Barbara Elsborg's Blog: https://www.barbaraelsborg.com/blog, page 15
January 25, 2013
Starting Over - an MMF menage from me!
Starting Over - my short story for Total-e-Bound is now available.
When Pia goes into a hotel bedroom looking for a night of stringless sex, she gets more than she bargained for.Pia’s life needs a kick start. She’s tired of going home to an empty flat, killing plants and fed up with her job. She hasn’t been held in a guy’s arms for far too long. If men can do sex just for fun, why can’t she? But as she makes the trek to a hotel bedroom she’s fraught with indecision. It’s a minor miracle that she manages to pluck up the guts to open the door and slink into the room. That miracle becomes so much more than minor once she crawls into bed and gets the shock of her life.Connor and Espen want a third person in their lives but don’t seem to be having much luck finding the right lover until Pia comes along, but when she’s gone in the morning, they don’t know what they’ve done wrong and if they don’t know that, how can they put it right?
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1988
When Pia goes into a hotel bedroom looking for a night of stringless sex, she gets more than she bargained for.Pia’s life needs a kick start. She’s tired of going home to an empty flat, killing plants and fed up with her job. She hasn’t been held in a guy’s arms for far too long. If men can do sex just for fun, why can’t she? But as she makes the trek to a hotel bedroom she’s fraught with indecision. It’s a minor miracle that she manages to pluck up the guts to open the door and slink into the room. That miracle becomes so much more than minor once she crawls into bed and gets the shock of her life.Connor and Espen want a third person in their lives but don’t seem to be having much luck finding the right lover until Pia comes along, but when she’s gone in the morning, they don’t know what they’ve done wrong and if they don’t know that, how can they put it right?
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1988
January 15, 2013
Jumping in Puddles!! Out today!
My MF paranormal 'Jumping in Puddles' is out today with Loose-Id.A huge thanks to fellow authors Arlene Webb and Pam Godwin for beta-reading this story and giving me such great advice. Scott Carpenter has produced a stunning cover!!!
Jago doesn’t just inherit a title after the death of his parents, he’s saddled with the crumbling money pit of a mansion that’s been in his family for centuries. With his medical career on hold, he struggles to secure the future of Sharwood Hall, trudging uphill with no finish line in sight.
The sins of a past generation fall on faerie Ellie and her family, and each year they must trek to the exact center of the UK to recharge their energy. Until they find the Kewen, treasure guarded and lost by their ancestors hundreds of years ago, they’re banished from Faeryland. Ellie’s father has spent fifty years searching, now it’s his eldest child’s burden.
As a stunning woman sweeps into Jago’s world in a thunderstorm, he can’t stop thinking she’s too good to be true. For little reason other than her sweet and generous heart, Ellie is helping to put Sharwood to rights and leaving him more and more suspicious she wants something other than him. When family and duty clashes with trust and love, it’s debatable whether a perilous leap of faith, directly off a bridge into treacherous waters, will keep lovers from being swept apart.
http://www.loose-id.com/jumping-in-puddles.html#product_tabs_description
Jago doesn’t just inherit a title after the death of his parents, he’s saddled with the crumbling money pit of a mansion that’s been in his family for centuries. With his medical career on hold, he struggles to secure the future of Sharwood Hall, trudging uphill with no finish line in sight.
The sins of a past generation fall on faerie Ellie and her family, and each year they must trek to the exact center of the UK to recharge their energy. Until they find the Kewen, treasure guarded and lost by their ancestors hundreds of years ago, they’re banished from Faeryland. Ellie’s father has spent fifty years searching, now it’s his eldest child’s burden.
As a stunning woman sweeps into Jago’s world in a thunderstorm, he can’t stop thinking she’s too good to be true. For little reason other than her sweet and generous heart, Ellie is helping to put Sharwood to rights and leaving him more and more suspicious she wants something other than him. When family and duty clashes with trust and love, it’s debatable whether a perilous leap of faith, directly off a bridge into treacherous waters, will keep lovers from being swept apart.
http://www.loose-id.com/jumping-in-puddles.html#product_tabs_description
January 11, 2013
Worth repeating?
When I read a book, I expect the experience to be a positive one. If it isn’t, I don’t finish the book. It usually gets tossed to the bedroom floor with a grand flourish in the hope that husband will notice so I can rail about the disappointment of wasting my time and money. Of course having to get out of bed to mop up water, having knocked over my glass, sort of spoils the moment.
Genre expectations exist for all types of books. Fans of mystery novels expect to see a crime being solved, horror fans want to be scared witless, readers of fantasy require an imaginative challenge and hard core sci fi readers – ah well, I don’t get those weirdoes but that’s probably because I was crap at physics. The requirement for a HEA in romance books has some people rolling their eyes but what’s wrong with romance readers expecting a happy ending? What’s wrong with anyone wanting a happy ending?
I read to be entertained, to be removed for a while from my ordinary life on my mega-yacht drinking champagne and be transported to a fantasy world of good looking guys. I don’t mind if they’re alive or undead, werewolf or gargoyle, prince or pauper, (but not zombies- I have to draw the line somewhere). But I need to know that the world I enter will become ordered and safe and happy by the end of the book.
To be honest, I like HEA or HFN in everything I read, romance or not. That doesn’t mean to say I don’t read books with unhappy endings, I do, though most often by accident. It’s not something authors announce on the back page – oh by the way, I kill off that lovely hero and leave the heroine to take poison on his grave.
Unhappy endings are not common in romance. If I ended up in floods of tears because one of the MCs died or walked away from love, I’d feel cheated and annoyed. I don’t mind crying at their angst part way through and I don’t mind crying with happiness because they end up together, though it doesn’t happen often. The crying I mean. Readers need characters to get what they deserve. I want the villains to receive their comeuppance. I expect the hero and heroine, or heroes, having completed their journey and learned life’s lessons, to be rewarded with happiness. That’s why I read romance. I want the world to be fair and just.
So what’s the attraction of romance books when I know what’s going to happen? If the ending is predictable, why bother reading? Because HEA isn’t straight forward and is only a small part of the whole. We don’t know the journey the MCs will take and if a writer is skilled enough, she or he will make that journey so compelling we feel the happy ending is the perfect finish.
It might be the fairytale ending of marriage, 2.4 kids and a blissful ride into old age. It might be more a HFN, the feeling of satisfaction that having shown characters maturing during the book, the author has given them the hope of a better life in the future. So it’s really what comes before HEA that’s important- the journey, the learning experience, the battling through difficulties and disappointments as the relationship grows so that the readers feels these two or three – ooh, maybe more – characters can’t live without each other.
How about romance books that don’t have the HEA – or at least my view of a HEA. Gone with the Wind – is the one most commonly quoted. Rhett walks away but we don’t know if Scarlet follows. Personally I couldn’t give a damn, my dear. She was horrible! Remains of the Day is a great story but definitely has an unhappy ending. Jude Deveraux’s – A Knight in Shining Armor is a time travel romance where the hero goes back to his own time and leaves the heroine in the present. We get a sort of HEA but the ending still niggles with me that the two main protagonists don’t end up with each other.
I suppose I learnt a lesson from that with my story – Power of Love, It’s the story of a woman whose boyfriend has been killed. He returns as an angel. I never plan my stories – so I got towards the end and thought – how am I going to keep them together? It never crossed my mind that Joe would go off to heaven and leave Poppy to find another love. No, they had to stay together so I made it happen. Ah, the power of the pen!
Genre expectations exist for all types of books. Fans of mystery novels expect to see a crime being solved, horror fans want to be scared witless, readers of fantasy require an imaginative challenge and hard core sci fi readers – ah well, I don’t get those weirdoes but that’s probably because I was crap at physics. The requirement for a HEA in romance books has some people rolling their eyes but what’s wrong with romance readers expecting a happy ending? What’s wrong with anyone wanting a happy ending?
I read to be entertained, to be removed for a while from my ordinary life on my mega-yacht drinking champagne and be transported to a fantasy world of good looking guys. I don’t mind if they’re alive or undead, werewolf or gargoyle, prince or pauper, (but not zombies- I have to draw the line somewhere). But I need to know that the world I enter will become ordered and safe and happy by the end of the book.
To be honest, I like HEA or HFN in everything I read, romance or not. That doesn’t mean to say I don’t read books with unhappy endings, I do, though most often by accident. It’s not something authors announce on the back page – oh by the way, I kill off that lovely hero and leave the heroine to take poison on his grave.
Unhappy endings are not common in romance. If I ended up in floods of tears because one of the MCs died or walked away from love, I’d feel cheated and annoyed. I don’t mind crying at their angst part way through and I don’t mind crying with happiness because they end up together, though it doesn’t happen often. The crying I mean. Readers need characters to get what they deserve. I want the villains to receive their comeuppance. I expect the hero and heroine, or heroes, having completed their journey and learned life’s lessons, to be rewarded with happiness. That’s why I read romance. I want the world to be fair and just.
So what’s the attraction of romance books when I know what’s going to happen? If the ending is predictable, why bother reading? Because HEA isn’t straight forward and is only a small part of the whole. We don’t know the journey the MCs will take and if a writer is skilled enough, she or he will make that journey so compelling we feel the happy ending is the perfect finish.
It might be the fairytale ending of marriage, 2.4 kids and a blissful ride into old age. It might be more a HFN, the feeling of satisfaction that having shown characters maturing during the book, the author has given them the hope of a better life in the future. So it’s really what comes before HEA that’s important- the journey, the learning experience, the battling through difficulties and disappointments as the relationship grows so that the readers feels these two or three – ooh, maybe more – characters can’t live without each other.
How about romance books that don’t have the HEA – or at least my view of a HEA. Gone with the Wind – is the one most commonly quoted. Rhett walks away but we don’t know if Scarlet follows. Personally I couldn’t give a damn, my dear. She was horrible! Remains of the Day is a great story but definitely has an unhappy ending. Jude Deveraux’s – A Knight in Shining Armor is a time travel romance where the hero goes back to his own time and leaves the heroine in the present. We get a sort of HEA but the ending still niggles with me that the two main protagonists don’t end up with each other.
I suppose I learnt a lesson from that with my story – Power of Love, It’s the story of a woman whose boyfriend has been killed. He returns as an angel. I never plan my stories – so I got towards the end and thought – how am I going to keep them together? It never crossed my mind that Joe would go off to heaven and leave Poppy to find another love. No, they had to stay together so I made it happen. Ah, the power of the pen!
January 8, 2013
Starting Over - available for pre-order!
This is my first story for Total ebound - a little menage! It's not out properly until 18th Feb but it can be preordered now.
When Pia goes into a hotel bedroom looking for a night of stringless sex, she gets more than she bargained for.
Pia’s life needs a kick start. She’s tired of going home to an empty flat, killing plants and fed up with her job. She hasn’t been held in a guy’s arms for far too long. If men can do sex just for fun, why can’t she? But as she makes the trek to a hotel bedroom she’s fraught with indecision. It’s a minor miracle that she manages to pluck up the guts to open the door and slink into the room. That miracle becomes so much more than minor once she crawls into bed and gets the shock of her life.
Connor and Espen want a third person in their lives but don’t seem to be having much luck finding the right lover until Pia comes along, but when she’s gone in the morning, they don’t know what they’ve done wrong and if they don’t know that, how can they put it right?
http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1988
January 6, 2013
January 3, 2013
To grump or not to grump?
That is the question. I have to hold up my hand and confess that I am not a sweetness and light sort of person. What? I hear you cry. Surely not. But tis true. I'm Mrs. Negative according to my other half. Definitely a glass half empty person and not a glass half full. Well, to be honest, I never leave half a glass of anything, so that analogy is a bit redundant. But I am critical. I was brought up by a mother who always pushed me to do better. That can be a good thing and a bad. Bad when nothing is ever good enough. Bad when every little achievement is pulled apart. Good when it instilled in me a need to always keep trying. But balance is the thing and I didn't have that when I was growing up.
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So now I find it easier to pick fault that I do praise. I rarely think anything is perfect because generally, it isn't. It can't be a coincidence that a couple of my many jobs have involved inspection of some sort - in other words finding fault (and also stuff to praise) in other people's work. My very first job - if I don't count the disaster that was serving tea and coffee at a motorway service station - and I don't!!!! - was inspecting business tax records. Imagine how I was loved. I don't think anyone ever loved me for any of the jobs I did - but I do get love from readers who like my stories and I'm grateful for that every day that I breathe!! You made my dreams come true- but I'm a still a grump at heart.
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So now I find it easier to pick fault that I do praise. I rarely think anything is perfect because generally, it isn't. It can't be a coincidence that a couple of my many jobs have involved inspection of some sort - in other words finding fault (and also stuff to praise) in other people's work. My very first job - if I don't count the disaster that was serving tea and coffee at a motorway service station - and I don't!!!! - was inspecting business tax records. Imagine how I was loved. I don't think anyone ever loved me for any of the jobs I did - but I do get love from readers who like my stories and I'm grateful for that every day that I breathe!! You made my dreams come true- but I'm a still a grump at heart.
January 2, 2013
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to all my readers, those who love me, those who hate me, those who are indifferent, those I wish would read me. All three million of them!!
I'm sick which is not the way to start the new year. Some sort of flu and I can hardly stir from bed. I have moments of no fever and lucidity and then the chills rush in, bed beckons and I sleep again. I can't speak - which my husband says is a blessing. Nor can I write - which is frustrating. But no point trying, I can barely remember the plot of my current story. 40,000 words in and I'd guess 30,000 more to finish it, but that's a big guess. Though I've reached the point that I'm already dreaming of new stories. Two twirling in my head though fuelled by my flu soaked brain, they will likely come to nothing.
But I know a lot are worse off than me, so I'm not moaning. Much! Just a little whimper......
And just because I like to add a picture. This is the view from my house. Wet, wet, wet. There shouldn't be a pond there. It's just a field.
I'm sick which is not the way to start the new year. Some sort of flu and I can hardly stir from bed. I have moments of no fever and lucidity and then the chills rush in, bed beckons and I sleep again. I can't speak - which my husband says is a blessing. Nor can I write - which is frustrating. But no point trying, I can barely remember the plot of my current story. 40,000 words in and I'd guess 30,000 more to finish it, but that's a big guess. Though I've reached the point that I'm already dreaming of new stories. Two twirling in my head though fuelled by my flu soaked brain, they will likely come to nothing.
But I know a lot are worse off than me, so I'm not moaning. Much! Just a little whimper......And just because I like to add a picture. This is the view from my house. Wet, wet, wet. There shouldn't be a pond there. It's just a field.
December 30, 2012
Surprise parcel
My next door neighbour just came round with a parcel and inside was.....
Print copies of my first MM book, Cowboys Down. I just love this cover. It's one of my favourites.Cowboys Down has had some great and not so great reviews. It's funny how parts of it some people love, others dislike intensely. I thought the little asides at the end of the chapters were funny but not everyone agreed. It's one of the very few books I've written where I've set part of the action in America. Chosen is set in the US and so is The Princess and the Prepper, and also Just What She Wants but mostly I stick to the UK. I've been to Wyoming where Cowboys Down is set. A beautiful state! Fantastic views but I was allergic to the wild flowers there and both daughter and I were sick. We almost had to fly early to our next destination but luckily found a pharmacist who suggested a different antihistamine tablet. So we got to see Yellowstone and bison and deer and geysers. Wonderful.
December 21, 2012
The Princess and the Prepper
When I was asked to write a story about prepping, I didn't even know what the word meant, though I could guess. Since I was a girl guide I've been the kind of person who likes to be prepared for every eventuality, so certain types of prepping were already second nature to me. For instance, I am the queen of lists. I make lists of lists. I once thought about setting up an internet business based on lists for every occasion, but writing got in the way.
I do think that the prepping mentality is something easier to understand in a huge country like America, than it is in the tiny overcrowded UK where I come from. The pioneer spirit that led to the growth of your nation is still strong in many of you. It's non-existent in the UK. A desire to protect what is yours, to look after your family and loved ones is of course universal but preppers have put more thought into it and come up with strategies to help them survive when others might not.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense will stock up when products threaten to run out. If we're told there's going to be a water shortage, we make sure we have a supply to fall back on. Preppers take this to the next level and there are many levels of prepping, from those who just want to maintain their lifestyle in the face of adversity to those who prepare to face a massive nuclear fall out.
My prepper in The Princess and the Prepper - is at the lower end of prepping, the end that most of us will be able to identify with. And the story is also a reminder that no one can be prepared for everything. When push comes to shove, we just have to do the best we can.
The Blurb
Lili knows she shouldn’t accept a lift from a stranger, but as usual she leaps from one disaster to another. The consequence is being stuck in the middle of a snowy nowhere wearing next to nothing, and this time, being unprepared looks likely to kill her. Grant lives in an isolated cabin for a reason. He’s prepared for almost every eventuality. The last thing he wants is some needy person interfering with his ordered life. When he gets into bed with a woman he rescued from certain death—just to warm her up, of course—Grant discovers something else he’s not prepared for. His heart opening.A match made in heaven, until secrets come knocking. Lili is not just a simple woman in need of shelter, and unless she can survive dealing with her background, it doesn’t seem possible the happiness that’s fallen out of a blizzard can heal Grant’s own past.
I do think that the prepping mentality is something easier to understand in a huge country like America, than it is in the tiny overcrowded UK where I come from. The pioneer spirit that led to the growth of your nation is still strong in many of you. It's non-existent in the UK. A desire to protect what is yours, to look after your family and loved ones is of course universal but preppers have put more thought into it and come up with strategies to help them survive when others might not.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense will stock up when products threaten to run out. If we're told there's going to be a water shortage, we make sure we have a supply to fall back on. Preppers take this to the next level and there are many levels of prepping, from those who just want to maintain their lifestyle in the face of adversity to those who prepare to face a massive nuclear fall out.
My prepper in The Princess and the Prepper - is at the lower end of prepping, the end that most of us will be able to identify with. And the story is also a reminder that no one can be prepared for everything. When push comes to shove, we just have to do the best we can.
The Blurb
Lili knows she shouldn’t accept a lift from a stranger, but as usual she leaps from one disaster to another. The consequence is being stuck in the middle of a snowy nowhere wearing next to nothing, and this time, being unprepared looks likely to kill her. Grant lives in an isolated cabin for a reason. He’s prepared for almost every eventuality. The last thing he wants is some needy person interfering with his ordered life. When he gets into bed with a woman he rescued from certain death—just to warm her up, of course—Grant discovers something else he’s not prepared for. His heart opening.A match made in heaven, until secrets come knocking. Lili is not just a simple woman in need of shelter, and unless she can survive dealing with her background, it doesn’t seem possible the happiness that’s fallen out of a blizzard can heal Grant’s own past.
December 20, 2012
Love and hate
I looked up a book on Amazon the other day because it was one of their best sellers and had been suggested to me as a purchase. I'm always interested to see what people say about a book. This particular book had around 5,000 reviews. FIVE THOUSAND! That's just amazing. When I look at some of my books that have less than 10, it makes me realize how low down I am. But when I looked at the stats of the 5,000 - around 500 were one star. I think about 2,000 were 5 and 4 star. So obviously some people loved this story but a very high number had nothing good to say about it at all. The comments by those who hated it were balanced by those who loved it. Story lines were praised for being exciting, criticised for being dull. Am I tempted to buy now? Actually no. I can't get past the 500 not liking it and the reasons they gave. I'm more likely to be swayed by negative comments than I am by positive ones. I think that's something deep in my psyche. Am I missing a great book? The 500 make me think not but I have to admit, I'm still intrigued.
I won't name the book but it was a psychological thriller. So if anyone who likes thrillers would like to read and leave a review for my book "Chosen" - I'd be very grateful. You know, I might even make 20 reviews!
CHOSEN
Kate Evans doesn’t take risks. She chose her apartment with care—a safe district with a good neighbor—a place where she can live a quiet, unassuming, under-the-radar existence. Then she makes one mistake and opens her door to accept a delivery of flowers from a secret admirer and her life will never be the same again. A guy she’s never seen before bursts into her apartment and asks her to marry him. Jack Thompson won’t take no for an answer and drags Kate on a cross country journey to hell.
Invalided out of the police, Nathan Beranson works as a private investigator in San Antonio, Texas where he spends too much of his time following unfaithful spouses and delivering the bad news to their partners. When his fiancée cheats on him with Jack Thompson, the half-brother Nathan’s only just met, he becomes obsessed with Jack in the same unhealthy way as his revenge-seeking clients. By the time Nathan finally realizes putting the ghosts of the past to rest is a wiser option than settling an old score, it’s too late. He’s already been drawn into his sibling’s latest deadly game and Nathan and Kate find their nightmare is only just beginning.
http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-ebook/dp/B00546EM5Y/ref=sr_1_14?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356012782&sr=1-14&keywords=chosen
I won't name the book but it was a psychological thriller. So if anyone who likes thrillers would like to read and leave a review for my book "Chosen" - I'd be very grateful. You know, I might even make 20 reviews!
CHOSEN
Kate Evans doesn’t take risks. She chose her apartment with care—a safe district with a good neighbor—a place where she can live a quiet, unassuming, under-the-radar existence. Then she makes one mistake and opens her door to accept a delivery of flowers from a secret admirer and her life will never be the same again. A guy she’s never seen before bursts into her apartment and asks her to marry him. Jack Thompson won’t take no for an answer and drags Kate on a cross country journey to hell.
Invalided out of the police, Nathan Beranson works as a private investigator in San Antonio, Texas where he spends too much of his time following unfaithful spouses and delivering the bad news to their partners. When his fiancée cheats on him with Jack Thompson, the half-brother Nathan’s only just met, he becomes obsessed with Jack in the same unhealthy way as his revenge-seeking clients. By the time Nathan finally realizes putting the ghosts of the past to rest is a wiser option than settling an old score, it’s too late. He’s already been drawn into his sibling’s latest deadly game and Nathan and Kate find their nightmare is only just beginning.
http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-ebook/dp/B00546EM5Y/ref=sr_1_14?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1356012782&sr=1-14&keywords=chosen
