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.

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.