On the writing and publishing end, this has been a crazy year. The poster above shows three historicals that are not yet out-- Lands of Fire and Bound for the Hills (#6 & #7 Arizona historicals) and Love Waits (#4 Oregon historical).
This turned out to be a rather unusual year for how the books went. It seemed to grow in a rather organic sense-- at least that's what I'd like to think.
Having put off bringing out the Oregon historical series, written over a span of many years, I had decided, once I found the perfect image for its first cover, to bring all four out in 2015 at spring equinox, summer Solstice, fall equinox and finally winter Solstice. If I had stuck to that, the year would've been easier, but something else came along.
In late 2014, I got the idea for a novella--an elder romance, Rose's Gift. Rose and Ollie had each been in several of the earlier Arizona historicals. She was married. He was a dedicated bachelor. Her husband had died before Arizona Dawn. Still I hadn't really thought of these two together-- and then it was so obvious that nothing would do but to write their story. I had the rough draft done by Christmas but with multiple edits and all, it didn't come out until January 31, 2015. That was no conflict with the Oregon historical due out March 21st. It didn't even require writing another in the Arizona series-- except...
Holly Jacobs was introduced in Arizona Dawn and again in Rose's Gift with the idea of eventually writing a romance that centered around prehistoric ruins, archaeology, and reincarnation. I needed a hero, and he had been in one of my earlier books and a short story. Hero, heroine and a plot. I couldn't turn away from it.
The writing went smoothly although, I was by then promoting the first Oregon historical-- that has to start a month before a book comes out-- and continues on a long time after it. I could have let Echoes from the Past set for a year, I suppose, but I didn't. I brought it out August 5th... and then, well it turned out the hero had two other brothers, who needed their own love, and...
I won't go on with this as I am sure you can see how this thing snowballed. Writing has a way of doing that. So this has been the year of Oregon and Arizona historicals and not sure I will ever do something like it again. It was fun, if a little confusing for readers maybe.
If you have been following the Oregon historicals and read its excerpts, that book came out yesterday. Its paperback will be available sometime this week. Going Home.
With the blurbs mostly written, I am onto editing the sixth Arizona historical, which was a story I really liked writing (of course, if I don't like them, I don't write them). There really is no end in sight to the work-- not for awhile anyway.
