Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 56

Updates on What I’m Doing

The Convenient Mail Order Bride’s release date has been bumped up to February 13!

(This is Book 1 in the brand new Chance at Love Series)

Click here to reserve your copy!

Everything came in earlier than I expected, so I was able to move this release date up a week earlier.  I’m excited to see if this “bumping up the date” will work smoothly.  It’s showing up with the new date on iBooks, Kobo, B&N, and Smashwords.  I haven’t put it on Amazon yet.  I haven’t been able to get that far.  I’ll have to work on getting that going soon.

On a side note, I was surprised by how many people hated the villain in this book.  While writing it, I came upon a scene that made me realize he’s one of those redeemable characters, like Neil Craftsman was in Eye of the Beholder.  I started out not liking Neil at all until the scene where Mary won the cooking contest, and Mary was gracious about having to talk to Neil and Cassie afterwards.  There was a spark of something in Neil at that scene that connected me to him, and I no longer saw him as a complete bad guy.  I knew I’d be writing His Redeeming Bride.

The same happened while writing The Convenient Mail order Bride.  While Abe (the hero) and Carl (the villain) were fighting in the barn, it occurred to me Carl is a character who can–and will–be redeemed.  That’s why I came up with The Bargain Mail Order Bride (book 4 in the series).  So while you might loathe Carl in this book, just remember what I said about Neil Craftsman.

This is still set for April 3, but I’ll probably have it out next month.

Click here to reserve your copy!

This is the one that’s the collection of blog posts where I brought in the Larsons to interview during 2011-2012.  It’s purely just a fun thing, and for anyone who’s followed this blog for some time, you’re familiar with what I do in character interviews and such.

A note to everyone on my email list, don’t buy this book.  You will be getting a Smashwords coupon for this one.  If you pre-ordered this, go ahead and cancel it.

Following this blog and receiving these posts in your inbox is not my email list.  (I had a couple people ask me about this, so I wanted to clarify what my email list is.)

My email list comes from MailChimp, and I only send out an email when the new book is out.  Along with this email, I usually give an extra scene that never made it into the book, or I’ll put a deleted scene.  I rarely ever offer a Smashwords coupon to get the book for free.  That is something I only do for books like the Bonus Material From the Nebraska Series because this is an “extra” book.  It’s not an actual story. It’s just a series of fun posts from the past.

If you want to be on my email list, all you have to do is fill out your email on this form: https://ruthannnordinauthorblog.wordp....  (Or click this link.) The name is not required.  Sometimes people want to give it, so I allow them to fill it in if they want.

Please note, some emails will block emails from MailChimp, or these emails might go into the spam folder.  I don’t know how to get around this issue.  I’m not an expert on email lists.

Her Devilish Marquess (Marriage by Agreement: Book 2)

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I’m almost halfway into this one, which puts me ahead of schedule.

I’m hoping to have this one out in April.  *fingers crossed*  It really depends on whether or not I can keep up the pace I’ve been writing at.  I want to be done with the first draft by the end of February.  Then it will be about a month to get it through the editing team.

In this book, I have been able to bring Mr. Christopher Robinson (hero in His Reluctant Lady) and Lord Edon (aka Ethan, hero in A Most Unsuitable Earl) back for a prominent secondary role.  This is a lot of fun for me because the reason I enjoy writing as much as I do is the characters that come from the stories.  They become real to me, and when I can find a way to bring them back, it’s like connecting with old friends.

I’m also using a subplot that I started in His Wicked Lady, which is Lord Steinbeck’s power play to take over the atmosphere of White’s.  (Lord Steinbeck will be the hero in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride, which is next in this series.)  I am purposely painting Lord Steinbeck in a bad light, esp. with this book.  But it’s necessary in order to accomplish his change in his book.  You can’t have a bad boy turn good unless he’s been bad.

And I think this is the book where Mr. Malcolm Jasper (hero in His Wicked Lady) will publicly stand up against Lord Steinbeck.  I don’t expect that to ease the conflict between him and his brother-in-law Lord Toplyn (aka Logan, hero in Ruined by the Earl), but this will be a big move in Malcolm learning to stand up for what he believes in without worrying so much about others’ opinions about it.  (In other words, he might mature.)

The Mistaken Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love: Book 2)

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I’m 10,000 words into this one, and I can tell you right now that some of the secondary characters are funny, which is good since this book will touch on some serious topics.  It’s nice to have some comic relief so the whole thing doesn’t get too tense.

This one starts right before The Convenient Mail Order Bride (book 1) ends, so there’s a slight overlap in the timelines between these two books.  It has to work that though because the climax in book 1 that requires the hero in this book to be delayed.  The only way that could happen was for his mail-order bride to show up earlier in the day.  I might have to make a note at the beginning of this book.  We’ll see how smoothly things play out.

This is one of the series that has really intrigued me.  I get to experiment with some deeper issues of the historical western time period, and I enjoy delving into the harder topics.  Now, this isn’t as hard as Wagon Trail Bride.  Wagon Trail Bride was the hardest book I ever wrote.  But this book reminds me a lot of Brave Beginnings in exploring the attitude of the time in regards to dealing with people who were different in their culture and in their skin color.

The heroine brings an abandoned seven-year-old African American boy with her.  This boy is very closed off and refuses to talk to anyone.  The hero in book 1 is half-Native American and half-white.  I have a feeling it will take the hero in book 1 to get the boy to open up because he’ll be the only one who can relate to him.  The hero in book 3 could as well, but he’s such a recluse, I don’t know if I can get him to make an appearance.  We’ll have to see how things play out.  But I do know I can easily bring in the main characters from book 1 into this story.  I’m looking forward to seeing how things will play out between everyone.

The Marriage Agreement (Pioneer Series: Book 2)

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This one was a bugger to start.  The first scene was easy.  Getting the hero to agree to marrying the heroine was the hard part, and it took me weeks of rewrites and walking away from it to finally pin the motivation down.  That’s why I haven’t made as much progress in this book as I wanted to.  I’m only at 6,000 words (or chapter 2).

The good news is I’m ahead of schedule, so the snafu I had to deal with didn’t put me behind.  (This is why I work on three books at a time.  If I had waited for this book to fall into place, I wouldn’t be nearing the halfway point of Her Devilish Marquess, and I wouldn’t have made it to chapter 3 in The Mistaken Mail Order Bride.  I know not everyone can write in more than one book at a time, but I need to because stuff like this happens on regular basis.  It just doesn’t happen in chapter 1.  This was the first time that’s ever happened.)

Questions for the Larsons: Part 1

To celebrate the fact that Richard Larson finally got his own book, I asked if anyone had anything they’d like to ask any of the characters from Wagon Trail Bride (or the Nebraska Series).  Thanks to everyone who responded. :)  You guys are awesome!

The answers ran longer than I expected, so I had to break the questions into two parts.

Without further ado, here’s part 1…

Miriam says: “I loved Richard, and he’s a very closed second, but Dave is still my fav :). I would like to ask Dave, who is his favorite brother and why?”

Dave Larson

Dave says:  First, I want to thank you for having such great taste in heroes, especially when it comes to liking me best. ;)  Hmm…  my favorite brother.  I guess it would be Richard.  Tom and Joel argue all the time. It was a pain listening to them try to outwit each other.  You’d think once they grew up, they would stop, but they didn’t.  In fact, it’s only gotten worse.  I know.  It’s hard to believe two grown men can act like children, but it’s how they are.

***

Amanda says: These two have hearts of gold. Both attributed from their parents. Oh I would love to hear about their upbringings.

Ma and Pa Larson (I have a feeling I named Pa Larson in one of my books, but I can’t remember what it was)

Ma Larson says: When you have six children, you have to manage your home efficiently.  The oldest are naturally given the most work because they can handle the work load more than the younger ones.

Pa Larson says: She’s right. She ran a tight ship, especially when we were living in the apartment while in New York.  We were all cramped into a small space, and the only time we got a reprieve was when the ones old enough to play outside were throwing ball or playing tag out in the street.

Ma Larson: Don’t think we weren’t responsible parents.  We were.  Back then there weren’t cars zooming up and down roads.  You just had to worry about horses, and those weren’t often passing by.  Most of the time, people walked when they had to go somewhere.  It was a safer time.  You could let your children run around outside all day and not worry someone would kidnap them.

Pa Larson: You could also leave your door unlocked.  Sure, there were some bad people.  Every generation has them, but it’s not like it is in the 21st century.  In my opinion, this was a great place to raise kids in.  They got to run around all day when they weren’t in school, and then they were so tired, they fell asleep right away.  Richard was the only one old enough to work after school in the factory to help make ends meet.  Back then the average wage was $16 a week, so by the time we were done buying food and other necessities, we barely had enough for rent.  Having eight people in one household isn’t cheap.

Ma Larson: But it was worth it.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  But to be fair, it was harder on him than it was on me.  At least, I had Sally’s help with her younger brothers and sisters during the days they were home.  He worked twelve hour days in the meat factory, six days a week.      Women back then stayed home and raised the family while the men worked.  It was rare to hear of a woman working.  So the children didn’t see their father a lot until we made the move to Omaha.

Pa Larson: After we moved there, they had to help out with the farm.  Honestly, I was just as busy as I was in New York, but I loved being outdoors.  Richard was already grown up by then so he didn’t to experience the farm life like the others did. Tom and Dave loved it. They were quick in learning how to plant and reap crops and tend to the animals. Joel, however, was harder to get motivated.  I found him on several occasions tricking Tom into doing his chores for him.  Dave was always too smart to fall for Joel’s tactics.  Sally and Jenny also helped out, but most of the time, they helped their mother in the house.  Believe me, cooking for four hungry men isn’t an easy task.

***

Catherine says:  I’d like Dave to talk about his memories from the wagon train and also how he feels about each of his children leaving the nest and his and Mary’s role as grandparents.

Dave Larson with Jasper

Dave discusses his thoughts about the wagon trail: The days on the trail were mostly a blur.  We got up right at dawn.  I’d take turns with Tom and my father in feeding the animals.  Joel was supposed to help out, but he was often nowhere to be found when there was work to be done.  Sometimes he’d “help” our mother with the cooking or say he had an upset stomach.  At other times, he hid in the wagon so no one could find him.  But every time–and I mean every single time–he’d pop out and eat everything on his plate with surprising gusto, even when he claimed the stomach ache.  I think the reason our mother put up with it was because he was the baby of the family.  I swear, the youngest can get away with anything.

Anyway, once we were finished with breakfast, we’d hitch up the oxen and head on out for the day.  We averaged anywhere from 10 to 15 miles a day, depending on the weather and how well we were all doing.  If someone got so sick they couldn’t keep going, we all had to stop.  No one was to be left behind.  There is safety in numbers, so we stayed together, even when some wanted to leave others behind.  Joe Otto was determined everyone arrive safe and sound to Omaha.

During the day, we’d take breaks to let the animals rest, get some water, and eat a snack.  But we didn’t eat a whole meal again until evening when after we set up our things for the night.  Believe me, when it came time to sleep, we did so–fast.  Even Joel, who did the least amount of work possible, fell asleep right away.  There was one time I put a snake in Joel’s bedroll, just because I had enough of him getting out of doing so much work.  *chuckles* To this day, he thinks Tom was the one who did it.

Dave discusses being a grandparent: Grandchildren are great, but I don’t remember getting old enough to have them.  I feel like I’m still in my 20’s, and I can remember the day I met Mary as if it were yesterday.  The older you get, the faster the time seems to pass you by.  It was strange to hold my first grandchild for the first time.  I couldn’t help but remember the day Isaac’s was born.  It’s funny how something like seeing your grandchild for the first time can take you back to when you first held your child, but that’s how it is for me every time a new one is born.

Mary does the hard work with them.  She’s always done the hard work with all the children we had, and she does it with the grandchildren, too.  I’ve been on my own, and I remember how much work it was to maintain a home, cook, and do laundry.  It’s a lot harder than it looks.  I take the grandchildren out in the barn and teach them to milk cows and ride horses.  Sometimes I take them planting, just in case they want to farm some day.  So really, my part in the whole thing is to simply enjoy them.

***

I’m going to end the questions here because I’m at 1300 words for this post.  I’ll work on answering the others in the next week or two. :D

 

The Emotionally Engaging Character Post 1: Introduction

Someone mentioned being more interested in finding out more about creating the emotionally engaging character, and I thought this would be an intriguing subject to explore in more depth.

So in the next couple weeks, or however long it takes me, I’ll be doing a series of posts on this topic.  I know some writers and people who are thinking of writing check out this blog, so I thought I’d do the posts over here instead of the Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors blog.  People on this blog seem to be interested in the actual writing part of writing, and people of the other blog seem to be more interested in what to do after the book is written. :)

Okay, so I figure I’ll start with an introduction on this subject.

ID 47363686 © Tomert | Dreamstime.com

Writing the emotionally engaging character really all boils down to one thing: you have to write with your heart.  The time for logical thinking is when you’re in edits.  I think the biggest hinderance to our stories is the strive for perfection.  Our inner critic is telling us what’s right and what’s wrong while we’re doing the first draft.  Now, I would listen to this critic to a point.  You want to use proper punctuation and sentence structure, and you want to make sure you maintain conflict and resolve all plot points.  This will make life way easier during the editing stage.

When I say to write the first draft with your heart, I mean you shouldn’t limit your characters’ emotions.  You are sharing the character’s story, not your own.  You have to be willing to fully immerse yourself so deeply into the character that you actually become the character.  Everything the character feels must be what you feel.  If the character’s hungry, you must be hungry.  If the character’s in great despair, you must (at the very least) have tears fill your eyes.  If the character’s laughing, you must find yourself chuckling right along without realizing it.  What happens is that you step into the character’s shoes and take his journey with him.  You might be the author, but it is really the character who is sharing the story.

This is where showing vs. telling comes into play.  It’s one thing to tell a reader that a character feels a certain way, but it’s an entirely different thing to show it.  I’ll try to get more into this technique in the future.  But for now, I want to give an overall view of what I’m hoping to explain in the series of posts I’m doing on this topic.

I know it can be hard to understand the difference between telling vs. showing.  It sure was for me.  You can hear a lot about it a lot, but for some reason, it’s one of the hardest concepts to grasp.  It’s way more than a series of words to describe an emotion.  Showing is all about immersing yourself so deeply into the character that the character is writing the story for you instead of you writing the story for the character (as I mentioned above).  But this isn’t something that is automatically learned.  It takes time to get into this mindset.

I became serious about writing in 2002, and I made all the errors new writers are prone to making.  I switched point of view in mid-scene.  I did tons of backstory early on in the book instead of weaving it throughout the story when it added much more to the tension.  I repeated things over and over as if the readers weren’t able to get the information the first couple of times I said it.  I made other glaring errors that I can see right away when I pick up one of my early books. But it took years and years of writing to see these things.

Oh, I had the basics down.  I had clean punctuation, knew to capitalize the first letter in a sentence, knew how to structure dialogue, knew my homophones pretty well (minus a couple words that I have since learned like peak, peek, and pique), and other details that go into creating good essays in school.  You definitely want to start at the basics.  Get those down first if you’re weak in these areas.  It’ll make it easier for your reader to get into the story.

My 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Harner, often said, “The goal of good writing is to make reading easy for the reader.” That’s what clean writing does. What good storytelling should do is immerse the reader into the character so that the reader takes the journey with the character.

This is a process to learn.  We don’t tell our very best story with our first book.  I hope you’ll be patient with yourself as you grow as a writer.  We all have to start somewhere.  These things don’t happen right away.  You will run across some people who’ll think you need to have your books perfect, but the truth is, no book is perfect.  The reason I say that is because no one is perfect.  Only the perfect person can write the perfect book.

So my hope is that you’ll give yourself grace and mercy during this process.  Do your best and strive for improvement.  Make the book you’re currently writing (or thinking of writing) better than anything else you worked on before.  We only fail when we stop trying. In my opinion, if more people understood this, writing would be a lot more enjoyable.

In the next week or so, I’ll have another post on this subject.  In the meantime, is there anything specific you want me to tackle on creating an emotionally engaging character?

Updates

Once again, I’m behind on Facebook.  I’m a little behind on emails, but not as badly as I am behind on Facebook.  Tis the season for getting all my stuff ready for tax time.  I expect to get busier in the next two months as I gather all the papers together to give the accountant.  So please understand that I’m not ignoring you if it takes a while to get back to you.  I’m just overwhelmed.

I love writing.  The writing part is fun.  The record keeping is not, but it’s the part that takes up most of my non-writing time.  If anyone ever wants me to do a post about what a writer needs to be keeping track of for tax purposes, let me know.  Otherwise, I won’t bore you with the details. :)

Okay, so here’s the latest and greatest of what’s happening:

1. I was interviewed for an upcoming podcast!

I had a really fun time with Lorna Faith earlier this week.  She interviewed me for a podcast where we discussed tips that will hopefully help new writers gain confidence in their work.  I’ll post the link to the podcast on this blog when it’s ready.  I haven’t made a podcast, but I can only imagine how much work goes into editing the audio file.  My hat’s off to Lorna for doing it.  She’s a very nice person.  We ended up chatting for a while before and after the interview, and it’s so easy to talk to her.  She has a great personality that draws introverts like me out of their shells.  It was a privilege to be on her podcast.

2. I will be working on a series of blog posts to help explain the emotionally engaging character.

I got the idea from Lorna Faith during the interview, and I love it.  I’m still coming up with topics to work into this.  So far the big one is how to draw out the emotions that can help connect the reader with the character.  If anyone has any questions on how to create characterization in storytelling, please let me know.

3. I finally got a cover and book launch page for the Bonus Material from the Nebraska Series book I’m working on.  (This is due out April 3, but I might get it out sooner.)

Click here to reserve your copy!

This is a collection of blog posts I’ve done over here from 2011 to 2012 while I was working on Shotgun Groom, To Have and To Hold, Isaac’s Decision, and Her Heart’s Desire.  I don’t know how many of you were reading this blog back then, but Dave Larson came on to argue with me about pairing Isaac up with Emily Craftsman (boy, was he ever pissed).  Then he called for a boycott on my books, and when he went missing, I was one of the people blamed for kidnapping him.  (As if I have time to kidnap one of my characters!)  Anyway, I wanted to get these posts into a book so I’d have an easy way to find them (instead of searching for them all the time).

I’d like to do a book for the Regencies since there were a lot of fun posts there, too, but I don’t know if I’ll get to do that this year.  But I did get this one together, and it’s just about ready.  I’m hoping to publish it sooner than April 3.  I put April 3rd down because I wanted to make sure I would make the deadline.  When doing these pre-orders, I estimate further out than I think I’ll need.   That way if real life happens, I’m not rushing to get the book ready.

But I pulled this together for fun, and thought if anyone is interested in it, it’ll be available for them as well.

4. The Convenient Mail Order Bride is in the final stages of getting ready.  

Click here to reserve your copy!

(For anyone wondering if I’ll get this on Amazon for pre-order, the answer is yes, but I won’t put it up until I have the final version.  There’s been some issues with Amazon not getting the final version up if an author uploads a draft first.  I’m sure Amazon is working this kink out, but I’d rather not take my chances.)

This is one series where I wish Book 4 was Book 2 because I really want to write about Abe Thomas’ half-brother.  If you’ll recall from previous posts, Abe (the hero of this book) and his half-brother don’t get along at all, but the brother is not the bad guy Abe things he is.  In fact, I came to learn his brother is a very sympathetic character.  So I’m itching to write his story, but it doesn’t fit until Book 4.  So I have to wait.

I don’t have a cover for Book 4 yet, but I do have the description on the book launch page I made for it.  I’m sharing this so you can read the characters’ thoughts on the book.  My favorite part of making these book launch pages is when the characters don’t get along and bicker with each other.  It makes it so much fun.  Here’s the link if you want to check it out.

****

Well, I see I hit over 800 words in this post.  I’ll end it by saying I am working on Her Devilish Marquess, The Mistaken Mail Order Bride, and The Marriage Agreement.  I can always go more into those books in later posts.  :)

His Wicked Lady is Now Available!

Here’s the links if you’re interested. :)

Amazon

iBooks

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

All the Books Currently on my “To Write/Publish List”

This goes out to 2017.  I’m currently taking ideas on what to publish next year.  I already have this year’s books lined out.

Really quick, these are the books I have planned for 2016:

 His Wicked Lady (Marriage by Arrangement: Book 1) comes out…tomorrow.  For some reason, I kept thinking January 9 was Sunday.  It’s a good thing I took a moment to look at the date today.  LOL  (I blame my lack of focus on the head cold I battled for the past couple weeks.  It’s okay to blame anything on a cold.)
The Convenient Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love: Book 1) comes out February 21.
Bonus Material from the Nebraska Series comes out April 3.
Her Devilish Marquess (Marriage by Arrangement: Book 2) comes out May 8.
The Mistaken Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love: Book 2) comes out June 5.
The Marriage Agreement (Pioneer Series: Book 2) comes out August 7.
The Accidental Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love: Book 3) comes out September 4.

So now I’m looking at 2017:

 The Bargain Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love: Book 4) comes out January 7.
His Wallflower Bride (Marriage by Arrangement: Book 3) comes out January 22.
Groom for Hire (Pioneer Series: Book 3) comes out March 5.

Now, I have no dates set up for the other books I want to do in 2017, and after talking with some of you on Facebook, emails, and on this blog, this is what I have decided to add to the list:

The Highlander’s Captive Bride (I thought it’d be fun to branch out to a Highlander Romance for a change, and I already have an idea for this one.)

His Auctioned Bride (This will be Sep’s story; Sep was April’s brother in Shotgun Groom. People have been asking about his story, and I finally have an idea for it.)

Book 4 in the Regency series Marriage by Arrangement (I have no title for it yet, and I really don’t know who the main characters will be.  That should come to me as I write more books in the series.)

Okay, the last one is going to be a hard one.  I’ve had people ask for Ma and Pa Larson’s story, and I’ve had requests for Dave and Mary’s third book.  We will see how much I am able to do during the course of 2016.  I’m hoping to be ahead of schedule, but you never know what will happen.

I have also had a couple requests from time to time to do a time travel romance where a woman goes from the past into a contemporary setting.  This is a neat idea.  I like it a lot, but I don’t see how I could have it out before 2018.

***

Some quick FAQ’s I’ve received:

 Do you ever run out of ideas or think you will?  Honestly, when I started writing romances back in 2007, I fully expected to write one or two books and be done.  But, the more I wrote, the more ideas I got.  I can’t turn it off either.  I have more ideas in my mind than I’ll ever be able to write.  They multiply all the time, and the regardless of how fast I try to write, I only get more and more of them.  It is hard to pick which ones to go with.  Often, it comes down to what you guys ask for.
When will The Rancher’s Wife and the other books in the Wild Heart Series (co-written with Stephannie Beman) be done?  I had to hand the rest of the series to Stephannie.  She’ll be finishing them up.  I just can’t fit writing another co-authored book into my schedule.  Plus, I’ve lost interest in it since it’s been so long since I’ve worked on it.  I’ll keep you updated when she gets to working on it.  At the moment, she’s working on a fantasy series.
Will you ever write Ma and Pa Larson’s story?  I get this one a lot.  Yes, I will.  I have no idea what the plot will be.  I only know Pa Larson loved her since they were little and always knew they’d end up together.
Are your stories all fiction or are some based on real life events?  They are all fiction.  The characters wouldn’t let me tell anyone’s story but their own.  They are very demanding.

That’s all I got at the moment. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask.  :)

Wagon Trail Bride is Now Available!

To those of you on my email list:

If you are on my email list, you should have received an email already announcing that this book is out.  If you haven’t, check your spam folder.  If the email still isn’t there, it’s possible your settings might be set up to reject anything that might be flagged as spam, and I don’t know how to get around that.  What I could do is send a test email from MailChimp your way to see if your email settings are set up to accept emails from me.  Let me know in the comments below if you signed up for my email list and didn’t get the email this morning.

To the links for this book if you want to buy it:

Amazon

iBooks

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

***

Got any questions you’d like to ask the characters of this book?

If anyone has any questions they’d like to ask any of the Larsons or Amanda or anyone else who shows up in this book, please let me know in a comment or by filling out the form below.  I’d love to do a guest post with the characters, but my mind is blank on what to say.  Even a couple of questions could get me going on doing a full length blog post, so let me know if anything comes to mind.

[contact-form]

Updates on What I’m Doing

Wagon Trail Bride is out January 3 (less than a week away!)

Today I worked on the email for my new release email list so it’ll be ready to go when Wagon Trail Bride is out on January 3.  Only people on the email list will be getting the extra scene I usually write.  In this case, there are three scenes I took out of the original version of this book.  So there’s two bonus scenes this time.  (If you want to be on my email list, here’s the link to sign up.  I don’t email anything until I have a new release.  I don’t believe in spamming people’s inboxes.)

Click here to reserve your copy today!

At any rate, Richard’s been looking forward to this book for years.  I think the first mention I made of it was way back in 2012.  I didn’t think it would take this long to get out, but alas, this went through a couple of rewrites and had me stalled for the longest time.

His Wicked Lady is due out January 9 (just under two weeks)!

Click here to reserve your copy today!

I still have to work on the email for when this comes out.  I only did one extra scene for this one.  I had the hardest time coming up with an idea, but someone gave me a good idea and I went with it.

Next month, The Convenient Mail Order Bride is out!

Click here to reserve your copy today!

 This one is set for February 21.   I’m not close to working on this one, but I’m brainstorming ideas on what to do for the extra scene.

On April 3, I’m publishing something special.

(I don’t have the cover yet but my cover artist is working on it.)

What’s it about:

It’ll be “Bonus Material from the Larsons” and it’ll have the posts from way back in 2011-2012 when I was doing character interviews for Shotgun Groom, To Have and To Hold, Her Heart’s Desire, and Isaac’s Decision.  I’d forgotten Dave Larson went into try to rewrite Isaac’s Decision and the resulting call for a boycott on my books after that.  Then there was the whole Dave got kidnapped thing and then I sued Dave for pain and suffering.  That was a fun trip down memory lane with the Larsons.  I also had the competition between Rick Johnson, Tom Larson, Dave Larson, Joel Larson, Owen Russell, and Neil Craftsman (who were heroes in some of the Nebraska Series book) where people voted on their favorite hero.  It was a lot of fun.

I know this isn’t something I typically do, but I thought it’s about time I take some of my blog posts and put them into a book so it’s easy to access.

I was originally going for a longer book that would have more series covered, but I could only upload a 15MB document to Smashwords, so I had to narrow things down to just the Larsons.  (I wanted to add some of the pictures I used in the blog posts since they make things a lot more fun.)

Where it’s at on pre-order:

Though there is no cover yet, I do have it on pre-order on iBooks, Kobo, B&N, and Smashwords.   (Please note that on B&N, the title and description still needs updating.)

You can check out a sample at Smashwords if you want an idea of what’s in it.

To people on my email list:

For those of you on my email list, I’ll be doing the same thing in the new release email that I did with the Enchanted Galaxy Series.  If you were on my list in November, you know what I’m talking about.  If you just recently signed up for it, leave a comment below.

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Since I dumped a lot on you in this post, I’ll end this here.

The Horrible Covers & Posters of Yesteryear

Since we’re coming upon a brand new year, I thought it’d be fun to post the horrible covers I had made but (fortunately) never published with the book.  Thankfully, I found great cover artists to take over this task, though I still have to go over and have some past ones redone, such as the ones in Across the Stars.  (This will take some time to do, but eventually, it’ll happen.)

The sad thing is, I was really trying on some of them.  Ready for a laugh?   Here we go!  If you want, vote for the one that is worst!

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Movie Poster for Shotgun Groom for a blog interview.

Shotgun Groom 

 

To Have and To Hold

These were really posters for interviews, but you can tell I didn’t even bother putting text on the second image because the first was so bad.

Mitch’s Win Cover

The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife

If I was writing horror, these are what the covers might have looked like.  As it was, they were only for the interviews.

Forever Yours

I have not written this yet.  It will be Mary and Dave’s third book.  Someone recently asked about it, and I don’t have room to write it in 2016.  Those slots are already taken up.  The soonest I could publish, or write, this would be 2017.  Needless to say, I will not be using this cover so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.  :)

Falling In Love With Her Husband

While this isn’t as horrible as the ones above, it definitely leaves a lot to be desires. (I used to be able to make a box around a white image, but WordPress has changed its toolbar so I don’t know how to do it.  The white cover is another reason this sucks.  Never do white covers unless you have a border.

 

Patty’s Gamble

These, of course, were done for fun.  Greg Wilson would have claimed the cover on the left, and Patty Dixon would have claimed the one on the right.

 

The Emotional Journey of an Author in the Process of Writing a Book

I can’t speak for all authors.  I can only speak for myself.  But I have a feeling there are others out there who experience similar joys and fears while writing and publishing a book.

I thought I’d share this because I know some of you who read my posts are thinking of writing a book or are new to writing, and maybe it’ll help to know you’re not the only one who goes through these things.  So maybe it can help encourage you.  I find a lot of encouragement when I know others go through something similar to me.

Phase I: Starting the Book: Panic and Excitement

You’d think by now since I’ve reached the 50th romance book milestone, I wouldn’t feel a panic when it comes to starting a new one, but I do.  There’s a part of me that wonders if I have it in me to write another book.   Looking at the entire word count goal for the new book (55,000-65,000 words) seems overwhelming to me, even though I’d done a lot of those before.  The only way through it (for me) is to focus on daily word counts.  If I tell myself I only have to write 500 words today, it’s way easier to write than if I think of the 60,000 words I need to write in order to finish the book.

Phase II: Writing is so much fun

Except the few times I get stumped and have to work on something else until I know where I’m going in the book, this is really play time.  I’m happiest when I’m working on the story.  This is the part where I’m in love with story and think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

Phase III: First Draft is done: celebrate

I always celebrate when I finish the first draft.  It’s a relief to know I did, in fact, finish the book and have something I will be able to publish.

Phase IV: Editing is painful and the story sucks

During my initial edits, I have to look at the story with a critical eye.  My job is to find every single error I can before I hand it off to my editing team.  And I’m telling you, I do catch a lot.  Through the whole thing I’m thinking, “This is the worst thing I’ve ever written.  No one will like it.  This is the book where I totally bomb and people stop reading me.”

It doesn’t matter how much I loved the story while I was writing it.  I hate the story every time I edit it.  The only thing that pushes me through this stage is knowing I did love it while I was writing it, and since that was the case, it has to have some redeeming qualities in it.  I just can’t see those qualities while I’m editing.

Phase V: My editing team takes the book

I’m am relieved.  I’ll pretend the book doesn’t even exist during this phase because of how painful the initial edits were.

Phase VI: Final edits

I finally love the book again, but I wonder if anyone else will.  What’s nice about this stage is knowing the book is completed, so the pressure to write it is off.  But there is that pressure to make sure I catch every typo and inconsistency the others missed.  (I can tell you right now that finding every single thing with every single book is like searching through a haystack for a needle.  Very hard to do, so if you’ve done everything you could and later realize you missed something, go easy on yourself.  We’re only human.  Just take a deep breath, correct the error, upload it again to the retailer, and continue on with your next book.)

Phase VII: Publishing is another time to celebrate

This is fun because I get to add another book to my backlist and see the result of all the work I put in.

Now, there’s no one book out there that will please everyone who reads it. As you publish more books, you get used the process and routine of doing things.  You learn some people will enjoy your books and others won’t.  Some people might like some books you do but not others.  The only thing you can do is write the book you love and get it as polished up as possible.  The rest of it is out of your control.

My advice (for what it’s worth) is to write the next book.  Don’t get caught up in reviews or sales (or lack of them).   Don’t compare yourself to other authors.  I know these things are hard, but you’ll be a lot happier if you focus on the next book.