September 2012 Newsletter

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

Delayed Publication of Her Counterfeit Husband

Well, the bad news is that Her Counterfeit Husband isn’t out yet.  It’s with an editor, and I’m waiting until she’s done before I go through it again.  After that, I will publish it.  I don’t know when it’ll be out, so I’ll post a link here on this blog when it is.  I know it’ll be out before October.

Update on Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

This is also with the editor, and I won’t get this back until after Her Counterfeit Husband is done.  I plan to upload this through Smashwords to distribute to B&N because on one of the recent Smashwords updates, I learned the approval time is quicker now.  I will test the publishing time to B&N with this book.  Smashwords has been good about supporting authors, and I’d like to stay with them for my B&N books.  I also understand I have a lot of Nook readers, so I want to make sure they get my new releases in a timely manner, too. It’s a balance.  I’m hoping with the new staff on Smashwords’ team, I can have Smashwords upload my books to B&N in a time frame that will make my Nook readers happy.  The only way to check that out is to have Smashwords publish a book to B&N for me, and I’ve chosen this book to test things with.

I don’t think this book will be available until October.  I have already passed this book (and Her Counterfeit Husband) through one editor and a proofreader.  Now it’s with the second editor who was an English teacher, which is why I want her feedback.  Since her calendar was clear, I accepted the delay in publication to get these books to her.  I can’t always secure a slot with her due to her busy schedule, so when I can get a slot, I take it.  😀

Works in Progress

While two books are with the last editor, I have picked up on writing new books.  It was a hard decision, but I finally decided on them.

A Most Unsuitable Husband

This is, by far, the most fun I’ve had writing a book in a long time.  When I say fun, I mean funny.  I keep laughing as I write it, which is good because this is supposed to be a romantic comedy.   The hero and heroine (Ethan and Catherine) are now betrothed, thanks to his meddling mother who staged a forced engagement in front of a room full of people.  Since I already mentioned what this book is about in my last post, I won’t bore everyone with rehashing it.

Clayton’s Win

I’m giving this another try.  Also, this is the new title.  Originally, I had it as Mitch’s Win.  I realize I have to update my header to reflect the new book cover and title.  😀  It’s one of the million things on my list.   In addition to changing the title, I’ve also made this a Nebraska book.  Clayton was Isaac’s friend in Isaac’s Decision, and he was unusually secretive about his love life.  It turns out, he liked the same girl his younger brother did, but she chose his brother.  After his father died, he quit working at the newspaper to take over the farm and his ailing mother.  After that, his brother’s wife died in childbirth, leaving a boy and a girl for his brother to take care of.  The problem is that his brother turned to alcohol to cope with his wife’s death, so Clayton had to take the children in.  And that’s where we find Clayton when this story begins.  😀

I do plan to write a book about his brother in the future once he cleans up his act.  I figure he’ll take the children back and marry one of Dave and Mary Larson’s daughters.

Anyway, this book is about Clayton winning a poker game (and Heather who asks him to marry her so she doesn’t have to go back to her no-good brother).  So they get married, and at first, things are going good, but of course, problems come up when her brother refuses to go away.

The Write Husband

This is another Regency, and I’m excited about it.  I think it can be as funny as A Most Unsuitable Husband, and it takes place in the same time frame so there will be some overlapping between the two books.  Ethan is the hero in A Most Unsuitable Husband, and Agatha (his friend) is the heroine in The Write Husband.  Neither one of them wants to be married, but fate has conspired against them and they find themselves at the altar.  In Agatha’s case, it’s a situation where her sister misunderstands the situation.  Agatha is writing books under a man’s name, and her sister happens to find one of her papers and assumes it’s a love letter from a suitor.  Since Agatha would rather die than have anyone find out she writes books (and romances at that!), she goes along with it, figuring soon, she can say the courtship didn’t work out.  Except, her plans fumbles and Mister Robinson (from The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife) shows up to save the day and pretend to be her suitor.  Well, one thing leads to another and the situation snowballs until she’s trapped.  I don’t have much more than that yet, and I haven’t done a book description but hopefully I’ll have one next month when I write a post on this blog.  😀

I hope everyone has a great September!

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August 2012 Newsletter

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

Hi everyone!  I have some exciting stuff happening this month.  😀

First, I will have Her Counterfeit Husband out around the middle of this month.

Second, Bound by Honor, Bound by Love  should be out at the end of the month or early September.

I plan to finish the first draft in the next couple of days.  (It’s July 31 as I’m writing this.)

Other works in progress

I’m currently working on a third Regency.  It’s Lord Edon and Lady Catherine’s story.  Lord Edon and Lady Catherine both showed up in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife.  Lord Edon was the gentleman Nate went to for advice on pleasing his wife in bed, and Lady Catherine was the lady Nate had planned to marry before he ended up in a scandalous situation with Claire.  😀

Here’s the description:

Ethan Silverton, the Lord of Edon, has been called many things.  Scoundrel, rake, reprobate, unbelievably lucky, deceitful… But he’s never been called a husband…until now.

Ethan is very content with his life.  He’s carefully sculpted it so that everyone thinks he’s a notorious rake.  For years, he’s worked hard to build his reputation to secure his place as the most undesirable bachelor in London.  And it’s worked.  No decent lady will have him.

But one simple error in judgment has just sealed his fate.  His intention was to dissuade a horrid mother from matching him up with her equally horrid daughter.  Seeing no one but Lady Catherine without a dance partner, he tells a lie. He approaches Lady Catherine as if they are betrothed, and the ploy works.  The horrid mother and her daughter abandon their pursuit of him.

Except Ethan’s mother spies his ploy and is so relieved that she’s found a way to marry him to a reputable young lady that she tells everyone of their engagement.  To his horror, word spreads and it’s his duty to see the lie through.  This is the worst thing that can happen, and no one but his mother is happy about it.  Not Lady Catherine.  Not her doting father.  Not even Ethan.  But his mother is sure it’ll all work out…eventually.

Not Sure What I’ll Work On In Addition To A Most Unsuitable Husband

Currently, I’m getting Her Counterfeit Husband ready for the editor and proofreaders, and I’m finishing up the first draft for Bound by Honor, Bound by Love which I’ll then get ready for the editor and proofreaders.  So August is busy with editing and publishing two books.

Once September comes, I figure I’ll be back to working on three books.  A Most Unsuitable Husband will be one of them, but I usually work on three books at one time, so I’m debating which other two I’ll put up.  I know I have Mitch’s Win in queue, but it’s been so long since I touched it that I’m no longer in the mood to write it.  So I’ll remove it from my works-in-progress list and decide which characters are urging me to write their stories as the month progresses.  😀

Hope everyone has a great August!

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July 2012 Newsletter

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

Running a Giveaway for Paperbacks on My Regular Blog!

In short, I am running a giveaway for the South Dakota Series (Loving Eliza, Bid for a Bride, and Bride of Second Chances) and the Virginia Series (An Unlikely Place for Love, The Cold Wife, An Inconvenient Marriage, Romancing Adrienne and Falling In Love With Her Husband).  In addition to my books, Rose Gordon has generously offered her Groom Series (Her Sudden Groom, Her Reluctant Groom, Her Secondhand Groom, and Her Imperfect Groom).  All books are autographed.

To enter for a chance to win, go here: http://ruthannnordinauthorblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/announcing-a-giveaway-enter-for-a-chance-to-win-paperbacks/

The winner will be announced Monday, July 9.  Good luck!

Expecting Her Counterfeit Husband to be ready in August!

I’m having a lot of fun with this book.  It’s not a comedy, but I love the characters and the plot.  I’m about 70% of the way through the first draft (chapter 17).  I hope to be done with the first draft in two weeks (*fingers crossed*), and I’d love to have it out around August 1.  We’ll see how things go.  Like I said, *fingers crossed*.  😀

Changed Mitch’s Win to Clayton’s Win

After careful consideration, I decided to make Mitch’s Win a Nebraska book.  I was originally going to start a new series (the Montana series), but then I thought it would be better to make this a Nebraska book.  So I’m going back and rewriting portions of it so I can fit it into the Nebraska Collection.  I introduced Clayton in Isaac’s Decision.  He’s one of Isaac Larson’s friends, and in this book, we’ll see Isaac and Emily to get an update on how they’re doing.  We’ll also see Lizzie, Emily’s little sister who is hoping to marry Greg Wilson (so Patty’s Gamble will be changed to Lizzie’s Gamble).

Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

I am still working on this, and I think I found out the missing link to connect where I’m at now to the end of the book.  I don’t want to lose momentum because the first half of the book is strong.  I want to keep it going that way.  😀

I don’t think I can get this out this summer, but I might be able to get it out before the end of the year.  I just don’t want to rush the ending or make it less than it should be.  I’ll keep giving updates on my progress so you know where I’m at in the book.

I started A Most Unsuitable Husband

Those of you who read The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife will remember the gentleman who gave Nate, the hero, a book on pleasing a lady.  Well, this gentleman is Lord Edon, and in this is his romance.

This is my tentative description of this book:

Ethan Silverton, the Lord of Edon, has been called many things.  Scoundrel, rake, reprobate, unbelievably lucky, deceitful… But he’s never been called a husband…until now.

Ethan is very content with his life.  He’s carefully sculpted it so that everyone thinks he’s a notorious rake.  For years, he’s worked hard to build his reputation to secure his place as the most undesirable bachelor in London.  And it’s worked.  No decent lady will have him.

But one simple error in judgment has just sealed his fate.  His intention was to dissuade a horrid mother from matching him up with her equally horrid daughter.  Seeing no one but Lady Catherine without a dance partner, he tells a lie.  He approaches Lady Catherine as if they are betrothed, and the ploy works.  The horrid mother and her daughter abandon their pursuit of him.

Except Ethan’s mother spies his ploy and is so relieved that she’s found a way to marry him to a reputable young lady that she tells everyone of their engagement.  To his horror, word spreads and it’s his duty to see the lie through.  This is the worst thing that can happen, and no one but his mother is happy about it.  Not Lady Catherine.  Not her doting father.  Not even Ethan.  But his mother is sure it’ll all work out…eventually.

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June 2012 Newsletter

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife is Now Available on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords!

(I changed the title of An Inconvenient Wife to The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife.)

Here are the links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Earls-Inconvenient-Wife-ebook/dp/B0084JC6QU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337434526&sr=8-1

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-earls-inconvenient-wife-ruth-ann-nordin/1110943776?ean=2940014445634

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/163727

Her Heart’s Desire is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords!

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Her-Hearts-Desire-ebook/dp/B0085MBTVO/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337833390&sr=1-4

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-hearts-desire-ruth-ann-nordin/1111069973?ean=2940014363044

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/165099

Got a New Cover for Mitch’s Win

While I was trying to figure out what to do with The Keeping of Greg Wilson (do you all remember that short novellette that I decided to totally rewrite?), I decided to make Mitch’s Win’s cover to match the one I finally decided to use for the rewrite of The Keeping of Greg Wilson.  I’ll explain more about the rewrite of The Keeping of Greg Wilson (and the final new title I came up with) in a moment.

But what I wanted for the cover to Mitch’s Win was for it to have a theme unique to the Montana Historical Romance Collection.  Mitch’s Win was supposed to be the first book, but…as I’m writing it, I discovered an intriguing secondary character who will one day get her own story.   So Mitch’s Win will not be book 1 in the Montana Historical Romance Collection.  But it will be a part of the Montana books, so I want it to go in line with a theme on the cover, and I want the cover to say “historical western” and match up to some of the romance covers I’ve seen and totally love.  So without further ado, here’s what I came up with for the new cover…

The Rewrite of “The Keeping of Greg Wilson” will be the new full-length novel Patty’s Gamble.

In addition to making Mitch’s Win similar to Patty’s Gamble on the cover (with the way one person is close up, another person is in the background, a Montana background, and the rope around the title of the book), I wanted a theme to all of the titles in the Montana Historical Romance Collection. 

Now, what I decided to do with the title was to make it something along the lines of taking some kind of risk, as in high stakes poker where you can win or lose everything depending on how well you play your hand and luck.  In Mitch’s Win, he wins the game of poker which frees Heather from being sold to the seedy John Meyer.  (Anyone remember him from The Keeping of Greg Wilson novellette?)  I decided John Meyer would have a minor role in Mitch’s Win to help connect up the books in the Montana Historical Romance Collection. 

Anyway, I wanted the title to have a poker term in it.  So my idea to change “The Keeping of Greg Wilson” to Not The Marrying Kind didn’t work for my theme.  After some brainstorming, I came across Patty’s Gamble and decided to use that title instead.    In the future, I’d like to do a Montana book with the word “Wager” in the title.  I see doing at least three Montana books. 

I hope all of that made sense.  😀

Books I’m Writing and My Progress

I’m happy to say I’m making nice progress on three works in progress.

1.  Her Counterfeit Husband

I’m already 11,000 words (up to chapter 5) into this one, and so far, it’s going very smoothly.  Let’s hope it continues as I keep writing it.  😀

2.  Mitch’s Win

I’m 27,000 words (or up to chapter 10) in this one.  I didn’t know where to go with the story for a while, so I stopped writing it.  Now things are picking up, and I can proceed forward.

3.  Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

I’m finally at 30,000 words (chapter 10) in this one.  It’s also slow in coming to me, but this is also the book that ends the Native American Romance Series, so I am trying to make sure all the loose ends in the series are tied up.  The most significant loose end has to do with the orphan children Penelope and Cole adopted at the end of “A Chance In Time”. 

A Note on All Three Books

I’m not sure when this will be out since my husband and I made a recent decision to move, which will require me to take some time off of writing.

Hope everyone has a great June!

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May 2012 Newsletter

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

 

I finished the first draft of Her Heart’s Desire! 

Her Heart’s Desire is Sally Larson’s romance.  It happens before A Bride for Tom on the Nebraska timeline.  I had wanted to tell Sally’s story for some time now, and I finally got the right plot.  Here it is:

Some men don’t realize the right woman is the one they aren’t pursuing….

As soon as Sally Larson meets Rick Johnson, she knows he’s the one for her.  The catch?  He’s interested in her friend, Ethel Mae.  But Sally has a plan.  With Ethel Mae’s help, she convinces Rick that the only way he’ll get Ethel Mae is to make her jealous.  So he agrees to pretend to be interested in Sally in order to get Ethel Mae’s attention.

But Rick has a trick or two up his sleeve, and Sally just might find that the one playing cat is really the mouse.

 

 

This is a light-hearted romance with some humorous moments.  It is rated R for sexual content, but like my other books, sex happens after marriage.  My favorite parts of this book involve Sally’s brothers, especially Tom and Joel.  I love watching those two interact together.  But I also added a scene where Sally talks to Richard and Amanda.  The scene gives a hint to why Richard Larson and Amanda decided to leave New York when his family moved to Nebraska.  I’ll discuss more about that in a moment, but first, I want to mention the other book I finished the first draft on…The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife.

I also finished the first draft for The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife.

(In case anyone hasn’t read my other blog, I decided to rename An Inconvenient Wife to The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife)

I had to go back and rewrite portions of this during April, but I’m happy to say that I finished the second version and am happy with it.  Like Her Heart’s Desire, I am now working on the edits with this book.  Her Heart’s Desire has already been with an editor, and I need to go and check what the editor found to make Her Heart’s Desire better.  Before I hand her The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife to edit, I need to do an initial read through because I have to smooth out some scenes to make the story flow better.  That’s why Her Heart’s Desire will be out before The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife.

As for The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, I decided to name it that (instead of keeping it as An Inconvenient Wife) after asking people on my other blog what they thought.  The decision was unanimous.  Everyone likes The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife better, and considering the title tells everyone it’s a Regency and the fact that the title flows better off the tongue when I say it, I have decided to change the title.

And while I’m discussing this book, here’s the plot:

    When Nathaniel Buford’s brother died, the title of Earl of Roderick passed to him, as did the duty to get an heir, a duty he doesn’t want. Now he must find a lady who suits him among the money-grubbing Ton and marry her, but it is not as easy as he would want. Fate is about to play him another unfair hand, as a moment’s kindness to a lady has him trapped by scandal to a family that is reported to desire money above all else.
    Miss Claire Lowell desires marriage to a kind and respectable gentleman who she could love, but one moment might destroy it all. Despite all her protests that the scandalous circumstances were merely an accident, her family forces to accept Lord Roderick’s marriage proposal, and now she is tied to a man who blames her for trapping him into a marriage that neither of them wanted.
    Is Claire condemned to a loveless marriage because of her father’s eagerness to marry her to an earl? Is Nate capable of seeing past all the circumstances that brought him his wife and see Clarie for who she really is? Is it possible for love to thrive with all distrust, deception, and misunderstandings plaguing their marriage?

When Will Both Books be Out?

It’s hard to say.  I’ll be spending the majority of May working on edits, and I have three people total who look over my books before I send them out to be published.  I read it twice before it gets published.  I read it after the first draft to polish it up and then I read it after the other three people (the editor and proofreaders) have a go at it.  So it takes time to go through this, and I’m asking these poor people to double up this month on how much they usually do.

I think June is a good estimate, but I don’t know exactly when.  I can’t control how quickly places Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Sony and Diesel etc will put up my books.   But I’ll post up some links when they are published.

What’s Next?

Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

I will keep working on this book.  It’s slow in coming, though.  I don’t know why, but the story seems to be progressing at a snail’s pace.  I’ve learned not to rush a book.  I rushed The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, and I ended up having to go back to rewrite parts of it because the final book wasn’t as good as it could be.  So I’m going to take my time on this.  Currently, I’m in chapter 9, which isn’t bad, but I don’t think it’ll get me to my hoped-for July publishing month.  So that’s the bad news.

Other potential bad news regarding contemporaries

I’m not sure how many of you prefer contemporaries.  I like them enough, but my problem is I like historicals more.  So I keep getting the urge to write historicals, which makes it hard to work on contemporaries.  I’ve been trying to begin Runaway Bride and continue Just Good Friends, but they just aren’t coming.  I don’t know what the best course of action is to do.  I could just wait until those books are ready or transfer those plots to historicals.  But then, I don’t know if the appeal to you guys is the plot or the fact that it’s contemporary.  But I’m not primarily a contemporary author so I’m guessing most of you prefer the historicals.

Mitch’s Win

I’m thinking of going back to working on this one again.  I’m at chapter 8, so I made some good progress on it earlier this year.  I stopped because I had no idea where to go next in the book.  I think I got it now, so I’m going to write a little bit in it and see how it goes.  This is a historical western that takes place in Montana. 

My Next Regency: Her Counterfeit Husband

I’d like to write another Regency, and this is a plot I’ve been wanting to do for over a year.  I couldn’t use the plot for a historical western or a contemporary, so I put it on hold.  Then I as I was writing The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife, I realized I could make this plot a Regency because the it’s necessary that the heroine need a husband with some kind of title or rulership.  Originally, I thought of a king or prince on a fantasy world.  But I didn’t want to write a fantasy.  I want to focus on romances.  As a Regency, this plot works great.

In a nutshell, the heroine’s husband (a duke) dies, but no one knows except for her and the butler.  With the butler’s help, she buries him and plans to tell everyone her husband is still alive but in another country.  However, they come upon a man left beaten for dead who is an exact lookalike to her husband.  They bring him to her home and hope he’ll pretend to be her husband, but when he wakes up, he has amnesia.  Taking their chances, they convince him he’s her husband, but she soon discovers that he’s nothing like her jerk of a husband and falls in love.  Their love, however, is tested when he learns that he’s not who he thought he was. 

I’ll stop here for this newsletter.  Hope everyone has a great May!

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March 2012 Newsletter

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

To Have and To Hold is Available

I have it up on Amazon and Smashwords.  Smashwords is still running it through its system to check if it’s ready for distribution on Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Diesel, and Kobo.  

Before you read To Have and To Hold, I think it’s important to warn you that it builds heavily on Eye of the Beholder.  Mary loses her memory, and in regaining her memories, there are flashbacks and recollections from Eye of the Beholder.  It’s my understanding that some people don’t like this and think it’s too much like Eye of the Beholder.  That wasn’t my intention, but I can see why some people would be turned off from this book.  I guess it depends on your taste.  My intention in Eye of the Beholder was to compare the beauty on the surface to the beauty of the inward person.  In To Have and To Hold, I wanted to get Mary to the point where she could finally stand up for herself, but I didn’t see her ever being able to do that unless she lost her memory and got to go back to Maine to see her family. 

I’ll let you decide if you want to read this book or not.  😀 

If you do, here are the links:

Amazon Kindle

Smashwords 

Forever Yours 

I do plan to write a third Dave and Mary book, but this one will not build on Eye of the Beholder or To Have and To Hold because no one will lose their memory.  In Forever Yours, Dave’s going to sustain an injury after falling off his horse.  I’m thinking it’ll be a knee sprain.  So he’ll be unable to do his usual chores around the farm, and the family will have to hire a farm hand to help out.  During this time, I expect Dave to go through a lot of self-doubts.  Considering he’s never had any self-doubts before, there’s no need to build on the other two books.  As a side note, I don’t expect to write any more books featuring Dave and Mary. 

I’m not sure if this will be published in 2012 or 2013.  I have started it to keep Dave and Mary fresh in my mind since I just finished To Have and To Hold, but I have other projects that are requiring my full attention at the moment.

Project #1: An Inconvenient Wife

I decided to shorten the title.  It used to be The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife.  I also updated the series title to the Wedded Earls Series. While I was changing the title, I also changed the cover. 

I am about 60% done with the first draft.  After I get it edited and proofread, I hope to have it published at the end of April.   I’ll see if I can get a description up for next month’s newsletter.  The one I have won’t work because the characters decided to change one of my plot points.

While I was changing the title of  the first book, I changed the title of book 2 in this series from The Earl’s Hasty Marriage to The Marriage Agreement, and I got a new cover for that, too.

And then I finally got the title and cover for book 3, which should complete the series.

I’ll give more information about the books in this series in future newsletters as I work on them.

Project #2: Her Heart’s Desire

I’m about 60% done with this book as well.  My hope is to have this one out in May but no later than June.   This is Sally Larson’s romance, so this book will take us back to before A Bride for Tom.

Here’s the description:

Sometimes men don’t realize the right woman is the one they aren’t pursuing…

As soon as Sally Larson meets Rick Johnson, she knows he’s the one for her.  The catch?  He’s interested in her friend.  But she has a plan.  With the help of a couple others, she manages to convince Rick that if he wants to attract her friend, then he must make her friend jealous by pretending to be interested in her.

Between the scheming and getting him to spend time at her parents’ farm, Sally might discover that Rick has a trick or two up his sleeve as well.  If she’s not careful, she might find that the one playing the cat just might be the mouse.

Project #3: Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

I hope to have this one out by July.  I’m about 30% of the way done.

A Note About the Nebraska Books:

I really should never have labeled the Nebraska Books as a “series”.  While the books focus on the same characters in the same world, they don’t have to be read in order.  Each book can stand alone.  I have plans to have at least 30 Nebraska books out before I’m done writing them, and I’ll be writing them out of order.

For example, Richard Larson (the oldest child) will get his romance, and that will be the official book 1, but see, I haven’t written it yet and won’t get around ot writing it until next year at the soonest.  Another example, I have a plot line in mind for a book that will probably fit one of Tom and Jessica Larson’s daughters, and I’d like to write it next year.  And that one will be before Isaac’s Deicsion takes place.  It’s not an easy matter of writing these in order because each character seems to have a particular plot they’re best suited for, depending on their personalities.  Part of the fun of writing is letting the characters take control.  😀

So just read the Nebraska book that most appeals to you and disregard any that don’t.

I’ve rambled on long enough.  I’ll end this newsletter here.  🙂

Hope everyone has a great March!

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February 2012 Newsletter

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

Eight Books Published in 2012 Goal

This is the year my goal is to publish 8 books.  Usually, I average 6 full-length novels.  Since this is the first newsletter I’ve done in a long time, I figure it might be good list the books I want to publish before December 31.  This is not necessarily in order because sometimes I get inspired to write more in one book than another as I’m writing.

  • Isaac’s Decision (already published; technically it was put on Smashwords on Dec. 25, but it didn’t go on Apple, B&N, Amazon and other sites until after the New Year so I count it as a 2012 book)
  • To Have and To Hold
  • The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife
  • Bound by Honor, Bound by Love
  • Mitch’s Win
  • Her Heart’s Desire
  • Just Good Friends
  • Runaway Bride

That’s the plan.  Now for my progress…

To Have and To Hold

To Have and To Hold is currently in the third stage of editing.  What this means is that the editor is done and I need to go over it again.  This month, I plan to have two proofreaders go over it once I finish.  I expect this book to be available on Apple, Amazon, B&N, etc in March, though I will say Kobo seems to be wonky so I have no idea if or when the book will be up over there.  Smashwords has been having problems uploading to them for some reason and at last check, another author and I have found our books have been published twice over there, which makes no sense at all.  I emailed Smashwords and am waiting for their reply on the situation. 

I don’t have a blurb for To Have and To Hold yet.  It’s Dave and Mary Larson’s second story, and for those of you who wished Mary had gotten a backbone in Eye of the Beholder and stood up for herself, she does it here.  😉  In the beginning of the book, she gets amnesia and when news comes of her father’s failing health, Dave thinks it might help her remember her past if they go back to Maine.   I was surprised I enjoyed writing their second story as much as I did.  I don’t like to do sequels because I always fear the second book will never be as good as the first, but I think this one actually worked.  I’d like to do a third Dave and Mary book but am waiting for the right plot to come along so no promises on when that will be in the works.

Adding Another Romance Genre to the List of What I Write: the Regency Genre

I have decided to add Regencies to my list of romantic genres that I write, and I already have two covers to go with the books 1 and 2 of the Earl Series.  I do have an idea for book 3 in this series, but I haven’t found the right cover yet.

Book 1

 

Book 2

Historical US westerns will still be the dominant one I write, but once in a while I like to get a break and do something different.  This allows me to keep my mind fresh and creative.  I can tell when I need a break when I run out of ideas for westerns.  The last western I plan to publish this year is Sally Larson’s story in Her Heart’s Desire. 

So I’m looking at publishing five historical westerns this year (Isaac’s Decision, To Have and To Hold, Mitch’s Win, Her Heart’s Desire, and Bound by Honor, Bound by Love), two contemporaries (Just Good Friends and Runaway Bride) and one Regency (The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife).  If I can swing it, I’d like to get the second Regency out (The Earl’s Hasty Marriage). 

Bound by Honor, Bound by Love Will Conclude the Native American Romance Series

This book will wrap tie the entire series together, much like Bride of Second Chances did for the South Dakota Series.  In this book, Penelope and Cole from A Chance In Time come into play with the two Mandan children they adopted off that orphan train, and this actually becomes an interesting point of conflict for Citlali (hero in Bound by Honor, Bound by Love) who is having to decide which direction to take the tribe in after the chief dies.  The chief doesn’t die until about mid-to-late book, but the struggle between pleasing the chief (who is like a father to him) and Onawa (who marries him in chapter 1) will come into play. 

Background Info into the Native American Romance Series

To be honest, when I wrote A Chance In Time, I only did it because Cole and Penelope’s romance in Meant To Be intrigued me enough where I wanted to know more about it.  Then a friend said it was sad that Penelope couldn’t have children, so I thought of bringing a pregnant Mandan woman into the story (I used to live in North Dakota and had been to the earth lodges they used to live in so that is why I chose that particular tribe).  Well, the original plan was to have Woape die in childbirth, but then I thought, “People are going to assume she was raped by a white man when the baby is born half-white” and then I wondered, “Just how did she end up alone, scared and pregnant anyway?” So that led to Restoring Hope.  Originally, Woape was supposed to be for Citlali.  I had planned to kill her white husband off (who never was supposed to rape her or anything horrible like that), and she was supposed to go back to her tribe, realize Citlali was good for her after all, and fall in love with him.  But 1/3 of the way into the book, I realized I couldn’t kill Gary because I liked him too much (and didn’t want a lynch mob coming after me, ;)) so I opted to fake his death and have her end up happily married with Gary in the end.  But I wanted to do something with Citlali since Citlali was a good guy and highly misunderstood.  So I made Woape’s younger sister old enough to marry him for book 3.  I had to write Julia and Chogan’s story for book 2 because (to be honest) they were my favorite characters in Restoring Hope, though I didn’t plan to make Julia a good guy in Restoring Hope.

What can I say?  My characters don’t follow my script.  I follow theirs, and as long as I let them lead the way, I don’t have writer’s block so I’ve learned to do it their way.  😀  This is also why I can’t write the book’s description until the book is ready to be published.  I’m never sure how things will play out when I start it.

I plan to publish Bound by Honor, Bound by Love this summer.  *fingers crossed*

Here’s hoping for a productive year, and I hope you all have a great February!

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Feb. 1 is the Date of the First Newsletter

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

Hi everyone!  I’ll be posting the first newsletter around Feb. 1.  I’ll post a new one up around the first of every month for the future ones as well.  :D

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