Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 7

I Finished Tagalong Bride!

Coming August 2024

This is the first book I completed in over a year, so this is a huge deal for me. There were moments when I thought I’d never finish another book again. I guess burnout led to doubt, and doubt led to depression. But I had some people encouraging me along the way (thank you!). When I finished this book, I realized that I still have books left in me to write. So this is one of those books that has a special meaning to me.

Shotgun Groom (Joel Larson’s story in the Nebraska Series) was another book that marked a special occasion for me. I finished that one after I first dealt with someone stealing my books. I was so discouraged and wanted to quit. But (again thanks to the encouragement I received), I kept going. Completing Shotgun Groom after a month of battling with Amazon to get the stolen books removed renewed my energy for writing.

So these books that give me a renewed sense of purpose don’t come along often. Tagalong Bride is the second one since I started self-publishing ebooks in 2009. (I did some vanity presses before then, but I don’t count them because those books never went anywhere.)

I’m excited to be writing again. I feel like I’ve taken a new turn in this venture. I don’t really know how to explain it except that I’m finally having fun again.

This book will be out in August. I haven’t set up a date yet. I am planning to put this on pre-order so I have time to get links and posts made in advance. I’ll keep you updated on this in the weeks to come.

A Business Plan To Help You Achieve Your Writing Goals

I used to think that business plans were for writers who were more focused on writing to market. I didn’t realize that even writers who write for passion can benefit from them. This realization came to me when I sat down to evaluate what I’ve been doing for the past two years. I was going through burnout, and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I knew I still loved to write. I was just having trouble getting excited about writing, and I didn’t know how to get that joy back. (Quite side note: I came across this article today that I think can help authors who may be struggling with burnout. It’s about setting boundaries. I recommend reading it.)

Back to this post…

Why create a business plan?

If you’re writing what you love, then that takes a big chunk out of the pain of writing. I still think there’s nothing worse than writing something you hate. If what you love lines up with what’s popular in the market, you have the best of both worlds, and there’s nothing wrong with looking for an angle within your preferred genre where you can pick a trope or two to make your book more appealing to more people. I don’t believe that you need to choose between writing to market or writing for passion. I do think you can overlap the two. You just don’t want to go so far off into the market that you lose the passion for what you’re doing.

I think a business plan helps, regardless of why you’re writing. It’s not enough to wait for the muse to show up. You need to be intentional about beginning and finishing your books, and you have to be smart about it. You can’t push yourself so hard that you burn yourself out. You also can’t be so lax that you barely make any progress. You need to find the middle ground.

A business plan should help you complete the stories you start, and it should give you plenty of breaks so you can keep going for the long haul. It should be flexible. This plan, however, should have a deadline. The deadline is your goal, and you need one for every step of the way in order to stay on track. Deadlines are necessary to stay focused. You need a deadline for the first draft. A deadline for the cover. A deadline for the edits. A deadline for when you will publish the book. You can even set deadlines on when to promote your book.

The key to making deadlines you can stick to is to make them doable. They have to be ones you can reach. No two writers are alike. We all have different paces that we can write books. So I encourage people to look at what their sweet spot is. Every writer has a sweet spot. This sweet spot is the number of books you can comfortably write in the course of a year.

The sweet spot will give you a realistic plan for your own writing goals.

To get an idea of what your sweet spot it, I suggest looking at a couple of things. Over the years, how many books have you published? What is the average word count of those books? The longer you’ve been writing and publishing, the clearer this sweet spot is to see. If you’re just starting out, then start tracking these things down until you notice a pattern.

Once you know how many books you tend to publish in a year and how long those books are, you can start your plan. If you’re happy with the number of books you typically put out in a year, stick with that goal. If you would like to get more out, why not raise the bar higher? If you’re burned out and need a break, maybe it’s best to pull back and publish less books for the next year.

An example of how to create a business plan:

Here’s an example of what I did to give you an idea of what you can do to create your own plan:

I tend to publish six books a year. My average word count per book is 60,000 words. (I haven’t done this for the past couple of years due to burnout, but before then, I was pretty stable with that number.) I sat down and multiplied how many words total I tend to write.

60,000 words X 6 books = 360,000 words

Then I took 360,000 words and divided it by 52 weeks (since there are 52 weeks in the year).

360,000 words/52 = 6,923.07

I rounded up that up to 6,924.

So to reach my goal of 360,000 words a year, I need to write 6,924 words a week. Now I want to have three days off a week to give myself a break. So I decided to take 6,924 and divide it by 4.

6,924/4 = 1,731 words

That means I need to write 1,731 words on the days I write.

But then I wanted to make sure I’m hitting my goal of 360,000, so I reversed the formula. (I learned long ago to double check the math, especially since math isn’t my strong suit.) I multiplied 1731 by 4, I came up with 6,924 words a week, which checks out. So then I multiplied 6,924 by 52 and got 360,048. Since I rounded up the word count from 6,923 to 6,924, this discrepancy makes sense.

So anyway, that calculation helped me develop my own business writing plan to produce six books a year.

This is a very doable goal for me. I can write 1731 words in about 2-3 hours, and that factors in the breaks I take to give my eyes a rest. (I don’t want to strain my eyes doing this.) Allowing myself three days off every week will give me time to rest my mind, and hopefully, avoid any burnout in the future.

Time will tell if this strategy will work for the long term, but already, it makes the task of writing six books a year less daunting. Let me know if you give something like this a try or if you have a business plan that works for you.

Stuff I’m Working On

I’m very excited about the stories I’m working on and where the series is headed for these books.

I’m almost done with Tagalong Bride.

Love Under Desert Skies Series: Book 1

(In case you’re wondering why I’m not using the updated cover, I went back to this one because I like the look of it.)

The sister has been rescued, so here’s not much more to go. Currently, I’m wrapping things up for the main couple in this story. As you probably know by now, I like to make Book 1 the foundation for the rest of the books in any series I write. I had a request to feature a hero or heroine who was older than average. I think the request was for a character to be in the last 30s or in the 40s. In this series, I will do that. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work for Book 2 or 3.

That’s why I spent some time setting up the foundation for both of those books. I had to figure out the framework for Books 2 and 3. The hero of this book is Lucas. His sister is Bernadette. Bernadette’s book will be Book 2. In order to figure out which man to fix her up with, I had to give a few scenes in her point of view. Now, I have it figured out. I will be going with a heroine in her late 30s in Book 3. I couldn’t get too much older than that since the hero of Book 3 will be in his late 20s. I have never done a setup like this before and am looking forward to doing it. But first, I have to get to Book 2.

The Hero Least Likely

Love Under Desert Skies: Book 2

This is Bernadette’s book. I wanted to take my characters across actual desert terrain in Tagalong Bride but was unable to since Flagstaff doing north is mostly trees. (I have been learning so much about Arizona while writing this series.) So I did some research and picked out an area to send these characters that will actually take me to the desert. Long story short, one of my favorite attractions at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is the Desert Dome. Before starting this series, I thought it’d be fun to write a series that took place in an environment similar to the dome. I picked Arizona because I went to a writer’s conference in Phoenix years ago. (Good memories from that one.) I picked Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon at random. As I was looking over the terrain while sending my characters to the Grand Canyon, I saw that there were a lot of trees and realized I had to change my scenery in the story to match it.

Anyway, this is the book where I can finally get in the desert. But I need a reason to send my group of characters there. So I decided to have them go after some outlaws who are on their way to get alleged treasure near Quartzsite, Arizona. During this journey, a romance will blossom. I don’t want to say who the hero is until after Tagalong Bride is out.

I will say, however, that I thought it would be fun to throw in some spooky legend to add some humor and suspense. (If you’ve read enough of my books, you know I like to throw in something a little “spooky” from time to time.) I stumbled across the legend of the Red Ghost that was big in the last 1800s and early 1900s in this area of Arizona. The creature is said to be a huge red camel that goes around carrying a human skeleton on its back. There are quite a few reports of it from the people in that area of the time that will be fun to add to the mix. (Fun fact: the military was bringing camels over here pre-Civil War to go across arid terrain. Hence why this beast is a camel, though there was speculation that this thing was 30-feet tall. But with legends, we often find the more sensational, the greater the stories tend to be.)

So anyway, that is the backdrop for this story. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m over halfway into Anyone But the Marquess

Marriage by Obligation: Book 5

I didn’t make as much progress in this one as I wanted. I got very little done last month. So I have little to report on it. I am at a turning point where the main characters are finally getting along, but the heroine isn’t ready to fall in love with the hero yet.

I have an announcement to make that has been over ten years in coming. This will be my 100th romance when it’s done! Back in 2010, my goal was to write 100 romances. It’s exciting to finally be reaching that goal.

I have started a new historical western series.

For this one, I decided to travel northwest to Oregon. The inspiration for this location comes from another Henry Doorly Zoo exhibit that features the northwest Pacific.

If you read Suitable for Marriage, you will remember the wedding scene between Erin and Alex. In this, I brought Amanda (Larson) and Ben (characters from The Imperfect Husband) into the story. Amanda and Ben were never able to conceive their own children, so they ended up adopting. One baby they had just adopted in Suitable for Marriage was a girl whose birth mother couldn’t keep. I always wondered what happened to the birth mother. I also wondered what her backstory was. Why was she unmarried and pregnant? Why did she head out to northwest? What happened to her? That is why I’m writing this book.

While writing the opening scene of this book, I bring in not only the birth mother (Lisa), but I have her come into Ocean City with a family. Specifically, this family is composed of an elderly mother and her two grown children, a son and a daughter. The son and daughter will probably be featured at some point in this series. It’s too early to tell yet. I have only finished one chapter. But I already know what situation with daughter is going through. Though the daughter is not the main character in this book, she will play a big role. Beyond that, I will have to find out how the brother and mother factor into the equation. All I know is that the brother is not a significant player in this story.

Going to Get Back into a Routine

I really need to get back to writing. I find it helps me when I escape into the written word. There’s nothing better than being transported from where I’m sitting in front of the computer and slipping into a story I am creating. And though I am creating it, I swear the story takes on a life of its own. When I get into that deep of a level of writing, I feel like I’m just reporting what the characters are doing–rather than consciously coming up with it. I don’t know if that makes sense to people who aren’t writers. Maybe even the plotters have no idea what I mean. Have you ever watched a movie and got so engaged with it that you forgot you were watching it? That’s what writing is to me. I start out at the computer and am typing, but at some point, I forget I’m typing. I somehow get “transported” into the story. I become the character whose point of view I’m writing.

So anyway, today was the first day in a while that I finally had a chance to sit and write. I forgot how wonderful it was to be immersed in the stories. I know how difficult it is to separate the creative aspect of writing from the business side of it. The two are really different. The business side is the potential to either make money to pay bills (or to keep paying bills if you’ve reached that goal). It needs attention. Even writers who write for passion have to spend some time with the business angle in mind. It’s one of the frustrating parts of writing to me. If only there wasn’t a need to pay the mortgage or rent. If only there wasn’t a need to buy food to eat. If only there wasn’t the need to buy clothes and other necessities. But we live in the real world where these things matter, and there is no job on earth that I would rather have than this writing one. I get why authors want to make a living with this. It is stressful to worry about marketing, but I would rather go through that stress and be able to write. At the end of the day, writing is what defines me. It is the thing that gives me purpose. I bet the writers reading this understand what I mean by that. We can do something else, but this is the “job” that most fulfills us.

Anyway, I have missed getting immersed in my stories. I missed these characters. I missed spending time in the worlds I create. So I’m going to renew my efforts. I think the break I took was good. I think I needed to get away from writing since I was in burnout mode. But I feel like it’s time to get back to it. The creative side is screaming to come back out. And I’m looking forward to what the stories I’m working on will take me. I’ll post about them soon.

Looking for a Job

I figured one day this time would come. Writing income has been a roller coaster for years. Up to now, I’ve been able to manage it by adjusting the budget. This time, however, I can’t just tighten the spending. I need some more income to come into the house. Long story short, there was mold up in the attic, and the cost to resolve that problem depleted my savings. While the roofers were inspecting things, they found soft decking under the “new” roof the previous owner put in. The home inspector missed all of this. I have about five years to come up with $25,000 to $30,000 to replace the decking and roof. My husband works, but we need more money, and my writing income isn’t enough.

Needless to say, I’ve been stressed out. The way I work out stress is to walk. I am now averaging 6-10 miles each time I walk. Last year, I was doing 3-5 miles, so that’s a nice improvement. If it wasn’t for the walking, I don’t know what I’d do.

I do have a job interview lined up in two weeks. If this doesn’t work out, I will keep applying. I’ve made adjustments to my resume a couple of times and think I finally have a version I’m happy with. There is an online course I’m going to take starting in July on how to be an author assistant. This would be a side gig. I did consider being a Door Dash or Uber Eats driver. (I might still look into that.) But at the moment, my first choice would be in the author assistant department since I have always enjoyed helping authors out in the past.

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t been on here much. I’m trying to decide the best thing to do given the situation I’m in. For my next post, I’m thinking of sharing the new eating lifestyle I’m on that has yielded great results. Second to the walking, it has helped a lot to reduce my stress.

Changing the Name of Book 5 in the Marriage by Obligation Series

This morning, I am working on the “non-writing” side of things, and this is one of the things I worked on.

I have decided to make a minor change to the title of Anyone But You. I switched it to Anyone But the Marquess. I kept everything else on the cover the same.

And here are all of the books in this series so you know where it fits in the series:

Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4) is Now Available!

Well, I didn’t set this on pre-order because I was so frazzled by everything going on that I missed the “pre-order” option. So that meant I had to wait for a few days for the book to go live across the retailers before I could announce its release. I don’t use pre-orders to get more sales. I use pre-orders to get all of my ducks in a row.

Anyway….

Here is the book!

Remember Reuben from If It Takes a Scandal?

This is his romance. Enough time has passed in the Regency timeline where he is now an adult and ready for marriage. Corin, his older brother, is not ready for it. (It’s hard when kids grow up, and Corin tends to think of Reuben as a son rather than a brother, given their great age difference.) Worried about Reuben’s delicate health, Corin pleas for Reuben to go back to the country even though Reuben was courting Amelia in The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3).

Reuben decides to do what Corin wants, and as a result, we have this book:

This is Book 4 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.

If you haven’t read the other books in the series, Reuben and Amelia meet in Secret Admirer at the ill-fated dinner party where Guy upset everyone but Lydia. (I found it hilarious, but Grant still doesn’t see the humor despite all of the time that’s passed since then. Some characters never see my humor.) Reuben and Amelia’s courtship is in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. Now, at last, we come to their romance.

If you’d like to read Worth the Risk, here is where you can find it:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play (ebook)

Google Play (audiobook)

Everand

Smashwords

Fable

Palace Marketplace

Radish (episodes will start releasing this evening, May 3, 2024)

*I am working on getting this available as an audiobook on Apple. That takes the longest to do because I have to work through Draft2Digital to get it done. (But I will add Draft2Digital makes it easy once I’m able to click the “make an audiobook” option.)

Updates on What I’m Doing

A lot has been going on, and to honest, most of it has been challenging. As a result, I haven’t been able to write anything in a couple of weeks. I am hoping that the dust is settling now. I spent yesterday getting things squared away to get ready for writing. Fingers crossed that tomorrow is the day I can finally get back to it.

I’m still wound up from everything, I guess. My husband just went to work, and I told him, “Good night.” Oh my gosh. Maybe I won’t be able to write tomorrow. I need to be coherent when I write or I’ll end up confusing the people who are helping me with the edits. Since I can’t go over a book like I used to because of my eyes, I need to be as focused as possible.

If this post is not coherent, I apologize. I haven’t gotten anything out in a long time. I need to put something out there so people know I’m still alive.

So here is what I’m up to…

Early release of Worth the Risk

Anyway, because I’ve been frazzled for the past couple of weeks with everything that’s been going on, I didn’t set Worth the Risk on pre-order like I had planned to give myself sufficient time to gather my links, make the blog posts, email announcement, and other tweaks I make when I have a new book out. Instead of putting it on pre-order, I ended up setting it to publish right away. It’s not a big deal. It’ll just be a little sloppy.

I’ll make a blog post and email announcing the links when all the places are “live” with the book. I don’t want to make multiple posts for each retailer. I’d rather have everything together.

I reached the final quarter of Tagalong Bride

I’ll miss this one. It’s been fun being out with this hero and heroine as they look for his sister. They are just about to find her. The deputy, who was supposed to help them, got caught up in some trouble. I won’t specify to avoid spoiling the book, but this presents the opportunity to bring in the man the sister was supposed to marry. This will hopefully help me figure out what to do with her romance. I know she will have a book. I just can’t decide which plot to go with. Depending on who the hero is in her romance, the plot will be different.

Things are going smoothly in Anyone But You

I’m nearing the 3/4th mark on this one. I think. Remember Guy from Midnight Wedding with all of his superstitions? Well, that comes into play in this book, and it’s influenced the plot enough to make it matter. Specifically, an owl statue becomes the main catalyst for the change between the hero and heroine. I wasn’t sure how I could get the hero and heroine to talk, and, thanks to Guy freaking out at the right moment, I accomplished the feat. I won’t say anything else in case I spoil the book.

My big problem at this point is whether to continue adding books to this series or spawn things into another series. Oscar has come up with a crazy scheme to sell love potions, and Grant (from The Earl’s Jilted Bride) was stupid enough to finance it, probably because his friend (Lord Dayton) is a part of it. Ever since I introduced Lord Dayton in The Earl’s Jilted Bride, I knew I’d end up writing his romance. But I still debating whether to launch this little sub-plot in this series or let it be the main sub-plot for a new one. I suspect that what happens with Guy in this book will end up answering that question. Who knew Guy would play such a big role in this entire series?

***

I am also currently debating whether to take on another book in my “books in progress”. Long story short, I need to bring in more money. I have looked into getting an outside job to help out with the finances around here, but I don’t know if I can do that and maintain all of the responsibilities I have around the house. (It’s a long and complicated story.) Suffice it to say, I am thinking of trying to get back to three books at a time now that I have my writing mojo back and can type with my eyes closed. Maybe I’ll give it a try and see if I can make a go of it.

Why Books Need Time to be Written

There is a mindset within the writing community that says authors should write books as fast as they can just so they can keep up the income. I realize this has faded somewhat, but it still prevails; hence the growing popularity of using AI to help write stories. If writers weren’t pressed to get books out quicker, they would do more writing themselves. I know some people say that AI does a good job of writing a story, but I have a hard time believing it. AI is not human. It never will be. It might come close, but the human brain will always be more creative.

The AI movement, however, can be harmful. I don’t mind AI to assist the writer as long as the writer isn’t using AI to actually write the book. If AI becomes the writer, I think that does a disservice to storytelling. Maybe I’m outdated, but I think good storytelling will always matter. Maybe people rushing through books won’t care if AI wrote it. People rushing through books aren’t getting immersed in the story. They are just jumping from book to book. I have no idea how anyone can really enjoy a book if they rush through it, but perhaps I’m missing something. I’ll concede to the possibility that total enjoyment can occur when something is consumed at a fast pace. All I know is that I can’t enjoy something if I rush through it.

Anyway…

I have a hard time believing that readers who have to pay for individual books will continue to buy from an author who doesn’t take the time to craft a story that means something to them. If the writer loves the work, it will show up in the book. I think a few typos will be acceptable. Even traditionally published books and blockbuster movies have small errors that crop into the final product. But you can’t put out something rushed.

That’s why it’s best to take the time you need to write your story. Some stories flow better than others. Some stories are like pulling teeth. Ironically, some of my best books were those I struggled with the most to write. (Go figure, right?) Sometimes you have to let the story play out in its own time. If that means pushing back a pre-order date, do it. I know it’s “unprofessional” to not meet a deadline, but it’s better to get the story right than to have a story out there that you never want to read again. For example, if you rush a story to get it out there and feel in your gut that the story didn’t go exactly as it should have, that will set you up for disappointment in your own work.

Whatever the genre, you want a comping conflict and the emotionally engaging characters to go with it. That will ensure the story is the very best it can be. If you are in the middle of a story, and you feel that this story is going in a wrong direction, that is a good indicator to slow down and figure out where you went wrong. Or, perhaps, you have done everything right up to this point, but then you feel like you’re going to head in a direction that will make the story suffer. You might want to pause in the writing and give yourself time to think about what you can do next to keep flowing well.

I realize that in an atmosphere where money is the supreme goal of writing, it is not easy to take the time you might need to get the story right. Going slower may cause you to lose some money. Losing money is very difficult. I know this from experience. It sucks when you can no longer easily pay your bills anymore. But bills aren’t your only worry when you lose money. You might worry that you will lose some clout in the writing community because, as unfair as it may be, those who make the most money get the most support from other writers. Often when you go into writing forums, anyone giving advice without having the all-sought-after “six figure income” will be dismissed. So making money is more than paying bills. It is about establishing your reputation in the writing community.

I would like for every author who loves their work to be able to make a living at it. We should all be so lucky as to make a living doing the thing we love most. Unfortunately, sometimes we are forced to choose. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now know where I fall in this debate. But just in case someone new is coming here, let me rehash my perspective below.

I think rushing through a story and putting up something that is mediocre does you and your readers a disservice. I also think using AI to write the story for you does your readers a disservice. When your readers pick up your books, they are expecting you. The best way you can honor your readers is to give them “you”. The ultimate goal of writing should be to leave a legacy after you die. I used to laugh when authors told me that because, at the time, I did think money was more important, but I have learned a lot since I left the writing-to-market phase of my life. And now I am in complete agreement with the people who think more along the lines of writing books that will emotionally mean something to people who read them in the generations to come. The best stories are those that reach out and touch the readers’ heart. And it can take time to write stories like that.

Would anyone living in the US like a signed copy of Bride by Arrangement and A Groom’s Promise?

Years and years ago, I did an anthology with Janet Syas Nitsick. This anthology was published by a small press.

This press is no longer in operation, and Janet has a stack of these books the publisher gave her before shutting its doors. We brainstormed on what to do with these books. Goodwill donations are on the table. We really don’t want to throw them out. But before dropping these at Goodwill, which might toss these out anyway, I’d prefer to give these to someone who enjoys our work.

The only thing is that we can only afford to send them to people in the US. The cost of everything has gone up to the point where she and I are feeling the pinch in our wallets.

We have a total of 20 copies of each book. So we would send you both Bride by Arrangement and A Groom’s Promise. And yes, we will be happy to sign them. If this is a gift, we can mail them to someone else. If this is a gift, tell us the person’s name and address.

Bride by Arrangement contains my story “The Purchased Bride” and Janet’s story “She Came by Train”.

A Groom’s Promise contains my story, “The Bride’s Choice” and Janet’s story “When the Whistle Blows”.

Below I am linking to pages on my blog and hers so you can read what they are about:

My blog (The Purchased Bride and The Bride’s Choice)

Janet’s blog (I just saw that these are not on her blog or her website, so I’ll direct you to her Amazon links): Here is for She Came by Train and here is for When the Whistle Blows

If interested, fill out the form below:

Submit a form.

If you have trouble filling out the form, leave a comment below with your email so I can address the issue.