Quick update:
My novella “The Purchased Bride” which is going to be part of the anthology Janet Syas Nitsick are writing called Bride by Arrangement is with the publisher. I’ll let you all know when it is available.
The Earl’s Scandalous Wife’s first draft is done. It is currently with a beta reader who has an eye for additional scenes that would make a book better than it is. So before I do any edits, I’m letting her read through it. If she finds something I can add, I’ll include it. Then I’ll go into the edits with my editing team. I expect this book to be out next month some time.
Other Current Works In Progress
Boaz’s Wager is over halfway done. If I can keep up the pace I’m at, I figure I will finish the first draft next month (maybe around mid-month) and have it released around the first of March. I’m around chapter five for The Earl’s Secret Bargain. I am tentatively scheduled to finish it in mid-March which puts me at a May release. Marriage Can Kill is technically at 29,000 words (about halfway done), but I am slowly going through what I have so far and revising it. This book is a romantic suspense, and since I have no idea how well it’ll be received, it’s low on the “must do” list.
Two books I have decided to replace Wagon Trail Bride and His Convenient Wife. I’d love some help giving them titles.
1. A Regency
One book is a Regency and will feature the best friend of the hero in The Earl’s Secret Bargain. The basic plot is that the heroine is promised to another but the hero kidnaps her so he can marry her instead. The heroine is glad when he does this. The conflict is going to come from somewhere else, and I won’t know what it is until I’m writing it.
My ideas for the titles are below:
The Earl Stakes His Claim
The Earl’s Kidnapped Bride
2. A mail-order bride book set in the Black Hills area of South Dakota (which back then was the Dakota territory)
The main plot is a young woman (Sadie) takes on another woman’s (Hazel’s) identity to marry a man she’s never met. Sadie is basically in a bad situation and, by chance, meets up with Hazel who is heading for Rapid City as a mail-order bride. Hazel ends up dying (not sure how yet) and upon her death bed, tells Sadie to marry the man who’s waiting for her. So it’s not like Sadie is a villain. She does, however, have a past she never wants anyone to discover so she tells the man that she’s Hazel. Something is going to come as a result of this lie, but until I write the book, I won’t know what it is.
My title ideas for this book are below:
Mail Order Bride by Deception
The Mail Order Bride’s Secret
*I want “Mail Order Bride” somewhere in the title so people know it’s a mail-order bride romance.
Any thoughts on the titles? I’d love to hear them. 🙂
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
The title “The Earls Kidnapped Bride” fits in well with your other regency titles. Instead of “Mail Order Bride by Deception” youmay want to consider calling the book ” Mail Order Deception.” or “The Mail Order Bride’s Deception” I definately think the word “Deception” should be in the title.
Thank you! I’ll go with “The Earl’s Kidnapped Bride”.
I love “The Mail Order Bride’s Deception”. 😀 I think “Deception” is the perfect word to use in the title. It’s much better than “Deceit”.
Thanks so much!
I was thinking a good name would be the wrong mail-order bride. Not sure if you like it or not. Kinda sad you are not writing Sep story before you say good bye to the Larsons. Would like to know what happened to him. Maybe one day you can go back to it. I have a billion book ideas but jot the skills to write them. Can I share some with you.
Oh, I’m going to write Sep’s story. I’m just not going to lump it in with the Larson books. I’m thinking he’s going to rescue a young woman from some kind of trouble. After watching what his sister went through with her husband, he has the desire to save women from difficult situations. I haven’t figured out what that troubling situation is and that’s been the hold up. Depending on what trouble she’s in, the plot will develop from there.
Sep’s story will either be a standalone romance or start a trilogy. It depends on how the secondary characters that pop up.
As long as you are fine with me taking elements from your ideas and developing a story from it, then I’d love to hear them. Sometimes I start out with an idea but the story evolves into its own creation.
I’m terrible with titles. My only advice is not to make the title TOO long. It should flow nicely from the lips when spoken. Does that make sense? (This from the author who titled a book Loving the Dead and the Undead. LOL.)
Got your books! Thank you so much. 😀
That’s excellent advice. Long titles are harder to remember. Good point that we should be able to say it easily.
Actually, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the title Loving the Dead and the Undead because of the shorter words you have in it. 😀
I’m glad you got the books. I signed them all, but only personalized one. I have trouble figuring out what to say when I sign more than one or two. LOL
I have trouble knowing what to say, too. I end up saying the same thing. I’d probably be better off just signing my name on all but one and giving my personal message in one of them. I loved your message, by the way. Thank you! You’re a good friend, too. I really hope everything will be okay with your husband and you two won’t get so hard again.