Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog

Yesterday morning, I lost three hours of awareness. I thought I was sleeping. I have a vague recollection of what I was doing. From my viewpoint, I was dreaming. But I was talking and walking all over the house. I only have fragments of what my husband was telling me. I have nothing at all from what one of my sons was telling me, and I don’t remember eating a breakfast bar (an unhealthy one I would never eat under any other circumstance because I am trying to take care of my body). What I remember is waking up at 5am, thinking I was unusually tired but had to get up, so I took care of my eyes with the damp warm cloth (because I have dry eye).

After that, the dreams started for me. It was like I was primarily in a dream but there was the outside voice of my husband that wasn’t getting through. I was saying all kinds of stuff that had to do with the dreams. The outside voice coming from my husband made no sense, and I kept saying, “What?” I was also saying, “Jesus Christ is Lord” and “my dad had schizophrenia” over and over. Then I was intermittently crying and laughing. I was pacing around the bedroom. I have no memory of this. I only remember snippets of my husband saying, “You have a mammogram tomorrow.” “You don’t talk to her anymore.” “We’ve been married for 25 years, do you remember that?” Apparently, I even forgot I had children. Then he left for work and asked one of my sons to watch over me. He said I was just sitting in the chair when he left with my eyes open. I was just staring off into space when he had to leave.

I don’t remember coming down the stairs. I do remember seeing my son in the living room chair and him asking me if I wanted to go for a walk. We will go on our 3-5 mile walks a couple times a week. I said yes, and I remember thinking exercise would help me. My son said from there, I spent 45 minutes walking from the kitchen to the living room to the laundry room and back. And I even ate that breakfast bar. At this point everything is a complete blank. I wasn’t in “dream mode” like I was upstairs. Apparently, I kept asking about the library books I got on Saturday. He eventually hid them because I was fixated on them. I was also telling him, “my dad had schizophrenia” over and over, too. All I remember is coming down at 9:00am, agreeing to the walk, and getting in the car. But the clock in living room did say 9:00am, and the car said 9:45am when I got in. So I know I lost time. The walk did help, but I don’t remember getting down there, and I don’t remember half of the walk. Things came into “focus” at the halfway point, and from that point on, I was fully engaged and aware of everything going on around me. I did cry on and off throughout the day because this episode scared me. I had trouble sleeping last night because I worried I’d wake up like that again.

I just had a physical two weeks ago, and I’m due to go in on December 3 for a follow up for more blood work on my white blood count. I am going to tell my doctor about this (and any other episodes) I have. My dad did have schizophrenia, and I remember my mom saying he was doing similar stuff. This was before I was old enough to remember it. He was resistant to getting help, but back then, you could make someone get treatment if they needed it. Now you can only make someone get treatment if they are a threat to themselves or others. I’m glad I wasn’t a threat to anyone. But I am also willing to go in to get tested. I guess having a degree in Psychology has paid off after all. I know that getting help does not mean someone is stupid or that someone is a loser. I am aware that Psychology is one of those fields that still has some stigma attached to it, though it’s not as bad as it used to be. My dad was able to have a normal and productive life because my mom caught what was going on and he took the right medicine. The sooner you can catch this, the better. I want to get help if I need it, but in order to figure out what’s going on, I’ll need to have the proper tests done.

I’ve watched my mom go through a lung and heart transplant, which her body rejected, when she was 48. I watched my dad deal with schizophrenia and emphysema. He died from the emphysema. I saw him with the breath thing they use (sorry, I don’t remember the term for the machine) and the oxygen tank he needed. I promised myself I would do everything possible to take care of my health so that I never ended up like that. I can think of plenty of other places I’d rather be than a hospital. Now I’ll have to address the mental side of things. It’s possible there is a physical explanation for what happened yesterday. Or maybe it will be mental issue. Whatever it is, I will go with the doctors’ advice. So I’m optimistic about the path forward.

In the meantime, I am going to start teaching Eric (the son who said he would take over my books when I can no longer do it) the ins and outs of what I do with these books. I will consult an intellectual property lawyer about handing over copyright of my books to him so that he can prove to Amazon, Google, Draft2Digital, etc that he has full rights to them. I’ll also arrange for him to be on my business account for finances so he can get the money. I figure since he’ll run the business, he should get the benefit from it. No one else is interested, and it’s not like I’m making a lot of money so no one in the house is arguing over “their share”. I finally did set up investments last year and arranged for everyone to be taken care of when I can no longer do it myself. I’m going to have a power of attorney set up with my husband so he can handle things for me just in case I am unable to make decisions.

I know all of that sounds extreme. People have told me I’m morbid. But I want to make sure my loved ones are taken care of, and I want to be able to do all of this while I’m able to mentally do so. Maybe this was a fluke. Maybe I’ll be fine from here on out. I don’t know what the future will bring. I’d just rather be proactive. I’ve watched too many people die and leave their loved ones in a state of confusion. My dad was proactive, and that made everything easier to deal with. I had been prepared for his death. When he got emphysema, we knew he didn’t have a long time left. We had the time to grieve in advance. My mom was a bigger shock, but given how bad her lungs were, we knew we might have to grieve her, too, and we did in the year it took for the transplant to happen. When the call came that she died, I already knew she was no longer alive. No one calls before the sun rises to give you good news. Death is morbid, but it’s also a reality. I would rather have my family missing “me” than wondering what investment accounts I have or what to do with my books because they never ran a business.

I’ll keep you updated on what happens. I figure this is going to take some time to figure out. In the meantime, I’ll keep on watching my health the best I can and write more books since I still love writing them.

Today as I wrote in my horror romance, I realized why I have been stuck in a certain scene for the past week. I’m glad it didn’t take me longer to figure that out because it took me two full months to finally get unstuck in The Preacher’s Wife. In the case of The Preacher’s Wife, I had to transition the couple from having a platonic marriage to going over that hurdle. I knew the mechanics of what to do, but honestly, a sex scene is not just a sex scene. There are so many nuances involved in it. How does the relationship change? What do the characters learn about themselves? What do they learn about each other? How does this advance the plot? I’m learning that some need more description than others.

In The Preacher’s Wife, that scene is so emotion-heavy that I gloss over the actual physical aspects of it. Right now someone is probably wondering what this has to do with my horror romance. The part that had me stuck in this horror romance was that I was at the “first time the couple is in bed” scene. The circumstances are different. I am not writing The Preacher’s Wife this time. But I still had to figure out how to best go about writing it for this particular couple.

The way I approached this scene pretty much sets up the groundwork for what kind of horror romance writer I’m going to be. That probably sounds crazy since I’m at 28,000 words and have focused so much on the psychological horror vibes up to now. No one has died yet. It’s coming, but it can’t happen yet. I have to lay down the foundation first. There has to be motive when the hero starts killing people. (He kills to protect the heroine.) Before the hero can step out to protect her, he has to fall in love with her. That’s why their first time matters. It has to be there.

I have read quite a few dark romances, gothic romances, paranormal romances, urban fantasy romances, and horror books by now. I have been processing what makes them different and what makes them similar. I have been trying to figure out where I fit in with this pen name. I already figured out who I am with my general romances, though I recall that taking a couple of years to nail down. Given my experience, figuring out where I land in horror romance is easier. I came into this thinking I was going to have a completely different “voice”, but the more I wrote the story, the more I went back to rewrite scenes since I didn’t like how abrasive the characters were coming across.

The other day, Rami Ungar wrote a blog post about The Shining by Stephen King. I remember years ago when I learned that Stephen King didn’t like the way Stanley Kubrick directed it. Later on, there was a TV miniseries made for The Shining that was more in line with Stephen King’s vision for the book. While reading Rami’s blog post, I kept thinking about how a story can come off differently depending on how a person’s interpretation of it goes. Kubrick did amass praise for his vision. I actually enjoyed King’s vision more. The father was more relatable. The descent he took into madness was far more tragic in King’s version. King wasn’t as “abrasive” I guess with his approach to the father. Considering my taste as a reader, that makes sense.

Now, I am not writing a story like The Shining. But while I was writing in the horror romance today, I had to ask myself, “Which approach is best served for me as the writer? What is the voice that best suits me? I can’t approach this book as just the author. I need to look at it as someone who wants to read this story, too. This approach, by the way, is the opposite of writing to market. Writing the market is all about being the author who is delivering a story for a specific audience. You, the writer, do not need to agree with the vision in order to please the reader. If are you writing for passion, though, you are your own audience.

Once I removed the vision I had for what a dark romance reader seems to want, the scene came un-stuck. So I would say my book does not fall into “dark romance”. Those romances are more abrasive than what I like. They are like Kubrick’s version. And that doesn’t resonate with me like King’s version. I want more gentleness. More of a “conscience” I guess. I don’t want such a morally grey hero or heroine. I want there to be more of a sense of right and wrong, and I want the characters to struggle. I don’t want the hero to just go out and kill people. I want him to be cornered into a place where he has no choice. He eventually becomes a “monster”, but he’s also the good guy. I want people to be rooting for him. So he’s a sympathetic villain, maybe.

I wish there was an actual “Horror Romance” category, because this is what the story really is. I am learning how to blend horror and romance together. It’s been a lot of fun. I can feel the creative muscles working as I play around with different ways to go about the story. After a while of writing the same genre, a writer can feel stuck. By venturing into new territory, you get to come back to that same genre with fresh new eyes. I have found that taking on this horror romance has sparked my excitement for regular old historical romance. While lousy advice for writing-to-market authors, I think playing around with different types of stories is great advice for writing-for-passion authors. It’s fun where there’s something new to learn.

I’m pretty much moving at the speed of a snail these days, but I figured I would hop on and share what’s going on.

I am 45,000 words into Masquerade Bride

I really enjoyed this one because it was so different from the stuff I’ve already done. This is more than a romance. I am going to categorize it under romance and fantasy because that’s the best way to describe it. The reason she is taking on the new life is to secure a love match, and there is a lot of courtships that are happening through the course of the book. But this is also about how she grows during the course of the story. That aspect surprised me. I didn’t expect that angle to pop up. This is what makes writing by the seat of one’s pants so fun. You get thrown off course, and in my experience, this is for the best–as long as your brain is wired to be a “discovery writer”. If your brain is wired to follow a plan, you need to plot.

I am putting some Easter eggs into this story only because I love my past Regency characters and like to insert them in if possible. Christopher Robinson and Lord Edon are my top favorites, so I did a cameo with them. I have decided even if I’m not making this a series, I still want to weave it into the other Regency books I’ve written. If I can’t write these books the way I want them, then there’s no point in even writing at all.

I am 18,000 words into The Science of Love

That 18,000 does include two excerpts from past books, so we’re probably looking at about 14,000 for the actual story itself, but I haven’t bothered to calculate the totals.

This is a cute and sweet romance. I plan for it to be pretty steamy only because the heroine needs to feel physically attractive after the harsh way she was rejected in the past. My husband and I were talking this morning based on a video we watched together on YouTube, and while the person was talking about how important it is for men to have a healthy sex life with their wives, the same is true for the wives. Women want to know that her husband desires her physically. We go through a lot of bodily changes post children, and sometimes we look at ourselves and grimace. (Some women hold up better after birth than others. I happen to be one of those women who did not hold up well at all.) It means the world to me that my husband still wants to be with me. I think that’s why I’m so drawn to adding sex scenes in my books, even though I do consider myself to be a Christian romance writer. My aim is to present that side of marriage in a way that honors the gift God has given husbands and wives.

The Horror Romance

I had a cover illustrated for that book so now the book is more “real” than it was before. I’m 26,000 words into that one. I have figured out why the town is the way it is, but I’m still trying to figure out why the heroine’s family is the way it is. I know there has to be some part of the local Louisiana mythos involved since that is the basis for the storyline. It’s really interesting when you research the different legends and spooky stories in any given area. You start to realize that there are similar stories all through the world. The creatures just take on different names, and they have minor differences that make them distinct to the area they’re in. But overall, there truly is nothing new under the sun. In one version or another, it’s the same kind of being that creates terror into the hearts of people everywhere. In my story, I have decided the hero takes on the persona of the monster in order to protect the heroine. (Hence the “dark romance” label I’ll be attaching to it. I’m intrigued by the premise of how an average person can transform. That character development is going to be fun as the story progresses.)

I have decided that book will go into KU. I’m keeping my Ruth books wide, but this pen name will be in KU. I don’t feel like trying to market a pen name on top of this one. I don’t think KU is going to pay out well, but having been a KU reader, I have picked up on the benefits to being in the program. I can join promotions that I can’t as a wide author, and it’s easier to convince people to read a book that is borrowed, rather than bought. I think back to when KU first came out, and some of us (me included) were saying that KU authors were going to be worse off in the end because wide authors were building a sustainable career by not putting all of their eggs in one basket. And blah, blah, blah. Now I can see that we were wrong. I’m staying wide with Ruth because I built things up for Ruth wide. I put out just over 100 books as Ruth. Those 100 books aren’t going anywhere. Future Ruth books will be wide. However, if I were a brand new author starting out today, I would do KU. The market is too saturated to try to be wide at this point. (That is just my opinion.)

The Preacher’s Wife

I still have not updated the cover, and I am still in the same scene I was in when October 1 rolled around. That means I have been at 35,000 words for months now in this one. I think I dread putting this couple through the trial that’s coming. Anyone where remember Brave Beginnings when Ernest kidnapped Julia? It’s kind of like that in the level of intensity. There’s going to be some on page physical abuse and a pretty nasty fight that comes as a result. These are not easy topics to cover. (At least not for me.) I hate to see the heroine suffer that way. But this is what needs to be in the story. Right now, I’m still at the transition point where the hero and heroine fall in love. It’s been a pleasant build up. That’s going to change after her ex shows up. This book is pretty on “on hold” while I sort out how to do all of this. I have to find the right balance. I read a book last week that went off the deep end. The author did a great job up to the very last two chapters, and at that mark, the story just went off the rails nuts. It was a very unsatisfying (and disgusting) experience. The story lost all of its strength. If the author had tampered a lot of the crap down, it would have remained a solid 5-star read. It quickly became a 1-star read. I do not want to risk giving the same kind of experience to those reading this book. That is why balance is key.

I stumbled across a video from someone who was talking about four different communication styles. And that got me to thinking about writing styles. Writing, after all, is a way of communication. We’re just communicating in written form, rather than speaking. So today, I am going to make an attempt to take what I gleaned from this video and apply it to the world of writers.

I tried to link in the video, but I kept getting an error. I want to credit this person for inspiring today’s post. The video was titled “How to Talk to ANYONE (Once You Know Their Color!)” by Vinh Giang.

RED AS A WRITER

Red is direct. This is a writer who likes to get right to the action in the story. They aren’t going to do the “slow burn” approach. I doubt they find tons of backstory, heavy description, or side chatting to be all that interesting. Their dialogue is probably more direct. You won’t get a lot of thoughts or actions around the speaking. And most of what the characters do add directly add to the plot. You won’t find much fluff here. This makes me think that these writers’ stories are probably shorter as a result.

As a marketer, I think these writers probably get straight to the point and say, “Hey, I have a book out, and here it is.” I doubt they want to linger around social media for long, and they probably are more interested in strategies to market (more than hanging out and chatting with people online). So I’m thinking ads might be a strength for these people.

Readers are not likely to find these stories boring. In fact, for readers who don’t have much spare time on their hands, these writers are perfect. They deliver a good, solid story in as few words as possible. This kind of writer also pleases readers who like a the story that flows at a steady pace. If we were on a road trip, this writer would take you directly from Point A to Point B. The story starts with a bang and continues the momentum the entire way through. On the flip side, of course, there will be readers who’ll think the story feels rushed. These readers want to take at least one stop from Point A to Point B.

YELLOW AS A WRITER

This writer excels at marketing. People are drawn to them. They are the talkers. They make people feel heard and comfortable. They care about people, and it shows. These are your extroverts. I suspect this type of writer would rather market a book than write it. (It boggles my mind that these people exist, but they do. I have talked to them, and they truly do an awesome job of promoting their books without even saying, “I have a book to sell you.” They are the stars of social media. Truly, their energy for being around people is a gift because it is hard for some of us–like me–to even know what to post.)

My guess is that this type of writer loves to add in extras to their stories. I read a book by a yellow years ago and remember the characters having long conversations where they were simply playing games and engaging in witty banter. The focus was more on enjoying who the characters were and how they related to each other than adding anything directly to the plot. So we can think of these types of writers like taking a road trip where you stop to check out the sights along the way. Those sites don’t just have to be character’s conversing. It can be a side plot that doesn’t do much for the main plot. The main thing is that you relax and enjoy the ride. While I believe these people will write longer stories than reds (overall), their love for having the book out to market will override their urge to linger too long in the story.

GREEN AS A WRITER

This is the writer who will give you the slow burn kind of story if that’s what you’re looking for. This writer loves to start in the character’s ordinary world before the conflict comes into play. So we get to see the life before the pivotal moment when everything changes. They will give you backstories, lengthier dialogue sections with the character’s thoughts and feelings inserted throughout the conversation, and they might give you tons of description if that adds to the atmosphere they’re going for. So if we were on the road trip with this writer, we would not only take stops along the way, but we would also spend a night to spend significant time at these stops. If you want to dip your toes in the water and smell the flowers along the way, this is your type of writer. The downside is that this type of writer will feel boring to readers who would rather just get to the plot.

For this writer, keeping up the connection with past characters is fun. They will often do series, but even if they don’t, you’ll find Easter eggs across different books to clue you in that all of these characters co-exist within the same world. Their stories tend to be longer because they are enjoying all of the time with these characters. They hate to say goodbye. While finishing a book is key to being able to share it with the world, it’s a bittersweet experience. (But that’s why they keep bringing back past characters.)

This is a very pleasant writer to engage with, just as yellow is, but green isn’t the center of the stage. Green is more of the encourager. Their interactions online will be friendly and warm, and they are sincere, but they are more likely to focus on the other person rather than talk about themselves. They probably don’t share much of their personal life. They probably don’t like to market at all but are on social media because they have to let the world know they exist so people will find their books. Their strength is more in line with making sure they have links available in their profiles (or perhaps books displayed in their icon or headers). They will mention when a book is out, but they would rather be writing than spending time marketing.

BLUE AS A WRITER

This type of writer loves spreadsheets. They love numbers. They will run ads and take note of every keyword and the exact Return On Investment they get from them. They know exactly how many books they sold and where. They excel in details. If you want a book that is thoroughly researched and detailed, this is your kind of writer. If you take a road trip with this writer, you will see some of the sites along the way to the destination, but each spot will be something that has to do with the story in some way. You’ll learn the history about something you didn’t know before. You’ll know what material makes up their outfits or how they decorate their home. These writers get lost in the research and forget to keep writing the book. For readers who love description and accuracy, this is this your kind of writer.

They like their work thoroughly edited. Simply hearing, “I enjoy the book,” from a beta reader won’t work. They want things they can change or do better. They want specific feedback. They are perfectionists. They want every word to mean what it says. They are careful with punctuation. They watch their dialogue to make sure it’s on point. In some ways, they are like reds as far as getting to the point, but they also enjoy some of the immersion in the story that lets you soak in the experience, too. While all writers are sensitive about criticism, the degrees of this sensitivity varies. Reds bounce back pretty fast. Yellows have tons of support to get them back on their feet. Greens will practice self care to get back in the groove. Blues, however, are hit the worst and have the hardest time getting over it. The reason it hits them the hardest is because they are their own worst critic. (Remember, they are a perfectionist.)

TO SUM UP

This is why I don’t believe we can tell every single writer that they MUST write or even market a certain way. The writing and marketing styles that best mesh with each writer matters. If you can figure out what color you are as a writer, it’ll probably help you moving forward. Now you know why you do what do you. More importantly, you know who you should listen to when seeking advice. For example, if you are a yellow, the red’s way of doing things will not work for you. There might be some lessons you can glean from them, but only take the things that best align with your strengths. You aren’t trying to please every reader. You are only trying to please readers who are “yellow” readers. Another example, if you are a green writer, and a blue writer is telling you that you need to monitor Amazon ads, you don’t have to do that. Those numbers don’t motivate you like they motive the blue writer. Just have a general idea of where you are. That’s good enough for a green.

Your strengths matter. Knowing those strengths will help you. There’s no point in trying to be someone you’re not. I know it sounds cliche, but you’re better off being the best “you” that you can be.

Also, if you are a reader who is reading this, this probably explains why some authors appeal more to you than others. Even if people agree that they love the same genre, there’s bound to be some authors who seem to “wow” you while other authors aren’t your cup of tea. Your personality matters as much as the authors’ personalities do. A book is a transaction between two people. Sometimes that transaction works, and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s okay. You don’t have to like every book you come across. Just enjoy the ones you do.

(edited to add a title) I can’t believe I forgot to do this very simple part of the post.

Today’s post is inspired by a video I happened to come across on YouTube.

This video really helped boost my enthusiasm for writing for the sake of writing itself. So my heartfelt thanks to Susannah Friesen for posting it. (I do not know this person. I came across this video by chance.)

My personal reading experience:

I clicked on this video because of the “every book literally looks the exact same” caption to the right. I’ve been bemoaning the fact that so many books are the same for the last couple of months. Roughly six months ago, I went back into my reading phase. At the time, the stuff seemed pretty original, but that was only because I hadn’t been reading fiction for a while. After I began to realize that things were very similar, I signed up for KU. There’s no point in wasting money when you aren’t sure if you’ll get past the first two chapters of a book because “it’s been done before”. I know I could buy and return, but I would rather read the book through the KU platform. At least, the authors will get paid for the pages I did read.

I do not read what’s popular. I have found that most of the popular books are pretty much the same. As Susannah mentioned in the video, the publishers want a certain kind of book, and yes, if an author wants to publish with them, they will follow through on that. Publishers are looking at their bottom line. It’s not about putting out a great story that people will remember for years to come; it’s about how much the book will make when it’s released. But the “sameness” is not restricted to authors who have publishers. It’s in the indie writing community, too.

The indie writing community (what most of these authors really want):

I hate to say it because growing up with a love for reading that evolved into a love for writing, the cold hard truth is that most indie writers want money. That’s probably not a surprise. I do believe writers should be paid. I’m not saying they should write for free, though if they choose to, that’s fine. My problem is when the money becomes more important than the stories. That sixth grade girl who picked up the first book that made her fall in love with reading is still inside of me. That sixth grade girl doesn’t want to see books brought down to the level of “it’s only worth writing if it’ll make me a lot of money”.

And as a writer, I have to keep myself in check as well. I’m just as guilty of leaning in this direction. I have also gotten caught up in this whole thing. The self-publishing gold rush was good in some ways. I love how it made easy for an indie writer to get a good looking cover with a good looking interior file to go with it. I love that it opened doors to indies to publish the books without the need of a publisher. That paved the way to writing stuff that most interested us. We didn’t have to chase after what’s popular. We could be unique. If we wanted to write something that didn’t fit into a box, we could. I’m telling you, even today, you won’t find a Christian publisher taking on a spicy romance with characters who have a Christian worldview. You also won’t find horror romance anywhere. It has to be dark romance, which is not exactly the kind of thing I am writing under my pen name. My pen name is also not exactly a paranormal or urban fantasy (though I’ll probably have to place it in those categories because there is no “horror romance” category on any retailer at the time I’m writing this). I do not fit into a box.

And after watching this video, I have come to appreciate this so much more about myself. My problem is that I got caught up with the money side of things, and that made me lose the perspective I had back in 2009 when I started publishing ebooks. It was never about the money. It was all about the fun to read my books on my Kindle when I took my kids to the park. That was it.

But I can’t be critical of indie authors. I understand their plight. Bills need to be paid. I get that. My sympathies are all for them. I think there is a toxic element that has slipped into the writing community, and that is based on the fact that it is hard to get noticed. Like, really hard. It was easy back when I started. Hence, the “gold rush” of the self-publishing days. We are no longer there. That ship has sailed.

So then what? We find ourselves resorting to doing what is popular. We start following what the bestselling authors are doing. We imitate them to signal that our books are like those authors’ books. Meaning if the readers enjoyed that big-time selling author, then the readers will enjoy our books, too. It’s the same mindset of a publisher, just on a smaller scale because we’re a one-man business. We go into groups and discuss strategies to better reach out to readers. I hate to say it, but I have talked to a few authors who have found that if they hire a ghostwriter on the cheap and only give the story one read through to “clean it up just enough to pass”, they make really good money because they can do this fast. (One author even said that KU readers aren’t picky because they aren’t buying the books. They’ll just read and return. So she stopped “wasting time” on editing. She made more money by getting books out faster.) Speed is the name of the game for some. That’s why so much happens in lightning speed. This is why I am finding that authors are starting to talk about using AI to do the bulk of the writing for them. Retailers, especially Amazon, rewards speed. Special boost is given to authors who can produce fast. If you can get that boost at a retailer, then more readers will stumble across your books, and the more readers you can get to stumble across your books, the more likely you are to sell those books.

There’s also this “pay to play” angle that is spoken about in the writing community. A few authors have also told me that if you want to get noticed, you have to spend money on ads. One even said that, depending on your genre, if you don’t have a thousand or more dollars to put into Amazon ads every month, then don’t even bother with placing those ads. I stay away from Amazon ads for this reason. But for authors who can pay good money into ads, they do say it works out great. So yeah, if you have enough money, you can gain visibility on the retailer platforms. To do so organically, however, is an uphill battle. Not impossible. Nothing is impossible. But you will have to struggle more.

So yeah, things are pretty much the same, or at least similar to everything else. I’ve been guilty of this. I’ve picked certain plot points and tropes that were popular in hopes that it would get me more money. That actually worked like a charm back in 2014-2015. This was at the peak of my telling other authors to write to market. The problem is that if you are writing to market (and you are not passionate about that market), it burns you out in the long run. Writing to market is not a sustainable way to write.

Anyway, I am very grateful to Susannah. I’ll be rewatching that video in the future as I bring myself back into alignment for why I fell in love with writing. I do think it all starts with falling in love with reading again. I have been slowly falling in love with reading as I discover more authors who are taking a more creative and unique approach to their stories. I steer clear of anything that comes off as “the same”. I think that for writers who have lost their way, like I have, falling back in love with reading books is a good place to start. It’s therapeutic. Thank God the indie world is big enough where there are authors who are writing outside the box. I think it takes time to find the way back to writing with that same freshness. But looking back, I didn’t start to write in the sixth grade. I started writing in high school. So it takes time.

I want to leave this post with a final thought on a way to reach readers:

As a reader, I really like BookDoggy and Bargain Booksy to find new authors. It’s hard to find these authors through a search in the retailer’s store. Even if you put in the keywords for what you’re looking for, you end up with mostly the same books popping up in the search. It’s been very disappointing. Even Amazon (a retailer who innovates very well) is filling up search pages with sponsored ads, and half the time, those ads have nothing to do with the search I’m doing. So I rely on BookDoggy and Bargain Booksy to find new authors. What I like most about these sites is that they cover a variety of genres in the same email. You never know if a thriller reader might want to explore something different and pick up a romance. That happened to me back in 2007. I would have written and published a lot of thrillers if I hadn’t stumbled upon a romance book back in 2007 that made me excited about romance. I was in the process of writing thrillers in my notebook before the self-publishing boom hit. When it hit, I was in my romance phase. I only share that story to show why you might reach someone unexpected.

I’m sure it’s going to be a process to figure out the best way to move forward. I suspect I’m in burnout, or maybe heading into it. It’s hard to pinpoint these things at times. I know I need to slow down. You can’t rush your way out of burnout. Years ago, a writer friend warned me to take a break, and I didn’t listen. That led to a major crash that resulted in me not being able to write anything for about a year. I don’t want to lose my creative spark again.

Okay, so let’s get to what I’m doing.

I have dissolved the Oregon Series.

As a result, The Wilderness Bride is officially a stand alone.

I still need to update the paperback to reflect this, but by now, the ebooks are done. I did update the audiobook on Google Play and have asked for the update to be done on Apple for that audiobook.

I will be revising The Preacher’s Wife now to be a stand alone. So the tie-ins I was working into the story will be removed. I have not had time to update the cover, but that is on my list of things to do.

(Cover will be updated)

The easier fix was to make Masquerade Bride a stand alone.

All I had to do there was modify the cover.

If I can think of a good tagline to fit this story, I’ll replace “A Fantasy Romance” with the tagline. I would prefer a tagline, but these things aren’t my strength. Yeah, I know. I can write an entire book without too many issues, but you give me a phrase to sum the book up, and I struggle with coming up the right words. Being able to come up with pithy statements is definitely a talent.

There are two series I will be keeping.

One is Love Under Desert Skies. That one is too intertwined. You need the books together, and they need to be read in order to fully appreciate them. (I don’t have a cover for Book 3 yet, and I don’t know when I’ll be writing it. I sense that I need to start the story after the group has left Quartzsite. I just don’t know where.

The other is Marriage by Chemistry Series. I want to see this love potion experiment through, and that’s the main purpose of the series. I’m not sure how many books will be in this series. Right now, I only have two. I have no idea how long this will be, but I’ll see it through to the end.

***

Smashwords has merged with Draft2Digital. The process of merging my books from my author Smashwords dashboard to my author Draft2Digital dashboard. My books are still on the Smashwords store. The author dashboard is basically where authors manage their books. So if I need to do a cover change or some other update, I go into Draft2Digital (instead of Smashwords like I used to).

Now that my books can be managed on the Draft2Digital dashboard, I can get my older books in audio at Apple.

I have the Marriage by Scandal Series now available in audio format on Apple.

Here is the link to Apple

Here is the link to Apple

Here is the link to Apple

And here is the link to Apple on this one

I will be working on other books as we go along. I have probably close to 70 that need to be moved into audio on Apple. This is going to take time to go through. Having a big catalogue is nice in some ways but time consuming in others.

I hesitated to write this post because I’m not sure how it’ll be received. I suppose I could do a video to go along with it so you can hear the tone of my voice and see the expression on my face, but that would take additional time out of my day, and I am hoping to get some writing in. I mean this to be given in a pleasant tone with a smile on my face. You will probably detect some frustration since there is frustration underlying all of this. The bottom line is that I wish I could do more but can’t. Specifically, I wish I could write more books like I used to, but I’m quickly learning I can’t.

Each week is different. Some are easier than others, but something will pop up at some point that will require my attention. For example. Here is my week so far:

I spent Monday with my son at the doctor’s and then helped him fill out paperwork to see if he qualifies for medical assistance since he is now an adult (and therefore no longer on my husband’s health insurance). I spent Tuesday with another son running all over the place to figure out where to get foreign currency converted to US dollars. This is my deaf son who can’t drive. So he couldn’t take himself to these places, which is why I took him. They used to do this at the airport but not anymore. That person referred me to a bank downtown that required an account to do it there. It turned out my bank was able to do it, but by the time I figured that out, we had been out for three hours. He also wants me to help him find a job. Since he can’t hear, he needs help with the interview process because just about every employer refuses to do a text interview or set up an ASL interpreter to interview on FaceTime, or a similar program. He did have a job, but long story short, he blew it. I would be tougher on him except this is the one who has something mentally going on that I am unable to get help for until he lets me get him in for counseling. (Since he’s an adult, I can’t force this unless he is a harm to himself or others.). I believe if we could pinpoint what is happening mentally, then we would could access services to help him. But since he has this idea that a mental issue means he is stupid, he will not work with me on this. We really should not shame people who have mental problems. Anyway, yesterday came, and I spent that with another son taking the 5-mile walk to work off my stress. (That worked. I felt a lot better after that walk.) However, after I came home to sit to write, I got so sick to my stomach that I had to spend an hour in bed. By then, I was too wiped out to write, so I spent time with the TV. Today is Thursday. I might actually get something written today. But first, I thought I’d write this post because I have a lot going on inside my head that needs to be dumped out before I can make it to the creative side of my brain.

So anyway, that has been my week so far. And every day I was supposed to write but didn’t, there’s this voice in the back of my mind saying, “You have failed, Ruth. At one time, you wrote books, and you actually made this a thriving business where you could support your family. Now you would probably be better off taking an outside job.” And maybe I would. I am currently bouncing the idea of doing temporary jobs. Maybe something for the Christmas season. Then I think, “If I do that, who will manage the house? Who will run the errands when they pop up? When will I have time to walk? Will I still have time to cook the meals that will improve my health?” Look, I know people say, “Let the house go dirty. Let the chores go undone.” That will only stress me out more. Maybe you aren’t bothered by dirt and laundry/dishes/trash that gets piled up, but I am. I can’t focus until my home is in order. My mom would be happy since growing up, I was a pretty messy kid.

I think this is why some authors are going to using AI to write books. I think it’s the pressure. Pressure comes in several forms.

Pressure to make money is one of them. The money thing is tangible. It’s something you can actually measure. When you need to pay bills, you need money to do that. I am very fortunate in that my husband works and the kids who are able to are helping, but even then, I sometimes need to dig into my writing income to make up for something that pops up, like a car repair. I’m now 50. My husband is now 52. We are just now realizing that we need to do some investments so we have something for retirement. I try not to get depressed when I think of the time we lost in not doing this sooner. Doing that won’t change anything. But this is the time to get our act together, and I do try to scrape whatever I can from my writing money to put into a retirement account. When people write to me about how they’re on a limited income, I want to say, “You and me both.” I don’t have this waterfall of money coming in. I used to. I won’t lie. It was great. But that all came down to luck and timing. I happened to start publishing books when the Kindle was brand new and it was easy to get noticed. Back then, it was easier to send someone a free book if they wanted it. (And a lot of people want free books.) The thing is, I could use the money from my books. I don’t mean to come off as a snark as I write this, but I have invested time, money, and energy into these books. I did work to make them. I am not using AI in any step of this process. It’s all me. I don’t think it’s selfish of me to ask to be paid for the work I did. I mean, if I were to work at a mall helping Santa, people would understand that I deserve a paycheck. But a lot of writers are asked to give out their work for free as if what they did isn’t deserving of money.

Another pressure authors face is frequency of releases. I know that people mean it as a compliment when they ask, “When is your next book coming out?” I understand that this comes from a place of love. But this still hurts. It takes time to think of the story idea, to write it down, and then to edit it so it’s ready for the world. That process used to take me 4-5 months. Now, with all the stuff I have happening in my personal life, it takes almost a year. Granted, I work on about 3 books at a time, so I think that comes out to 2 books a year. Three is too ambitious at this point. So I go through all of that work on a single book. I publish it, and the next day, there’s the “When is the next book coming out?” question. I can’t speak for other authors, but this stresses me out. I know that stress is my doing. I have tried to place that in the “don’t worry about it” category, but that question continues to linger in the back of my mind once a person asks it. So, like it or not, the question is there. The expectation of me being able to produce the book FAST is there. I have no idea how to deal with it, except to stop writing series. That’s a killer right there since some people won’t read Book 1 until the entire series is done, and at that point, we’re looking at four or five years, given my current pacing.

That leads to two other pressures in the author world.

The more time that goes between one book and another in a series, the lower potential that series has of making good money. That’s a form a pressure in itself. People may forget about the series. People may lose interest in the series. It’s not intentional. It just happens. Then if they get an email from me about a release, they won’t remember my name (or maybe, they have lost interest), and they unsubscribe from my newsletter. I don’t take these things personally. Tastes change. I’m fine with that.

Some people don’t read standalones. Standalones are harder to sell than series. That’s why so many authors do series. It’s a marketing tool. If people get invested in Book 1, chances are good that they’ll go on to Book 2, etc. With a standalone, the book is done, and people figure that’s it. Even if the standalones take place in the same world with the same characters popping up here and there, there is something about the cohesion of the “series” that is more of a pull to some readers. My guess is that the readers who prefer series are fast readers. They probably go through a series in a couple of days. So for them, it’s quick and easy. They don’t realize that writing the book took a lot of time. I was watching a TV series the other day to wind down so I could “de-stress”, and I thought, “I watched four episodes in two hours. I wonder how long each episode actually took to make?” I mean, on my end, it was easy. I only had to sit back and consume the content. But I know it wasn’t quick for the people creating the episodes. I don’t know everything that goes on with creating a TV series, but certainly you have your writers, you have the voice actors, and you have the people who need to do the animation. (The animation is probably done on a computer these days, but I’m sure they have to work with some software to make the cartoon happen). I’m sure there’s also some research and editing that goes on as well. There are a lot of moving parts to create something, no matter what it is.

So why do I say AI will be attractive to some authors?

AI is going to take a lot of the pressure out of creating a book. If you can jot down a story idea–maybe get an outline going–and feed that into an AI program, it can produce something quickly. Then all you have to do is read through the story and edit it. Clean it up. I bet that saves months off the work. Then you can confidently produce stuff fast for readers. People debate whether or not you can tell if something is written by AI. If you are familiar with a certain writer’s style, then yes, I’m sure you can tell if that specific author used AI. But let’s say this is a new author to you. How would you know? Writers have many different styles in their storytelling. There have been a few books that I checked out in the KU library that made me think, “Either this is a brand new writer, a writer whose second language is English, or this was written by AI.” My hunch is that I probably did read an AI book somewhere along the way, but the style could very well be from a brand new author (because writing is typically chunky at that stage), and if someone is writing a book in English without English being their first language, I can see them wording things differently than a native English writer would, too. But there is definitely something “different” about some of the books I’ve come across.

So I get why an author would use AI. AI takes shortcuts. It enables readers to get books faster. It has the potential to earn money since books are getting out there faster. I don’t think most readers care if the book was written by AI as long as they enjoy the story. I realize there will always be some readers who will raise hell over this issue, but I think as a majority, readers don’t care.

If you have an author who you like AND you want that author (not some AI program) to keep writing their books, support them. Buy their books. Don’t ask for free ones. If they have ones that are free, then, by all means, take them. But don’t send them an email about how you love their work but can’t afford books. If you truly value the author, you will buy their books. If you can’t afford to buy books, go to a library or use a subscription service like KU, Kobo Plus, or Everand. There are legitimate ways you can get books without buying them. Review their books. It doesn’t have to be a long review. You can just leave a sentence saying that you enjoyed it. Tell others about their books. If you come across someone who would like the kind of books the author writes, let them know about it. In my experience, readers trust other readers more than they trust authors to tell them about a good book. Writers are biased. Readers are not. If you contact the author, just tell them you enjoyed the book. Do not follow up with a, “When is the next one going to be out?” or “When will you write this particular book?” I can already tell you the answer to these questions. The next book will be out when the writer’s life is settled enough where they can get it done. Also, not all story ideas are ready to write at the moment they are conceived. Some books take time to think through before we can even start writing them. You can’t rush the process (unless you want AI to do it). And the purpose of this segment is to help authors avoid using AI. Get to know them. I don’t know where your author hangs out, but it never hurts to engage with them on some level. You don’t have to discuss their books with them. You can simply get to know them as a person. Start off casual and go from there. It doesn’t have to be deep to establish a connection. We don’t just publish for money. We publish to share our stories with others. Knowing that others are enjoying the books–and knowing WHO these people are–gives us a reason to keep publishing. If we didn’t want this connection, we would just write stories and keep them in a folder. Most of the time, we have no idea where to find you. It’s easier for you to find us.

I don’t know if this post is going to end up being a rant because I am frustrated. I’m trying to keep a cool head, though.

In movies and even in books, authors are often portrayed as living off of their writing income in a big house (often in a remote area) where they have all this time to relax while working on their next very popular and high selling book. So I don’t blame people when they think that someone like me is living this way. A lot of people probably think I start the day with a cup of coffee, sit on the dock overlooking the lake (or perhaps sitting on my patio while looking at the mountains), and then spending a few hours on my computer (in my “writer’s office”) effortlessly typing away as I work on my books. Everything in my house is quiet. While I have my husband and children still at home, they are all either at work or leaving me in peace to do my work. Then when I’m done, I will have a full course meal that was quick to make, eat with my family at the large dining room table, and perhaps I’ll end the evening with a stroll along my huge acreage or maybe wind down with a glass of wine while watching a movie with my husband.

That, everyone, is a fantasy.

Here’s the truth…

I rent a duplex smack-dab in the middle of a city just south of Omaha. We often hear the ambulance from the nearby hospital, and there are cars with loud music often passing by. Yes, my four children (ages 19-22) still live with me. Two are going to college–one to become an auto mechanic and the other to be a High School or College Math Teacher. The other does have a full-time job, but it’s not enough for him to live on his own due to the cost of everything having skyrocketed over the past few years. The other one lost his job (but it was his fault, so I can’t blame the employer). I’m quickly coming to realize that there is something mentally going on with him, but I don’t know what. He’s 20. That makes him an adult. I can’t force him to get tested or to see a counselor. I’ve looked into it, but unless he poses a threat to others or himself, I can’t make him do anything. And he refuses because society has done a good job of making people believe if there is something mentally wrong with you, then you are stupid. And he doesn’t want to be stupid. He is also deaf, which creates further problems in trying to explain things to him. There is a language barrier that occurs between the hearing and deaf world. As much as you try to teach the English language or as much as you learn to sign, speaking people naturally understand subtle things that the deaf world doesn’t. This ends up creating friction. I’m not saying this is for all deaf people, but it’s been true for my son. (For example, at the clinic earlier this year, the ASL interpreter asked the standard question the doctor wanted to know, which was, “Do you ever get depressed or feel like committing suicide?” My son didn’t thought she signed, “You should kill yourself because you’re sad.” It took a couple of days for me to explain what she meant. Stuff like this happens quite a bit for him. That is what I mean by the language barrier. I’m sure it doesn’t help that he already has a tendency to be paranoid about things. He is now scared to go back to the doctor. Until I can get him to a counselor and then for some testing, I won’t know what is really going on. The teachers all thought he had autism. We have tested him a couple of times for that, and he always came out negative for autism. So what now? All I can do is wait. But in the meantime, I can’t treat him like I do the other kids. He needs more of my time and care. He can be independent to some extent, but until he gets professional help, I don’t think he should live on his own. Now, my other kids? Yes, at some point, they will be on their own, and they will be fine.

Anyway, with that as a background, here is my typical day.

I wake up, and the first thing I do is take care of my eyes with a warm compress because of my dry eye condition. Then I get dressed, gather the laundry, and head on downstairs. I start a load of laundry immediately. I do laundry for everyone in this house. (I know some of you won’t like hearing that, but the clothes have to be put into the washer a certain way, or it will get unbalanced and cause extra time and frustration to balance, and balancing wet clothes or blankets is a huge pain.) Usually, I do 3-4 loads a day. I fold and put everything away as soon as the clothes are done because if I don’t, chances are good that I’ll have to wash them again without people wearing them first. Also, long story short, we have all agreed that towels need to be washed after one use because yeast can linger on these things. (We learned this the hard way.) Towels take up a lot of room.

Anyway, after starting the first load of laundry for the day, I’ll clean up the kitchen. This doesn’t take long, but it does involve me putting away dishes and putting dirty ones in the dishwasher. I usually have a full load to start if I cook something for breakfast. (Now, my kids do make their own food, but they are not into making anything from scratch. I do that for my meals, but usually, only my husband will eat what I make. Sometimes I make breakfast, but most of the time, I’ll wait until lunch time to eat because I’m not hungry yet.) I clear off the counters and clean them.

This is where things start to get iffy on whether or not I can write. Sometimes I go for a walk because it’s the only time when my second son (the future teacher) has time to go downtown with me, and I like having someone to talk to while I walk. He likes to do the full 5 mile trek. We park in Council Bluffs, Iowa at the Bob Kerry Bridge. Then we cross the Missouri River, and that takes us into downtown Omaha, Nebraska. From there, we go around the Old Market where, if it’s hot, I’ll get a tea to help cool down. I can sweat when it’s 60 degrees out, everyone. I don’t start off sweating. I might be a little cool, but within a half hour, I’m fine. And then an hour later, I’m hot. If it’s 60, I can go without the tea, but if it’s close to 70, I need something cold to help bring down my internal thermometer or I become a puddle of sweat. Meanwhile, other people are wearing jackets and coats. My son is even wears a flannel shirt over his t-shirt.

Anyway, he insists on the long walk, and that takes a total of three hours when you count getting there, walking, and coming home. By then, I have to make lunch. I cut up vegetables to cook with the meat. From start to finish, this takes a good two hours, but I’m also doing some laundry between all of this, too. I don’t like to write when I eat because I’ll forget to eat, and my food will go cold, and I can’t rush eating at the TV either because now if I eat too fast, the food won’t go down the right way. That is not fun for me or anyone who happens to be in the room. This is the day when I only eat one meal, so I usually have two salads (with different types of veggies), a bowl of fruit, my main veggie and meat dish, and dark chocolate. On average, I will spend 2-3 hours a day in the kitchen cooking. I used to eat out, but that got expensive. Now, I go to Trader Joe’s, and I cook everything from scratch. I have even created some new recipes. I have found cutting vegetables actually relaxes me, so I enjoy it. I end up taking about an hour to eat. I know, it’s insane. I used to eat fast when I was younger. But then, I have to do another load of dishes because the stuff I used to cook the meal is quite a bit, and the pan is a good size. I save some for my husband so he has something when he comes home from dinner. Then I finish with laundry, take out trash, take a shower, and do my wind down routine (and yes, taking care of my eyes is a part of this). Then I listen to a book while I drift off to sleep. My husband typically comes home after I’m in bed. I wake up around 4am. I get to bed around 5-6pm. He gets off work at 5pm, but it takes him time to get home. So that’s it. My non-writing day. I do the walk to stay in good physical health. I typically walk about 3 times a week. Sometimes I’ll go for 4 if I go on a weekend with my husband and son.

Now, on the non-walking days, I might get in some writing. I might get in some writing if someone doesn’t need to talk to me. About 50% of the time, I’ll get a phone call, a text, or someone will come into my room. Usually, it’s one of the kids or my husband. But sometimes it has to do with “other”, and I hate “other”. For example, today I had to deal with the bank. At other times, I end up having to leave the house to run an errand. I have sometimes used a day to do my grocery shopping because when my husband doesn’t come along, I can save at least $50. He likes to buy the cookies, cakes, and ice cream. I don’t buy these things, and he doesn’t like that because then he’s stuck with only healthy food. This man is so good at spotting a sweet treat that he will actually find something tucked away toward the very back of the fridge (behind even the salads I’ve prepared) to get to it. Meanwhile, the salads go untouched. If it turns out, my husband or kids want to talk, I do stop writing to talk to them. They don’t bug me about stupid stuff. These are things that are really troubling them, so I feel it’s only fair to give them my undivided attention. I will say that they have learned that writing is a job for me.

I take weekends off since that’s when most people are off work so I can spend time with them.

That typically leaves me with 2-3 days when I actually do write. I love to write, but there are aspects of it that are stressful. I won’t go into all of that here since the post got long. Let’s just say that stress does make it difficult to be creative, and when an author isn’t creative, it’s like pulling teeth to write the book. I used to be able to write a lot faster. Back then, I ate out a lot (so I didn’t spend so much time in the kitchen) and had kids in school while my husband worked (so that was uninterrupted time). I also didn’t do much exercise. Things have shifted, and I have found that I’m busier than ever. I also want to do romance horror under a pen name. I have pretty much given up on marketing. I did not start making money because I was good at marketing. I happened to come into this at the gold rush days of self-publishing. That was luck and timing. Nothing else. There was no secret to how I managed to make a living at this, and quite frankly, I’m more surprised than anyone else that this ever happened to me. Fast food workers make more than I do at this point, and I have over 100 books out. Yes, that does create some stress because I’m told that if I was doing the right things, I’d be making more money, and I’m not. I have tried some things to market, but they all failed, and quite frankly, that only stressed me out even more. Honestly, I don’t want to market. It is sucking all the fun out of this for me.

Okay, so the last thing I have to say is that please understand that I can’t write books as fast as I used to. Life just doesn’t permit it for me, and it stresses me out when someone asks me when I’ll have another book out. I don’t know. I’m doing good if I can write 2,000 words a week right now. And I really need this pen name because I need something fresh to work on. I have done 100 romances, and it’s hard for me to keep up that kind of momentum on one single genre. I need to do some horror for a change to help equal things out. So my new estimate is that I might be able to get 2 books out next year. I need to stop doing series. Too many people refuse to read a series until it’s done. I know I already started the Marriage by Chemical Series, so I’ll keep that, but this Marriage by Holiday Series has to go. Masquerade Bride is now going to be a standalone. I can’t keep up the kind of pacing to make a quick enough turnaround work for series books anymore.

Things have been very slow around here on the writing front, and now I’m dealing with a head cold. I had to take a step back from the pace I was going at earlier this summer. Some authors have no trouble sticking to one genre. Some readers like to only read one genre. I’m not built that way as a reader or a writer. I like a variety of genres. I find the variety keeps me engaged. If I stick to just one thing, I get bored. I hate to say it, but after I read enough books in a certain genre, they all start to read the same. The same is true for writing. If I don’t have enough variety to work with, I will feel like I’m writing a story like one I’ve already done. If I allow myself to break off to write in other genres, then I come back feeling like my Regencies and Historical Western Romances are fresh and new.

But I still love romance. Whatever I write, I want there to be a love story with a happy ending. That’s why I have to explore different genres within the romance world. I am going to dive into horror romance. I did some reading for dark romance, which is the closest category I could find in my “horror romance” search. While a few of those books were definitely a fun trip to take, I have noticed that most of them are not for me. So I’ll probably be aiming my stuff more for gothic romance. However, these are going to be contemporary. I need a break from the historical setting. I want to work with modern day technology. I’m putting horror romance under a pen name. It’s much too different from what I do over here. The reason I mention all of this is that my writing time will be divided between the books I over here and the books I’ll be doing elsewhere. I plan to still be active with my writing. I just won’t be able to get as many books out under “Ruth Ann Nordin”, and that’s okay. If I don’t branch off to do this other thing, I’ll end up getting bored with the Regencies and Historical Westerns altogether.

So let’s look at what I currently have up on my To Do list.

I am almost at 40,000 words in Masquerade Bride.

This one has been a lot of fun. It has the fantasy element to it, but it’s not a fantasy romance. The fantasy aspect is too small to fit that category. I probably have about 20,000 more words left to go. The heroine has found out who her ideal love match is. She now has to go about securing him. But after that, I have a couple of things I’ll need to tie up. This wasn’t just a story about her discovering her love match. It turned into a book where she learns something about herself as well. That second part was unexpected, but it makes the story that much more interesting, in my opinion. It’s fun when characters grow in some way through the course of the book.

My hope is that this will be out early 2026.

These are the other two books I have in the works.

The Science of Love (Marriage by Chemistry: Book 2) is a Regency with the angle of using a love potion to secure a love match. I expect this to be fun, though probably not a comedy. I am already four chapters into this, and things are smoothly rolling along. In this case, it’s the heroine who is going to try the love potion on the hero. The hero, by the way, is the one who is trying to make the love potion work. But he won’t know she’s using it on him. So yeah, fun stuff. All I can say is that I hope no one expects me to explain anything to do with chemistry in this book. I have a limited working knowledge of the subject. I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of a love potion and what people would do to test it out. That’s the main thing I’m looking at this series.

The Preacher’s Wife (Wyoming Series: Book 2) has been significantly slow in progress. I am finally at 35,000 words. It’s not a matter of not knowing what to do next. It’s HOW to do it that’s been holding me up. It’s important that the plot is executed just right. I don’t want things to feel rushed or that it’s too slow. I also don’t want to force anything into the story that shouldn’t be there. The whole book needs to flow smoothly all the way through in order to be “right”. That’s been the hold up on this one. It’s the execution of the plot that’s been troubling me. I think in August I got about 1,000 words written in it. This month, it’s been about 2,000. All of it has been like pulling teeth. Masquerade Bride and The Science of Love aren’t giving me this particular problem, which is why I’ve made better progress on them. I’m tempted to put this on hold, but we’ll see what happens in October.

It took me an extra day to get this on Google Play in audio form, so I am announcing this today. I will be working on getting this on Apple in audio form and getting it made into a paperback within the next few weeks. Below are the links where you can find it:Amazon (as an ebook)Amazon (digitally narrated)Audible (digitally narrated)Barnes & NobleKobo (included in Plus)AppleGoogle Play (as an ebook)Google Play (digitally narrated)SmashwordsEverand