The Convenient Mail Order Bride’s release date has been bumped up to February 13!

(This is Book 1 in the brand new Chance at Love Series)

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Everything came in earlier than I expected, so I was able to move this release date up a week earlier.  I’m excited to see if this “bumping up the date” will work smoothly.  It’s showing up with the new date on iBooks, Kobo, B&N, and Smashwords.  I haven’t put it on Amazon yet.  I haven’t been able to get that far.  I’ll have to work on getting that going soon.

On a side note, I was surprised by how many people hated the villain in this book.  While writing it, I came upon a scene that made me realize he’s one of those redeemable characters, like Neil Craftsman was in Eye of the Beholder.  I started out not liking Neil at all until the scene where Mary won the cooking contest, and Mary was gracious about having to talk to Neil and Cassie afterwards.  There was a spark of something in Neil at that scene that connected me to him, and I no longer saw him as a complete bad guy.  I knew I’d be writing His Redeeming Bride.

The same happened while writing The Convenient Mail order Bride.  While Abe (the hero) and Carl (the villain) were fighting in the barn, it occurred to me Carl is a character who can–and will–be redeemed.  That’s why I came up with The Bargain Mail Order Bride (book 4 in the series).  So while you might loathe Carl in this book, just remember what I said about Neil Craftsman.

This is still set for April 3, but I’ll probably have it out next month.

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This is the one that’s the collection of blog posts where I brought in the Larsons to interview during 2011-2012.  It’s purely just a fun thing, and for anyone who’s followed this blog for some time, you’re familiar with what I do in character interviews and such.

A note to everyone on my email list, don’t buy this book.  You will be getting a Smashwords coupon for this one.  If you pre-ordered this, go ahead and cancel it.

Following this blog and receiving these posts in your inbox is not my email list.  (I had a couple people ask me about this, so I wanted to clarify what my email list is.)

My email list comes from MailChimp, and I only send out an email when the new book is out.  Along with this email, I usually give an extra scene that never made it into the book, or I’ll put a deleted scene.  I rarely ever offer a Smashwords coupon to get the book for free.  That is something I only do for books like the Bonus Material From the Nebraska Series because this is an “extra” book.  It’s not an actual story. It’s just a series of fun posts from the past.

If you want to be on my email list, all you have to do is fill out your email on this form: https://ruthannnordinauthorblog.wordpress.com/sign-up-for-email-list/.  (Or click this link.) The name is not required.  Sometimes people want to give it, so I allow them to fill it in if they want.

Please note, some emails will block emails from MailChimp, or these emails might go into the spam folder.  I don’t know how to get around this issue.  I’m not an expert on email lists.

Her Devilish Marquess (Marriage by Agreement: Book 2)

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I’m almost halfway into this one, which puts me ahead of schedule.

I’m hoping to have this one out in April.  *fingers crossed*  It really depends on whether or not I can keep up the pace I’ve been writing at.  I want to be done with the first draft by the end of February.  Then it will be about a month to get it through the editing team.

In this book, I have been able to bring Mr. Christopher Robinson (hero in His Reluctant Lady) and Lord Edon (aka Ethan, hero in A Most Unsuitable Earl) back for a prominent secondary role.  This is a lot of fun for me because the reason I enjoy writing as much as I do is the characters that come from the stories.  They become real to me, and when I can find a way to bring them back, it’s like connecting with old friends.

I’m also using a subplot that I started in His Wicked Lady, which is Lord Steinbeck’s power play to take over the atmosphere of White’s.  (Lord Steinbeck will be the hero in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride, which is next in this series.)  I am purposely painting Lord Steinbeck in a bad light, esp. with this book.  But it’s necessary in order to accomplish his change in his book.  You can’t have a bad boy turn good unless he’s been bad.

And I think this is the book where Mr. Malcolm Jasper (hero in His Wicked Lady) will publicly stand up against Lord Steinbeck.  I don’t expect that to ease the conflict between him and his brother-in-law Lord Toplyn (aka Logan, hero in Ruined by the Earl), but this will be a big move in Malcolm learning to stand up for what he believes in without worrying so much about others’ opinions about it.  (In other words, he might mature.)

The Mistaken Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love: Book 2)

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I’m 10,000 words into this one, and I can tell you right now that some of the secondary characters are funny, which is good since this book will touch on some serious topics.  It’s nice to have some comic relief so the whole thing doesn’t get too tense.

This one starts right before The Convenient Mail Order Bride (book 1) ends, so there’s a slight overlap in the timelines between these two books.  It has to work that though because the climax in book 1 that requires the hero in this book to be delayed.  The only way that could happen was for his mail-order bride to show up earlier in the day.  I might have to make a note at the beginning of this book.  We’ll see how smoothly things play out.

This is one of the series that has really intrigued me.  I get to experiment with some deeper issues of the historical western time period, and I enjoy delving into the harder topics.  Now, this isn’t as hard as Wagon Trail Bride.  Wagon Trail Bride was the hardest book I ever wrote.  But this book reminds me a lot of Brave Beginnings in exploring the attitude of the time in regards to dealing with people who were different in their culture and in their skin color.

The heroine brings an abandoned seven-year-old African American boy with her.  This boy is very closed off and refuses to talk to anyone.  The hero in book 1 is half-Native American and half-white.  I have a feeling it will take the hero in book 1 to get the boy to open up because he’ll be the only one who can relate to him.  The hero in book 3 could as well, but he’s such a recluse, I don’t know if I can get him to make an appearance.  We’ll have to see how things play out.  But I do know I can easily bring in the main characters from book 1 into this story.  I’m looking forward to seeing how things will play out between everyone.

The Marriage Agreement (Pioneer Series: Book 2)

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This one was a bugger to start.  The first scene was easy.  Getting the hero to agree to marrying the heroine was the hard part, and it took me weeks of rewrites and walking away from it to finally pin the motivation down.  That’s why I haven’t made as much progress in this book as I wanted to.  I’m only at 6,000 words (or chapter 2).

The good news is I’m ahead of schedule, so the snafu I had to deal with didn’t put me behind.  (This is why I work on three books at a time.  If I had waited for this book to fall into place, I wouldn’t be nearing the halfway point of Her Devilish Marquess, and I wouldn’t have made it to chapter 3 in The Mistaken Mail Order Bride.  I know not everyone can write in more than one book at a time, but I need to because stuff like this happens on regular basis.  It just doesn’t happen in chapter 1.  This was the first time that’s ever happened.)