Category: Updates

Behind the Scenes, Contests, Gentlemen of Honor, Giveaway, Happenings, My own craziness, My readers rock!, Passions of a Gentleman, Randomness, The Perfect Lady Worthe, Updates, Writing

Updates!!!

Rose Gordon

I’m sure it has not gone unnoticed that roughly a year ago my blog postings came to a screeching halt. Several times in this year, I’ve tried very hard to re-start them, but had so many stumbling blocks. Unfortunately, I cannot share the details of my hiatus, but I can give some updates!

1. I am getting ready for a trip to Phoenix, AZ where I’ll be presenting a workshop at Buildin’ the Dream–a writer’s conference. 

The workshop is titled Write with your Heart, Sell with your Brain. This is definitely author-focused so if you’re a writer or aspiring author, or even an assistant or publicist, and you’re in that area or planning to attend the conference, please come see me!

Speaking of conferences…

2. I just got home for RT in Dallas!

I drove myself to and from the conference this year so any crazy travel shenanigans were my own doing… Which admittedly, did happen, but I shan’t divulge details and incriminate myself! I had a ton of fun while there and met many new authors. I also picked up TONS of swag and books (some signed, some not) that I’ll be giving away soon! Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, giveaways…

3. I currently have a super giveaway already up on Facebook.

For the past few months I’ve been giving away a box of books and swag to a random fan who likes the post. Comments are awesome and totally appreciated, but you don’t have to leave one to be entered.

Click here for the post.

Also, I have a 0ne-day giveaway as well (this will end at 12pm CST today). This one is a little more involved. I just need a comment with your favorite book quote (doesn’t have to be one of mine). Click here and see top post (pinned).

4. The book featured in the second giveaway is my new novella, The Perfect Lady Worthe. 

I hope you all knew I put out a new novella in March, but just in case, here are the details.

Lady Worthe Cover for HJ

The last thing Jane Cavanaugh would ever expect is to be married—she is an invalid, after all—but that doesn’t mean she can’t help with her sister’s husband hunt! (Even if it is with a wee bit of reluctance.)

The last thing Gareth, Lord Worthe would ever want to do is to fall in love with his closest friend’s younger sister.

But fate just might have something else in store for these two…

Please note, this novella is approximately 23,500 words and is on sale for .99 at the following places:


5. And finally, Passions of a Gentleman…

Still making progress. I know I’ve said that multiple times, but I really am. It’s just slow progress. I’ve had more re-starts than I could have ever dreamed about having. I just want to make sure it’s right. That’s what’s fair to you all, to me and well, to the characters, too!

 

Have a blessed week!

 

Her Sudden Groom, Sale, Swag, Updates

Announcements and Updates

Rose Gordon

A few announcements:

1. I’m running a super-easy giveaway on Facebook for a wide array of swag and a few of my books. All you have to do is like the POST. That’s it. I’ll randomly select a winner from the list of likes on March 31, 2015. This is open worldwide.

Here’s the post (sorry, I couldn’t get the picture to upload):

2. The Perfect Lady Worthe  will be out in one week from today–March 24, 2015.

Lady Worthe Cover

3. For a limited time, I’m offering Her Sudden Groom for FREE.

Her Sudden GroomHere are all of the links:

 

     

Now onto Passions of a Gentleman!

Covers, Updates, Writing

New Story on the Horizon!

Rose Gordon

I know,  I’ve been terrible about blogging for the past year. It’s been very stressful and in a nutshell I haven’t had an easy time of it. I do apologize.

But…on the plus side, I do have a new story (novella) that will be released before the end of the month. My hope is no later than March 24th, and possibly earlier. The book is written and edited and is now in the proofreading stage so it shouldn’t be much longer.

Enough of my blabbing, here’s a little about the book!

Lady Worthe Cover

The last thing Jane Cavanaugh would ever expect is to be married—she is an invalid, after all—but that doesn’t mean she can’t help with her sister’s husband hunt! (Even if it is with a wee bit of reluctance.)

The last thing Gareth, Lord Worthe would ever want to do is to fall in love with his closest friend’s younger sister.

But fate just might have something else in store for these two…

Please note, this novella is approximately 23,500 words.

 

~*~A little note on Passions of a Gentleman I am still working on it, very slowly. I’ve made a tangle of gargantuan proportions with the timeline and sorting it out has been a trick. But I AM still working on it and that should be my next book released. ~*~

Books, Officer Series, The Officer and the Bostoner, The Officer and the Southerner, The Officer and the Traveler, Updates

Cover Makeovers!

Rose Gordon

While I know some people don’t like change, I felt it was time for a change with my Fort Gibson Officers series.

So, without any further ado, here are the new covers!

 

Bostoner New 3Southerner New 3Traveler New

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very special thanks to my local friend who drew these with chalk. I think she did an amazing job making them truly one-of-a-kind.

I’ve already changed the covers at most retailers, and will be updating my website with them shortly. That said, if you are interested in a paperback copy with the original cover, they are still available on Amazon. I’ll be changing the wraparound early next week.

 

(PS–just between us, I am making AWESOME progress in Passions of a Gentleman!)

Audiobook, Behind the Scenes, Desires of a Baron, Gentlemen of Honor, Groom Series, Updates

More updates!

Rose Gordon

For those of you who get my monthly newsletter some of these won’t be so new, but for the rest…

1. I have finished Desires of a Baron!

Or so I think. I have definitely finished the majority of it. Last Thursday I got to the end and on Friday I did prelim edits and let it sit until Sunday afternoon when I started my first read-through. I finished my first-read around lunchtime today. I must say that is the quickest I’ve ever done one, which was because there just weren’t a lot of changes. It is now with Bob (my husband), getting a man’s take. He’s finished about half and claims he’ll be done tomorrow so it can go on to the next person in line. These, are the “quick” parts. later in the week, it’ll go to the first person who has a life beyond my books and she will spend several days combing through the book for errors (mechanical and with content). Then I plan to ask for some feedback on a few areas I’m not 100% sure about. It happens. This is where some potential re-writing and further editing might happen.  So…I can safely say that May 15 it should be available in most (if not all) major eBooksellers.

Once I have a chance to sit down and ponder, I’ll come up with an extended description to post!

RG_desiresofabaronw.sn

I do want to add this as a note, like Secrets of a Viscount, this book takes place in time parallel to some of the Banks family (and this one does have a heroine we met in the first series), but this is not a Banks book. There will be no John and Carolina or Alex and his obsession with hedgehogs or heaven forbid verbal sparring between Andrew and Gateway. It just won’t happen. That said, there are a handful of references to an earlier book and its hero and heroine, but that’s where it stops.

2. Her Secondhand Groom will soon be an audiobook!

After almost nine months since my last audiobook came out I approved the narration for Her Secondhand Groom last week and it should be available late May or early June. I absolutely loved this narrator which is a good thing because she is now hard at work on Her Imperfect Groom. I think I mentioned this before, but in case I didn’t. These two will be  my last audiobooks for a while.  Without giving everyone a case of the doldrums, I’ll just say that ACX has recently made some changes that don’t make audiobooks very profitable for me in terms of my time and the money I have to front in hopes they take off.

3. Her Sudden Groom will be available in German in June. 

This has been a lengthy process, but the end is now in sight! Last week I was sent an update on the progress of Her Sudden Groom’s translation (it’s now being proofread and packaged for sale). I was also sent the German cover:

Gordon_Ein_unerwarteter_Br_utigam_to_author

 

4. I will be *deep breath into a paper sack* making a few public appearances next month.

May will be very busy for me. (Yes, I just laughed. It seems like 2014 has already been a blur for me, but hey, what’s a few more things, right?) From May 14 to 18 I’ll be at the RT Convention and holding two spots in Club RT to sign books and give away some of my goodies. If you’re there, check your schedule and come see me. I will be bearing tons of books that I do NOT want to take back home with me.

Two weeks later, I’ll be in Chandler, AZ speaking at a writers’ conference (Building the Dream) and just a plain-Jane attendee at the reader’s conference (Arizona Dreamin’). For my two speaking engagements, I’ll be talking about the rules of historical romance, when it’s okay to break them and when you really shouldn’t. For my second class I’ll discuss treating your writing like a business. While writing is undeniably fun, for a good number of us, it is also how we support ourselves or our family and we need the tools to know how to be successful. If you’re in the area, come join me!

Since it isn’t feasible for everyone to attend either of these workshops, I do plan to post some of my material on here about treating your writing as a business.

That’s all the news, good, bad, or indifferent I have for today. I hope you all have a wonderful end to your Monday!

Updates

Updates on what’s going on!

Rose Gordon

1. Desires of a Baron is moving along nicely!

A few days this week (Tuesday and Wednesday) were slow-going, but last week was amazing and so was yesterday. I’m hopeful to get a nice word count in today, too (hopefully I’ll hit and surpass the 1/2 mark). If this continues, I should be done with it by mid-April and have it ready for publishing in mid-to-late May.

2. Passions of Gentleman is still the next book I’ll work on, but not sure which book I’ll after that…

As you all know, I love to write my books in order. I’ve tried to write this book, then go write one in this other series and come back and frankly, that just doesn’t work for me. So, I’ll do Passions of a Gentleman (Simon and Henrietta’s story), then I’ll move on to a new series, but I’m not sure which one yet. There was a series I started to outline almost three years ago which is promising, but I also might go back to do a few other “additions” to series I already have done–Elizabeth Banks’ story or Gabriel and Marjorie. Then of course there is Sarah Ridgely who needs a happily-ever-after. There are definitely possibilities and I’ll see which pulls to me the strongest when the time comes.

I think that’s all. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

 

Happenings, Updates

Updates on what’s going on!

Rose Gordon

I know so many of you probably thought I’d recently fallen into an abyss, but I haven’t!

Craziness has still consumed my life: my husband and father descend into a vertical cave and we came this close to us having to call cave rescue. The new year has begun which has resulted in me being back on a lettuce diet as they say in Regency books. These good eating habits are coupled with more exercise and I SWEAR that Jillian lady is trying to kill me! My kids are still being as sweet as can be. Why just the other day my oldest son offered to share his lunch of lentil loaf (which he detests) with his younger brother at lunch when his brother’s had spilled in his lunchbox. Why? Just because he didn’t want his brother to miss out. Sweet, isn’t it? Oh, another sweet thought from my little cherub was when we thought he might have strep throat and told him not to breathe on anyone. He immediately asked, “So, you’re saying with this disease if I breathe on someone, they’ll get it, too?” I’m not sure I’d call it a disease, exactly, but I nodded yes, that he’d make others sick. His response? He grinned and said, “Oh, good. Now I have a defense if someone says something I don’t like, I can yawn on them and they’ll get sick.” What a sweetheart I’m raising!

So when not wanting to pull my hair out, rolling on the floor in pain after an intense workout, or scraping my jaw off the floor, I’ve been doing an array of other things:

I’m giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon tomorrow over on Just Judy’s Jumbles.

Judy is celebrating her swift-approaching 100K blog views in two and a half years (to put this into prospective, I’ve been blogging for three years now and have only half that many) and in her celebration she has invited a multitude of authors do interviews and give away prizes. My interview full of everything you never knew you needed to know about me posted at this link on Monday and I’ll be giving away a $25 Amazon Gift card Friday. (This giveaway IS open Internationally, but the amount will adjust due to currency conversion.)

Other authors include: Ruth Ann Nordin, Janet Nitsick, Beverly Kendall, Jillian Hart and many, many others.

I’m also giving away something today, but not there…

I don’t usually post this here, but due to my sudden release date, I wasn’t afforded much time to offer ARCs (advanced reviewer copies) of Secrets of a Viscount, and would like to offer them now those who are interested in a free copy in exchange for an honest review to be posted on Amazon–it doesn’t have to be long and drawn out, nor does it have to be positive.

I know this is coming late so many have already purchased and read it, so if anyone reading this has already read that book and would like to leave a review for it in exchange for one of my backlist that they might not already have, let me know and we can try to work something out.

[DISCLAIMER: Requesting doesn’t ensure that a book will be given.]

Audiobooks are coming back on track. Sort of.

Honestly, I didn’t have a very good response with my audiobooks. I have had six available for six months now, but I stopped mid-series because they weren’t doing well. However, I plan to finish the series I started but didn’t finish then re-evaluate if I’ll do anymore or not.

Desires of a Baron is coming along.

Slowly, but surely, I’m making some progress on Desires of a Baron. Giles’ story. I’m not even able to give an estimated date of publication at this point as I am nowhere even NEAR knowing when I’ll be done which leads me to…

Publication schedule this year is very uncertain. 

Here’s the thing–in 2011, I entered the scene with four books completely written and one halfway done. I published the first three within eight weeks of each other in the spring. In the fall, I put out another three. That was six books (Secondhand was the only book I actually wrote that year). The majority of those books were written when I spent all day at home and didn’t have anything business-ish to attend to. In 2012, I put out only three (Imperfect, Contract and Yankee). I was so overwhelmed with the sudden changes that came into my life when I went from writing stories purely for my own enjoyment to keeping up with more than just writing a story. I suddenly found 15 million things that needed doing yesterday and had a tough time adjusting. In 2013 (last year), I found a better balance and wrote and published five books! It was incredible, but it came at a cost. I was spending about 12 hours a day six days a week working. I had hired a college student to come into my home a few hours every few days to help with cooking and cleaning and running my errands just so I could keep up with everything I needed to business related while still only actually writing about 2-3 hours per day.

It was completely crazy and when the year came to a close, I made a really hard publishing decision for 2014: I’m only *promising* three books. Secrets of a Viscount, Desires of a Baron and Passions of a Gentleman. I can’t say yet when the second two in this series will be out, but I’m hoping April and October, respectively.  Now, if suddenly I get on a roll and these just write themselves and more stories come, great, I’ll put out more than three, but I can’t promise anything because I don’t know if I can fulfill any more than these three books without having to go back to the crazy hours I had last year. I want to write. It’s what I absolutely love to do, but I also have a family and feel that I need to be more available to them. That’s one of my goals this year (and every year hereafter).

So there you have it the cliff notes on what’s kept me from posting fun stories about my kids and husband or regaling you all with other such fun nonsense.  I hope you all have a wonderful evening!

Contests, Happenings, Officer Series, The Officer and the Traveler, Updates

A few updates

Rose Gordon

As mentioned on Monday, Traveler is now for sale.

Even at Apple, I think! It was listed as a pre-order early this morning so either my fix will work and it should be available this afternoon or at the latest, it’ll be downloadable on Friday.

To celebrate Gray losing his bachelor freedom, I am hosting a “launch party” this Thursday night from 7-8:30 pm CST on Facebook and you are ALL welcome to attend to chat, win prizes or just lurk and shake your head at the chaos. If you’re interested in attending, the party is at this link on Facebook. Feel free to invite anyone you think might be interested.

My giveaway is off to a running start, but…

I was promised I did everything right, but alas there was one minor detail overlooked and the darn thing wouldn’t embed in my post. So, for those who’d like to participate but would rather not go to a third-party site you’ve never been to before, I now have it embedded on this page at my website and on my publisher site. I’ll also be posting it up on Facebook. I want as many to be able to participate as want to so please feel free to share!

Because of this horrid snafu that has given me no less than four gray hairs (still undiscovered though), I have decided to extend the deadline to December 20, 2013 at 12pm CST. Good luck!

What’s with the Facebook group?

For a while now, the majority of my posts were not reaching everyone who followed my page. I’d noticed that once I hit about 100 followers, that only about 75% were seeing all of my posts (I just get a number, not names of who sees it so relax, I’m not Facebook stalking anyone). As my number of followers have grown, the number of people who see the posts really hasn’t. I consider it a “good” post when 200 of the 765 see a post. Usually, only about 100 or so see my posts and some average less than that. Sometimes this results in some confusion or even some disgruntled readers who didn’t know Traveler was out or that I was running a giveaway. Therefore, I have created a group. By doing so, I’m hoping to reach a wider swath of those who are interested in keeping updated. You are all welcome to come join the group! You can even gain entries into the giveaway by doing so.

Have a great day! I know this really wasn’t very wicked for Wednesday, but I’ll have some fun for Friday with my husband’s edits.

Behind the Scenes, Intentions of the Earl, Scandalous Sisters Series, Updates

A few “Fun Facts” I missed, and more…

Rose Gordon

I’d written yesterday’s post in the morning, then went on an errand and remembered a few more things to add, but promptly forgot until after I’d read over it one last time and posted it. (Because nothing is ever simple with me.) So, I’ll post a few other facts about Intentions of the Earl and give a few other updates.

  • When I was done writing it and ready for someone else to read it, I printed out a copy for my husband to read while we went on vacation in the summer of 2010–which he did. However, in all the chaos to print the book, I’d someone printed a full and partial copy. I put the full copy in a binder for my husband and let my kids draw/write on the other pages (they were 3 and 4, no big deal). Bob was reading it by the fire one night while we were camping and suddenly he flips the page, then the next then flips it back and jumps up, saying, “Where’s the missing page?!” Apparently, when I’d put the book in the binder, I’d somehow got one page separated. As luck would have it, it was the page that stopped mid-sentence when John rushes into the library confront Andrew after they’ve been caught in the bushes. I think he got as far as, “You’re nothing but a no-good–” then the page turned but the rest of the sentence wasn’t there! I then had to go to the car and search the floor to see if I could find a copy of the missing page. Fortunately, I found it!
  • My oldest son wrote a note to a little girl in his Kindergarten class on the back of one of my print out copies during the scene of the ruination. Blessedly, I was able to avoid any uncomfortable telephone calls from other parents because I found it in his backpack before he got to school. And that marked the end of me allowing my kids to write, color, draw or do origami with my recycled papers.
  • As you’ve probably noticed, I have an abbreviated name for each of my books, this one we just call Earl. Around our house for a while we talked about Earl (and sometimes Brooke) so much that I got a call from my son’s teacher to ask if we had a relative named Earl. Apparently, my kids talked about Earl, too.
  • This is my only book that doesn’t have an epilogue, but not for lack of trying. Originally, I started to write one. It was to be a simple two-scene affair: Andrew walking Brooke and Madison back to Watson Townhouse where he dropped Madison off and informed John and Carolina he was reclaiming his wife and there was naught they could do about it. Simple, right? Not at all. There wasn’t a lot I could say in the epilogue because the burning question was: what were Gateway’s motives. I wasn’t ready to reveal that yet, but neither did I want the characters to start digging into it so I decided the less said the better and ended the book. Also, because of spoilers involving the next books in the series, I wasn’t keen on flashing forward any amount of time, so just left it. I do have a file on my computer titled “Epilogue for Intentions of the Earl” where I’ve made three different attempts to write one, but it always comes down to: I just can’t.
  • I didn’t know who’d gone to visit Andrew in disguise until book three. All FOUR of those Banks ladies were possibilities (yes, even Brooke) at first. But, Brooke wouldn’t have been so calm, or kept her identity hidden after they’d spoken and she knew he loved her, so that threw her out after only a few moments of thinking. Madison made sense because she really didn’t want to see her sister leave–she also knew what it was like to lose happiness and didn’t want her sister hurt. Liberty was a possibility, because well, yeah, Liberty likes to live by the rules, but she also likes to break them whenever it suits her (see the second chapter of her book). But, I just didn’t see that as a compelling option. Which left Carolina. Now, that I could see. She wanted to see her daughter happy. So for a while, I was torn: was it Carolina or Madison. I did know that this favor would be “called in” in book three and with Carolina not able to be an active part of the book at the time to use it to plead for her daughter’s freedom, it became apparent that it had to be Madison. Honestly, it’s ridiculous that I didn’t have that settled right at first, because everything about that visit screamed Madison: she could be quiet and reserved, yet be very forthcoming about what she wanted; she was also timid, yet brave when needed. A stranger who dressed in disguise to go see a gentleman in the dead of night needed to have all of those qualities.

Now for the updates!

Keeping in line with my beating all of you over the head with facts from Intentions of the Earl I should post a fun update about the book! A while back I had the front cover updated and now…

Earl Wrap

In other updates…

Traveler has had no change since yesterday, but the untitled book I’m working on (and praying I don’t write all three in the series before coming up with a title) is moving along very well. Thursday, I hit the 2/3rds mark of my approximate word count and since I started the book back in 2011, at this pace, I should finish in late 2014! Only teasing. I’m hoping to be done by mid-December! Which means I’d better start thinking of a name right quick!

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend and tomorrow I’ll post another scene!

Her Sudden Groom, Updates

Exciting News!

Rose Gordon

This won’t mean a lot to anyone who already reads my books, BUT I am really excited and can’t contain it any longer and now that the digital ink is dry on the contract I can spill the beans!

Her Sudden Groom will be translated into German and available within the early part of next year!

As I said, not overly exciting for anyone but me at this point. That said, I’m super thrilled. I’ve had companies express interest in buying translation rights before, but none that were ever reputable. This one is. Just like this was my first book to make the USA Today, this is also my first book to be translated into a foreign language. Who knew Alex and Caro would be such a hit! (Personally, I’m betting Edward had something to do with it…)

Thanks for letting me share, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!