New #ParanormalLoveWednesdaysBlogHop w/excerpt from Michael’s “Columba and the Cat”
Folks, this is the second time I’ve done the Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog Hop. (The first time was last week, and was for AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE.) This time, I’m doing it in support of my late husband Michael B. Caffrey’s story “Columba and the Cat.”
Years ago, this story was available at e-Quill Publishing in Australia, but I withdrew it in 2012 after I was picked up by Twilight Times Books as an author. While I appreciated e-Quill’s interest in Michael’s work very much, I felt I could perhaps do a little better on my own…I just needed to get the skills together to do justice to his work.
Anyway, I now have more of those skills. I’ve found friends and allies over at the Marketing for Romance Writers group (do look them up if you’re a writer; they’re incredibly helpful people), and some of those authors set up the Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog in order to showcase paranormal works a little better. 
Michael’s “Columba and the Cat” certainly qualifies.
What’s it about? As I said yesterday:
“Columba and the Cat” is about Princess Columba of Illinowa. She’s a magician, a scholar, and is currently the heir to the throne…and wants no part of it. Because she’s royalty, she’s had trouble meeting men, and she’s tired of dealing with people in search of a title rather than herself.
Into her life comes a mysterious cat. (Literally. The cat nearly gets run over while she’s out riding.) She rescues the cat, takes him into the palace, and starts having unusual dreams — dreams of a man who understands her, cares about her, and loves her. Unbeknownst to Columba, the cat is a shapeshifter. He, too, is royal, albeit from far away. And he’s the man of her dreams…that is, when he’s not in the form of a cat.
Then the dream-man shows up, and the cat disappears. Columba must decide whether or not to believe in her dreams and hope that somehow, all of the magical romance she’s found is here to stay.
I don’t yet have a link for the story as it’s not yet up. (EDITED TO ADD: Here’s a link for everyone!) But I do have an excerpt, cover art, and a banner. I do hope people will love this excerpt and will want to read the rest of the story.
First, the banner: 
Now, the excerpt (apologies in advance; it’s a bit longer than four paragraphs):
Again it seemed that Cat could understand what she was saying, as he rolled to the side and off the Princess-Royal’s body.
Columba looked at him in surprise — how had he realized that the only way he could have stood and walked on her nightdress was to dig in with his claws? And how — and why — had he figured out so quickly how to remove himself so quickly without having to use those claws?
Yes, if she could convince him to stay — and if he had the other qualities necessary — Cat was the familiar for her.
After a few minutes, she came back out, brushing her shoulder-length blond hair, and turned down the covers. She sat on the edge of the bed, brushing her hair and making inconsequential chat to Cat, constantly amused at his occasional mew or mrowr as she paused, almost as if he was truly interested in the court gossip she had picked up during the hour between the ceremony and dinner. After a bit, she finished with her hair and set the brush on the bedside table, then swung her legs under the covers and pulled them up.
A wave of her hand was enough to douse the magelights in the room, leaving only the firefly glow of a single light in the bathroom to reflect off Cat’s eyes as he gazed through the dark at her.
“Mrow?” the animal inquired, an almost plaintive note in his voice.
Columba chuckled gently, then lifted the cover. It was a cold winter’s evening, after all, and Cat looked uncomfortably thin, despite his size. “If you’re cold, you can come in here with me, darling.”
With a gentle rustling, Cat crossed the short distance from his chosen pillow nest to rub against Columba’s face before crawling carefully under the covers and turning around to lay against her breast, his head under her chin and his whiskers tickling the exposed skin above the open neck of her flannel nightdress. With an uncharacteristic giggle, Columba let the sheet drop and snuggled Cat close, her eyes closing as his rumbling purr began to lull her to sleep. As she drifted off, she almost thought that she heard something stirring . . . most likely the wind was her last lazy thought before sleep claimed her.
In the night, Princess-Royal Columba had the most wondrous dreams — dreams of a strange prince, not overly handsome as many of her dream princes had been, but not totally shabby either, with hair that almost the color of her new most favorite pet’s fur, but features she could not clearly discern. The prince courted her assiduously, slowly, over the course of months in that night’s dream, obtained at last her promise that she would be his.
The first dream faded into vague images she could not recall — stallions and mares, springtime, birds in their nests with the little birds chirping for food — and a sense as if she was riding one of those stallions back and forth across a plain of short, bluish-green grass, almost the color of the sheets on her royal bed. It was a wonderful ride, this dream-gallop, farther and harder than she’d ever ridden before, with breaks to rest the horse and herself, an electric ride that sent surges of pleasure through her. Eventually, that dream faded back into her dream prince, clasping her in his arms, gently kissing her lips, then her throat . . . .
* * *
Note: For my friends in the Fantasy and Science Fiction Network, and for romance readers everywhere, this is as spicy as it gets. It’s somewhere between a PG and a PG-13 as far as a rating goes…Michael believed strongly in romance, but he also believed the best romances took place privately. So there should be nothing here that offends anyone’s sensibilities.
I hope that piqued your interest…now, get back to hopping, and go visit the next person up in the Paranormal Love Wednesdays Blog Hop!
| 1. | C. Marie Bowen | 3. | Blaire Edens | 5. | Barb Caffrey |
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| 2. | Margo Bond Collins | 4. | Erin Hayes Books |
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Cover Reveal for Michael B. Caffrey’s “Columba and the Cat”
Folks, I’m very excited to announce that my late husband Michael B. Caffrey’s story “Columba and the Cat” is going to be coming back out independently very soon as an e-book via Amazon Kindle — within a week if all goes well.
And now, I have a cover!
Ta da!
I edited Michael’s story, and I know it’s good.
“But what’s it about, Barb?” you ask.
“Columba and the Cat” is about Princess Columba of Illinowa. She’s a magician, a scholar, and is currently the heir to the throne…and wants no part of it. Because she’s royalty, she’s had trouble meeting men, and she’s tired of dealing with people in search of a title rather than herself.
Into her life comes a mysterious cat. (Literally. The cat nearly gets run over while she’s out riding.) She rescues the cat, takes him into the palace, and starts having unusual dreams — dreams of a man who understands her, cares about her, and loves her.
Now, why did this happen after the cat showed up? Well, unbeknownst to Columba, the cat is a shapeshifter. He, too, is royal, albeit from far away. And he’s the man of her dreams…that is, when he’s not in the form of a cat.
Anyway, the dream-man shows up, and the cat disappears. Columba must decide whether or not to believe in magic, believe in the dreams — and hope that somehow, all of the magical romance she’s found is here to stay.
It’s a deeply romantic story with more than a little paranormal involvement. I definitely hope people will enjoy it, and am pleased to be able to finally bring it back out again.
There are three more stories in this universe. Two are written by Michael, while one is currently being written by me from Cat’s perspective (as in, why did he go in search of Columba in the first place?) Perhaps more can be written, later, if people show interest — I think my late husband would like that.
My plan is to have “Columba and the Cat” out as an e-book at Amazon in time for my thirteenth wedding anniversary on June 24, 2015. (I think Michael would approve.)
Before I go back to my editing (an intensive project, already in progress), here’s a banner display to check out as well, courtesy of artist Kathey from the Author’s Secret. (They have ready-made covers over there, too, and offer a wide array of services. Just sayin’.)
Time for a Paranormal Blog-Hop Wednesday, Elfy-style!
Folks, I’m proud to take part in Paranormal Love Wednesdays’ Blog Hop. I found out about this because I’m a member of Marketing for Romance Writers…as a writer of humorous YA urban fantasy/romance (with ghosts), I thought AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE might find some new readers this way.
And that’s important, especially as A LITTLE ELFY IN BIG TROUBLE is coming soon…
Let’s see what a bit from AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, chapter 18, can do, hm?**
Drum roll, please:
“Trust me.” He winked. Bruno was gratified to see Sarah smile at him. It was a small smile, but he wasn’t picky. He’d take any smile he could get.
He walked away from Sarah. The spirit followed him. Bruno almost felt as if he could sense the spirit wondering what he was doing, walking away from Sarah like this. He asked once, “Sarah? Do you feel anything?”
“No, should I?”
“Hmmm,” he said. He decided that since leading the spirit wasn’t doing any good, and trying to contact it directly hadn’t done any good either, he might as well ask it what it was doing there. He walked directly toward it. This time, it stayed put. Bruno felt a sense of astonishment from the shape before he addressed it. “I mean you no harm; neither does Sarah. Can you help us?”
Bruno expected the spirit to do something, but he didn’t really expect what came next. The spirit darted this way and that all over the third floor. Bruno and Sarah were led on a merry chase for a few moments, until it vanished into a wall. The very wall he had been examining when the spirit had appeared.
“Now what?” Sarah asked.
*** END EXCERPT***
Want to know more? First, here’s a blurb for you:
Bruno the Elfy believes he’s very young, has no power, cannot see or talk with spirits, and has no enemies.
He’s wrong.
Quickly sent to our Earth (the Human Realm) and told to watch for magic, Bruno must unravel the lies, keep his mentor from being tortured, and—oh, yeah—figure out why he’s so strongly attracted to young, Human Sarah.
Because his life depends on it.
Now that you’ve read a bit more about AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, perhaps you’d like to read the five sample chapters? (If so, here they are.)
Or maybe — just maybe — something here intrigued you. If that’s the case, here are my buy links:
Amazon (US): http://amzn.to/1p6xvQj
Amazon (UK): http://goo.gl/dDoBnd
Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/m8o49ad
And do, please, check out the following authors…they’re all taking part in the Paranormal Love Wednesdays Hop, just as I am:
| 1. | Margo Bond Collins | 6. | Megan Morgan | 11. | Andrea R. Cooper | |||
| 2. | Bokerah | 7. | Dena Garson | 12. | Barb Caffrey | |||
| 3. | Carrie L Wells | 8. | Jo Grafford | 13. | Jodi Hale | |||
| 4. | JoAnne’s Blog | 9. | Helen Henderson |
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| 5. | Connie Bowen | 10. | J.J. DiBenedetto |
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**Note that the Paranormal Love Wednesdays’ Blog-Hop asks for only four paragraphs, and I put up six. (Yes, I can count.) I couldn’t figure out how to do it in only four paragraphs…so please forgive me the two extra paragraphs.
Book Giveaway in Progress…Tell Me Why You Like Romance!
Folks, it’s rare that I have to ask twice to give away a book.
But I’m asking now.
I’m friendly with writer E. Ayers, who’s a best-selling romance writer. She has a new book that will be out on June 16, 2015 called A RANCHER’S DREAM. (Here’s a link to my previous post about that.)
My own quirk was to ask readers why they like romance novels. I asked that someone tell me why they enjoy romances. (It doesn’t have to be fancy.)
So far, I haven’t had anyone who’s been willing to comment.
This is a wee bit frustrating.
I know I have a number of regular readers of this blog who enjoy romance novels in addition to science fiction, fantasy, mystery, nonfiction, or other types of books.
So maybe you need more information about Ms. Ayers’ work to make up your mind, hm?
I’ve only reviewed one of Ms. Ayers’ novels at Shiny Book Review thus far, A SKELETON AT HER DOOR — a fun, fast Halloween-inspired contemporary romance. But I’ve read a number of her novels, and I’ve enjoyed every single one.
Anyway, all I need is a sentence or two saying why you enjoy romance novels…or, in a pinch, why you want to read A RANCHER’S DREAM…and I will be glad to send you an e-book copy in any format you desire.
What could be better than that?
Requiem for a Grocery Store
Folks, the grocery store closest to my house — the Pick N Save on Rapids Drive in Racine, Wisconsin — will be closing on June 26, 2015.
This is bad news for anyone in Racine, but most particularly for those living near Horlick High School.
I’ve known the store would close since mid-April of this year. I kept meaning to write a blog to talk about what this store means to me…and time got away.
Granted, I’ve been busy writing and editing. (And gladly so.)
But I didn’t want yet another neighborhood grocery store to go belly up in Racine because of our horrible economy without trying to say something about why I liked the store — and why I want it to stay open.
First, the Rapids Plaza Pick N Save is a neighborhood store. 75% of their clientele is comprised of foot traffic.
(In case you’re wondering, this is the store — this particular store, the Rapids Plaza Pick N Save — I walked to when my car was out for 52 days last year.)
Second, the employees are friendly, knowledgeable, and remember you. They ask about your family as if they truly care. And if you need a coupon, they’ll find one for you…they don’t turn their noses up and refuse to work over there, unlike some stores I’ve been in up in Milwaukee (and elsewhere).
And third…well, I used to work at this store, years back. I cashiered, stocked shelves, was the assistant dairy and frozen foods person for a while…I worked in nearly every aspect of the store, from produce to deli to health and beauty. (Heck, even floral — and trust me, I wasn’t that great, but they were desperate.)
Fourth…well, there aren’t any grocery stores for at least three miles in any direction. So if you don’t have a car and the buses have stopped running for the day but you need milk or bread, you will be out of luck after June 26, 2015.
There is perhaps a hint of good news on the horizon, if you believe in the scuttlebutt I picked up earlier today. Apparently Wal-mart, which has wanted to expand for a while now (Caledonia vetoed a proposed site in late 2013, if memory serves), is looking into buying the entirety of Rapids Plaza.
If Wal-mart comes in, at least there would be a neighborhood store to walk to…and the employees will have a chance (a very strong chance) to be hired on.
As it stands, though, the Pick N Save on Rapids Dr. will be closing on June 26. No one can stop it. There’s no way to change it.
It’s completely nonsensical, and I really had wanted to mount some sort of grassroots campaign to get a Woodman’s into Racine as I felt they’d know exactly what to do with this store.
But if the Wal-mart does come in, and if they do a good job, perhaps all is not lost.
We who live close to Horlick High School can hope for that.
Savory Saturday Goodness: A New Review at SBR…Plus a Book Giveaway for E. Ayers!
Folks, this past week I was consumed with editing. (My book may be in, but the editing goes on. Which is probably just as well…don’t want to be out of a job, methinks.) So I didn’t get a chance to blog.
Now, though, I have two reasons to blog.
First, there’s a new review up over at Shiny Book Review for Mary Robinette Kowal’s VALOUR AND VANITY. This is the fourth book in Ms. Kowal’s Glamourist Histories, and I enjoyed it immensely. But please, read my review, and let me know what you think.
Blank bookcover with clipping path
Second, for the first time ever here at the Elfyverse blog, I’m going to give away a book for a friend, E. Ayers. Her newest novel is called A RANCHER’S DREAM, and it’s a Western set in the U.S. during the Victorian Era. (Say that five times fast. I dare you.)
Ms. Ayers and I know each other through the Exquisite Quills writing group. She’s a fine writer with a keen mind and an excellent eye for detail, and I’ve enjoyed all the novels she’s written to date. (I intend to review a couple more of ’em next week for Romance Saturday at SBR, if all goes well, one being A RANCHER’S DREAM.)
All you have to do to win an advance e-book copy of A RANCHER’S DREAM is to tell me why you love romance novels. It doesn’t have to be fancy…just tell me why you love romance novels, and the first person who comments, either here on my blog or at Twitter (by time-stamp) will win a copy of Ms. Ayers’ newest novel. (You’ll have your pick of formats, too, in case you’re interested.)
Widowed and raising a young daughter by himself,
Tiago has only one goal – to work a ranch of his own and build a
future for his small family. When fate deposits a young woman in
his path, he believes he has found the help he needs to care for his child
as they journey to their new home in Creed’s Crossing.
On the run for her life, Ingrid needs to get as far
away from Texas as she can. Her brother and father have
been murdered, and those responsible would see her dead, too.
Desperate, she accepts an offer to help Tiago with his daughter,
but Ingrid’s past can destroy everything Tiago is working for.
Worse – her very presence places him and his daughter in peril.
Amid secrets and danger, a single father
and an orphaned woman on the run must fight all odds to fulfill
A Rancher’s Dream
Coming June 16, 2015
Now available for pre-order at Amazon US: http://amzn.com/B00YJP19TI
…and Amazon International: http://authl.it/B00YJP19TI
*****
So there you have it — a new review at Shiny Book Review, and a brand-new book by E. Ayers that you can win if you tell me why you love romance novels.
How’s that for some savory Saturday goodness?
Friday Inspiration — Who Are Your Heroes?
Friday’s inspirational thought is this: Who are your heroes? And why are they important to you?
Why are heroes important? They give us reasons to keep trying.
Long before I ever knew I wanted to be a writer, I knew who my heroes were. Henry Aaron. Ernie Banks. Larry Doby. And Jackie Robinson. Men who broke the color line in major league baseball, who dealt with gratuitous insults with grace and dignity.
Oh, I had others, too. Helen Keller, for learning and thriving despite being both blind and deaf. Florence Nightingale, for being willing to nurse the sick and for preaching the importance of proper sanitation. Art Pepper for getting away from heroin and resuming his jazz career in his early fifties…and Benny Goodman, for proving that a strong jazz clarinetist could play Mozart with equal ease.
Those are just a few of my heroes.
So who are your heroes? Why do they matter to you?
And one additional question for my fellow writers out there: How have your heroes factored into your writing?
Memorial Day for Sale: NFL Teams Take Money to ‘Honor’ the Military
Is Memorial Day truly for sale?
It sure seems that way, after finding out that 14 NFL teams have actually taken money to “honor” military veterans — including my own favorite team, the Green Bay Packers.
I found out about this last Friday (May 22, 2015) by watching Keith Olbermann’s ESPN2 show. As quoted from the website PoliticsUSA.com:
In a lengthy monologue on Friday’s broadcast of ESPN2′s Olbermann, host Keith Olbermann took NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to school over the recent revelation that the National Football League has taken millions of dollars from the US military to promote the armed forces of this country. Over the past few years, it has been estimated that the NFL has received $5.4 million since 2011 to ‘honor’ members of the military at games and other events. As Olbermann pointed out, the main issue isn’t that the league took money, but that it pretended that it was honoring the soldiers out of true patriotism rather than love of money.
This disturbs me for more than one reason.
First, veterans of the armed forces deserve to be treated well without teams being paid to do so.
Second, that teams have been pretending they’re doing this out of the goodness of their nonexistent hearts rather than some sort of business-oriented motivation is incredibly hypocritical.
It is especially upsetting because fans are expected to be both patriotic and uncritical of the teams they follow. So when we see teams giving what surely look to be deserving shout-outs to serving military members (or honorable veterans), we think it’s genuine.
We don’t expect these “Hometown Heroes” shout-outs to be merely a matter of public relations.
But they are. And that’s wrong.
Olbermann isn’t the only high-profile person angered by this behavior. Arizona’s two United States Senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, are also appalled. In an article from the Washington Post, McCain was quoted as saying:
“I think it’s really disgraceful that NFL teams whose profits are at an all-time high had to be paid to honor our veterans,” he said Tuesday (via ESPN)..
Agreed. (To the Nth power.)
Taking money in order to salute these real hometown heroes is wrong. Just ask U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, as quoted in the Washington Post article:
“You go to a game and you see a team honoring ‘Hometown Heroes,’ and you think it’s some sort of public service announcement, that the team is doing it out of the goodness of their heart,” Flake told ESPN on Monday. “Then you find out it’s paid for? That seems a little unseemly.”
This, right here, encapsulates why I’m so steamed.
Look. According to Olbermann (see his YouTube rant here), the Green Bay Packers took $600,000 from the Department of Defense for this practice.
But even if the Packers hadn’t taken any money, I’d still be upset.
As a fan, I’ve always seen military members get shout-outs. They are feted, get tickets to games, often are highlighted on the scoreboard, and the impression is that the teams are doing this because it’s the right thing to do.
Sure, it’s all public relations. We know this, deep down inside.
But we don’t expect that teams would actually be crass enough to require payment.
That these 14 NFL teams have done so is truly shameful. A recent editorial at Jacksonville.com said:
…the Department of Defense and 14 NFL teams deserve boos over revelations that the federal agency paid the clubs $5.4 million over a three-year period to feature military members during games. According to the Defense Department and the 14 teams, the payments were merely part of mutually agreed “sponsorship deals” designed to promote the military in a flattering, high-profile manner. But in truth, the deals were simply “crass” and “disgraceful,” as Sen. John McCain — a military hero who bravely survived captivity during the Vietnam War — so aptly put it.
(Preach it, brothers and sisters.)
Why the Packers ever thought it a good idea to take money to salute the military makes no sense.
NFL teams make money hand-over-fist. They do not need to take money from the Department of Defense or anyone else to salute the hard-working men and women who comprise the United States military.
That they did was absolutely reprehensible.
******
P.S. Because it’s come out that 14 NFL teams have taken money to salute soldiers, it makes me wonder…are teams in Major League Baseball also taking money for this practice?
Have the Milwaukee Brewers actually taken money over the years to salute these “Hometown Heroes” in order to put them on the big scoreboard in centerfield?
I sincerely hope the Brewers haven’t.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 
Commentary on Charleston, plus cover reveal for “To Survive the Maelstrom”
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Folks, I’d planned to do this cover reveal today for my forthcoming short story, “To Survive the Maelstrom,” before the events in Charleston last night.
Because this story deals with loss, grief, and a soldier with PTSD finding a way to continue on with his life, I decided to go through with it anyway. I plan to release this story sometime next week in time for my thirteenth wedding anniversary.
But before I do that, I’d like to comment a little on the Charleston shooting.
My heart is heavy. I don’t understand why anyone would sit through an hour’s worth of Bible study, then calmly and coldly shoot nine people to death.
I know that the man who’s been ID’ed as the shooter is a self-proclaimed racist. I know that he wanted to “kill black people,” and left one person alive to explain just why he did this. I also know the shooter is only twenty-one years old…because I don’t like talking about someone so evil, so twisted, and so bizarre, I’m not going to give this perpetrator the dignity of having a name. (I think he lost that when he took those nine people’s lives in cold blood.)
Anyway, while I cannot understand the shooting in Charleston at all — a church, of all places, should be safe, even in times like these — I do understand how it feels to live after grief. And overpowering grief is very difficult to bear.
This is why I wrote “To Survive the Maelstrom.”
Note that Michael, my late husband, is credited for two reasons. One, I’m playing in his Atlantean Union universe. And two, I found the story of how Peter, my hero, met his weremouse (an empathic, sentient creature), to be uplifting and inspiring — and Michael had the bare bones of it in one of his unfinished manuscripts.
The blurb for “To Survive the Maelstrom” will go something like this:
Into his life comes Grasshunter’s Cub, an empathic, sentient creature known to those on Heligoland as a “weremouse.” Grasshunter’s Cub is nearly adult, and knows he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the weremice in his tribe.
Weremice are known for their ability to help their bond-mates. But how can this young weremouse find a way to bring Peter back from the brink of despair and start living again?
Ultimately, “To Survive the Maelstrom” is a story of hope and faith, told in an unusual way. I hope readers of military science fiction will enjoy it.
I also hope that showing someone who’s lost everything and found a way to claw his way back will be inspirational, maybe even heartwarming.
Because we need stories like this right now.
Written by Barb Caffrey
June 18, 2015 at 7:30 pm
Posted in Michael B. Caffrey, milsf, Writing
Tagged with "To Survive the Maelstrom", Atlantean Union, Charleston shooting, commentary, cover reveal, grief, loss, military SF, milspec, PTSD