Mona Ingram

Historical Romance and Modern Love

Just Released – Book Four in the Forever Series

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Forever My Love now available on Amazon, iTunes, B&N & Kobo!

Readers continue to enjoy the Forever Series, and I hope you’ll enjoy this one as well. Here’s the description:

ForeverMyLove 200x320Winner of an Olympic silver medal in show jumping, Mackenzie Bradford is expected to win gold the next time around. When her career is shattered along with her hip, she becomes lost and bitter.

Knowledgeable, brash and oh so appealing, veterinarian Joel Springer has had disappointments of his own – particularly with ‘little rich girls’ like Mack.

With Mack’s personal life falling apart, can Joel convince her to focus her strength and determination on finding a new career, and will she forgive him when she finds out he isn’t who he pretends to be?

As with the other books in the ‘Forever’ series, Forever My Love focuses on a woman at a crossroads in her life. These romances contain no graphic sex, but instead focus on the woman’s story, and how her journey leads to love. Novella-length at between 32,00-44,000 words, they are complete stories, and may be read in any order. Enjoy!

Download links for Forever My Love here.

Finding My Niche

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I took a much-needed break last week to attend my local writers group. I’d spoken a few times about my current WIP – the first three books in a new series. I’d been claiming they were different from the ‘normal’ romances available today and one of my fellow writers finally got around to asking the important question:

“How? How are they different, Mona?”

Time to fish or cut bait.

I probably should have kept my mouth shut. After all, what’s ‘normal’ in romance? There are so many different sub-genres of romance these days one can hardly keep up. Remember the good old days when Harlequin/Silhouette told us which stories fit into which category? No, I’m not suggesting that we revert to that system, but when the reader picked up a Harlequin Blaze in the store, they knew what to expect. Now they pick up (electronically) an e-book with a hot looking cover, looking for a sizzling read, and find it’s rather tame… or sometimes the opposite.

Am I evading the question here? Yeah, probably. So okay Mona, how is this new series different?

First: I don’t specify Book One, Book Two etc. on the front cover. For books to be listed with the retailers as a series, they have to be assigned One, Two etc., but it doesn’t have to show on the cover, and I like that.

Second: There isn’t a bare chest in sight. Wait… there isn’t even a man on the cover! Are these really romances? Definitely. They are touching romances that focus on story. But hold on… the reader will get at least a couple of sex scenes… right? Sorry, no. We may join the lovers the morning after the fact, but that’s all folks. As I said, this series focuses on story.

Third: No cliffhangers. This won’t surprise my readers, because I’ve never written one, but cliffhangers are becoming common, and I’ve made it clear that these all self-contained stories. One character appears in every story, and I have vague plans to give her a story of her own at some point, but each novella is about a fresh set of characters.

Fourth: Releasing three books at once. This is not usually the way it’s done, but I know that when I find an author/series I enjoy, I’m often ready to read another book right away. So I’ve released three in the FOREVER series.

Fifth: Length. These are novella-length. So far, they’re 32,000 – 38,000 give or take a few words. You’d be surprised how much story can be packed into that number of words when we don’t have several sex scenes taking up ten pages each.

Hold on! What’s the matter with sex scenes?

Nothing. Just look at the number of ‘hot’ books out there. As the old adage goes, sex sells. But other authors are doing a great job already. I’ve written some books with sex scenes and they were fun, but these days I prefer to focus on stories that resonate with me.

The result? I’ve found my niche, and I’m quite comfy here, thanks.

I hope you’ll read this new series. Response from my Beta readers has been positive. The first story – FOREVER CHANGED – is free at Amazon, iTunes, B&N & Kobo.

In the meantime – whatever’s on your e-reader – Happy Reading!

ForeverChanged 200x320Here are the links for FOREVER CHANGED:

Amazon
iTunes
B&N
Kobo

Birth of a Series – Part Three

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As I write this, I’m busy working on Book Three of the Series.

Before I started writing any of the books, I considered marketing. Most authors will tell you that there are two aspects of being an author that are a pain – one is writing a catchy blurb, and the other is marketing. I would have to agree.

From what I’ve observed, each genre requires slightly different marketing. There are dozens of books willing to tell you how to do it, but frankly I’ve found that experimenting works for me. Yes, every once in a while an ad or a promo is a complete bust, but I’m not likely to forget it and repeat the mistake.

ForeverChanged 200x320My first consideration was the ‘look’ of the covers. I wanted to convey an emotional read, and as I said in an earlier post, each story is about a woman at a turning point in her life. Issues so far have been work-related, health-related, and the one I’m working on now is about the end of a relationship.

Look on any e-book sales site these days, and ninety percent of the romances have either a hot looking man with no shirt and 6-pack abs, or a male and female in a clutch. Makes sense… the author and cover designer are showing you what to expect when you start reading.

ThisTimeForever 200x320I’m taking a bit of a chance with this new series. I’m portraying just the female protagonist on the cover. Each story will have a romantic interest involved, but he won’t make the cover. Not because the man isn’t important, but because I want the series to stand out as something just different enough to attract a potential reader’s interest. Each book is a romance, but it’s primarily about the story.

NowAndForever 200x320After much discussion back and forth, Elizabeth Mackey has come up with an amazing series of covers. I’ll post four of them here, and I hope you agree with me that she’s done a wonderful job.

Time to get back writing. These darn books don’t write themselves! Release date for the first three looks to be somewhere in the middle of August. I’ll be sure to let you know.

ForeverMyLove 200x320ps: If you’d like to receive notices from me on new releases, and free or discounted books, please sign up for my e-mail newsletter. Sign-up form is on my facebook page. See the envelope graphic in the left-hand panel; that’s where you sign up. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/MonaIngramBooks?ref=hl

Birth of a Series – Part 2

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One of the toughest decisions I made when I started this series was to release the first three books concurrently. Why? Because I believe that for a reader to become involved with any series, and the style of storytelling, they need to read several. Of course it’s in my best interest to have readers buy the subsequent books, and if they like the stories, I’m confident they will buy more than one.

This new series – or collection of stories – will have one thing in common. Each story starts at a turning point in the central character’s life. The stories will revolve almost solely around one character, and as a result they will be shorter than my other novels. These would technically be called novellas, but that term is misunderstood and misrepresented, so I’ll be making it clear that they’re an encapsulated story line with the focus being a romantic story. I’ve read a lot of romances recently that are nothing more than a beginning and an ending, with multiple sex scenes spliced in between. A sex sandwich, as it were.

There’s nothing wrong with that – if they weren’t popular, readers wouldn’t buy them, and they’d fade away into obscurity. But I’ve learned that my readers like a bit more story between “hello” and “I do.” And with this new series, I intend to give them that. Don’t get me wrong – there’s lots of romance, but there’s an interesting storyline as well.

I’m one work day away from finishing the second one. It’s an exciting time, and I’m getting anxious to share them with you.

In Part Three, I’ll show you the covers designed by my incredible cover artist. She’s done an amazing job, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

See you in a couple of weeks!

ps: If you’d like to receive notices from me on new releases, and free or discounted books, please sign up for my e-mail newsletter. Sign-up form is on my facebook page. See the envelope graphic in the left-hand panel; that’s where you sign up. Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/MonaIngramBooks?ref=hl

About Mona Ingram

Romance author Mona Ingram has written dozens of novels, including the Forever Series, the Gold Rush Series, and the Women of Independence Series. She lives in British Columbia, Canada.

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Email me at mona@monaingram.com.

All text copyright Mona Ingram.