Barbara Elsborg's Blog: https://www.barbaraelsborg.com/blog, page 12

Beautiful Northumberland

Just been for a few days to Northumberland. It has to have one of the best parts of the British coastline and so many castles!



This is Dunstanburgh Castle - in ruins now but quite amazing. 

Bamburgh Castle - which is spectacular! As is the beach. We walked for miles. So far that we walked our little legs off like these dogs.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to Chillingham to see very rare cattle. The only truly wild cattle in the world and an endangered species. They have no contact with humans. We were only allowed 50 yards away with a guide. They interbreed but in a way that prevents fathers getting daughters pregnant etc.

And we went on a trip to the Farne Islands to see grey seals!

And I was brave enough to run down a sand dune. Though it nearly killed me climbing to the top. 
But best of all - were the beaches and the fabulous blue skies!

Can too much be a bad thing?

I now have officially more books to read than I have ever accumulated in my life. I usually have at least 5 new paperbacks by the side of the bed ready to devour but for the last couple of weeks I've been lured, tempted and seduced by the offer of free ebooks to download - legally I might add. I have to stop it. If I had an ereader I wouldn't mind but they're on Kindle for PC which means I have to lug my computer to bed if I want to read them. And plug it in because the battery life is very short. And that disturbs the sleeping monster at my side.
I'm also steadily re-reading my paperbacks and giving them to charity once I've read them, unless I love them too much to give away. I used to wonder about the point of reading a book twice, but some of mine, I'm on the third read because I adore them so much.
Kiss Chase - Fiona Walker
Unsticky - Sarra Manning
Almost all of Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Derik's Bane - Mary Janice Davidson
Most of Jenny Crusie's early stuff
Most of Jill Mansell's, Adele Parks, Lisa Jewell, Freya North
oh I could go on. I'm still going to have hundreds on my shelves.

The Holy Grail

It used to be that finding an agent was the way to get your book published. Some publishers were prepared to accept unsolicited manuscripts but many weren't. I can't remember how many letters and first chapters I sent out full of hope only to get a rejection by return of post, or months later or over a year later in two cases. Did I ever get close? No, not really. Most letters I had were form rejections no matter how 'sympathetically or supportively' they were worded.
Then came the advent of digital publishing and the world changed. I redefined the genre I was prepared to write and was able to submit direct to publishers. Getting an agent lost its importance.
I still toyed with the dream for a while but I've long since given up on that and in fact, it's been overtaken by a new Holy Grail - the problem of getting reviews.
My publishers have a list of sites they submit to, but no certainty of getting your book reviewed. I can send to some sites on my own and I have done - and I'm shocked how many don't even bother to answer - even to say - no thanks. It seems many review sites have become reincarnations of the agents I used to approach.
It's a hard world out there. Word of mouth is the best way to get your book into people's lives and reviews drive that process. I'm told reviews on Amazon count the most which is more than a pity for me. My best seller Strangers - has 88 reviews on Amazon - massively more than any other of my books, but thousands of reviews on Goodreads. Ah, if only I could fix that. But I can't. All I can do is keep contacting review sites to ask for reviews. But I'm one of so many now, I'm probably buried in a different sort of slush pile. Things really haven't changed.
If anyone has any advice, please share it!!!
And because I like the cover of my book coming out in November - here it is!!!

Is anyone watching?

I do worry about my internet browsing. While researching for my stories I end up accessing all sorts of strange sites and if the American listening station at Menwith Hill - which is really not that far from where I live- has a bank of machines looking out for key words - I might be in for a visit from the police at some point.
EG - I wanted to know what the insides of the MI5 and MI6 and New Scotland Yard buildings were like - what security there was etc
        I wanted to know what could be used to disguise the odour of cocaine to fool a sniffer dog
        I wanted to know how much of a dead baby would be left after being left in a dry cold environment for several years
      And a lot of other searches for sex related stuff. The latest yesterday involved me checking out a male escort site. To my astonishment I spotted a picture of my husband. Well, it wasn't, but it really looked like him. The guy was available for fifty pounds an hour and no sex. Hmm - wonder if he' do the dishes, the garden, the windows, the shopping.....

Welcome the amazing Dawn Jackson!!

1. What gave you the idea for this story?

Mostly I wanted a story that my hero had to make some tough choices, pick the lesser of two evils. The one thing I thought would be a difficult choice would be to engage in biological warfare. 2. Which part of writing gives you the greatest pleasure? Creating the world? Characters? Other?  Personally, I'm in awe of your world building! And your humor!

Thank you, Barbara. You hit the nail on the head there. I love building unique worlds. It's my passion. 3. How difficult did you find writing the FF parts of the story? Are sex scenes in general easy to write?

Yeah, the F/F scenes. I knew going into this I wanted a ménage story, however, I wasn't comfortable penning M/M. Just didn't feel I could do it  justice. I did however, feel I could a F/F, since I'm a woman and understand how everything works. Sex scenes have never been easy for me. I know some of the first scenes I ever wrote, I tossed your way and promptly ducked under my bed to hide. It's gotten easier through the years, but every now and then I'll wonder if I can still fit under the bed when I hand it off to betas or editors. 4. Do you plan any follow ups to Kaleb and the girls? If not, why not?

Absolutely. The next story that follows is called Jericho's Fall, about the offspring of Kaleb, Jessica and Melissa. The ending of Last Flight of the Ark ends with the hybrids under a police state. There is a reason I leave off there. 5. What's been the nicest thing a reviewer has said about the story? What's been the worst and how would you answer that?

Well, one review I received for Last Flight of the Ark, the first time I published it, wasn't that great a review, but the reviewer made by day by calling me "a master of science fiction." After that, I could care less about the ratings or anything else she said about the story. She went to the top as one of my favorite reviews.

As for the worst. I was torn down on Slipping the Past--for things that weren't even in the story. I wondered if the reviewer truly read it through, or just skimmed. You want to come back and say, "Hey, that's not in there, or I didn't write that." But that would make me a author behaving badly, and I don't need the flack. I decided to leave it to my readers to decide, if it was or wasn't a justified review. Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Barbara. You've been a great critter and friend through the years and I appreciate you taking the time to help me re-launch one of my first novels. For excerpts and information on my published works and upcoming releases, please stop by my website and browse. I love visitors.  http://authordljackson.com

  

In praise of a friend

I've met lots of people since I discovered the Internet - made a lot of friends who've helped me on the writing journey. None has been more faithful than Arlene Webb, who is a brilliant and quirky writer. Arlene has beta read everything that I've written - as I've done for her. I don't put acknowledgements in the front of my books for all sorts of reasons but by rights, Arlene's name should be in every one. She has a brilliant eye for me repeating, overstating, not being clear. She comes up with ideas to help when I'm stuck. She's everything a writing partner should be.
I have met her in the flesh once! I hope it won't be the last time. Arlene has to snatch time for writing while she's busy running a florists. I'm lucky. I don't have to work at anything other than writing - well apart from babysitting grandson and looking after husband.
I've loved everything that Arlene has written. She's had some truly original ideas and anyone who's a writer knows how rare that is. I'd be hard pushed to say what story I've liked the most. It would have to be a toss up between Incoming Alert and the Colors Series - starting with Splintered Energy. As I'm currently writing and struggling with a story that has quite a large cast of characters for me, I'm even more in awe of Arlene's cast in the Colors books. I often commented to her as I beta read - how well she handled dialogue from a lot of individuals. I still have a lot to learn and I'm lucky I have her!

http://www.arlenewebb.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_11?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=arlene+webb&sprefix=Arlene+Webb%2Caps%2C232

Keeping cool

I envy my little grandson Jackson, sitting in his paddling pool. I complain when it's cold and now I'm complaining because it's too hot. But the truth is, I write better in the cold. I've been going over an oldish story - trying to twist the hero and the anti hero - and I'm not sure it works yet. I need more from my heroine's point of view. Why choose one guy over another? They're both shits to her. She really shouldn't pick either but I'm a writer of romance - I have to let this book have a happy ending, even if it's a suspense story and not a true romance. But how? Well, I'll sleep on it. See if something occurs to me overnight. I actually think it's harder to rejig something you've already written than write new. But I don't want to let this story go because I've put so much effort into it. Sadly, it's going to be hot again tomorrow. So another bad day for writing but a good day for the paddling pool.

Resurrection

I started writing a long time ago. Mostly short stories based on TV series but in my twenties I wrote my first novel. It was called Unnatural Selection. I thought that was such a cool title but of course, there are lots of books with that title now. It was set in the States and at that time, I'd never been there. It was about the mafia - of which I knew very little. It was a woman in peril story - of which I'm particularly fond. The heroine - Kate - yes another Kate - sorry faithful readers - is rather young and I'm thinking - could this be resurrected, polished, edited, sexed up and possibly published?
I'd always sort of thought it should stay in the closet but I have a hankering to get it out and read it again and see if it's maybe not as bad as I remembered. I know it's gloomy so I'll have to lighten it up a bit but maybe I can bring it back to life.
I just better finish the one I'm writing first.

Is it cos I is an author?

I'm in a book club. We meet roughly once a month at each other's house for two hours and discuss the book the host has chosen. Well - we discuss the book for about thirty minutes and then chat about all sorts of things while we eat and drink. It's not often we find a book that all five of us like and it's a reminder to me about how tastes differ and how authors can have a very different take on a book to a reader.
I spent three years at university doing little but criticise and analyse. It ruined the classics for me for years and also stopped me reading so called trashy novels. It was only after I left uni that I was able to read for pleasure again. It was long time before I could pick up a 'serious' book. Now I find myself reverting back to my student days and thinking why a book didn't work for me. In other words, I have my critic's hat back on because I'm well aware that others out there are criticising my books.
I find I can't read and enjoy or dislike and set aside without thinking - what was good about that, what didn't work? And I'm well aware that I'm getting more and more critical, not less. I've downloaded a lot of books onto my Kindle ap - and 90% get deleted after a few pages. I don't have time to waste on stories that don't grab me by the throat almost immediately. Some - that others have raved about - I keep trying and then giving up on but don't delete. Not yet anyway.
Tonight our book club is discussing Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler. Do I like it? It's okay. I don't love it so I'll have to explain why to the others. I'm always the most critical one.


And because I like to put pics in - this is one of my books that has sold in very small numbers. I don't know why. I think it's better than a lot of my others. Cute characters and a bit different. Sigh. Maybe I was trying too hard with the title but it so fits the story of my rain dancing faerie! I'd like to offer a commentator a copy of this book with the hope they might leave me a review!!!

Distracted

Am I easily distracted? Yes. Research distracts me. I start off looking for one thing and think - oh that looks interesting and click on that, and then on that, and that and before I know where I am, I'm checking out which beach in Chile is the most dangerous - only to find there has been a mass landing of crustaceans and the beach is covered with prawns. Now, I need to look further. This has nothing to do with the story I'm writing. I was supposed to be looking up kite surfing. Oh well, I might be able to use the prawn covered beach at some point.


Or not.

Photo courtesy of Chile's public affairs office.