Long time, no blog

For those of you who don’t know (or remember me :-p ) my name is Rose Gordon and once upon a time I wrote historical romance–mostly Regency-era.

Here’s a few visuals…

Me at RT in Chicago 5 *gulp* years ago.

 

 

And when I wasn’t slaving away to write about unsuspecting fellows and their over-scandalous counterparts, I was on here blogging about nonsense like…

Jezzie–the mannequin head my family and I pass around.

 

(The time I fell through the attic on Thanksgiving.)

 

(Crazy stuff I’ve found–and maybe bought…–at the fair or craft mall.)

I also shared on here about my failed attempts at crafts:

Held crazy votes:

 

Or shared stories about my kids:

(100 “signed by author” stickers, plus autograph for 100th day of school; and my kids fighting over a stuffed enema…)

So many of you supported me when I raised $10,000 for MS and looked like an idiot while doing it!

On the bike for the first, but certainly not last, time for the weekend. (Picture blurry to protect the guilty…as well as the innocent.)

Let me share some seriously scandalous “swag” I’ve picked up at different conventions:

 

I had so much fun writing over 600 blog posts whether they were stories about the craziness in which I live, a man’s POV of my books, hosting contests and so much more. I have missed out on so much by not posting very consistently for the past three years. A fact I wish I could change–but some things aren’t things you post. Or at least not things *I* could ever post.

Many don’t know that about 3.5 years ago my world tilted on its axis when the happily-ever-after I believed I was living fell apart. I have gone through fire after fire since and in my own opinion, I think I’ve emerged a much different, and perhaps stronger person.

Am I ready to write romance novels again? No. Maybe one day, but not today.

Am I ready to start blogging about the craziness that I now face with boys who are 10 and 12 and have entered into their first year in public school? Oh, absolutely. (Funny sidetrack: on Halloween my kids left for the school bus 10 minutes earlier than they needed to. Why? Because they could and I was in the shower and couldn’t tell them, “Oh, hell no.” When I got out of the shower, I noticed I had received about 5 texts from my kids. “Mom, we’ve been down here for 5 minutes and haven’t seen a single bus. I don’t think they’re having school today. You know, Halloween is a holiday.” Oh, my poor kids who’ve always been in a church school or heaven help me homeschooled for an overwhelming year. I wrote back: “Wait for the bus. You left 10 minutes early. The bus doesn’t even get there until 7:40 and you usually leave at 7:30. Writing me at 7:25 to tell me you haven’t seen the bus and you think there’s no school in observance of Halloween will be posted to Facebook if you two argue when you get home tonight. 😀 Love ya!”)

So, if you’re up to following my blog to follow more about me and my shenanigans, my crazy parenting, unusual finds, ridiculous signs, craft fails, wild tales and other craziness where truth is stranger than fiction, than please stay tuned and subscribed. (After all, it IS called Rose Unscripted.)

If you followed my blog as a means to keep up with my writing progress and being informed of new books only, I will by no means be disappointed if you’d like to unsubscribe.

Again, I want to thank you all. Whether you’ve been a follower since I started blogging in Feb. 2011 or have subscribed recently, it doesn’t matter, I just appreciate that you’ve enjoyed my work enough to sign up!

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Announcements and Updates

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.

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

Here are all of the links:

 

     

Now onto Passions of a Gentleman!

SWAG Part 2: Bookplates (And a few reader questions)

Yesterday I showed bookmarks, today I have bookplates!

For the sake of me not sending out so many emails to clog your inbox, I’m going to answer a few reader questions in this post.

1. What does “swag” stand for?

“Something we all get” If you ever go to a readers’ conference or book fair or even sometimes your own library, there are items that you’ll get in your registration bag or just to pick up. This can be anything from pens to chip clips, lip balm to USB drives, business cards to signed book covers, chewing gum to bandage dispensers. Just a hodgepodge of items that the author has his/her name put on to help you remember their name/books.

2. Who designed the bookmarks and postcards?

Anya Kelleye. I meant to post that yesterday, but I got distracted (sorry, Anya!). Anyway, she has done several projects for me including the bookmarks and bookplates.

3. Is it necessary to read the two previous books in the series to read His Jilted Bride?

Not at all. The two previous books take place nearly 30 years earlier and are the stories of the hero’s mother and father and aunt and uncle, respectively. If you want to see Elijah (or his twin Henry who is the hero in His Brother’s Bride) in previous books, I’d recommend Her Sudden Groom which is about his eldest brother, in which he plays a very minor role toward the end, and in Her Imperfect Groom where they both play another small roll in the first third. Nothing that is crucial to the plot of Jilted takes place in any of the other books.

4. Will you be signing books at RT this year?

Yes. I will be signing during the Indie Expo on May 2, from 4-6pm. I’ll also have two “meet & greets” in Club RT at 1pm on Wednesday and 2pm on Thursday. Come see me and divest me of some swag! In addition to this, I have pressured a good friend of mine Ruth Ann Nordin to come to dinner with me and with us, we’d love to have some readers join us for that dinner! So if you’ll let one of us know that you plan to be there and would like to dine with us, we can get you more details.

5. What is your progress with The Officer and the Bostoner, young lady? (That was EXACTLY how that was written to me and it was not from my mom!)

Very, very good. I am hoping to finish the first draft today, actually. I have one more chapter and the epilogue. It shouldn’t take long, then I have to spend the afternoon and Sunday to sort swag before I can start my prelim edits on Monday morning.

6. When will The Officer and the Bostoner be out?

July. I still have to do several rounds of edits, THEN send it to the professional, then make changes and have it go to proofing. At the same time, I can’t just focus on this book with RT coming, a 70 mile bike ride for diabetes and a ton of end-of-the-year field trips that I have to chaperone. Oh, and for some crazy reason, I agreed to take a group of tweens and teens from my church camping the weekend before RT. So…it’ll be a bit. I want it done right. Also, I’m hoping while this one is being worked on with edits, I can start writing the next. If they can both be done being written before July, and I can work on the final installment, then I’ll be able to put them out closer together. (Keep in mind, this its just all in theory, I’ve learned never to make promises!)

And for our last question…

7.  At the end of Liberty for Paul it’s mentioned that Sam (Paul’s brother) will no longer be able to sire children, what exactly happened to his parts?

Uh…well, I really left this open to the reader’s interpretation and what they wanted to happen to him. How much do they hate him and what do they think he deserves. In my mind, I imagined the privilege was gone. As in, he wasn’t like Marcus where he’d had an accident and could still perform but not sire children; but rather his ability to even have any type of sexual activity was squished right along with his…er…wedding tackle. Realistically, back then, I don’t think he’d have survived if the accident had been so bad it had actually divested him of his lust musket (yes, I put lust on purpose–that man doesn’t know the meaning of love) or if not immediately, but later. They have the means such a misfortune now, but not back then. But that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t hurt in such a way that destroyed the nerves underneath that allow him to rise to the occasion and that perhaps his whirligigs didn’t get damaged to a point that it was necessary for them to be removed. Really though, it’s up to you. How badly do you want to imagine he got injured?

SWAG Part 1: Bookmarks

Last year at this time my office was stacked to the ceiling in post cards. On the front was the cover of one of my books and on the back was the description.

It looked something like this:

They were catchy with the book cover on one side and I’d sign the back under the description. This is a very common practice for those who primarily sell eBooks and not mass market paperbacks.

I ordered 100 copies of each of these (7 of them at the time) and of the 700 original cards (actually 900 because I noticed two typos and had to reorder), I have a collective 200 left. Thank goodness because storing 200 is far easier than 900!

Anyway, I was getting read to order more of all of these, plus some for the Banks Brothers’ Brides series and the Officer Series. But then, I decided to go a different course and this year at RT and any other convention that I attend (and to those who might receive books and prizes from me in the mail) I’ll have bookmarks.

In case you don’t follow me on Facebook and missed these pictures from last week, here are what the different sets will look like:

(Click them to see a larger image, it got distorted when I tired to manually make it larger.)

Scandalous Sisters Bookmark

Groom Series Bookmarks

Banks Brothers’ Brides Bookmarks

Officer Series Bookmarks

I’ve ordered more than enough so if you’d like a few copies to give away to your friends or book, please don’t hesitate to let me know.