Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 6

SWOT for Your Author Business

I have a son who is taking a business class at the community college in town, and through a conversation with him, I was introduced to a concept called SWOT. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. After watching a couple of videos on this concept, I got an idea for a blog post, which is what brings me here today.

Regardless of whether you are writing for passion or to market, I think SWOT can help you figure out the best opportunities that will help your author business. (Just because you write for passion, it doesn’t mean you aren’t operating a business.) I believe that by taking an honest look at our strengths, weaknesses, and threats, we can incorporate opportunities to help us thrive. And I’m going to take things a step further by adding that doing this will give us an action plan. This action plan will take us from where we are now to where we want to be.

Obviously, this is not a one-size fits all plan. This is going to be unique to your own author business. But it does require you to be brutally honest with yourself. If you are having problems detecting your strengths and/or weaknesses, I recommend consulting others who know you and your work well enough to give you feedback. The people you consult need to be people who are comfortable telling you the truth. It does you no good to only talk to people who are only going to praise you. Yes, praise is wonderful. I love it as much as the next person, but we also need to be open to areas in our author business that needs work. Without that work, we have no action plan. So if someone is willing to tell you the truth, be gracious about taking their feedback. (Note: the feedback does need to be respectful. The people should not be rude. There is a difference between, “It would be helpful if you posted to links to all of the wide retailers instead of only Amazon” and “Everyone knows that you need to post links to wide retailers if you’re not in KU. So why aren’t you doing that already?”)

Alright, with that said, I’m going to bring in an author I’m making up for our case study. (I am not pointing to anyone I personally know. If you find yourself somewhere in here, it’s a coincidence. Once in a while, I’ll have someone ask me why I mentioned them in a post when I didn’t even know about them, so I thought I’d get this out of the way right now.)

Our Author Profile

We’ll name this author John Smith. John writes technological thrillers with an emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI). He loves his work. He is a great in-person seller for his books since he has a dynamic personality and loves talking to people. However, his online sales aren’t what he wishes they would be. He does have a small, loyal readership, but he would like to expand his reach. His website, however, is in good working order and appealing to the eye, although he does not have an email list. He has his books in ebook, paperback, and audio formats. Other authors in his genre manage to sell much better than him, even though his books have covers and content that is up to par with them. With technology constantly evolving, he struggles with keeping up with the latest trends. He is able to write a decent amount of words when he sits at the computer, and he is able to publish three full-length books for his ongoing series in a year.

So let’s look at some of his strengths.

He loves what he writes. He is good with in-person sales. His website is up to working order. He is able to write and publish three books a year, which helps to keep up his inventory. He also writes in a series. Series often sell better overall than standalones.

Now let’s take into account some weaknesses.

His online sales is lacking. He doesn’t have an email list. He doesn’t keep up with the latest technological developments.

I want to look at threats before opportunities because I believe the threats (combined with strengths and weaknesses) lead to opportunities. A threat is really a look at the competitor. (Yes, I know other authors aren’t “competitors”, but in the business world, that is how they are viewed.)

Other authors in his genre are doing better than him with their sales. Also, technology is advancing all the time, and this will impact the content of his books. (If he doesn’t know of something and a reader does, that can lead to a poor reading experience and potentially lose him readers, even the ones he currently has.)

With all of these in mind, let’s look for some opportunities to get him from where he is now to where he wants to be. This is not an exhaustive list. I’m just giving some ideas to show you how to generate opportunities for your own author business.

1. Since he is good with in-person sales, he can make business cards with a QR code to direct people to his website where they can find ebooks and audiobooks if they can’t afford (or even if they don’t read) paperbacks. He can create an email list. At in-person events, he can collect emails. Online, he can have an email list sign up form.

2. To help generate online interest, he has some options open. In addition to the email list, he might consider creating a You Tube channel where he reads a couple of his books (or posts his audiobook version of those books). He might want to try a First Book in a Series Free book and then pay to advertise that book to get online readers informed about the book, and to hopefully, get so excited about his work that they’ll want to buy more of his books. He can post small snippets featuring recurring characters in his series to his email list or on his website (through a blog) or even to share on You Tube. These snippets would be something not included in the books. They would be between 1,500 to 3,000 words long. And he could try this once a month, or as his creativity allows.

3. He can join other authors who write in his genre to do in-person events, online newsletter swaps, co-writing opportunities, or sharing content on You Tube. Readers of any given genre don’t only stick to one author. The key here is to find authors who write the same type of books.

4. Once a month, John can sit down to do some research on the latest technological trends so he can keep current in his work. This way, his work will be stronger, and he’ll probably even get more story ideas from it.

***

As I said, that is not an exhaustive list, but it’s enough to show you what I’m getting at. If I were talking to John, I would recommend focusing on 1 of the 4 opportunities for 3-4 months. He might even need a full 6 months to get traction in one of these areas. The idea isn’t to do everything at once. I believe the best approach is to take one thing at a time, and you want to start with the one thing that most appeals to you.

Then in half a year, examine your progress. Are things better? If so, keep it up and try a second opportunity (or action plan). If things aren’t better, drop that thing you were trying and pick something else. The beauty of SWOT is that it’s flexible, and it works with you.

November Historical Romance BookFunnel Promo

For those of you who are on BookFunnel, I’m happy to announce that I have a Regency and a historical western to share with you for November. I probably won’t run anything in December since I’ll be focused on getting a new book ready for publishing in January. But this is a slower month where I don’t have a lot going on, so I have time to join and share a promo.

Here are the two books I’m giving away on BookFunnel for November:

I assume everyone reading this knows what these books are about since they’re relatively new, and I’ve mentioned them quite a bit on this blog. In case you aren’t familiar with them, I do have descriptions up on the book pages if you click on them in the promo.

Here is the link to the promo!

If that doesn’t work, here is the direct url: https://books.bookfunnel.com/novemberfreehr/d2j42iew68

Anyone But the Marquess is Now Available!

It’s been a long time in coming, but it’s finally here. I appreciate everyone’s patience with this one.

So I introduced Felix (Lord Roland) in Midnight Wedding.

For those who’ve read the book, you’ll remember that Felix is Miss Lydia Hamilton’s brother. They were in a hurry to get out of London because Felix had just ruined Lady Elizabeth’s reputation, and Lady Elizabeth’s brother wanted to kill Felix. If you haven’t read the book, I’ll stop the explanation now. I don’t want to spoil things. But I will say that the events that took place in Midnight Wedding lead to Anyone But the Marquess.

In Anyone But the Marquess, Felix will step in to do the right thing. He will marry Lady Elizabeth because her reputation is in ruins. Lady Elizabeth, however, is not happy with the arrangement and hates him. Felix feels guilty for what he did but doesn’t know how to make things right. So this is an enemies to lovers romance on Elizabeth’s end.

Felix is our hero, but he isn’t attractive. In fact, it was his unattractiveness that made Elizabeth say no when he asked her to dance at a ball, and this event happened “off page” pre-Midnight Wedding. But it did lead to everything that happens in this book, so it’s a relevant fact. I actually enjoy working with a non-attractive main character from time to time because it’s always fun to see how they evolve to being attractive in the eyes of the other main character.

The tone is tender and sweet, and there is some humor thrown in once in a while. Both characters are virgins, and there is one sex scene. However, my personal favorite part of this book comes at the very end when we have the “heroine is expecting” scene. In fact, this is my favorite “expecting” reveal scene of all the books I’ve done because of the hero’s reaction.

Enough rambling. If this sounds like your kind of book, it’s available at these places:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

(I am going to get this in audio on Apple as soon as I can.)

Google Play (ebook)

Google Play (audiobook)

Smashwords

Everand

Radish

*If I missed a store that you like to buy ebooks from, please let me know. I’ll see if I can add the link to that store in the future.

Updates on What I’m Doing

I’m happy to say that Anyone But the Marquess is now on pre-order

Books in the Marriage by Obligation Series:

more to come

It’s due out October 17. I’ll do the official blog post with the description and links at that time, but if you would like to reserve your copy now, I do have a link to a page on this blog where you can do so.

I am glad I didn’t give up writing on this book. I almost did because the burnout was so bad, as most of you know. I am very happy with the way this book turned out. In fact, I am very happy with everything I’m currently writing, too. It’s like I have a new well of creativity to draw from. I’m excited to write again, and I hate days when I can’t get to the computer. It feels good. I haven’t felt this way since 2015.

***

I believe I am not over the halfway point of The Wilderness Bride

This is going to be one of my favorites. It has a lot of tear-jerk moments similar to Eye of the Beholder and His Redeeming Bride. I hesitated to tackle an issue like a mother who can’t keep her baby and therefore wants to commit suicide (only she’s too afraid to go through with it), but it’s turning out to be a story that has been extremely satisfying to write. This needed to be a romance. The heroine needs to be loved by someone (who will be our hero) and to eventually have a child she can keep. Only a romance will guarantee that kind of turnout. I figure I haven’t spoiled anything because, as romance readers, we know there is the happy ending. We know the hero and heroine end up together. Given her pain, she needs a baby. So just know going in that things will work out for her.

I don’t have a title or cover for Book 2 yet, but I have the plot. More on that in future posts.

***

Yes, I changed the cover again.

I think I’ve said this before about the covers I’ve done on this book, but I really think this one is going to stick. (We can only hope, right?)

So far there are two books in the Love Under Desert Skies Series:

I believe I am approaching the halfway point. Our characters are still tracking down two dangerous bandits, and our heroine is starting to figure out which of the two men she prefers. I can’t say too much because that would spoil things. At the moment, these characters have stopped in the last town they’ll see for some time, so they are having a quiet moment (so to speak) before they enter the desert where I expect things to get really fun. I’m going to introduce a new character who will have a main role in Book 3 (which I don’t have a title for yet), I will separate out some of these characters after a shootout with those dangerous bandits, and I’m going to do my best to bring in a scorpion. After putting one into Tagalong Bride, I thought it would be fun to have another one show up in this book. If I remember, I’ll put one in Book 3, too. Sometimes it’s fun to have a running gag in a series.

***

This one is off to a good start

This is Book 6 in the Marriage by Obligation Series. It follows Anyone But the Marquess.

I can tell this is going to be a fun book to write. I am setting things up right now for the “big reveal” moment, but I can’t have the big reveal until the time is right. So here’s the setup:

Adam (Lord Dayton) makes his living two ways: he gets hired to play a role, such as disguising himself as a servant in a household to track down a thief among a gentleman’s household staff, and he dons another disguise as actor Jefferson Crowdy. In this case, we are interested in him as the actor.

Miss Emma Ludlow has dreams of being a playwright but knows a lady won’t reach success like a gentleman would. Her brother, Percy Ludlow, pretends to be the one writing her plays.

Before the two meet, Adam reads a script from “Percy Ludlow” and thinks it’s too juvenile to recommend to the theatre, so he refuses to endorse it. Word gets back to Emma that Jefferson Crowdy rejected her play. At first, she’s depressed. Then she gets angry at Jefferson.

Meanwhile, we have a matchmaking friend who arranges for Emma and Adam to meet. Adam thinks he’s heard the name “Ludlow” before, but he can’t imagine where. (It’s funnier this way for the sake of what follows in later chapters.) Anyway, Emma and Adam hit it off and are in love. They have to be in love at this point, or else when the big reveal happens, it won’t have the same impact.

I’m only at Chapter Four, so there’s a lot more to do. Believe me, Emma is not going to be happy when she finds out Adam is really Jefferson. Sparks are going to fly.

Christmas with Lord Toplyn (Logan) (Bonus Scene Featuring Logan and Melissa from Ruined by the Earl)

Today, I thought it would be fun to write a scene where we see what Christmas with Logan and Melissa is like. These two characters had their romance in Ruined by the Earl. (Ruined by the Earl is Book 3 in the Marriage by Deceit Series.)

This story takes place December 25, 1822. The setting is Logan’s country estate. At this point, Logan and Melissa have four children. Matthias is now 5, Jerry is 4, Charles is 2 (will be 3 in January), and Joshua is nine months old. (I thought it fitting to give this couple quite a few kids since Logan kept talking about having them during the course of the book. And honestly, he really wanted to have kids, so this is part of his happy ending.)

Again, please note this is a first draft post. It is purely for entertainment purposes. I am not publishing this in a book, so there’s no need to comment with any errors you find. Let’s just have fun with this. We’re enjoying a peek into this couple’s happily ever after.

***

Logan packed down the snowball in his hand then gave it to his brother, Geoffrey. He pointed to the snowman Matthias and Jerry had helped him make. “The goal is to hit Malcolm the snowman.”

Geoffrey rolled the snowball in his hand. “Malcolm bad.”

“Well, I don’t know if I would bad.” Logan couldn’t have Geoffrey saying that in front of Melissa. Melissa wouldn’t like that. Malcolm was, after all, her brother, and Logan owed it to her to be respectful of him. However, he couldn’t act as if he was happy whenever the gentleman was around. “Malcolm is not like us, Geoffrey. He doesn’t take time to have any fun. He spends all of his time worrying about money. I mean, I like money as next as the next gentleman, but I don’t obsess over it like he does. Do you know what Melissa said he’s doing today?”

Geoffrey shook his head.

“Melissa said Malcolm invented some kind of game about finances that he’s giving his own children as Christmas gifts,” Logan replied. He had been shocked when Melissa told him about it, but saying it aloud seemed to make the situation much worse. It was a good thing he and Melissa had given the poor children actual toys that they could enjoy. “As if the books and lectures he gives them isn’t bad enough.”

“Malcolm bad,” Geoffrey repeated.

“Well, maybe one could say he’s bad at knowing how to let children have fun.” Yes, that would work. Melissa would agree with that statement. So if she caught Geoffrey saying Malcolm was bad, he could use this as a suitable explanation. He patted his brother on the back and pointed to the snowman. “All right, now see if you can hit him.”

Geoffrey gave a nod then threw the ball.

It missed. But it came close.

“I bet you can get the next one,” Logan hurried to encourage him so he wouldn’t give up. He scanned the area and saw Matthias and Jerry making snow angels. “I thought you two were going to make a lot of snowballs. We can’t defeat the snowman without your help. If we don’t defeat him, he’ll ruin Christmas, and you won’t get your Christmas presents.”

Matthias and Jerry immediately stopped playing in the snow and hurried to make more snowballs. He had decided not to tell his sons that the snowman really represented Malcolm. Word of that would get back to Melissa, and after she caught him and Matthias throwing darts at Malcolm’s portrait a while back, he learned that it was best not to upset his pretty little wildflower.

Matthias was the first one to come up to them with a snowball, and Jerry soon followed. “When do we know we won?” Matthias asked.

“When the snowman’s head falls off, we’ve won, and Christmas is safe for children everywhere,” Logan replied as he patted down one of the snowballs. He handed it to Geoffrey. “Cheer him on, lads. It’ll fill him up with Christmas spirit, and that will help him hit the evil snowman.”

“Malcolm bad,” Geoffrey repeated and threw the snowball.

This time he hit the snowman in the abdomen.

The four cheered.

Logan gave him the second snowball. “Try to his it in the face this time. We can’t open up presents until we knock its head off.”

Geoffrey repeated, “Malcolm bad.”

As he threw the snowball, Logan saw Melissa coming out to them. Joshua was in her arms, and Charles was running next to her as fast as his little legs could take him.

The snowman’s head fell off, and Geoffrey, Matthias, and Jerry gave out a loud cheer, followed by Matthias yelling, “Christmas is saved!”

Logan gave his excited brother another pat on the back. “Good work, Geoffrey. Now we have banished all things boring and dull from our midst.”

Melissa reached them, a puzzled look on her face. “I thought you all came out to build a snowman, not to destroy it.”

Before the others could give the truth away, Logan slipped his arm around her waist. “There’s my sparkling snowflake.” He kissed her. “We were just waiting for someone to come out and tell us it’s time to open up the presents. We made the snowman and got bored.”

“Malcolm not have fun,” Geoffrey told her.

Logan shot him a panicked look. Sometimes Geoffrey remembered things too accurately. Noting the way she arched her eyebrow at him, Logan chuckled and squeezed her waist. “My darling heart, even you have to admit that the presents Malcolm is giving our nephews isn’t right.”

She sighed. “I agree that giving Leonard and Harry financial books and making up financial games for them to play when they’re still young is absurd. No child has fun with things like that.”

Glad to have the matter resolved so easily, he said, “That’s what Geoffrey meant by Malcolm not having fun. Can you imagine if we tortured our precious little ones that way?”

“The evil snowman is dead,” Matthias cheered. “Ready for presents!”

“Presents!” Jerry agreed and bolted for the manor.

Charles tugged on Logan’s breeches, so Logan bent down to swoop him up in his arms. “I think we’ve been out here long enough. Come on, Geoffrey. Mother has everything ready in the morning room.”

“Ride horse?” Geoffrey asked as they headed for the manor.

Logan inspected the sky. While it was cloudy, he didn’t think there was any danger of more snow later in the day. “We can ride, but we have to take it slow.”

Geoffrey nodded in agreement. “Go slow.”

“Will you take Matthias with you?” Melissa asked Logan.

“Of course, I will. Now that Matthias is old enough to sit with me in the saddle, I had planned to take him out while we’re visiting my family,” Logan told her.

“Good because I think he’s starting to get bored just sitting with us ladies all day,” she replied.

“Malcolm boring,” Geoffrey said.

Logan’s face grew warm. He really shouldn’t keep going on and on about how much he didn’t like Malcolm whenever it was just him and Geoffrey. Melissa frowned and glanced back at the snowman. At once, Logan knew she was putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” he told her.

“Oh? So the snowman isn’t my brother?” she asked in a tone that let him know she wouldn’t believe him if he were to deny it.

“All right, yes it represented your brother.” Might as well get it over with. “But it’s not one of his portraits. It’s just a bunch of snow rolled up on the grass. It’ll melt soon. You know he sends us portraits because he wants me to be aware of him every time I go by it.” He shuddered. “It’s his way of reminding me that he wishes I hadn’t married you.”

At first, he thought Melissa was going to deny it, but she ended up conceding to his point. “I suppose it is strange that he keeps sending us portraits. He doesn’t even always do it of his family. Sometimes it’s just him.”

“It is strange. I can only hope our attic is large enough to fit them all.”

They reached the manor, and she gave him a sympathetic look. “For what it’s worth, I’m very happy to be with you. You turned out to be a wonderful husband.” Her eyes lit up. “I think you’ll like what I’m giving you for Christmas.”

“Are you going to tell me we’re going to have another child?” he guessed.

She blinked in surprise. “No, not this time. We have four.” She glanced at their youngest. “And Joshua is only nine months old.”

“All of our children are close in age, and I am a firm believer that you can never have too many children.”

“You only say that because you don’t have to give birth to them.”

Though she uttered the reply, he could tell by the smile on her face that she had enjoyed carrying them. Sometimes he thought it would be nice to feel a new life moving inside of him. Ladies were lucky that way. However, he would never want to go through the actual process of giving birth, so he was more than happy to leave that part of creating their family up to her. His role was much more fun.

When they entered the morning room, Matthias and Jerry rushed over to the stack of presents in the middle of the room. To the side was a buffet set out with an assortment of treats, and the room was decorated with bells and ribbons. Logan put Charles down then helped Melissa and Geoffrey out of their coats. Afterwards, he led Geoffrey to a chair near the roaring fire that warmed up the room.

It was hard to believe his sister Isabella was old enough to be married already. This was her first year not spending Christmas with them. She was spending it with her husband’s family instead. Marybeth, however, had just turned fifteen, so they would be able to enjoy her company a few more years.

“Who wants to open their presents first?” his mother called out.

Matthias and Jerry hurried over to her. Logan supposed he should remind the children that when they were inside, they shouldn’t be running around and jumping up and down, but it was Christmas, and the children were excited. He didn’t want to spoil the mood. Besides, a little running and jumping never hurt anyone. At least he knew the presents they were getting would be things they could actually play with. So, in a way, this was just as fun for him. He was looking forward to seeing the excitement on their faces when they opened the brown paper to see what they received.

“Who should we start with?” Marybeth asked, putting her finger to her lips as if this was going to be a difficult decision.

As Mathias and Jerry competed to be the first one to receive a gift, Charles went over to the presents. Logan couldn’t blame him. What child didn’t want to see what gift was waiting for them? Even someone as young as two couldn’t help but get into the Christmas spirit. Logan sat with Melissa on the settee and put his arm around her shoulders. This was nice. It didn’t matter to Logan what his gift was. He had Melissa, their children, and his family to celebrate the day with him. And best of all, none of Malcolm’s portraits were in the room to torment him.

The End

Amelia tells Reuben She’s Expecting (Bonus Scene to that takes place after Worth the Risk: Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4)

Books in the Marriage by Obligation Series:

*Note: this series is still in the progress of being written (I just started The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride)

So I listened to Worth the Risk recently, and I realized I missed an opportunity that should have been shared in the book. Reuben very much wants to have children. He spent so much of his life pretty much alone. Yes, he has his mother with him while growing up, and his older brother Corin (Lord Durrant) would visit, but he never got the chance to be around others his own age. In the book, he kept hoping Amelia would give him news that she with child, but she never did. I thought I’d take the time to do that in this blog post. Hope you enjoy it!

Just a warning, I’m doing this in first draft mode. It’s purely for entertainment purposes. So please don’t point out any typos you find. I have my hands full and would rather focus my editing efforts on the books themselves. (I know most of you are gracious enough to overlook errors on a blog post, but there’s always someone out there who thinks even a blog post needs to be perfect and will take time to critique it. If that is you, I recommend you skip this post. I’m just doing this for fun, and I’d rather keep it that way so I will do future posts like this. Nothing ruins the creative voice like the critical one.)

***

Reuben Gets The Good News

Reuben looked out the window from his bedchamber window. London was such an exciting place. Staying home was difficult, especially in the evening when the activity really picked up in town. Tonight a new play was being performed at the theatre, and he heard that Jefferson Crowdy was going to make his debut performance. Reuben had no idea who Jefferson Crowdy was, but rumors were that he had potential. Reuben would love to see how he did before everyone gave their opinion about him. Reuben liked being able to form his opinion first and then see what others thought.

Reuben went to the armoire and opened it. Maybe he could go out tonight.

No, he shouldn’t. He’d already spent the past two days taking in the sights and sounds of town. He had even stayed out later than he should have at Lord Edon’s ball. That Lord Edon sure did have good brandy and excellent taste in music. It was no wonder people didn’t care that Lord and Lady Cadwalader refused to go to his balls.

His gaze went to the clothes hanging in his armoire. He had just the right outfit to go to the theatre. He tapped the edge of the door. It would be fun to see a play. Brand new play. Brand new actor. Brand new clothes. And all he’d be doing was sitting. It wasn’t like he would be dancing. That wouldn’t be too taxing on his health.

The door connecting his bedchamber to Amelia’s creaked open, and he turned his gaze to her. She was wearing one of the gowns that told him she intended to spend the evening inside.

Her eyes grew wide when she saw him. “Why are you looking for something formal to wear?”

He thought about telling her she misunderstood why he was standing at the armoire, but she’d see right through the lie. He let out a sigh and gestured to the window. “Look at all those people who are going to the theatre. “Aren’t you the least bit curious to see if this new actor is any good or not?”

She offered him a sympathetic look but went over to him so she could close the armoire. She took his hand and pulled him away from it. “You know what happens when you do too much. You get sick. Then you have to spend a week in bed.”

“What if we just go there, sit, watch the play, and come right back here?”

“We’ve tried that before, but you end up coming across someone we know, and you spend the next hour or two talking.” She squeezed his hand. “You love to be around people, and they love to be around you. You can’t help it.”

“This is the only time Jefferson Crowdy will give his first performance.”

“But it won’t be his last. It’s not worth getting sick over.”

He knew she was right, but it was difficult to wait for tomorrow to go to the theatre. He glanced at the window. He tried not to let the fact that he got sick easily bother him. He ought to be glad that he hadn’t died when he was a child so he was alive to experience all of the adventures he was having now.

She tugged on his hand. “Sit over here with me. I have something to tell you.”

To his surprise, she led him over to the bed. His mood lightened. “Did you mean you have something to show me?”

Catching the teasing tone in his voice, she giggled. “I suppose I can do that, too, but what I have to say is pretty important.” They reached the bed. She sat on it and patted the spot next to her. “Come on.”

He hurried to sit and turned toward her. At what point would they start removing each other’s clothes? “Did you think up a new game?”

“No, I’m not playing a game this time. I have something to tell you that I think you’ve been wanting to hear for quite some time.”

When she didn’t continue, he asked, “Am I supposed to guess?”

“It’ll be more fun that way.”

“I’m going to need some hints if you want me to guess.” Then, with a grin, he added, “If I guess right, do I get to take something off of you?”

She shook her head in amusement. “Reuben, you are incorrigible. If you’re not trying to go out to do something, you’re trying to get me into bed.”

“I’ll have you know that you are the one who brought me over here this time. I take no responsibility for what happens next.”

“All right, that’s a fair point. But that also leads me to a good hint.” She patted the bed. “Something we do here has led to what I need to tell you.”

His eyebrows furrowed. His first thought was she was expecting a child, but every other time he thought that, he had turned out to be wrong. So he should probably make a different guess. But what else could it be? He sorted through all the things he could come up with that had to do with them being in bed. After a moment, he guessed, “You’re finally willing to pose nude for me so I can have that painting of you.”

She gasped. “No!”

“I told you I’m good at hiding things. Why, no one–not even you–found the drawings I did of you at the estate.”

“You did more than one drawing of me? In…in…a bedchamber setting?”

“Well, it’s not like we were in London where there’s always something to do,” he argued, surprised she was so shocked by the admission. “I am an artist. I need to let my creativity out.”

“Have you done those drawings here, too?”

He could lie, but she might actually stumble upon those since his hiding places in this townhouse weren’t as good as they were at the country estate. “I might have done one or two to pass the time while I was sick.”

He didn’t think she could look any more shocked than she already was, but she proved him wrong. “How many naked drawings are there of me in this place?” she whispered.

He laughed. “You don’t have to whisper. No one can hear us. We’re alone.”

“Reuben, how many?”

“All right, I did ten.”

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Ten?”

“When I’m stuck in bed all day and you need to greet visitors downstairs, I get bored,” he explained.

“Next time you’re sick, I’m turning those visitors away. I don’t care who they are. In fact, this is an excellent reason why you can’t be permitted to leave the townhouse tonight. You must stay well. It’s a good thing I have something coming along that will keep you entertained. After learning this, I will not hire a nursery maid. You will be responsible for watching the baby.”

Sure he hadn’t heard right, he asked, “Did you just say ‘baby’?”

She nodded. “That’s exactly what I said, Reuben. Don’t you try to get out of it, either. I don’t care if the father doesn’t typically watch his child. You are not like other gentlemen. Other gentlemen don’t draw their wives without clothes on. They spend time drawing other things. Things like London, nature, and fully clothed people. You get bored way too much. I thought if we got a piano in that room off to the side of this bedchamber, you wouldn’t be tempted to do those drawings.”

“But they’re all of you.”

“I don’t care. What if our child ends up finding them? Do you know how awful that would be?”

There is was again. She was mentioning a child. This time that had to be the news she had to give him. He bolted off the bed and gestured for her to stand up. When she hesitated, he took her hand and helped her up. Then he lifted the mattress and dove under it until he found the drawings he had hidden. When he emerged out from under it, he ripped them up into pieces so little that no one would be able to tell what they were. Then he dumped them into the rubbish bin.

“Are you telling me that those drawings have been under us every time we’ve been together in this bed?” she asked, staring at him in disbelief.

“No one ever looks under the mattress,” he replied.

“The laundry maid washes the sheets and put them back on.”

“Yes, but I was careful to put the drawings in the middle of the mattress. They never need to tuck the sheets in that far. Besides,” he clasped her hands in his, “what is this about you having a baby? You’re not teasing me, are you, because I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

“Oh, Reuben, I would never tease you about something like this.”

He let out a cheer and hugged her. “This is so exciting. Finally, you’re with child.” He pulled away from her. “And this is only the first one. I want a lot of them so they never have to be alone. We need to make an effort to have them close enough in age so they can play together. Corin was too old by the time I came along. The only game he ever played with me was chess, and that’s not a very interesting game when you’re a child. Oh Amelia, this is perfect. Now I don’t have to want for anything. My life is complete. I will be happy to spent all of my time with the baby.”

“Wait, you will still reserve some time for me, won’t you?”

“Of course, I will. How else do you think we’re going to get the other children to be a friend to this one?” Before she could respond, he gave her a long kiss that soon led to other things.

And he forgot all about Jefferson Crowdy’s debut performance.

(The End)

***

Jefferson Crowdy is Lord Dayton’s stage name, and only Grant Carnel (Lord Wright) knows his real identity. I introduced Lord Dayton in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. He will also show up in Anyone But the Marquess. He is good friends with Mr. Oscar Hamilton (the messy but lovable character we originally met in Midnight Wedding). He will get his romance in The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride, which is Book 6 in this series. Anyone But the Marquess is still in the final editing stages. I am writing The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride.

Surprising Revelations (about the way I view my writing)

So I have been making myself go through the Marriage by Obligation Series since discovering the errors in Secret Admirer. I have Anyone But the Marquess coming out next month, and I want to make sure the series fits it. I’ve been blabbing on and on about burnout on this blog, so I doubt anyone is shocked to learn that I wrote all of these books while at the low points of my burnout phase. Those books were like pulling teeth the entire time I wrote them. I loved the stories, but I hated the process of writing them. I don’t even know how to explain how I was able to write while feeling that way. It was not easy. I spent a lot of time walking just to cope.

Anyway, to my surprise, these books don’t sound (to me) like someone who was going through burnout while writing them. As I listened to them, it was as if the past couple of years never happened. How I managed to pull that off is anyone’s guess. Maybe those walks helped clear my head enough to do an effective job.

I’m relieved. I put off listening to those books for so long because I dreaded how they would sound as I listened to them. I only listened to them because I wanted to make sure I had the right consistency elements in Anyone But the Marquess. I’m also moving forward with more books in this series, so I wanted to refresh my memory on what happened with characters like Lord Dayton and Oscar because they will be getting their own romances in this series. Usually, I cap my Regency series off at Book 5, but this time, I’m going to keep going because of the love potion angle. This angle was brought up a lot in Anyone But the Marquess. I have not yet decided whether the love potion should work or not. This is fiction, so anything is possible. I don’t like restricting myself to “reality” too much. It might be fun for Oscar to prove he can do it. But only time will tell how that subplot plays out in this series.

Another surprising thing I discovered is that it is possible to get one’s enthusiasm back for writing after going through years of burnout. I honestly thought I was done when I finished Worth the Risk. I know some people reached out wanting Felix’s romance, and I had one person who told me she wanted another historical western. At the time, I could not make myself write anything, even though I wanted to write the books they were looking forward to reading. I ended up reaching a point where I had to step away from writing because I couldn’t write anything else, no matter how hard I tried. I was completely out of “gas” in my creative tank. The break I took did help.

But when I think back on that time in my life, I believe my burnout boiled down to what outside influences I was listening to. There is so much doom-and-gloom messaging going on all over the place. It’s on social media, it’s on TV, it’s on the radio, it’s on billboards, etc. All around me, it feels like I’m being assaulted with too much, “This is the end of the country, and when the US crashes, the rest of the world is going with it,” messages. It doesn’t even matter what political affiliation you have. Both sides have this “if so-and-so gets into office, we’re all doomed” mantra. I didn’t realize it at the time, but listening to the news did do me no favors. Also, listening to negative messages about how the environment and the food are killing all of us didn’t help, either. I get why this anxiety-producing content exists. This type of content gets clicks, and clicks means more ads, and more ads mean more money for the platforms that have this content. I can’t even hang out with my friends without some of the “if this happens, we’re doomed” messages creeping into conversations, too. It is all over the place. A person has to make an effort to detox from all of it.

I think all of the fear-based content stressed me out, and I think that the stress punched my creativity in the gut so hard that I ended up not being able to write anymore. I decided to listen to music instead. I decided to spend my relaxation time playing Mario Party games (don’t judge me, but I love Mario) and I watched a lot of comedies. I did watch other content, but these were about improving my financial situation and getting healthier. And, of course, I kept walking. It has made a world of difference. For one, my dry eye cleared up. Who knew my dry eye was related to the “doom and gloom” stress? I am floored, but dry eye has not been a problem for months. And I have my creativity back in full force. I won’t say this happened overnight, but things were so much better in just one month. So I learned that you have to be careful about what you listen to and what you watch. These things really have an impact on your health, creativity, and emotional state.

I have learned my lesson. I’m not participating in the whole “the world is going to collapse” thing anymore. I’ve decided even if things are as bad as people are saying, I can’t change things by worrying about them. All worrying does is prevents me from writing books that I love.

A final thing that surprises me is that I realized if I enjoy listening to my own book, it doesn’t matter how much money that book brought me. I love the story, and that’s all that ultimately matters. (Now, I am looking into investing because I believe that is a good buffer for not making much money with writing income, but that’s a rabbit hole I won’t go down in this post.) Suffice it to say that writing for passion means that you can look back on your books and be content with them. To me, that’s a good reason to embrace the passion side of writing.

The Season of My Discontent

It all started when I decided to listen to the audio version of Secret Admirer.

I only got two chapters in when I cringed. Then I got to the scene after the dinner party where Lord Quinton upset everything, and I started making notes on what changes to make and where. Several inconsistency issues popped up because I had trouble deciding whether to give Lord Wright a son or a daughter. I even had my editing team look for words like “son”. I don’t think any of us thought to look for “heir”, but sure enough, “heir” slipped into the story, and worse, the sentences surrounding it contradicted why Amelia thought Grant wanted to get married in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. But there were more inconsistencies. Like Felix and Oscar being reckless with money when it was their father in Midnight Wedding. There were just too many little things that ruined the book, and the series, for me.

And to be honest, it was very embarrassing. I spent three days going through the book by listening to it. I cleaned it up as much as I could then swapped the old version on the retailers except for Radish. (Radish doesn’t allow episode changes after one week of putting the “episode” up.) I verified the changes took on Google Play in the audiobook. I haven’t checked the samples for the ebook, but I used the same file on ebook that I did for the audio. Anyway, if you have the book, I believe retailers will let you upload the updated version. (I am not a huge tech person, so I am not sure how to do it on different retailers. On Google Play for audio, if you bring up the book, it will ask if you want the updated version, and I just clicked on “Yes”.)

I knew my burnout was bad, but I didn’t realize it was so bad that I got that sloppy. My advice, for what it’s worth, is to just not write if you are in burnout so badly that you would rather poke your eye out with a fork than write another book. In minor burnout, you can still manage okay. You just take longer breaks and lower word count. But if you are in a really bad spot, the best thing to do is to not write at all. I know that is hard to do. I spent about 4-5 years in minor burnout because I was the main income provider for my family. I felt like I couldn’t stop. You don’t make money if you’re not writing and publishing books. I eventually had to slow down until I could not write anymore. If you keep going, can you get out of burnout by maintaining the momentum you’ve built up to make your business work? I don’t know. Maybe you can. All I know is that I couldn’t. So that’s why I recommend stopping until you get your creative flow is back.

2. Some book covers are a pain.

Yet again, I was not happy with The Hero Least Likely cover. After some help, I have come up with this:

I can only hope this is the last time I change this cover. Sometimes I do my own covers. Sometimes I hire out for it. At other times, I buy premade covers. Sometimes the first attempt is perfect. Sometimes multiple revisions still leave me banging my head against the wall. This is one of those covers. I can’t even imagine how much money I’ve spent over the years on covers.

A couple of cover artists I used to use are no longer doing them. Two of them seemed to have fallen off of the map. There’s no track of them anywhere. I hope they’re still alive and okay, but a part of me is worried they aren’t.

For premade covers, I like Period Images https://www.periodimages.com and The Book Cover Designer https://thebookcoverdesigner.com.

To aid in making my own covers, I like to use Bookbrush https://bookbrush.com. It comes with a “remove background” feature that makes it easy to get the couple into a new background.

3. I’ve come to admit writing book descriptions is not my strength.

And quite frankly, I’m tired of trying to write ones that sound decent. For people who are able to write book descriptions that pop, you have my admiration. It is HARD to do. I am done writing these. From now on, I am hiring others to do this valuable service for me. I know some authors consider it a waste of money, but it’s a total waste of my time to spend days revising descriptions only to find out the best I can do is “meh”. Also, I hate writing them anyway. Why keep tormenting myself?

For book descriptions, I use Best Page Forward. I have used them in the past a few times. Looking back, I wish I had used them for all of my books. I’ll be using them for each one now. https://learn.bestpageforward.net/book-description/

***

I am not affiliated with any of the places I linked to. I only share them in case someone is looking for a place to help with covers or book descriptions. These are sites I get a lot of value from.

Tagalong Bride is Now Available!

Finally, after all this time, I have a historical western book to share.

I know, I know. It’s about time, Ruth. It was rough getting my brain in writing mode while slogging my way out of burnout. I can’t be 100% sure, but I suspect that all of the walking I did, especially at the zoo which provided inspiration for the scenery to go with my books, helped to get me over the slump. So lesson learned: take care of physical health and allow for relaxation time in order to keep things going. It always seems like you will lose precious word count if you step away from writing, but I’m learning that’s not so. (A lot of people in the writing community would have you believe if you’re not writing every single day, you’re not a real writer.)

Here is the book’s description:

Lucas Reid is desperate. He needs money, and he needs it fast. Wealthy heiress Gail Patterson isn’t the most attractive lady in Pennsylvania, but she is available. Putting on a pretense of loving her, Lucas proposes marriage, and she says yes.

Now it is his wedding day, and Lucas realizes that the hardest obstacle of his life has begun. He is going to have to make it seem like this marriage of convenience is one that will be full of passion–a passion he does not feel for his new wife. As he is struggling to decide how he is going to consummate the union, word comes from Arizona that his sister has been abducted by a group of bandits.

At first, he thinks this is the perfect excuse to delay things with his wife, but Gail is not the quiet and timid wallflower he thought he married. She is going to Arizona with him. And this is going to change everything about their marriage.

This is a historical, sexy western romantic comedy that features a virgin hero and heroine who’ve never traveled out West before. They will come across an inept deputy who wishes he was a hero, a group of bandits, and a scorpion that knows when to show up at just the right moment.

If this sounds like your kind of book, here is where you can find it:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play (ebook)

Google Play (audiobook)

Smashwords

Everand

Radish

Finished my 100th Romance Tonight!

My 100th Romance!

If I had champagne, this would be the night I’d open the bottle and drink a glass. But alas, I don’t drink alcohol. (It inhibits weight loss.) But I did have a couple of pieces of dark chocolate earlier, so that counts as a celebration treat.

This moment marks a goal I set for myself back in 2012. I think I had reached my initial goal of 20 romances at the time, or I was close to it. That was over ten years, and it’s hard to remember exactly when I set my goal for 100 romances. At first, I set the goal to 50, but then I thought, “Why put the bar that low? Aim high. Who knows? You might reach it.”

And tonight, I did. Now, I set the goal for romances because that is the genre I love writing most. As most of you know, I’ve done other genres, and while I have enjoyed them, the romances have first place in my heart. It’s been a wild ride. In 2007, I had no idea when I picked up a half-finished story that I had started back in college, I had started something that was going to last for over a decade. I kept thinking I would write a couple of romances, grow tired of it, and return to my Raz fantasy series. But one romance story led to another one and then another. Around 2011, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to run out of romance ideas. So then I made the goal of writing 100 of them. My husband promised me an engraved award with my name and the goal on it when I reached this goal, so I’ll have to upload the picture of the award when it comes in.

I honestly wondered if this moment would ever come. That burnout phase I went through was so awful. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to write another book or even finish the ones I had started. I went from burnout into depression over the burnout, and that only made things worse. I’m relieved to say that I’m no longer in those two states. Lesson learned: if you get tired and need a break, take it. Better to take a breather than to keep pushing through the exhaustion. So anyway, this book represents the ability to travel the ups and downs of being a writer and still come out with a passion for storytelling. When I look at this book, I don’t think of how I made a business out of writing books. I think of how important writing is to me and how much those of you who read and enjoy my books mean to me. If it weren’t for you, I would have given up about ten years ago, and I never would have reached the goal. So thank you for helping me stay motivated.

This book will be out in October, which, coincidentally, is also my birth month. I didn’t plan things out that way, but I think it’s pretty neat that two will go together. It gives reaching the goal an even more special meaning.