Updates On What I’m Doing

I’m pretty much moving at the speed of a snail these days, but I figured I would hop on and share what’s going on.

I am 45,000 words into Masquerade Bride

I really enjoyed this one because it was so different from the stuff I’ve already done. This is more than a romance. I am going to categorize it under romance and fantasy because that’s the best way to describe it. The reason she is taking on the new life is to secure a love match, and there is a lot of courtships that are happening through the course of the book. But this is also about how she grows during the course of the story. That aspect surprised me. I didn’t expect that angle to pop up. This is what makes writing by the seat of one’s pants so fun. You get thrown off course, and in my experience, this is for the best–as long as your brain is wired to be a “discovery writer”. If your brain is wired to follow a plan, you need to plot.

I am putting some Easter eggs into this story only because I love my past Regency characters and like to insert them in if possible. Christopher Robinson and Lord Edon are my top favorites, so I did a cameo with them. I have decided even if I’m not making this a series, I still want to weave it into the other Regency books I’ve written. If I can’t write these books the way I want them, then there’s no point in even writing at all.

I am 18,000 words into The Science of Love

That 18,000 does include two excerpts from past books, so we’re probably looking at about 14,000 for the actual story itself, but I haven’t bothered to calculate the totals.

This is a cute and sweet romance. I plan for it to be pretty steamy only because the heroine needs to feel physically attractive after the harsh way she was rejected in the past. My husband and I were talking this morning based on a video we watched together on YouTube, and while the person was talking about how important it is for men to have a healthy sex life with their wives, the same is true for the wives. Women want to know that her husband desires her physically. We go through a lot of bodily changes post children, and sometimes we look at ourselves and grimace. (Some women hold up better after birth than others. I happen to be one of those women who did not hold up well at all.) It means the world to me that my husband still wants to be with me. I think that’s why I’m so drawn to adding sex scenes in my books, even though I do consider myself to be a Christian romance writer. My aim is to present that side of marriage in a way that honors the gift God has given husbands and wives.

The Horror Romance

I had a cover illustrated for that book so now the book is more “real” than it was before. I’m 26,000 words into that one. I have figured out why the town is the way it is, but I’m still trying to figure out why the heroine’s family is the way it is. I know there has to be some part of the local Louisiana mythos involved since that is the basis for the storyline. It’s really interesting when you research the different legends and spooky stories in any given area. You start to realize that there are similar stories all through the world. The creatures just take on different names, and they have minor differences that make them distinct to the area they’re in. But overall, there truly is nothing new under the sun. In one version or another, it’s the same kind of being that creates terror into the hearts of people everywhere. In my story, I have decided the hero takes on the persona of the monster in order to protect the heroine. (Hence the “dark romance” label I’ll be attaching to it. I’m intrigued by the premise of how an average person can transform. That character development is going to be fun as the story progresses.)

I have decided that book will go into KU. I’m keeping my Ruth books wide, but this pen name will be in KU. I don’t feel like trying to market a pen name on top of this one. I don’t think KU is going to pay out well, but having been a KU reader, I have picked up on the benefits to being in the program. I can join promotions that I can’t as a wide author, and it’s easier to convince people to read a book that is borrowed, rather than bought. I think back to when KU first came out, and some of us (me included) were saying that KU authors were going to be worse off in the end because wide authors were building a sustainable career by not putting all of their eggs in one basket. And blah, blah, blah. Now I can see that we were wrong. I’m staying wide with Ruth because I built things up for Ruth wide. I put out just over 100 books as Ruth. Those 100 books aren’t going anywhere. Future Ruth books will be wide. However, if I were a brand new author starting out today, I would do KU. The market is too saturated to try to be wide at this point. (That is just my opinion.)

The Preacher’s Wife

I still have not updated the cover, and I am still in the same scene I was in when October 1 rolled around. That means I have been at 35,000 words for months now in this one. I think I dread putting this couple through the trial that’s coming. Anyone where remember Brave Beginnings when Ernest kidnapped Julia? It’s kind of like that in the level of intensity. There’s going to be some on page physical abuse and a pretty nasty fight that comes as a result. These are not easy topics to cover. (At least not for me.) I hate to see the heroine suffer that way. But this is what needs to be in the story. Right now, I’m still at the transition point where the hero and heroine fall in love. It’s been a pleasant build up. That’s going to change after her ex shows up. This book is pretty on “on hold” while I sort out how to do all of this. I have to find the right balance. I read a book last week that went off the deep end. The author did a great job up to the very last two chapters, and at that mark, the story just went off the rails nuts. It was a very unsatisfying (and disgusting) experience. The story lost all of its strength. If the author had tampered a lot of the crap down, it would have remained a solid 5-star read. It quickly became a 1-star read. I do not want to risk giving the same kind of experience to those reading this book. That is why balance is key.