I created a MeWe “The Indie Author Experience” group.

I noticed that MeWe doesn’t have a writing group that focuses on indie writing, publishing, and promotion. (If they do, I haven’t been able to find it over the past two years.) About half of the authors on that site seem to still want a traditional publisher or are brand new to writing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wanted a group dedicated specifically to indies and the issues indie authors face. I finally broke down and created the group myself.

Here is the link.

I’m still on Facebook and in those writing groups, but MeWe needs a group for experienced indie authors. I don’t know if anyone reading this is on MeWe, you’re welcome to join if you want. One thing is that I don’t want this group to end up being a bunch of “buy my book” posts, so no self-promotion is allowed. This group is dedicated to topics that indie authors face in writing, publishing, and promotion.

I’m still uploading AI Audiobooks to Kobo.

I’m finally in the Nebraska Series in my book list. This puts me at about 49 books to go. When you have a big backlist, it takes time to go through these things when you are uploading files one chapter at a time. I’m only putting up my romances, except for the Virginia Series. The Virginia Series has some serious flaws, and I’m not comfortable with it. I probably will never rewrite those books because there are always new stories to tell, and I’d rather focus on the future than the past.

I have gotten a couple of new paperbacks up through Draft2Digital.

Since I have some paperback interior files on my hard drive, I can get to some paperbacks up before next year. Last week, I worked on getting the complete Wyoming Series up in paperback. I don’t know if I’ll get any more done this week. There’s a lot going on around here, and I do want to focus on writing my next books.

Which brings me to where I’m at with writing. 😀

Midnight Wedding is halfway done!

I’m hoping to get to 30,000 words by the end of this week. There are some humorous moments in here, but yes, it does have that darkness to it. I’m figuring by this point in the story, you will figure out what that darkness is. I gave a heavy hint to it, but another big hint comes a bit later. I’ve already written a future scene for this book where the characters find a secret room in the manor. I got the idea for a secret room from a Fantasy Island episode I watched on Tubi. (These are the 1970s series episodes.) I had been debating how I would get from point A to point C in this book. In one of the episodes where the lady is trying to solve a murder, she stumbles upon a secret room. That’s when I got my answer, and now there is a secret room in this story. 🙂 Now I can go from where things are right now in the story to where they need to end up.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride is almost at the halfway point.

I’m hoping to get 22,000 words into this by the end of the week. Remember how I decided to kill off the duke in this series because I had no interest in writing that story? Well, that duke’s death will serve a good purpose in this book. The duke was supposed to marry the heroine of this story, but neither one wanted the marriage. At the beginning of this book, the heroine receives a suicide note from the duke. As a result, she marries the hero. So far, everything has been going great, but you know, things can’t get too great or else there’s no plot. Every story needs conflict. The conflict in this story will come from the fact that the heroine is going to be accused of murdering the duke. She doesn’t realize she’s been accused yet, but the detective in question has already talked to her and the hero without them realizing his identity. It’ll be interesting to see how things develop after they do realize it.

Worth the Risk is halfway done.

This one isn’t going to be as long as my usual books. I should get just shy of 20,000 words in this one by the end of the week. I figure this will be about 40,000 words when all is said and done. My usual book is 60,000, or just under that. I don’t believe in extending a story to make it longer. However long it’s going to be is what it’ll be. Sagging middles are not for me. So anyway, I reached the halfway point. The hero is sickly but not at death’s door. I will never write the whole “hero falls in love and then dies” kind of story. I want to be happy when I finish a book, not depressed. The main conflict of this story is more psychological than anything else. It’s about fear vs. hope. Corin will not be happy to learn that Reuben has gotten married. That’s the tension in this story. While Reuben’s brother means well by protecting him from illnesses (and potential death), he has also prevented Reuben from getting the most he can out of life. Life is more than just surviving; life is about the moments that bring you the most joy. That is the message in this book.