Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog

I’m so excited! I have a lot of fun things I’m working on, and I’m having a hard time focusing on just one thing. You guys know me. I write more than one book at a time. Since finding my passion again, I found I needed to expand. I’m doing this by lowering my word count for each book on my writing days.

A quick tangent about how I write more than one book at a time:

People have asked me how I can do this. I don’t know. I guess it’s a byproduct of multi-tasking for years. I started seriously writing when my kids were still in diapers, and I have four kids all about a year or a year and a half apart. I could never sit down and write for any one long length of time. Writing has been broken up into 15-30 minute bulks. I still write this way even though my youngest is now going to be in the 7th grade and my oldest will be in the 10th grade. During the school year, I still stop every 15 or 30 minutes and do something else. It has become a way of life for me to work this way.

Anyway, because I take these kinds of breaks, I use those as transition periods from one book to another. I aim for 250 words for each 15 minute blocks of time I write. If my goal is 1000 words in one book, I’ll lump two of the 15 minute blocks together. So after 30 minutes, I’ll do something short like get more tea or go to the bathroom. After the second 30 minute block, I’ll do a longer chore, like laundry, dishes, the floors, etc. The longer break helps to transition my mind to another story.

And I just recycle this until I get between 3,000 to 3,500 words done for the day. Sometimes I get more done, sometimes less. But the average is in that range, and I do this five days a week.

It also helps that I work on different series at a time. I find doing so helps me stay creative and fresh. I could not work in only one genre at a time. I would get bored. Also, I can’t work on Book 1, 2, and 3 in one series at the same time. What happens in Book 1 will impact Book 2, etc. Being a panster, it’s impossible for me to tell what will happen from one chapter to the next. There’s no way I could tell what Book 2 is going to look like until I end Book 1.

As a side note: on my non-writing/editing days, I try to catch up on emails and such. I don’t write or edit anything.

Now, I don’t write on days I edit. If I edit, I only edit. And I do between 4-5 chapters on an editing day. I have found that editing breaks my creative flow.

Back to what I’m doing now:

I just finished the initial edits of The Perfect Wife!

And I just sent it off to my wonderful editing team! I struggled a lot with how to end this one. The main story between the couple is resolved, but I had to get an “in” to the next book in this series. That was wrapped up within a subplot I had running through this book. I did add an epilogue to help tie things up nicely, but be warned this one ends with a heavy teaser for the next book (The Imperfect Husband). I don’t usually do something like that, but it’s what the characters finally settled on after a month of stalling out.

I’ve gotten most of the edits back from The Perfect Duke, so I’ll work on that this weekend. 

I’m waiting for the book description and remaining edits to come in before I upload it to Amazon. It’s already on places like Kobo, iBooks, and B&N in pre-order. I’ll set a definite release date at that time.

I’ll continue working on these books starting next week:

and

and (very loosely)

If I run out of time, this is the book that gets dropped for the day.

Here’s what I’ll start this week:

This is Annabelle Larson’s romance, and I expect this one to be a lot of fun since it’ll be a comedy. The last two chapters of The Perfect Wife was a blast. I expect this book will be just as funny.

I didn’t announce it earlier, but I have started Shane’s Deal.

(I’m currently revamping the covers in the Montana Collection, so the cover reveal will wait. I’m putting this one with my publisher.) I’m aiming for this to be a novella, but we’ll see. I’m also taking my time on this one. I have the first chapter done or almost done. 

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Non-writing related news:

Google Play

I finally bit the bullet and got a Google Play account. My publisher already had one and was putting the books I had with them on there for me. But as for the books I’ve done myself, I haven’t put them up. I was hoping Smashwords or Draft 2 Digital would start offering distribution to them, but that hasn’t happened. So I finally got an account set up. I am waiting for some tax information to be verified. In the meantime, I have put up this book in order to test the waters over there:

Here’s the Google Play link.

I picked an older book because if something goes wrong, it won’t be a heartache to anyone if I have to remove it.

I have a backlist of about sixty romances to put up there. If things go smoothly, I will put them up. But I’m not going to do this all at once. It’ll drive me crazy. I’m only one person. I don’t have an assistant. (Can’t afford one.) So it’s all up to me to get this stuff done. So be patient with me as I do this.

Also, if you are on Bookbub:

I have a profile over there if you want to follow me. They will send out an email when I have a new book out. If you don’t want to be on my email list and you want an easy way to know if I have a new book out, this would be a good place to follow me.

Here’s the link if you’re interested.

I think that’s all the updates I have for now. Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be answering comments from the pervious blog post in a day or two.