FREE READ - ELLORA'S CAVE - 30TH AUGUST

Like a free erotic read??

http://www.jasminejade.com/p-8597-saying-yes.aspx

Saying Yes

Barbara Elsborg

Zadie’s negative attitude leads to the loss of her boyfriend, job and flat. Now she’s determined to be a yes girl. Yes, she’d love to flat sit while the owner is away, but one look at the mess and she wishes she’d said no.

No is the last thing Tristan expects to hear when he proposes in front of his girlfriend’s family. Humiliated, he hides out in his brother’s empty flat without asking because he really doesn’t want to hear another no.

What he needs is a woman who’ll say yes…yes…yes… Could that be Zadie?

British Library - a great place!!!!!!

Went to the British Library last week - a very modern building at the back of St.Pancras and Kings Cross Stations in London. They have a free map exhibition on - husband is mad keen on maps - but it was good! I wasn't bored which says a lot. My attention span is similar to a goldfish. The detail on some of the old maps was incredible - even down to river depth. It must have taken the cartographers ages to draw.
But the big pull for me was in the small exhibition of manuscripts. The first page of Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles - with the word 'daughter' crossed out and Tess written in on the title. To see authors' actual hand written manuscripts was fascinatingg. Jane Austen and Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland.... Not so likely to happen now is it, as we tap away on word processors? I think Stephen King still writes by hand and gets someone to type it up but I'd guess most authors use computers. So maybe future generations will lose out on seeing how the big writers construct their novels, what they change, how they make them work.

Jack the Ripper

Just been on a Jack the Ripper tour in London's Whitechapel area. OOh - very disconcerting. I hadn't realised quite how violent Jack was. The guide had pictures of the victims that were passed between the group face down in case anyone chose not to see them. Not me - bring on the gore! I always was a bloodthirsty type. Jack - don't read more if you're squeamish - escalated in his violence - moving from mere throat slashing to eviscerating and draping intestines over his victims' shoulders. I'm sure that means something but I don't know what. He took out body parts and even removed a kidney from the front of the body - something that is only now being attempted in surgery. He cut off breasts, he cut off noses. He was a monster!! Five or maybe six women are considered Jack's victims. It's thought he was a local man - who'd know the ways to quickly escape and knew the quiet spots to do his killing. The guide said - you'll dream about this.
No way - thought I.
I dreamt of cutting off nipples - not mine and not me doing it but somehow being part of it. It was very disturbing. Not even set at the time of Jack, but modern day and I woke with a start and couldn't sleep again.

Time to think

I really should take a while to think between writing one story and starting another. Anyone who's read any of my interviews knows I'm a pantster - I don't plan I just write but I do need to think and I've launched into the current book without thinking. Consequently, I ground to a halt after a few pages, wondering what I was doing. The WIP is a paranormal and they DO require more thought than contemps. What sort of world do I want to create? Complex or simple? etc etc etc. I hadn't even thought whether I wanted to write a straight MF story or a MMF - well looks like an MMF. I made up a character and within a paragraph decided I wanted him to be big so Alessandro is officially one of the MCs in WIP. The others are Pepper and Eli. Now I have the names, the story will fly.
I hope!

Sacrifice

Love stories that involve a sacrifice of some sort don't sound as though they can have a happy ending. Well, if the hero or heroine dies to save their partner, that's definitely not happy. No wonder I've never watched Titanic. No wonder I sobbed at that vampire film set in Alaska where the guy sits in the sun at the end, despite the fact that I spent most of the film petrified, viewing from behind the couch. Giving up the love of your life - as in The End of the Affair, or The Bridges of Madison County - yep, too sad for me.
BUT - I don't mind exploring the theme of sacrifice in my stories so long as it never happens. In other words, the H or h are prepared to give up their love, or die for their love. To me that's a much better compromise. Avoids too many tears and we still get the happy ever after.
I used to quite like books that had an unhappy ending. Now, I can't stand to read them. I wonder if it's because life is suddenly seeming shorter!
So, no unhappy endings in any of my stories. That's a promise.

Digging Deeper gets Top Pick - 5 out of 5 review!!!

http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Reviews/Maria-reviews-Digging-Deeper-by-Barbara-Elsborg.aspx

The reviewer really liked it!!

Another picture of my beautiful daughter

My fairy princess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!