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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.

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* 

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

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/

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. 

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

Book One

Book Two

Book Three

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

So here is the old cover and old title:

I thought the title was a little too long, so I shortened it to An Inconvenient Wife.  I then decided to label this series as the Wedded Earls Series.  I’d like to branch out and do another Regency Series, so I thought I’d focus on a particular title in the nobility line for each series but keep the “Wedded” part.  So I’m working on Wedded Earls.  Next I think I’ll do Wedded Dukes.  We’ll see how things play out after that.

So here’s the new cover:

It took an hour to do, and I put two pictures together.  I will be working on changing the Hasty Marriage book tomorrow.  I might change that title as well or I might keep it.  I haven’t decided yet, but I will remove “The Earl’s” from the title to shorten it up.

Now for today’s post…

I’m stealing this idea from Joleene Naylor who has been running a series of posts where people get to ask her characters anything they wish, and those characters have to answer the questions (or try to wiggle a way out of them ).  To see what I mean, here’s her blog: http://joleenenaylor.wordpress.com/).  Those are fun interviews to read, so I thought I’d do the same on this blog.

Since I have so many characters, I figure I’ll go with my more popular books (ones that are mentioned the most in emails, in Facebook comments, and blog comments).  Here are the characters I’ve picked.  If you would like to see a character featured that I don’t have on the list, please let me know and I’ll put the character up. 

Here’s the list:

• Dave Larson (hero in Eye of the Beholder)
• Mary Larson (heroine in Eye of the Beholder)
• Neil Craftsman (hero in His Redeeming Bride)
• Joel Larson (hero in Shotgun Groom)
• Chris West (hero in Suddenly a Bride)
• Citlali (hero in Bound by Honor, Bound by Love; I get more interest in him than the other characters in the Native American Romance series so I picked him)
• John Evans (hero in Loving Eliza)
• Eliza Evans (heroine in Loving Eliza)

I don’t know if any female characters stuck out with anyone, so I picked two as potential candidates.  It tends to be the men that I hear mostly about.  I can combine some of these characters into an interview.  Like John and Eliza could go together, so if you had questions for both of them, that could work into one interview.

Right now, I’m just getting an idea of what characters you’d like to ask questions.  These questions can be anything you want to know.  Some ideas off the top of my head are, “Why did you do X instead of Y in your book,” “What is the best thing about a certain character in the book,” “What was your favorite scene,” “Coke or Pepsi,” “If you were an animal, which one would you be,” “What do you think about the author,” “What is your favorite book/song/movie,” etc.  Feel free to get creative. 

So if you would like to see a character interviewed not mentioned on the list or if you already have some questions in mind, please comment. 

1.  You don’t need to read the Nebraska Series in order.

Each book was written to stand alone.  The same is true for all of my other series except for the Native American Series.  So I suggest reading whatever book(s) interest you in the Nebraska Series.  The only books I could see possibly being better read in order are Eye of the Beholder, His Redeeming Bride and Isaac’s Decision since those have a common storyline underlying them.  When I wrote Eye of the Beholder, I knew Isaac would marry Emily.  That is why I made Isaac a boy.  I already knew Cassie would have Emily (a girl), and when I was trying to decide if Dave and Mary would have a boy or girl, I decided they’d have a boy so I could marry Isaac and Emily up.  A lot of people told me they felt the abduction part of Eye of the Beholder was unnecessary, but I had His Redeeming Bride and Isaac’s Decision in mind when I wrote the end to Eye of the Beholder (something people didn’t know). 

The same situation does not apply to the other Nebraska Series books.  I mean, I will bring in the same characters, and Dave and Mary will end up with a trilogy within the series once Forever Yours is done.  But all of those books can stand alone.   I am going to jump around in the timeline.  I have to write the books as they’re ready, and some are ready at different times in the series, if that makes sense.  I can’t force it.  I tried forcing it in the past and had a horrible time of it.  I can’t say I’m forcing Bound by Honor, Bound by Love, but I am having trouble connecting with the characters so I’ve slowed down in writing it.  I’d rather take longer and have the book be the best it can be instead of rushing it.  I’m still aiming for this summer to publish it, but we’ll see.

Anyway, another thought about the Nebraska Series…

2.  I can write Richard and Amanda’s book. 

I didn’t think I could, but I went back to the timeline to figure out when things happened for the characters.   Since Eye of the Beholder was the first book I wrote in the series, I use that as my reference point.  If I’m right (and I will go back and check), the Larsons moved to Nebraska in 1865.  In 1866, Richard and Amanda had the twins.  So this leaves some wiggle room I didn’t realize was there.  (I can see them not being in love if she’s pregnant but I want them in love when the children are born, and since they were in Nebraska a year before the children were born, this is possible to have them in Nebraska for their romance.)

Someone mentioned Richard and Amanda marrying out of convenience, rather than love.  I don’t think I ever stated they married for love in any of the past books I’ve done so this can be a doable (and even attractive) plot.  I love marriages that start out along a convenience plot….or a marriage where it’s forced.  So could Richard and Amanda leave New York to escape an unpleasant situation?  That’s very likely.  I’ll have to think about it.

3.  It looks like I need new covers for the Regencies.

The question came up of whether I’d do paperback versions, and I’ve read through the terms and conditions of the agreement with the company I got the pre-made covers from.  It sounds like I can’t put those covers on paperbacks.  I don’t know how many people want paperback versions of my books, but I’ve always made them.  They’re actually easier to make than the ebook version because formatting is a breeze compared to the requirements at Amazon and through Smashwords.   (I’ve been making paperbacks longer than ebooks, so that’s part of why it’s easier.) 

So I’ll be looking into other covers.  It might be for the best.  Pre-made covers can be used by anyone and might cause confusion in the long run.

4.  The proof copies for Shotgun Groom and Isaac’s Decision came in, and they look good.

The question might arise at this point on why my paperbacks are on Amazon and nowhere else (unless you buy it used).  It all has to do with price.  On Amazon, I can keep paperbacks at $7.99, which is the same price publishers ask for romance novels.  But if I put them on other sites like Barnes & Noble, it would be about $10.99.  (Amazon would want their cut for distributing to B&N, and this does mean the book would be $10.99 on Amazon, too.)  Anyone out there want to pay the extra amount to get the paperback on B&N?  If so, I can make it happen.  I was staying just on Amazon to cut out the extra expense for those who wanted paperbacks.

As for bookstores and overseas, I’m sorry but I have no control over distribution beyond what CreateSpace (through Amazon) allows.  My books are not in physical bookstores.  I’m a self-published author, not one with a big publisher.   

As for Lulu, I have done some proofs through there and am not completely satisfied with the quality I see.  The books look more professional when they’re done through CreateSpace, and I do aim to be as professional as possible.  I want my paperbacks to look like the paperbacks you’ll find in bookstores.  That’s always been important to me.

5.  Can I do extra scenes on this blog? 

Scenes I mean are stuff that didn’t show up in books, like when John and Eliza (from Loving Eliza) found Brian all by himself and took him home.  So these are things that never made it in the book but might be of interest.

I have tried several times to do these kinds of posts, and each time the story wants to expand.   Whenever I do a short story, it wants to be a novella but then that novella wants to be a novel.  My average is 70,000 words.  I don’t think I can successfully write a short story.  I’ve attempted it and most people weren’t happy with the results (when I thought I did succeed).  They always want it to be longer.  That’s not a bad problem to have.  But it also means I am not a short story writer.

So I can’t.  I tried to make those posts, but each time, it didn’t work.