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!