Oh boy. You can tell I am overwhelmed. I placed this post on the wrong blog. I’ll leave this here and link to this post over there. What a crazy time. 😛

I am part of an April Promo!

The book I’m offering for free is A Perilous Marriage, but if you have already read it, there are other great books being offered as part of this promo, so I thought I’d pass them on. 😀 In case you have trouble with the links I provided, here is the direct url: https://litring.com/giveaway/for-the-love-of-reading-giveaway-2/

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Secret Admirer will be out May 7!

I have this book already done and uploaded, so I won’t need to push back the release date or remove the pre-order.

I’ll give more information about this next month when it comes out, but suffice it to say this is a titled person and servant romance. Specifically, the butler is in love with the lady. I thought it’d be fun to write something like this. I did a subplot years ago in Fairest of Them All with this setup, but I never got to write a romance where they involved the main characters.

This one is mostly cute. It would fit in well for an afternoon read when you want something light and fun. If it sounds interesting, you can pre-order it at these places:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo (included in Plus)

Apple

Google Play

Smashwords

I have not set it up on Radish yet, and it won’t be available on Scribd until May 7. I also still need to get it on audio format on Google Play. I do plan to get it on Kobo in audio, but that won’t be for some months. I have so much going on that I’m having trouble finding time to even write.

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Kobo Plus is expanding to the US and the UK!

I have all of my romances as ebooks (and some in audio) on Kobo Plus. The best thing about Kobo Plus is that I don’t have to be exclusively on Kobo to be in that subscription program. The only reason I’m not in KU (over at Amazon) is because they require me to have my books exclusively on Amazon. I want my books to be as widely available as possible.

The neat thing is that Kobo Plus covers ebooks and audiobooks. I hope to have all of my books up there in audio by the end of the year. Right now, I’d say about half of my books are in audio. The move to Nebraska and getting settled in put a stop to my progress. I am homeschooling now, too, so I don’t expect to get back into uploading audiobooks until about June or July. I can’t afford an assistant, so I do all of this stuff myself.

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I am mostly done with the paperbacks!

With the exception of a few books, I have finally gotten my romances set up on Draft2Digital in paperback form. Thankfully, Draft2Digital had a system to help me make interior files and covers. That was why I was able to get through it as fast as I did. I now have almost 100 romances. When you get that many books in your backlist, it takes a while to get them all out in a certain format.

Draft2Digital will put these on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I’m sure there still some old versions out there through secondary sellers.

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I haven’t forgotten these three books:

I haven’t been able to get more than a couple thousand words written since I left Montana in early January, and the only book I’ve been able to write in was Midnight Wedding. This is turning out to be a very slow year for me writing-wise.

The move took up a lot of time. Now that I’m settled in, I had to deal with some identity theft, and it looks like a dear friend and fellow author, Janet Syas Nitsick (who I’ve done anthologies with in the past) might lose her husband to cancer. I want to be there for her since she’s done so much for me in the past. I have not put these three books on pre-order because I have no idea when I’ll finish them.

I do not have a ghostwriter, and while I can see AI being good with helping me come up with book descriptions and doing some light brainstorming on where to go next with the plot, I have no intention of letting AI do the actual writing for me. I want all of my books to be my own creative work. I know some authors view books as a business, and they do very well with it. But I want each book to be written by me. I want everything I do with these books, including the promotion I do with them, to come from the heart. I know that makes for lousy business. I am not one of the authors making “six figures”. If you’re an author following my path, you probably won’t make a lot of money.

It’s just that I would rather take things slow and have these books mean something to me on a personal level. Back in 2010, I remember talking with an author who hated my writing style. She wanted to rewrite my books for me. I told her, “I will succeed or fail on my own merits.” I still feel that way today. So when you read my work, you will be getting “me”, not someone, or something, else. I don’t have a problem with other authors using ghostwriters or AI. I’m just saying that I’ve decided those things are not for me and the books I want to create.

Enough of that soapbox.

I hope everyone has a wonderful April!