Rosanne Bittner's Blog, page 44

Saying Good-Bye

Monday July 7th I will turn in my story DO NOT FORSAKE ME. It’s been a long journey, starting 20 years ago when I wrote the first book about Jake Harkner called OUTLAW HEARTS, which will be reissued next June, followed in July with its sequel, DO NOT FORSAKE ME. I have lived with these characters all these twenty years, and during that time I begged and pleaded and fought to be able to write this sequel and get someone to buy it and publish it. Finally Sourcebooks actually ASKED ME to write this book and wanted to reissue the first one, so that was like a dream come true. That was last December, and by March 2014 I had finished the book – all 563 pages! I have since been working on edits and re-writes, and now it’s finally ready to submit.

When I wrote SAVAGE DESTINY, I literally mourned for Zeke for years. And after writing the 7th book I went through “withdrawal” all over again over Zeke’s children, especially Wolf’s Blood and Jeremy – and of course I mourned Abbie’s leaving this earth. Since then no other book has affected me so deeply other than OUTLAW HEARTS, which ate at me for years until I could finally write this sequel. And now I am so attached that I already know I need to write a third book. However, if things happen that I know need to happen in the third book, I’ll probably need counseling for that one!!! Jake’s wife, Randy, can’t imagine living without him, and, readers, neither can I! I think a third book should really feature Jake’s son Lloyd and his daughter Evie, but we all know what that means, and I’m not sure I can do it. Only one other time did I bury a hero, and that was in Savage Destiny #6 - MEET THE NEW DAWN. But boy, that sure left an impression on readers, and it all worked out fine, so now I’m glad for the decision I made. Believe me, I bawled like a baby writing that one.

DON’T WORRY! I haven’t decided yet I can even do that to Jake, and a third book isn’t even sold yet. Maybe it will never happen, but it’s something I need to start thinking about.

In the meantime, here I am crying over Jake and Randy and the family and the beautiful, beautiful love story this is – a story of forgiveness and redemption. I see this book VIVIDLY as a movie – and in the opening a very hard, tough-looking, well-armed, 50’ish but still-handsome U. S. Marshal is riding into a prairie town with 4 wounded, beaten prisoners in tow, one of them dead and slung over a horse. The scene would be interspersed with the town itself, where a lovely woman in her 40’s is walking down the street, shading her eyes to see in the distance that the person riding in is the man she’s been waiting for. And as the opening credits are displayed, the hymn Amazing Grace is playing in the background with harmonica and guitar – a very western version of the song. OMG, that would be so fitting! Or, of course, the old western song, DO NOT FORSAKE ME would play softly. Maybe the movie would open with that, and in the closing credits comes the song Amazing Grace. When you read this story you will understand why these songs are so fitting.

It absolutely hurts my heart to think this story will probably never make it to the big screen. If it ever did I would absolutely lie flat-out face-down in front of a cross in church and thank Jesus. Maybe if all of you, my oh-so-faithful readers, say the same prayer it will happen. I only know I feel guided by the good Lord to write the stories I write, so surely there is a reason.

I must move on after this to my next project, and my only comfort is that my next planned story is another one very dear to my heart that has simmered in my brain for years. It will be my first contemporary and my first attempt at suspense, but the characters are very “Bittner” characters, the hero a Lakota (Sioux) man. It’s a great love story, and the characters will be as memorable as I always write. I have wanted to tell this story for a long, long time, so that will help me set Jake aside for a while.

I will, of course, have to re-read OUTLAW HEARTS when the print proof is ready – and will have to re-read DO NOT FORSAKE ME – most likely more than once before it’s ready to be published – so I will get to go back to Jake a few times yet over the next several months. I CAN’T WAIT to see the covers Sourcebooks comes up with for these books. My editor told me that they will be designed by someone who is just about the best in the business, and he prefers the more old-fashioned grand, dramatic covers from the 80’s and 90’s, so the covers should be sensational!

As soon as covers are ready, I will definitely share them with all of you! In the meantime, cross your fingers that my editor loves this story as much as I do! By next June you can all read the book. I can’t wait to hear from you!!

Procrastination – The Good Kind

Anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT procrastinate when it comes to ANYTHING. More than anything else, I never put off writing. If I procrastinate at all, it’s with housework, or accounting I should be doing for the family business, or washing the windows, or getting my flowers planted, or any number of other things all us women need to do in our daily lives. 


I am totally, completely in love with the characters in DO NOT FORSAKE ME, especially the hero, Jake – and because of that I couldn’t get away from the story as I wrote it. My husband kept telling me to take breaks, but I literally couldn’t stop. It became a kind of drug for me. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. When I finished the book it was very, very hard for me to let go of it and set it aside, which I knew I needed to do for 6-8 weeks in order to get a “fresh” look at it and do a better job of editing and re-writing before I sent it in.

Therein lies my problem. I am literally “afraid” to start the editing because I know what will happen. It’s summer and I have so much to do, let alone the 3 grandsons being out of school and me having plans to do a lot with them this summer. I know that when I start this re-write I will be completely absorbed in this book and won’t get anything done. And I will resent anything and anyone who interferes. In Vegas there were no distractions. I was away from the family business, away from the grandsons, and I have nothing to do outside there because we live in a condo and I have no yard to take care of, no shoveling, nada. So I was able to devote all my waking hours to the book.

It’s different here at home – and I’m in a bit of a panic over whether I can get this big book properly edited and re-written in one month, even though it’s basically all finished. And part of me (as all writers go through) is scared to death I will read it and find out it’s terrible – or that after all my talk about this book, my editor will read it and find it’s full of flaws and tell me she hated the book.

I have come up with excuse after excuse as to why I can’t start this editing job, but that big 500 sheet ream of paper is sitting on the kitchen table beckoning me to come back – come back to Jake and his family – come back to this wonderful love story that I’ve so wanted to tell for so long – and get the job done in time to send it in by July 1st.

OMG- it’s June!! When did that happen? And I have plans with the grandsons – and something going on every doggone Saturday all this month, including giving a talk for my writer’s club (Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America) – a talk I haven’t even outlined yet. Actually, this blog is just another of my “excuses” to not start the editing yet, but right beside me is that big, fat manuscript … beckoning … beckoning … (Sigh)

Well, I call this the “good” kind of procrastination – because it’s not out of being lazy or because I’m not in the mood to write or any of those things. It’s because I know that once I read Chapter One, I’ll be hooked and I will lose sleep and won’t eat and will be a bit grouchy when it comes to interruptions and I will remove myself from the “real” world and find it difficult to stay in touch with what’s going on around me. I won’t read a newspaper, watch TV or any news, read a magazine, and of course I won’t be washing any windows or waxing my car – and my house will go to sh-- , but oh, well. I already warned my family and friends on Facebook that as soon as I start this, they won’t hear much from me for a good month … and I won’t be writing any blogs for a good month either … so I guess this is it, folks. I am off to Oklahoma with Marshall (and ex-outlaw/wanted man) Jake Harkner and his family. I won’t be back for a while. I will re-join the real world sometime in July, at which time I’ll be working on a “virtual” contest and some other fun things to promote my next new book, DESPERATE HEARTS, coming in September! Keep an eye on my web site and blog site for news about how you can win free copies of that one along with other free “stuff.” I will blog about the book and give you some tantalizing tidbits about the story and its characters!

Wait! I just remembered – ANOTHER story is brewing in my brain – and this one, too, has been lurking around in there for almost 20 years. I’m absolutely itching to write it, and I know that when I start it, it will come pouring out of me just like DO NOT FORSKE ME did. It will completely take over my life. I am already working on a short proposal, but I am going to have to “procrastinate” starting that one or I will miss out on the entire summer, and after the winter we had here in Michigan this past year, I really should stop and enjoy the nice weather. I’ll see how long I can hold off. Happy trails!!

What’s In A Hero?

I have recently needed to re-read several of my older titles for conversion to e-books. After 60 titles and 32 years of writing, I can’t always remember exactly what happened in every book I wrote or who the hero and heroine were. So far I have been pleasantly surprised at how good the stories are and how “hot” the heroes and the love scenes are. Somehow I had the idea that “way back then” I was hesitant to get too racy with my love scenes, but gosh, they ain’t bad!

Through all of this, I am noticing something about my heroes – they tend to be a lot alike – i.e. rugged, take no sh--, well built, extremely able with fists, guns or in the case of the Native Americans, sometimes knife, tomahawk or lance. They are survivors. I am falling in love all over again with each one of them as I read these older books and am re-discovering some great characters – both the heroes and the heroines. Even the heroines are, for the most part, very strong women who “match” the men they’ve chosen to love and can stand right up to them (and often wrap them right around their little fingers)! I was afraid I would find some “fainting flowers” in some of those older books, but so far I haven’t.

Let’s face it. Women love to read about the bad-ass who’s vulnerable in some way when it comes to his woman – a man who would die for her, who loves her unconditionally (actually he adores her) – who always has her back and who is true to her. He might be hard to live with, but what woman wants to live without him!

I am noticing with great relief that it’s only the bad-ass aspect that is very similar in most of my heroes. Each one so far is turning out to be unique in his background and his reasons for turning out as he has. I never want to be accused of writing the same man over and over. Each hero has to be his own man with his own special story – and not all of them are tall and dark and have 6-pack abs, although that seems to be the preferred description. My hero Mitch Brady in DESPERATE HEARTS (September 2014) has sandy hair and very blue eyes, but he is, of course, tall and has those abs! 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble
I like to write a hero (and often a heroine) who has some kind of tragedy in his past that has caused him to turn out the way he has, either some traumatic childhood experience, or the horrors of the Civil War or Indian wars, or he’s been robbed of everything he called his own or his inheritance – or has lost a wife or child tragically – something that makes the heroine’s (and the reader’s) heart ache for the poor guy and want to just hug him and tell him everything will be all right – but of course he’s rugged and stoic and refuses (at first) to admit that he needs that hug. After all, in the “old days” a man just didn’t cry. When they do in my books, it tears your heart out because he’s such a macho man that it is a real surprise when he even gets tears in his eyes, let alone actually weeping. No cry-babies here. Just men who have suffered and finally meet a woman who understands that at least once he has to “let it all out.”

I think another required “ingredient” for a hero is that he doesn’t just love and want the heroine – he NEEDS the heroine. He should feel he couldn’t go on without her – feelings he of course fights at first, but feelings he can’t ignore forever. In my books the hero often feels he is unworthy of the heroine’s love, or feels he could never be the kind of man he “thinks” she wants or needs. I usually always find a way for hero and heroine to finally be together without either of them having to give up his and her own dreams. That’s the way most romances turn out, but I refuse to do it the “soft, flowery” way. Hero and heroine have to fight together to realize their dreams and to be able to spend their lives together.

It’s really fun reading these older books. One book I haven’t read in about 28 years or so is LAWLESS LOVE. I am going to re-read that one, because if I remember right, the hero is NOT the typical tall man with six-pack abs. He’s pretty rugged, average height and very robust – one of those men who is just big and solid all over. I remember when I wrote the book that I was picturing Johnny Cash throughout the story – not a beautifully handsome man but rather worn from tragedy and hard living, handsome in the way of a man who has a beautiful spirit and hasn’t an ounce of ego, a man who just loves faithfully and honestly and gratefully – and the heroine is absolutely NOT the typical beautiful young woman looking for a man. She’s traveling to a convent to become a Nun!! I really want to re-read that story, and see about getting it reissued. It’s one of those “old” books that kind of got lost in the shuffle of my 60 titles over the past 32 years and wasn’t talked about much. I remember it as a lovely story and very different from the typical hero/heroine descriptions.

Well, I will soon be editing and re-writing DO NOT FORSAKE ME (Jake Harkner is one of the baddest asses I’ve ever written other than Zeke Monroe). The book will be published next July (2015) after the reissue of its predecessor in June (2015) – OUTLAW HEARTS. Then it’s on to a new story – and I think the hero will be Native American who will be – what else? – tall, dark, devastatingly handsome and built like … well, you know.

What’s In a Hero?

I have recently needed to re-read several of my older titles for conversion to e-books. After 60 titles and 32 years of writing, I can’t always remember exactly what happened in every book I wrote or who the hero and heroine were. So far I have been pleasantly surprised at how good the stories are and how “hot” the heroes and the love scenes are. Somehow I had the idea that “way back then” I was hesitant to get too racy with my love scenes, but gosh, they ain’t bad!

Through all of this, I am noticing something about my heroes – they tend to be a lot alike – i.e. rugged, take no sh--, well built, extremely able with fists, guns or in the case of the Native Americans, sometimes knife, tomahawk or lance. They are survivors. I am falling in love all over again with each one of them as I read these older books and am re-discovering some great characters – both the heroes and the heroines. Even the heroines are, for the most part, very strong women who “match” the men they’ve chosen to love and can stand right up to them (and often wrap them right around their little fingers)! I was afraid I would find some “fainting flowers” in some of those older books, but so far I haven’t.

Let’s face it. Women love to read about the bad-ass who’s vulnerable in some way when it comes to his woman – a man who would die for her, who loves her unconditionally (actually he adores her) – who always has her back and who is true to her. He might be hard to live with, but what woman wants to live without him!

I am noticing with great relief that it’s only the bad-ass aspect that is very similar in most of my heroes. Each one so far is turning out to be unique in his background and his reasons for turning out as he has. I never want to be accused of writing the same man over and over. Each hero has to be his own man with his own special story – and not all of them are tall and dark and have 6-pack abs, although that seems to be the preferred description. My hero Mitch Brady in DESPERATE HEARTS (September 2014) has sandy hair and very blue eyes, but he is, of course, tall and has those abs! 

Amazon | Barnes & Noble
I like to write a hero (and often a heroine) who has some kind of tragedy in his past that has caused him to turn out the way he has, either some traumatic childhood experience, or the horrors of the Civil War or Indian wars, or he’s been robbed of everything he called his own or his inheritance – or has lost a wife or child tragically – something that makes the heroine’s (and the reader’s) heart ache for the poor guy and want to just hug him and tell him everything will be all right – but of course he’s rugged and stoic and refuses (at first) to admit that he needs that hug. After all, in the “old days” a man just didn’t cry. When they do in my books, it tears your heart out because he’s such a macho man that it is a real surprise when he even gets tears in his eyes, let alone actually weeping. No cry-babies here. Just men who have suffered and finally meet a woman who understands that at least once he has to “let it all out.”

I think another required “ingredient” for a hero is that he doesn’t just love and want the heroine – he NEEDS the heroine. He should feel he couldn’t go on without her – feelings he of course fights at first, but feelings he can’t ignore forever. In my books the hero often feels he is unworthy of the heroine’s love, or feels he could never be the kind of man he “thinks” she wants or needs. I usually always find a way for hero and heroine to finally be together without either of them having to give up his and her own dreams. That’s the way most romances turn out, but I refuse to do it the “soft, flowery” way. Hero and heroine have to fight together to realize their dreams and to be able to spend their lives together.

It’s really fun reading these older books. One book I haven’t read in about 28 years or so is LAWLESS LOVE. I am going to re-read that one, because if I remember right, the hero is NOT the typical tall man with six-pack abs. He’s pretty rugged, average height and very robust – one of those men who is just big and solid all over. I remember when I wrote the book that I was picturing Johnny Cash throughout the story – not a beautifully handsome man but rather worn from tragedy and hard living, handsome in the way of a man who has a beautiful spirit and hasn’t an ounce of ego, a man who just loves faithfully and honestly and gratefully – and the heroine is absolutely NOT the typical beautiful young woman looking for a man. She’s traveling to a convent to become a Nun!! I really want to re-read that story, and see about getting it reissued. It’s one of those “old” books that kind of got lost in the shuffle of my 60 titles over the past 32 years and wasn’t talked about much. I remember it as a lovely story and very different from the typical hero/heroine descriptions.

Well, I will soon be editing and re-writing DO NOT FORSAKE ME (Jake Harkner is one of the baddest asses I’ve ever written other than Zeke Monroe). The book will be published next July (2015) after the reissue of its predecessor in June (2015) – OUTLAW HEARTS. Then it’s on to a new story – and I think the hero will be Native American who will be – what else? – tall, dark, devastatingly handsome and built like … well, you know.

Who Wants To Argue With Ghosts?

Well, I know it’s time I did some blogging but I’ve been in “down time” after finishing DO NOT FORSAKE ME (coming in 2015). I am forcing myself not to start editing the book yet because I know that the minute I do, I’ll fall right back into not being able to get away from the story and I won’t get anything else done. I miss Jake so bad I can hardly stand it! But it’s spring, and believe me, this year spring means a lot here in Michigan after one of the coldest, snowiest winters EVER!!! Never have I so appreciated green grass and buds on the trees and warm air. Mother Nature has a way of beautifully recovering from such harsh winters, and everything is beginning to look normal again. I managed to get some spring cleaning done, both inside the house and in the yard, so it’s time to put out all the lawn furniture and hang some flowers and just sit outside and enjoy the sound of birds again. We have a row of huge pine trees along the border in our back yard, and the birds nest in there by the hundreds. It’s a wonderful sound. Rabbits also like to burrow underneath those trees in winter and now I’m seeing a lot of baby rabbits hopping around.

Yet all the while that I enjoy getting outside and working in the yard and walking and enjoying the warmth, Jake and DO NOT FORSAKE ME are in the back of my mind – constantly. “Come back,” Jake and his family keep telling me. “Get this story completely ready for publishing.”

“But if I come back, then I’ll have to leave you all over again,” I reply. Yes, I’m a complete crazy woman. Crazy! I really think this way! When I get this involved in a story I literally lose touch with reality. I am not making this up or exaggerating. This is why I put off getting back to this story. I have written many books that I can take or leave with no problem, but there are some stories that just pull me in completely, and this was one of them. So was the first book, OUTLAW HEARTS, twenty years ago. I tried to stay away from that story for a long time afterward, but for these twenty years since I wrote it I knew I had to write a sequel. I just couldn’t find an editor/publisher who wanted me to do that until Sourcebooks came along and asked me to do it. I have never been so happy with a sale in my entire writing career.

However, writing the sequel to OUTLAW HEARTS meant getting back into Jake’s life, and I knew what would happen. I knew I’d get completely lost in this man and his family to the point of writing for hours a day without getting up from the computer, which for me leads to lower back problems. Even when I do get up and return to “real life” I don’t sleep because all night long I think about the story and the next chapter, and the next chapter, and Jake and his wife and his kids. When I get this involved I lose weight because I sometimes can’t even eat. Yes, that’s how crazy I am when it comes to writing.

Another thing I suspected would happen DID happen – I want to write a third book and make this a trilogy. When you read the ending of DO NOT FORSAKE ME, you will see how easily this could lead into a third book, which would primarily be about Jake’s son and his family. By the end of Book #2 you will be completely “into” Lloyd Harkner and want to know what happens with him. I have also contemplated a fourth book, which would be about Jake’s grandson “Little Jake,” who plays an important role in DO NOT FORSAKE ME. By a fourth book “Little Jake” would definitely no longer be “little.” He’d be all grown up and just as big and strong and good looking as his grandfather was. In DO NOT FORSAKE ME Little Jake is only three years old, but he’s a wild little hellion (grampa’s blood!) who causes a bit of havoc for his mother (Jake’s daughter Evie) and for his grandpa. As I wrote this story I knew that someday I would have to write a story about Little Jake!

Yes, my characters have a way of becoming so real to me that I hate leaving them and I literally miss them when I finish a book, which is why I’ve written so many series stories and trilogies. I absolutely must go on with these stories. I honestly believe that when I die I am going to meet some of these people – Zeke and Abbie Monroe from my SAVAGE DESTINY series, and Jake and Randy Harkner from OUTLAW HEARTS and DO NOT FORSAKE ME. I could name several other heroes and heroines I feel really existed and whom I will meet some day, but you already think I’m nuts, so I’ll just leave it at these who are the most outstanding for me.

Meantime, I am wrestling with yet another character who has lived with me for twenty years. This guy is Native American and the story would be contemporary. I just don’t know yet quite how to handle this guy because his story is – are you ready? – a grand mixture of a Christian story, very hot sex, Native American, some violence, AIM, the BIA, and, oh, gosh, so many elements to this story that I’m not sure in what category the book would fit if it ever got published. It’s very, very intense, involves drugs, guns, romance, intrigue, suspense, a Catholic Lakota man who is very “into” his Native American heritage and is a chanter and fancy dancer - falling in love with a very hot, very blond, Protestant woman from New England whose father is a preacher. See? Crazy, I know, but it’s a really hot, hot and action-packed love story that has also been brewing in my head for about 20 years, just like the sequel to Jake’s story did. So I really have to write this book, too, but I’ve been through so many scenarios for this guy that I have to get my act together on just how I will handle this book.

Well, this is your latest blog from this very crazy writer. Think of me as nuts if you want, but I think you have to be a little nuts to be a writer, because most writers are far removed from the real world when they are “into” a story. I’m sure most other writers out there would agree with me that we are all a bit strange. I, for one, believe all my characters really lived. They just “visit” me in spirit form and ask me to write their story. And who wants to argue with ghosts?

Blue Hawk Trilogy - Now Available for All E-Readers!

I'm so excited - They're HERE! My Blue Hawk Series books (with hot new covers!) are now available for ALL e-readers! Those of you who prefer print books can still order the iUniverse reissued print editions through Amazon. (Unfortunately, the new covers will be available for the e-reader versions only.)

SAVAGE HORIZONS
Book One of the BLUE HAWK SAGA

Amazon | Nook | iTunes | Kobo
An orphaned half-blood man named Blue Hawk is adopted by a white family and renamed Caleb Sax. Caleb struggles to let go of the only habits and culture he's ever known - that of the Cheyenne - and gradually learns to live among the whites, but not without great difficulty and prejudice against him in the white world. Through it all he never stops wearing a blue quill necklace that belonged to his Indian mother, a part of his past that will always remind him of his true blood.

Besides Tom and Cora Sax, the white man and woman who love Caleb like their own son, someone else shows Caleb true, loyal love. It is Tom and Cora's daughter, Sarah. Sarah and Caleb fall in love, instigating years of struggling to stay together against tremendous odds. Sarah discovers Tom Sax is not her real father, and she is stolen away in marriage to a white man she does not love. Devastated, she is led to believe Caleb is dead. Caleb spends years searching for her, and when he finds her at last, a dynasty is born from their blood.
FRONTIER FIRES 
Book Two of the BLUE HAWK SAGA

Amazon | Nook | iTunes | Kobo
Continuing the story of Calab and Sarah Sax, this deeply moving love story takes the readers to Texas, which in 1833 still belongs to Mexico. Living on 49,000 acres in San Filipe de Austin, an American settlement founded by Stephen Austin, Sarah and Caleb witness a phenominal growth in the territory, a population explosion of people looking for free land. All become part of a growing sentiment that Texas should be an independent province and not part of Mexico.

With Sarah and their children, Caleb, known as Blue Hawk to his Cheyenne relatives, and his family find themselves involved in a Mexican war … and eventually their son is involved in the battle for the Alamo. For a time Caleb and Sarah think he's been killed, and amid all their heartache and turmoil an old enemy comes knocking, someone who once nearly destroyed Caleb and Sarah's love and life together. Choices must be made, danger lurks everywhere, but the deep connection between Caleb and Sarah can never be broken.

Don't miss this fabulous continued story of America's stunning history, and a family that became crucial to the settling of Texas!
DESTINY'S DAWN
Book Three of the BLUE HAWK SAGA

Amazon | Nook | iTunes | Kobo
Book #3 of this Blue Hawk trilogy, brings an epic frontier story to an ending readers won't want to miss. Caleb searches for his beloved Sarah, who has again been taken from him; while at the same time he helps his children seek their own fortunes in the West. His son Tom rides the outlaw trail in search of men who killed his Mexican wife; Caleb's daughter Lynda, a dark beauty, finds herself in love with a lawman in the heart of the West; Cale, Lynda's son, marries a Cheyenne woman and gives his life to the Cheyenne way; and James, Caleb's youngest son, struggles with his identity and tries to hide his Indian heritage.

DESTINY'S DAWN takes the readers on adventures from Colorado to California, as Caleb searches for Sarah, the love of his life, in a story about a nation divided by blood, and two people united by wild passions. Through it all two things help Caleb stay grounded and determined … his love for his beautiful Sarah … and the blue quill necklace he has worn since a young boy, reminding him of the mother who died giving him birth.

Am I Losing It, Or Is This How It’s Supposed To Be?

I honestly think I might be losing my mind. I am so lost in the book I’m writing that it is affecting me emotionally. I wonder if that happens to actors when they “get into” the role they are playing. The last few days I have been a little down and unsure of the book I’m working on – and suddenly I am jumping-up-and-down happy and positive again.

I figured out why. For the last few days I’ve been working on a part of the book where hero and heroine are apart. He is very worried about her health, and she is (always) worried about him because he’s a U.S. Marshal in the unsettled Territory of Oklahoma. While they were apart, I was low. Now I am at the point where he’s coming back, and all I can think about is “he’s coming back to me!” And I’m happy again because they get to be together.

Am I crazy? Is old age making my brain live in another time and another world? This book is turning me into a maniac! I don’t care about time or housework or the bookwork I do for the family business. I only care about getting back to this book. It has become all-consuming. My poor husband hardly sees me anymore because the minute I get home, I’m back in my office writing. I come out only long enough to make supper and then I’m gone again. I haven’t watched TV since I don’t know when and I’m not even interested in watching TV! I haven’t read a newspaper, a magazine … nothing. I only write. We spent 6 weeks in Vegas, and I did no lying around. I wrote over 200 pages while I was supposed to be relaxing.

Not since my first six  Savage Destiny books have I been this much of an idiot over my writing. I was a nut then, too. I was totally, completely absorbed in my hero and heroine and what was happening with them. It’s a miracle I’m alive because when I drive I hardly know where I am. My brain is always working on the next chapter, and the next and the next. I am out west somewhere in a covered wagon or involved in a shootout instead of on the interstate headed for a mall. Hey, I’m a BIG TIME shopper – and I haven’t even wanted to go shopping! When we came home from Vegas my husband wouldn’t let me drive because he knows how I get and knew his life would be in danger if I was behind the wheel! I’m worse than an alcoholic! I’m a WRITE-a-holic!

This has to stop, but I don’t know how to stop it. I try, but it doesn’t work. I eat and sleep and dream this book. Yes, it must be happening. This old lady is losing her mind! She’s 20 years old again and walking across the prairie. Right now she’s in Guthrie, Oklahoma waiting for her husband to return. I hope when he gets back and things get settled I can get back to normal in my own “real” world. Trouble is, I don’t want to leave these people! This book might turn out a thousand pages long because I just want to go on and on.

Not only am I completely immersed in this book, but I am also thinking about the next one – and yet another one I already have planned. I have 6 or 7 ideas going right now for future books. I wish there were 10 of me. Then I’d REALLY be prolific! And I wouldn’t be so dang worn out!!

Such is the life of a writer.

Work or Vacation? Sometimes They Are One And The Same . . .

By the time this blog is posted, my husband and I will be back home in Michigan – going from 80 degrees in Vegas to 8 degrees at home. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But I have a lot to catch up with at home, and I miss my very cool grandsons!

What a winter this has been – relentless cold and snow. Yet it seems like it went really fast and inevitably we’ll start seeing some green poke through melting snow in Michigan. Hard to picture right now, but it will happen.

One thing I’ve learned while on vacation is that vacation is what you make of it. If you like lying around all day and (in our case) heading to a casino for a few hours daily, and of course if you like warm weather in winter, Vegas is the perfect spot. No matter what is happening in the rest of the country, it is ALWAYS nice in Vegas. While here for six weeks we had only one day of spitting rain and one windy day, and the temps ranged from 60 to 80 the whole time – with plentiful, plentiful sunshine.
So, I should have been basking in that sunshine, right? WRONG! I’m sure some of you will think I’ve lost my mind, but I was in my office writing every spare moment. I finished 200 PAGES of my next project, a book for which I haven’t yet even signed the contract!

That’s right – 200 pages – proofed, edited and rewritten. And you know what? I never once felt like it was work. That’s because this particular book is very, very dear to me and has been written “in my head” for about 20 years. I was just waiting for a publisher to come along who realized this story needed to be written. It’s the sequel to OUTLAW HEARTS, which was published in 1993 by Bantam Books.

From the day I finished that book I wanted to write a sequel. But back then there was no self-publishing on-line – and the publisher had to agree to a sequel. Bantam wanted me to go on to other things, so I did, and many more Bittner books were published after that … but always, always in my heart, I “lived” with Jake and Randy Harkner and went through numerous scenarios of what I would do with a sequel. I ALWAYS knew how it would begin – and how it would end. I just had to fill in the middle, and that has been so easy.

Finally, after all these years, my new publisher, Sourcebooks, felt OUTLAW HEARTS should be reissued and that a sequel was in order. In my 30 (+) years of writing, I have NEVER been this happy about a sale! As soon as I knew it was a done deal, I sat down and started the book while on vacation in Vegas – and the chapters just kept tumbling out of me. I couldn’t stand leaving Jake for even a few hours. As soon as I finished one chapter, I started the next, and the next, until now 15 chapters are finished. And I know exactly what I will do with the rest of the book.

People will say I should slow down and “why would you want to work when you’re supposed to be on vacation?” For me this IS a vacation! It’s a vacation from the years I thought I might never even be published again – a vacation from thinking I didn’t “have it in me” any more. Selling OUTLAW HEARTS opened up a wealth of writing juices – like hitting just the right spot and oil spewing up from the ground and into the sky.

I actually hate the thought of being on the road for the next 3-4 days and not able to work on this book. I can’t wait to get back to it. Believe it or not, my husband said he’s not going to let me drive on the way home because he knows my head is in a different place. I am notoriously careless about not paying attention to my driving when I’m writing, so I have to really concentrate on the road and force myself to get back to reality. When I haven’t finished a book I feel like I’ve deserted my characters in their greatest hour of need. Jake and Randy are facing a sort of crossroads, and I’ve left them there . . . I can’t stand it!

I believe that in order to write a really good book, the writer has to “live” with the characters – love them, hate them, think of them as actually living (or that they really did exist in history). That’s how I think of all my characters. In fact, even this blog has poured out over a time period of about 10 minutes. I just decided to sit down and get one ready to post – and out it came. It was easy because I wanted to talk about this book I am working on.

Writing should come as naturally as breathing. Your story should be constantly taking place in your head and when you have to take a break you should actually miss your characters. We’ll be home soon, and as soon as I get unpacked, I’ll be back at the computer. The book is called DO NOT FORSAKE ME, and it’s going to be a great love story, a story of redemption and forgiveness … and of course it will be packed with Bittner action and adventure. After all, the hero is a notorious outlaw turned lawman, and the woman who has been at his side through it all is the very air he breathes. I know my readers will love this story – and for those of you who have not read OUTLAW HEARTS, you will love that one, too when it’s reissued next year with a brand new cover.

Until then, watch for the reissue of INTO THE WILDERNESS in April (Tor/Forge Books) – and in September my next brand new book, DESPERATE HEARTS (not related to OUTLAW HEARTS) will be published in print and as an e-book. Also, all my SAVAGE DESTINY books are available now as e-books and my BLUE HAWK trilogy is coming soon as e-books, with brand new HOT covers!

Rosanne Bittner launches a new romantic/historical series, Westward America!, which will look at the settling of the United States, with each book moving progressively west into a new location and era.

Set in 1785, Into The Wilderness depicts the life of those who settled in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. The term "long hunters" refers to "Daniel Boone" type men who hunted for settlements and forts, sometimes leaving for months at a time. Florence ("Flo") Matthews is sixteen, and has her world turned upside down when a mysterious long hunter, Clete Barnes, saves her from a bear attack in the middle of the night outside her parents' cabin. Unable to stop thinking about her soft-spoken savior, Flo eventually tells her parents of her wish to marry Clete, but is warned by her mother that long hunters, with their travelling ways, are never truly able to settle down. Flo and Clete persist and are soon married, but true to form, Clete soon feels that he must go on another hunt if he is to keep sane. While he is gone, Flo and their young son are taken captive by Iroquois, and Flo's life is irrevoably changed. Clete eventually finds his wife and son, but whether she will take him back -- and whether the Iroquois man whose son she has borne will let her go -- remains to be seen.


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Valentine's Party and Giveaway

I'm having a Valentine's Day Party this week to celebrate romance!

Please stop by my party site to see updated news about my books. And, while you're there, don't forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of my latest release, Paradise Valley and a Kindle!

What Goes Around – Comes Around

When you have been writing as long as I have, I guess you have experienced just about every triumph and tragedy you can expect in the world of writing. I’ve written 59 books, working on #60 and hoping to reach 100 before I die. I started writing in 1979, sold my first book in 1981. It was published in 1983, and it was at that time the 9th book I had written in my effort to sell something. I re-wrote and sold only one of the other 9 books, the other seven becoming simply a learning process as I struggled to write something worthy of being published.

When I started writing there was no help of any kind as far as how to write and submit and sell, nothing like today. Today there are hundreds of writers groups who can help with critiquing, editing, and the “how to’s” of submitting your work and getting sold. You can find advice on all facets and all genres of writing, go on-line and download anything and everything you’d want to know about every publisher and editor and agent out there. Heck, today you can even publish your own book without a publisher. These days a lot of writers can make just as good – or even better – money putting their books on-line on their own. I love that as a way to get many of my older titles out there to the public again; but I still prefer printed copies of my books to be available, especially brand new stories. But that is another topic for another blog.

The purpose of this blog is to make sure new writers know that writing and getting published is never easy – not even if you publish your own book, because you still have to establish a social networking “presence” and hope readers find and buy your book. So as a writer you still long to have people reading your books. That’s all any of us wants, far and above even what we get paid for those books. A true writer loves what he or she is writing and dreams of the book(s) reaching the whole world – not to be a zillion seller, but because the stories themselves are so important to the writer that she wants to share them with as many people as possible.

That is how I have always felt about my stories. I am a bit of a maniac when it comes to writing because I love my subject so much – American history and especially tales of the Old West of the 1800’s – and America’s magnificent western landscape. I love that thin line between outlaw and lawman – and I love telling the truth about what happened to our Native Americans as the West was settled. I fall in love with every hero I write, and that is what led me to this blog.

Jake Harkner. Yes, all my readers know that the hero from my Savage Destiny series, Zeke Monroe, will probably always be top dog as a Bittner hero … but let me tell you, Jake Harkner gives Zeke a run for his money. They are two very different men as far as life circumstances, but in many ways they are very much alike. They are men who know no fear and take no “sh—“ and men who loved their wives to the point of no return. Both men carried tragedy in their backgrounds that led them to how they conducted themselves as men … and therein lies the reason I know readers have loved (and new readers will love) Jake just as much as they loved Zeke.

I say “new readers” because thanks to my publisher, Sourcebooks, Jake Harkner will come riding back into today’s readers’ lives sometime late 2014 when  Outlaw Hearts  is reissued with a new cover and made available both in print and as an e-book. Best of all, I will finally be writing a sequel, to be published not long after the original story is reissued.

What goes around – comes around. Outlaw Hearts was first published in 1993, and ever since then I have wanted to write a sequel. When I first wrote the book that publisher wanted me to go on to other things and didn’t want to think about a sequel at that time. Several books (and publishers) later,  Outlaw Hearts  became lost in the shuffle of older Bittner titles, somewhat forgotten, and finally sold out to the point that it was almost impossible even to find a copy of the book to purchase.

Through all those years and all the books I wrote after  Outlaw Hearts , I dreamed of the sequel. Jake Harkner lived in my heart and mind almost constantly. His story wasn’t finished. Yes, Zeke is my super hero – but through 7 Savage Destiny books I was at least able to tell his full story and go into the lives of his children and grandchildren. I was able to have “closure” with Zeke. Not so with Jake Harkner. Something was unfinished, which is why he continued to haunt me.

My career took a downturn around 2000. I wrote and sold a few books after that, but the “hay day” of the western romance, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, was fading. I tried other genres and hated it. I just couldn’t quite get back the magic of what happened in my heart when I wrote western romance. Those books flow out of me as easily as breathing. But after almost ten years “off the shelf” – no new books by Rosanne Bittner – I knew my only hope of having the incentive and energy to write and sell another book was to write another western romance, even thought I was being advised to try other things. And through it all, I “lived” with Jake Harkner, still wanting to continue his story; but without a reissue of Outlaw Hearts , a sequel would not likely be a success. Readers had to get to know Jake and his beloved wife Miranda from the first book.

About ten years ago my long-time agent retired and a new agent was “appointed” for me. That was quite an adjustment and my new agent wanted me to try other types of books, which as I stated above, didn’t work for me. I will always remember that the FIRST THING I talked about with the new agent was how badly I wanted  Outlaw Hearts  reissued and wanted to write a sequel. I BELIEVED IN THIS STORY, IN MY HERO, AND IN HOW WELL A SEQUEL WOULD DO. At that time I think I was the ONLY one who believed that. My new agent and I learned to work together, and though she thought I should try other genres, she gradually began to realize that I belonged with western romance, even though that genre wasn’t all that popular for several years.

Then, finally, western romance began to re-emerge as a genre readers wanted. My agent, who was really beginning to understand Rosanne Bittner’s style of writing, found a publisher (Sourcebooks) who was willing to reissue a couple of my older titles, Wildest Dreams and Thunder on the Plains . Those books did well. I wrote another western romance, my first brand new book in years, ( Paradise Valley ) and bam! It sold. All those years I knew in my heart I had to keep writing what I loved. Sourcebooks bought Paradise Valley and wanted an option book. I wrote yet another western romance, Desperate Hearts , and Sourcebooks bought that one, too! I was back to what I love.

I stuck to what I believed in, and again I suggested Outlaw Hearts be reissued and expressed my desire to write a sequel. Well, finally, someone else believed that, too. I discovered that my Sourcebooks editor had read and loved the book, and the CEO of Sourcebooks also loved the book and agreed to reissue  Outlaw Hearts ! And finally, finally, someone listened to my dream. Sourcebooks agreed to a sequel to  Outlaw Hearts  and paid me the best money I have made in years for the rights to the book.

What goes around, comes around. Twenty-six years ago I had an idea for a book. I was curling my hair and the idea just hit me out of the blue. I had nothing to write on, so I wrote it on the back of a check book with an eyebrow pencil. That book became Outlaw Hearts , with (other than Zeke) my favorite hero of all other books. Outlaw Hearts was published in 1993, and now, twenty years later, my beloved Jake will finally be on the shelves again. Better yet, I will be able to write that sequel, which I am calling Do Not Forsake Me . I have lived with this sequel for so long that the book will pour out of me with little effort. I’ve already written the first two chapters, and the book isn’t due until next September!

The point of this blog is to tell all writers – BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND IN WHAT YOU WRITE! Most of all, WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE. Never worry whether or not that genre is popular. Never write just to follow what is selling today. WRITE WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART TO WRITE, and almost always, you will be successful – not just in the writing world and in the eyes of others – but successful in knowing you stuck to what you believed in and made it work!