This is Book 4 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.
This story is a steamy historical romance featuring a virgin hero and a virgin heroine. It features a sickly hero. (Don’t worry. No one dies.) This hero has to decide whether he will pursue love or spend his life trapped by fear. The tone of the story is sweet and tender. There is also an aspect of forbidden romance involved since the hero’s brother doesn’t want him to get married.
I was hoping to be near the end point by the first of May, but I didn’t get as much done in April as I wanted.
The same is true for Tagalong Bride…
…though I am a little closer to finishing that one than I am Anyone But You. It’s a little discouraging. I’m hoping that I’ll have better news to report on these two books come June 1.
***
I’m Going to Try a Third Book
Title and Cover To Be Announced
I need a little break from the Regencies. I enjoy them a lot, but I have this desire to write a gritty type of western romance. I want the happy ending, of course, but I want to dive into something with a serious feel to it. Tagalong Bride is fun because it’s got some comedy, and Book 2 in that series will be funny, too. So I guess I need to write something more serious to balance things out. But over the years, I’ve been doing Regencies back-to-back, so I want to work on two historical westerns this time.
***
This month, I am promoting two books on BookFunnel
One book I have in this promo is a historical western:
This book features a scarred virgin hero who prefers to stay out of sight so no one can see his face. It also features a beautiful virgin heroine who was originally supposed to marry someone else. The two agree to marry, but he does everything possible to make sure she never sees him.
This is loosely based off the Beauty and the Beast trope. The tone is heartwarming and tender. The heat level is spicy.
The other book is a Regency:
This book features an unattractive virgin hero who is a bit on the nerdy/goofy side. It also features a virgin heroine who is comes up with all sorts of schemes to discourage the hero from falling in love with her.
The tone is comical and fun. The heat level is spicy.
I’m happy to report that I made good progress in March, so I have plenty of stuff to report in this month’s post. 🙂
Worth the Risk in the final round of edits
This puts me on track to have this book out at the end of May. I don’t have an official release date yet.
A quick reminder, below are the books in the Marriage by Obligation Series so far. I’m not sure if I’ll add more books to this or start a new series. It depends on how things in Anyone But You go. I prefer shorter series as a reader, so I try to stick to 4-5 books in a series as a writer.
I am now over halfway into Tagalong Bride
And I am very happy with the way things are going. I’m at the point where the hero and heroine have been separated from the deputy who is helping them find the hero’s sister. That means I can finally get to the spicier portion of the book. But don’t think it’s going to that easy for our hero. He had some misgivings about our heroine earlier in the story. You see, this is more of a “marriage of convenience” sort of tale. So I can’t make it easy on him at this juncture. Something will have to get in his way. It won’t be her. She’s very much in love with him. But there are some things out in a desert that I can use to torment the hero. Maybe it’s wrong for a writer to enjoy messing with their characters, but I get a chuckle out of stuff like this.
Anyway, I just reached the 35,000 word mark this week. On average, my books hover around 60,000 words. So that gives you an idea of where I am in this one.
I will soon be halfway into Anyone But You
I am now at the 28,000-word mark in this one, and finally–after all of this time–the hero and heroine are speaking to each other. Things are taking a turn for the better. I was beginning to wonder if this moment would ever come. Now that it has, I can shift forward to the next part of the story, which is getting the two to fall in love.
This month, I am participating in only one BookFunnel Promo.
This time put in The Rancher’s Bride, which is the second book in the Wyoming Series. Here are the books in that series:
If you haven’t read The Rancher’s Bride yet, this will be a good chance to get it, but you have to have a BookFunnel account to get it for free in this promotion. The Outlaw’s Bride is available for free across all retailers. The Rancher’s Bride follows up with a subtle plot point that was left hanging at the end of The Outlaw’s Bride. (This had nothing to do with the romance. The hero and heroine end up with their happily-ever-after ending at the end of The Outlaw’s Bride.) But anyway…overall, The Rancher’s Bride is a cute and funny story because of the ten-year-old matchmaker who is determined the hero and heroine will end up together. It puts a lighter spin on the otherwise more serious series.
But my book isn’t the only one in the promo. There are others as well, and you might find your next favorite author over there. 😀
I’m currently dusting off this newsletter. 😀 I got the swift kick in the pants I needed to get back into gear with writing. I thought it was going to be rough going to get back into the writing routine, but it’s been surprisingly easy. Maybe the break I took was enough to get rid of the burnout I was under.
I made some adjustments to my routine that look like they will work. One, I am now going to type my stories with my eyes closed (most of the time anyway) to ease the symptoms of dry eye. Two, a couple of wonderful ladies offered to help me clean up my writing as I go along in the story, so I don’t have to strain my eyes on the editing side of things. (I always used an editor, but these ladies are helping me as I write the first draft, and that will make things easier for my editor in the long run. I can’t edit with my eyes closed, so these ladies are really helping me out, and I appreciate it more than they will ever know.) Three, I have cut back my word count goals for my writing days. Instead of aiming for 3,000 words, I am now doing 1,500 words. That is 750 words per story. I also went from writing three stories to writing two at a time. I believe these changes will help me avoid burnout in the future.
Now for the content that matters…
The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation: Book 3) is now out!
Below are the books in the Marriage by Obligation Series.
I don’t know if I’ll write more than these books in this series. There’s a possibility one might pop up, but I have to write more of Anyone But You to figure it out.
Here is my unofficial description of this book:
Anyway, The Earl’s Jilted Bride is available. It features a hero whose first wife had an affair that resulted in a child. He is raising the girl as if she was his own, and he never tells anyone the truth of the girl’s conception so the girl never has to face scandal. In his need to give the girl a mother, he marries the heroine of this story.
He thinks it’ll be easy to set aside his feelings of betrayal from his first marriage, but past events are going to haunt him during the course of this story. Meanwhile, the heroine feels like a wallflower, so she seeks out the help of a duchess to teach her how to be desirable to the hero. The heroine doesn’t tell the hero this, and, as you’d expect, this only adds to his doubts.
If this sounds like your cup of tea, here is where you can find this book:
*I am getting it set up as a digitally narrated audiobook on Apple, but that may take a couple of weeks to go live.
Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4) is in edits
I would love to have this one out in May. *fingers crossed*
This is Reuben’s story. He is Corin St. George (Lord Durrant)’s younger brother in If It Takes a Scandal. (At that time, he was still a kid.)
Reuben is now grown up and wants to find a wife. (Can you believe that much time passed since If It Takes a Scandal?)
Anyway, Reuben was sickly back then, and he’s still sickly now. I did bring him in when I wrote Secret Admirer (Book 1 in the Marriage by Obligation Series) and The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Book 3 of same series), but this is where we get his romance. Things are going well with Amelia when Corin comes in and puts a stop to the courtship by talking Reuben into leaving London to do what’s best for Amelia. Reuben believes Amelia will be better off with a gentleman who is in better health, so he does leave for her sake. But Amelia disagrees, and that is how we get the plot of Worth the Risk. 😀
I am currently on Chapter 6 in Anyone But You
This is Book 5 in the Marriage by Obligation Series. I am hoping to have this out later this year, probably around October or so.
I am really happy with the progress of this book. Felix Hamilton (Lord Roland from Midnight Wedding) has asked for Lady Elizabeth’s hand in marriage to make things right, and her guardian has agreed. Felix is sweating bullets at the wedding ceremony. Elizabeth is angry with him for ruining her reputation. And Guy (Lord Quinton) has given the two doves to hold for good luck. The scene doesn’t go in Felix’s favor, taking the new marriage into a worse turn than it already was. At the moment, Elizabeth refuses to go to dinner, and Felix is fighting the urge to drink in order to appease his nerves. Oscar, however, has no trouble eating dinner, but then, very little bothers him. The other characters in this book are adding a really nice layer to the story. I’m sure they will somehow be instrumental in helping Felix and Elizabeth find their way to each other.
I am in Chapter 9 of Tagalong Bride
This is Book 1 of the Love Under Desert Skies Series. I am hoping to get this out in August or September. It depends on how quickly I can write the book.
I thought it’d be fun to go somewhere “new” in my historical westerns, and I figured Arizona would be a lot of fun. This is a “fish out of water” type of story. The hero and heroine are from a wealthy community in Pennsylvania. They have no idea what they’re in for when they go to Arizona to rescue the hero’s sister who has been kidnapped by a group of bandits. I haven’t figured out which secondary characters will have their own romance in this series. I am just learning who these characters are. I will figure that out as the story progresses.
The hero and heroine, however, are the basis for the story, which they are in romances. I love these two characters. The hero is secretly bankrupt and pretends to be in love with the heroine so she’ll marry him. The heroine is head over heels in love with him and believes he does love her. Now, don’t get the wrong idea. The hero isn’t cold toward her. He does care about her. He just isn’t romantically drawn to her. If he started out that way in the book, I’d have no plot. I am excited to find out how he develops a real and lasting love with her.
I see that most of these books are Regencies, but I had a reader ask for me to put up The Outlaw’s Bride and The Rancher’s Bride. (These are Books 1 and 2 in the Wyoming Series.) It looks like The Rancher’s Bride (Book 2) didn’t get added, so I will look to do that in a future promo on BookFunnel.
But this one does include The Outlaw’s Bride (Book 1). This is a nitty gritty kind of western series. In case you haven’t read it yet, The Outlaw’s Bride is about a mail-order bride whose stagecoach gets stopped by a group of outlaws who want to rescue her from her intended, because her intended isn’t the honorable man he pretends to be.
Again, this one looks heavy in Regencies. I am finding it difficult to find a BookFunnel Promo that has steamy historical westerns. It seems like most of these are geared toward Regency readers. I might have to run a promo myself to be a better fit for what most of the people joining these particular promos are looking for.
I had someone contact me wanting a mail-order bride romance in the old west, so I decided to put in Eye of the Beholder because it’s my favorite one, and I think she will enjoy it.
In case you haven’t read this one yet, it’s about a homely woman who answers a mail-order bride ad. But upon arriving in Nebraska, the man takes one look at her and rejects her. There is another man nearby who overhears them and offers her his name instead. She agrees, not believing the union will lead to love. Love, after all, is only for beautiful women.
***
That’s it for this month! Thanks to everyone who didn’t give up on me. I am happy to say my burnout is gone, and I’m excited to get back to writing in full force again. 😀
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on March 2024 Newsletter
The issue with my eyes and how it will impact mypublishing schedule
Some of you probably read my other author blog. If that’s the case, feel free to skip this part because I am going to talk about the issue I have been having with my eyes. I have been to the optometrist and ophthalmologist, and while they find nothing structurally wrong with my eyes (like a cataract or glaucoma), I do have dry eye. The eye drops don’t work for me as well as they do for other people with this condition. The things that works best for me are the warm compresses and spending time off of computer screens, iPhones, magazines, and books. Essentially, anything that requires me to read, hurts my eyes. They strain them to the point where my eyes water up to the point where I feel like ripping them out because I’m so uncomfortable. When I keep my reading time, brief, I feel normal. So far, if I limit my computer time to two days a week, I am OK. So this is my new goal. I only write stories on the computer. That means I have two days a week that I can do anything with my books. But I don’t always get to write when I’m on the computer. There are times when I have to update my website or blog. There are times when I have to do book related stuff when I’m on the computer, such as uploading a book to Book Funnel (which is something that I’ve recently been asked to do), setting up a book ad for promotion, or keeping track of my income and expenses so I can report it to the accountant at tax time. Then there are other tasks I need to do that have nothing to do with books, like stuff to do with the school for my deaf son or emailing people. I have not been able to write anything for a couple of months now.
I can no longer write books as fast as I used to. Even writing this post requires me to use the microphone function on my computer so I am able to dictate instead of type the words out. (I am going over it to clean out the errors so this post.) The technology on dictation has gotten better than it was a few years ago. The fact that my computer has the microphone option on the F5 key makes it even easier. It is harder for me to dictate a story than it is to type it, but I am slowly adjusting to the new way I am going to have to write stories. Dictating blog posts and emails are helping me adjust in this area.
Anyway, what this means is that I have slow down the writing, editing, and publishing process of my books. I also need the help of some trusted people in order to get my books done. Work I used to be able to do by myself is work I now have to hand over to others. Thankfully, a few people have volunteered to help me as I transition from being able to type my stories to dictating them. Anyone who has had to clean up a dictation project knows that it takes considerable time to figure out what the speaker meant while dictating the story, and they will find more errors in a dictated story than in one that was typed out. I am very fortunate these people offered to help me. Their task will not be an easy one. My goal for next year is to get two books out. These are the books I have already finished, but these books need to go through the editing process. I used to use my eyes to edit the books myself (in addition to using an editor), but now I am going to have to hand over the entire process to them. These are people who have busy lives. I will work with their schedules, and I will wait for their timelines on when they can work on my stuff. So my release dates will take into account the things they have going on in their lives.
At this point in time, I have two books finished. I also have two books in the works. In one book, I only have one scene done, and three chapters done in another book. My estimate is that I will have two books out next year. I know for sure that I can’t have anything out for the rest of this year. I’ll talk about this below.
The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3)
I am hoping to get this out in January. I was originally hoping for this month, but with my eyes being the way they are, it just wasn’t feasible. It hasn’t helped that this book required multiple rewrites. Because of those rewrites, I have not even been able to get this book over to my editor yet.
Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4)
This is the one I’m tentatively scheduling for June of next year. It’s finished, but it’s in first draft. I haven’t been able to look over it. I don’t know when I will be able to look at it. I am hoping that setting the release date in June will give me and the other people helping me sufficient time to polish this up so it can be the best book possible.
Anyone But You (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 5)
I have only gotten one scene done in this book. I have no idea how long this one will take to finish. I will have to dictate this book (and all other books from now on). After I dictate each scene, I will hand them to somebody to clean up. This will be a lengthy and time-consuming process. After the first draft is done, I will have about three other people, maybe four, go over it to clean it up as much as it can be. In the past, I have done a more thorough edit, but from now on, I will have to do a brief look over before I publish the book.
Tagalong Bride
At the moment, I have a series designation (Love Under Desert Skies) on this cover. I am planning to remove it. I am not sure if I can start a new series. I do not know how much longer I will be able to write books. It is getting physically harder to do it because my eyes don’t cooperate with me anymore. While a few people have volunteered to help me with these books, I am not sure if this situation can work for the long term. As of now, I am not making any plans beyond this book and Anyone But You. I am thinking, due to the slow nature of my writing, that this book, and Anyone But You, will be out in 2025. I will have to see how things go.
I’ll be posting here less frequently.
It makes no sense to make monthly posts, since my production has gotten to be less. So I will write as I have updates to share. There’s no sense in wasting your time by repeating myself over and over again.
Miss Lydia Hamilton is desperate. She needs to secure a marriage to a wealthy gentleman, and she needs to do it fast. Enlisting the help of two brothers, she kidnaps the unwitting Lord Quinton. Under ordinary circumstances, she would never force a gentleman to marry her, but these aren’t ordinary circumstances.
Guy Milton, the Earl of Quinton, is not happy. It’s extremely bad luck to be kidnapped. Nothing good ever comes from it. Now doom is imminent. His kidnappers are going to kill him. He just knows it.
But instead of killing him, he is forced to marry Lydia. While one would think this would come as a welcome relief, such isn’t the case. Marriage under force by a lady with redheaded brothers means even worse luck. To make matters worse, they hurry him off to a country estate where he is confined to a place full of so much bad luck that he’s sure this is where he’ll die.
When Lydia decided to kidnap a titled gentleman, she thought her biggest problem would be convincing him to get her with child. She didn’t think she’d have to convince him that he’ll live long enough to survive the task.
This is a romantic comedy with a superstitious hero, a heroine who needs money, and an estate with a classic gothic feel to it.
(I have set it up to be put on Apple in audiobook form, but it’s not available yet.)
***
I have finished the first draft for The Earl’s Jilted Bride!
(Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3)
And now I’m editing it. I am hoping for a late September release, but it might not get out until early October.
***
I have also finished the first draft for Worth the Risk!
(Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4)
I will edit this once I am done with The Earl’s Jilted Bride. Both of these books will go out to the editor when I am finished with the these edits. I hope to have this out in November, but that all depends on when I can get The Earl’s Jilted Bride out.
***
Tagalong Bride
(Love Under Desert Skies: Book 1)
I’m in chapter 4 of this one. The hero and heroine just got married, and word came that the hero’s sister has been abducted from the train just east of Flagstaff, Arizona. At once, he sets out to find her. The heroine has essentially invited herself to come along. (The point of this book is that he’ll end up falling in love with her out in Arizona, and to do that, she has to come along.) At the moment, they are waiting at a train station for the train that will connect them to Arizona. I’m looking forward to taking these two (who have spent their entire lives in Pennsylvania) into the wild west and seeing how they react to it. I want to have a bar fight and a shootout. All the things my dad liked to watch in the old western movies. I already have a character in mind who will help them, and if I’m right, he’ll be comical.
As a quick reminder, here are the books in the Marriage by Obligation Series:
   Â
I am not sure if this will complete the series or if I’ll add more books. Just this past month, I added Anyone But You to the series because a character in Midnight Wedding piqued my interest.
I don’t have a release date yet for Midnight Wedding
I want to wait until I get this finalized before I put it up on pre-order. It’s still in edits. I expect to have this out at the end of the month, but I can’t really say exactly when. I’ll probably just announce it on this blog for my August newsletter.
I’m getting close to 50,000 words in The Earl’s Jilted Bride
This book went in a tangent I didn’t expect when I started it, but in a good way. Essentially, this is the hero’s second marriage. His first wife had an affair with a servant and got pregnant. He managed to hide her infidelity to avoid scandal. She’s now dead, but he is raising the child as his own. He marries the heroine, thinking that his past won’t factor into the relationship between them, but he does struggle with whether or not he can trust her to be faithful. The fact that he isn’t the most exciting gentleman around adds to his insecurities. So that angle has been a lot of fun to work with.
I’m getting close to 40,000 words in Worth the Risk
This book also went in a tangent I didn’t see coming. It’s also turning out to be 20,000 more words than I thought it’d be. The basic premise of this story is simple. The hero gets sick easily because he has a weak immune system. Even though the hero is in love with the heroine, his older brother convinces him to leave London to live at the country estate because it’d be selfish to ask her to give up everything to spend a lifetime with him. This is a romance so, of course, she runs out to the country to marry him. But the way I thought things were going to happen when his brother finds out ended up being a lot different than I planned. I’m writing in the dark at the moment. I’m not sure exactly how things will get resolved. I just need to keep writing to find out. 😀
Anyone But You has been added to the Marriage by Obligation Series
I now have a title and a cover for Book 5 of this series. I did start this, but I got an idea for a historical western romance, and since I haven’t done any historical westerns in a long time, I figured I’d work on that. (I work on three books at a time.) I’ll get back to this when I wrap up The Earl’s Jilted Bride.
I just finished Chapter 1 of a historical western!
Would you believe it’s been a year since I tackled a historical western?
I am so excited about this one. The hero marries the heroine for money. She doesn’t know it. She believes he’s in love with her. He has every intention of keeping up the pretense of being in love with her, but he is struggling with being attracted to her because she’s not as pretty as most ladies. The story starts with his wedding day. Shortly after the ceremony, he gets word that his sister disappeared somewhere in Arizona. He decides to head out at once to find her, because he is worried about his sister, but his new bride offers to come along with him. He can’t figure out a way to say no, so she tags along with him.
These two characters spent their entire lives in Pennsylvania. It’ll be fun placing them out in Arizona where they will be out of their element. I believe that this will force the hero to look at the heroine in a different light. I’m going to put them in some dangerous situations, and he’ll be forced to depend on her in ways he never could in Pennsylvania where they had everything so easy.
Back to Regencies really fast, I do have plans to write a book for Horatio.
Horatio was the heroine’s brother in Secret Admirer. I posted the cover above because it always helps to jog my memory of who a character is if I can see the cover of a book. I’m thinking his book will start a new series, but we’ll see how things play out.
I finally finished the first draft of Midnight Wedding!
Midnight Wedding is Book 2 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.
I started this one on May 9, 2022, and there were times when I wondered if I’d ever finish it. This puts me on track for a July release. I don’t have a date yet but should by the time July rolls around. This book was a lot of fun to write. The characters had a wonderful dynamic. This book is one of my personal favorites.
I am currently working on the rest of the Marriage by Obligation Series. Here is the complete series:
Book 5 To Go Here
I believe I’m a little over halfway into The Earl’s Jilted Bride.
Progress with all of my books have been slow. I’ve finally admitted I have burnout and need to go slower than I have in the past. Last year wasn’t all that fast, but I was still in denial about the burnout so I assumed I was losing interest in writing. To a point, I was. Burnout does dampen enthusiasm for writing. But the denial aspect put a strange slant on things. Once I admitted I was in burnout and gave myself permission to write only when I felt like it, I started to get my enthusiasm back. Using a ghostwriter or AI to help write stories are options writers have if they need them, but I decided I wanted to keep writing everything myself. I’m selfish when it comes to my stories. I want them to be done only by me. This is why co-writing didn’t work out for me in the past. You have to be able to let things go when you co-write. I like having full control of the story. Otherwise, I feel like something is missing from it.
So anyway, I believe I got up to 37,000 words in this one earlier this week. Most of the time, I only get 1000 words in this story a week. I’m happy with it, though, and that’s what matters. I have no idea when I’ll finish the first draft. I have to finish the first draft to pinpoint a release date. I expect it to be out before the end of the year.
Worth the Risk is almost done.
This one is a shorter story than The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I’m either at 30,000 words or very close to it. A major scene just happened that is going to lead to the conclusion of the story, but I think I have about 10,000 words left to go. I don’t plot, so it’s hard to tell the exact number of scenes left. I pretty much go wherever the story takes me, and there’s not much else to do to tie things up. I think I’ll finish the first draft of this one before The Earl’s Jilted Bride. However, since this is Book 4 (and The Earl’s Jilted Bride is Book 3), I can’t get this out until after Book 3 is out. Given how slow I’m writing, I also need to give myself some time between releasing Book 3 and Book 4. I haven’t decided how much time yet. That all depends on the month that The Earl’s Jilted Bride will come out.
Anyone But You (Book 5)
I haven’t had time to make a cover for this yet, but this will be the next book in this series. I think it’ll wrap the series up. I got the idea for it while writing Midnight Wedding. While writing the end for Midnight Wedding, I realized the idea would be best placed in this series. (I was originally only going to have four books.)
Will I ever go back to writing historical western romances?
So this is a question I’ve gotten. I intend to write another historical western romance. The problem is that I don’t have a story idea that gets me all excited about writing it in this particular genre. I know that some authors can be told what to write and produce it, but I’m not one of them. Even if someone gave me a plot idea, that doesn’t mean I can write it. I have to want to write it. At the moment, the one idea I have outside of a Regency is for a contemporary romance (of all things), and I’m not sure I want to write contemporary anymore. That’s not my niche. I think this is a good sign, though. For the past year, I haven’t had any new ideas outside of the Marriage by Obligation Series. My mind has been a complete blank. I’m sure it’s because of the burnout I’ve been going through. In time, I’m sure something will grab attention in the historical western setting. Once I start getting ideas just coming to me without thinking about it, the creative well starts to fill up.
That’s all I can think of for now. I hope everyone has a great June!
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on June 2023 Newsletter
I’m happy to say that I’m on time for getting this newsletter out. 😀 I wanted to wait until Secret Admirer was available before posting it so that the links are live and ready to go.
Here is the official description:
Lady Rachel, the sister of the very wealthy and highly esteemed Duke of Creighton, has entered her first Season with great anticipation. She loves wearing beautiful gowns. She loves talking to her friends. She loves going to balls and meeting gentlemen. This is going to be the most wonderful time of her life. When she starts receiving missives from a secret admirer, it turns out the Season is even better than she imagined. What lady, after all, can resist the appeal of a mysterious stranger expressing his deep and abiding love in her?
She sets out to enlist the help of an unlikely ally to find out who her secret admirer is. She knows it’s not appropriate to be discussing such personal information with the butler, but he is the only one she trusts to not tell anyone. Little does she realize the very one she’s confiding in is the very one she’s looking for. And there’s no way he’s telling her the truth since her brother, and the rest of London, would never approve the match.
Secret Admirer sets up the other books that will appear in the Marriage by Obligation Series. So the main characters that show up in Midnight Wedding (Book 2), The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Book 3), and Worth the Risk (Book 4) will show up in Secret Admirer.
***
Midnight Wedding is (finally) almost done!
I enjoy every book I write, but this is one I have had a lot of fun with. There is some serious subject matter in it. It has its dark, gothic moments. But it also has some humor, and it’s the humor that helps to balance out the darker tones so it doesn’t get too heavy.
What makes a book enjoyable to me are the characters’ personalities and how those personalities work together. This one has a wonderful character dynamic. You have your superstitious hero and a heroine’s brother who doesn’t give into superstitions and argues with the hero a lot. The heroine has a second brother, but he doesn’t argue with the hero like the other brother does. He does, however, keep after the hero to help fix things around the estate. The heroine is stuck in the middle of all of this. I’d say she’s the peacekeeper of the group. It’s the group dynamic that makes this one of my favorites. Ethan (Lord Edon) and Christopher (Mr. Robinson) are two of my favorite Regency characters because of their personalities, and I love it whenever they conflict with Lord Steinbeck or Lord Roderick. There’s something about bickering characters that make me chuckle. 😀
Anyway, I am at the point in Midnight Wedding where I’m coming up to the climax. I am not exactly sure how many chapters I have left. I already know what will happen and how things will be resolved. It’s just a matter of writing it down. My goal is to have the first draft done by the end of this month. I am hoping I can make it. I’d love to get this book out in July, but it might be August. It all depends on my real life schedule and when my editor can get the edits done.
***
I am over halfway done with The Earl’s Jilted Bride
But I am not sure how much I have left.
Something crucial needs to happen in this book. I don’t want to spoil it by saying what, but before I can get there, I need the hero to wonder if the heroine is having an affair. You see, the hero’s first wife had an affair, so the child she had wasn’t his. I decided to make this child a girl. I would rather have his heir be his real child. His first wife died, and he is raising this girl as his own. He has hidden this scandal from society so no one knows the truth. But he is mindful of the transgression, and he is worried that the heroine will have an affair, too. The heroine won’t, of course, but I have had to set it up so that he worries about it. The heroine is deeply in love with the hero. At the moment, I am writing through that part of the story because it establishes the foundation for their relationship, and you need that foundation for the second part of the story to matter. If I had to guess, I’d say that by the end of the May, I should be ready to move to the second part.
I am in the last 1/4 of Worth the Risk
Worth the Risk is shorter than Midnight Wedding and The Earl’s Jilted Bride, so I’m closer to the end of this story than I am in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. The hiccup is that this is Book 4, and when I write, I write Book 2 first, Book 3 second, and Book 4 third. Depending on how much writing time I have, I don’t always get to this book. But that’s okay because it’s Book 4. I have more time to work on it.
The hero of this story is sickly. He isn’t “deathly” sick, but his immune system is weaker than other people’s, so he’s had to pretty much live in a world of isolation his entire life. His older brother worries about him and has insisted he leave London to stay at the country estate. That way, his brother will know he’s safe. Well, while in London (during The Earl’s Jilted Bride), the hero and heroine fall in love. The heroine follows him out to the estate, and they marry. This is causing the hero’s brother to fear for the hero’s life. I won’t say more than that, but I’m at the point where the brother is at the estate, and he’s not happy. To be fair to the brother, he is sincerely worried about the hero. His motives are not to hurt the hero. He believes he is going to help him. I’m not exactly sure how things will be resolved yet. I’ll have to write my way through it.
***
A look into the future.
At the moment, I don’t have an idea for a historical western romance. I have inklings, but there’s nothing that excites me enough to write it. Maybe something will pop up between now and when I finish Midnight Wedding. I like to work on three books at a time. If I don’t have a historical western romance in mind by then, I will start on a new Regency series. I already have a plot for it and the characters I’ll put in place. The heroine in Midnight Wedding has two brothers. I have the plot ready for the oldest brother. He is the one who argues with the hero a lot. He’s more of a quirky character. For example, he’s very particular about his books and can remember the exact order he puts them in. Anyway, he ruined a lady’s reputation by gossiping about her, and to make things right, he’ll marry her. The lady won’t be thrilled with him, so that will make this a fun book to write. I don’t have a title for this one yet, and I don’t have a series title yet. If I can’t come up with a historical western romance idea, I’ll go with this one when I am done with Midnight Wedding.
I am not sure when The Earl’s Jilted Bride and Worth the Risk will be out, but my goal is to have them out this year.
I hope everyone has a great May!
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First off, I didn’t realize I hadn’t made a post over here since January. I can’t believe it. I thought I did one in March. Seconds, I made a mistake and made the post intended for this blog on my other author blog. Instead of redoing the whole post, I’m just going to link to it here. Life has been so crazy around my place.
I’m sorry to do it this way. I hope next month that I’ll remember to make the post over here.
The good news is that I got my writing enthusiasm again. I didn’t realize it at the time, but being away from Omaha, Nebraska was slowly ruining my creative spirit. I didn’t think where you live can have an impact on your desire to write. Apparently, it does. Or, at least it does for me. I didn’t mention anything publicly, but I had been planning to make the Marriage by Obligation Series the last books I was going to publish. My desire to write had been slowly declining since I moved to Montana in 2015. Each year was harder than the last. Montana is a great place for some people, but it’s not great for me. I am in the process of moving back to Omaha, and I’ve already felt the desire to write returning. I’m looking forward to correcting the mistake I made in 2015. I hate to say it, but I just wasn’t happy in Montana. To be creative, you need to be in the right mindset. This was a real learning experience for me.
With that aside, here’s what I have going on…
Heiress of Misfortune is due out January 7!
This is the last book in the Marriage by Necessity Series.
I introduced Mr. Byron Tumilson in A Perilous Marriage. Heiress of Misfortune is his romance.
Here’s what it’s about:
When Mr. Byron Tumilson was hired to protect Lady Eleanor from the person who is trying to kill her, the last thing he expected was to play the role of her suitor. But, as it turns out, that’s exactly what her father, the Duke of Dormondton, requires him to do. Her father wants her to have a successful first Season, and no one has shown any interest in her. He is convinced that if Byron pretends to be in love with her, then she’ll attract real suitors.
So Byron is stuck attending boring balls and lavish dinner parties under the guise of being a wealthy gentleman. As if that isn’t painful enough, he needs to find a way to make this wallflower of a lady into someone gentlemen will actually desire. At least, that’s what he most wants until Lady Eleanor pretties herself up and learns how to flirt. Then he starts to realize he’s fallen in love with her, and that’s the worst thing a nobody like him could do with a fine noble lady.
It’s on pre-order. I’ll post the links below. (It’ll be live on January 7.)
I would make a post on the 7th, but I’ll be on the road to Omaha.
Secret Admirer starts the Marriage by Obligation Series!
I’m really excited by the books I have in this series. I am already done with Secret Admirer but can’t get to finishing up the edits and such until I settle into Omaha.
I don’t know if any of you have already pre-ordered this. If you haven’t, please don’t. Smashwords and Draft2Digital merged in 2022, and they are still working on the merger. I recently found out that authors are encouraged to go directly to Draft2Digital instead of using Smashwords’ dashboard to publish books. Since I expect Secret Admirer to be Book 1 in a 5 book series, I want to make sure it’s in the right place. I emailed them to ask if I should remove my pre-order of Secret Admirer from the Smashwords dashboard and then republish it over on the Draft2Digital dashboard. I want all of the books in this series to link up properly. I’ll update everyone about this book next month.
I plan to publish this in March.
***
Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2) is almost done!
I’m going to miss this book when it’s over. It’s been one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever written. (I enjoy all of my books, but this one has been one of my personal favorites.) It combines humor, gothic elements, and spice. All things I love in a Regency romance. This is Lord Quinton’s story. I introduced his character in The Cursed Earl, though I mentioned him in A Perilous Marriage. I’ll talk more about this in the future.
I plan to publish this in May. *fingers crossed*
***
I’m at least halfway done with The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3)
This one features two emotionally scarred main characters who need each other. I don’t believe I’ve done a setup quite like this before. The hero is a widower who had a terrible first marriage. His wife was cold in, and out, of bed. Worse, the child she had wasn’t his. He is raising the child as his own to avoid bringing scandal to the girl. He needs to marry again to give the girl a mother. The heroine was betrothed to a gentleman who resented the betrothal–and her. Shortly before she was supposed to marry the duke, she received word he committed suicide. That frees her up to marry the hero of this story.
***
Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4) is almost done!
This one turned out to be shorter than I expected. Typically, my stories are between 50,000 to 60,000 words, but this is going to be about 30,000 (more or less), but if a story is only meant to be about 30,000 words, I’ll make it 30,000 words. There’s no point in putting in a bunch of filler that ends up drawing a story out longer than it should be. That will make a book boring to read.
This story features Mr. Reuben St. George. I introduced Reuben in If It Takes a Scandal. He’s Lord Durrant’s younger brother. In this book, he is all grown up and ready for a wife.
***
I’ll end the post here. I hope everyone has a great 2023!
Ruth Ann Nordin's Monthly Newsletter 
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