What I’m Working On
I was going to wait for a few days to make this post, but I’m too excited to wait, so here I am.
I have Secret Admirer on audiobook at Google Play and Apple.Secret Admirer (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 1)
Both are narrated by AI. Google Play has been allowing me to upload my ebook to create a digitally narrated audiobook for some time now. Draft2Digital just opened an option for authors (of romance and other fiction) to create digitally narrated audiobooks to Apple. (As a side note: It looks like pricing is set by Draft2Digital or Apple on the Apple store. I was able to price directly on Google Play.)
Right now I only have Secret Admirer (my romance) as on ebook on Draft2Digital. My other romances are still uploaded through Smashwords. I have to wait for Draft2Digital to move my books from Smashwords to their system before I can convert my other romances into audiobooks to put on Apple. (Draft2Digital bought Smashwords so they’re merging together.) Anyway, I am excited about getting my books into more avenues. It takes time to do this. For one, I can’t afford a personal assistant to do the legwork for me. Two, I need to limit my screen time because of my eyes. And three, these options are not opening up to authors right away. It’s taking some time. So please bear with me.
If anyone here wants Secret Admirer on audiobook on Kobo, please let me know. I’ve heard from people who want audiobooks on Amazon, Google Play, and Apple, but nothing about Kobo. I’m not excluding Kobo audiobook listeners. I just don’t know if any are out there. As for Amazon, they are not allowed digital narration at this time. I’m sure they eventually will. In the meantime, the Kindle does have a text-to-speech feature that is enabled on my ebooks. (I listened to books for years with my Kindle.)
Midnight Wedding is still in editsMidnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)
And I still haven’t picked a release date, but I am planning for it to be at the end of July.
The Earl’s Jilted Bride is coming along nicelyThe Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3)
I didn’t think I’d be able to fit in the characters from Midnight Wedding into this book since the timeline elapsed a bit, but I just finished a scene where we see Lydia after she comes back from her elopement with Lord Quinton. So I’m able to do some follow-up from Midnight Wedding in this book. I guess this makes this a series where it’s best to read the books in order, but I think most of my series are like that. I’d like to get Lord Wright and Lord Quinton together at another dinner party in this book. I don’t know about anyone else, but the dinner party scene where the two show up in Secret Admirer is my favorite scene in the whole book.
Anyway, I know I’m over the halfway point. The hero is about to discover the secret the heroine’s been keeping. (I can’t say more without spoiling it, but I’m looking forward to it because it’s one of those high-tense scenes.)
Worth the Risk took an unexpected turnWorth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4)
Sometimes people say that my books are predictable. Well, maybe my books are predictable to them, but they aren’t to me. I go into my books not sure of what will happen, and a lot of times, my characters will take me in a direction I didn’t see coming. That’s what happened to me this week when I was writing this book. I thought I was pretty much done, and then the characters made a decision I didn’t expect. (Yes, I know my characters aren’t “real”, but the fun of writing is pretending they are. I’m tired of hearing authors complain when authors like me who write by the seat of our pants say our characters did something unexpected. If you want to sit down and plot the book ahead of time, go ahead. I prefer to be surprised when I write my books.) And I like the direction this book is going. Now I have some new possibilities before me that I didn’t have before, and that will make this book more interesting to me as I write it.
Here is Book 5 of the Marriage by Obligation Series:
If you read Midnight Wedding, you’ll come across Lydia’s brother, Felix. Felix is the hero of this story. I can’t say more about it until after Midnight Wedding it out. I don’t want to spoil that book for you.
And finally…
I now have a historical western romance I’m excited about writing!
I have decided I wanted to go in a whole new direction with a western. I have been sticking to Nebraska a lot lately, and I think that put me in a rut. (Though, I will say I enjoyed writing about Tom and Jessica’s daughters a lot. That is one of my favorite series.) But still, I needed to wipe the slate clean and do something different.
So I’m going to go to the Arizona desert. I’ve never been there before in my books. This will be exciting. The hero and heroine are from Philadelphia, so they’ve never been out west. I think that will make this book funny in many ways.
The main focus of the story will be on the hero and heroine. The hero isn’t the least bit attracted to the heroine, but he marries her because she’s a wealthy heiress. Only the hero and the hero’s sister know that their father died with a lot of debt. The sister ran off to be a mail-order bride in Arizona. The hero stayed in Philadelphia to save the family name and to make sure their mother would be provided for. Well, on his wedding day, news come to him that his sister went missing in Arizona. He is worried about his sister, of course, because he packs right away to find her. But he also realizes this is the perfect chance to avoid his new bride. The bride, on the other hand, is in love with him and thinks he’s in love with her, so she packs for the trip and seeks out to find his sister with him. This is a comedy, so the setup will be fun. The hero is determined to keep up the pretense of being in love with her. He realizes he owes her a lot for saving his family from ruin. He’s not heartless. But he will struggle with playing the role of the doting husband. Until…of course…he starts to actually fall in love with her. This is a romance. We all know he will eventually fall in love with her. But it’s the “how” that is going to be the fun part.
I expect things to really get fun when the two arrive in Arizona and are told the canyon is haunted with some legend I’ll create to make things interesting. I’d like there to be a little danger in this somewhere.
I’ve decided to call this book Tagalong Bride. I realize the word “tagalong” wasn’t out until about 1900 which is before this book takes place, but I’m calling it Tagalong Bride anyway because I like it. I searched for other words but nothing fits like this one does. I want something that conveys a comedy romance about a bride who is pretty much tagging along with her new husband even though he doesn’t want her there. I chose the cover to let people know there will be sex in the book. Even after all of this time, I get people who think my books (esp. the westerns) will have no sex scenes in them and they’ll 1 star the book for it. I have to let the cover do the talking for me.
