Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 18

To celebrate Christmas, I thought I’d create an audiobook version of the short play I wrote years ago. This particular play had its origins in An Inconvenient Marriage.

The book that inspired the play…

For those of you who’ve read An Inconvenient Marriage, you’ll remember a scene where Jake Mitchell is watching a play written by the heroine’s younger brother. I only gave snippets of the play in the book because the focus was on Jake getting increasingly annoyed by the men who were starting to take an interest in the heroine.

I don’t remember the year, but someone who read An Inconvenient Marriage asked me if I had the entire play written down. She thought it would be something her church might be interested in performing for their Christmas production. I hadn’t considered writing the whole thing out, but I was honored someone would want to take the play and have it performed in a church, so I wrote the whole thing out and sent it her way. Then I published it.

This year, I thought I’d make an audiobook out of it. It’s short. It turned out to be about 7.5 minutes. I uploaded it to You Tube, Rumble, and Bitchute for your listening pleasure. The banner I made for the video turned out blurry. I apologize for that. Next time I’ll work with a larger template when creating my banners.

Below I am pasting the words to this play. I did make some minor changes in the audiobook version. I decided to go with “spirits” instead of “temptations”, though I did make an error in keeping the last name of the spirit, naming it “temptation” instead of “doubt”. I also mistakingly told Craig that the last angel to speak was Angel #2 instead of Angel #1. Since I didn’t get around to uploading the video until Christmas Eve, the mistake will just have to stay in the audiobook.

Here’s the play if you want to read it:

Plot:  Six children leave home to find their way to the true meaning of Christmas.  The angel tells them not to stray from the path or they will get lost.

(It is sunset.  Six children stand at the edge of a forest.  An angel is with them.)

Angel #1 (Instruction)

On this journey you are about to employ,

Is a journey meant for every girl and boy;

Be on your guard in case you stray,

For six temptations might lead you away.

If you venture off this path that was set,

The goal you seek, it will not be met;

For the meaning of this season is not known,

Until you walk this way on your own.

All Children

We will not be led astray,

On this path, we promise to stay

(Angel #1 leaves the stage.  Children walk into the forest.  They come to the first path on their right.)

Temptation #1 (Fearful Dread)

Thomas, incline to me your ear,

For I see that you are standing here;

Look, the sun, another day is gone,

And darkness will now linger on;

Must you walk this place at night,

When terrors await to give you fright?

Thomas

The night is long, I do admit,

And I do tremble a bit;

Your way glows with warmth and light,

I will return come daylight.

(Fearful Dread and Thomas leave the stage.  The five remaining children continue to walk until they reach another path on their left.)

Temptation #2 (Greedy Eyes)

Anna, may I inquire as to your desire,

Now, tell the truth, be not a liar.

Anna

I have come to find the mystery of the season,

I have come here for no other reason.

Temptation #2 (Greedy Eyes)

To tell the truth, you did do,

But I know what is troubling you;

Should you not seek your own pleasure?

For on my path is a toy box of treasure.

Anna

Your path is most delightful, I admit,

Maybe I was hasty to not consider it.

Temptation #2 (Greedy Eyes)

I’ve got shiny, brand new toys,

Toys for girls and toys for boys;

Come and stay, stay and play,

You can walk this path another day.

(Greed and Anna leave the stage.  The four remaining children continue to walk until they reach another path on their right.)

Temptation #3 (Lazy Time)

Tell me this, little Claire,

Who did tell you to beware,

The joy of sleep where dreams await?

Come with me now, for the hour is late.

Claire

I do confess my eyes are falling,

And I hear the Sandman calling;

With you, Lazy Time, I will go,

Show me the way to your pillow.

(Lazy Time and Claire leave the stage.  Angel #2 appears to the remaining three children.)

Angel #2 (Warning)

Behold three are lost who started this way,

Who now has the wisdom to stay?

The three remaining children:

We will stay on the path that was set,

We promise that we shall not forget;

Though temptation comes our way,

We do possess the wisdom to stay.

Angel #2 (Warning)

Beware the temptations, for they are not your friends,

They will lure you from the path’s end;

For they know the path leads to happiness and joy,

And it matters not if you are a girl or a boy.

(Angel #2 leaves the stage.  The three children continue their walk.  It is in the middle of the night.  They come to another path on the left.)

Temptation #4 (Guilty Conscience)

You may have fooled them, but you didn’t fool me,

I know all your secrets, my deceitful Jeffrey;

Your heart is filled with misdeeds, great and small,

I know them each, I know them one and all.

Jeffrey

It is true. I am not worthy to walk this way,

My sins do haunt me night and day;

I am not worthy of the knowledge that awaits,

Not when the night is dark and the hour is late.

(Guilty Conscience and Jeffrey leave the stage.  The two children continue to walk until they reach a path on the left.  It will soon be dawn.)

Temptation #5 (Wishful Thinking)

Oh good Samantha, I do so wish you’d come,

Turn this way for great cheer and fun;

Your friends are calling you from over there,

To continue this path, you should not care.

Samantha

I do confess, I feel great despair,

That none of my friends are with me here;

Yes, with you, I will go around the bend,

I care not to find how this path ends.

(Wishful Thinking and Samantha leave.  One child is left and comes to a path on the right.)

Temptation #6 (Doubt)

Jesse, I hear your footsteps on the leaves,

What brings you here this Christmas Eve?

Jesse

I come seeking the meaning that eludes me,

I wish to know the answer behind the mystery.

Temptation #6 (Doubt)

Such an answer you will not find,

The angel you spoke to was most unkind;

He promised something that isn’t true,

Come with me and I’ll comfort you.

Jesse

Though you cast doubts on my heart,

I will finish the path that I did start;

Go your way for I will not turn aside,

Though there is now no one by my side.

(Doubt leaves the stage, and Jesse finishes the path to find a baby in a manger with Mary and Joseph and shepherds.  It is dawn.)

Angel #1 (Instruction)

Now find the answer that you sought,

Your journey hasn’t been for naught;

Behold the child when he is thirty-three,

Will go to the cross at Calvary;

And on the cross He will die to rise again,

Lord and King, He will cleanse all sin.

At Christmas we celebrate His birth,

Praise Him all you that breathe on the Earth.

(The curtain falls.  The play has ended.)

I don’t know if next year will be a more productive one for me, but I feel like I got little done this year. My sister jokes that I’m the kind of person who will sit at the gate three hours before my flight and spend the whole time worrying I’ll miss takeoff. She’s right. That is my personality type, and it’s why this year has driving me crazy in the writing area.

I’m happy to say I finally got the first drafts done for The Loner’s Bride and Suitable for Marriage. Those books took six months to complete. Usually, I take 3-4 months to finish up a book. I’m hoping next year will be a better one. I have learned my lesson, though, and will not put up a pre-order until the first draft is done. I will do my best to reach the pre-order dates I already have up.

With that aside, let’s get to the heart of this post.

The Cursed Earl is uploaded and ready for January 9

This is Book 2 in the Marriage by Necessity Series.

Here are all of the books in this series:

I can’t tell you how glad I am to finally get The Cursed Earl uploaded so it’s ready for January 9. I was beginning to feel like that book would never come out. If you’d like to pre-order it, here are the links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play

The Loner’s Bride and Suitable for Marriage are in edits

The Loner’s Bride will finish the Wyoming Series.

This is due out March 13.

Here are the books in this series:

I have brought in the main characters from the previous three books to give updates on how they’re doing ten years after the events in The Fugitive’s Bride. In some ways, I think of this book as the epilogue to the series. We get a look at everyone’s happy ending, and it’s cute and fun. I included updates on Lloyd and Pearl since they played key roles in the past stories.

The focus is of this book is on Jeremiah and Katie, of course, since this is their romance. I enjoyed the interaction between the two. They had immediate chemistry. Jeremiah fought it, but Katie didn’t. That allowed me to work some humor into the scenes, and that made this a real pleasure to write.

Suitable for Marriage marks Book 3 in the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series.

This is due out May 15.

Books in this series:

Daisy’s book to be added

This was a really cute and fun story, too. This one had more humor than The Loner’s Bride. I brought in Nelly and Patricia, but it’s mostly Erin and Daisy who take center stage as they work with Eva Connealy (heroine in Boaz’s Wager) to find Alex a woman to marry. Their plan fails, of course, because he’s the hero of this story. People say romance is predictable because the two main characters end up together. The fun is the process in getting them to their happy ending. And Erin did eventually come to her senses, but she needed a hard nudge from Daisy to get there.

I’m still at a loss on what to do with Daisy for Book 4. So I’m going to put that book on hold until I get an idea that sparks my interest.

Books I am going to work on next:

I have no compelling ideas for historical westerns at the moment, so the next three books will be Regencies.

This will wrap up the Marriage by Necessity Series. I don’t know if it’s going to be a romantic comedy or not. It’s too soon to tell. I’m only at Chapter 3 (I think). I haven’t written anything in here for over a month. The basic premise is that our heroine’s father is convinced someone is trying to kill her, so he hires Mr. Byron Tumilson to watch over her. Byron is Eris’ brother in A Perilous Marriage, and he’s a Runner. One thing I’m looking forward is turning the “ugly duckling” heroine into a swan. She’s really a pretty lady, but she doesn’t take time to pretty herself up so no one notices this. It’ll be fun to write the scene when Byron has to get a second look at her after her “make over”.

This book will start the Marriage by Obligation Series. I’m finally going to write a romance where a person in nobility falls in love with a servant. I’ve only briefly touched on this in Fairest of Them All with secondary characters, but I haven’t had a chance to work with this plot as the main story until now. I’m looking forward to it.

This is going to be Book 2 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.

In A Perilous Marriage, I introduced a side character by the name Lord Quinton. Lord Quinton ends up with a more prominent role in The Cursed Earl, but it’s not until now that he gets his own romance. Lord Quinton is even more superstitious than Charles’ friend, Algernon, is. Algernon is the hero in The Cursed Earl and Charles’ friend.

Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to do a plot where the heroine’s brothers kidnap a hero and force him out to an estate where he’s scared of every little thing that is happening. My aim is comedy. I’ve been wanting to write a romantic comedy where the hero is skittish and will assume the estate is haunted. This is the book where I can finally do that.

There seems to be this misconception floating around out there that if writing is your full-time job, then it would be a piece of cake to write. That’s simply not true. Just because you have an entire day to write, it doesn’t mean you “feel” like writing. The muse is not always going to come out to play. There will be days where writing will be like pulling teeth, and you feel like you’ll never finish the book.

Also, just because you earn a living with your writing, it doesn’t mean it’s all roses and unicorns. The pressure to keep on publishing books hovers over your head, and bills mount up all around you. People in your family might depend on you for some, if not all, of the income. This is stressful since writing income fluctuates. You can run ads and engage on social media, but the very best marketing tool under your belt is the next book. You can’t spend all of your time on other pursuits. You need to write to get the book finished. Taking a long time off from writing isn’t always an option. People are depending on you for food, shelter, clothing, and keeping the lights on. The constant day-in and day-out of writing eventually takes its toll on you, especially since not every book is going to perform as well as you hope.

Burnout is a real thing in the writing community, but I rarely ever see it discussed. People assume if someone loves to write, then this whole thing is a breeze. They also assume just because the story is quick to read, then it took very little effort to write. Writing is work. It’s hard work. There is a lot more to writing a story than coming up with an idea. You have to make the story entertaining enough to hold someone’s interest from beginning to end. After that, you need to polish it up (edits) and package it into something that is attractive (get the cover). This is not easy. If you do all of the writing, editing, formatting, and cover art yourself, you’re wearing multiple hats. If you hire out for editing, formatting, cover art, then you need to hire the best people to do those jobs. I guarantee you that not everyone you hire is going to do a good job or reach the deadline you give them. (Make sure you give them a decent amount of time to work on the job. Expecting someone to get something done in a day or two is nuts. I advise at least two weeks.) Then you have to publish the book and either hire someone to do the marketing for you or do the marketing yourself. If a book could sell itself simply by being published, then every author would make a living at this. When you’re self-publishing, it’s on you to do everything yourself in one way or another.

I probably “feel” like writing about 25% of the time. Most days, it’s a struggle to get into it. It’s been like this since 2016. I love writing. I love what I’m writing. I have ideas. I enjoy the books that I’ve done. So it’s not a lack of enjoyment for writing itself that makes this such a struggle. I’ve been trying to pinpoint why this is so difficult for some time now, and I think an author friend was right when she said, “The reason you’re feeling burned out is because this is something you have to do. It’s a job.”

Writing is a job. The only way I’ve managed to get all of these books written and published is because I’ve made it mandatory to show up, sit down, and write. Like any other job, there are days when you feel like doing it and days you don’t. I tried to deny admitting this for a long time because it gives other people the impression that I hate writing. I don’t hate it. It’s just not all fun and games like it was back in 2008 when I started this path.

I don’t know if anyone can relate to this, but if you can and haven’t figured out how to make yourself write even when you don’t feel like it, I can offer some input. Routines are key to successfully managing a long-term writing plan. Routines are great. They give you a time to start and a a time to stop. If you know you’ll be at the computer from 8am to noon, then you know that at noon, you can stop writing. Also, I recommend days off. If you work from Monday through Friday, you can take Saturday and Sunday off without feeling guilty about it. You also have the weekends to look forward to if the week is a hard one for getting words down on paper. I recommend scheduled vacations and holidays off. I also recommend not doing the marketing while you’re supposed to be writing. Now, if you’re unable to set aside a block of time like 8am to noon, then think in terms of 250-word or 15-minute increments. I had to do this when my kids were little. I had a certain word count goal for the entire day, and once I hit that goal, I stopped writing for the day. I prefer the 8am to noon shift better because I feel more organized and rested, but when you’re a mom with little ones to tend to, the kiddos come first. When you’re taking care of them, just think about what you’ll write the next time you’re at the computer. That helps keep the flow going. I will add that I don’t stay in the chair the entire 8am to noon shift. I will get up about every 15 to 20 minutes to do laundry or another small chore. This gives my eyes a break from the screen and gets me moving around. I guess it’s not all that different from taking care of the kids, except you have control over how short the breaks are.

When you are done with the writing, then you schedule time for emails, blog posts, social media, website updates, ad placements, working with editors/cover artists, formatting, etc. I like to do this after I write since I won’t get distracted with the marketing side of things. If you’re the type who can set a timer, market, and then stop cold when the timer goes off, then I see no reason why you can’t market first if you feel more relaxed to write after the marketing is done. However, if you can’t stick to that timer (like me), then you need to write first.

The routine takes a lot of discipline. I find it takes about two weeks of doing the routine for it to feel comfortable. Your routine has to work with your life. You don’t want to push yourself too thin. If you find that you can’t produce a certain amount of words each day, then cut back the word count to something easier to manage. You want a pace that won’t stress you out. You need to be relaxed if you’re going to put out your best work. And there will be times when you have to change your routine. As frustrating as it is, you need to do it to stay sane. Experiment until you find the right routing for you.

I know you can’t eliminate all of your stress. As long as we’re alive, we’re going to face some form of stress. All you can do is set up a routine that keeps you on a track so you can write at a pace that is comfortable for you. That’s how you can keep writing even when you don’t feel like it. That’s how you can stick with this job for the long haul. Just take it one day at a time. Make the daily goals small. Some days will be better than others, but every day you write will add up. If you keep chipping away at that book, you’ll eventually get it done.

In the title above, I left the “A” in capital on purpose. I don’t believe any author should put every book they have up for free if an author hopes to make money. Now, if an author is independently wealthy or if the author is in a ministry where he/she feels led by God to get the message out to as many people as possible, then making every book free makes sense. But if you need your writing income to help pay the bills, a free book is all about strategy. It’s one tool of many we have at our disposal.

You don’t have to offer anything for free, just as you don’t have to do any other marketing strategy. Despite the hype Amazon ads gets, I don’t use them. I also don’t do giveaways or go to in-person events to sell paperbacks anymore. I don’t care how beneficial other authors have found those things. I find them all draining of time and energy, so I won’t do them. You should do the strategies that best align with your personality.

Before I get into the value I’ve seen from using the free book strategy, I want to point out free is not effective for everyone. I’ve heard from writers who said they saw less sales after placing Book 1 in a series at free. They said $0.99 worked better for them. I’ve tried $0.99 on Book 1 in my series, and I found that $0.99 didn’t work as well as the free book strategy did. That’s why I go with free. My genre is historical romance. So if you’re a romance writer, you probably want to look at free if you haven’t done it already.

Does free work with standalones? I found a couple of horror/thriller authors that way. My reading time is limited, so I go with standalones instead of series. Not every reader out there is going to be a series reader. Some of us prefer one book to wrap everything up. So don’t think you have to only write a series to reach an audience with free books. Is it more challenging? It sounds like it is based off of what authors have said in writing groups over the years, but since I found authors through standalones they offered at free, I fail to see the problem with giving the free strategy a try. If you can hook a reader in with your writing style, the reader will check out your other stuff.

With all of that aside, this is why I’ve found having at least one free book in my catalogue to be a huge benefit in promoting my books.

The Problem of Visibility

Visibility was a lot easier to get back in 2009-2012. You used to be able to put the book up, and a lot of people would see it. A lot of people seemed to buy these books, too. I believe the reason it was so easy to sell books back then is that they were new. People were buying e-reading devices. They needed to fill them with content. Free did work very well back then, but so did pricing books. In fact, this was the time period where you could make serious money with $0.99. Today, things aren’t the same. Just because you put your book up for free, it doesn’t mean it’ll be easy for people to find you. But then, it’s hard to get noticed regardless of your price. For better or worse, there are a lot of books out there. What free does is offer a reader a risk-free opportunity to check you out. Sometimes a person will decline a new author because they have to pay for the book. Personally, I don’t think free devalues a book, but I know some authors do. I don’t believe this debate will ever be settled. You’ll have to make the call for your own books. If you feel free will devalue your work, then you probably shouldn’t put your book up for free. The last thing you want is to feel like you’re compromising your core principles.

The purpose of offering the free book is that you’re hoping people will take a chance on your work and end up falling in love with your ability to tell a story. This is why I believe free can work for standalones, as well as for a series. It’s important to have your own author voice. When you are true to your voice, you will stand out from the crowd. Voice is extremely important. It’s gives your writing flavor. This is why I don’t like critique groups. I feel critique groups squashes the individual writer’s voice because other writers are imposing how they would write the story on to your work. You are not them. You are you. Embrace it. Let your writing has its own flavor. When you do that, you’ll be able to connect with the right readers with your books. I don’t believe we are to write for every single reader out there. You are writing books geared toward a select group of readers who “get you” as a writer. These are the people you’re hoping to attract with the free book. Yes, you’ll attract those who don’t like your book, but you take that risk when you publish any book.

There is an alternative to outright putting a book up for free that feels “free” to the reader, and this will also boost your ability to be visible. The alternative I’m talking about are subscription services like Kindle Unlimited (KU), Scribd, and Kobo Plus. Yes, I know there’s a monthly fee people pay, but that fee covers all of the books that are in that particular service. If a reader pays for Kobo Plus, for example, they get to read all of the books in Kobo Plus without paying for any them. So to the readers, these books “feel” free. Each subscription plan has its own way of paying authors, but authors do get paid something in these plans. I used to fight this model because the actual sale of a book pays better, but, in my opinion, the popularity of subscription services in music and movies tells me that it’s only a matter of time before ebook subscription services are going to really hit the writing community. People will still buy books. They still buy music and movies, but there will be plenty of people who will only read books that are in a subscription plan. Once in a while, I’ll get an email or a comment somewhere from a KU reader who will let me know they’ll never touch one of my books until I put them in KU. I’m sure readers in other subscription plans feel the same way. The problem with KU is that it requires you to be exclusively on Amazon. That’s why I never put my books in KU. With Scribd and Kobo Plus, I can be on any retailer I want to be and be in those subscription plans. I like having a wide net. You will have to decide if you want to be in a subscription plan, and if so, which one(s).

More Reviews

A free book will typically get more reviews. Yes, some of the reviews won’t be nice. I know it’s hard not to take reviews personally, especially when someone is downright mean in the way they word things, but if you get enough readers to buy your book, you’ll end up with a negative review at some point. You can’t please everyone. In my opinion, there’s no sense in worrying about the critic. It’s better to focus on the person who “gets you” and loves your work. That why I don’t pay attention to negative reviews on my books. I’m not writing for those people. After getting 100 books into the world, I know what I want to write, and I’m going to write it. So these people aren’t going to change anything I’m doing.

However, there is still value in those negative reviews. They help potential readers decide if my style of writing is a good fit for them. I don’t want the wrong audience wasting their time on my books. Their time is better spent on books they will enjoy. (You get to this conclusion after dealing with negative reviews for over a decade. At first, it hurts a lot, but, in time, you will develop thick skin. Just focus on the people who love your books.) The good news is that your intended audience is out there, and free can help them find your book. These people will enjoy the book and give it the kind of reviews you’re hoping for. If you’re able to find enough readers who like your stuff, your positive reviews will outweigh the bad.

I’m not sure if reviews do anything to boost your visibility on a retailer. I wouldn’t look at reviews as a way to directly boost sales. I think the benefit of reviews is for the right reader to discover you. The reviews should give them a better idea of what your book is about when they’re trying to decide if your book will be something they will enjoy. For example, there are things a review says that might not be stated in a book description. As a reader, I like it when a reviewer points out if something I like (or don’t like) in a book. Quite frankly, some of the 1-star reviewers complained about things I actually liked, so I ended up getting those books because of them. Sometimes the negative reviews work in your favor.

***

If after reading this post, you don’t think free is your thing, then don’t do it. There are plenty of marketing tools out there. It’s better to feel good about yourself as a writer than to do something you can’t be enthusiastic about. Take it from someone who’s made mistakes she’s lived to regret. Be true to yourself. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. These are your books. You call the shots.

I did include one of my Regencies in here, but I’m not offering a giveaway for my book since it’s already free. I thought there might be some books on here that would appeal to some of you, so I’m passing this along.

Here’s the link if you’re interested: https://www.litring.com/the-bookish-ball-giveaway/

I’m putting all of my romances into Kobo Plus, but it’s taking some time.

I’m not sure who reads my books on Kobo, but I’ve decided to upload all of my romances directly to Kobo. The books will still be available for sale if you want to buy them, but now they’ll also be available for anyone who happens to be a Kobo Plus subscriber. As a side note, I decided to give Kobo Plus a try a few months ago, and I like it. So now I’m going to put the rest of my romances in there.

For anyone wondering why I’m not in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU), the reason is that Amazon requires me to be ONLY on Amazon to be in KU. I know there are a few authors who are allowed to be wide and in KU, but I’m not one of them.

Kobo Plus allows me to be in their subscription plan while also being on other retailers. I also have my books available for anyone who is on Scribd’s subscription plan.

Since I have a lot of romances published, it’s taking me some time to move everything directly to Kobo so I can get them all into Kobo Plus. I believe I can be done with this process by the end of this month.

If you already bought my books at Kobo, they should still be available on your device. I can still access ebooks on my Kindle even after authors unpublish them. So there’s no need to buy anything again.

About the pre-orders on Kobo:

I just removed the pre-orders from Kobo. There should be no charge if you pre-ordered The Cursed Earl, The Loner’s Bride, Suitable for Marriage, or Secret Admirer. Smashwords doesn’t charge for anyone who pre-orders until the book actually releases. I did consider letting Smashwords still put the pre-orders there, but I really want these pre-orders to be available in Kobo Plus as soon as those books go live.

Smashwords won’t let me get into the Kobo Plus program. I have to upload directly to Kobo to get in there. I apologize to anyone who already got those pre-orders. In the future, I will upload the pre-order directly through Kobo so this won’t happen again.

I checked on Kobo’s terms for pre-orders, and it’s recommended that I wait until I have the final version of the book ready to go before putting it up on Kobo. So from now on, links to pre-orders at Kobo will go up at the same time the links go up on Amazon and Google Play. Links go up for Amazon and Google Play about a month before the book comes out. I’ll try to remember to announce when the links are available in a blog post.

***

I think that covers everything. If I didn’t think of something about Kobo, feel free to ask.

I’m going to discuss audiobooks again. If this topic bores you, feel free to skip. I know I’ve been rambling on a lot about this topic recently.

I fell into something of a funk after making my last blog post where I said I was putting a pause on making audiobooks. It took me a day, but then I realized this is something I really want to do. Maybe it’s stupid. I admit I do not have the professional quality a lot of narrators do. My house is a small trailer, and with six people living here, closets aren’t a possible place for me to narrate in. There is a chamber-like quality to the audio. It’s not an echo, exactly, but the ear can pick up the “space” around me. This space is my bedroom, and I don’t want to put foam all over the walls to buffer the sound because then I’ll have to remove all the pictures that make the place feel cozy. Also, I don’t know what it is, but there are little clicks that pop up here and there in the audio recordings. I don’t know if it’s mouth noises or something in the microphone. Maybe it’s a mixture of both. Who knows?

What I do know is that my eyes are not as good as they used to be. I can no longer read a paperback or ebook without my eyes bugging out after thirty minutes, and that’s even with the new glasses I got this summer. I have Reticare on my computer to help my eyes out, and it works great. I also take lots of breaks so I’m not staring at the computer screen all day, and unless I have something I need to do, I get off the computer before dinner and don’t return to it until the next morning. I have learned ways to limit eye strain because I want to be able to type on the computer. I have dictated a few books, and while it’s been okay, the editing takes three times longer to go through, and I hate editing. I don’t want to spend 2-3 more time of my life doing something I hate. I’m in this to write because that’s the fun part.

Alright, so I rambled on about all of the above because I want to be able to listen to my own books. No one in this house wants to read them to me. They think romance is boring. (I know. It’s ridiculous, but no one in this house wants to go anywhere near a romance.) The Kindle I have has been sufficient, but the text-to-speech feature has gotten to be uncomfortable for me to listen to. I need a human voice. I can’t afford to have all of my books made into audio. I ran the numbers, and I’d have to pay out over $100K to hire a professional narrator to do all of my backlist. I don’t have that kind of money.

So the option that is easiest for me (as someone who wants to listen to my own books) is to narrate most of them myself and have my oldest son (who is good) help me out with the rest. I know writers are told to avoid putting anything out there that isn’t “excellent” in quality, but this is something I’m doing for me. I am doing my best with the narration, and while I know that makes some people laugh, I’m tired of putting things off just because someone doesn’t like it. I already received feedback that I’m not any good from someone close to me. The person did it gently, so it’s not like she was rude or anything. I took her input into serious consideration, and it’s why I almost quit the whole audiobook thing. But then I thought, “These are my books. I wrote them so I could read them.” Now that my eyes are not able to do the job, my ears will have to. This is why it’s a labor of love. Sometimes you have to make choices for yourself, and this is one I’ve decided to do for me.

I am publishing them through Findaway Voices so they’ll be on multiple retailers. I want to buy them so I can download them on to my phone. I like the cute cover and how easy I can access the audiobooks on my Apple library. I have to publish them so I can access them.

The reason I’m announcing this on this blog is so that people don’t think someone is stealing my books and making them into audiobooks again. I will add them to my audiobook page on this blog, but I’m not going to make any special blog announcements. That way if anyone worries, they can check out the page on this blog and know that I authorized the production of the audiobook in case they wonder if it’s a legit copy or not. I get a panic attack every time someone tells me they saw a stolen version of my book, and I’d rather skip the panic attack if possible. I appreciate how kind you guys are when theft happens. It means a lot to me to know you care about things that happen to me.

My advice is to skip the audiobooks. I’m not even comfortable putting them on You Tube, Rumble, or Bitchute. My son wants to read Return of the Aliens, so we’ll work on that project for those channels. He loves my thrillers. When we do a romance together, I think that might work for those channels, but I don’t want to put up any book on social media unless he helps me with it. He’s got skill at this. I don’t. I can write books, but that’s about it.

Yeah, I know. I was excited about this. Really excited. Until I listened back over the audio files and noticed the clicks and the “sounds like I’m in a large chamber somewhere” background effect.

I don’t know how to better explain those things than that, but suffice it to say, my ability is not “professional” quality, and I know some people will expect “professional”. I’ve read enough comments under You Tube videos on how to narrate a book to realize that some people want “perfect” when it comes to audio.

This all made me feel a lot of stress, and the closer I got to today, the worse the feeling in the pit of my stomach got. Something just kept telling me it was a bad idea. So I went into You Tube and Rumble and deleted the Meant To Be chapters I had uploaded there. This was only five chapters, so it wasn’t like I got far. (Bitchute just has a draft option. It won’t let me schedule a post. I was unable to unschedule the videos on You Tube and Rumble. All I could do was delete them to stop them from going live in the upcoming days/weeks.)

To be honest, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. While this was something I did enjoy, I don’t think it’s something meant for the public. I don’t know if I can figure out a way to make audiobooks private that I can just put on my iPhone or not, but that is what I would like to do. Due to the time I spend on my computer writing, I can’t read ebooks or paperbacks without my eyes giving me a lot of grief. All I can do at this point is listen to books. I get why people like audiobooks. They’re just so expensive to create (or restrictive if an author has to go the split-royalty with the narrator route). I have a Kindle for the text-to-speech feature. I believe Google tablets have the same option. From what I know, Kobo, Nook, and Apple devices don’t have this. If I’m wrong, please let me know. Some people are speculating that AI will make audiobook creation much more cost effective for authors. I guess we’ll see how the technology develops. At this point, all I can afford is me as a narrator, and that won’t measure up to some people’s standards for audiobook.

The fun shorts I did for October are fine. I don’t do those to go with my author brand. I don’t know what I want to do with those channels I have on those sites. For the time being, I’m keeping them up. I used to think I wanted to do videos for writers, which is why You Tube has those old videos. The problem was that I ran out of topics I was interested in talking about, and doing video where I’m talking to a screen doesn’t come naturally to me. I prefer to write things out than speak them. I think better when I type. I used to also think I would make a trailer for every book I wrote, until I realized they don’t do much good for promoting the book.

I’m going to go back to my older posts and edit out the stuff with Meant To Be. I will not be publishing those chapters on You Tube, Rumble, and Bitchute. I’m going to put the audiobook thing on hold for now.

Illustration 197598741 © Jumpoth Satiranunt | Dreamstime.com (Text added by me)

This short story wraps up the final story for the Halloween season.

Here’s the description: Upon finding his best friend holding a bloody knife over a dead body, Ryan has to decide whether his friend is a killer or not.

We’ll be going to my romances starting in November!

On November 1, I will start posting Meant To Be. I have to post that one chapter by chapter because it takes me about 2 hours to upload one chapter to each site. I am uploading the book on Rumble, Bitchute, and You Tube, so that is a total of about 6 hours per chapter. My hope is to get a new chapter up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I’m having some issues with Bitchute that is slowing me down. I might have to go to two days a week instead of three. We’ll see how things go. I’d like to go as wide as possible with these videos, so I’m hoping Bitchute will work out.

The Cursed Earl’s second draft is finally done!

Books in the Marriage by Necessity Series:

This finishes the series.

So now it’s time to edit. There were times over the past year when I thought I’d never finish it. Now I can safely say it’ll be ready for January.

Now I’ve started Heiress of Misfortune (Book 3 in this series).

I’m hoping will be a cute romantic comedy involving a wallflower heroine whom our hero will turn into a beautiful swan. I enjoy those movies where you have the “plain Jane” heroine who has a makeover and turns out to be really pretty, but I haven’t done a romance like that before. I didn’t realize the plot would go in this direction until I was working on Chapter 1 today. This will be a fun story to write.

Jeremiah and Katie are finally going to get married

Books in the Wyoming Series:

This finishes the series.

It didn’t happen the way I expected, but they’re due to marry. I don’t want to spoil it. Let’s suffice it to say they pretty much have to because of a rumor that erupted through town, and, yes, Katie is responsible for it, though, to be fair, she didn’t expect things to blow up the way they did. So Jeremiah is pretty much still a reluctant hero at this point in the story. I’m not sure when he’ll come to accept his attraction to Katie. He’s been surprisingly resistant this whole time.

Alex and Erin are now married, but neither one knows what to do about it

Books in the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series:

Book 4 to come

Just as Jeremiah is stubborn in The Loner’s Bride, Erin is stubborn in Suitable for Marriage. She’s fallen in love with Alex but isn’t consciously aware of it. Jeremiah, at least, knows he wants to be with Katie, even though he’s fighting it. I’m thinking Erin needs to be hit on the head to figure out what she wants. Daisy has done as much as she can. The parents have done all they can, too. So now it’s a matter of writing the story until I can figure out how to get the light bulb to pop up in Erin’s head.

A Look Ahead

My hope is to finish both The Loner’s Bride and Suitable for Marriage by the end of next month.

My mind is a complete blank on Daisy’s book, which comes after Suitable for Marriage. Unless an idea comes to me while I’m wrapping up that book, I’m going to put Daisy’s romance on hold until the right plot comes to mind. So that leaves me with a possible opening on the writing schedule.

Once I finish The Loner’s Bride, I’m going to work on a new Regency series, so I already have one book marked down. That one is Secret Admirer. This will be Book 1 in the Marriage by Obligation Series.

I have no ideas at the moment for any historical western romances. But I do have Book 2 in the Marriage by Obligation Series already set out.

So I might end up working on three Regencies at a time. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. We’ll see what happens at the end of next month.