1.  I’m happy to say that Runaway Bride is ahead of schedule.  I wasn’t supposed to hit 40,000 words in it until the end of this month, and today I got to 40,500 (which is chapter fifteen).  Once I decided to go with Lexie’s lead and let her run off with Mark sooner than I wanted, the story started writing itself.  I don’t know why I still hesitate to let the characters direct me in another direction.  Every time I listen to them, the problems I worry about (like writing myself into a dead end or ending up with a subplot I can’t resolve at the end) end up never happening.  You’d think with 29 romances under my belt, I’d learn to trust my characters more.

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2.  Yep, I have published 29 romances so far!  (I’m not counting “The Cowboy’s Wish” which is a short story.)  Anyway, I’m really excited because soon I’ll reach my goal of having 30 romances published.  😀  It’s always fun to reach the goals I set for myself.  I’d like to offer a really fun giveaway when I publish my 30th romance.  I don’t know if this will be Mitch’s Win or Runaway Bride, but either way, I’d like to do something to celebrate this milestone.  Any ideas on what the special giveaway could be? What prizes do you think would be fun?  I want to do something more elaborate than what I’ve done in the past.

By the way, my next goal is 50.  😀  I almost said 40, but then I love this quote and try to live by it: “Reach for the moon and even if you miss, you will be among the stars.”  The author of the quote is unknown (from what I saw when searching for it just now on the Internet).  I first saw that quote in my high school class, and it’s stuck with me ever since. To me, it means that I should set my goals high.  Even if I don’t reach those goals, I will still have accomplished some awesome things.  I’m okay if I don’t reach the moon, but unless I am trying to get there, I’ll miss some great adventures along the way.  Okay.  Enough on that tangent…

3.  I’m getting close to the end of Mitch’s Win!  I know this book has been one of the on-again-off-again type of books (something that is unusual for me), but part of the hold up was wondering if I should submit it to a publisher.  The second issue was what to do with Boaz (keep him in the Montana Collection or take him to the Nebraska Collection).  I already explained that I decided not to submit it to a publisher.  But what I recently decided was that Boaz will stay in the Montana Collection.  Anyone remember Eva Connealy from Isaac’s Decision?  I’ve decided to send her over to Montana where she’ll be Boaz’s wife.

Now that all of that has been figured out, the story is flowing again.  I’m at chapter 18 in this book.  It’ll probably be 20 or 21 chapters altogether.  So I think I’m 2-3 chapters away from being done.  This puts me at an estimate of finishing the first draft by the end of the month.  *fingers crossed*

4.  So when will I publish Mitch’s Win and Runaway Bride?

I’m not really sure because I have to send them off to editors and proofreaders.  It depends on their schedules and when they can work on them.  But I’m going to give a conservative estimate of April.  (Not sure if it’ll be April for one and May for the other book.  I really don’t want to publish both books in the same month.)  I know more people are anxious to read Runaway Bride, so I’ll aim for that one to be out first.  As long as the story keeps flowing the way it is at the moment, that won’t be a problem.  But if I stall in it, then Mitch’s Win will be out first.