Quick note: If you email me, I probably won’t be answering you for a few days.  My kids are sick, and I’m trying to get some writing done while taking care of them.  Needless to say, that makes it hard to do any emails.  And I have to do my monthly newsletter on my other blog before the 1st.  It’s going to be a busy week.  🙂

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Well, I was going to post a rebuttal from Nate and Perry about the scene Christopher wrote yesterday, but my mind just isn’t into it so I’m going to let it go.  Suffice it to say that Nate and Perry didn’t like it (for obvious reasons) and Dave Larson was miffed that Christopher dared to compare His Reluctant Lady to Eye of the Beholder.  Yeah, we all know Dave’s just as biased as Christopher so that argument is a stalemate.  🙂

So today, I’m just going to give updates on what I’m writing.

His Reluctant Lady

I’m in Chapter 22, rounding the final “lap” of the first draft.  🙂

Two Books that Came From This One and Another That Might

I have a couple more scenes to go to finish it up.  I try not to leave unopened questions, but there’s a couple I have to leave dangling because I’d like to address these in future books.  For one, Perry’s book stems from it.  Two, an unexpected book (The Earl’s Secret Bargain, which I’ll address in a future post) stems from it.  And I believe Agatha’s sister might also get her own book based off events in this one.  The dilemma is how much to close up and how much to leave open.  The main plot, however, will be resolved.

What I learned from writing His Reluctant Lady:

I will never write scenes ahead of time again.  I did that for His Reluctant Lady, hence the jigsaw puzzle struggle I’ve been having.  I’ve already revised several scenes, but there’s probably one I’ll have to toss out.  Yes, I did save it aside for a future book, but who knows if that scene will ever fit a certain story because every book is unique and certain characters need to be together for a certain scene to work out right.  Scenes aren’t a “insert X into slot A” type of thing; they are specific to the dynamics in that specific book.

So lesson learned.  I will not write ahead again.  My characters will change something on me 99% of the time.  And yes, Christopher and Agatha have changed things on me several times in the course of this book.  I can’t think of a single story I’ve done where the characters did everything like I expected them to.  It’s always better their way, but I can’t predict where their way is going to take me.  LOL

With all that said, I am very pleased with how this book is turning out.  I had my apprehension at first.  I started this book to give more background to Perry (because it needs to be written before his book is ready).  As it turned out, this has been of the most fun stories I’ve done. It’s not a comedy, but the constant “battle of wills” between Christopher and Agatha is fun to watch.  (Why did I say “watch” instead of write?  Because most of the time, I don’t feel like I’m writing.  I feel like I’m watching a movie and just writing down what happens.  It’s hard to explain, but if I can’t visual my story ideas as a movie, then I don’t write them because there’ll be something lacking in them.)

His Abducted Bride

This is temporarily on hold.  It’s been that way for about a month now.  I’m waiting for the characters to tell me how to proceed.  I’m at a pivotal point where the villain has just made his move.  Ironically, there are probably only 3-4 chapters left.  It’s just what comes before the final chapter that is the problem.  I will not write the final chapter and go back.  Who knows if things will change?  I learned my lesson in His Reluctant Lady.  🙂

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Kent Ashton’s Backstory and Lassoing Her Groom is also on Hold

This is primarily because I’m nearing the completion of His Reluctant Lady.  When I get near the end of a book, I do tend to focus on it.

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The Stagecoach Bride (by me and Stephannie Beman)

This one is zooming along faster than I thought it would.  (A lot of late nights.)  We’re at Chapter 6-7.  I’ll talk about this more in another post, but suffice it to say, I’m very happy with the way story’s going.

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Untitled At This Point (by me and Janet Syas Nitsick)

I’m leaning toward Marriage by Arrangement for the title, and I think I have a suitable cover, but I need to check with her and see what she says.   Since I’ve been so focused on His Reluctant Lady, The Stagecoach Bride, and my children who are sick (believe me, you don’t want to know the details), I haven’t worked on it.  All I’ve done is created a mock cover and had Stephannie Beman fill in the text to make it pop out so it doesn’t get lost in the woman’s skirt.  But as I said, I don’t know if it’ll work so I’m going to hold off on showing it.