Some Things I Want to Answer Ahead of Time
During the course of this week, I made some changes, and it occurred to me that some people might have questions regarding what I’ve done.
1. Temporary Removal of Some of My Books at Barnes and Noble
First of all, since I created a corporation, I had to take all of the books I uploaded directly to Barnes and Noble off of the site. The books that were already uploaded through Smashwords are still up there. But the ones I put up myself using Nook Press had to be unpublished because I had to create a new account with my new business information in it. I have already uploaded the books again in the new account, but I am waiting for Nook Press to verify my information before I can publish them.
The books currently in transition are A Most Unsuitable Earl, Her Counterfeit Husband, His Reluctant Lady, Runaway Bride, and His Abducted Bride.
I have transferred a few other books for Smashwords to upload to Barnes and Noble for me. Those books are Bound by Honor Bound by Love, Mitch’s Win, To Have and To Hold, Her Heart’s Desire, Kent Ashton’s Backstory, and Catching Kent.
The rest of my books won’t be affected by this change. I have no idea how long it’ll take for the affected books to get back up on Barnes and Noble.
2. I’m still going to write Sep’s story.
September (aka. Sep) was April’s younger brother in Shotgun Groom. I get quite a few questions from time to time about his story. Yes, I do plan to write it, but I’m not going to include it in the Nebraska series.
I’m not sure whether Sep’s story will be a standalone or part of a series. I don’t even have a plot for his book yet, so it’s too hard to make a call on the direction it’ll go in.
3. The Nebraska Series finally has a numerical order to it, but I can’t put it in place until I publish Wagon Trail Bride.
I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people who want numbers placed beside these books, and I can finally give it. The total number in the series will be 10.
Wagon Trail Bride starts the series, so I can’t officially number them until I publish this book. I plan on doing that some time next year.
Here’s the list in chronological order:
Wagon Trail Bride
Her Heart’s Desire
A Bride for Tom
A Husband for Margaret
Eye of the Beholder
The Wrong Husband
Shotgun Groom
To Have and To Hold
His Redeeming Bride
Isaac’s Decision
*Because of this, I have decided not to do another Dave and Mary book. If I do anything with them, I’ll just do one of those serials that plays out like a TV show similar to Little House on the Prairie in that it will have a complete beginning, middle, and end to each novelette/novella.
4. What about other books featuring characters from the Nebraska world?
I am still going to write books with other characters in the Nebraska world, but I will divide them up into different series that will fall under the “Nebraska Historical Romance Collection.”
I have created a series called Second Chance Series which will include Kent Ashton’s Backstory (really as a 0.5 book but since I can’t designate a 0.5 setting on Smashwords, I had to go with 1). Catching Kent is book 2. His Convenient Wife is going to be book 3. I’m not sure if more will go in with that series or not.
5. I have divided up the Regency Collection, too.
I originally thought I was going to include Anna or Jason from Her Counterfeit Husband in with other Regency books, but they just haven’t fit anywhere. So I have made that a standalone book.
This actually turned out to be a very freeing move. Now I can better separate The Earl’s Secret Bargain from the other books I currently have in the collection because I see a series emerging from this particular book that isn’t going to heavily involve plot points or the other characters. I’ll still have familiar characters pop up from time to time but they will be background characters, not the main ones.
6. I have created two series in the Regency Collection.
Marriage by Scandal Series has these books:
The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife
A Most Unsuitable Earl
His Reluctant Lady
The Earl’s Scandalous Wife.
*Out of the Regencies I’ve done so far, these four books have main characters and histories that go the best together. I expect Perry’s book to be the last one in this particular series.
Marriage by Arrangement Series begins with this book:
1. The Earl’s Secret Bargain
*I already have a story in mind for the best friend of the hero in The Earl’s Secret Bargain, and this best friend doesn’t really hang out with Nate, Perry, Christopher, or Ethan. I expect this series will have 3-4 books total in it.
7. Having More Books Demands Greater Flexibility Between Series
I guess the lesson I’ve learned is that I can’t keep bringing back the same main characters as characters that have prominent roles in every single book I write. Sometimes I just have to let them go and move on to others. But this doesn’t mean, a character can’t pop up from time to time in other books. That’s one of the things I love about having more books out. I get to “see” how past characters are doing when they show up.
8. Where I Want To Go In Writing
My goal is to write 100 romances (these include novellas and novels, not short stories). I know I have books in other genres, but my primary focus is in romance, and even in the romance genre, I’ve done multiple sub-genres. I want to expand to Romantic Suspense next year and who knows where that will lead?
Up to now, I have 35 romances (I do count Kent Ashton’s Backstory as one only because it’s a complete story in itself and leads to Catching Kent). With my co-authored book with Stephannie Beman (The Stagecoach Bride) and my anthology with Janet Syas Nitsick (Bride by Arrangement) due out next month and in January, that will make 37. It’s very exciting. I might not hit 100, but I’m going to have a lot of fun trying. Next year, I hope to get to 43 to 45 for my total. Then sometime in 2015, I hope to get halfway to my goal. :-)
I expect many new series to emerge in the future.
Okay. Enough rambling.
