A Letter to My Lord Hades

Disclaimer: This post is for fun.  There’s this book by Stephannie Beman which she and I started co-writing back in 2008. 

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What happened so that my name didn’t end up on it? 

I decided I wanted to dedicate my time to writing historical westerns, specifically books about the Larsons.  Stephannie had plans to expand the series based off the Greek myths, and I decided to release my part of the book to her.  So she is now the full copyright owner of the book.  She is working on Aphrodite’s book, Loving the Goddess of Love, as we speak, and she has plans for more.  So you see, I wanted to go in another direction.  I love the Larsons the most of all the men I’ve written.  I have plans to write at least 30 Nebraska books in addition to the Regencies and other contemporaries I’m working on.  I am way too busy to delve into the Greek world.  And yes, Stephannie and I worked it all out in a contract.

That disclaimer aside, I thought it would be fun to write a letter to Hades for her blog post.   (Hopefully, my husband won’t read it.  )

My dear Hades,

       It’s come to my attention that Persephone might not be happy with being stranded in the Underworld.  I have no idea why.  I mean, look at you!  You’re gorgeous!  I wrote her a letter to explain that you’ve admired her from afar as she waltzed among the flowers in her garden under the careful eye of her mother, Demeter.  I explained about your years of sorrow stuck in Tartarus until Zeus and Poseidon released you to help them win the war against the Titans, and when they promised you a kingdom, they made you god of the Underworld.  Despite the good you’d done, you were punished once more.  Even so, she was the one bright spot in your lonely life, and when you brought her to the Underworld, it was to be your wife and reign by your side. 

Unfortunately, she sent the letter back.  Hey, I’m with you on this one.  Demeter’s been holding her back from realizing her full potential.  You see it, I see it, Thanatos (aka Death) sees it.  I think even Aphrodite sees it, and we all thought she was an airhead. 

So I just wanted to write and let you know that if thing don’t work out with Persephone, I’d be willing to leave everything behind to be with you.  You don’t have to worry about me complaining about the lack of sunlight.  I’m a night owl.  I’m used to the dark.  Worried I won’t eat while I’m there?  No problem.  I have a great appetite.  Think I’ll miss my life above ground?  Again, not an issue.  I have my laptop with high-speed WiFi connection.  In case you fear I’ll get bored, don’t.  I have lots of books to write and I’d love to spend an eternity to write them.  I am very low maintenance, sensible, and (given enough chocolate) very lovable.  At least keep me in mind, okay? 

What I could look like for you. Much better than Persephone. Am I right or am I right?

Your loving fan,

Ruth (goddess of writing romances–how does that sound, Hades?)

***

Tomorrow morning, Stephannie’s doing a post on her blog debating whether or not Persephone is happy in the Underworld, and she’s going to link to my letter to Hades.

Updates

I’m happy to say I’m back into a writing routine.  My husband will return next week and disrupt it, I’m sure.    But for now, I’m settled back into it.  What disrupted it for three weeks was the change in my sleeping schedule (prompted by sick kids and not knowing if I would get a nap while they were in school).  I’m a night owl, so writing during the day is difficult.  I do better with emails, making covers, and other more logical pursuits in the morning while creative writing picks up in the afternoon to late at night.  In fact, I can write a lot easier around the 10pm to 2am mark than at any other time of the day.  Lately though, as soon as 11pm hits, I have to go to bed now.  Maybe when my husband is back I can go back to the old routine or maybe I’ll keep this one.  Who knows?

I will say I’ve made lots of progress with book covers over the past three weeks because of this.  I finally settled on the cover I want for Forever Yours.  I used the same pictures but adjusted the woman (aka Mary).  Here it is:

Now for other updates on what I’m doing:

1.  An Inconvenient Wife

I’m at the 35,000 word mark, which puts me at the halfway point in my estimated word count.  I’m afraid to say the hero and heroine are now getting along, which nixes my plans for her dressing up as a stable boy to run off.  But this is what the characters want, so I’m going along for the ride and hoping they give me something to go on.  They did introduce a sleazy brother-in-law in the chapter I’m currently writing, so maybe there’s something to him I can use.

2.  Her Heart’s Desire

I’m at the 40,000 word mark now.  Rick and Sally are now married and his parents are moving to Omaha, and they won’t be happy he married too soon.  That should be fun to write, esp. when they find out Sally manipulated things to get his attention.    

I expect to finish An Inconvenient Wife before this book.  The plan at the moment is to publish An Inconvenient Wife in May.  Her Heart’s Desire is expected to be out in June.

3.  Bound by Honor, Bound by Love

This one isn’t far behind.  I expect to publish it in July.  So it’s going to be a busy three months.  Currently, Citlali has given Onawa a very subtle warning that the chief doesn’t intend to let Penelope and Cole with the Mandan children they adopted at the end of A Chance In Time.  Meanwhile, Citlali’s brother has come out and told Onawa that Citlali’s first love will always be his duty to the tribe and not her.  What happens with Penelope and Cole will set the stage for a lot of things in this book. 

4.  At the moment, the other books are on hold.  I want to start Forever Yours soon only because Eye of the Beholder and To Have and To Hold are fresh in my mind.  I’d like to bring in a couple of characters in for an interview.  We’ll see if I get inspired to do that in the next couple of days.  *fingers crossed* 

To Have and To Hold is Up….With a Few Disclaimers

I was going to wait to announce that I published To Have and To Hold, but while I was getting this book ready, I decided to polish up Eye of the Beholder.  I didn’t do anything major with Eye of the Beholder.  I caught a couple of typos and fixed them (one of them being when Dave says “for now on”, I changed it to “from now on”).  Very minor things.  I also shortened Jessica’s explanation of how she and Tom met since I wrote A Bride for Tom.  Who needs to know the details when it’s in the book, right?  So like I said, I did minor adjustments.

I also had to go through the entire book of Eye of the Beholder because I had six or seven versions.  At one time, I had a sex-free version, a Christian version, a Harlequin version, a Wild Rose Press version, a version where I had different scenes, and the version I ended up going with.  I couldn’t remember which version was the final one because I never labeled the versions (and Eye of the Beholder 1, 2, etc) was no help at all.  So I picked the paperback version, which I knew was it, looked it over, had a proofreader look it over, and then polished it up.  All the other versions have been trashed.  The reason I had Harlequin and Wild Rose Press versions is because I had submitted this book to them.  I can’t say they rejected it because they didn’t, but they wanted me to make changes I didn’t want to make.  For example, description.  I’m sorry, guys, but I am not a description-loving reader, and I’m not that way as a writer.  I skim over descriptions because to me, they slow the plot.  I like dialogue and action.  This is why my books don’t suit everyone.  Some people love description and want to know how everything looks. It’s just personal preferences, and I say to each his/her own. 

For one month, I’m offering a coupon for a free download of Eye of the Beholder.  So if you have the old version and would like the polished up one, here is the link: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3100 and this is the coupon: GU24M. 

So I ramble about all of the above to say one of the changes I made to Eye of the Beholder was announcing the book To Have and To Hold at the end where I gave the first chapter.  Because of this, I decided it as better to publish on Amazon right away.  I could have put “Coming March 2012″, but that seemed silly since March is only two weeks away.

I did publish it on Smashwords to get the ball rolling on distributing it to B&N, Apple, Sony, Diesel and Kobo (though Kobo is having so many problems right now uploading Smashwords’ books, who knows when it’ll be up there?).   I know I have Nook readers, but I really want to support Smashwords, so I’m using Smashwords to go up on B&N.  The founder of Smashwords has done a lot for authors, and this is my way of saying thank you.  I’ll make an announcement when To Have and To Hold is up on B&N.   Currently, I’m “pending approval” for distribution, which means Smashwords has to make sure my book is formatted right.  Ever since Amazon has come up with KDP Select which requires authors to pull out of B&N (and other sites) to be in the program, the process of getting on B&N is quicker.  So I’m hoping it’ll be up in less than a month.  With Isaac’s Decision, it was up on B&N within 2.5 weeks of uploading to Smashwords.  Before that, it was a month.  So we’ll see.

As for a contest for a chance to win To Have and To Hold, my mind is a blank.  Anyone got any compelling ideas?

For those interested:

To Have and To Hold is on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Have-Hold-ebook/dp/B007AITTYS/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_12

To Have and To Hold is on Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/133850

Passing Along a Contest by Lauralynn Elliott

I know some of you like paranormals, so I am passing along a contest by Lauralynn Elliott.   She’s offering three free novellas to anyone who comments and states an interest in getting them. 

Here are the details:

I’m giving away all three novellas in the Libby Fox series to everyone who comments. This will go through Saturday, Feb. 18, at midnight, Eastern Standard Time. All you have to do is comment and ask for the books, and I’ll send you a coupon code for all three on Smashwords. If you would like to tell me, I would also like to know your favorite Valentine candy, and I would love to hear any good Valentine’s Day stories you want to share. PLEASE be sure to leave your email address so I can send you your coupon codes!

Here’s the link to enter the contest: http://lauralynnelliott.com/2012/02/14/valentines-day-giveaway/

Here’s a link for her books: http://lauralynnelliott.com/books/

Adjusting the Works in Progress List

I was going through my goals for 2012 today (something I do about twice a month), and my husband and I are currently debating when to take a vacation.  I don’t want to be heavily involved with any editing (sending the stories off to be edited and proofread are a different matter), but I don’t want to be in that stage.  So I’m trying to plan a way to get three of these current works in progressed published by early summer. 

Focus 1:

Her Heart’s Desire is the logical choice since that is over halfway done. 

An Inconvenient Wife is flowing the best (meaning the storyline is progressing nicely.)

The hard one was choosing the final book to focus on, but I figure it’s time to finish the Native American Romance Series.  Bound by Honor, Bound by Love is the final book in the series, so I’ll focus on that.

I’ll see how things are going on those books (and the others that will be down to a “if I get around to it” for the daily word count) are doing about a month from now and decide if the plan is working or not.  Next month is iffy about meeting word count goals only because my husband will be back and there’s Spring Break for the kids.  I know we’ll be wanting to do things as a family. 

If anyone wonders when To Have and To Hold will be out, it’s due out on Amazon, B&N, and Apple in March.  It’ll be up on Smashwords sooner than the other booksites.  Now, I have no idea when Sony, Diesel and Kobo will put them up.  Those sites take longer, and I haven’t figured out the pattern yet.

This doesn’t mean I won’t be working on Mitch’s Win and Forever Yours.  I’ll do those as time permits. 

Modified the Font on Two of the Covers

Thanks for the feedback, guys!  I changed the fonts on the first two covers so the title is easier to see.  I have learned from this that simple is better.  I was trying to be fancy, but as it turns out, fancy doesn’t work so well.    I guess it’s like they say: K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid)

I’m uploading the whole series for anyone who’d like to see the covers together.

Book One

Book Two

Book Three

Got the Covers for the Other Books in the Wedded Earls Series

I did these in GIMP, too.  The hardest part was finding the right background to fit the color of the dress the women wore.  I picked out about seven backgrounds before all was said and done.  What I’ve learned from this is that it’s all trial and error.  Until you put the woman and the background together, you have no idea if it’s going to work or not. 

I think I’ll start doing a similar format for my historical westerns.  I really enjoyed making these.  I admit that part of the fun in doing the Regency covers is that the gowns are gorgeous.  If only I had the figures these models do…  LOL  I’m more like a Mary Larson. 

Oh, for book 2, I renamed it.  Instead of The Earl’s Hasty Marriage, I decided on The Marriage Agreement, mainly because I haven’t worked out the details of the plot.  All I know is that the hero and heroine enter into a marriage of convenience.  Since book 1 is An Inconvenient Wife, I didn’t want to put the word “convenient” in book 2.  I know, it’s a minor point, but that’s why I didn’t opt for Marriage of Convenience.

Well, without further ado, here are the covers…

Book 2

Book 3