Learning From My Mistakes

As a writer, you hope your efforts will yield gold. You outline, research, write the first draft, then edit that draft, (over and over) and have others read your work. You send what you imagine is a nearly final draft to an agent or editor.

You wait. Because that’s what writers do. Then when you get the edits back you review the comments, decide what to change and what to keep. If you’re an Indie Author, you move on to publish.

Then you wait for sales and reviews. I did all of that with my first contemporary romance novel, “Domestic Goddess”.

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The reviews were fine, but the book just didn’t feel “right”. So I pulled it from Amazon and sent it to a new editor.

My intuition was right. There were so many things that needed to be reviewed, fixed, modified, and changed. There were lots of things that were right: characters, storyline, plot, setting. But there were things my editor pointed out to me that hit that, “OK. I can fix that” note and I knew would make the book better.

I’m in the final stage of publishing that new, (hopefully improved) contemporary romance. It has a new title: “Confessions of a Domestic Goddess” that will fit with the planned Bachelor Bay series set in the San Juan Islands of Washington State.

True Confession: Sometimes you need to back up, take a long, hard look at your work and make changes.

Say You Love Me – New Release

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A Montana Sky Morgan’s Crossing Kindle Worlds book, set in 1885

He needs her, he desires her, but will he ever say the words she longs to hear?

Lucy O’Malley is content with her life in Morgan’s Crossing. She’s established a successful baking business and more miners line up every week to buy her pies and sourdough bread. Mining engineer, Nathaniel Carrington, is one of her best customers and she’s delighted he lingers at her shop several times each week to enjoy a cup of coffee and some conversation.

But, Lucy knows the handsome, educated man could never be interested in courting a woman like her, with the rough manners that came from living in frontier towns and on mining claims all her life.

Nathaniel Carrington has a problem. Actually—three of them. His children have been living in Colorado with his mother-in-law, but she’s ill and he’s forced to bring the children to Montana to live with him. He needs someone to care for them, and Lucille O’Malley seems to be the best candidate.  She’s a fine woman, strong, upstanding and of the best character—and most importantly, she’s available.

Lucy accepts a proposal from Nathaniel for a marriage in name only, but when the children arrive she questions her ability to deal with them and realizes how challenging becoming a wife and mother would be for her.

She also realizes she’s fallen in love with Nathaniel.

Purchase on Amazon