ŷ������

Regarding the situation with my eyes, I recently saw an eye doctor. I did wonder if he would find a cataract, glaucoma, or some other damage to the eye since I am 48. I try to protect my eyes as much as I can, but you can’t fight all of the effects of getting older. This thing will my dry eye has gotten progressively worse over the years. I thought there might be another situation I was dealing with. It turns out there isn’t anything wrong with my eyes. I was very relieved to hear it.

My tear ducts going from my eyes down to my nose are narrow, and age did factor into that. As I’ve gotten older, they’ve gotten more narrow. All I can do is mitigate the situation the best I can. I don’t want to do surgery to widen them. I don’t think I’m at the point where it’s necessary, and the eye doctor agrees. I have warm compresses, which I’ve been using for years, but I was told about eyelid scrubs to use before bed to help keep the eyelids clean. I have a new eyeglass prescription coming. (My last one was two years ago, so there’s not much difference there, but I did request that the lenses be coated to make computer use easier. My current pair, while coated, have tiny scratches on the lenses, and I’m sure that doesn’t help.)

I haven’t figured out how much time to devote to the computer. I can’t do as much as I used to. That’s been the biggest problem I’ve been tackling. I did go to settings, as two people on here suggested, and made the computer screen as “warm�� as it’ll go. This helped. I also got a new pair for my old prescription a month ago with a new layer on it to protect me from eye strain. That helped, too. But there’s really only so much I can do.

My eyes fare better when I’m away from the computer. So I’m trying to figure out the best way to proceed. My eyes seem to do okay when I stick with the Word document. That’s good news because I need Word to write. My eyes don’t do as well when I go on the internet. I don’t know what it is about the websites that make my eyes get tired, but if I spent more than an hour on the internet, I can feel the strain in my eyes, even with the “warm�� screen and my lenses to protect against eye strain. I don’t think I can stay completely off social media. I have a couple of people I keep in touch with on MeWe and Facebook. (I’m on Facebook under my pen name.) But the days of me posting and reading other people’s posts have to stop. The time I spend on email isn’t much, but I need that social media time to devote to emails. Emails are hard for me. They strain my eyes a lot, so I try not to do them more than a couple times a week, and when I do, I can only answer so many of them at a time before I need to get away from the computer. I need to do these blog posts because it’s how I let people know what is going on with my books and when my books will be out. It’s pretty much the only marketing I do for my books. Plus, I do enjoy the comments.

It’s frustrating, to say the least, that I have to choose what to do and what not to do. I’m sure it seems like I’m not interested in people. Please understand that if I take time to respond to a comment or email, I am interested. I just can’t be online as much as I’d like to. I always thought once my kids were grown up, I’d be able to devote more time online. It’s not turning out that way. As disappointed as I am, I have to accept my limitations. My priority has to be the books. If I do nothing else, I will keep writing those. The next priority is this blog. Writing here helps me focus. I usually figure out what to do next in a story or get a new story idea from posting here. Writing in a private journal doesn’t have the same benefit. I don’t know why. But I also love talking about the benefits of writing for passion because that reminds of why I enjoy writing. This keeps me centered and focused. If I can help others, that’s a plus. The other stuff I do will come as my eyes allow.

Quick reminder on the order of the books in the series I’m currently working on:

Marriage by Obligation Series:

Love Under Desert Skies Series:

More to Come in this series

Midnight Wedding is almost ready for pre-order

Even though I’m no longer making the long pre-orders like I used to, I want to keep using the pre-order feature because it gives me time to get the links, blog posts, and the email announcement ready. This book is back from the editor. I’m going through it now to finalize it. My goal is to have it up on pre-order by the end of this week.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride will take on a twist

And I already know some people will not like this twist, but it’s one that I (as a creator) feel is better for this particular story. While working on the first draft blog post years ago, I used to get comments from people who said something along the lines of, “I can’t wait to find out that character to tell the other character about that thing from their past.�� (I’m being vague because that kind of comment came from several different people on different stories. I realize the “big reveal�� from something in someone’s past is important to readers, especially when it comes to stuff between the hero and heroine.

Regarding The Earl’s Jilted Bride, I think it’s more important that the hero’s big secret is only revealed to the reader. Now, this is not even a secret to the reader going into the book. In the description, I come out and say the child he has isn’t really his. To protect the child, he makes everyone think it’s his. But no one else in the story knows this. And I’ve decided that not even the heroine will find out. Whether or not the heroine knows has no bearing on the story at all. Because of that, I thought, “I really want this to be something only the reader ever knows.�� It’s a decision I made as a creative, and I enjoy the story more because of it. Another time I employed this writing strategy was in Brave Beginnings. The characters in that story believed Ernest killed his first wife, but it turned out that her death was an accident. Only Ernest and the reader ever knew the truth.

Sometimes not revealing things to another character is just as important as revealing them. The key is to know when that creates the biggest impact for the story. I think the story is stronger with only the readers knowing this information. It is the foundation upon which the hero behaves and feels during a significant portion of the story. If the reader doesn’t know this, then his actions won’t make any sense. So keep that in mind when you read the book. This will not have one of those “big reveal�� moments.

I will probably finish Worth the Risk before I finish The Earl’s Jilted Bride

Thought Worth the Risk is Book 4 in this series, I am closer to being finished with it than I am with The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I have about three more scenes left to write in this one. I have probably three to five chapters left to write for The Earl’s Jilted Bride. Worth the Risk is longer than Secret Admirer, but it’ll be shorter than Midnight Wedding and The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I even went back and fleshed out some of this story. I felt I was rushing to the end. This fleshing out didn’t add fluff. It rounded out the romance between the hero and heroine better. I have the final conflict coming up, but I feel that the story needs one more scene before I get there. So I need one more scene to get to the conflict. Then I need the scene showing the resolution and happy ending. (Hey, what do you know? I can plot a little bit after all.) Anyway, I expect to finish up with this by the end of next week. I won’t publish it before The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I will go through the editing process on it, though, so it’s ready for me to put on pre-order when I get The Earl’s Jilted Bride up.

Tagalong Bride is off to a great start

This is my Love Under Desert Skies Series. Tagalong Bride is Book 1. I am aiming for comedy, and it seems like we’re heading in that direction, but it’s hard to know for certain this early in the story. The hero has just found out his sister is lost in Arizona. The heroine overheard him talking to his mother about it and insisted on coming along. Frankly, I was surprised. I didn’t think the heroine was so assertive when starting this story, but she’s turning out to be someone who can speak up for herself. She does believe the hero loves her. He is determined to act the part of the devoted husband, though he only married her for her family’s money. I have a suspicion that once he realizes how much this little lady can assert herself when necessary, he’ll become attracted to her. But we’ll see as the story progresses.

I already know I’ll be writing a story for the hero’s sister who has been abducted by a group of bandits when they see gold coins in her drawstring purse. I don’t know any more than that right now since I am only in Chapter 2 of this book. I don’t know who she ends up with. She was supposed to marry someone out in Bullhead City, Arizona when her train got overtaken by the bandits just east of Flagstaff. Usually, I pair up the heroine with someone other than the man she was supposed to marry in these scenarios, but it might be nice if the man she was supposed to marry actually tracks her down and marries her this time. We’ll see if things play out that way during the course of the series. Until I’m actually writing scenes with the sister, I can’t say what direction this will all go.

I think there’s going to be another character popping up at some point in this book who might have a story of his own in this series, too. I’m hoping this character will be a funny character to work with. My initial idea is that he will be. Until I introduce him on the page, I won’t know for sure.

We’ll see how this series branches out in due time.

Background to my journey and the breakthrough moment that changed everything:

It’s amazing how long I was dealing with functional burnout. (I was burned out but still able to keep writing.) Looking back, I believe it started in 2014. That’s when writing started to feel like a job where I had to sit down at a computer and crank out a certain number of words before I was allowed to be done for the day.

I didn’t realize I was going into burnout. I kept pressing through it because you’re supposed to bleed on the paper, right? Writers who are serious about writing keep writing, even when they don’t feel like it. This mindset is known as “butt in chair�� to some writers in the community. Well, in 2021, I reached the point of burnout where I hated writing. I wanted out because it was killing me. My creative well had dried up. I was running on fumes. However, I didn’t want to leave a series unfinished, so I made a plan for enough stories to finish the historical westerns and Regencies up. That way, I wouldn’t leave anyone what happened next to a certain character I brought up that needed their story told.

I honestly didn’t think I’d ever enjoy the process of writing again, and if I did ever get to the point of enjoying the process of writing, it would take a year or more to get there. But, surprisingly, it didn’t. In fact, it was almost overnight when things flipped around. All I did was ask myself, “What do I want to read?�� Then I started thinking of the stories I wanted to read, and it was like a light switch got turned on.

I stopped asking myself, “What do I want to write?�� I’d been asking myself that for a couple of years, and it obviously wasn’t working. But looking at the stories from a reader’s perspective changed everything. I am my own reader. I am the person I need to write for. Naturally, writers care about their readers. But I think writers can hurt their creativity by asking the wrong questions when they write. Instead of, “What cover will they like?��, ask “What cover do I like?�� Instead of, “What kind of character will they like?��, ask “What kind of character do I want to read about?�� Instead of, “What kind of story should I write?��, ask “What kind of story do I want to read?��

I don’t know if that will help anyone else, but it helped me. Now I enjoy writing again. I can’t wait to get to the computer. I hate getting off (though I do because my eyes need the rest and real life does pop up). At least when I’m off the computer now, I long to get back on here so I can write. I would much rather have that longing to work on the story than to be relieved that I get a break from it because writing is “a job��.

Blog topic actually starts here:

Now that I know what to do to kill one’s creativity, I’m going to share them. Often, they sneak up on you without you even realizing it. I did all of these for years. In addition to asking yourself, “What do I want to read,�� I think it’s important to watch out for the things below.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #1: Write for other people

I know I’ve been preaching this already on this blog, but I don’t feel this gets enough attention in the writing community. When you write for other people, you browse what’s popular and find a way to wiggle those things into a story that is your own creation.

A lot of writers, myself included, thought if we could just merge what’s popular with something we’re interested in–you know, to give it that slant we can enjoy–then we’ll be able to straddle the writing-to-market and the writing-for-passion fence. In the end, this method doesn’t work because you end up drained anyway. Why? Because you’re still writing what other people want to read instead of writing what you want to read. Some writers go all-in with this writing for other people thing and only write what the market wants. I believe they burn out a lot faster. You can’t force yourself to enjoy something you don’t.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #2: Focus on the money

I am so tired of hearing the phrase six-figure author. I’ve made six figures, and I was miserable. Money does not equal enjoyment while writing the story. It doesn’t even make you happy with the books you produce. I’ve seen comments from authors who confessed they hated what they were writing but felt trapped because those are the books that are making them money. I never ended up hating my books. It was the act of writing that I ended up hating. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to hate both writing the story and the story itself. I don’t care how good the money is, eventually the emotional drain will catch up to you if you’re not having fun.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #3: Neglect people you love and non-writing things you enjoy

If you are stuck on your computer all day and every day, you won’t give your mind time to rest. The creative well needs time to fill back up. I don’t agree with this nonsense about writing every day. I no longer agree with having to write a certain amount of words a day. I used to be into the word thing, but I can now see that I was putting pressure on myself that was contributing to my burnout. Give yourself a nice and comfortable pace that allows you to write while also having time to spend with loved ones and to pursue other forms of entertainment. By surrounding ourselves with people we love, we are building connections that will enrich us emotionally. By engaging in other forms of entertainment, we are expanding our minds. Doing something else will make us whole as human beings. This wholeness will help us write better stories, and it might even help us enjoy the process of writing since we’re not doing it all the time.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #4: Neglect your health

The longer you’re stagnant at the computer, the more you can write. I get that. It takes time to exercise. It takes time to shop for good quality foods and then prepare meals at home. But if you’re neglecting your health, you are going for short-term gains. You might get more books out, and, as a result, make more money, but what happens when you get sick? You can’t buy good health. When we give our bodies the right nutrients and exercise, we’re fueling our bodies and our minds. We’ll probably also be able to think more clearly so we can write better stories, too.

Way to Kill Your Creativity #5: Focus on the news

If there’s one thing that will ruin your creative edge, it’s paying close attention to the news. I agree that it’s good to be aware of what is happening. You want to be an informed voter. But you can’t get so caught up in the drama of it that you lose your creative edge. I can’t speak for other countries, but here in the United States, news is set up like a soap opera. Look at the headlines on any given day, and you’ll swear that it’s the end of the world every time a politician does or says something. This is all geared to getting you to focus on it because the advertisers are spending their money to get you on these platforms. I understand the psychological reasons for the keywords these people are using. But it’s stirring up a lot of anger and strife, and it’s not healthy. This drama is bound to have an affect on you if you allow it. To save your creativity, you need to take breaks from it. Some people will need longer breaks than others, but definitely take breaks. Find something you enjoy that gets you away from it all. Spend time with loved ones.

Ways to Kill Your Creativity #6: Be online all the time

With technology at your fingertips, I get how easy it is to be online all the time, but it’s not healthy. For one, we are less likely to get up and move when we’re online. Two, we’re less likely to spend time with loved ones when we’re online. (I don’t care what people say. There is something to be said for connecting with people in person. We are physical beings, and we need physical contact with others.) Three, social media is as bad as the news. It’s a lot of drama. This drama can be a huge time suck. You start out reading or watching one thing, and before you know it, an hour has gone by. When I disengage from the online world, I get a lot more written, and I find it a lot easier to write those words. If I get online, I end up writing less, and I have a harder time coming up with what will happen next in the story. I set aside a certain amount of time I’ll be online. Some days, I never hop online at all. My writing has gotten much better because of it.

I was going to wait for a few days to make this post, but I’m too excited to wait, so here I am.

I have Secret Admirer on audiobook at Google Play and Apple.

Secret Admirer (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 1)

Both are narrated by AI. Google Play has been allowing me to upload my ebook to create a digitally narrated audiobook for some time now. Draft2Digital just opened an option for authors (of romance and other fiction) to create digitally narrated audiobooks to Apple. (As a side note: It looks like pricing is set by Draft2Digital or Apple on the Apple store. I was able to price directly on Google Play.)

Right now I only have Secret Admirer (my romance) as on ebook on Draft2Digital. My other romances are still uploaded through Smashwords. I have to wait for Draft2Digital to move my books from Smashwords to their system before I can convert my other romances into audiobooks to put on Apple. (Draft2Digital bought Smashwords so they’re merging together.) Anyway, I am excited about getting my books into more avenues. It takes time to do this. For one, I can’t afford a personal assistant to do the legwork for me. Two, I need to limit my screen time because of my eyes. And three, these options are not opening up to authors right away. It’s taking some time. So please bear with me.

If anyone here wants Secret Admirer on audiobook on Kobo, please let me know. I’ve heard from people who want audiobooks on Amazon, Google Play, and Apple, but nothing about Kobo. I’m not excluding Kobo audiobook listeners. I just don’t know if any are out there. As for Amazon, they are not allowed digital narration at this time. I’m sure they eventually will. In the meantime, the Kindle does have a text-to-speech feature that is enabled on my ebooks. (I listened to books for years with my Kindle.)

Midnight Wedding is still in edits

Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)

And I still haven’t picked a release date, but I am planning for it to be at the end of July.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride is coming along nicely

The Earl’s Jilted Bride (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 3)

I didn’t think I’d be able to fit in the characters from Midnight Wedding into this book since the timeline elapsed a bit, but I just finished a scene where we see Lydia after she comes back from her elopement with Lord Quinton. So I’m able to do some follow-up from Midnight Wedding in this book. I guess this makes this a series where it’s best to read the books in order, but I think most of my series are like that. I’d like to get Lord Wright and Lord Quinton together at another dinner party in this book. I don’t know about anyone else, but the dinner party scene where the two show up in Secret Admirer is my favorite scene in the whole book.

Anyway, I know I’m over the halfway point. The hero is about to discover the secret the heroine’s been keeping. (I can’t say more without spoiling it, but I’m looking forward to it because it’s one of those high-tense scenes.)

Worth the Risk took an unexpected turn

Worth the Risk (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 4)

Sometimes people say that my books are predictable. Well, maybe my books are predictable to them, but they aren’t to me. I go into my books not sure of what will happen, and a lot of times, my characters will take me in a direction I didn’t see coming. That’s what happened to me this week when I was writing this book. I thought I was pretty much done, and then the characters made a decision I didn’t expect. (Yes, I know my characters aren’t “real��, but the fun of writing is pretending they are. I’m tired of hearing authors complain when authors like me who write by the seat of our pants say our characters did something unexpected. If you want to sit down and plot the book ahead of time, go ahead. I prefer to be surprised when I write my books.) And I like the direction this book is going. Now I have some new possibilities before me that I didn’t have before, and that will make this book more interesting to me as I write it.

Here is Book 5 of the Marriage by Obligation Series:

If you read Midnight Wedding, you’ll come across Lydia’s brother, Felix. Felix is the hero of this story. I can’t say more about it until after Midnight Wedding it out. I don’t want to spoil that book for you.

And finally��

I now have a historical western romance I’m excited about writing!

I have decided I wanted to go in a whole new direction with a western. I have been sticking to Nebraska a lot lately, and I think that put me in a rut. (Though, I will say I enjoyed writing about Tom and Jessica’s daughters a lot. That is one of my favorite series.) But still, I needed to wipe the slate clean and do something different.

So I’m going to go to the Arizona desert. I’ve never been there before in my books. This will be exciting. The hero and heroine are from Philadelphia, so they’ve never been out west. I think that will make this book funny in many ways.

The main focus of the story will be on the hero and heroine. The hero isn’t the least bit attracted to the heroine, but he marries her because she’s a wealthy heiress. Only the hero and the hero’s sister know that their father died with a lot of debt. The sister ran off to be a mail-order bride in Arizona. The hero stayed in Philadelphia to save the family name and to make sure their mother would be provided for. Well, on his wedding day, news come to him that his sister went missing in Arizona. He is worried about his sister, of course, because he packs right away to find her. But he also realizes this is the perfect chance to avoid his new bride. The bride, on the other hand, is in love with him and thinks he’s in love with her, so she packs for the trip and seeks out to find his sister with him. This is a comedy, so the setup will be fun. The hero is determined to keep up the pretense of being in love with her. He realizes he owes her a lot for saving his family from ruin. He’s not heartless. But he will struggle with playing the role of the doting husband. Until…of course…he starts to actually fall in love with her. This is a romance. We all know he will eventually fall in love with her. But it’s the “how�� that is going to be the fun part.

I expect things to really get fun when the two arrive in Arizona and are told the canyon is haunted with some legend I’ll create to make things interesting. I’d like there to be a little danger in this somewhere.

I’ve decided to call this book Tagalong Bride. I realize the word “tagalong�� wasn’t out until about 1900 which is before this book takes place, but I’m calling it Tagalong Bride anyway because I like it. I searched for other words but nothing fits like this one does. I want something that conveys a comedy romance about a bride who is pretty much tagging along with her new husband even though he doesn’t want her there. I chose the cover to let people know there will be sex in the book. Even after all of this time, I get people who think my books (esp. the westerns) will have no sex scenes in them and they’ll 1 star the book for it. I have to let the cover do the talking for me.

For years, I kept asking myself, “What kind of book do THEY want to read?�� This question is geared for writing to market, and once this question becomes your focus, it is hard to get away from it. Even when you make a break from writing to market, this question finds its way back into the idea stage of planning a book. Unless you’re the kind of person who can write to market long term, this question will end up crushing your creative spirit. It doesn’t kill it right away. It takes time. But, eventually, it will kill it. I had exhausted every single idea I had in my arsenal by the beginning of last year. I did write a couple of pure passion projects, which is how I believe I managed for as long as I did.

I didn’t make this public, but I did confide to a few close friends that I was planning to quit the writing thing. I’d come to the end of my rope. I ran out of ideas. Worse than that, I ran out of the desire to write. During 2022, I actually told my husband and kids on several occasions that if I never wrote another book for as long as I lived, that would be okay with me. This is why I didn’t start a new series. It’s why I decided to just finish up the remaining Regency series I had started. Then I could walk away from writing all together without leaving any loose ends behind. The plan was to finish all three books in December then release the books through 2023. Then I would retire my blog and walk away from it all. The only thing that stopped me from finishing those books was the move I made. That forced me to stop everything for a few months.

The desire to actually quit writing was something I never thought I’d face. When I was a teenager, I thought I was going to write until the day I died because it was the one thing that I enjoyed no matter what else was going on. But that’s what the simple question, “What kind of book do THEY want to read?�� did to me. It killed my passion. For the past few years, I have been struggling to get back to the place of purely writing for passion. I came close a few times. I think An Earl in Time is where I succeeded 100%, but that was meant to be a non-market story. It was a time travel romance with fairytale elements. There’s no real market for it. Knowing that ahead of time eliminated the question completely from my mind. All of the other books were your basic Regencies and historical western romances. The genre I write in is the most popular one there is. On a subconscious level, I knew it, so that stupid question kept pestering me.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been discussing my struggle with eliminating that stupid critical voice. It’s the critical voice that tells you that you need to write to market. The critical voice essentially says that if your book can’t appeal to others, it’s not worth writing. So that’s how you let the question, “What kind of book do THEY want to read?�� seeps into you even if you don’t want it.

I’ve been struggling to come up with an idea for a historical western romance that I could get excited about. On my last blog post, I was discussing my works in progress, and then I got to the portion of the blog where I started rambling about a historical western setup that would be fun to write. I kept asking myself, “What kind of book do I want to read?�� I’m not going to lie. This was a hard question to answer because my critical voice wanted to replace it with “What kind of book do THEY want to read?�� But as I wrote that blog post, I got a spark for a historical western. I haven’t had a spark in that genre for over a year. I ran with that spark and kept writing to figure out where it would get me. Now I have an idea I’m really excited about.

It’s amazing how a simple change in a sentence can open new doors. Every time I start to wonder if I should go in this direction or that, I dry up. So then, I consciously ask myself, “What kind of book do I want to read?�� Then the creativity starts to flow again. I don’t expect the path to be easy. If anything, the process of being a writer has its ups and downs, but in some way, I feel like I’ve come full circle. Back in 2009 when I started indie publishing, I never thought about the market. I only thought about what I wanted for my books. The writing came so easily, and it excited me. I couldn’t wait to get on the computer to see where the story would take me next. I am just now starting to get that kind of excitement back. In the past week, I got four new ideas for books (two Regency for a new series I want to start at the end of this year and two historical westerns for a new series I plan to start at the end of summer).

I have tried many things to get back into the writing for passion mindset, and nothing has seemed to work as well as the question, “What kind of book do I want to read?�� If you’re struggling in this area, then I recommend at least giving it a try. I realize it might not work for others in the same way it’s worked for me, but since it has been working, I thought I’d share it.

Also, I have decided I’m not making deadlines like I used to. I’m not going to force myself to write when I’m not in the mood. I’m going to make time for family and friends. I’ll just get these books out at a pace that fits. I’ll do pre-orders but only after the final draft is done. At that point, I’ll set a release date and upload the book. Then I have time to work on the blog post and my email list announcing the book is out. I believe I’ll do my best work when I’m not stressing myself out over it.

I am currently in the initial edits for Midnight Wedding.

I am finally done with this book. It took me a little over a year to write the whole thing. That’s the longest it’s ever taken me to write a romance. Since it did take me so long, I had a celebration for completing it. Last week and this week, I’m working on the initial edits. After that, this goes out to the editing team. I haven’t picked an official date yet, but this will be published in late July. I plan to have it on pre-order for a week or two so that I have time to write the blog posts announcing its release and to get the links, etc.

***

Still writing these two books:

��

It looks like I’ll finish Worth the Risk before I finish The Earl’s Jilted Bride because Worth the Risk is shorter. But The Earl’s Jilted Bride comes before Worth the Risk, so I’ll sit on Worth the Risk. I just did a scene in The Earl’s Jilted Bride that I’ll have to rewrite. As I’m editing Midnight Wedding, I realize that the main characters from Midnight Wedding can be back in London by the middle of The Earl’s Jilted Bride. Since I think it would be fun to include those two characters, I’m going to use them rewrite the scene with them in it. I’m not sure if the arrival of these two characters will change anything in The Earl’s Jilted Bride or not. Actually, as I write this, I realize there is something that can change, and it will add to the plot of the story. So I’m excited to be able to bring the main characters from Midnight Wedding into play in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I should warn everyone that Worth the Risk is an off-shoot (of sorts) because this takes place pretty much exclusively in the country. I don’t know if I will be able to wind this up in London. I’d like to, but it depends on how the climax of this story plays out.

I know that’s all vague, but mentioning the specifics would spoil the stories.

***

Got a Cover for Book 5

I have the receipt and the image, but I see it’s still on the site, so I want to be sure the transaction went through before posting it on this blog. I went ahead and got a premade cover. I didn’t feel like trying to make a cover from scratch. While I was at it, I bought two other Regency-era premade covers for future use.

I hope to start writing Book 5 later this week. I like writing three books at one time. I find when I work on one book, it often inspires me to do something in another book. For example, I wrote Nobody’s Fool (Book 2) and A Deceptive Wager (Book 3) at the same time. I wanted the heroine in Book 3 to have someone to help her in the “battle of wills�� against her new husband. So I introduced this character in Book 2. Suddenly the hero had an uncle that I didn’t originally plan to create. It’s more enjoyable to bring in a character from an earlier book in the same series whenever possible because people will remember that character. Plus, as a writer, it’s like being able to say “hi�� to an old friend.

��

Also, there are times I’m writing a story in one series that gives me an idea for a book I’m writing in another series. Nobody’s Fool is a Regency. Suitable for Marriage is a historical western. In Nobody’s Fool, the hero has no idea that the heroine is trying to get him to “fall out of love�� with her. In Suitable for Marriage, the hero is very much aware of what the heroine is doing and plays along in order to spend time with her.

��

I’ve done things over times that have an overlap between stories like that, but those are the examples that came to mind while writing this post. Essentially, there is a lot of piggybacking that occurs when I write more than one book at a time, and I’ve found my sweet spot to be three books at once.

***

My new mission is to figure out what stories I want to read.

I have spent the last two weeks listening to the books I’ve written that I enjoy the most. When you write to market, the focus is on what other people want to read. Doing that for years has led to some of my burnout. There are other factors, but trying to produce work that I believe others want to read most is the main contributor because I am not allowing myself to write the stuff I want to read. While I enjoyed those books well enough, they aren’t the books I listen to over and over again.

Would you believe that Midnight Wedding is my 99th romance? I am almost at 100. I have used up many ideas that I was excited about writing. The nice thing about creativity is that ideas don’t completely go away. New ones do come to you. It can take some time, but I’ve found that being relaxed and consuming my own content helps with two questions: 1. what makes this one of my favorite stories and 2. what else would I like to read that I haven’t written yet?

In order to write from a place of passion, I think those two questions matter the most. It’s the opposite of what writers do when they write to market. Writing to market, you ask yourself these two questions: 1. what makes a story top the best selling charts on various retailers and 2. what can I do to give my own spin on it? I think it’s easier to write to market because it’s safer. You’re sticking with the tried and true. The tried and true works over and over again. That’s why we have so many retellings of stories like Beauty and the Beast. I enjoy some of the tired and true myself. I’ve written some of them and have enjoyed them a lot. So it’s not always bad to pursue the tried and true if there’s a way you can tell it that is going to excite you.

But there are times when you start to think it might be fun to take an idea that isn’t tried and true. Sometimes the most intriguing idea is one that you can’t really pin into a hole that makes it easy to market. I’ve been told that my romances aren’t really “romances�� because I go into other plots. If you’re talking about the standard hero and heroine with the back-and-forth “does he/she or doesn’t he/she love me?�� formula, then you’re right. Because the basic romance formula is that the two main characters aren’t guaranteed the other loves them until the end of the story. To me, that’s not interesting. There needs to be something more for me to want to write it. My favorite part of my stories are the romantic parts, and, to me, the romance is a big part of the story. There might be something else going on, but if you took the romance out, I wouldn’t want to read it. So essentially, I write romance. It’s the kind of romance I want to read.

While I have fun with the Regencies, I want to write a historical western. I just having pinned down the idea that gets me excited about writing it. I have plenty of ideas for what the market might want, but those aren’t that interesting to me. Somewhere on the edge of my consciousness, I can feel an idea for a historical western tickling my brain. It think there’s a gothic tone to it. I’d love to mix some gothic element to a historical western because I haven’t done it yet. Maybe I’ll have this set in Arizona. I’ve been there once for a Phoenix writer’s conference so I have an idea of what the terrain is like. I’ve have so much fun working on Midnight Wedding. I want something that gives me that kind of excitement in a historical western. I’m thinking of possibly a desert setting with a legend about ghosts or some kind of mythological story. And our cowboy is set out across the desert where he will have to encounter this. I’m not sure where the heroine would come in, but this story isn’t worth writing unless she’s there. I’ll keep working on it. I want something with danger, maybe a little humor, and a lot of romance. I’ll let you know if I finally get the set up I need to start the story.

I came across this where she discusses how we can’t fight the future.

I agree that we can’t fight the future. Things are in a constant state of change. It’s been like that for as long as man’s been around. New things are always emerging. Someone had to invent the wheel. Someone had to invent the number 0. Someone had to invent paper to write on. As a human species, we’re always looking for ways to build upon what came before us. The way writers get their stories into the world will see its share of changes, just like everything else. I’m the first to admit that I don’t like change. I wish things would remain the same, but things don’t stay the same, so we have to figure out a way to adapt.

As I was listening to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s post, three main thoughts came to me that made me feel better about the future. I thought I would share them in this post in case they can help someone else.

1. Good storytelling matters.

In a world that is constantly changing, this is the one constant we can depend on. I don’t care what format pops up with how books are consumed. Whether it’s oral, paperback, ebook, audio, serial, or visual, people still want a good story. They want to be entertained. If you can master the art of storytelling, you have a huge advantage. I realize that visibility is the problem. Finding an audience for our books is what we’ve always had to figure out. But if you have a poorly written story, it doesn’t matter how many people find it. If you’re not a good storyteller, you’ll never survive long term as a writer.

This is comforting news. And this is why I believe writing what we love is so important. When we love what we’re writing, we will naturally do our best work. The goal of writing for passion isn’t to appeal to every reader out there. The goal is to appeal to the readers who love the stuff you’re writing. I realize in an atmosphere that lauds the “six-figure author��, writing what you love isn’t sexy. But there is value in writing something that comes from the heart. A good story is timeless.

2. Take it in baby steps.

There is so much out there available to us as writers. When I read through some posts in writing groups on marketing, I get overwhelmed by how much is out there, and there seems to be new things coming out all the time. That’s why I think it’s best to focus on one or two new things you see emerging. Ideally, the thing you choose is something you have an interest in. If you’re interested in it, you’re likely to make the most of it. Also, I think it should be something you understand.

Off the top of my head, the big changes I see coming are AI narration and AI to help with writing. Because of my eye issues, I am a huge fan of AI narration. I am working with that already. But, I’m not a fan of AI helping with writing unless you need help with a book description or if you’re brainstorming for ideas. I think the actual writing should be done by the writer. You don’t know how AI is getting the input to “write a story��. I realize that right now we’re still in the stages where AI’s storytelling is clunky and sometimes humorous, but you could be unknowingly plagiarizing from someone else’s work. If you do your own writing, you don’t have to worry about plagiarism because you’ll be doing the storytelling yourself. Another change I’ve heard about has something to do with blockchain. Even after listening to a podcast on it, I still don’t understand it, so I will not be doing it.

I think one day technology might take us to a time where we could use AI computerized actors to create a movie or TV episodes where people will be able to watch our story instead of reading it. I remember experimenting with a program back in 2010 (I think) where there were two computerized people in a static setting. If you put in the words for the people to say, the program would process it so that the people said whatever you wanted them to. Now these two people barely moved, and they sounded robotic. You couldn’t make anything decent from it. But it was fun to use this to create a couple of scenes from my books. I don’t remember the name of this program, but it was fun to play around with. I think the day will come where writers can create a character (looks, age, etc), create a setting for this character to be in, and create other characters for this character to interact with. Eventually, writers could create a movie from their books. This is something that would be a lot of fun, and AI would make this cost effective for the writer and the person who consumes the story.

Change can be scary, but it can be exciting, too. I think it’s just important to take things in small doses so you don’t get overwhelmed.

3. Work with your strengths.

I think it’s best to work with your strengths when you decide what new thing you’re going to try out. I see no point in working in a weak area unless your goal is to improve it. For example, I’m weak in oral communication. That’s why I don’t bother with videos. I also don’t give speeches. I’ve tried them, and I sucked. I am much better off being the person behind the scenes. That’s why I have this blog, and I ended up writing speeches for others to give. I think wherever your strengths are, that is where you will do best.

You have to know yourself in order to best gear your marketing efforts to where they will do their best work. It’s not fun to take inventory of your shortcomings, but, by doing so, you can avoid a lot of frustration down the road. We are not all created equal. We all have our own unique set of talents. Just because someone is able to reach an audience by doing something, it doesn’t mean that method will be right for you. Say, for example, they swear by TikTok videos. Quite a few authors in a writing group on Facebook swear by them. Maybe they have an online presence that resonates with people. Some people shine in a video setting. That is their strength. If you have that gift, go for it. If you don’t, you can choose something that works better for you. Don’t let people talk you into doing something that doesn’t work for you, and don’t let people make you feel guilty if choose to do something that does work for you (but doesn’t work for them). It’s okay to go down your own path. The world is big enough for multiple ways of promoting your books.

I have mentioned burnout here and there on this blog over the years, but I’ve never really addressed how this has impacted me as a writer. As a teenager, I wrote stories, and that continued through college. I even wrote some stuff after I got married. But these were always “just for me�� stories that I never intended to publish, so there was no pressure to keep writing. When I was done with the story, I was done. I didn’t write anything else until I felt like it. So from 1996 to 2006, I probably wrote seven novels and a few short stories. Back then, I wrote as the whim hit me, and then I rested until I felt the burning need to write again.

In late 2007, I finally gave into the desire to write romances. I held off for a long time in writing romance because in my family said romances were “trash��. I stuck with reputable genres like fantasy and thriller. That decision caused my writing output to explode. I had many story ideas built up within me for years, and I had trouble writing fast enough to keep up with them. I got into paperbacks in 2008 with Amazon (back when they had CreateSpace), and then I got my feet wet with ebooks in 2009 on Amazon and Smashwords. It was great. I felt like a kid at the world’s most amazing playground. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t restricted by what others told me I should or shouldn’t write. I also never thought anyone would read my stuff. I thought I was going to be the only person reading my books. That, ironically, made writing super easy. When you are just writing for you, your only concern is pleasing yourself. The inner critic doesn’t exist.

In late 2010, I started to see these strange $20-$50 deposits coming into my bank account. It took me a couple of months to figure out they were coming from Amazon. Suddenly, I was aware that people were reading my books. The first time someone commented on my first draft blog post, I was scared because I was no longer putting the story up in front of empty space. Someone was on the other side of the screen. I had to push past the fear to keep going, and it was not easy because the critic started to emerge at this point. Then the 1-star reviews came. The negative emails soon followed. I received positive feedback and reviews, too, but it’s always the negative that shines the brightest. I almost quit in 2011 because I no longer felt good enough to write stories. It didn’t matter if I loved my work. All that mattered was that someone out there hated it.

But I manged to push through the fear. It took time. It was not easy. But the creative well was still full. My biggest problem was what book to write because I had so many ideas. In 2012, sales exploded. This was a time when writing was super easy. I had the ideas, I had the motivation, and I was aware that people out there really did enjoy my work. I even got invited to do some interviews about self-publishing. I won’t lie. It was fun. 2013 through 2015 were harder even though I made more money because suddenly this was a “business��, and day after day, the message going out to me (and other authors) was that if we weren’t treating this like a business, then we weren’t “real�� authors; we were just “hobbyists��. (They’d add that there was nothing wrong with being a hobbyist, but your opinion didn’t matter because you weren’t serious about writing or selling books.) Looking back, I can see how this mindset has hurt a lot of writers.

Anyway, I didn’t realize it at the time, but 2016 was when I started to burn out. The creative well was starting to get low. My income dropped for the first time ever. I blamed it on the fact that I had taken time off from writing to move to Montana. So I renewed my writing efforts. If I could just get more books out there, my income would return. I was so focused on the money that I missed the fact that my creative well was suffering. I wrote a lot of books to market around this time, mostly because I was out of ideas. I looked up plot ideas that were popular at the time and gave them my own spin. (I did this until 2018.) I studied up on how to write to market. I didn’t want to waste me time writing something that wasn’t going to make money, so I’d only pick stuff that I thought had the best chance of bringing me back to 2015 income level. Though I was writing the stories myself, the process felt more robotic than creative. The stories were all formula. I was just churning out the words. I always tried to be mindful of my parameters, and I tried not to go in any extreme that might alienate any of the readers. I also didn’t slow down the writing. I dictated a lot, and this only sped things up. It also made editing a nightmare.

I thought the reason I was crying a lot during this time had to do with my struggle to make the same money I was making back in 2013-2015. As I write this, I wonder if I was crying because my body was trying to tell me that I needed a break, that I was burning myself out. Giving up the money side of things did make me happier since I could stop writing those market books. I cried less. But the fact that I was exhausted and struggling to come up with story ideas created a different kind of dissatisfaction. I didn’t know what to do about it.

I do think choosing those passion projects and going outside the “safe zones�� did enable me to keep going for as long as I did. I love the Marriage by Fairytale Series I wrote during this time because I went dark and deep with those stories while embracing the genre I still love most: romance. I also had the chance to go dark and deep with the Wyoming Series. The foundation for that series was partially created by Stephannie Beman, so I can’t take full credit for that one, but she did allow me to write out the entire series, and for that, I am grateful because it’s one of my favorite series to this day. So even during burnout, there can be moments when excitement peaks through and you’re able to do your best work. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

The problem is, you end up using the last of your ideas when you don’t give your creative well time to fill back up. From 2008-2022, I’ve written 98 full-length romances. I’ve done one full-length thriller. I’ve done a few books in others genres, and I’ve written some shorts. I am exhausted. I barely have any new story ideas. I feel like I’m running on fumes. People ask me when I’ll have another historical western romance out. I don’t know. I don’t have a single idea for a historical western romance right now. My mind is a complete blank. The well has run dry on that one. And that’s scary because I worry that I’ll never get any water back in there. I have just a little bit of water left for the Regencies, and I’m going slow with them because I don’t want this well to dry up, too. Any creative wells for other genres is dry. I did consider writing another genre, but that landscape is as barren as everything else. All I have are four Regency stories in my arsenal, and I’ve been working on three of them for about a year.

When you’re in the writing “business��, you need to get books out all the time. You can run ads to help. You can put your books in multiple formats to get additional sources of income. Those help to buffer from serious financial loss, but they don’t prevent a good drop in income from happening. The real money comes from the new books. That’s why I believe a lot of authors will run to AI or a ghostwriter to help them write stories. (And I think AI will win out because AI is cheaper and faster.) The creative well dries up. You can’t keep going at a hectic pace forever. I used to think that taking two days off a week would buffer me from burnout, but it didn’t. It just delayed it. Taking a long break from writing so you can fill the creative well back up is not easy. It’s also not easy to slow down when you’re used to going fast. You feel guilty because people are waiting for the next book. You feel like a failure in the writing community because you couldn’t last. As a writer in the writing community, I’ve fizzled out. My time has come and gone. My opinion has, in writing groups, become irrelevant because I’m not on board with all of the new stuff, nor do I have the energy to get on board with it.

I don’t know what stage of burnout I’m in, but it’s terrible when you dread sitting at the computer. You tell yourself to “write through the pain�� because “real writers bleed words on their paper��. That’s what other famous writers did, right? No one ever says what you’re supposed to do when you’re at the end of your rope and feeling like you’re starting to hate writing stories. And then you start to cry because this was the one thing in your life that you’ve loved since you were a teenager. Writing has defined me for most of my life. It’s the one big passion I’ve had. People usually have a couple of interests. My interest has just been writing. You take away the writer, you take away who I am. It used to come so easy, and now every word is like pulling teeth. I want to save my creative well. I want to love writing again. By taking it slow, I have had days where the light comes back. Today, I was excited about writing, and I had fun. Yesterday, things fizzled out, so I left the computer to watch TV and cook a meal that took two hours to make. On most days, I don’t even get on the computer to try. I believe this is the way out of burnout. I believe you need a lot of rest. I believe you need to spend time with family and loved ones. I believe you need to exercise and eat right. I also think it’s okay to keep writing through it. You just need to go slow. Take it one day at a time. Don’t force it. Just let the creative well fill up on its own time. I’m determined to beat this thing. I just need to be patient.

Those of you who’ve been following my blog for a while know that I’ve been on the fence about whether or not the Marriage by Obligation Series will have more than 4 books. Right now, these are the books I’ve been working on for this series:

�� �� ��

During the course of writing in Midnight Wedding today, I realized that the story idea I have for the secondary character in Midnight Wedding would be best placed in this series. Specifically, it would fit in after Worth the Risk.

I’ve already picked the title, if it’ll fit nicely on the cover. (Sometimes you think a title will work until you see the way the words are placed on the cover, and then you realize you need to change the title.) I can’t use the cover I originally wanted because the title (The Duke’s Return) no longer works. The hero for Book 5 will be a marquess, not a duke. So I have to go with a new title and a new cover. At the moment, the title will be Anyone but You. The good news is that since I’m making this cover myself, I can adjust the title if I have to. My income has taken such a nosedive that I’m having to cut a lot of things from the budget, and paying cover artists is no longer an option. I will do my best to make it look pretty, but this won’t be a pre-made, and that will mean it won’t be as nice as The Duke’s Return. I have to let The Duke’s Return go because the story line no longer works. I would rather drop the story than force it because forcing a story means it will be awful. I am very happy with this particular series, so I believe it’ll reflect my best work.

Right now, I don’t have ideas for other stories. I expect that other ideas will come in time. The case of burnout I had was worse than I realized. It’s only now that I’m excited about writing again. I’m taking things slow as I recover from it. The last thing I want is a relapse.

When I say rapid release, this is how I define it: Rapid release is where you set the goal of writing and publishing a new book every 6-8 weeks.

I understand why this craze came to be a thing. Readers can read a book or two a day. There is no effort in reading. It’s a passive activity, like watching TV. I mean, it can seem like effort if you’re not enjoying it, but if you aren’t enjoying it, you can stop doing it. As a rule, readers are choosing what to read. This is fun for them. It’s easy to consume this product.

Writing the book, however, is a lot different. It takes time to come up with the idea. Some ideas take years to properly develop. Then you have to figure out how to execute that idea in an entertaining way that will keep the reader engaged. (I get not all readers enjoy the same book, but there is always going to be someone out there who will enjoy the book that has been written.) Then there’s the matter of getting the cover, having the thing edited, formatted, and published. It takes time to do all of that. I honestly believe this is why so many writers are running to ghostwriters and AI to do the writing for them. It is hard to keep up with that hectic pace long term. You can do it short term, but when you’ve been at this for years, it takes a toll on you.

Some people write faster than others, but there is not a single person out there who is a robot, and sooner or later, real life shows up to knock you down. You can’t continually pump books out like a widget on an assembly line. Not on your own efforts, anyway. It’s not healthy. The human brain needs time to relax. The human body needs to move around. The human spirit needs emotional connection with other people. We can’t spend all of our time in front of a computer writing the next book. I believe walking and dictating a book takes away from the creative break that walking provides. I think, to be a healthy writer, we need to detach ourselves from our work on a regular basis. Otherwise, I think the writing becomes stale. For writing to be fresh, the creative part of the brain needs to rest. Sometimes I think the best thing we can do for our writing is to spend time with loved ones and/or doing something we love that has nothing to do with writing. The more fulfilled we are in other areas of our lives, the more fulfilling our stories will be. Writing for the long haul is a marathon, not a sprint.

I’m not a fan of ghostwriting. I think it makes you a publisher because you’re not writing the story. To be a writer, you need to write. But ghostwriting has become popular among the self-publishing crowd because of the rapid release craze. Writing has gone from something people did for love to something people do for money. When money is the focus, you want to do everything you can to keep those books coming out. Unless you have a side gig that pays the bills, you need those books to keep money pouring in. The problem with ghostwriters is that they want to be paid. I think AI is going to replace a lot of ghostwriters because AI doesn’t need to get paid. Sure, you’ll pay a subscription service to use AI, but that service is cheaper than paying a person to do the work. There’s a debate going on about whether AI can create stories worth reading. I think AI will be able to reach that level for those “write to market�� books because AI is good at imitation. And writers who are motivated by money will want to use AI because there’s no way a human being can keep writing books on the rapid release schedule for years and years on end.

While AI books might satisfy for the moment, I don’t see how they can satisfy long term. I don’t believe the quality will be there in those books. I just don’t see how AI will ever be able to replace human creativity. I think AI books will be cookie cutter type of stories. They’ll be forgettable. If your goal is money, this works fine. You’re just looking to sell a widget.

At the end of the day, I think AI’s appeal will be for those authors looking for a short cut in creating a book. I don’t believe those books will have that great of quality. Maybe they’ll be polished, but the story itself will probably be lacking that human creative edge. AI might mimic a lot of things, but I don’t see how it can have “heart�� in its work. I remember years ago (maybe a decade ago) when I was full of my own pride and thought I knew all there was to know about selling books. I was in the whole rapid release and make good money trip. To this day, I remember one of the comments I received from a writer who said that they would rather focus on getting a good story out there that would touch people long after they died. At the time, I told this person that I would rather make the money. Well, I did make the money. And that money is all gone. The dirty little secret no one seems to be willing to accept is that those highs don’t last forever. Sooner or later, things go back down.

All I know is that the books I wrote that I invested myself in still matter to me to this day, and a few readers out there still reread them. I don’t see how AI will ever be able to produce those types of books. To produce those books, you need your creativity to be at its best, and to do that, you will need to give yourself time to work on your health, work on your relationships, and work on other things that interest you. You can’t be glued to your computer all the time.

I started reading because it was an escape. The middle school years were rough for me. Long story short, those books I read were my friends. I put myself in those characters�� shoes and lived all sorts of adventures. Those stories still make me smile when I think back on them, and now I’m all grown up with kids who are reaching adulthood. But I remember those stories, and I still love them. I started writing because I loved reading first. Those stories helped make me the writer I am today. They will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m glad for the writers who took the time to write them, even though those books are no longer being published. Those books have been forgotten by the majority of people, just like our books someday may be forgotten by most people. But who knows if they will be remembered decades from now by a few? Maybe something you’ve written might change someone’s life for the better.

It is unfortunate that books have become nothing more than a widget to a lot of people. Storytelling is such a beautiful gift. When you write something that you love, the story means something. At the end of the day, people are still people. We need human connection. When I read a book the author loved writing, I feel that I get to know something about that author. That book is a part of who they are. When I get a chance to talk to that author, it makes me appreciate that person a lot more.

This human connection is what is lost when we’re in a rush to get books out there. There’s a difference between writing fast and rushing, and I’m talking about rushing. Rushing is about rapid release. Rushing hurts the quality of your work. And I believe that rushing ends up harming your physical and emotional health. The best long term strategy for a writer who wants to keep their love for writing alive is to take a deep breath, relax, and do what you can to nurture your creative spirit.

I write all of this after dealing with burnout for a couple of years now. I even got the point of hating the process of writing, even though I did enjoy the stories I was creating. I am just now getting to the point where I love writing again. It makes a huge difference when you love the process.