Taming The Viscountess is due out June 25
Here are the books in the Marriage by Bargain Series:
- The Viscount’s Runaway Bride (Book 1)
- The Rake’s Vow (Book 2)
- Taming The Viscountess (Book 3) – will be out next month
- If It Takes A Scandal (Book 4) – will be out around September or October (though official release date is currently in December)
I guess I should warn everyone that the heroine in this story has a more progressive view of sex than heroines I typically write.  When I created Celia in The Earl’s Wallflower  Bride, she was making fun of Iris over Iris’ lack of sexual experience.  Because of this, I had to work with Celia from what I had already established.
Celia never went “all the way”, but she did experiment with one of her brother’s friends and she has read literature on the topic of sex. Â So we might consider her more sexually open than the heroines I usually write. Â I don’t know if this is going to upset you, but if it does, this might be a book you decide to pass up. Â She does not do anything with the hero until after they are married. Â The hero is a virgin in every sense of the word.
Forced Into Marriage is a little over halfway done
Here are the books in the Pioneer Series:
- Wagon Trail Bride (Book 1)
- The Marriage Agreement (Book 2)
- Groom For Hire (Book 3)
- Forced Into Marriage (Book 4) – I expect this to be out in August even though I have it down for October on the retailer sites
I finally got to the point where the heroine has decided she wants to be with the hero. Â In this book, the two were forced to marry at gunpoint without knowing each other first. Â Remember in Wagon Trail Bride where Amanda Larson got pregnant after she was raped, but then I had her go through a miscarriage?
Well, the heroine in this book (Lokni from the Crow Tribe) starts out in this book in her ninth month of pregnancy, and she doesn’t know who the father is. Â There were four unsavory men who kept her for a while and did whatever they wanted to her. Â (I do not show this. Â I only allude to this. Â The story starts on the night she’s forced to marry the hero, Brandon Herman from Groom For Hire.) Â In this case, I opted to let Lokni have the child. Â Â The child is instrumental into bringing the hero and heroine together.
If It Takes A Scandal is about 1/3 of the way done
As I mentioned above, I see this coming out in either September or October.
The heroine in this one is Lady Hedwrett (who was originally introduced in Her Counterfeit Husband). Â She is a very happy widow. Â I only briefly touched on how awful Lord Hedwrett was in The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife and Her Counterfeit Husband, and honestly, I don’t want to know more about this guy than what I already do because he really is the worst of the worst. Â Being a panster, I learn about characters as I write them, and there are some characters so dark that I don’t want to delve deeper into them. Â Just know that Lady Hedwrett has every reason to be glad he’s dead.
Anyway, I am veering off on a different course in this romance from what I have done in my Regencies up to this point. Â I am going to do a scenario where the couple is forced to marry and decides to live separate lives. Â They will be forced out in the country for three months by some matchmakers in order to overcome their misconceptions about each other. Â This is where I’m currently at in this story. Â It will be interesting to see how these two (who currently can’t stand each other) will deal with this.
I have finally started The Bride Price
This is the first book in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series. Â I don’t have titles for the other books yet.
Currently, I’m at chapter 2. Â Sep (from Shotgun Groom) is about to find out there’s a man auctioning off the women he duped into coming to Omaha. Â I haven’t decided if it’ll be three or four women, so for the time being, I’m saying “three”. Â We’ll have to see how the story progresses. Part of the adventure of writing is finding out what happens next.
This one is set for November.
I am in chapter 3 of The Outlaw’s Bride
Here are the books in the Wyoming Series:
- The Outlaw’s Bride (Book 1)
- The Rancher’s Bride (Book 2)
- Not sure what Book 3 is called yet or if there will be a Book 4
This is the rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride, and Stephannie has taken the pen name Anne Johanson. Â I want to give her credit for creating the world with me, so I have added her pen name to the cover. Â But I am the one writing this, and I can already tell you, it is a lot different from the original.
For one, the hero and heroine are going to marry early in the story. Â Right now, I’m at the point where the heroine has agreed to marry him. Â Two, the heroine really is pretty, but she believes she is ugly because her family constantly told her she was. Â Three, Abby (the hero’s sister) is a bubbly and happy person, though she is still a good survivalist. Â She will hold a rattlesnake and is great at tracking others.
It’ll be fun to see what else develops as the story continues.
I’m not going to publish this book until The Rancher’s Bride is ready. Â I might or might not wait for Book 3 to be ready, too. Â I’m not sure if it’s worth it to wait for an entire series to be completed and publishing it at the same time or not, but it is something I’ve been wanting to try. Â (A lot of it depends on how well I’m able to write four books at a time instead of three like I usually do.)
Taming the Viscountess…any relation to Taming of the Shrew?
I read Taming of the Shrew in high school and enjoyed it, so this is loosely based off the same idea. 🙂
Hopefully not as abusive or misogynistic though, right?
It’s a romance, not a horror novel. 🙂 The guy is a sweetheart.
Shrew was also a romance. It was very abusive and misogynistic.
Personally, I never thought of William Shakespeare as writing romances. He was creative and great at humor and tragedy, but in my opinion, he wasn’t any good at romance. Back then, however, maybe that was considered romance. The culture and time period has a lot to say in what decides a genre. I’ve watched black and white movies and TV shows where men would slap or spank a woman to “knock some sense into them” in a way that people thought was funny or justified. What is acceptable is largely dictated by the culture at the time. I can’t imagine that set up being produced in Hollywood today, even though it was fine back then. I suspect William Shakespeare’s books were the same way.
You mean his plays. And you’re right: while the play is performed to this day, I doubt very few would write a similar set up today. Heck, some modern adaptations change the story today. Look at 10 Things I Hate About You.
Yes, I was talking about his plays. 10 Things I Hate About You is a favorite of mine! I tried watching an old Elizabeth Taylor movie based off Taming of the Shrew a year ago, but I found it boring. I think this theme has been done a lot over the years. It’s always how the authors handle the theme that makes it exciting (as in 10 Things I Hate About You) and boring (as in that Elizabeth Taylor version). 🙂
Speaking of 10 Things, have you noticed that maybe one or two characters in that movie are likeable, and the rest are seriously unpleasant people whom you’re not sure why we root for them or why they like each other? I hear that’s a thing with a lot of 90s rom-coms too.
LOL No, I hadn’t noticed, but I’m going to have to go back and watch the movie again. All I remember is that I loved the two main characters. Julie Stiles and Heather Ledger (if I remember right). Everyone else just faded into the background. Your comment, however, made me think of Clueless. It was a funny movie, but the people really weren’t all that nice when you think about it.
No, they were not.
I’m looking forward to the books and seeing if you can write four books at once. I’m lucky if I can write one. LOL
I tend to still do three with the fourth one being a “as time permits” sort of deal. I’m sure if I stopped going on social sites so much, I could do a lot more.
I decided that I was going to try writing two books at the same time for the next two weeks and seeing how that works. One has a word count goal of 2k and the other is my “as time permits” book and has a word count goal of 600 words. 😀
I hope writing two books works for you! I actually did Book 4 (my time as permits book) first today in order to help me get into the writing mode. It worked. I don’t know if it would always work, but at least I finally got working after struggling for the past two weeks. Good luck on your process! 😀
Cool! Maybe changing it around every so often will help when you get stuck. Like choosing a different POV character when you get stuck. Only it’s a different book. 😀