Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 47
February 9, 2017
Updates on What I’m Doing
The big news is that I have a new book coming out this Sunday!
Due out February 12!
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Click here to reserve your copy today!
Groom For Hire is the third book in the Pioneer Series, but it’s not the last. I came across a certain character while writing this story, and I was intrigued enough to start a fourth book.
So the books in the series are as follows:
Wagon Trail Bride (Book 1)
The Marriage Agreement (Book 2)
Groom For Hire (Book 3)
Forced Into Marriage (Book 4)
Will there be a 5th? I don’t know yet. We’ll see how Forced Into Marriage goes.
The Rake’s Vow is in edits
This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.
Expected Release Date: March 26!
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Click here to reserve your copy today!
This turned into a much sweeter book than I had expected. (When I say “sweet”, I don’t mean “no sex”. There is sex.) Sweet to me means that the hero and heroine get along exceptionally well. I love the dynamic between the two. In my opinion, they have an excellent relationship of openness and honesty. It just happened that they softly fell in love with each other. There was no startling moment where things clicked. The relationship just progressed from friendship to love without either one realizing it until they’re faced with an unexpected situation that pops up.
Books in the Marriage by Bargain Series are as follows:
The Viscount’s Runaway Bride (Book 1)
The Rake’s Vow (Book 2)
Taming The Viscountess (Book 3)
If It Takes a Scandal (Book 4)
Loretta’s brother (Brad) will be the hero of Book 5 (I don’t have a title yet)
The Reclusive Earl is almost 3/4 of the way done
This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Fate Series.
This is due out April 9!
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Click here to reserve your copy today!
Hopefully, that is the last version of the cover I’ll do. I know I keep changing it, but I think this one will work. The story, thankfully, has been coming along a lot easier than the cover. I am slowly coming up with ideas on the other books in this series. Right now, I’m focusing more on the Marriage by Bargain Series.
I probably should have waited to start this book, but after The Earl’s Wallflower Bride which had Opal (Warren’s sister) in it, I wanted to do this one before I lost touch with her character. Any time I spend some time away from a character, I lose the connection with him/her. Then I have to revisit the book they were in so I can get connected again.
Taming The Viscountess is 1/4 of the way done
This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Bargain Series
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Reserve your copy today!
This one is so much fun to write. The hero keeps winning one up on the heroine, but he does it in humorous way. I think this book has a comedic feel to it. That is exactly the tone a book needs if the hero is going to take an unlikable character and make her someone we can all root for.
Forced Into Marriage is slow in coming
This is Book 4 in the Pioneer Series
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Reserve your copy today!
I’m working through the last rounds of edits on The Rake’s Vow while writing, and this book tends to get pushed aside while I make room for the other two that are further up in my publishing schedule.
I don’t know if this will be out before If It Takes A Scandal or not. I plan to start If It Takes A Scandal in the next week or two. If It Takes A Scandal will be Book 4 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.
February 1, 2017
The Very True Legends of Ol’ Man Wickleberry and his Demise – Ink Slingers’ Anthology
Joleene Naylor (an author I very much respect due to how professional and kind she’s been in the years I’ve known her) invited authors to participate in the anthology she was putting together.
It has been a while since I wrote a short story, and I thought it sounded like fun so I submitted a young adult thriller I called “Body Swap”. If you like old black and white episodes of The Twilight Zone, I think you might enjoy my story. I have not read the other short stories in the anthology yet, but I plan to.
It is free on Smashwords, but as of the time I’m writing it, it is $0.99 on Amazon. I, and the other authors, are trying to get it free on Amazon, but it is up to Amazon to decide whether or not to price match the book.
[image error]
Smashwords (FREE)
Amazon ($0.99 unless they price match it)
If it shows up on other retailers, I’ll let you know. At the moment, it looks like it’s only on Smashwords and Amazon. But remember, it’s free on Smashwords until Amazon price matches it.
Here’s the stories you’ll find in this anthology:
Ol’ Man Wickleberry is a man of legend – or is he a legend of a man? With a scruffy beard and a dislike for humanity, how long has it been since he met his demise, and what is he doing in his ghostly afterlife? The stories may differ, but all of them are true. We swear. So if you’re ever wandering alone in the woods at night, and find you’re not really alone, it just might be Ol’ Man Wickleberry.
Enjoy eight tales by seven talented authors including:
Vendetta by Chris Harris: Mr. Baker is on his way to steal a deal when he’s snowed in. Stuck waiting at a rustic tavern, he’s ambushed by an old man with a strange story – a story that’s beyond belief. Or is it?
Evil Animals and Automobiles by Mark R Hunter: Ol’ Man Wickleberry hates so much he sometimes prompts them to an untimely end, with the help of those newfangled automobiles. But the next victim might be Ol’ Man Wickleberry, himself.
The True Story of Ol’ Man Wickleberry by Jonathan Harvey: Jonathan Harvey puts the Terrible Turtle spin on the Wickleberry legend. He names himself Papa Harvey and weaves a tale that is strange and bizarre, but still interesting. If only he wasn’t constantly being interrupted.
Out Walking by Joleene Naylor: The mysterious carnivorous white rabbits sound too strange to be true, but Ol’ Man Wickleberry can’t stand the thought of missing some rare game. It seems a walk is in order…
Body Swap by Ruth Nordin: A teenage boy makes a trade with a man who was thought to be dead.
Weirdly Normal – The Hike by Simon Goodson: Vincent hates hiking. But more than anything else, he hates their guide’s endless wittering about the horribly scary myth of Ol’ Man Wickleberry. Just when Vincent is certain the night can’t get any worse… Ol’ Man Wickleberry himself makes an appearance!
Wickleberry Elixir by Terry Compton: Rick and his two fellow college students just wanted a few extra college credits and the money from the work study. Then the professor demanded more details. But details sometimes lead to answers no one really wants or believes.
Ol’ Man Wickleberry (The Other True Story) by Jonathan Harvey: Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and next to this farm lived Ol’ Man Wickleberry, E-I-E-I – Oh. It seems Ol’ Man Wickleberry doesn’t like these kind of goings ons. A short story that’s rhyming good fun.
The Very True Legends of Ol’ Man Wickleberry and his Demise – Ink Slingers’ Anthlogy
Joleene Naylor (an author I very much respect due to how professional and kind she’s been in the years I’ve known her) invited authors to participate in the anthology she was putting together.
It has been a while since I wrote a short story, and I thought it sounded like fun so I submitted a young adult thriller I called “Body Swap”. If you like old black and white episodes of The Twilight Zone, I think you might enjoy my story. I have not read the other short stories in the anthology yet, but I plan to.
It is free on Smashwords, but as of the time I’m writing it, it is $0.99 on Amazon. I, and the other authors, are trying to get it free on Amazon, but it is up to Amazon to decide whether or not to price match the book.
[image error]
Smashwords (FREE)
Amazon ($0.99 unless they price match it)
If it shows up on other retailers, I’ll let you know. At the moment, it looks like it’s only on Smashwords and Amazon. But remember, it’s free on Smashwords until Amazon price matches it.
Here’s the stories you’ll find in this anthology:
Ol’ Man Wickleberry is a man of legend – or is he a legend of a man? With a scruffy beard and a dislike for humanity, how long has it been since he met his demise, and what is he doing in his ghostly afterlife? The stories may differ, but all of them are true. We swear. So if you’re ever wandering alone in the woods at night, and find you’re not really alone, it just might be Ol’ Man Wickleberry.
Enjoy eight tales by seven talented authors including:
Vendetta by Chris Harris: Mr. Baker is on his way to steal a deal when he’s snowed in. Stuck waiting at a rustic tavern, he’s ambushed by an old man with a strange story – a story that’s beyond belief. Or is it?
Evil Animals and Automobiles by Mark R Hunter: Ol’ Man Wickleberry hates so much he sometimes prompts them to an untimely end, with the help of those newfangled automobiles. But the next victim might be Ol’ Man Wickleberry, himself.
The True Story of Ol’ Man Wickleberry by Jonathan Harvey: Jonathan Harvey puts the Terrible Turtle spin on the Wickleberry legend. He names himself Papa Harvey and weaves a tale that is strange and bizarre, but still interesting. If only he wasn’t constantly being interrupted.
Out Walking by Joleene Naylor: The mysterious carnivorous white rabbits sound too strange to be true, but Ol’ Man Wickleberry can’t stand the thought of missing some rare game. It seems a walk is in order…
Body Swap by Ruth Nordin: A teenage boy makes a trade with a man who was thought to be dead.
Weirdly Normal – The Hike by Simon Goodson: Vincent hates hiking. But more than anything else, he hates their guide’s endless wittering about the horribly scary myth of Ol’ Man Wickleberry. Just when Vincent is certain the night can’t get any worse… Ol’ Man Wickleberry himself makes an appearance!
Wickleberry Elixir by Terry Compton: Rick and his two fellow college students just wanted a few extra college credits and the money from the work study. Then the professor demanded more details. But details sometimes lead to answers no one really wants or believes.
Ol’ Man Wickleberry (The Other True Story) by Jonathan Harvey: Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and next to this farm lived Ol’ Man Wickleberry, E-I-E-I – Oh. It seems Ol’ Man Wickleberry doesn’t like these kind of goings ons. A short story that’s rhyming good fun.
January 29, 2017
Groom For Hire Will Be Out February 12
Wagon Trail Bride and The Marriage Agreement, the first two books in the Pioneer Series, are both serious in nature. There are a couple of light moments where I got a chuckle while writing them, but overall, they have a more serious tone to them.
Groom For Hire, which is Book 3, is definitely a comedy. Those of you who enjoyed the type of humor in A Husband For Margaret, you will probably get a kick out of this one.
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The book is now on pre-order!
I had trouble getting an iBooks link because this book is going through my awesome publisher who uploads directly to the iBookstore. I use Smashwords for distribution to iBooks. So if anyone has the iBooks link they would like to send my way, please do.
Please note that the heroine’s name is Michelle. I originally made it Evelyn, but then I found another Evelyn in Patty’s Gamble, and I was afraid people would think this was the same Evelyn. So I changed the name to Michelle. I forgot to tell the publisher at the time I sent in the description, so the book page says “Evelyn”. I already notified the publisher of this issue.
That aside….
The hero is Joe Otto, and he was the one who was in love with Amanda when she married Richard Larson. Well, in this book, he gets his second chance at happiness, but it’s not exactly in the way he expects because Michelle (the woman he signs to temporarily marry so she can go on a wagon train to California without a relative) is excited about the trip and wants to do everything she can to be part of leading the wagon train. This baffles him, and no matter how hard he tries to persuade her to be content sticking to the female duties, she won’t give up.
Below is an excerpt from the story to give you a flavor of the humor you’ll find if you read it.
This is when Michelle tries to join the men when they’re ready to go hunting.
~~~~
They turned around in time to see Joe jogging their way.
“Your wife wants to join us for hunting,” Matthew replied. “The trouble is, she’s never used a gun in her entire life.”
Before Joe said anything, Michelle already knew he wouldn’t approve. “I’m just going to watch,” she told Joe. “I won’t use the rifle.” Even though she wanted to in the worst way. Men were so lucky. They got to do a lot of fun things while women were stuck with cooking and cleaning. She gave the rifle back to Danny. “See? I’m not shooting at anything today.”
Joe slowed to a stop as soon as he reached them. “This is ridiculous. You can’t go out there with these men.”
“Why not? You think I can’t learn from watching them?” she asked.
Joe took her by the arm and led her away from the group.
“What are you doing?” she demanded in irritation. She was beginning to feel more like a child than a grown woman with the way he was treating her.
When they were out of everyone’s hearing, he faced her and let go of her arm. “I’m stopping you from making a foolish decision,” he told her. “Think about what you’re about to do. You’re willing to go with five men away from the group. Don’t you know what kind of trouble you’re asking for?”
It took her a moment to understand what he was getting at, and when she did, she gasped. “That’s awful, Joe. Just awful. Why would you agree to take men to California if you think they’re the type who’d take a woman’s innocence?”
He blinked, her answer having the desired effect of surprising him. Then he shook his head and said, “I wouldn’t agree to take men on a wagon train if I thought they were the type who’d mistreat a woman.”
“In that case, why are you worried?”
“Because I don’t know them that well. I don’t think they would do that, but one can never be sure about anything. Who knows if the temptation might be too much for any one of them? It’s in your best interest to make sure you’re never alone with any of them, understand? That’s why I tell women and children to go to the stream together or go with a male relative. It’s for your protection.”
“Well, I want to learn how to hunt, and in order to do that, I need to learn to shoot a gun. I think of Danny as a brother, and he thinks of me like a sister. He’ll take care of me.”
Joe laughed. “You are so naïve.”
She frowned. “I don’t appreciate being laughed at.”
He shook his head. “Why can’t you be content being a woman? Why do you need to act like a man?”
“I’m not trying to act like a man. As Mrs. Taylor said, women have owned homesteads. If they can own property, then I can hunt.”
“When I talked to your father, he made you sound like a sweet young woman who wouldn’t cause me any problems, but so far, you’ve been the biggest problem I’ve had on this trail.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Thanks a lot!”
“You can’t be surprised I think that about you. You’re determined to do everything I tell you not to do.”
“That’s because you are determined to prevent me from living the adventure that’s part of this journey.”
“Adventure?”
“Yes. I like being out here. I have an opportunity to learn how to do new things, and you’re not letting me do them. Danny’s willing to let me do them. The other men only had a problem because I don’t know how to use a gun, but once I know how to use it, they’ll let me hunt with them. Danny will teach me how to shoot. And you aren’t going to stop me.”
That said, she stuck her nose up in the air and turned to get away from him. But he quickly slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side.
“You’ll do that over my dead body,” he said.
Not to be deterred from his comment, she made eye contact with him. “You either teach me, or I’ll have Danny do it.”
After a long moment, he gritted his teeth. “Fine. I’ll do it. You’re my wife. That makes you my responsibility. That means I have to deal with you.”
January 20, 2017
Trying Out Speech To Text Software For Writing Stories
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ID 63365994 © Dimaberkut | Dreamstime.com
The experiment
This past week, I finally took the plunge and downloaded a software called Dragon Dictation onto my iPhone. (I don’t remember how much the app cost. Apparently, I had bought it a year ago when I first heard about it, but I was so scared of the idea of speaking a story that I never used it.) On Tuesday when I was at the dentist with my kids, I searched for speech-to-text software and found Dragon Dictation. Since I saw that I had already purchased it, I downloaded it. I figured, what did I have to lose? The worse that would happen was it didn’t work.
The idea behind speaking your book (rather than typing it all) is to increase the amount of words you can get in each day you work. Has it worked for me? Yes. I was surprised. I though my mind would freeze up since it’s easier for me to think as a type. An author friend suggested I have a couple of things written down for what I wanted to accomplish in the scene before I started speaking the story. She also recommended I go in short bursts instead of trying to talk nonstop for half an hour.
So after scribbling a couple of notes, I told myself I would give it a 2-3 minute try. I hid myself in the bathroom so no one in the house would hear me. (It’s hard to do something like this with someone else around to hear you.) I stumbled through the first couple times I did it. But then I finally managed to get in 100 words that I could actually use in my current work in progress. Encouraged, I recorded more words. I emailed myself the few attempts (just to make sure that part worked). And it did. I copied what was in the email and put it into the document.
The benefits
I’ve been at this for the past three days now, and today I actually worked myself up to speaking 400 words in the span of 3-4 minutes. Usually, it takes me about a half hour to type out 400 words. I was impressed. While waiting for my kids to get off at the bus stop today, I had spoken a good 2000 words using the small speaking segments. Once the scene was there in my mind, the words came easily. It is a nice benefit that I can speak a lot faster than I can type. So yeah, this method really does work.
I have been able to increase my daily word count by 1,ooo to 1,500 more words. I don’t know if this kind of output will be sustainable. A lot of it may depend on how much I know about what will happen next in the stories I’m working on. At the moment, I know where I’m going in all four books. (Yes, I am currently working on four books at one time.)
The drawbacks
As with anything, there are a few drawbacks. (These aren’t major, but I feel like I should mention them.) One, the software doesn’t always know which word I’m actually saying. For example, I had spoken: I want to marry Corin, Loretta. What the software thought I said was this: I want to marry corn lettuce. I also don’t worry about inserting any punctuation. I don’t know authors do that, but I find it easy enough to capitalize the right words and punctuate while I go through the text in the document to clean it up.
Another drawback is that my brain is not used to speaking a story out yet, and I do feel a certain emotional detachment from the story with this method. It’s easy for me to “feel” the story as I type. I’ve been doing this for years, and when I type the story, I am fully engaged with the creative part of my brain. The creative part is intimately intertwined with my emotions. (It’s been that way since I was 14 and writing stories.) When I speak to people, I tend to be logically focused. Speaking a story is forcing me to tap into the creative part of my brain, and I feel like I’m standing on the outside of the story looking in. When I type, I’m inside the characters.
However, when I go through and edit through the material (which I do through typing), I find the creative part catches up to what I spoke, and I can then go in and fill in those emotional details. When I am in the typing mode, I am, once again, inside the characters and feeling everything they go through. I don’t know if I will get to the point where I can speak inside the character’s point of view as well as can type it, but at least if I never do, I can compensate for it. I’m still new at speaking a story into my iPhone.
Overall
I’m really happy with this software. I wish I hadn’t dragged my feet on using it. Who knows how much more I could have done last year if I hadn’t let the thought, “I’ll never get the hang of speaking a story,” hold me back? I guess we’ll find out what I get accomplished this year. Then we can take a comparison between 2016 and 2017. Of course, that’s barring anything serious happening, like a family emergency.
Trying Out Speech To Text Software For Writing Storie
ID 63365994 © Dimaberkut | Dreamstime.com
The experiment
This past week, I finally took the plunge and downloaded a software called Dragon Dictation onto my iPhone. (I don’t remember how much the app cost. Apparently, I had bought it a year ago when I first heard about it, but I was so scared of the idea of speaking a story that I never used it.) On Tuesday when I was at the dentist with my kids, I searched for speech-to-text software and found Dragon Dictation. Since I saw that I had already purchased it, I downloaded it. I figured, what did I have to lose? The worse that would happen was it didn’t work.
The idea behind speaking your book (rather than typing it all) is to increase the amount of words you can get in each day you work. Has it worked for me? Yes. I was surprised. I though my mind would freeze up since it’s easier for me to think as a type. An author friend suggested I have a couple of things written down for what I wanted to accomplish in the scene before I started speaking the story. She also recommended I go in short bursts instead of trying to talk nonstop for half an hour.
So after scribbling a couple of notes, I told myself I would give it a 2-3 minute try. I hid myself in the bathroom so no one in the house would hear me. (It’s hard to do something like this with someone else around to hear you.) I stumbled through the first couple times I did it. But then I finally managed to get in 100 words that I could actually use in my current work in progress. Encouraged, I recorded more words. I emailed myself the few attempts (just to make sure that part worked). And it did. I copied what was in the email and put it into the document.
The benefits
I’ve been at this for the past three days now, and today I actually worked myself up to speaking 400 words in the span of 3-4 minutes. Usually, it takes me about a half hour to type out 400 words. I was impressed. While waiting for my kids to get off at the bus stop today, I had spoken a good 2000 words using the small speaking segments. Once the scene was there in my mind, the words came easily. It is a nice benefit that I can speak a lot faster than I can type. So yeah, this method really does work.
I have been able to increase my daily word count by 1,ooo to 1,500 more words. I don’t know if this kind of output will be sustainable. A lot of it may depend on how much I know about what will happen next in the stories I’m working on. At the moment, I know where I’m going in all four books. (Yes, I am currently working on four books at one time.)
The drawbacks
As with anything, there are a few drawbacks. (These aren’t major, but I feel like I should mention them.) One, the software doesn’t always know which word I’m actually saying. For example, I had spoken: I want to marry Corin, Loretta. What the software thought I said was this: I want to marry corn lettuce. I also don’t worry about inserting any punctuation. I don’t know authors do that, but I find it easy enough to capitalize the right words and punctuate while I go through the text in the document to clean it up.
Another drawback is that my brain is not used to speaking a story out yet, and I do feel a certain emotional detachment from the story with this method. It’s easy for me to “feel” the story as I type. I’ve been doing this for years, and when I type the story, I am fully engaged with the creative part of my brain. The creative part is intimately intertwined with my emotions. (It’s been that way since I was 14 and writing stories.) When I speak to people, I tend to be logically focused. Speaking a story is forcing me to tap into the creative part of my brain, and I feel like I’m standing on the outside of the story looking in. When I type, I’m inside the characters.
However, when I go through and edit through the material (which I do through typing), I find the creative part catches up to what I spoke, and I can then go in and fill in those emotional details. When I am in the typing mode, I am, once again, inside the characters and feeling everything they go through. I don’t know if I will get to the point where I can speak inside the character’s point of view as well as can type it, but at least if I never do, I can compensate for it. I’m still new at speaking a story into my iPhone.
Overall
I’m really happy with this software. I wish I hadn’t dragged my feet on using it. Who knows how much more I could have done last year if I hadn’t let the thought, “I’ll never get the hang of speaking a story,” hold me back? I guess we’ll find out what I get accomplished this year. Then we can take a comparison between 2016 and 2017. Of course, that’s barring anything serious happening, like a family emergency.
January 18, 2017
Busting The Myths That Most People Believe About Writers
This post is primarily based off a lot of stress and frustration I’ve been experiencing for the past 48 hours. I feel like I’m a hamster running around in its wheel, desperately wanting to make progress but unable to. I don’t like this feeling. It leaves me unable to sleep. In fact, that I woke up around 2am and haven’t been able to get back to sleep. At the moment, it’s 6am.
I think a lot of people are under the illusion that writers can write one or two books a year then run off to vacations the rest of the year. I blame this illusion on the movies, some blog posts, and some articles that make it sound like all writers everywhere are making a “Six-Figure Income”. I could go into taxes and the like (which greatly offsets what writers get to keep, but I already did that in another post.
Today, I’m going to tackle other myths that have been plaguing me as of late.
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ID 35557014 © Iqoncept | Dreamstime.com
Myth #1: Writers can write a book in a week or less.
I get it. We live in an instant gratification kind of world. People expect everything right now. But if you want a good story worth reading, it does take time to get a book ready for prime time. Unless we’re dealing with a short story or a writer who has done serious outlining ahead of time, most writers need more than a week to write a book. It takes me 1.5 to 2 months to write a 60,000-word novel. That is just to get the first draft done.
But let’s say for the sake of argument, a writer does manage this feat. The book isn’t ready for publication at this point. The book needs to be edited by someone other than the writer. Writers should never rely on their own ability to edit their work. They will miss things another eye will find. In addition to at least one editor, the writer may have beta readers. I have two editors and four beta readers. It averages me one month for all of these. So from the time I start a book to when I can publish it, the soonest this can happen is 2.5 to 3 months. That is the soonest. That is me have awesome writing days at least 5 days a week where I can seriously crank out the words.
What is the reality? Usually, 3-4 months. Why?
Because….I have a life outside of writing.
Myth #2: Writers are robots who do nothing but write.
We have families and friends. We have bills to pay. We have chores to do. Some of us work outside the home while writing. I’m fortunate enough where I don’t have an outside job at the moment. (That could very well change if my income keeps dropping. Writers don’t make a steady income. This is a myth I’ll discuss in myth #3.)
We have emergencies that pop up. We have car and house repairs that require us to stop writing and focus on fixing them. We get sick or a family member gets sick. Sometimes we need to take time off from writing to tend to things that occur in every day life, just like other people do.
We are not always tied to our computer. But when we are on the computer, we need to answer emails, comments on social media sites, and promote our books. And we need to do these things WHILE trying to get our writing in for the day. It is not an easy balance to deal with.
Myth #3: Income is steady or goes up and up and up and…
Nope. Most jobs you go to have a guaranteed salary or hourly wage. You know exactly what you’re getting each month. When my husband was in the military, I could rely on that money coming in, no matter what happened.
With writing books, this is not the case. Now, I will say that even in previous years, every single month was a mystery. I never knew how well my books would or would not sell. The income was like a rollercoaster. Some months were great. Some were not. Income is not steady.
And income does not ALWAYS go up from year to year. This is a horrible myth that is leading to a lot of despair among some writers who believe they are doing something wrong. SOME authors have seen their income go up every year. But not ALL of them area. I’m one who isn’t. Last year, my income dropped, and this is even after publishing ten books (which is more than I had ever published before in a single year).
Writing can be a very scary profession because you really don’t know how your next book is going to sell.
Myth #4: Writers don’t need word of mouth or book reviews.
Writers desperately need both of these things. Our very livelihood depends on others helping us, but it’s not considered good practice to solicit help. Which is why most of us don’t. We don’t want anyone to feel like they “have” to spread the word about our books or leave us a review. We prefer people who WANT to do it because they love our work. While it’s wonderful to receive a great email (believe me, we need those, too!), we also need your help doing things we can’t do our own.
People are far more likely to trust their friend or family member to recommend a good book to them. If you happen to know someone who would be interested in our books, please let them know. Share a link. Post a tweet. Send an email. Share our books in discussion threads when they fit what the other person is looking for.
Reviews are equally important. I just learned that Amazon gives more exposure to books with reviews on them. I didn’t realize this until recently. It doesn’t have to be a 5-star review. It just needs to be what you honestly think about the book. Reviews give potential readers an idea of whether or not the book would interest them. I understand some people are afraid to review books because they fear the writer might retaliate if they don’t get a 5-star review. In that case, avoid reviewing books by those authors. But please don’t lump all authors into that mold. Your favorite authors should be ones who won’t jump down your throat because you don’t give them five stars. If you feel they deserve less than five stars, then you should be safe to give them less than five stars.
When you find a writer you love, please pass that writer on. It could mean the difference between the writer being able to pill their bills (through increased book sales) or having to quite writing to make money another way. As much as I’d love to say writers don’t need money to keep going, most of us do. Word of mouth is the VERY BEST marketing tool we have, and yet, it is something completely out of our control.
***
Does anyone else have a writer myth they’d like to share? I know I didn’t cover them all. 
January 8, 2017
The Bargain Mail Order Bride is Available!
It came out yesterday, but I’m just getting around to doing the blog post today. (It’s always busy in my house with the kiddos running in and out of my office/bedroom.)
January 1, 2017
First Day, First Paragraph Tag
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It’s that time again. Time for the “First Day, First Paragraph” Tag. Thanks to Rami Ungar for tagging me!
Let’s go over the rules. Once tagged for “First Day, First Paragraph,” you have to do the following:
Publish your own post on the first day of the month.
Use the graphic above
Thank and link back to the person who tagged you.
Explain the rules like I’m doing now.
Post the first paragraph of a story you’ve written, are writing, or plan to write someday.
Ask your readers for feedback.
Finally, tag someone to do the post next month (for example, if you do the tag on the first of January, the person you tag has to do it on the first of February), and comment on one of their posts to let them know the good news.
For this post, I decided to do the opening to a very old book that I wrote back in 2008. This was the second romance I wrote. (The first was Falling In Love With Her Husband.) My second (and the one featured in the post) is called An Inconvenient Marriage, and despite it’s flaws in the historical realm, it’s still one of my favorites because of the great interaction between Jake Mitchell, Sue’s brothers and the many suitors who were vying for Sue’s hand. This book has a lot of good humor, which I still enjoy revisiting from time to time.
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Here’s the first paragraph:
Jake Mitchell was good at two things: making money and managing people. What he wasn’t good at was getting Sue Lewis to stop coming by the bank where he worked every day. It wasn’t that Sue was outwardly rude, but she was persistent and vocal. This particular day was no exception. He was sitting in his office when he heard her enter the bank.
Thoughts? Comments? Let’s discuss.
Okay, now I have to tag someone. This month, I’m going to tag Lauralynn Elliott.
December 31, 2016
Stuff I’m Working On
A quick reminder for anyone who missed it, The Bargain Mail Order Bride is on pre-order at all channels. It’ll be out next week.
