Updates On What I’m Doing

A New Chapter Might Open in my Life

Things are hectic around here right now because I spent the past two weeks getting the house ready to put up for sale. My time in Montana is coming to an end. It’s time to return to Nebraska. Of course, this is ultimately up to God. If He decides I should stay here, then things will work out so that I can’t move. If He decides I should go, then a door will open for me to go. I’ve finally learned that I need to follow God’s leading. I’ve been hit on top of the head enough by now to have figured that out. If God wills it, I’ll get another chance to live in Nebraska, and that would be an exciting prospect if it happens.

There is something about physical work and getting away from the computer that opens up the creative mind. I have this current Regency series I’m working on but no idea on what I’ll do for the next one. Then yesterday morning when I finally had a chance to get a good writing session in, I got the idea for Book 1 in a new Regency series. Today as I was writing, the idea has been getting fleshed out because the heroine’s brother in Midnight Wedding is the person I have the idea. Since I’m writing Midnight Wedding, more ideas for his story is working out in the back of my mind. My mind is blank on the historical westerns. I have a fragment of two different ideas, but sometimes those fragments lose their spark, and if there’s not a spark, I refuse to write the story.

I Made Small Progress in my Stories

This is probably the way it’s going to be for a while. I’ll be going at these books at a snail’s pace. My writing is going to be here and there. I have no idea how many books I’ll get out next year, so I’m glad I held off on getting Heiress of Misfortune out in January. That puts off the pressure of having to get to the computer so I can focus on any moving stuff I need to deal with.

Here is the Marriage by Obligation Series and the order of the books:

     

I managed to get up to 32,000 words in Midnight Wedding. Now we’re shifting into the second part of the book where things take an unexpected turn. I’ve almost completed 100 romances, and I’m just now realizing I have a second part within the middle of the story that marks the transition toward the end. How weird is that? Still, I wouldn’t want to bore myself by plotting a book out first. It’s more fun when I get to find out what happens as I go along. Like today, I discovered that something surprising that is going to happen in the course of this story. That “ah-ha” moment made me fall in love with writing all over again. I don’t want to know exactly how things will play out ahead of time.

I am at 22,000 in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I have not hit the second part within the middle of the story yet. The heroine is still adjusting to her new marriage and has not been accused of murder yet. I have something that needs to take place before that happens.

I am at 19,000 words in Worth the Risk, and today while I was writing, I wrote out a nightmare scene our hero is going through. I didn’t intend it, but while writing, I picked out the elements in the nightmare and what they represent in the character’s waking life. This romance is turning out to be more psychological in nature than I expected. I guess my Psychology degree didn’t go wasted after all.

Secret Admirer is still in the editing stage. My estimated release month for that book is March.