Fruits displaying in the stall of a market

Summer Vacation is Done

Since it’s 1 am it’s technically Monday so my vacation ended yesterday. I’d like to say I spent a leisurely day writing and being a bum. Instead we worked on cutting up watermelon, musk melon, pineapple, strawberries, cherries, peaches, and cucumbers.

The cucumbers became relish but we added too much salt so we’ll label it as salty and see if we can make tarter sauce with it. The fruits we froze a number of them so we can have them in winter for smoothies / slushies. Some were just cut up to have for nibbling on all week.

We picked from our herbs again. This time we managed to actually get them chopped up and put into ice cube trays to freeze. Those will go into ziplock bags for use over the winter as well.

Ken picked tomatoes and peas. Vicki picked potatoes. Can’t wait to enjoy all of those. We also have a lot more growing. It was a busy morning with all of us working to get the food processed and either in the freezer for winter or mixed into what we wanted for consumption this week.

We made homemade pizza for supper with leftovers for lunch this week. It was delicious. It was also the first time we made pizza dough in the breadmaker which was much easier on my hands.

Now all of that took me to about supper time. I spent a little time playing on my phone and being mindless. But after supper, everyone left me alone and I was supposed to write but an author friend sent me her book. I started it last night and instead of writing I had to finish the book. It was delightful. So I didn’t start writing until 10 pm.

Very unusual for me, I have an outline (very rough and only ideas jotted down) of how this short story should go. I had around 3100 yesterday when I finished writing. Tonight I managed to add an additional 1500. Now I’m being cautious because I think this will go into an anthology but there’s a short deadline. I think If I can get through a few more scenes by Friday I will commit to being in the anthology. But I want to see how far I get in the story before I give a firm yes to the organizer. I don’t want her to do more work if I can’t get it written by the deadline.

Overall, I had a good vacation. It was relaxing but I still accomplished tasks. I finished off manuscripts and got most of them to my formatter. She’s gotten them back to me. So I can upload as I need to and set up preorders.

I’ve got a story in my head which keeps returning so I may be starting a new one soon but we’ll see. I’d much rather finish off a couple of works in process.

Later today, I’ll be catching up on a week’s worth of emails and dealing with the demands of my job. The nice thing is, I feel relaxed and refreshed from having time off.

Book Sale

Want a paperback? Missing books in one of my series? Always wanted to try a book but…

Well here’s your chance. I have a stock of books with old covers or that I planned to take to events in the last year or so. I’m opting to offer them up for my readers. Some are in sets – like Wild Magic and Hostile Magic. Most are individual.

There are limited quantities of items. Once the items are gone, they are gone. For single items, prices range from $4 to $7.

Check out my shop!

The covers represent some but not all books available during the sale.

Sharon’s Submission

Sharon’s Submission

Behind closed doors, Brent and Sharon have shared a secret and elaborate fantasy life revolving around Bondage and group sex.

Each weekend they would live out one of their bondage scenarios in the privacy of their bedroom. This weekend had been Sharon’s turn as submissive, and she was eager for the night to begin. That is, until a chance storm stranded two of their longtime friends at their home threatening her night and their secrecy.

In her wildest dreams Sharon never thought she would live out the private dreams she’d shared only with her husband. Then, this fateful weekend with two of his friends would change their lives forever.

The question now isn’t, how far will she go…. Now it is how much further can she go?

Go to the series page to get both books! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099QS5WK3

Sharon’s Punishment

On the surface, Brent and Sharon are a typical mid-west couple. Married, settled, and content.
Behind closed doors?

They explored anything they wanted – the kinkier the better. They made their sexual fantasies come true. This weekend was supposed to be like no other. Sharon was desperate to live out one of her favorite bondage fantasies. She needed to be punished.

That is, until a chance storm stranded two of her husband’s friends at their house.

How kinky were Sharon and Brent willing to go?

You can learn more about Kyle through his podcastSpeak Seductively

Scifi Fantasy

Do you read and enjoy reading science fiction or fantasy? Kyle and Lily Canon and I discuss science fiction on their podcast. It was a great discussion on new and old scifi/fantasy. Here’s a snippet.

If you want to hear the whole discussion, go here: https://anchor.fm/kyle-canon/episodes/Talking-Sci-Fi-and-Fantasy-with-Eileen-Troemel-e11p6b5

The Bookshop

Simone Francis  The Bookshop

https://amzn.to/38aSPz5

It’s 1908 and Amelia Slone is bored until her friend Frances disappears. The bookshop and the haughty, arrogant Prussian Konrad von Schellenberg are her only clues. Determined to find her friend her search leads her into a world of sexual submission, kidnapping and murder that hides just below the surface of Edwardian London.

Desperate to find her friend it seems romance will have to wait or will her new passions help her find love as well?

Perilous Love – Review

by Jan Selbourne

Blurb

As the world rushes towards a war, the British government orders wealthy businessman, Adrian Bryce to leave his mistress and accompany his estranged wife, Gabrielle, to Belgium. They require proof Gabrielle’s uncle is supporting the German Empire. Adrian discovers secrets which plunge him and Gabrielle into a nightmare of betrayal. Forced to run for their lives as Germany invades, they must trust each other in the midst of danger, brutality, and injury.
Gabrielle enjoys her role of mother of their two children. Wanting only to be with her lover, and now fearful of exposure, she readies herself and her children for a difficult trip. With no way out, Gabrielle knows the visit with her aristocratic traditional family will be a trial, and Europe is on edge. She had no idea the danger she, Adrian and her children would be in.
Will Adrian and Gabrielle reach safety? If they do, are they out of danger or will the intrigue and treason follow them back to England?

Review

This is a 4.5 star read for me. It’s a book where I was annoyed each time I was interrupted when readingBy it.

Set in the first world war, Perilous Love (which has a much better new cover) has been newly updated and rereleased with a new cover. The cover is much more fitting. The story takes right before the start of the war. The two main characters I didn’t like – Adrian and Gabrielle. They are rich and spoiled and obnoxious. They travel from England to Belgium for their annual visit to Gabrielle’s family (Belgium royalty). What occurs in Belgium forces these characters to look at themselves, their marriage, and each other.

Selbourne takes them through the hell of a country invaded and under siege. The violence and the horror of the time is handled beautifully by Selbourne. Instead of forcing the reader to go through horrific scenes of rape, debauchery, and violence, Selbourne has the reader experience it as the characters do. These keeps the horror of what were realistic events of the war from overwhelming the central story. Her characters are well researched and fit the time period she’s using. Her story line is well paced with a balance of fast paced OMG what will happen next to the moments when the characters connect and are real with each other.

I don’t typically read historical novels. Too often I find mistakes on word usage, setting, or items in the book being out of place or time. Selbourne clearly did her research when it came to all of these things. This is well written. It’s got depth and heart in it. When you read the book, you feel like you’re in the time period with the characters.

Gregor

Gargoyles are no longer hiding in the shadows. They are no longer merely the stuff of legends. They are flesh and blood and walk among us. Well, at night anyhow. 

The White Bluff Clan has been assigned Tulsa, Oklahoma and one of their first cases with the Tulsa Police Department is to search for the missing Tulsa World reporter, Lynne Clark. Her car is found abandoned near a homeless encampment. Did they hurt her? Do they know who did? Can Clan Leader Gregor save her before it’s too late or will his desire distract him? 

Gargoyles of Tulsa

Gregor Preorder: https://books2read.com/u/bQdXQP

Wayfarer – Prequel, Books 1, 2, 3

Wayfarer started as a request from my middle daughter in 2014. I’d successfully published a romance novel, a meditation book and three poetry books. I looked around and said – okay what next?

My middle daughter came up with the answer. Write her a space story with a strong female lead.

From there, I came up with Adara who was slightly damaged, quiet, and trying to figure out what she needed. My great grandmother was a petite woman standing about five foot all at most. My great grandfather was six foot seven inches. I have a picture of them where he’s sitting and she stands next him. They are the same height. This was the inspiration behind their physical attributes.

As I considered what it meant for her to be a Wayfarer I looked at different cultures which are outside the norm. I knew she was going to be skilled in ways the Humans couldn’t be. It’s almost paranormal.

Decker was meant to be a stiff necked jerk of sorts. He was supposed to be the by the book type character.

The whole story was about her learning to stand up and speak out for herself and him learning to trust her and bend – a lot.

Wayfarer Aegis

This book was actually written after I wrote the first five novels. I had to go back into each of the novels and pull out all the details I’d already written about the accident.

Blurb

Adara Stone – pilot for the Interstellar Planets Union services. 

She’s half Wayfarer and half human and Captain James’ last choice as a pilot.  Excited for her first long contract and explorer class ship, Adara knows she’ll spend seven years flying a ship in unknown space. She can’t wait to see what’s out there.   

By the book, Captain Alden James does not want anyone varying from his flight plan.  He quickly loses patience with Adara breaking protocol.   

Adara craves a family but finds only recrimination and punishment.  She taps into the skills dismissed by her captain and the services in order to be the best pilot she can be.  When Fate intervenes, will her Wayfarer skills be enough?   

https://books2read.com/Wayfarer-Aegis-prequel

Wayfarer

Recovered from the disaster of the Aegis, Adara longs to fly in space again. 

Emotionally and physically battered, she applies to every piloting position but her heart and soul long to fly the Pritchard.  The Manu investigatory ship requires all types of flying from chasing raiders, rescuing ships in danger, and getting investigators on site.  

Captain Decker Flannery gets to hire his entire crew for the first time.  He doesn’t want some damaged pilot to mess with the balance of his crew.  When one of his pilots takes a better offer, he has no choice but to hire Adara Stone, highest ranking survivor from the Aegis.  He doesn’t want her on his ship, he thinks she’s trouble. 

Can Decker see through Adara’s quiet and discover more than he bargained for?  

https://books2read.com/Wayfarer-book-1

Wayfarer Clans

Once I finished Wayfarer, my test readers all said – ‘where’s the next one’. I told them no this was a one and done. They came back with was what about …. When they asked, I got ideas… and well ideas led to this.

Blurb

Are Wayfarer Clans kidnapping children, teen girls, and scientists? 

A rash of kidnappings lead Adara to suggest a Wayfarer clan is adding to their clan. Chasing down a stolen Science Corp vessel, Adara Stone beats the pilot and rescues the ship and all its occupants.  The pilot of the ship shocks Adara.  

Decker and Adara struggle to cope with her family relations as the crew dives deeper into the kidnapping cases.  Friction arises between the two.   

Will her family put a wall between Decker and Adara?   

https://books2read.com/Wayfarer-book-1

Wayfarer Immemorial

After the second book, I realized this was going to be a series. All the injuries up to this point have been for Adara. I knew that this couldn’t continue otherwise she was going to end up dead. Plus it would get tedious and predictable.

Blurb

The Barions are back!   

Decker wants Adara nowhere near the memorial but she insists on helping the survivors and the families of those lost on the Aegis.   

With her plate full as a new clan leader, Adara leaves security up to Decker, Franklin, and Paul.  Her only requirement – she must attend the memorial service.   

Barion battlecruisers invade the Services space while a rogue Barion attempts to meet privately with Adara. 

Will Decker and Adara survive this encounter with the Barions? 

https://books2read.com/Wayfarer-Immemorial-book-3

To read about the other books in this series:

https://eileentroemel.com/?p=16666

https://eileentroemel.com/?p=16674

https://eileentroemel.com/?p=16680

https://eileentroemel.com/?p=16686

Or visit the Wayfarer page – https://eileentroemel.com/books/wayfarer-series/

E.A. Moldovan

E. A. Moldovan and I met through social media.

Author Bio

I am a Mum of four adult children and one teenager, a grandmum of 3 and my autobiography is in Harvard University library.

My story is in a new book called, “Courage: Stories Of Darkness To Light”, release date July 2019. #1 Best seller.

I enjoy gardening, drawing, painting and spending time playing with my grandchildren.

Tell us about yourself.

Hi my name is Elizabeth and I wrote my autobiography to help other people who struggle with substance abuse.  I was very reluctant to go public with my book because I had to consider my 5 children.  All the names have been changed except mine to protect their privacy.  I am a Grandmama  of 5 and I try to live a simple and quiet life now.  I enjoy gardening, nature, reading and painting/drawing.  I have been seeking The Truth for the past 4 years and enjoy social media and spreading the word of freedom that I found.

When did you know you wanted to be an author?

That is a very interesting question and probably only a few months ago when I woke up one morning and said out loud,  “I have a book”.  Until then I think I was just in shock at how receptive people were about my story.  I am what you may call a reluctant author.

What genres do you like to read?  Are these the same genres you write in?

I like to read autobiographies, history, political and memoirs/true stories the most.  Yes it is in the same genre.

Is your book for adults, young adults or children?

My book is for over 18 years.

What is your current release or project?

In July,  a new book was published called  “Courage: Stories Of Darkness To Light” by Samantha Houghton.  My story along with 10 other authors from around the world, are featured in this entirely charitable project.  All the book royalties go to Samaritans charity who work with people who are struggling to live.  It reached number 1 best seller on Amazon.

Tell us about the key characters

The 11 authors write about their struggles in life ranging in issues such as a very rare medical condition being diagnosed as a woman in her early twenties to having a loved one diagnosed with cancer.  Bi polar, substance abuse, burnout, teen bullying, having a spouse lie and manipulate, acute post-natal depression, being admitted to psychiatric units, suicide attempts and more.  Eight  women and three men,  ranging in age from early twenties through to fifties.  One author wished to remain anonymous. 

What is your blurb or synopsis of the book?

My book is called “From Heroin To Christ” by E. A. Moldovan

Elizabeth’s life is penned very simply in this inspiring memoir about her incredible battle, to find a way to live.

Born the year her parents immigrated from Europe, in a large catholic family, she experienced poverty, neglect, rejection and abandonment before the age of eighteen. She had no sense of self and felt invisible most of the time. Her father passed away after battling cancer for eleven years, when she was nineteen years old. It was then that her world took a bad turn, when she fell in love with a drug addict/dealer.

Twenty four years later, after using heroin everyday while trying to raise her five children, circumstances forced her to leave him. Elizabeth and her three year old daughter had only one bag of clothes and a stroller. They were homeless for three months and she attempted suicide.

Without a car, phone, money or friends and in very poor health she was lost and broken and needed help but was too stubborn to reach out, believing her life to be worthless and of no value. She did not attend any detox, meetings, rehabs, counselors or doctors but with only sheer determination and persistence, overcame her dependency on drugs.

Elizabeth began her harrowing journey towards the light of truth and found freedom in Christ alone. She remains clean to this day and is a very private person. She wrote her story only to help people who suffer like she did and need help to find a way to live without drugs.

Share an excerpt.

I felt like a complete and utter failure and disgrace.  My three year old daughter and I were allowed to stay in the refuge on the condition that I did not go back to the house where Francis was living with our four older children.  I was so desperate at this stage that I agreed even though I missed them terribly.  But strange things began to happen.  The small t.v. that was in our room caught fire underneath and the fuses kept shorting out and blew out the power in the entire house.  After a week or so I woke up one night and sat bolt upright in the bed.  I was a bit fuzzy and looked at the digital clock and saw it was 11 p.m.  I thought ‘how strange’ because I have never woken up at that time before now.  And then I heard an audible voice in the air, not in my head.  The voice said, “Do you want to be made whole?  Do you want to be made whole?”

I lay down and went into a deep sleep straight away.  The next morning I didn’t think much about it and went downstairs to ask the staff for my dose of methadone.  I thought about the voice for a second and never forgot those words because the word ‘whole’ is not language that I have ever used.

Two weeks later I took Grace in the stroller to a church in the city and during the message the preacher called out, “Do you want to be made whole?  Do you want to be made whole?”  and tears welled up in my eyes as I realized the voice I had heard that night was Jesus.  Beautiful gentle Jesus, and I was overwhelmed that after all that I had done wrong He still cared for me and forgave me and is real and very very close.

Do you have a favorite scene?

The favourite part of my autobiography was the births of each of my five children, because I know that without them I would be dead.

What advice would you give a beginner?

I would say “Be brave and courageous,  someone will enjoy your words and journey.  Write and don’t procrastinate like I did.”

Social media links:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/e.moldovan/?ref=bookmarks

Other

www.elizabethmoldovan.org

Blog link

Purchasing links

What are the steps for self-publishing?

This is a question I’ve recently been asked. I had to stop and think about all the steps. I go through when I publish one of my books or patterns.

Become an expert in editing / grammar, graphic design, and MS Word or similar program….

Write your story, tell a great story. There’s no cost associated with that. Get beta (or alpha or whatever you want to call them) readers and encourage them to be honest – don’t get offended by what they tell you.

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Smashwords have no upfront costs to use their services. These are the two I use and am aware of how they work.

The process for self publishing – okay remember you asked:

  • write your book
  • edit your book (unless you are a grammarian, pay for editing)
  • create a cover (unless you are artistic or a graphic designer pay for a good quality cover)
  • research the genre to determine what is commonly used – covers, tropes, and so much more
  • Start marketing your book – do a cover reveal, talk about the book, put excerpts and the blurb on social media
  • prep your files – This list is for ebooks – I have a different list for paperbacks – I have a spreadsheet that I keep track of all the steps but it goes something like this:
    • make a backup copy (do this – do not skip this step because if you mess up than you have a copy to go back to and start over)
    • copy into Word Pad or Notepad to remove all the extra crap Word (and other programs) put into the files.
    • Copy from Word or Notepad back into a Word (I use Word so I’m going with that – you can use whatever program you want).
    • Create your front matter (title page, copyright page, navigation etc, back matter, and do your formatting like making sure the chapters are start on a new page.
    • If you’ve got pictures, make sure they’re in the right format.
    • Make sure you’ve got your blurb written and key words selected
    • Make sure you don’t have more then 4 paragraph returns in one location (smashwords criteria – KDP may be different).
    • Use a standard font – times new roman is the best
    • Build in your navigation
    • Make sure your cover fits the criteria required – right size, right number of pixels, and nothing crossing into the area the publisher won’t print
    • Since I pub in both KDP & Smashwords, I prep three files – ebook files for both companies and paperback files.
  • Start the upload process. If you’re lucky this goes smoothly – don’t count on luck.
  • Marketing – announce the arrival of the book and promote it. If you can afford ads and know what you’re doing dive in. If you don’t know what you’re doing hold back and do free marketing things like donating, book talks and so on.
  • Once uploaded wait impatiently for KDP & Smashwords to approve them. Like the watched pot – the watched book is never approved.
  • Marketing – look for interviews and other opportunities to talk about your book – tell your friends – have the 30 sec approach to selling your book practiced.
  • Once they are uploaded – MARKET.
  • MARKET
  • MARKET
  • MARKET
  • Watch your accounts nervously for your first sale, scream ridiculously when you get your first sale. Text, email, and tell all your people – and their people and … well you get the idea – that you have a book out!
  • MARKET
  • MARKET
  • Wait for the second sale, scream again – maybe not so ridiculously
  • MARKET – are you getting the hint yet?

That’s the process roughly. There are a lot of little steps involved in these bigger ones.