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Barbara's Thin Line Between Truth & Fiction

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Barbara Ellen Brink

Happy frugal Independence Day!

June 30, 2022 By Barbara 2 Comments

This weekend, many of us will be getting together with family and friends, proudly waving the red, white, and blue, grilling hotdogs (or steaks, if you’re a politician and the huge jump in food prices doesn’t affect you), and setting off fireworks to scare all the dogs in the neighborhood. All in the name of Independence from the King of England hundreds of years ago. Our tea prices may have dropped temporarily, but sadly, they’ve returned to pre-dictator pricing. Along with everything else.

As an indie author, I feel your pain. Sure, I’m free from the tyranny (contract) of a big publishing house, but I’m also personally responsible for every aspect of putting my book together. I have independence from a deadline but sometimes thoughts of others taking care of the cover, the editing, the publicity, etc, makes me long for simpler times when all I had to do was spend half my life sending out query letters and waiting. I never got any books published in all those months and years I waited but at least I didn’t have to do my own promotions, right?

Which reminds me…

Independence Day shopping may be a bit tighter this year, but don’t worry. I would never let you spend your holiday weekend without a good book. Do I have the deal for you!

Now 40% off thru July 4th!

A Man Can Die but Once (reg. 4.99 now $2.99)

This is the 5th book in Blake & Shelby Gunner’s Double Barrel Mysteries series. Check out the free sample below:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PROLOGUE

A man can die but once.

(Henry IV, Part 2, Act3)

Leaning over the body of the mayor, he pressed two fingers to the man’s thick neck, searching for the carotid pulse. Faint but still detectable. Suddenly, he felt the man grip the ragged edge of his untucked shirt and tug him closer as though trying to say something. Eyes wide and staring, the mayor’s blue lips moved faintly, but only a mewling whimper sounded from the depths of his chest. Instinctively, he jerked away from the moist breath of vomit and death that accosted him, and the mayor’s white-knuckle grip was broken. The mayor fell back, pulling his arm in close to his body and appeared to curl around his pain, then he exhaled one last time and was gone.

Slowly, he straightened, standing tall over the mayor’s body, his stance relaxed. Purposefully at ease. Closing his eyes, he allowed his adrenaline-laced heartbeat to slow and his breathing to return to normal. No matter how many times he’d watched men die, he still felt a weight of darkness envelope his soul. A feeling he had to fight with every breath in his body. Exactly sixty seconds later, he opened his eyes and stared down on the ashen-faced man crumpled at his feet.

Everyone talked about this man. Locals either hated him or despised him. Some thought he was a necessary evil. A nasty, pushy politician could get things done for the town that nice people could not. But he’d never run across anyone who loved and respected him.

The great Farley Jones. The man who would be king… or at least, mayor of Port Scuttlebutt. He used people. Connived. Pressured. Even blackmailed them into doing his dirty work or going along with him in some unsavory deal or another. He’d heard the tales, but until recently, he’d never had the opportunity to see the man at work in person.

He had no real stake in the welfare of Port Scuttlebutt. Didn’t care whether Farley Jones ran things like a Detroit gangster or was more of a Saint Francis of Assisi, communing with birds and saving pine trees.

Farley’s mistake today was purely subjective.

The Mayor of Port Scuttlebutt had made a choice. He chose poorly. He never should have tried to hurt a woman on a mission. Like PETA zealots who write meat is murder on a butcher’s shop, to save-the-trees groups who chain themselves to bulldozers, or nuts who release thousands of minks from farms to starve to death or be eaten by foxes, people on a mission were the scariest people in the world to deal with logically. To them, the end always justified the means. Even if it didn’t turn out quite the way they planned. Much like war.

Stepping back, he carefully looked over the scene, imprinting it on his memory for possible future posterity.

Blood seeped from a wound on the back of the mayor’s head, glistening wet and dark. The fancy overcoat and loose-legged suit pants did nothing to hide the effects of a man accustomed to overindulgence and lack of exercise; a thickened waistline, fleshy jowls and neck, and overall poor muscle tone. He rested on his side where he’d fallen, one arm beneath him, the other extended across the floor, pudgy sausage fingers splayed out like a fan as though trying to grasp the baseball bat that lay just out of his reach.

Bending, he picked up the bat, twirling it in his gloved hands. There was a splotch of blood on one side. He wiped it clean on the leg of his black sweatpants, admired the scrawled signature, and then carefully placed it back on display above the fireplace with the other baseball memorabilia.

A piece of paper peeked out the pocket of the dead man’s overcoat. He squatted beside him and slipped it out, pressing it open flat on the knotty pine floor. A to-do list. He smirked. Apparently, the man’s mama was every bit in charge of the world and everyone in it as the rumor mill suggested. Even her son, the mayor, had to submit to her authority.

He started to rise, but the last item on the list caught his eye. He read the words and expelled the breath of a laugh. Not surprising, all the errands had been crossed off except this one. A smile stretched across his face, and he rifled through the man’s pockets for a pen. Finding one, he leaned over the paper. There. Farley’s last day was complete.

Kill Farley

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you were intrigued by this opening scene. Pick up your own copy of A MAN CAN DIE BUT ONCE at any online store. Don’t wait! This deal will only last through the 4th!

Leave a comment and share a memory from one of your special 4th of July celebrations, tell us what independence means to you (are you glad we’re free from driving on the wrong side of the road and calling chips crisps?), or, let me know if you are a fan of Blake and Shelby and the Double Barrel Mysteries.

Happy Independence Day!

Barbara

Barbara is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels, The Second Chances Series, The Amish Bloodsuckers series, and The Double Barrel Mysteries. She lives in Minnesota during the spring, summer and fall, and endures the winter by pretending she owns Robin Masters’ estate in Oahu and Thomas Magnum is her personal security guard.

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To write or to quilt, that is the question.

June 20, 2022 By Barbara 2 Comments

I’ve started a new artistic outlet that doesn’t involve computers, keyboards, and entertaining readers with thrilling suspense suspended in coherent sentences and adequate grammar.

Quilting.

My mom made several quilts before she retired from sewing and recently gifted me with her stockpile of material and quilting accessories. I sewed my children clothes when they were young but haven’t dragged out my sewing machine for anything other than repairs in recent years. I didn’t think I would really get into quilting but decided to give it a go. I hate to see things go to waste and all that material just called my name. (I may have been going through a bit of writer’s block at the time and quilting gave me an excuse not to write.)

My first project just happened to be a little quilt for my second granddaughter born this past March. I decided not to purchase any special “baby” material but to use the pieces Mom had given me. So, this is the result.

Although, the art of quilting is not so different from the art of storytelling, there was a bit of a learning curve for me and Youtube videos have been very helpful and educational. I made a few mistakes but hopefully I’m the only one who really notices.

I found the similarities between writing and quilting to be quite satisfying. Much like setting up a plot, you have to decide upon your pattern. Then you sew the individual pieces together to form squares, (or in writer language: scenes into chapters). Next, you layer the colorful top with warm cotton batting and a crisp cotton backing and slowly begin to stitch it all together with needle and thread. Like individual words forming sentences and sentences forming paragraphs and paragraphs forming pages… You get the idea. Finally, you attach a border (book cover) and enjoy!

Writing is an art and quilting is an art. Right now, I’m better at writing, having put in a few more years in practice, but I think I’ll continue learning quilting as well. It’s a calming and relaxing artistic outlet, (except when I had to rip the whole side of my border off and do it over), and it also helps me quiet my mind and ponder the best way to kill off a character in my newest novel. So, there is that.

This is my second work in progress. It’s about as far along as my current writing WIP. Not sure which one will be finished first.

Have you got an artistic outlet? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Thanks for stopping!

Barbara

Barbara is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels,
the Double Barrel Mysteries, the Second Chances series, and more. She lives in Minnesota because she can’t afford Hawaii.
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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: artistic outlets, Barbara Ellen Brink, quilting, writing

Groundhogs, Valentines, & Dead Presidents

February 9, 2022 By Barbara 4 Comments

February is the deepfreeze month stuck between New Year’s and the March of Leprechauns. Although the shortest of months, it has three auspicious days of note.

Groundhog Day leads the way on the 2nd! This is the day big fat rodents determine the length of our suffering in cold and darkness. Not strange at all, right? Apparently, Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia are the main areas where this weather forecasting animal is used, but regardless of its superstitious origin, someone managed to get this bizarre date included on the national calendar. Having their own day must really puff those little diggers up. I bet from their exalted status, they look down upon all the moles, voles, prairie dogs, and gerbils with utter disdain.

On the 14th, February is suddenly all about romance and love, full of chocolate hearts, flowers, and insanely priced cards. Some people claim Valentine’s Day is a made-up holiday, as though a day to celebrate rodents is completely legitimate but a day to celebrate the one you love is a government conspiracy.

And finally on the 21st, we have President’s Day. I’m old enough to remember it being called George Washington’s Birthday, but apparently it became a birthday celebration for George and Lincoln ( who both had February birthdays) and then finally in the 1970s was officially changed to President’s Day. Probably because the other dead presidents felt slighted. Or more likely, the live ones did.

In Minnesota, February is basically the beginning of our second winter. We get about 4 days of above freezing and then we’re back to black-ice, frost-bite, and a drop in crime as all the criminals head south.

With winter feeling extra long this year and February being a tri-celebration month, I am gifting a book for you! From my own experience, cold months are great reading months! So…

February 11th-28th, ENTANGLED (A Fredrickson Winery Novel) will be FREE at all online stores! Pick up a copy if you haven’t read it yet, and tell your book-loving friends and family members to download a copy too!

Get it here> ENTANGLED

Thanks for stopping! Leave a comment and tell us which February holiday you enjoy celebrating the most, or do you have another one I don’t know about??

Barbara

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Barbara Ellen Brink, Entangled, fiction, Free book, Groundhogs, mystery, Presidents Day, ValentinesDay

Creme de menthe bars and a free book!

December 2, 2021 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Christmas is almost upon us.

I have so much I want to do, and so little time left to do it. My organization skills stink. I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. Baking with chocolate. Yes, I am the number one taste-tester around here. Actually, the only taste-tester. So, I get a lot of tastes. It’s a very satisfying job. I could do this all year.

Sadly, it has taken me an entire week shuffling boxes, finding the right ornaments in each, fluffing the fake tree, putting on the lights, and finally hanging and placing each star, ornament, angel, or bow with precision accuracy. You guessed it. I have a mother who is gifted at this stuff. Living up to her example is not only time-consuming but, if I’m honest, a bit mind-numbing. Decorating does not come naturally to me. Writing is my “gift” and I’d much rather be indulging my imagination making up stories than decorating the halls or fluffing throw pillows.

That being said… I have not finished the new book I am working on, and so the only gift I have to present you with this year is a free copy of Christmas in Port Scuttlebutt.

Grandbaby approved

Not to downplay the awesome entertainment value of this Double Barrel contribution. It is truly full of enough suspense, romance, and holiday spirit to satisfy. Add a mug of hot cocoa and a candy cane stirrer and you are on your way to mystery heaven.

Get your free kindle copy December 2-6 only! Don’t wait or procrastinate. Download today> CPS

Leave a comment and tell us one of your favorite Christmas traditions or Christmas cookies/bars. Recipes are welcome. Especially if they involve chocolate. Scroll down for the secret family recipe of my favorite holiday bars.

Thanks for stopping!

Barbara

Creme de Menthe Bars

1st layer> Melt 1/2 cup butter & 1/2 cup cocoa until blended. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 cups graham cracker crumbs. Mix well & pat into 9X13 pan.

2nd layer> Melt 1/2 cup butter. Add 1/3 cup green creme de menthe & 3 cups powdered sugar. Mix well until smooth. Spread over 1st layer. Chill for one hour.

Top layer> Melt 1/4 cup butter & 1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips. Spread over top and put in refrigerator.

I usually cut them within an hour, so the top doesn’t set so hard that it cracks instead of cutting smoothly. Then keep them in the fridge because they do contain egg and butter. Wouldn’t want you to blame me for salmonella. They also freeze well.

Ps. Eat and enjoy! Merry Christmas!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Barbara Ellen Brink, Christmas recipe, ChristmasInPortScuttlebutt, Free book, mystery

The Secret Lives of Squirrels

November 9, 2021 By Barbara 3 Comments

Image by eriko okuno from Pixabay

November is our country’s designated month of thankfulness. Yes, I know. Thankfulness is something we should practice every day. But Facebook friends have been bringing it to my attention lately with daily thanks for specific things. So far, I have not written my own daily posts of thankfulness, but then, this happened…

As we all know, real life is so much stranger and more surprising than any fiction I could write. Today’s post is proof of that.

This morning, as usual, Willow and I went for our walk. As an avid lover of squirrel chasing, Willow is on high alert for any sign of her long-tailed rodent friends. This year our neighborhood squirrel families have been multiplying faster than bedbugs in a one-star motel, so there are plenty to chase. To keep us both safe – her from running into the street and getting splatted by a car and me from being yanked into the street and being splatted by a car – I am ever vigilant of squirrel sightings so I can shorten the leash and avoid disaster.

At the corner of a street near a small, leaf-bare tree, Willow was too busy checking out the fire hydrant to notice a gray squirrel running past, holding something strange in its mouth. It hopped nimbly to the crook of the tree about four feet up and sat there watching us. As I stood perfectly still staring back, the little guy removed the item he had in his mouth and began to lick on it.

At first, I wasn’t sure what it was. The object was so foreign to the scenario. I’d seen squirrels carrying nuts or crabapples, but… it was a tiny white stick of some kind, like a… Dum Dum sucker? Completely undisturbed by our presence he held the stick with both hands and licked away at the round yellow treat like a naughty child sneaking left-over Halloween candy while his mother slept.

Lately, I have been leaving my phone home while we go on our walks, finding that I tend to enjoy the time more without responding to random texts or social media alerts. But today, I had the perfect shot of a squirrel eating a Dum Dum and no camera to prove my story.

Regardless, I laughed out loud at the scene and enjoyed this bit of humor God had put into my day. Sadly, my laughter apparently startled the squirrel. He stuck the handle of the sucker back in his mouth like a pirate with a knife and climbed to a higher branch.

I’ve never imagined putting two such polar opposites together in a post about gratitude, but…

“I am thankful for Halloween Dum Dums and God’s amazing intelligent/playful design in nature.”

Thanks for stopping! Do you have something you are thankful for today? Seen any strange and wonderful things in nature? Want to share? Leave a comment!

Thanks,

Barbara

Barbara is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels, the Double Barrel Mysteries, the Second Chances series, and more. She lives in Minnesota because she can’t afford Hawaii.
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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Autumn, Barbara Ellen Brink, humor, Minnesota autumn

Down with Spring cleaning! Up with Spring reading!

May 4, 2021 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

You obviously know that spring is here. At least in some places. It’s printed in black and white on the calendar, for heaven’s sake! But in Minnesota, random snowflakes fall one minute and the sun peaks out the next. We get a bright sunny 80 degree day, and the next day gray clouds hang heavy overhead and temperatures dip back down to the edge of frostbite. So, you may be like me… having a hard time accepting facts over feelings.

Birds chirp and prepare their nests. Trees bud and begin to bloom. The grass grows longer and greener. But I can’t see past the clouds, the doomsayers on the news, and the goosebumps on my arms because I dressed for spring to walk the dog, and instead, got the backend of winter.

To celebrate spring, even if it is acting a bit shy and hard-to-get, I wanted to get you thinking about your spring reading list by telling you a little about my Double Barrel Mysteries series! {hint. hint} The first five books are available at all online bookstores and will bring you up-to-date on the goings-on in Port Scuttlebutt while you wait for the next addition to Blake and Shelby’s adventures.

ROADKILL (book one), despite its title, is full of mystery, romance, humor, and nail-biting suspense. Blake and Shelby Gunner are a young married couple thinking about buying a Bed & Breakfast in Blake’s hometown of Port Scuttlebutt when they get caught up in a cold case, the unsolved hit-and-run of a beloved local business woman.

With six previous years as a homicide detective in Minneapolis, Blake is fully qualified for the task. Shelby’s natural inquisitive mind and her dinner theatre acting chops make her more than perfect for the part of acting like an investigator. And so, together they are the hottest private investigation team in the Upper Peninsula!

Each book is a separate mystery/murder to be solved, but you will want to read them in order as the characters grow and learn and meet new people (persons of interest) in the quirky little port on Lake Superior.

If you’ve already read any of my Double Barrel books (or any other books in my list), please take a moment to leave a simple review at the online store where it was purchased. I would truly appreciate it. It helps my books to be seen more readily by other readers. The internet is a vast ocean and the little fish tend to get lost in the dark depths without a little help from their friends:)

Find all my books by clicking the bookstore link on this page. It will take you to your preferred store.

Thanks for stopping and have a beautiful spring!

Barbara

Barbara is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels,
the Double Barrel Mysteries, the Second Chances series, and more. She lives in Minnesota because she can’t afford Hawaii.
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