Ruth Ann Nordin's Monthly Newsletter

The Science of Love will be out September 30

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

I needed to push this back due to personal stuff in my life, but I have it up on pre-order. I know not everyone pre-orders, but some people do. And for those who do, I am posting the links. (Not all places allow me to do pre-orders. I will have a more extensive list on October 1 when the next newsletter posts.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play – ebook

Google Play – audiobook

I finished the first draft of Love Me, Love Me Not!

This is Book 1 in the Marriage Mart Series.

I had a lot of fun with this one. It was cute and on the shorter side. I was aiming for 20,000 – 25,000 words, but it turned out to be almost 34,000 words. It doesn’t feel like it ran that long. Edits were a breeze. This story just flew by. But yes, it went over the 30,000-word mark.

It’s a sweet book. Meaning, there is no more than a kiss in it. This one depends on the heroine coming to grips with the fact that she’s falling in love with the gentleman who has annoyed her ever since she was 12 or 13. (I think I put 13 in the book.) At any rate, she’s known him for a long time, and the last thing she ever expected was to end up with him. Of course, that’s what made the book so fun to write. 🙂

I already sent it off for edits, but I won’t get back to it until November 1 at the soonest.

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I will be working at a pumpkin patch from September 4 – October 31. I will not do any writing or editing in that time.

Because of this, I won’t have much to report. I will post a newsletter next month since The Science of Love will be live by then, but I think I’ll keep that newsletter short so as not to waste your time.

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I have started All’s Fair in Love & Scandal

This is Book 2 in the Marriage Mart Series.

I expect this one to be another cute and shorter romance. My aim is the 20,000 to 25,000-word mark, but I won’t get upset if it goes longer. I am enjoying this world of “the Marriage Mart Series” and the characters in it. The series will all be on the “just kissing” side of things.

I am in chapter 2 and will be introducing the hero there. The heroine is the shy type who rarely speaks up with her talkative twin sister around. (The twin sister is in Love Me, Love Me Not.) Despite being shy, she has accumulated a good number of suitors who are all interested in her. Hence, her dilemma. Who–oh who?–will she pick? As it turns out, the hero isn’t in her line of suitors. I still have to work out the detail on how these two will get together.

I am about 16,000 words in The Old Maid

This is Book 3 in the Oregon Series.

I am still trying to figure out how to get these two together, even though they have already been introduced and are attracted to each other. This is going to be a bit challenging to write. The parents of the heroine still see her as a child even though she’s in her 40s. So I know there will be some tension there. I’ll probably have to take this one slow when I get back to writing in November. Some books are easier to write than others. This isn’t one of them.

I am 8,000 words into Never Say “I Do”

I still do not have a cover. I plan to work on that after I am done with the pumpkin patch job.

This is Book 3 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

All I know so far is that hero of the book figured out he’s meant to be the subject of the love potion experiment, and he and the heroine agree that they will only pretend to drink it. The two do not want to get married, but they agree to act as if they are drinking the love potion in order to satisfy their interests. The hero really wants to get into White’s, and one of the gentlemen (Logan, aka Lord Toplyn) investing in the experiment is a member of White’s. So, he is using the love potion as an excuse to get in Logan’s good graces. The heroine, meanwhile, wants to be friends with the gentlemen who are running the love potion experiment.

I think this will be a fun romance.

***

I hope everyone has a great September!

Hi, everyone! I didn’t get as much done as I hoped to, but I am very excited about the stuff I am working on. 😀

Unfortunately, Amazon never did price match The Preacher’s Wife.

In the past, I have never had trouble getting Amazon to put one of my books to free. I know other authors have, though, so it was always a possibility that Amazon was going to insist on the $0.99 price. My guess is that they didn’t want to price match a new book. (That’s just speculation. It could be any reason.) For anyone who did pay the $0.99, I thank you for not letting the price dissuade you from getting it. That means a lot to me.

I did not finish Love Me, Love Me Not.

This is Book 1 in the Marriage Mart Series.

This one is currently at 32,000 words, which is about 10,000 words longer than I was hoping for when I started it. It is harder to write a novella than it looks. You have so much to pack in with limited space. I have done what I can to trim off stuff that doesn’t belong there. In longer books, there’s an allowance for some additional scenes that don’t necessarily tie in directly to the plot. For example, in The Science of Love, I added a part where a character from an older Regency book I wrote is playing a game with his children. I did do a tie-in where that character helped the hero, but that additional space on the page would not have fit in a novella. Everything I am doing in this book leads directly to the ending of this story, and any other side stuff ties directly to the other books that will follow in The Marriage Mart Series.

I am currently in the last chapter. I know what I need to do next. It’s just a matter of writing the scenes out. I hit a snag in my creativity when an issue came up with my 21-year-old special needs son. It took a couple of weeks for me and my 22-year-old son to create a plan that allows us to move forward with what’s best for him. I feel much better now, and the creativity is slowly coming back.

I will work on as much as I can in this book until I start my seasonal job at a local pumpkin patch at the end of this month. I’m really looking forward to it. I have been to this pumpkin patch in the past as a visitor, and I have enjoyed it each time. It’ll be fun to get to be paid to be there. I picked the section to work with the attractions. I almost picked food preparation, but given how stiff my knees get when I stand in one place for too long, I decided that doing something that allows me to move around often is best for my body. I love the Fall season with its cooler weather, the festivities, and the colors, so I am really excited about this job. It runs from the end of August to November 1.

The Science of Love is almost ready to be Published

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

I just have the final edits to go over. Then it’ll be time to format and upload it.

Someone asked to have this book out before September, so I am going to get it out at the end of August. I’ll do it on pre-order. That way, by the time I’m working, I won’t have to think about it. I’ll schedule all the blog posts announcing its release in advance. I haven’t picked a date yet, but when the next newsletter comes out, it’ll be September 1, and I should have the links up and ready by then.

Book 3 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

I did start the next book in this series. I don’t have a cover for it yet, but I am calling it “Never Say I Do”. I expect this to be a fun romantic comedy, and I’m already having a lot of fun working with the characters. I am pairing up Lord Maxwell (whom I introduced in Anyone But the Marquess). He’s skeptical to a fault, and he’s not keen on the idea of getting married. So Oscar, Adam, and Logan will be using him for the next love potion test. They want someone who has no desire to fall in love to run the test on so that if that someone does fall in love, they can conclude that the love potion is a success. (Or, at least that’s their reasoning.)

I have created Miss Teresa Livingstone for the role of the heroine, and she will be equally opposed to getting married as well. Hence the title, Never Say I Do. In a nutshell, Lord Maxwell is going to figure out that they are the subject of the love potion experiment, and he’ll clue her in on it. I’m not really sure what the two will do from there, but they will not be drinking anything that might possibly have the love potion in it.

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I don’t expect to get much writing done this month, and while I’m working, I’ll be taking that time off from writing. I do plan to make a September Newsletter. We’ll see if there’s an October one. I will only do that if I have something interesting to share. Otherwise, we’ll skip October and just go to November. I will want to make a newsletter for that month just to get the old gears going in my mind so I can slip back into writing.

I hope everyone has a great August!

Masquerade Bride is Now Available!

This is a standalone book. There is a slight fantasy twist to it, but it’s still primarily a romance set in the Regency Era.

Here is the best description I could come up for it.

(Descriptions aren’t my strength, but here we go):

She longs to be witty and beautiful. Instead, she’s a shy wallflower. Can a bold choice rewrite her story into a romance for the ages?

Miss Marie Kiefer asked her father to arrange a marriage for her, but on the eve of her wedding, she makes a complete embarrassment of herself when she meets her intended. She can’t help but think that if she were charming and witty, she could have her pick of suitors. Then she would be guaranteed a love match. 

In this romance, Marie will get her chance to do just that.

This is a G-rated romance. 

If this sounds like your kind of book, this is where you can find it:

Amazon US – ebook

Amazon UK – ebook

Amazon – audiobook

Audible

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play – ebook

Google Play – audiobook

Smashwords

Everand

***

The Preacher’s Wife is Done!

This is Book 2 in the Oregon Series. (Book 1 is The Wilderness Bride.)

The second draft is now complete, and I’ve sent it off to be edited. I thought I gave a release date on this somewhere, but I’m unable to find it. Let’s put it down for the 29th. I’m going to make a note and email it to myself. I’m not at my calendar right now.

I gave this a lot of thought, and I feel led by God to make this one free. I learned something new about God while writing this one. Specifically, I learned how much God wants us to be a part of His family and how He responds when we fail to live up to His holy standard. Growing up, I thought God was ready to strike me down with a thunderbolt whenever I stepped out of line. It took decades as an adult to realize He would rather gather us into His arms and back into fellowship with Him. In writing this book, I have discovered how lovely He really is. Long ago, I heard a preacher say that the Bible is a romance. It is God saving His bride and bringing her home. In writing this book, I now understand what that preacher meant.

I did strive to not get too preachy in the book. I want it to be, first and foremost, a romance for the hero and heroine. The hero is a preacher, however, so the element of Christianity had to come up at certain points along the way. I did put in one spicy scene, and there is some violence in it. I stalled out 3/4 of the way in because I knew I was going to hit some heavy subject matter when it came time to introduce the violence part, so I had to dig up the soundtrack from Inception to push past the block. I had to make the case for Corrine running away from Iowa. I knew going in that it was going to be tough. I’m just glad the music from Inception helped me through it.

I’m over halfway into The Science of Love

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series. (Book 1 is The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride.)

I am hoping to have this out in August or September. I have hit a pivotal moment in the story where things are going to take a sharp turn. I won’t say what because I don’t want to spoil the book. But now that I’m at this point, I know where I’m headed.

This story is light and fun. It has a little bit of seriousness mixed in, but it’s nothing heavy like The Preacher’s Wife.

I think I’m 1/3 of the way into Love Me, Love Me Not.

I don’t have a cover yet, but this is a Regency romantic comedy that I’m expecting to be a novella. It’s going to be Book 1 in The Marriage Mart Series. I have decided to break off what I typically do with Regencies and go in a fresh, new direction. (Fresh and new to me, at least.) This series is intended to be on the funny and light side, and the most the characters are going to do is kiss.

Love Me, Love Me Not is to address the question of whether love is simple or it’s complicated. The hero and heroine have known each other since childhood. He has held a secret flame for her, but she thinks he’s annoying. How will I convince her otherwise? It’ll be fun to find out. At the moment, they are in London, and she has just officially “come out” in her Season.

I already have ideas for Books 2 and 3. One is where two friends make bets on which of them can create the biggest scandal. The other will feature two friends who try to pair each other up with the ideal match.

I’m really excited about this particular series. It’ll be fun to dive into some outright comedies.

***

I’ll leave that there for now. I hope everyone has a great May! 😀

Masquerade Bride will be out April 24!

I decided to put this up on pre-order, so if you want to, you can get this now. I’m so busy that I forget when an author’s new book is out. I need reminders, or I need a pre-order link. Just in case any of you are the same way, I thought I’d keep up with the pre-orders. And if you would rather wait until it’s out, I’ll post the links next month when I do this newsletter.

Essentially, this book is about a young lady who gets the chance to live an alternate life in her quest to find a love match. It’s cute and lighthearted, and it would have a G rating if we rated books. The most that happens in this book is a kiss. I don’t typically write G-rated romances, but I’m now coming to realize there are some plot ideas that work best under this rating.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play

Smashwords

The Preacher’s Wife is almost done

I am hoping to wrap this one up this month. *fingers crossed* That means I’ll be finishing the first draft. I’ll take a couple of weeks off of this before I make a second draft. After that, I’ll be reaching out to people who help me polish up this book. I like to give people a month to go over the story. That gives us all time to make sure the book is as good as it can get.

I’ll have to update The Wilderness Bride so that it’s back to being Book 1 in the Oregon Series. Give me a month or two on that task. I have other obligations on the table with my family, specifically my special needs’ son. I didn’t realize it was a lot easier when he was in school. Now that he’s an adult and unable to maintain a job, it’s been rough going. That has made it hard to get writing and writing-related tasks done.

I think I’m halfway into The Science of Love

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series. (Book 1 is The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride.)

I’ve had to do some research on biology since the main characters are looking under microscopes for the cellular structure of cells and such. I learned some of this stuff back in high school. While that part is fine, every time I think about looking under a microscope, I remember that page in my high school textbook that had a picture of a tapeworm in it. Close up, it reminds me of an alien, and thinking of something like that living in a person’s intestine is the thing of nightmares. (And reading “The Parasite Man” in Symphony for Walpurgis: A Collection by Rami Ungar certainly did not help.) I am telling you, that image of the tapeworm still freaks me out to this day. If you’ve never seen the image, consider yourself lucky. Thankfully, very little of this book has to do with cells and microscopes, and I will not insert anything about a tapeworm in it.

Instead, you’ll mostly get a heartwarming romance. Currently, the heroine has slipped the love potion into our hero’s drink, and it’s worked. He is now in love with her. While she is basking in the excitement of it all, she’s also wondering if his love is real and lasting. Hence the plot.

That’s all I have for now. I hope everyone has a great April!

It’s been a long time, but I’m back to doing this newsletter. 🙂

I probably won’t have much to report that’s exciting or new as often has I did way back in the past when I was able to publish six books a year, but I am a firm believer in “a little each day still adds up”. We’ll see how things go.

I’m happy to say that I do finally have a book in edits. That’s actually big news given my snail pace. So…

Masquerade Bride will be out in April!

This is currently in edits.

I decided to make this a standalone.

This turned out to be a very sweet (squeaky clean) romance. There is only one kiss the hero and heroine share. So for those of you who’ve wished I would write a sex free romance, this is for you.

If, however, you’re afraid I’ll stop writing sex scenes, don’t be. 🙂 I personally prefer some steam in romances that I read. I read books without sex, too, but my preference still leans toward spicier romances. Now, for any other genre, I am fine without any sex at all, but the other genres don’t focus on the actual development of the couple who are in love. It’s the center focus that matters to me.

Going back to this particular romance, all that was needed was the kiss. To add to anything else would be to diminish the power of that kiss.

I will go more into the plot and whatnot with this book in my April newsletter. I need something to post about.

The Preacher’s Wife is 3/4 of the way done.

I’m going to end up putting this back into the Oregon Series. I was fiddling around with the idea of making it a standalone, but deep down, I know this book will be stronger as part of a series.

Why was I tempted to make this a standalone? Because I write so slowly these days, and some people won’t read the books until the series is complete. I understand why they want to wait. It keeps everything fresh, and you can quickly read through a series. But it is frustrating to hear that because I can’t write fast. It didn’t bother me when I could publish six books a year. Now that I’m expecting to publish two in 2026, it feels impossible. If I make it to three, I’ll be shocked, but if I do, it’ll be my horror novel under my pen name. I really love the horror novel I’m working on and will keep writing it.

I’ll have to look at not writing in so many series at a time. Making Masquerade Bride a standalone helps. So right now, I have one historical western romance series (Oregon Series), and I have one Regency series (Marriage by Chemistry Series).

The Preacher’s Wife is coming up on the crucial moment where everything changes for the hero and heroine. This is going to be one of those gritty books. I don’t know if any of you have read Brave Beginnings, but it’s going to be similar to that. I need to make the case for the heroine (and her brother and mother) to have fled Iowa to make it all the way to Oregon. I have to make the case for them to have lied to the hero, and, most importantly, I need the hero to understand why the lie was necessary.

This book is similar to His Redeeming Bride in many ways. The amount of Christian input is the same. The topic of forgiveness and redemption are key. I always felt that His Redeeming Bride was about God’s grace in a sinful world. This book has the same theme. That has made this book very rewarding to write, and also difficult. I need to get everything just right so that it remains a story instead of turning into a sermon. I’m sorry, but I can’t watch a lot of Christian movies or read a lot of Christian fiction because they all go into “preachy” territory. Doing that always pulls me out of the story. Fiction is, first and foremost, about the story. When you lose the reader on that point, the rest of it falls apart.

The Science of Love is coming along nicely

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

(The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride is Book 1.)

The heroine has snuck the experimental love potion into the hero’s drink. This is not a comedy, but it’s definitely a more light-hearted kind of story. The heroine is terribly insecure due to her upbringing and the fact that her first husband took one look at her naked and decided to annul that marriage. She’s returned to London in disgrace. Thankfully, the annulment took place in America, so she’s spared any social backlash, at least at the moment. It’s hard to say if the story will take some kind of turn. I’m only 26,000 words in. It’s still early.

This is going to be a steamy romance. It needs to be. The heroine needs to know she’s sexually desirable. That’s very important to her happy ending.

That’s all I have for the romance stuff right now.

I hope everyone has a wonderful March!

It took me an extra day to get everything together, so that’s why this post is a day late.

This time around, I wanted to do something more fun than just giving the description. I made a couple of graphics to sum up the different things you’ll find in The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride. Hopefully, this will be more entertaining. 😀

Graphic 1:

Graphic 2 (this is the one I enjoyed the most):

Graphic 3:

If this sounds interesting to you, you can find the book at these places:

Amazon (ebook)

Amazon (audio – digitally narrated)

Audible (digitally narrated)

Barnes & Noble

Kobo (included in Plus)

Apple

Google Play (ebook)

Google Play (audio – digitally narrated)

Smashwords

Everand

I’m almost done with The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride

This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Chemistry Series.

I am currently on the last chapter of this book. I purposely slowed my writing down so I don’t rush the ending. I want to make sure I get the ending just right. I expect to be done with it in another week or two, and then I’ll have it edited. I am currently expecting this book to be out until about September or October.

A Glimpse at My Publishing Schedule

I’m surprised, to be honest, because I thought I could have The Earl’s Bluestocking Bride out in August back when I was planning out my publishing schedule in January. Back then, I also thought I could easily manage four books out in a year. It might be more like three. I’m not sure at this point. 😦 It sucks to have to work so slow after coming back from burnout, but I keep telling myself that having a good quality book is a lot more important than getting more books out in a year. I have so many ideas, and I wish I could write more.

I’m Halfway into Masquerade Bride

This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Holiday Series.

I was hoping to get Masquerade Bride out in October. It has a Halloween theme to go with it. I am probably halfway into the story. I’m sure I can have the first draft done before October. The problem is that I need time to edit it myself and then send it out to people who help me find stuff that I missed (because I always miss something).

I’ve already decided that I’m going to publish this when it’s ready, so we might have a Halloween-themed story in January. It’s not ideal, but I don’t feel like sitting on this until September/October 2026. I’m not that patient.

I’m Either Close to or at the Halfway Point in The Preacher’s Wife

This is Book 2 in the Oregon Series.

This is a slowburn romance. I’m getting close to 30,000 words, and the couple hasn’t even kissed. They aren’t ready to kiss, even though they are definitely emotionally moving closer toward each other. The pacing is surprisingly smooth considering how little I’m seeing actually happening. The focus has been pretty much more on the hero’s emotional journey. His mother was a prostitute, and his father was one of her customers. He was sent to an orphanage run by a priest in another town. He has no idea who his parents are, and he’s always had this longing to be part of a family, though he doesn’t know how to make that longing transition into the marriage he has with the heroine. Finding that transition has been the focus of this book so far. I have a secondary focus, but that needs to come later.

This book won’t be ready until maybe summer of next year. I can tell there is so much more to do with it, and I want to honor the story by playing it out the way it’s meant to.

I have completed narrating three books for YouTube and Rumble.

About Rumble:

Maybe Rumble has an option to put videos into a playlist like YouTube does, but if it does, I don’t know how to do it. But here is my Rumble channel if you want to go there.

About YouTube:

I do, however, know how to put videos together into a playlist on YouTube. If you start at Chapter 1 of the book, then you should be able to go directly into the following chapters if you have the autoplay feature selected on YouTube.

Eye of the Beholder

Tagalong Bride

Loving Eliza

PLEASE NOTE: These are the PG rated versions of these books. I had to remove the sex scenes in order to comply with the guidelines on these platforms. I don’t want to go through all the work of narrating them only to have them removed because of the spicy content.

The next book starts up on July 2.

The next book I’m putting up is The Hero Least Likely since my sister requested that one. She’s a trucker on the road, and she listens to my books to help pass the time while on the road. 🙂

Regarding BookFunnel:

The assistant I have to help me with BookFunnel is currently booked up, so I have nothing going over there this month. I also don’t have time to deal with that right now. There’s been some medical stuff going on with a my husband and one of my sons. It’s nothing serious, but it has been time consuming. This has required me to spend some time going to the doctor with them to offer moral support.

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That’s all I have for this month. I hope everyone has a wonderful July!