 4 (if there is a Book 4) will then be out on pre-order.  The reason I’m publishing Books 1 and 2 together is because Book 1 is a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride, and since some of you already paid for that version, I’m going to be pricing this one at free so no one has to “re-buy” it.   From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to not have Book 2 available at the same time Book 1 comes out when Book 1 is free.

Book 1, as some of you already know, is about Mic who rescues Lillian from a bad guy she’s about to marry.  Mic (and his family) have been labeled as outlaws, though they really aren’t.  Unlike the original version, in this one, they fall in love right away, and it’s going to be an easy adjustment for them to get used to each other.  The problem is going to come in with the money she brought out to Wyoming with her.  Her ex-fiance is going to want it back.  Also, they are still going to help the hero’s brother (Wade) rescue his two-year-old son from the bad guy.

Book 2 is going to pick up where Book 1 left off.  (Don’t worry.  I’m not delving out cliffhangers.) It’s just that in Book 1, they do rescue Wade’s son, but in a shootout, the son ends up with Abby (who is Mic and Wade’s sister).  She ends up on a stranger’s ranch, and in order to protect him, she disguises herself as a young man.  She pretends her nephew is her little brother.  She needs to keep up the ruse because the bad guy is coming around looking for the boy.  I haven’t thought out anything further than that at this point, so it’s all I can say about it.

Here’s my second option:

I can start a new historical western series.

This would be a series of mail order husbands/brides stories.  I know Book 1 would be a romantic comedy about a mail order hero who comes out to marry the heroine in order to protect her father’s ranch after her father dies so the bad guy can’t take it over.  The hero grew up in a wealthy family, and the family lost all their money.  He thinks that since the heroine owns a ranch, it means she’s rich and has a house full of servants.  He’s in for a rude awakening, of course, and he’ll have to do the unsavory chores of helping to run a ranch, something he won’t be the least bit prepared for.  I see this as being a comedy because there are a lot of fun things that can pop up in a setup like this.

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Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Which option sounds the best to you?

Updates On What I’m Doing

Thanks For Sticking With Me

First of all, it’s an honor for Forced Into Marriage (Pioneer Series: Book 4) to be featured in the Smashwords Hotlist last week on the Happy Ever After USA Today blog.  It’s only because of you that I’m able to hit this kind of list, and I don’t take that for granted.  So thank you for sticking with me through the years.  I am very blessed.

Forced Into Marriage Will Be Out July 22
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Click here to pre-order

This will complete the Pioneer Series.  (Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride, Book 2: The Marriage Agreement, Book 3: Groom For Hire, Book 4: Forced Into Marriage)

I don’t have this up on Amazon yet, but it is up on the other retailers.  I’ll say more about this when it’s released.

If It Takes A Scandal is Almost Done
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This will complete the Marriage By Bargain Series.  (Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, Book 2: The Rake’s Vow, Book 3: Taming The Viscountess, Book 4: If It Takes A Scandal)

I’m currently on chapter 18.  My books tend to be around 20-22 chapters long, so that gives you an idea of where I’m at right now.  I’m not sure exactly how much more I have to go, but I know what I need to do tie things up.

Originally, I had marked this book down for a December release, but since I’m so early on this, it’ll probably be out in early-to-mid September.

I’m about 15,000 words into The Bride Price
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This book is the first book in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series.

I had planned to give the heroine scars and a limp, but it’s become clear to me that she doesn’t want the limp.  So I’m going to have to remove that part when I go through the edits.  I think I only mentioned it once or twice, so this won’t be a problem.

The fact of the matter is, even when I carefully plan out a book, the characters still have the final say.  (This is the book I plotted in advance.)  Will other changes come as I’m going along?  Well, I already ended up having to swap a scene and modify another one.  I do think, however, the overall story is going to stay the same.

I just hit the Chapter Three mark in Married In Haste
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This is book 2 in the Marriage by Fate Series.  (Book 1: The Reclusive Earl, Book 2: Married In Haste, other books to be announced)

While I was dictating a scene in this book the other day, I came up with the perfect way to take care of Lady Eloise.  I’m not going to say because it’ll spoil the surprise, but I plan to do it later in this series.  It won’t happen in this book, but I start the ball rolling on it.

The heroine in this book is going to try to join Lady Eloise’s group in order to please the hero.  It should be interesting to see how things go.

The Outlaw’s Bride is slow going

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Since I’ve been having to play around with dictation again, I’ve made little progress in this one.  My focus has been on the other three books because those are ones I plan to get out before the end of this year.

News on the Dictation Front

I don’t know how many people are all that interested in this part of things, but I’m happy to say that the dictation is finally working well for me.  My main problem has been on finding ways not to strain my eyes by going on the computer and having to polish what I just dictated.  Doing that has proved to be a problem on my eyes, especially since I still need to do things like edit.

I have printed out several chapters of If It Takes A Scandal and have it set to a size 16 font.  When I finish marking up the pages, I like to go in and make the changes on the computer in the document itself.  This is probably going to take up the bulk of my computer time from now on since I go through so many books in a year.

So I bit the bullet and started adding the punctuation and new paragraphs while I dictate.  I had to do this because my husband, who is polishing up my dictation for me, has no idea what to do when I don’t add the punctuation.  This does slow things down when I dictate, but I will admit that I end up with a cleaner copy for him to work with.  It’s worth the extra time so I don’t have to sit down with him while he reads my stuff back to me so I can tell him where to put punctuations and new paragraphs.

I usually dictate for one book right after I take a shower in the morning.  I will lie down with a warm cloth over my eyes, and this is the perfect time to dictate since I have nothing else to do.  Then, later in the day when I’m sitting on the porch or taking a walk at the park, I’ll dictate a scene one or two more books.  Sometimes I get to the fourth book.  Sometimes I don’t.

My average word count is what it used to be when I was typing.  I haven’t gained any more words by dictating, at least not at this point in time.  Who knows?  Maybe that will change as I get more used to it.  I’m just happy that I can finally get emotionally into the story when I dictate it.  Such wasn’t the case earlier this year.  Now I keep 95% of everything I dictate.  I used to only keep 30% and rewrite the rest.  I guess since I’m forced to dictate, my brain has finally jumped on board with this process.

Went Back to Dictation

I was having a hard time getting emotionally into the stories when I was speaking them into the Dragon dictation software I have.  So I had decided to put the thing away, and I went back to typing.

But then the whole thing with my eyes happened, and I was forced to return to the dictation software.  Some authors have ghostwriters.  They give the ghostwriter what they want written, and they let the ghostwriter do that work.  That is not an option for me.  I want to be the author of my own stories.  If they suck, they suck, but they will suck on my merit.

So I had to go back to the drawing board and pick up the dictation software once more.  Fortunately, nothing is wrong with my voice.  I just returned to speaking my stories again this past week, and I guess all the practice I had up to this point paid off because I no longer have trouble emotionally connecting to my characters when I speak the stories.

I learned a couple of tips that might help others who want to experiment with dictation software or who need to use it.

1. Have a plan before speaking the story.

I’m not a plotter by nature, so this one took a little time to adjust to.  I don’t have the whole book (except for The Bride Price) mapped out.  I do, however, come to the dictation session with the scene planned out.  What I need is how the scene will begin, a goal I have for the scene, and an idea of how it will end.  Then I try to speak the entire scene in one session.

I will sit still and close my eyes for about five minutes.  During that time, I visualize the scene in my mind.  Some people might want to write notes.  I don’t.  If I can picture the scene, I’m good to go.

2. I speak in quick bursts with a few seconds of breaks between sentences.  And I don’t rush the speaking for the sake of accumulating word count.

Word count is a huge thing for me, but even with speaking, I average 2,000 to 3,000 words a day.  I don’t know how authors do it when they are used to doing 5,000+ words a day.  I aim to write 5 days a week, and I take 2 off.  Maybe the authors building up serious word count take longer breaks than I do.

Anyway, I have learned that a complete session for me ends up being a half hour.  That is how long it takes for me to get through one scene.  One scene averages 1,000-1,500 words.

I’ll start speaking 1-2 sentences.  Then I’ll pause.  Sometime I redo the sentences.  Sometimes I keep going.  But I have found when I focus on getting 1-2 sentences out at a time, I don’t feel the pressure to hurry up and get the whole scene out.  (When I rushed the scene, I was able to get 1,500 words in 15 minutes, but I ended up deleting or rewriting half of it.  So slow works better.)

3. I do edit as I go.

If I notice the software got something wrong, I will pause and correct it.   Speaking in short bursts is good for this.  I’m able to delete stuff that is repeated or change most misspellings right away.  Doing this makes my work easier when it’s time to insert the dictated segment into my story and polish it up.

4. I don’t add punctuation because my focus is on the story, but I do insert what I spoke into my work in progress right away and work on it so it’s fresh in my mind.

I know some authors who work better when they add the punctuation.  If that’s you, then do what works.  I just know that for me, getting bogged down into the technical aspects of writing will break my concentration.

To compensate for this, I will work on the scene immediately after it’s spoken.  If I do that, it’s fresh enough in my mind where I know where the punctuation goes as I’m reading through the text.  I also pick up misspellings and words that were picked up incorrectly by the software program (their vs. there, to vs. two vs. too, etc) right away.  I can polish up the scene in about 15-30 minutes.  If I wait until later in the day, it takes me about an hour.  If I wait until the next day, I’m probably going to be at it for 1.5 hours.  The sooner you can polish up the text, the better.

Results:

Basically, I’m maintaining the same speed in word counts that I do when I type.  I didn’t get faster, as I had hoped back in January and February.  But I’m okay with that because my primary concern is being emotionally engaged with my characters.

Anyone got any tips they’d like to share?

Taming The Viscountess is Now Available!

Can someone like Celia be likable?  You’ll have to judge that one for yourself.

Random Thoughts on Strong Heroines, Multi-Author Stuff, Who To Write For

I notice that a lot of romance readers do not like strong heroines.

I think those of you who read my books are the exception.  Often, I hear over and over that people like my sweet heroes and the fact that my heroines aren’t afraid to stand up for themselves.  But when I look at comments I get on Wattpad, the majority of people there hate the fact that Sue Lewis (in An Inconvenient Marriage) is so strong.  There is one chapter in particular where they get especially upset with her.  I’m a lot like Sue Lewis, so when I see their comments, I often wonder, “Would these people like me if they were to meet me in real life?”

Sometimes the strong heroine can come across as a you-know-what.  She can be seen as bossy, temperamental, and rude.  They instinctively feel sorry for the hero, or they think the hero is a wimp for putting up with her.  If only they could see how my marriage is…  My husband is a beta hero.  I am an alpha heroine.  I don’t necessarily act alpha at all times, but when push comes to shove, I’m a Type A personality.  I lead because my husband tends to look to me to make the decisions.  He has a more relaxed and easy-going personality.  So I guess we do write what we know to some degree.

And before you think I became a Type A after marriage, the truth is, I was always a Type A.  My mom used to joke that I was like Lucy in the Charlie Brown TV shows and comics (except I wouldn’t pull the football away from the poor guy).  My mom and sister were both Type B’s.  My dad was a Type A.  I take after him in a lot of ways.  So I guess we can blame my dad for how I turned out.

Updates on What I’m Doing

With school out and having some trouble with my eyes (it’s not serious), I haven’t been online as much as I would like to be.  So if I take some time to get back to you, it’s because I’m either tied up with the kids or need a day or two off the computer to help my eyes.

I don’t know how this is going to impact my writing this summer.  I might have to slow things down.  I know this doesn’t seem like a big deal, except I love writing so much that I get restless when I’m not able to do it.

Updates

Taming The Viscountess will be out June 25!

This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.  (Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, Book 2: The Rake’s Vow, Book 3: Taming The Viscountess, Book 4: If It Takes A Scandal)

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Reserve your copy today!

I getting this back from my editing team, and I am polishing it up as we speak.  I should have it up for pre-order on Amazon soon.  In the meantime, it is available for pre-order on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks, and you can add it to your library in Smashwords.

I finished the first draft of Forced Into Marriage!

This is the final book in the Pioneer Series.  (Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride, Book 2: The Marriage Agreement; Book 3: Groom For Hire; and Book 4: Forced Into Marriage)

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Click here to reserve your copy!

This puts me on track to have this out in August.  I’m not sure when in August yet, though.  I know it says October 7 for the release date, but I’m ahead of schedule.

If It Takes A Scandal is halfway done!

This is the final book in the Marriage by Bargain Series.  (Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, Book 2: The Rake’s Vow; Book 3: Taming The Viscountess, and Book 4: If It Takes A Scandal)

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Click here to reserve your copy!

I would love to have this out in September, and I am trying to do everything I can to have it ready by then, but we shall see.  However, it should definitely be out in or by October at the latest since I am halfway done with this one.

I’m in Chapter Four of The Bride Price

This is Book 1 in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series.  (I plan on two other books in this series.)

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So far so good with the limited plotting I did, but then I was on chapter three when I plotted, so I had a springboard to go by.  We shall see if this stays true to form.  I can tell you already that a lot of the story changed from what I originally thought it was going to be just in writing the first three chapters.  I will be posting a new description some time in June.

Meanwhile, be assured that this book does feature Sep from Shotgun Groom.  At least that hasn’t changed.

I’m about 10,000 words into The Outlaw’s Bride

This is Book 1 in the Wyoming Series.  (Book 1: The Outlaw’s Bride, Book 2: The Rancher’s Bride, Book 3: To Be Titled)

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Since this is the fourth book on my daily writing list, I average 250 words in this a day.  Sometimes I will write 500-700 words.  On other days, I’ll get 0 words in.  So the average is turning out to be 250 words.  My plan is for this to be out next June-August.

I will be starting Married In Haste This Week

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Fate Series.  (Book 1: The Reclusive Earl, Book 2: Married In Haste; other books to be announced)

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I’m looking forward to this because I think it will be a comedy.  Remember Brad’s and Loretta’s younger brother, Stephen, who was a pain in the butt in The Rake’s Vow?  I bring him back for a bit in Taming The Viscountess and If It Takes A Scandal.  And I enjoyed his mischief so much, he’ll be causing more trouble in this one.  This time, he will be giving Brad grief.  But, I promise that Brad will end up very happy with the lady Stephen picks out for him.  The heroine of this book is Ava (who is Opal’s best friend in The Reclusive Earl).

And I will finally get to start the crumbling of Lady Eloise’s group in this book.  I was hoping to do that in the Marriage by Bargain Series, but the storylines never played out that way.  This time, however, the process will begin.  I’ve been wanting to take down Lady Eloise and her group since The Viscount’s Runaway Bride when I first introduced them.

Pioneer Series coming to an end, Married In Haste (Brad’s romance) will be next, and Trying my hand at plotting for The Bride Price

I’m almost done with Forced Into Marriage which is the 4th and final book in the Pioneer Series.

I hope to have this out in August since I’m ahead of schedule on it.

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I am only going to be able to show one scene with Joe and Michelle Otto.  I had thought there would be more of those two characters in this book, but the story didn’t play out the way I had expected it to.  I already knew there would be no room for Richard and Amanda Larson or Jesse and Laura Palmer.  I hope this doesn’t disappoint you guys.  I know one of the big perks of a series is seeing past characters.

It’s just that in this book so much of it is while the hero and heroine (Brandon and Lokni Herman) are on the trail that there’s not a chance to bring in a lot of people.  I did place them in a town for a couple of weeks (in story time), but since Joe had dumped Brandon off in the Wyoming Territory and Brandon and Lokni had to stop along the trail for her to give birth to her son, there was no way I should slip it into the timeline for them to meet up with Joe’s wagon train.  So that’s why it ended up being the way it is.

When I send Forced Into Marriage to my wonderful editing team, I will start Married In Haste (which is Book 2 in the Marriage by Fate series).

[image error]This book follows The Reclusive Earl, which is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fate Series.  I think I have confused people by having two Regency series happening at the same time.  I didn’t realize that would happen, but since all of my Regencies do take place in the same world, I see why it gets confusing.  I have decided I won’t do that again.  In the future, I will only work on one Regency series at a time.

Anyway, this is going to be Brad’s romance.  Brad is Loretta’s older brother in The Rake’s Vow.  I’m hoping to do two main things in this book.  One, I want to make this humorous because I love to laugh, and I get a lot of fun out of writing comedy.  With Brad’s quirky nature on being pristine and orderly while the heroine tends to be clumsy, I’m hoping this will make for a good foundation for humor.  Two, I want to delve more into the breakdown of Lady Eloise’s group, Ladies of Grace.  In Taming The Viscountess, I start this breakdown in a very subtle way.  When Celia’s leaves the group, it will set off a chain of events that I’m hoping will start manifesting in this book.  *fingers crossed*

I decided to try my hand at plotting.

And I’m experimenting with The Bride Price (Misled Mail Order Brides: Book 1).

[image error]Can I really do it?  Is it possible for a panster to follow an outline done in advance (even if it is loosely done)?  (I’d like to know if you plotters could ever panst a story, so if you are a plotter and you attempted it, I’d love to hear about it.)

I have a reason why I wanted to plot this particular story.  I had to bounce ideas around with my friend and fellow author Stephannie Beman because I could not do it unless I had someone asking me questions along the way.  Stephannie and I chat a lot online, and we share a lot of our writing struggles as we’re working on our stories.  Just yesterday, she helped me figure out the best way to go in Forced Into Marriage.

I should add there are three things to note about the plotting I did.  One, it’s more visual than what authors typically do.  I wrote down phrases to get the main idea for a scene down and then “mapped” it out.  So it’s visually appealing to the eye.  I think this helped my creative brain work more in the process.  Talking with Stephannie also helped the creative side since brainstorming is a creative process.  Two, I made things vague.  I am not going to do a step-by-step account of what I want to happen.  I don’t know what the characters will want to do in detail when the scene comes.   Three, I wrote the first couple of chapters before I even did the plotting.  The reason I did this is so that I could get to know the characters.  I usually know the characters within the first three chapters of any book I write.  Once I know them, it’s a lot easier to proceed with the story.  For example, I thought Sep didn’t want to get married.  But as soon as I was writing the story, I realized he did.  Until I’m in the character’s point of view, I honestly don’t know who they are.

 

Updates on What I’m Doing

Taming The Viscountess is due out June 25

Here are the books in the Marriage by Bargain Series:

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride (Book 1)
The Rake’s Vow (Book 2)
Taming The Viscountess (Book 3) – will be out next month
If It Takes A Scandal (Book 4) – will be out around September or October (though official release date is currently in December)

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I guess I should warn everyone that the heroine in this story has a more progressive view of sex than heroines I typically write.  When I created Celia in The Earl’s Wallflower  Bride, she was making fun of Iris over Iris’ lack of sexual experience.  Because of this, I had to work with Celia from what I had already established.

Celia never went “all the way”, but she did experiment with one of her brother’s friends and she has read literature on the topic of sex.  So we might consider her more sexually open than the heroines I usually write.  I don’t know if this is going to upset you, but if it does, this might be a book you decide to pass up.  She does not do anything with the hero until after they are married.  The hero is a virgin in every sense of the word.

Forced Into Marriage is a little over halfway done

Here are the books in the Pioneer Series:

Wagon Trail Bride (Book 1)
The Marriage Agreement (Book 2)
Groom For Hire (Book 3)
Forced Into Marriage (Book 4) – I expect this to be out in August even though I have it down for October on the retailer sites

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I finally got to the point where the heroine has decided she wants to be with the hero.  In this book, the two were forced to marry at gunpoint without knowing each other first.  Remember in Wagon Trail Bride where Amanda Larson got pregnant after she was raped, but then I had her go through a miscarriage?

Well, the heroine in this book (Lokni from the Crow Tribe) starts out in this book in her ninth month of pregnancy, and she doesn’t know who the father is.  There were four unsavory men who kept her for a while and did whatever they wanted to her.  (I do not show this.  I only allude to this.  The story starts on the night she’s forced to marry the hero, Brandon Herman from Groom For Hire.)  In this case, I opted to let Lokni have the child.   The child is instrumental into bringing the hero and heroine together.

If It Takes A Scandal is about 1/3 of the way done
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As I mentioned above, I see this coming out in either September or October.

The heroine in this one is Lady Hedwrett (who was originally introduced in Her Counterfeit Husband).  She is a very happy widow.  I only briefly touched on how awful Lord Hedwrett was in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife and Her Counterfeit Husband, and honestly, I don’t want to know more about this guy than what I already do because he really is the worst of the worst.  Being a panster, I learn about characters as I write them, and there are some characters so dark that I don’t want to delve deeper into them.  Just know that Lady Hedwrett has every reason to be glad he’s dead.

Anyway, I am veering off on a different course in this romance from what I have done in my Regencies up to this point.  I am going to do a scenario where the couple is forced to marry and decides to live separate lives.  They will be forced out in the country for three months by some matchmakers in order to overcome their misconceptions about each other.  This is where I’m currently at in this story.  It will be interesting to see how these two (who currently can’t stand each other) will deal with this.

I have finally started The Bride Price

This is the first book in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series.  I don’t have titles for the other books yet.

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Currently, I’m at chapter 2.  Sep (from Shotgun Groom) is about to find out there’s a man auctioning off the women he duped into coming to Omaha.  I haven’t decided if it’ll be three or four women, so for the time being, I’m saying “three”.  We’ll have to see how the story progresses. Part of the adventure of writing is finding out what happens next.

This one is set for November.

I am in chapter 3 of The Outlaw’s Bride

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Here are the books in the Wyoming Series:

The Outlaw’s Bride (Book 1)
The Rancher’s Bride (Book 2)
Not sure what Book 3 is called yet or if there will be a Book 4

This is the rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride, and Stephannie has taken the pen name Anne Johanson.  I want to give her credit for creating the world with me, so I have added her pen name to the cover.   But I am the one writing this, and I can already tell you, it is a lot different from the original.

For one, the hero and heroine are going to marry early in the story.  Right now, I’m at the point where the heroine has agreed to marry him.  Two, the heroine really is pretty, but she believes she is ugly because her family constantly told her she was.  Three, Abby (the hero’s sister) is a bubbly and happy person, though she is still a good survivalist.  She will hold a rattlesnake and is great at tracking others.

It’ll be fun to see what else develops as the story continues.

I’m not going to publish this book until The Rancher’s Bride is ready.  I might or might not wait for Book 3 to be ready, too.  I’m not sure if it’s worth it to wait for an entire series to be completed and publishing it at the same time or not, but it is something I’ve been wanting to try.   (A lot of it depends on how well I’m able to write four books at a time instead of three like I usually do.)

 

The Reclusive Earl is Now Available!

I would have posted this yesterday, but my kids were unable to play outside because of the rain.  Anyone who has kids know how restless they can get if they’re stuck inside.