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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