Hello everyone!
I have the best news! My debut novel, Courting Scandal is NOW available for preorder in both ebook (Kindle exclusive) and print (wide release). It will be released on July 4th!
I did, in fact, cry when I saw the Amazon preorder. It’s not weird.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be giving you a sneak peek into the novel and its characters.
I will be offering SIGNED PAPERBACK COPIES, available right here so keep an eye out!
What am I working on now? Well, I’m so glad you asked.
I finished my first draft of Angel of Mine which is book 5 in the series a few weeks ago. It follows Lady Celine Hasket, a widow still mourning her murdered late husband, and William Hart, a man who hated her late husband enough to kill him. It’s full of heart ache, humor and love. And it’s my steamiest novel yet…
In the weeks since, I’ve finished my edits for The Baker and the Bookmaker. I sent it off to my editor, Rebecca Sanchez at Once Upon an Editor (keep an eye out for a guest post from her later this month) last week. B+B is the second story in the Most Imprudent Matches series. It’s a novella that follows Augie and Anna from book one.
Rather than begin drafting book 6, an as yet untitled novel staring Charlotte, whom you will meet briefly in book 1, and Lee, who you don’t get to meet until book 4. I am forcing myself to edit book 3, Winning my Wife.
Winning my Wife was definitely my most difficult novel to write thus far and requires as many, if not more edits, than my debut before I send it to Becky.
It stars, Hugh and Kate, who you will meet in Courting Scandal. It follows them from their disastrous first meeting, to their inadvertent marriage, and through to a HEA.
One of my favorite tropes is a good grovel, and it is featured heavily in this book. I often find two problems with grovels in romance novels. Either the offense isn’t severe enough to warrant the kind of grovel I’m looking for; or, worse still, the grovel is insufficient.
In order to avoid both of those problems, I had to spend a lot of time with Hugh while he was being an ass. I won’t sugar coat it. He was a butthead. Until he wasn’t. Then he was devastated, and scruffy, so scruffy. While I love to read a well-executed grovel, the conditions necessary for it were heart wrenching to write for weeks.
The last thing I’m working on is final edits to Courting Scandal. I’m reading the entire novel out loud because I’ve found that I see more issues that way. The problem arises with the fact that I live alone and work from home. And that my hobby has now become an expensive second job that has turned me into a hermit (that’s a lie, I was already giving Boo Radley a run for his money). My voice isn’t used to all this work. It truly makes me appreciate all the work that audiobook narrators put in to be able to put on such incredible performances.
I am also figuring out all of the ins and outs of book typesetting. That’s a fun new hobby I hadn’t considered when I set out to self publish. Unfortunately, I did the thing where I got a decent program. Now the possibilities are endless. I have too many options and I have to perpetually remind myself that less is more. Otherwise I will end up with an illegible book because I wanted every page to be filled with flowers and dice.
Finally, I’m working on front and back matter for the book. All things that no one reads that take way too much time for what they are, but it’s important to me to thank the appropriate people. I couldn’t have done it without them.
Overall, I’m making lots of little progresses on several different projects. Each accomplishment doesn’t feel quite as good as typing the words, The End on a manuscript draft, but they’re essential to getting a novel in your hands or on your screen.
I’m still struggling with hundreds of ideas, not just for book 6, but for books 7 and 8 and a second series as well. Unfortunately, I still have my day job, a fluffy editor with fetch needs, and no time turner.
Regardless, the coming weeks are about to be some of the busiest, scariest, most exciting weeks of my life. I’m so glad you decided to come along for this crazy ride!
<3 Ally!