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Future Story Ideas and Thinking of Taking One Book off the 2013 To Write List

I should have switched the title around because I am going to talk about the book I’m thinking of knocking off the 2013 list first.  I’m thinking of taking Just Good Friends off the list for this year because I’ve had my fill of doing contemporaries for this year.  Runaway Bride was the first one and His Abducted Bride was the second.  My main interest is in historicals, especially westerns.  Contemporaries are fun as are Regencies, but my first love will always be historical westerns.

I’m planning to publish Kent Ashton’s Backstory (a novella and prequel to Lassoing Her Groom), Lassoing Her Groom, His Reluctant Lady, and His Abducted Bride this summer.  After that, I’ll be open to working on four more books.  I like to do 3-4 at a time because if I stall in one, I have three others to fall back on.

Right now I’m planning on Boaz’s Wager and Patty’s Gamble (which will be books 2 and 3 in the Montana Historical Romance Series) and The Earl’s Scandalous Wife (which will be part of the Regency Collection).   My original plan was to do Just Good Friends (a contemporary), but I don’t know if I’ll feel up to writing another contemporary.  I also don’t know if I’ll feel up to writing another Larson book.  Lassoing Her Groom is a Nebraska book (Dave and Mary’s daughter, Rose Larson is the heroine in it), and while I love the Larsons, sometimes I like having a change of pace.  So it’s a very hesitant “we’ll see” on another Nebraska book.

I have a couple ideas brewing around in my mind, which I’ll post here.  I do my best thinking on a blog.  I don’t know why this is the case, but writing my thoughts down in a public blog helps me make decisions.  :D  Okay, here’s some ideas that have piqued my interest:

1.  Historical Western: a woman’s stagecoach is invaded and she’s sold, bartered, or given to a man (maybe in an area where women are limited and they need more children so it’s a marriage of convenience).  I’m not sure where this would take place, though.

2.  Regency: two earls wager on the hand of an unsuspecting lady and the one who marries her gets the other’s estate.  (I already discussed this one.)

3.  Grooms For Sale Series: I’m thinking three books and maybe three sisters who need men to help out with their father’s ranch or something.  I need to think this through more thoroughly except I think someone will find these men and force them up for bidding for some reason.

 

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Another Idea for a Regency

So there I was writing a scene in His Reluctant Lady today, and this emerged while writing a conversation between Agatha (the heroine) and Christopher (the hero) and Christopher said:

            “If you marry me, I’d allow you freedoms other gentleman won’t.  I want to see that fire in you burn bright.” When she didn’t respond, he said, “Alright.  I’ll concede to your challenge.  You want to know something that only the gentlemen in White’s know?  I’ll share a confidence with you.  Lord Davenport has made a bet with Lord Pennella.  The wager?  The hand of Miss Giles.  Whoever marries her first owes the loser his estate.”

The part that got my attention was the wager.  I thought, “Wow!  That’s such a cool idea.  I want to write it.” LOL And that is how 90% of my ideas come to me.  I’m writing a story and get inspiration from a single character or paragraph that inspires another one.

Now to think of a suitable title.  I’m tempted to go with The Earl’s Wager, but I already have Boaz’s Wager which I’ll write this year.  So I’ll have to brainstorm.  Maybe something with the word “bet” in it.  We’ll see how things go.  :D

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Runaway Bride Timeline

Now that I’ve done the timeline for Suddenly a Bride and am in the last couple chapters of Runaway Bride, I figure I better do a timeline for this book.  Since I haven’t published it yet, I’ll just state days so I don’t ruin anything.  :D

Runaway Bride begins May 20 (Saturday)

Ch 1: May 20 (Saturday) and May 21 (Sunday)

Ch 2: May 22 (Monday)

Ch 3: May 22 (Monday) and May 23 (Tuesday)

Ch4:  May 23 (Tuesday)

Ch 5: May 24 (Wednesday)

Ch 6: May 26 (Friday)

Ch 7: May 26 (Friday)

Ch 8: May 26 (Friday)  and May 27 (Saturday)

Ch 9: May 28 (Sunday) and May 29 (Monday)  - I am aware this puts us around Memorial Day weekend, but for the sake of the story, I have to ignore the snafoo since next Monday Mark doesn’t have work (but for the sake of the story since no month or date is given we’ll just work with it; my big concern is making sure Caitlyn gives birth in the third book in the proper time frame)

Ch 10: Saturday (June 5)

Ch 11: Saturday

Ch 12: Saturday

Ch 13: Saturday

Ch 14: Saturday (June 5)

Ch 15: Sunday (June 6)

Ch 16: Sunday (June 6)

Ch 17: Sunday (June 6)

Ch 18: Tuesday (June 8)

Ch 19: Wednesday (June 9)

Ch 20: Saturday (June 12) and a month later (July 12, Friday)

Ch 21: Saturday (July 27)

That’s where I’m at so far in the book.  I figure I have a couple more chapters to go and I’m done.  :D

I figure Caitlyn is measuring at 28 weeks in her pregnancy which means she’s wearing maternity clothes.  She will give birth in October.  (Remember her pregnancy is different from regular pregnancies on Earth.)

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Adjusting My Writing Plan (If Anyone Wanted to Know How I Choose Word Counts and Which Books I’m Going to Do, This Post Shows You The Thought Process I Go Through)

As much as I’d like to write all of my projected books for 2013 right now, I know this isn’t possible.  On a good day, I manage 1500 words.  On a super duper good day, I manage 2000.  I have nine works in progress right now.  (Okay, I haven’t started three of those, but I’d like to get two of those going.)  Mitch’s Win is already done and being edited, so it doesn’t count.

By the way, Mitch’s Win will be published around the last week of March.

mitch's win new cover smaller image

At least, that is as long as everything goes smoothly with Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.  (Yes, I’m planning to publish directly on Barnes and Noble.  Long story short, it turns out I have to.  I love Smashwords, so it’s nothing on their end.  I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.  It has to do with the timing of tax vouchers and when they’re due.)

I’m also getting close to finishing the first draft of Runaway Bride.  So that one should be out around the end of next month.  *fingers crossed*

runaway bride ebook cover

So I need to focus on the word count in this book.  I plan to have the first draft done by March 25.  I’m going to project an average of 500 words a day on it.  There’s not much more to go.  I’m just tying up loose ends.

Ugg!  This is so frustrating because my average seems to be seven books a year, which means I probably can’t finish all of these this year.  It’s especially hard when the people I live with don’t consider my writing important.  They think it’s just some big old hobby, akin to them watching one of their TV shows.  This also means I don’t get nearly as much writing in as I want to.  :(

Anyway…

These are the eight books I have left: His Abducted Bride, The Earl’s Scandalous Wife, Blackmailing the Countess, Boaz’s Wager, Patty’s Gamble, Just Good Friends, Kent’s Backstory, and Lassoing Her Groom

Now I’m left with eight books.  The first thing I need to do is the process of elimination.

Kent’s Backstory can be written little by little on my other blog, so that takes the pressure off of that.  I don’t know how long it’ll take to finish it, but at least there’s no pressing deadline on it and I can do it at my leisure.

kent ashton's backstory

Lassoing Her Groom is also one that can be pushed back to a later date.

lassoing her groom ebook

So that takes two books out of the immediate running.

Just Good Friends is a holiday romance which starts in November.

Just Good Friends

I’m thinking it should be an ongoing process just because I want to get it out at the beginning of November.  That puts my anticipated first draft completion date around the beginning of October.  I’m estimating a need for 309 words a day (or 300 to round down). OR I could pick this book up at 500 words a day at the end of May.  Considering it’s mid-March, I can probably make good progress in two other books I’d like to have out around the summer time.

The others are harder to figure out.  

I keep thinking I should get to The Earl’s Scandalous Wife because a lot of people want to read Perry’s story.  (I get a couple requests for his book a month.)

the earl's scandalous wife

 

I had started Mister Robinson’s book (a Regency that chronologically comes before Perry’s book).

blackmailing the countess

I feel like I should write Mister Robinson’s story first, but I don’t think my heart is in Blackmailing the Countess at the moment, which makes it a harder one to commit to.

But then I think, is it wise for me to write a book based on order or am I better off writing books based on the order they interest me?  And my knee jerk reaction is this: Write the book that is nagging at you to write, silly!  I understand people who read my books want to do so in the order they are supposed to be, but I don’t think I can do it that way, at least not for a series that spans longer than three books, and the Regency Collection has hit the “three book” mark.  So doing this in chronological order is going to probably be something I can’t do anymore.

So that settles it.  I can’t write the Regencies in chronological order of when the books happen, and I won’t force myself to do it.  Plus, it makes no sense to spend time on a book that isn’t captivating my interest.  I’m going to put Blackmailing the Countess on hold for now.

the earl's scandalous wife

I do want to write Perry’s story.  So I’ll put that on my priority list.  So I’m going to project 600 words a day for The Earl’s Scandalous Wife.

That leaves us with His Abducted Bride, Boaz’s Wager, and Patty’s Gamble.

Putting Runaway Bride aside (since it’ll be done by March 25) and temporarily putting aside Just Good Friends (since I won’t start until the end of May)…

I currently have The Earl’s Scandalous Wife marked for 600 words a day.

His Abducted Bride is the most logical choice for the next book to focus on.

His Abducted Bride new cover

I already have 21,000 words invested in it, it will complete the Across the Stars series (yay!).  Plus, I am still interested in writing it (even better).    I’ll have to devote 600 words a day to it.  I kept trying for 500, but it I want this out in June or July, I have to crank it up a notch.

That leaves us with Boaz’s Wager and Patty’s Gamble.  I’d like to do these simultaneously.  If my average word count is 1500 words a day (with 2000 being super duper good), then I have about 200-300 words I can devote each day to these books.

So let’s do 300 for Boaz’s Wager.

boaz's wager

And 300 for Patty’s Gamble.

patty's gamble

If I can make any word counts in the other books, yay!  If not, it won’t be a huge loss.

I’ll now adjust the widgets to the right accordingly.

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I’m Going to Chance the Title To His Reluctant Lady

his reluctant lady

I don’t really care for it.  I just have to decide on two things.  I want to go with the book because I just realized it’s not going in the direction I want it to be and might need to scrap some of it to get back on track.  The other thing is the timing of everything.  I would like Perry to be featured in it somehow to get ready for The Earl’s Scandalous Wife (which will be his story).  I’d like to help set the stage for his book.  I give glimpses to set the stage but haven’t done anything solid yet, which is why I’d like this book out around the same time or right before The Earl’s Scandalous Wife comes out.

I know this means I need to adjust some daily word counts to arrange for this if I want to get The Earl’s Scandalous Wife out in July or August.  I’m hoping for a summer release.  *fingers crossed* But I can’t promise anything early.