Updates on What I’m Working On
This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.
I just wrapped my initial edits this week. The longer the book is, the longer it takes for me to go through the initial edits. Initial edits involves me rewriting portions that don’t work, removing as many typos as I can find, fixing consistency issues, etc.
Side issue that is more writer related:
I hear a lot of authors insisting that each books needs a developmental editor before moving to this stage, and I’m going to push back on this. I don’t believe every author needs a developmental edit. I don’t believe every author needs to give a thorough rewrite of their book. I have also learned that not every author is better off editing as they go. I have not been in the habit of editing as I go in the past, but I thought I’d give this advice a try on this book. It has made no difference in my editing time. I spent just as much time cleaning up and rewriting that I did on my other books. The irritating factor was that I wasted time editing as I went along when I could have been writing instead. I spent a good 15 to 20 minutes each writing session editing instead. So a lesson has been learned. I do not benefit from editing as I go.
My point in the above paragraph is to emphasize that the “rules of writing” do not apply to every single author. Every author is different. They need to find the method that works best for them and do it. So if another author is telling you that what you’re doing is wrong, ignore them. It’s not fair to put all writers into a single box and say that one method works for all of them.
End of side issue
Okay, so I am done with the initial edits and have sent the book to people who are helping me polish it up so it’s the best it can be. I like to have more than one person looking over my book. I feel this helps me see the book from enough perspectives to give me a solid (more objective) view of it. Everyone brings something valuable to the process.
I’m not putting this one on pre-order. This time, I thought I’d experiment with just releasing it and then announcing it after it’s out. Right now, the book will be out in September. I don’t have a date set yet.
My guess is that Masquerade Bride will be out in January
That’s my hope anyway. I got no writing in while editing The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride.
This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.
I was taking an online Author Summit with the Better-Faster Academy with Becca Syme. Every once in a while, I like to participate in something that feeds the motivation factor of writing. I really enjoy Becca Syme. She emphasizes that all writers are different and need to do things differently, and when you take the strengths test and then connect it with her YouTube videos, you figure out “why” you operate the way you do as a writer. Probably the biggest takeaway I got from the summit was that it’s okay to slow down and have patience. A lot of times, the writing community tells you that you must be faster and that you must aim for more of everything (more followers on social media, more money, more books, etc). Knowing it’s okay to slow down and relax helps me to focus on what’s most important: the writing itself. I’m not going to stress deadlines anymore. When the book is done, it’s done.
I’ve also learned that I need to work on different stories to keep up my creativity. Becca Syme has a word for it. It’s called a Laboratory Author Platform. Now I understand why I could never just focus on one specific genre. I needed to work on historical western romances and Regencies. Before that, I was separating out my interests between historical western romances and contemporary romances. But I fell in love with the Regency characters and the world I made for those characters, and I don’t want to leave it. I was not attached to anything in the contemporary setting, so it was an easy trade to make. I recently discovered something else I want to write, but that will have to fall under a pen name. That will separate out my writing time and make books under “Ruth” slower in coming out. I need to go down this path, though, because I’m fired up by these other books in my writing lab.
I’m sure all of this sounds nuts to a lot of people, but it’s the best way I can explain it. If I want to keep up my enthusiasm and enjoyment for historical western romances and Regencies, I need to dive into another area, and I don’t mind saying it’s a mix of romance and horror (the two genres I love most), and it’ll be set in the contemporary world because I want to mix technology in with these stories. Due to how different this off-shoot is, I am creating the pen name.
I’m Stalled on The Preacher’s Wife
This is Book 2 in the Oregon Series.
I am 30,000 words in. I expect this to be at least 70,000 words, though given how much is involved with this one, we might be looking at 80,000 words. And while I know the high points, I’m having trouble filling in the lower points that need to connect them. I will make an attempt to continue on with where I left off before I dove into the edits on The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride, but if the story isn’t flowing, I’ll put it on pause for a while. I am not going to write until I know where to go. I’ve forced stories in the past, and I’ve never been satisfied with the outcome.
This could put a wrench in the 40-50-aged hero and heroine trope that I promised someone I’d write. Book 3 in this series features a woman in her 40s and a man in his 50s. I have no idea when I can deliver on that, and I do feel bad about it. I tried to carve this age trope into the Love Under Desert Skies Series. It didn’t work. I was pushing for a character to be in her late 30s, but it made a friend uneasy since I had already established that the hero was going to be in his late 20s. So I pushed the character’s age to her mid-30s. That is now what this person wanted. This person wants older than 35. So I’ve had to give up the idea there. I have no plot ideas to go with this age trope for my Regencies. I think a lot of this has to do with the historical setting. I can make this work more easily in a contemporary setting, but that’s under a pen name, so… Yeah, I feel stuck in this situation. If the person who requested 40s-to-50s is reading this, please know I have not giving up on the idea. The idea is just taking forever to get to. In a world where books come out fast, I understand how frustrating it is to wait.
What Book is Next?I don’t have a title for it yet. This will be Oscar’s story, and it’ll be Book 2 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series. I do have the plot established. This is a plot idea I’ve had for years. I’ve just been waiting for the right characters to place for the plot. Now I have it. I have idea what I’m going to title the thing. I was originally going to go with The Virgin Widow, but the heroine is not going to be a widow anymore. I’ve decided she’ll have an annulment to get her out of the first marriage instead.
My mind is blank on Book 3 in the Love Under Desert Skies Series.
I can’t write Book 3 in the Oregon Series until The Preacher’s Wife is done, though I do have the plot in mind for that one. Ironic, I know.
Progress on YouTube
I am just over halfway in uploading The Hero Least Likely on my channel. I did create a Playlist for it that I thought would make it easy to go from one chapter to the next, but it might not be working that way. It might not be converting as nicely as I expected.
I have tried to put all of the chapters into a file on iMovie, but I don’t have enough space in one single file on iMovie to do this. My guess is that I’d have to pay in order to create a full audiobook in one file. I don’t have the kind of money to do this. I make nothing on YouTube. I’m not expecting to make anything on YouTube. I don’t have the time to do a professional job, nor can I pay someone to narrate in a way that makes this professional. So we are stuck with the quality we have.
I am going to finish reading The Hero Least Likely. After that, I’m taking a couple of months off. My sister is a trucker, and she listens to these books while she’s driving. I will continue reading books for her. I don’t know if anyone else listens to them (or even enjoys them), but she enjoys them, and that’s enough of a reason to read them. She has requested Bid for a Bride and Bride of Second Chances, so those books are next.
I think I’m going to delete my Rumble account. No one is over there, and the two comments I received were from some scammers wanting me to give them money for marketing. What a joke. I know there are scammers on YouTube as well, but I don’t think there is an actual “real” person listening to my books over on Rumble. At least on YouTube, I know my sister is there. Having to upload to Rumble is more time out of my day that could be spent writing. My goal is to focus more on writing and less on the other stuff. I can’t be everywhere and do everything. Nor can I pay someone to do it for me. So we are stuck with a one-woman-shop and what this one woman can accomplish.
