I decided not to make a post for my monthly newsletter since I didn’t write more than a couple thousand words in June. I had nothing to really say. So far, it’s looking like that will change for August 1. I’ll do a bit of an update here.
Over the past two days, I actually did some writing! I had a total of 1700 words yesterday and 2500 words today. That’s huge after not being able to write for so long. I’m hoping that this will continue. It feels good to finally write again. They say walking and sleep is good for stress, but I think for writers, writing is also good for it. I feel more relaxed today than I have in over a month.
Daisy’s Prince Charming
(This is due out July 31.)
This is the last book in the Husbands for the Larson Sisters Series:
Book 1: Nelly’s Mail Order Husband
Book 2: Perfectly Matched
Book 3: Suitable for Marriage
Book 4: Daisy’s Prince Charming
I have links now for this book where it’s available for pre-order:
Kobo (will be in Kobo Plus)
A note about Radish, Scribd, Smashwords, and Payhip. These sites are not set up to allow for pre-orders. That’s why I’m not listing those channels right now.
A note about the audiobook version. I am also going to put this book up as an audiobook using the AI narration on Google Play and Kobo, but that is going to be around July 31 to August 3, depending on how quickly I can get the files all uploaded. Kobo does allow pre-orders for audiobooks, but I’m not sure about Google Play. (I’ll look into it. I have to make the audiobook with Google before I can get it up on Kobo.)
Heiress of Misfortune (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 3)
I’m at the point where I know how things end in this story. I’m 63,000 words into this. My average book is about 55,000 to 60,000 words. I am thinking this will be about 70,000 words when the first draft is done. I tend to lose 2,000 to 3,000 words when I get to the second draft. Then it’s off to my editor. My hope is that the first draft will be done at the end of this month. I’d like to get this book out in October. We’ll see how things play out.
Secret Admirer (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 1)
I’m not sure if I’m more at the 3/4 point. I’m approaching the critical moment of the story which is where everything is turned on top of its head (so to speak). All I know is that when I started this story, I knew the heroine was going to end up falling in love with the butler, and after this happened, a pivotal moment in the story was going to happen. I’m at this point right now. Once the story goes in that direction, I’m not sure how much more needs to be written to complete the story. If there’s not much more to tell, then the story will be wrapped up pretty soon. So I might really be at the 3/4 point right now. I’d go into more detail, but I don’t want to spoil things.
I started Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)
I’m only in Chapter 1 right now. Remember Lord Quinton from The Cursed Earl who was highly superstitious? He’s the hero of this book. I decided to start the book up with his abduction. I build up to this abduction in Secret Admirer. I am not going to rehash events in Secret Admirer, so I guess, technically, this is not a “standalone” book, but then, a lot of my books tend to overlap. Sometimes I’ll even overlap a series.
I think of all of my books as part of a large quilt. They all take place in the same world (whether historical western or Regency), and it takes reading all of the books to fully appreciate the overall picture. I could separate each series out so there is no overlap. I’m sure that would make life easier since people wouldn’t have to piece together how characters and events line up between books/series. A lot of authors do it that way. But I love crossovers. To me, they are like fun Easter eggs that people can discover. So I connect up things whenever I can. Daisy’s Prince Charming, for example, has a lot of Easter eggs in it. That’s part of why I enjoyed writing it so much. The more Easter eggs, the better. 🙂
Putting Audiobooks up on Kobo (I’m all done on Google Play)
I’m in the process of uploading AI audiobooks on Kobo. So far, I have The Earl’s Inconvenient Wife and A Most Unsuitable Earl on there. It takes me roughly 2-3 days to upload one audiobook on Kobo. Google Play already has all of my romances on audiobook, but the process was quick and easy over on Google Play. It took about 15-20 minutes per book to create the audiobook over there. It takes considerably longer on Kobo. So Kobo is going to be a slow process. As far as I know, Google and Kobo are the only places that will allow AI audiobooks. (Audible doesn’t, but I know some people have snuck them in. Audible is ripe with theft, so I’m not surprised.)
I am adding links to these audiobooks as I get them up, but since I have 95 romances out, I’m not linking to them out in a blog post. That would be crazy. I am putting the links on the pages with the books. The books are divided up by series.
If you want to check out the audiobook links, you can go to this link and then go to the book you’re interested in.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
Good luck with the new book. I hope it does well.
Thank you!
You’re welcome.
I’m very excited for all the up and coming books. They all sound so good! It is wonderful that you are feeling more relaxed and enjoying the writing process. I’m very happy for you.
I have been listening to your books on the Google play and it is really nice. I was not sure how well AI would be as a narrator but it is not bad at all. I find myself getting lost in, and enjoying the books very much. It’s such fun to have all my favorite books lined up and ready to be listened to. It won’t keep me from rereading them though. I will always love to read.
I am so glad there was such a solution to getting books out as audio. I hope it’s a very successful venture.
Happy summer and thanks for writing.
My big secret is staying away from the news. I didn’t realize how much of my creativity that was sapping from me.
I’m really glad to hear AI is working out. I’m just glad there’s finally a way for me to get my books on audio. I ran the numbers, and to get the romances all done with a human narrator, it would cost me about $180K. There’s no way I could afford that. I’m grateful Google came up with this option, and I’m even more glad you were willing to give it a try. 😀
So agree about the news. I usually only read the headlines so I know a bit of what’s happening but don’t need all the details. They drag me down, especially since the media loves to only report the bad.
I have been listening to your books on Google play nearly every day. I think they are just fine. I am not bothered about the AI voice. I was wondering if they do a male AI voice also? Just curious.
This was a good solution. It’s crazy the number you quoted to have a human narrator. Wow! That is incredible. I am so glad this option came along.
I got a giggle last night, while listening to The Earl’s Wallflower Bride. The AI pronounced the word “bow” as in tying a ribbon, instead of bending at the waist which is what Warren was doing. It was funny.
Won’t replace reading, because I still love to read, and was enjoying The Imperfect Husband this morning, but it’s nice to have when you just want to rest the eyes:)
Thanks for writing.
Yes, I just look at headlines, too. It’s too much if I go too far into it, and there’s so much going on that it’s hard to keep up anyway.
To answer your question, they do offer male voices. Some authors are experimenting with female narration in the woman’s point of view and male narration in the man’s point of view. This is new, so I’m not sure how to do it. It sounds like this is in the beta stages on Google. I’m not sure if I want to try it at some point or not.
Like you, I’m glad the AI option is here. I wanted to get my stuff in audio. As you know, I tried narrating a couple of books myself, but the background noises and my breathing drove me crazy. I spent so much time trying to edit those files but wasn’t happy with the result. This has been a huge blessing. I know it doesn’t get all the words right. I originally went in to try to teach the AI to pronounce “read” correctly. In some cases, it was supposed to sound like “red” but at other times “read” was the right pronunciation. AI took my changes on an earlier “read” which was supposed to be “red” and started staying “red” when the word was supposed to sound like “read”. So I just gave up. I solved one issue but created another. 😀 I’m just glad it’s not something that turns you off. I laugh at it, myself. But honestly, I’m just glad it pronounced “Regina” correctly. On the Kindle, the AI rhymes that word with “vagina”. That was awful. I can forgive “bow” and “read” but not the name “Regina” being pronounced wrong.
Too much crazy going on in the world to fret over a mispronounced word. I’d rather just laugh at it and enjoy the book. The interesting thing about Regina is that I have heard it pronounced as the rhyme when used in it’s Latin form. Latin for Queen it’s the R after Elizabeth in her signature. Fascinating stuff.
I have always wondered if I pronounced Malcolm’s wife name correctly in my head when reading His Wicked Lady. Is “Reagan” pronounced like Ree gan, or Ray gan? Just curious. Thanks for writing.
I didn’t know that about Elizabeth. That’s very interesting. 🙂
I’ve only heard the name pronounced like “Ray gan” so that’s how I imagined it when I wrote it. I’ll periodically go through Regency and Victorian names to come up with names for my characters. I try to choose ones I haven’t used before, but I notice from time to time I’ll come up with the same name or one that’s similar. Typically, those are between my historical westerns and the Regencies, so it’s not too bad, but in my current work in progress (Secret Admirer), I picked Ava for a character that will be the main character in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I made it almost to the end when I remembered I used Ava in Married In Haste (another Regency). I changed the name to something else, but it didn’t feel right for her. Then I went with Violet, but that still doesn’t feel right for some reason. I don’t think I have a Caroline in Regency. I know I do in a historical western. I think I could get away with people calling her Carol so it’s not so much a copycat name. I think coming up with the right name for a character is one of the hardest things about writing. 😀