Barbara Elsborg's Blog: https://www.barbaraelsborg.com/blog, page 7

Moving Home

Big deal, moving home from a place where you’ve lived for such a long time, a place where your kids grew up and then left to make homes for themselves. I cleaned that house to within an inch of its life because I was sad to leave it, and wanted the new people to love it. I hope they do.

After a delay – long story – we finally got our new home. It’s too big for us, we knew that but it was the first house that we’d looked at that we thought – yes, we can live here.

It’s going to be a long slog making it just what we want but it will be worth it.

My writing room!

One side real books. The other wallpaper.

[image error]

Drawn In

I plan to release Drawn In – a MM romantic suspense on the 17th October and I’m currently contacting review sites!

The blurb

Undercover police officer Kell has crossed the line. He’s become trapped in an abusive relationship with his violent thug of a boss and sees no way back without wrecking months of work. The hope of ever being involved with someone who respects him seems a distant dream.

Private investigator Gethin is depressed that the bulk of his work involves following unfaithful partners. He knows just what it’s like to be cheated on. Even worse, his relationship with his ex is complicated and Gethin can see no way of breaking free of a guy who so desperately needs him.

A chance encounter brings Kell and Gethin together, entwining their lives with secrets and danger. They both have reasons to keep things casual. But there are consequences to zipless fucks. Not only do they have to survive people trying to kill them, they need to trust each other and keep their wits about them, while ensuring their hearts stay intact.

[image error]

Pets in Space!!

I’m delighted to have my good friend Laurie on my blog!!!! She has exciting news and has a super story inside this anthology that I’ve been thrilled to have a chance to read early!

I love animals and I can’t think of a better idea to bring a set of stories together. I’m looking forward to reading all the others! In fact I can hardly wait!

***********

I’m very excited to be a guest of the fabulous Barbara Elsborg today to make a very special announcement along with three big reveals—cover, blurbs and trailer video!—of an exciting new anthology.

When I was originally asked if I wanted to be a part of this amazing project, I jumped at the chance. Who wouldn’t? It combines two of my very favorite things—pets and science fiction romance–and in addition will help support a very worthy cause that I truly believe in.

So what is this mystery anthology?

::: whips off the veil :::

a href=”http://sesmithfl.com/wp-content/uploa...

Pets in Space

Out October 11th, 2016

Even an alien needs a pet…

Join the adventure as nine pet loving sci-fi romance authors take you out of this world and pull you into their action-packed stories filled with suspense, laughter, and romance. The alien pets have an agenda that will capture the hearts of those they touch. Follow along as they work side by side to help stop a genetically-engineered creature from destroying the Earth to finding a lost dragon; life is never the same after their pets decide to get involved. Can the animals win the day or will the stars shine just a little less brightly?

New York Times, USA TODAY, Award Winning, and Bestselling authors have nine original, never-released stories that will capture your imagination and help a worthy charity. Come join us as we take you on nine amazing adventures that will change the way you look at your pet!

10% of profits from the first month go to Hero-Dogs.org. Hero Dogs raises and trains service dogs and places them free of charge with US Veterans to improve quality of life and restore independence.

A MATE FOR MATRIX: CYBORG PROTECTION UNIT

By S.E. Smith (New York Times/USA TODAY Bestselling Author)

Matrix Roma is a member of the elite Zion military Cyborg Protection Unit. Matrix gets more than he bargains for when his cyborg partner, a hybrid Wolfhound named K-Nine, goes missing and ends up finding a mate for Matrix in the middle of a deadly mission on an unknown planet called Earth.

STRAY

By Susan Grant (New York Times/USA Today Bestselling, and RITA Award Winning Author)

Interplanetary Marine Lt. Lukas Frank has a lot in common with a street dog named Bang-Bang; they both started off as scrappy orphans fighting to survive—and beat the odds. Things change when Bang-Bang leads Lukas to starpilot Capt. Carlynn Riga. The tough war hero learns what it means to surrender — his heart. Lukas’s struggles with PTSD threaten to tear the three of them apart, but nothing threatens them more than when Carlynn goes missing on a mission. Can a scarred marine and his unlikely canine partner find Carlynn and bring her home, or will he lose everything he’s finally found worth fighting for?

SPARK OF ATTRACTION

By Cara Bristol (USA TODAY Bestselling Author)

Memory: intact. Cognitive function: enhanced. Emotion: erased. After becoming a cyborg, Captain Dante Stone didn’t think he’d ever feel again, until a traumatized young woman and a ball of synthetic fur named Sparky helped him to love.

STAR CRUISE: STOWAWAY

By Veronica Scott

Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come – nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly.

THE REAL DRAGON

By Pauline Baird Jones

Emma Standish didn’t think her day could get any worse. Her dad is marrying his boss, her dragon suddenly came back talking and typing, and it’s her fault the Earth, or at least ten square miles of Texas, is going to be destroyed. That’s what happens when you forget something very, very important. Luckily for her, she’s got the love of her life that she can’t remember and her dragon by her side. Who needs to worry when you’re having a day like this?

STARDOG

By Laurie A. Green

Navigator Taro Shall has a mission no one wants – find a way to eradicate snakes on a starship. He never expects to find the answer to his problem in a charming street vendor named Adini. His already unusual mission becomes more complicated when he suddenly acquires an adorable StarDog that soon sweeps him and Adini into the maw of a brewing insurrection.

SPIKE

By Alexis Glynn Latner

Young Roboticist Ten Jaxdown has to deploy, and possibly sacrifice, the swarm of investigative robots that he has invented and cares about more than anything else in the star system. It may be the only hope for those depending on him and his robots to save them. Yet, even as frantic preparations for the unprecedented deep-space rescue mission are set in motion, it could all be threatened by sabotage.

Anastasia Steed is an intrepid young mission designer. She steps forward with an idea that can improve the odds of the mission. Neither she nor Ten expect the assistance they receive from a very unusual pet. A pet that will bring together two alienated human beings who didn’t realize they needed each other. Can Ten and Anastasia discover who is behind the sabotage, save the mission, and discover what is evolving between them? With a little bit of unusual help, anything is possible.

SPACE RANGER

By Lea Kirk

Graig Roble is the Senior Commander of security for the Guardian Fleet. His expertise as a weapons specialist and combat master is his world, what he was born to do – or so he thought until he finds his resolve and focus inexplicably wavering. Even returning to his position aboard the Atlantis can’t save him; if anything, it has left him questioning his own motives. He never thought that could happen until he met Simone Campbell.

Simone’s focus is on her home world – Earth. She thought her life was full with her research as a botanist. After all, she always believed that helping the people of her world become self-sufficient should take all of her concentration – except it doesn’t. There is one man that keeps pulling her attention, and her heart, away from her job.

Graig’s gift of a puppy to keep her company does more than that, it keeps him in her dreams. How can such a simple gift bring her comfort and make her long for more? Graig and Simone are about to find out that sometimes love can blossom from the smallest, furriest ties.

ESCAPE RUN

By Carysa Locke

Teegan’s job as a hunter is to track down the Talented, those driven insane by their gifts. She and Ember, her psychically gifted fox, have tracked dozens of people for Cole, the man who works to rehabilitate and recover these troubled souls. When one of Cole’s most dangerous patients escapes, Teegan and Ember are on a hunt that could prove fatal if she doesn’t keep her focus on her mission. Unfortunately, Cole is proving one distraction that might make this her last hunt if she can’t do that.

Can Teegan keep her heart and mind in the game long enough to save an entire planet’s population, or will her distraction lead to heartache – and possibly death for everyone?

Want to Know More or Chat with the Authors?

Please feel free to contact each author direct (just click their names above to go to their websites) or contact Narelle Todd at GetMyBookOutThere.com for more information. We would love your help in raising as much as possible for our charity, Hero-Dogs.org, by helping us spread the word of this anthology.

Many, many thanks to Barbara Elsborg for hosting our big reveal today.

Author Bio

Laurie A. Green is a three-time RWA Golden Heart® finalist, an award-winning author, and a science fiction romance enthusiast who founded the SFR Brigade community of writers, which is now nearly 900 members strong.

She confesses to being an Andromeda Galaxy groupie and would someday love to own a vacation home on Mars or Titan. She’s enthused to be a part of this wonderful anthology mash-up of two of her favorite things–pets and space.

Her family includes her husband, David, four dogs, three cats and several horses, all who reside on a ranch in beautiful New Mexico. A former military budget director and reserve state trooper, she now spends her time writing, networking, researching, enjoying the Southwestern lifestyle and, naturally, stargazing and daydreaming about other worlds.

Website [ http://www.laurieagreen.com/ ]

Facebook [ https://www.facebook.com/Laurie-A-Gre... ]

Twitter [ https://twitter.com/SFRLaurie ]

Twitter Handle: @SFRLaurie

Warnings

Forgive me if I’ve said this before but it’s worth saying again.

There might be things lurking in my books!

I’m right on the fence about warnings on books. Part of me wishes they weren’t there because I like to experience a novel without a list of what might upset me. I rely on the blurb to inform me of what the book is about. The other part of me acknowledges that readers have the right to know beforehand if there is something in a book they won’t be able to stomach. Such as rape, religious persecution, racism, violence, suicide. Plus blurbs aren’t always going to give a reader enough detail for them to make an informed decision.

The warnings on my books seem to have moved from amusing –

this is for ‘With or Without Him.’ Contains a “for hire” bad boy with a filthy mouth, an awkward guy with a penchant for BDSM, a hypochondriac butler who won’t shut up, a dog called Alcide, and a lot of hot and dirty M/M sex.

To serious –

this is for ‘Give Yourself Away’. This book contains difficult flashbacks of child abduction and sexual violence, but also the incredible perseverance of two men who never give up on love—or each other. Bring your tissues and a heart that believes in the resilience of the human spirit.

Give Yourself Away isn’t a story about child abduction, but that is the backstory. There’s no detail on the real horrors of what happened in that room. It’s best left behind closed doors. But it’s not hard to imagine the terrors. We’ve seen many cases recently where children have been taken and held for years. My inspiration for ‘Give Yourself Away’ was what life might be like after release.

I’m not keen on reading tales where bad things happen to children. I struggled with ‘Room’ and with ‘Lovely Bones’. When there was a craze several years ago for heartbreaking true tales like ‘A Child Called It’, they weren’t for me. ‘Give Yourself Away’ doesn’t dwell on the horrors of what happened to an abducted child but is a story of that child grown up, about hope, and moving forward, and the ways in which he learns to live with what went before.

Still, it has the warning.

My latest book – Dirty Angel – has a short but not explicit warning at the front about violence. I didn’t put that there was a rape in the book, partly to see what happened. So far I’ve seen one reviewer that felt there should have been a warning. There are likely others but I don’t read every review.

But are trigger warnings necessary? They are a relatively new concept and fraught with problems. What if you miss something? How do you know what will trigger what for who? There might be an attempted rape scene in a book – no details given – that would set off PTSD for some, yet is a pivotal plot point and intended to surprise the reader – something lost if a warning is given.

But the very fact that warnings are now put on books shows that some readers need that heads-up. My hope is that the warning on ‘Give Yourself Away’ doesn’t deter a reader but encourages them to brace themselves for a story that might upset them, but might also give them hope. Maybe dealing with an issue in a fictional world would help if they have to do it in the real world.

I’ve seen warnings described as mollycoddling and I don’t take that point of view. I absolutely respect that there are things some people can’t read about, just as there are films I would never go and see. I might be one of the few in the world who has never watched Titanic. When I know a disaster is coming, I get too stressed to enjoy a film. So the same has to be true with a book. But unlike disaster movies, my books ALL have a happy ending. I wish that happy ending for any reader who struggles with issues in their life.

It’s live!

I had to publish my new MM – Dirty Angel, a few days earlier than I’d said because I’m going to be on the road next week and not sure of wifi access. I’ve been caught before by hotels that claim fast wifi and I’ve had to hang out of the window to get a connection.

Anyway – Dirty Angel is out.

[image error]

https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Angel-Barbara-Elsborg-ebook/dp/B01GA1ZOQM?ie=UTF8&keywords=dirty%20Angel%20elsborg&qid=1464530382&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-dirtyangel-2048178-149.html

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dirty-Angel-Barbara-Elsborg-ebook/dp/B01GA1ZOQM/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1464530366&sr=1-3&keywords=dirty+angel

AE Ryecart’s The Story of Love

I was lucky enough to be a beta reader for this story and really enjoyed it. It’s a tale rich in character depth, full of emotion and it raises some interesting questions. Can two people who might be attracted to one another be friends without benefits? When I think of a guy’s reaction to his wife saying she is best buddies with another guy – well I know what my husband would say to that! So can a gay guy be friends with another gay guy and not go too far?

That’s only one of the dilemmas that’s tackled in this well written, intriguing story of Zack and Archie – who introduced games into their relationship to spice it up, games that now threaten the essence of their love for one another.

You might want to give both guys a slap at times – which shows the power of the writing. As a reader I was invested in these two. I wanted them to work things out and though lack of communication IS an issue – it’s the most common reason for problems to arise in relationships. When I say I’d like the rubbish taken out – I mean NOW not in six hours when husband feels like it. Lack of Communication. But I’ve learned it’s easier to do it myself!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01FR7ZGXQ

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FR7ZGXQ

The fabulous Jo Raven

Jo is a good friend of mine from when we were on Critique Circle together. Not only is she a very talented author but she is also a book cover designer and has made me three fabulous covers for my most recent books. Her new release Ocean – with an amazing cover!! – is now available. See links below. It’s a standalone story and I can’t wait to read it!

✩✫★ OCEAN (Damage Control #5) IS NOW LIVE!!! ✩✫★

★*´¨)

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)*★*´¨)

¸.•

#NEWRELEASE ★★ OCEAN (Damage Control #5) ★★ $2.99 only for a few days! #standalone #contemporary #sexy #romance

✭༻☆༺✭

I thought I was a normal kid once. Do normal kids have to beg door to door for food? Not sure. It wasn’t always that bad, I guess—and then it was. Really fucking bad.

My future isn’t in the goddamn cards, or even in my hands. I don’t see a future. I deny fate, but fate has me pinned like a moth and won’t let me walk away.

Won’t let me escape.

And yeah… you know you’re losing grip when the girl you want reads your palm, and you’re scared to hell of what she’ll see and of the pain you can tell is coming.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Damage-Control-Book-5-ebook/dp/B01EXJ8EC4

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1107646562

Nook:Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1107646562

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ocean-jo-raven/1123726002

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/ocean-7

Torn

I love writing. I write in almost every genre and every pairing. I started off with MF, then moved to MMF and finally reached MM. There is no doubt that my MM books sell better than the others but I’m not writing to make massive sales. (Well if they were really massive….)

Thing is, I’ve written more MM in the last few years and less MF. I’ve been more involved in MM groups on FB than MF groups. Not deliberately. It just seems the MM lot are more — there. I hear all the time from MM readers that they won’t read MF anymore for various reasons – none I which I feel apply to my MFs! (so frustrating)

Sales and reviews for my latest MF – Kiss Interrupted – are poor compared to sales for my MMs. Yet I love that story – course I do since I wrote it! I’ve done all I can to get it noticed and it hasn’t been. The cover has come in for criticism but I like the cover. Is the cover the problem?

Anyway, in a few weeks, I’ll be starting to write a new book. I have no firm plans about it. Part of me wants to do another MF – but if no one wants to read it, then what’s the point?

So – for the couple of people who read my blog – what would you like to see? MF or MM – or don’t you care?

New Edition of Digging Deeper

This MF book was first published in 2007 but I’ve had the rights back, have re-edited it and it has a lovely new cover courtesy of Jo Raven. As soon as I can figure out how to format it, I’ll be putting it on Amazon!

Digging Deeper is a romantic comedy. Not dark!

Archaeologist Beck isn’t expecting much to come out of this summer’s dig. While his colleague spends the summer in Italy, Beck draws the short straw supervising a group of archaeology students excavating on the grounds of Hartington Hall in Yorkshire. Little does Beck realize when he saves a blonde from the attentions of an amorous ram, that this accident-prone female will throw his ordered life into chaos.

The last thing Flick needs in her life is a digger, because some secrets are meant to stay buried. Very deep. But Beck is irresistible. She’d love to get him into bed, though after the incident at the swimming pool, the collapsing wall, the snake bite and the unexploded bomb—a hospital bed looks more likely.

As their relationship lurches from one disaster to another, Beck has to delve deep to get to the bottom of the irrepressible Flick.

One thing is clear—you never know quite what you’re going to find when you start digging.

How do they do it?

Colour me confused. I’m a member of several little groups on Yahoo and Facebook that offer advice on marketing. How to get your book out there into the world – to make it visible amidst the thousands of others.

There are hundreds of blogs, thousands of potential reviewers, loads of specialised marketing organisations who for various sums will do all the work for you. You can try to get your book on Bookbub or similar – offer a book free, aim for massive downloads and hope that trickles into sales of your other books. Marketing what you write seems to be a full time job. And some are much better at it than others.

I’m firmly in the others camp.

I blog – a bit.

I interact on Facebook as much as I can and I don’t go on and on about my books.

I tweet – rarely with a link because I like little sound bites of life not – buy my book, buy my book, buy my wonderful book.

I tried Pinterest but I struggle to manage that.

And I write – and hopefully each book I write is better than the last. (Not sure that’s true but I try my best.)

Mention the word marketing and almost all authors groan. We’re fine with the writing, but sag at the prospect of convincing others to buy our stories. Reviews on Amazon are seen as the holy grail. I’m sure they are – I have very few reviews there compared to many. I have loads of reviews for some stories and hardly any for others. I have no idea why.

So marketing remains a mystery to me but one I have to solve because I’m venturing into the do -it – myself market! I have the rights coming back to me on one book. I have two others in edits. One I’m transcribing from typed pages (yep, it’s that old) and I want to publish all of them myself. Partly as an experiment. Will I sell more or less than I do with a publisher?

I’ll soon see.

Wish me luck!