Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 69

Characters Who Have Appeared in the Nebraska Series

Once in a while, I get questions about the characters who are in the Nebraska series who haven’t had their own books yet.  I originally intended for the series to span 30 or so books, but the trouble with that is I’m not writing these books in chronological order.  I have not have this problem with other series I’ve done.  But the Nebraska series is unique. While other series easily come to a close, this one seemed to keep expanding.

This was supposed to be the only historical western I’d ever write.

For example, I wrote this book first.  In fact, it was Dave and Mary Larson that got me hooked on historical westerns.  I’d read them, of course, but at the time, I was thinking once I finished this book, I would return to writing fantasy.  Obviously, this didn’t happen.

Instead I wrote this book because I wanted to give Neil Craftsman his second chance:

Originally, I was going to only write Isaac’s Decision after this book and make the Nebraska Series a trilogy. But…Jenny Larson wanted her own book. Then there was Tom Larson. The series evolved on its own from there.

Chronologically, these books have other books that happen before, after, and between them.  I have Eye of the Beholder at #4 and His Redeeming Bride and #8.  Those other books didn’t come right away.  It took time to get to them.

This series has no limits.  And I can’t place it into a neat little box.  That’s what makes this series so complicated.

After people kept trying to order the books in reviews and on Goodreads, I finally had to give the books numbers.  At the time, I finished Sally Larson’s story, which was the 9th book I wrote for this series.  Chronologically, it’s #2.

Sally Larson’s book got to be first in the series after a lot of debate.

But I haven’t written Richard Larson’s story yet, and since people wanted me to number the series right away, I had to start with her book.

This leaves many questions up in the air, of course.  Mainly, what about the other characters?  Like Richard Larson, Sep (who was in Shotgun Groom), and Vivian and Hugh (from Her Heart’s Desire).

Since I have now numbered the series and that numbering system is in reviews I can’t change (and they’re all over the internet), I have to be creative.

So this is what I’m going to do.

I’m either going to write the other characters’ books as standalones or create spin-off series from them.  I already did that with Eliza (a minor character in His Redeeming Bride).

The first spin-off from the Nebraska Series. This story led to the South Dakota Series.

So I’m thinking with Richard Larson’s story, I would lessen the focus on the Larson family (as a whole) and focus more on the other people going along the wagon trail with them.  I’ll have to write the book and see how things go.

I’ll have Stephannie Beman work on the cover to fit it in a series if a series does evolve from this book.

Other Potential Spin-Offs

1.  I am hoping to make Sep’s story a 3 or 4-book series.  I’m thinking of something like a bride lottery, but we’ll see.

2.  Vivian and Hugh will have a story, but it might be a standalone, depending on how things go.  I’m thinking their story takes place in California since her sister moved out there in Her Heart’s Desire.

A Note About Other Characters

After Isaac’s Decision, I did write Rachel Larson’s story, but it’s embedded in with Eva Connealy’s romance, which is Boaz’s Wager.  This is book 2 in the Montana Collection.

This time two Nebraska characters got placed into another series instead of starting a new series.

Isaac has two other sisters, Rose and Harriett Larson.  I already wrote Catching Kent, which is Rose’s story.

I wrote this to give Kent Ashton his second chance after the way things played out in Falling In Love With Her Husband.

At the moment, I am working on His Convenient Wife, which is due for release on November 16.

I should finish the first draft of this book either today or tomorrow.

From Rose and Harriett’s stories, I know there’s a potential for their brothers’ romances.  Adam’s story is already in my head.  Jacob’s and Eli’s have to be developed.  At this time, whether or not I write about them will depend on how well His Convenient Wife resonates with people.  Catching Kent just didn’t appeal to most people.  There are several reasons for this, but I won’t go into it here since this post is long enough as it is.

If His Convenient Wife also fails to accumulate enough interest, I am going to focus on other books for the time being.  My “To Write” List is huge.  I have to be careful when I pick out which books I’ll write because (unfortunately) I can only write so many books in a year.  When choosing which books to work on, I need to consider if the book interests me, will the book interest others, and is it a good time to write it.

So depending on how things go, I will tackle these other books when I can and when I’m able to.  I learned to never set deadlines unless I know I can make good on them.

All I can say right now with certainty is that His Convenient Wife will be out November 16. I’m not sure when the others featuring the Nebraska series characters will be written.

A Post For New Writers: Picking Your Genre

A Post For New Writers

Last time I discussed starting with an idea.  One of the things I suggested was writing out the your first scene (or at least part of it).  Now, after you got a good feel for your first scene, this is where you go…

1.  Question your main story idea.

What thoughts popped up while you developed your first scene?  What new ideas came to you?  Did your original idea start to take on a life of its own?  What questions popped up?  What tangents do you see the story possibly going in?

While you don’t have to write these down, you certainly can, especially if you want to tuck these notes away and refer to them later.

I’ll use my example from the last post to give you an idea of what I mean by questioning your main idea:

I want the husband and wife to reconcile.  But this is not a romance.  I could go with romantic suspense, but I don’t want to do romantic suspense because that genre never interested me.  The beginning is dark and eerie.  It’s creepy.  Also, I don’t want to focus on the romance between the man and woman.  I want to focus on this creepy house and what’s in it.  I also want to develop what is going on with the daughter.  Who did she stay with?  Where’s the wife?  Is the man where he thinks he’s supposed to be or somewhere else?

That’s what I mean by questioning your idea.  You’re getting a better feel for your story and exploring all your possibilities.  It’s a big brainstorming session.

2.  Taking all the things you came up with in #1 into account, you should be able to come up with your genre.

If your focus is on the couple, their romance, and their happy ending, then you’re doing romance.

If a crime’s been committed and the father is called in to deal with it, you might be dealing with a thriller or mystery.

If his daughter was abducted by aliens or in a genetic experiment or he’s going into a parallel universe, you’re dealing with science fiction.

If he finds himself going to another world with magic, you’re dealing with fantasy.  If the magic is on this world, it’s urban fantasy.

If he finds himself having to entering a very weird or bizarre situation where he’s the prey (perhaps that man who’d wanted to sleep with his wife is coming after him but we don’t know it until the end) so the husband is going to be terrified somehow, then we can say it’s horror.  (Thriller could be a close one on this, so it depends on the level of terror in the book.  High terror and possible gore would make me say horror.)

3.  Read the genre you are thinking of writing for (unless you’re already familiar with the genre and know your story will make a good fit).

My advice is to pick a genre you want to read.  Why do I suggest that?  Because if you want to read it, you’ll have an easier time wanting to write it.  The best stories are those the author was passionate about writing.  I can tell if an author enjoyed writing the book when I’m reading it, and I’ve heard other people say they can tell that, too.

But this is your idea and it’s your story.  Do what you want to do.  Maybe you want to try something new.  If so, then I suggest you read some top name authors and study what they did.  Making a list of all common themes in the books you read can help you remember them later when you work on your story.

4.  Write with your audience in mind.

If you are writing for yourself (and only yourself), then this doesn’t apply to you.  By the way, I fully support writers who want to write and publish books they want to write for the sole purpose of reading those books themselves.   You do not have to want to make money in order to publish a book.  It’s okay to write and publish for the simple enjoyment of seeing your book on your ereader or in paperback.  Some people will tell you you must want to make money and promote, but we’re all different.  You write for the reasons you want to write.

If, however, you do want to write in hopes of making money, then it’s important to write for your audience.  You should be in tune with what they want and deliver it to them.  This is why writers who write a romance with a sad ending get slammed in reviews.  Romance readers want a happy ending.  If you go against this very important rule, you won’t make it as a romance writer.  What you have is a love story.  But you don’t have a romance.  Likewise, if you categorize your book as horror but write about a little bunny hopping down a meadow, people who read horror will be very upset with you.

Genres are wonderful because they give writers a blueprint to go by.  They also promise the reader an experience they will enjoy.  I read a wide variety of books, and when I’m in the mood for a dark and spooky house, I pick up horror.  If I’d rather fall in love all over again, I go to romance.  If I want to leave this world and seek adventure elsewhere, I go to fantasy.  If I want a parallel universe or genetic tampering or a viral outbreak, I go to science fiction.  When a reader picks up a book, they are looking for a certain experience.  If you can give them that experience, they will love your book.

***

Next week, I’ll talk about backstory and why you shouldn’t do it too early in your story.

Updates

Probably the biggest thing I was able to cross off my To Do List was uploading the complete version of A Royal Engagement up to Smashwords.

The release date is September 28, so that should be plenty of time for it to get up on all the sales channels Smashwords goes to, but there is a part of me that worries if something will go wrong.  I can’t help it.  I’m a worrier by nature, especially when I’m not used to doing something.  This process is outside my comfort zone.  I don’t know if there will be samples available for this book, but I’m going to check back at iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo to see if I can sample it over the next couple weeks.

I did think of adding Amazon to the pre-order list, but after doing some research, I decided against it.  My plan is to publish it on September 28.  Amazon has been historically efficient about getting books up in a prompt manner, so I see no reason why it won’t go through on the date I put it up.

Just Good Friends is in the Final Editing Stages

In addition to working with three people on my editing team, I also go through it a final time.  I only read one or two chapters a day, and I print it out.  I used to listen to it on my Kindle using the text-to-speech feature, but with kids buzzing around during the day or falling asleep listening to it (and having to re-listen to it), I decided to go with the read on paper method instead.

Quick shout-out about my cover artist and editing team:

I am going to have my awesome cover artist, Stephannie Beman, touch up the cover for me.  It’ll be the same thing: the couple with the tree in the background.  But she’ll make it look better.  If anyone is looking for a cover artist who does exceptionally well (esp. in romance covers), I can definitely suggest Stephannie.

While I’m giving recommendations, I can also suggest two editors who do reliable and great work.

One is Judy.  She excels in content editing.  Content editing is an overview of the story where you look at plausibility, consistency, factual errors, contradictions, flow of the story, etc.  It’s more of a look at the storytelling part of writing.

The other is Lauralynn.  She is great with copyediting.  These are the nitty gritty things like spelling, punctuation, verb tense, missed words, etc.

I also have the world’s best beta reader, Tammy Thompson.   When looking for a beta reader, you want someone who will be honest and kind, someone who is familiar with the genre you’re writing in, and someone who has a good feel for what you can do to make the story stronger (especially in relation to the characters).  This is where my beta reader excels.  Can you have more than one beta reader?  Of course.  How many you have is up to you.  As for me, I find the one I have is worth five in how much she does, so I’m happy with where I’m at.

In my opinion, all of these people are needed for every book.  You can’t just focus on one area and neglect the others.

Back to the post…

I’m almost done with His Convenient Wife!

This has been the weirdest book to write.  I can’t write it in linear fashion as I usually do with books, and since I’ve written over fifty (when you add the other genres I’ve done), that’s saying something.  Bits and pieces have been coming to me as I go.  So I’ll have three to four scenes I’m working on at one time.  One scene will be in the middle of the book, two toward the end, and the other at the very end.  I’ll write in one scene, get stuck (meaning, I don’t know what a character says or does next).  Then I’ll move to another scene where I do know what happens next.  When I get stuck there (which is usually in 5-10 minutes), I’ll stop and go to another scene.

For example, I’ve already written the epilogue.  Also, I have yet to finish chapter eighteen even though I’m currently writing chapter twenty-three.  I know how the book ends and how everything plays out, but it’s the bridging the transitioning from one part to another that is causing me problems.  I’ve never come across anything like this before, which just goes to prove no matter how much you do something, you always find a new way to do it.

I’m currently at 68,400 words, and I have at least 5,000 more words to go.  I’m very happy with how this book is going.  It might be one of my favorites.

Before I go, I wanted to share a cover I got for my next anthology with Janet Syas Nitsick.

Stephannie made this cover.  See what I mean about her work?  It’s fantastic, isn’t it?

A Royal Engagement Lesson #2: A Queen Should Be In Top Physical Shape

© Antonio Guillem | Dreamstime.com

From the diary of Ann Kerwin (heroine in A Royal Engagement):

Okay, so I’m not at all excited about this prospect of being the queen.  Queens can face danger at every turn.  You might think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.  I was minding my own business, going to college and all, when Hathor came to get me.  I didn’t ask to be the queen of Raz.  He just told me I was going to be one and whisked me away from Earth.  And what has it been ever since?  Dodging one life threatening situation after another.  There was the crazy cave on planet Red then the dragon on planet Forestaria.  But I have to say dodging bullets on planet Pale took the cake.  That’s been the worst by far, and as you can see, I’m not in any shape for this kind of thing.  (By the way, the Zeus mentioned below is the god from Greek mythology.)

***

“Follow me,” Zeus said.

He didn’t need to tell her twice! She bolted with him across the open field, if white sand could be considered a field. Behind them, the guards were shooting at her, and for reasons she couldn’t explain, she managed to dodge each bullet. Either they were lousy shots or she was incredibly lucky. Whatever the case, she wasn’t going to complain.

By the time they reached the nearest building, she thought she was going to pass out. No wonder she didn’t do so hot in gym class. She wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing. When they got into the building, Zeus locked the door and she collapsed against it.

She glanced at Zeus and saw that he was breathing normally. No one would guess he’d just been in the same perilous race that she had been in. He hadn’t even broken into a sweat! She told herself it was because he was immortal, but that did little to make her feel better. She was supposed to be the queen of Raz. Surely, the queen should be able to manage a run across a vacant field while nearly being shot without feeling like she was going to pass out.

***

In case anyone missed it last time, here’s where you can get A Royal Engagement on preorder:

iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

A Post for New Writers: Starting With An Idea

Someone asked me if I would do some blog posts on writing. Since some people who read my books have told me they are either thinking of writing or are in the process of writing their own books, I though this topic might interest enough people to make it worth making a series of blog posts.

Photo Once Upon a Time Pen Ink – © Clarsen55 | Dreamstime.com

So you have an idea for a story.  Where do you go from there?

1.  Expand your idea to get a better feel for the story that is developing.

Start looking into possible scenarios that could develop in your story.  This is a brainstorming session.  Everything is on the table.  Ask lots of questions.  Let your imagination run wild.  If you write them all down, you won’t forget them later, but there are times when no pen is handy (like if you’re driving on the interstate).  So what I try to do in these situations is play the idea out as a movie in my mind to help me remember it.

Let’s say this is my idea: I want to write a story about a married couple who are seriously thinking about getting a divorce, but they hesitate to because of their daughter.

From there you brainstorm smaller ideas to go with this main one.  Like this: Perhaps, the husband is a work-a-holic, and the wife feels neglected.  Maybe she was tempted to cheat but didn’t, but maybe he believes she did.  (Why?  That would have to be developed in the story.)  So at the moment, they’re separated as they try to figure out what to do.

Okay, so you have a few ideas.  These ideas are not set in stone, and you don’t have to have all the answers to all your questions.  It’s actually good if you don’t because these ideas may change as you write the book.  What this does is gives you a brief sketch of what you’re working with.

2.  The next thing you want to do is pick a beginning point.

What will your opening scene be?  I suggest actually writing the beginning scene out.  It doesn’t have to be complete.  It doesn’t have to be completely fleshed out.  All you’re doing it getting an summary of what happens.  It should be at least a few hundred words long so you get a good grasp for it.

The reason for this summary is to help you set the tone for the rest of the book, and from it, you might come up with other ideas you hadn’t considered before.

For example, let’s use my idea.  I’ve decided the husband is going to be driving in the rain on a deserted winding road.  He has to periodically slow down because of the storm, and there is an occasional lightning bolt in the sky and thunder rumbling, which makes him jump.  He’s running late from a business meeting, but he is in a hurry. He’s on his way to pick up his daughter who has been staying at a friend’s house.  He will have her stay with him for the weekend.  He’s anxious because he’s running late, and he feels guilty, even though it wasn’t his fault the meeting ran late.   When he gets to the house, he doesn’t see any of the lights on, and it looks as if no one has lived in it for years.  He pulls out his phone to make sure he got the right address.  He did.  Since no other houses are on the road, he gets out of the car and ignores the rain as he goes to the front door.  He knocks on it, the door opens, and we fade out.  The next scene will be with the wife.  (Yep, I cut the scene off intentionally to make the reader want to keep reading to find out what will happen to him.)

3.  Now pick an ending.  This can be vague.

In romance, you know the ending.  The hero and heroine end up together.  This is a must for romance readers. If the story doesn’t have a happy ending, it’s a love story.  It is not a romance.  I specify this only because there seems to be some confusion among writers unfamiliar with the genre.  Do not classify your love story as a romance unless it has a happy ending where the hero and heroine end up together.  Anything else will piss off your audience.

In other genres, you can have a happy or sad ending.  There might even be some twist at the end that the reader doesn’t expect.

At this point, your ending might read something like this: The heroine finally has the long awaited baby.  Or this: our team of heroes defeat the bad guy and save the day.  Or maybe even this: I don’t know, but I want it to be a happy one.

Something should be in mind to give you a direction to aim for while you write the story.

***

Next time, I’ll continue on with taking your story idea and picking the appropriate genre for it.

Upcoming Posts for New Writers

Here’s the list of posts I’ve drafted so far.  If anyone can think of anything to add, please let me know.  These are for new writers, either never been published or new to publishing.  I am not going into marketing and book promotion.  This is more about writing the story.

I will start posting these later this week, and I’ll post one a week.

1.  Starting with an Idea

2.  Picking your Genre

3.  Backstory

3.  Point of View

4.  Characters are the Heart of the Story

5.  Your Setting (aka World) – The Character is Always Key

6.  If The Scene Doesn’t Add to the Story, Throw It Out

7.  What if You Get Stuck

8.  What to Do If You Don’t Know What Comes Next (this does piggyback off the one above)

9.  There is No Perfect Time to Write so Write Today

10.  What if You Never Finish a Story?

Updates On What I’m Doing

I’ve been pressing my nose to the grindstone (as they say), but I’m having a lot of fun so it feels like I’ve been playing. :)

1.  I got all the preorder links up on this page on this blog.

I am only able to offer preorders on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.  Smashwords says you can add it to your library, but I don’t think that’s exactly the same thing as a preorder.  I’ve added books in preorder to my library over there, but I can’t remember if I got an email when the book went live or not.  So I’m not sure how it works over there.

2.  I will be doing a series of posts for beginning writers.

After posing a question on Facebook about what kind of posts people wanted to see on this blog, I found out one person is a new writer who would like some posts done on where to go with her idea.  Since I know some people who read my books (and this blog) are either thinking about or have started writing books, I thought I’d go ahead and work on some posts.  I have drafted three posts so far, but I want to go back over each post before I publish them on the blog.

To give you an idea of what I’m doing, the first post focuses on where to go from a single idea.  The second post will be about picking the correct genre for the idea.  The third is on the subject of backstory–why you should avoid it at the beginning of your story, how to hint at it to intrigue the reader, and what you should do instead of filling backstory into the beginning of the book.  The fourth post will be on staying in a character’s point of view.  I’ll see what else I can come up with, but in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to comment.

I plan to start publishing these posts next week and will probably schedule one a week so it’s not so much information hitting all at once.

3.  Progress on My Writing and Publishing Schedule.

This is in the very final round of edits.  I am currently at chapter 13 in my final read through, and I’ll be getting it from the last editor soon.  I expect to have it turned into Smashwords around August 15 or 16.  I want to get it ready in plenty of time for the release date of September 28.

I have gone through the initial edits on this book and have sent the second draft to my awesome editing team.  Two of the three people have already turned it back to me, but I won’t be getting back to it until August 17.    This is set for release on October 12.

I’m over halfway through this book, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how well it’s going.  There were a few days where it was hard to decide what to do with this story.  I did tons of brainstorming.  But now I know where I’m going.  I expect to be done with the first draft around August 17-20.  My editing team will get a little breathing room on this one since it’s not due out until November 16.  I know they’re breathing a sigh of relief. :) I work my team hard. They really are an awesome group of ladies.

I plan to start this book on September 1.

A Royal Engagement Lesson #1: A Queen Should Be Graceful At All Times

ID 40319881 © Visivasnc | Dreamstime.com

 

From the diary of Ann Kerwin (heroine in A Royal Engagement):

Being the queen of an entire planet can’t be easy.  And what’s worse is that I’m not up to the challenge.  I know Hathor thinks I am, but he’s wrong.  I’ve seen queens on TV and in the movies, and they are always graceful.  Always.  But that is not me.  At all.  Case in point, the scene below where Hathor and I were in a cave that was really weird…

Ann looked down. The ground appeared to be made of steel, but it was hard to maintain balance on it since it felt like the material used in bouncy houses. She let go of Hathor and tried to take a step forward, but she landed flat on her behind. Her face warm, she glanced over at him, wondering if he would laugh, but he didn’t.

Extending his hand to her, he helped her up. As much as she wasn’t comfortable with a stranger putting his arms around her shoulders and supporting her as she fumbled across the floor like an idiot, she supposed it couldn’t be helped.

“Some queen I’m going to be,” she said as she stumbled again so that she was pressed right up against his side. “I can’t even walk without your help.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s the cave. Nothing in here will follow logic.”

            She continued down the passage with him, still losing her balance from time to time. It wasn’t her intention to prove how ungraceful she could be, but it seemed that she was proving it all the same.

***

Or the scene when Hathor and I were thrown into the Great Prison…

Ann barely had time to see what was behind the door when someone pushed her. Startled, she screamed as she slid down a metal slide. The thing seemed to go on forever, and there was nothing but darkness in front of her, which made the whole thing even creepier. But then she caught a glimmer of light up ahead. She didn’t have time to figure out where it led, though, because it seemed that as soon as she saw it, she landed—hard—on a steel floor.

            This time she didn’t land flat on her behind. No, this time she landed face first on the floor with her butt sticking right up in the air. Oh yeah. She was very much the queen no matter how she fell.

And that’s just two cases where I lacked grace under pressure.  *sighs*  Why was I chosen for this role?  I was much better off in college, even if the professor put me to sleep.

More lessons to come over the next few weeks.  In the meantime, the book will be available September 28.  I decided to give it another month to allow more time for me to work in writing His Convenient Wife between final edits.  (I’m currently halfway into His Convenient Wife.)

If you’d like to preorder A Royal Engagement, I now have the links where you can do so and will post those below:

iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

My Writing, Editing, and Publishing Schedule up to March 2015

Last week, I spent considerable time and attention to getting preorders established on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.  (This is not available for me on Amazon, Flipkart, or other sites.)  I’ll be posting links to preorders soon.

Below is the list of books coming out and when I’ll be working on them.  The most frequent question I get is what I’m working on (and when) and when the books will be available, so I wanted to get this list up on this blog. :)

***

A Royal Engagement – To Be Published on September 28

Editing – Now

Polished Version Turned in by August 15

***

Just Good Friends – To Be Published on October 12

First Draft Done

Editing – August 1-30

Polished Draft Turned in by August 31

***

His Convenient Wife – To Be Published on November 16

Writing right now

First Draft Done – August 31

Editing – September 1-28

Polished Version Done – September 30

***

Love Lessons With The Duke – To Be Published on January 3

Writing – September 1 – 21

First Draft Done by September 30

Editing – October 1 to October 31

Polished Version Done by November 15

***

A Groom’s Promise – an anthology (Publishing Date Unknown)*
Cover Coming Soon

Writing – October 1-20

First Draft Done by October 31

Editing – whenever Janet Syas Nitsick is done with her book

*Publication Depends on when this anthology is done and the publisher is ready to publish it.

***

Royal Hearts – To Be Published on March 21

Writing – November 1-20

First draft done by – December 1

Editing – January 1-31

Polished Version Done by February 15

***

Shane’s Deal – Due out in February or March*
*Publisher Decides The Exact Date

Writing – December 1-20

First Draft Done by – December 31

Editing – January 1-30

***

To Be Determined

Not sure what is going on with this one, so I’m holding off on saying anything about it until I know.

Patty’s Gamble is Now in iBooks

I finally noticed Patty’s Gamble is on iBooks, so I’m posting the link below for those interested. :)

As a quick side note: I’ll be posting my publishing schedule from now to March 2015 in a couple of days.