This post is a bit redundant so I’ll try not to ramble too much. 🙂

I plan to finish the first draft toward the end of the week.  I’ve already contacted my editing team and gave everyone a heads up on what to expect the book.  Right now, I’m looking at a very late to early May release.

This book is not going to be part of a series.  It’s a standalone historical western romance.  I don’t often do standalones, but sometimes the plot just works out that way.

I have, however, put this book under the Mail Order Brides Collection because it is a mail-order bride book.  I want to do more mail-order bride stories in the future, and I already have an idea to do one about the woman the men were looking for in the very beginning of Boaz’s Wager.  I plan to do a story to show what they wanted.  But that one is going to be put on hold for a while.

I’m over the halfway point in this one.  I am rewriting more of it than I thought I would when I started.  But…the story is much better than it used to be so I’m very happy with it.  It’s funny but I never fully grasped the meaning of “telling vs. showing” until I was going through this book again.  I had no idea how much telling I used to do.  And wow, what a difference it makes when you show instead of tell a story.  I still plan to tell some things just so the book doesn’t drag.  Too much showing is just as bad as too much telling.  There’s a fine balance between the two, and for the first time since I’ve been writing, I finally “get it”.  That just goes to prove that we never stop improving, no matter how much we learn.  😀

This book should still be out in late May.

Poor Patty is having a horrible time with Greg.  He’s not cooperating at all…but I suspect he will before too long.  He has to because I have big plans for John Meyer in this book.  John Meyer is turning into a pretty interesting bad guy.  I’m intrigued with him.  I’m not sure if he can be redeemed or not.

It’s too early to give a definite release month on this one.  Progress is slow at the moment because I’m focusing on two books above.

The Rancher’s Wife (co-written by me and Stephannie Beman)

Cover Coming Soon

Stephannie and I work on the co-written books during the week day when we get on an instant chat program.  I’ll do another post where I go more in detail on how we write books together.  But each book we do is a product of both of us writing it together.  It’s not a situation where I write one and she writes another.

Regarding The Rancher’s Wife, we are near the end of chapter 3.  I’m very happy with the progress and storyline of this one.  Everything is flowing smoothly.

His Brother’s Wife (also co-written with Stephannie Beman)

Book I’m Co-Authoring With Stephannie Beman

This book, however, is a little more difficult.  We have to get from the point where the hero and heroine don’t want to marry to the point where they do.  We’re currently brainstorming ideas.  We are at the beginning of chapter 3 in this book.  Up to now, it’s progressed well.  The heroine is one of the suspects in her husband’s murder, and the hero has come up to investigate.  (Her deceased husband is the hero’s brother.)

Update on Wagon Trail Bride and His Convenient Wife

I really want to get either Wagon Trail Bride or His Convenient Wife out by the end of the year.  That is one of my goals.  If I can get one of these done, I’ll be thrilled.

I have tried working on Wagon Trail Bride, but for the past two months, I haven’t been able to get more than a sentence or two in the book whenever I sit down to write it.  Something is off and I don’t know what it is.  I might have to toss out everything I’ve done and start over.  As much as I hate to do that, sometimes it’s necessary.  I’m going to put this on hold and think about it.  I want this book to be the best it can be, and if that means waiting, then I have to do it.

What this means is that I’m going to try writing in the other one and seeing how it goes.

As an experiment, I sat down and wrote 1000 words in it with no effort today, so maybe that’s a good sign.  I’m not making any promises, but I will start using my free time to work on this book.  *fingers crossed this one works*