I finally got Nelly’s Mail Order Husband up for pre-order.

Nelly is Tom and Jessica Larson’s oldest daughter.

At the moment, it’s on these retailers:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Smashwords

(It will be on Google Play and Payhip later, and I’ll offer a discount on Payhip.)

During the edits, Lauralynn Elliot (my editor) made a comment that gave me the idea for Book 2 in the series. Inspiration can come in the most unexpected ways. 😀 Since I’m already writing three books, Book 2 in this series will have to wait.

Fairest of Them All comes out on the 31st.

Click the cover for pre-order links!

I can’t believe how quickly next Saturday is coming! It’s unreal. Next week I start homeschooling my kid while the others return to school. It’ll be interesting to see how my writing will fit into the new schedule. I looked through the Abeka materials, and I already know I’m going to have to buckle down and focus in order to do both. I can tell the courses are going to be intense.

I started writing this week!

I experienced a couple of hours where my mind was blank. After getting up from the computer and roaming around the house several times, I made myself sit down and type. It was rocky at first. I did a lot of deleting. But I’m in Day 3 now, and the stories are finally coming along. I’m relieved. Even better, the creative mind is exploding all over the place.

I think this is the benefit to taking a vacation and letting the creative mind relax. The subconscious mind had all summer to work on the storylines for the books I had selected. I didn’t appreciate the value of that vacation until today when things just quickly fell into place for all three books. All summer, I had no idea how I was going to pull certain stuff off, and today while I was writing, the characters all led me in the right direction. If I don’t take breaks, this stuff is like pulling teeth. The dots do connect, but it’s harder to see how they do that. I haven’t taken a break from writing since 2015, so I had forgotten the value of letting the creative mind rest.

Okay, I’m stepping off the soapbox.

I’m at Chapter 12 (33,000 words) in The Outlaw’s Bride

This is Book 1 in the Wyoming Series.

I had started this one back in 2017 and then dropped it when I didn’t feel like writing it anymore. I knew I would feel like writing it at a later date, and this summer, I realized it was the right time to finish it. I’m glad I waited.

This is a rewrite of The Stagecoach Bride (that I had done with Stephannie Beman), and I have changed who the characters are to fit how I plan to take the series. I had been concerned over how I’m going to toughen up the heroine in this book to do what she’s going to need to do when the villain comes along. In this version, the hero is your typical beta hero. That’s the kind of hero I often write. I don’t do many alpha heroes because they don’t come naturally to me. I have done a couple in the past, but if you’re familiar with my work, you know I gravitate to the beta hero. The hero in this  version wanted to be beta. I think that’s because my heroine is softer than most heroines.

Anyway, I was fretting over who was going to take her to task and give her the mindset she’ll need, and today the hero’s sister came to the rescue. The sister did teach the heroine in the original version of this story, but in this version, her role is more prominent. Once the sister does her job, the characters will be ready to move toward the next stage in the book, which is leading to the confrontation with the villain.

This book will be the first in a new series.

I’m almost finished with Chapter 1 in this, and I already realized this will be Book 1 in a new series. The heroine was having a conversation with a gentleman at a ball, and she said something that led the gentleman to believe her friend is interested in him. The friend is NOT interested in him. But the heroine inadvertently made him think she was. The truth is, the friend thinks this gentleman is dorky, in looks and in personality.

As soon as those dots connected in my mind, I knew I would have to pair the two up. It sounds like it could be a really fun book to write. So that will be #2 in this series. I haven’t given this series an official name yet, but I’m thinking Marriage by Design. We’ll see how things play out. I’m going to give it a little longer before I settle on the series name.

I know the motivation behind the family’s strange behavior in this book.

This is Book 5 in the Marriage by Fairytale Series.

I’m also at the end of Chapter 1 in this book. The setup for this book is that the hero is going to marry the heroine through an arranged marriage. The hero and her brother will agree to the marriage. The brother tells the hero that she’s extremely shy and that she’s afraid to go to London to find a husband. The hero is eager to get married, and since he likes the brother, he agrees to go to the country estate to marry her.

This book is loosely based on the Rapunzel fairy tale. The key to that one is the woman lives in seclusion. In this book, she keeps to one wing of the manor. She doesn’t venture beyond that point, and she rarely has anything to do with anyone. She rarely even sees the brother, her mother, her aunt, and her uncle.

I knew there was a reason behind her behavior, and I knew something else was going on behind the scenes that the hero isn’t told. But during this whole summer, I couldn’t figure out what that something was. Then while the brother was talking to the hero about Socrates and Plato, everything fell into place, and I understood exactly what was going on. I can’t say what that is because it would spoil the book. It’s a shame because I LOVE the path this book is doing to take. The stuff coming up is the perfect setup for a gothic romance. I can’t wait for the hero to get to the country estate! That’s when the fun will really begin! *rubs hands together in anticipation*