- I really want to update all of the book covers in the South Dakota Series, but the right ones haven’t come up yet. A lot of authors have become amazingly professional in the look of their covers, so I need to up my game. This is the series in my past books that need to be dealt with. I want the covers to be the best they can be, and my homemade attempts fail in comparison with the skill cover artists have.
- This book was based off a dream I had. I rarely ever get an idea for a book, but this was one of them. In the dream was a scene where the hero and heroine were in the kitchen, and he kissed her then thought to himself, “Why am I continually burdened with guilt over betraying my first wife? She’s no longer alive. I shouldn’t feel guilty.”
- After the dream, I originally wanted to do a romance where the hero initially loved the heroine’s sister in the book, Bound by Honor Bound by Love (the last book in the Native American Romance Series), but that story never went in the direction I wanted. As it turned out Citlali was only going to marry Woape out of duty. It turned out, though, he did love the heroine, Onawa, the entire time. He was just too scared of admitting his feelings to himself and to her until later in the story when he thought he might lose her. Fortunately, Bride of Second Chances came along.
- I was uncertain at first about writing an overtly Christian romance when the sexual heat was going to be high. I know Christian romances are traditionally squeaky clean, and I knew I was going to get feedback from people who hated the direction I was going to go. My initial idea was to tone down the Christian content. But after much prayer and debate, I opted to go with the direction the story really wanted to go. I’ve never regretted that decision. This, along with Loving Eliza and Bid for a Bride, are among my personal favorite books of all I’ve written.
- The drama in Jane’s family is loosely based off of real life experiences, but to protect the innocent, I won’t go into detail.
- The name “Rebecca” came from a book I read in the 8th grade that I love called Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, but in this case, Rebecca was a lovely woman. Like the heroine in Rebecca, Jane struggled with feeling inferior to her husband’s first wife. (For the record, Rebecca isn’t really a romance. It’s more along the lines of gothic fiction.)
- This part is directly inspired from my childhood: “He turned to the window and noted the partly-cloudy sky. Catching a ray of sunlight that filtered through a couple of clouds, he recalled how, as a child, he imagined God taking someone to Heaven whenever there was a break in the clouds like the one he was now looking at.” When I was a kid, every time I saw sunlight making that break through the clouds, I used to think someone was going to Heaven.
- Years ago, I think someone asked me if Brian got jealous of Jeremy because Jeremy was the real son while Brian was the adopted son. The answer is no. Brian and John are super tight and close. They have a special bond between them that just developed over time because they both had a secret way of communicating that no one else around them had. Brian loves Eliza, of course, but he is just closer to John. Jeremy, meanwhile, is closer to Eliza, and part of that has to do with being her biological son, but mostly, it’s a personality thing. Brian and John’s personalities mesh well together, and Jeremy and Eliza’s personalities mesh well together. Even with all of this, all members of this family get along very well, and no one feels excluded at any time. I don’t know how things are in your family, but I have four boys. Two of the boys have personalities that are more compatible with my husband while the other two have personalities that are more compatible with me. We don’t have favorites, but I notice the two kids seem to gravitate more toward their dad and the other two seem to gravitate more toward me. The situation with Brian and Jeremy is similar to that.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
There’s a Lot of content in this newsletter. Now, I’ll have to read them again! Your childhood impression of a sunbeam through the clouds- I always thought, as a kid, that the sunbeam was giving a blessing to whomever it shined upon. I’d lay in the front yard and ask God to shine down on me! As a widow, I understand how your widower felt, that falling in love was being unfaithful to his wife. It has been some years ago, but we were married 30 years. It is so difficult to feel single. I may never feel single and that’s fine with me. Everyone who knew us wished they had a marriage like ours, and I’m doubtful that would happen again for me. And my opinion on sex in Christian books. Christians have sex. If you’ve heard from the HTT Christians about it, perhaps they are proud that they’re not getting any. They should reread the Song of Solomon- that’s scorching hot, and leaves no doubt that it’s a great part of having a loving marriage. So, they should take the stick out of their ***, and enjoy their life!
The trivia on this one turned out a lot longer than I expected. 🙂
I love the idea of someone being blessed when the sunbeams fall on them! I was driving a month ago when I went through one and my first thought was, “Am I about to get into an accident?” even though I logically knew that my childhood view of sunbeams weren’t real. I would much rather think I’d be getting blessed if I go through one. 🙂
I can see how difficult it would be to move on after the death of a spouse. I’ll be married for 20 years this July. I don’t plan on remarrying if my husband goes first. I just can’t see being with another man like I am with him. I don’t see how anyone else will be as good. I’ve been lucky I ended up as well as I did. We married only after four months of dating. We didn’t know as much about each other as we probably should have.
Regarding the content of sex in the books, I had to address it again in the blog post I just did since it seems to be a recurring theme I run across from people who are shocked the scenes are in there. I feel like I have to issue a warning once in a while so people can go elsewhere. What confounds me is that there are so many romances out there that have no sex in them already, so why do people feel the need to contact me and tell me to stop putting sex in mine? I’m one author out of a many. Why not just read the books by authors who write “clean” romances? If I find something in an author’s books I don’t like, I go to another author.