Barbara Elsborg's Blog: https://www.barbaraelsborg.com/blog, page 25

Tampa Bay v Dallas Cowboys

Never been to an American football game before. It was quite a spectacle. Especially the raving lunatic a few seats away who yelled more or less continually at the referee, kept jumping out of his seat and waving his fists. I suspect he was a Tampa Bay fan! I loved the fireworks and the pirate ship and the flags. The football - eh - well - I can't figure out how a game that should only last an hour went on for more than three.

Out on 23rd December - On the Right Track

I have a 1NS - a one night stand - story out on the 23rd December with Decadent publishing. The 1NS series is based around the matchmaking services of Madame Evangeline and the Castillo Resort hotel chain. There are some fabulous stories in this line and I'm thrilled to become part of the group.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK


Always driving through life along the straight and narrow, Hollie wants a break from staying within the lines. She hopes a hookup at 1NightStand with a tall fair-haired guy who's organized and sensible, likes small-breasted brunettes, and can deal with any crisis life throws at him, will jar her from the mundane path she's been on.

Except what seemed like the perfect plan when she set off, turns into the worst idea ever as the snow falls thickly. Slipping and sliding, her arms numb from clenching the wheel, she becomes frantic to avoid what's looming in front of her.

Dark-haired Nick is on his way to a party with hopes of connecting with a busty blonde—assuming he's even on the right road and can dig himself out of a heap of snow before he freezes solid. Too bad he never plans ahead, no coat and no shovel in the car, and soon he won't even see a road at all, let alone any vehicle barrelling down it.

When two hearts get lost in a snowstorm of what they think they want, can Madame Eve's magic put them back on the right track?

The night I killed Santa

Want to read how I managed that dastardly deed?
http://decadentpublishing.blogspot.com

A blog about vampires and a chance to win a book

I'm blogging today about why vampires are so popular. Stop by please and leave a comment. You have a chance to win a free book. If you already have that one, I'll substitute with another of your choice.

http://paranormalityuniverse.blogspot...

Chosen out in paperback!!

Now maybe my clueless - oops - dear wonderful friends who can't read online will buy and read my book. I promise this is one book that's hard to put down. (I've put glue on every copy)




http://www.decadentpublishing.com/pro...

Scouting out locations

This is me at Camber Sands. The place features in an upcoming story called Cowboys Down - due out at the start of February with Samhain publishing. I hadn't realised how many of the beaches on the south east coast of the UK are shingle, but Camber Sands is a vast expanse of - er - sand - and it's so different to the beaches around, it's quite amazing. My two heroes of Cowboys Down go to this beach and have some fun. When I went it was freezing - no way was I going near the water.

CHOSEN

My suspense novel CHOSEN has 30% off at Smashwords until Monday morning! Use the code AP32U to get the discount. If you'd rather read it in paperback - it will be available in that form on the 28th November. I've already got an early copy - oh and its so lovely!! On my bookshelf with my others!!!

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...

This is NOT a fluffy, funny erotic romance. It's a hard hitting tale of how far someone will go for revenge.

Angels with a difference

I'm guessing that by now - my fellow authors have said everything there is to say about Angels and Demons. Well, maybe not everything, we're authors after all, so we should always be able to come up with something to say.
This picture is of the Angel of the North. A sculpture by Anthony Gormley. It's on a hill near Gateshead in the north of the UK and it's wingspan is a big as a jumbo jet. It's something I love to see when I drive north - a sign of changing countryside, a sign of another world.




This is one of my favourite EVER songs - Angels by the fabulous Robbie Williams. I run to this song when I'm on holiday! Robbie's lyrics have inspired many of my stories. He also inspired the character of Charlie in my book Strangers.




The cover of this book by Becca Fitzpatrick is one of the most stunning I've ever seen. I don't buy books based on covers - well, I didn't. I did with this one. I thought it was amazing. The disappointment was that the cover gave away the plot!
But I wish I had that cover for my angel book - The Power of Love.






POWER OF LOVE

Joe is a lost soul.
When Joe is killed in the line of duty, the result of a blunder by his girlfriend Poppy, he ends up stuck between worlds, not quite in heaven, not quite in hell. Heaven is Poppy lying in his arms, hearing the sound of his name on her lips as he makes love to her, again and again. Hell is the knowledge that to save Poppy, he must convince her to let him go.

Poppy is a soul lost.
Joe was Poppy's heart, her soul, and since he died she's lost it all, including her sanity. Everywhere she looks, he's there—talking to her, touching her, sharing ice cream, showers and making love to her like there's no tomorrow. But tomorrow does come, and letting go of Joe could destroy her.

Sometimes love lasts a lifetime. Sometimes love reaches beyond death. Sometimes…love lasts forever.

The really GOOD news is that the book is only 99c. It's been reduced so if you don't win it - you could do me a favour and buy it!


http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7254-power-of-love.aspx


My other angel story is a short one, that won third place in the ARe Just one Bite competition. It's available to read for free in an anthology to be released on Thanksgiving. Volume Five!

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/store...




To end on a joke
What did Noah say to the angel?
Are you an Ark Angel?

Happy reading!

Just One Bite - Ellora's Cave Quickie - out 23rd Nov

My little novella - Just One Bite - is a paranormal erotic romance that I'd originally intended for the ARe competition but it grew and grew and grew!

THE BLURB
Liv is having the day from hell. Hit on by her piggish landlord, she's the victim of an attempted mugging by a guy who bites, and then her hair gets caught in the coffee machine. Things go from bad to worse when she's stalked on her way home, and the stalker turns out to be the morning's mugger. Except he's tall, dark and delicious, offering an apology, flowers, a body to die for and he wants to cook steak for her.

There's just one snag. He's a raving lunatic who thinks he's a werewolf.

AN EXTRACT

It wasn't the worst day in Liv Miller's life, that spot was taken by the day she'd slipped her father's brand new car into reverse instead of park, plowed over a set of golf clubs and through the garage wall to end up in the fishpond. Oh God. Who knew Land Rovers were so powerful and walls so thin? And that grown men could be so attached to sporting equipment? Good thing that she and her father were close. He eventually forgave her. Afterward, when anyone in the family had a bad day, someone managed to bring up that day to top it.

But this day was coming close to that all-time low. Liv had been late for work because her fat, balding, chauvinistic pig of a landlord had grabbed her as she exited her apartment. His suggestion of a way she might like to pay her next month's rent made Liv's stomach crawl. When his rancid breath hit her face, she heaved, and that saved her because he thought she was about to throw up and let her go.

Liv had rushed out the building and hardly turned the corner before some fuckwit attempted to mug her. They'd tussled until she'd recalled the one surefire way to hurt a guy. A knee in the balls. He'd doubled over and she ran.

Less than an hour later, Liv proved that accidents in the workplace were indeed a daily hazard when she managed to trap her hair in the coffee machine. Her vindictive boss cut her free, no doubt snipping off far more than she needed to. That hair wouldn't grow back anytime soon. And now after eight hours of grueling work checking insurance claims, the most stupid of which was from a woman knocked out when she yanked a frozen chicken from her freezer, Liv was being bloody stalked.

She walked faster, certain she wasn't mistaken. She'd caught sight of a dark-haired guy in a leather jacket staring at her as she left work. He'd popped up again as she got off the bus and had crossed the road after her when she'd tried to give him the slip by dashing over on a red light. There had been a squeal of brakes but no thump, so she guessed he'd made it.

"Excuse me?" a man called.

It had to be him. A stalker with manners was a novelty, but Liv kept going. Her apartment building and safety, assuming Creepo the landlord was out, lay around the corner.

"Could I have a word?" the guy asked.

The tap on her shoulder flipped her from annoyed to furious. Liv gripped her purse tighter, ready to swing it into his face, and turned to confront him. Then she froze, because in front of her stood the man who'd tried to mug her that morning. He held out a bunch of flowers, and when he saw her scowl, lowered them to cover his crotch.

"I have no problem kicking flowers," Liv snapped. Not when the target lay just beyond.

"I can explain," he said, taking a step backward.

She scowled harder. "You have five seconds."

"Name's Cal Masterson. Not trying to rob you. Wanted to ask for directions, but you didn't give me the chance to speak." He flashed a devastating smile.

Potential homicidal mugger slowly morphed into Mr. Tall, Dark and Delicious.

Still…he'd followed her to tell her that?

"You bit me." Liv glanced at the marks on her arm. He'd drawn blood. She hadn't realized until she sat down on the bus.

"That was your fault," he said.

Liv's jaw dropped. "How can you biting me, be my fault?" She activated her death-ray glare, able to repel a normal man at thirty paces. This one smiled more broadly.

"Your arm got in the way of my mouth."

"I was trying to defend myself. I thought you were attacking me."

He rolled his eyes. "You flung your arm into my face. My mouth was open. I was trying to speak when your knee unexpectedly made contact with parts of me I feel particularly fond of, and I bit you. Sorry."

He pushed the flowers into her hand. Liv sagged. She'd reacted because of Creepo's earlier grope and maybe she hadn't given this guy a chance to explain. If he'd wanted to mug her, he wouldn't have tracked her down to apologize. Liv was a sucker for guys with good manners. Oh damn.

"Apology accepted. I'm fine. Just a few scratches. 'Bye." Liv turned and he was suddenly in front of her. Wow, speedy guy.

"The thing is," he said, "and I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, but I might have infected you."

Liv gulped as the bottom fell out of her world. "Wha-wha-wha…" Damn, she sounded like a helicopter. Her head flooded with thoughts of hepatitis, HIV, the Ebola virus, bird flu.

He bent to whisper in her ear, "I'm a werewolf."

Liv's jaw didn't just drop—it hit the ground and bounced. Oh God, he was out on day release from an asylum. Tall, dark and delicious regressed to tall, menacing and…darn it, he was still delicious. Plus, she had to give him points for an original pick-up line. He looked at her expectantly.

Play nice with the lunatic. "I see," Liv said, and nodded in what she hoped was a caring way, sliding her foot back as she spoke and looking round for men carrying a tight-fitting white jacket in his size. "I'll be sure to look out for signs of rabies."

He gave her a puzzled look.

Okay, not rabies. That's good. Liv took another step back.

He moved forward and glanced up. "It'll be a full moon tonight." His eyes darkened.

All the better to… Oh God.

"Mmm." Another step back. Next time she went out, she was buying mace or a machete. Maybe both. Liv spent her days dealing with the results of the unexpected, but even she hadn't expected to ever meet a werewolf. Not that he was, of course.

"It's possible nothing will happen," he said. "But I can't take the risk. I need to stay and look after you. I'd never forgive myself if you were hurt. You're much too pretty." He smiled again with those perfect teeth.

All the better to… Stop it. Liv exhaled. Hopefully it was a coincidence she wore a red dress. If only they'd been in a bar and he'd bought her a drink, or three, and they'd spent a few hours flirting, and he'd called her pretty a half-dozen times, then maybe, just maybe she'd have been up for this. Except for the werewolf bit, of course. She took another step backward.

"Going to invite me in?" he asked.

His question triggered a memory of a TV show. "No." She stared at him. "So you can't come in, can you?" Why did the attractive ones have to be either gay or nut jobs? "I haven't invited you into my apartment so you have to stay outside."

"That's vampires."

Damn, so it was. Her shoulders slumped. "So you don't sparkle either?"

He glared. "You're not taking this seriously."

Liv put on her stern face and thought of her old Latin teacher who had eyes like a hawk, a sharp mouth and loved pop quizzes. Guaranteed to snap her straight into gloom. "I am taking it seriously." You're insane, that's very serious.

She glanced around. Where were crowds when she needed them?

He sighed. "Please let me come with you to your apartment. No funny business, I promise."

"Let me think. No."

Actually, bad girl that she was, idiot that she was, Liv fancied a bit of funny business. It had been far too long since— She gave herself a hard mental slap. He thought he was a wolf. She was allergic to dogs. This was not a match made in heaven.

"I'll cook for you." He held up a bag. "Steak."

He had huge black eyes, the longest lashes she'd ever seen, and her willpower was a weak, pathetic little thing easily stamped on.

Ouch.

"Oh all right," she muttered.

It beat watching a rerun on the TV while she ate a soggy microwave meal, plus her father had always told her to be kind to those less fortunate than herself—such as basket cases. Especially if they made her heart jump and her bits tingle, except not if they thought they're a werewolf. Well no, her father hadn't said any of that. His advice when Liv left home was, "Keep your knickers on." Bless him.

I'll bear that advice in mind, Liv thought, trying to remember which underwear she'd put on that morning, and led Trouble with a capital T to her apartment.

I'm such an idiot.



If you'd like to read the rest!
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-9764-jus...
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A setting from An Ordinary Girl

Beachy Head featured in my story An Ordinary Girl. It was where Noah went to think and ended up saving a child's life. It's the site of very many suicides in the UK. A steep chalk cliff that drops to the sea - but very pretty!! I've never been before and although I researched it for the story, I hadn't realised how far the car park was from the cliff edge. Ooops!!