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Barbara Ellen Brink

Barbara's Thin Line Between Truth & Fiction

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BarbaraEllenBrink

Stranger than an anorexic pug…

November 20, 2019 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Image from Pixaby

We’ve all seen the news. Or, as it should be called, the shifting sands of opinion. Everything looks pretty bad from the comfort of our reclining chairs in front of our entertainment systems and laptops. News Opinionators disagree and then have shouting matches around a cozy table with coffee mugs at hand, until the camera cuts away for a commercial about Google Home, a device that listens to everything you say, and unlike your spouse, even responds.

Does anyone else feel as though they’ve fallen into a black and white scifi movie? The end of all things as we know it. People shouting in the gray streets, “we’re doomed!” while the rest of society lives in oblivion in their bubbles of ignorance surrounded by giant screens that turn on as they move from room to room telling them what they should believe.

On the bright side, unless its been cancelled, there is that Facebook show with Mike Rowe called, Returning the Favor, where he goes around the country looking for people giving back to their communities in a special way. It’s a great, uplifting production that focuses on the good people do for others. Running a soup kitchen, fixing and giving away cars, helping veterans, etc. Sort of like living out those words that President John F Kennedy spoke so many years ago. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can….” Oh, never mind. That history has probably been rewritten.

Of course, the shouting heads don’t want to find such stories. They’re too busy pointing fingers at people with differing viewpoints and calling names, all while copy and pasting their next story from the pre-approved alternative lifestyle political nonsense forum. It’s how they make their big salaries. American propaganda is at an all time high. But we’re too busy checking social media threads of insanity to notice.

It would be nice to hear good news once in a while. Something to start our day with a smile instead of a grimace. I’m sure the police have helped many more people than they’ve shot, but those feel good stories rarely reach us, because heaven-forbid we give the men and women in blue a pat on the back for serving our communities! It’s much easier to get eyes on a headline that accuses someone without first proving the facts. And then dropping it without explanation when it turns out to be completely skewed. The television equivalent of newspapers hiding apologies for their mistakes on the back page. In real journalism, fact checking isn’t just for typos.

Sadly, journalists have gone the way of the Dodo. Now they just throw out some accusations and move on to the next hot topic like a bunch of brainless twits on a morning talk show.

On the other hand, if some big Hollywood star is caught cheating on their taxes, hiring illegals for cheap labor, getting arrested on drug charges, lewd behavior, or messing around with their best friend’s wife and/or husband, the unbiased media chooses to focus on what an awesome, caring individual they are because they profess to love dogs and adopt an anorexic Pug from a shelter.

Now that’s newsworthy! Feel good right there.

Next!

~~~

Barbara is an award winning author, wife, mom, and now grandmother to a beautiful little girl. She enjoys weekend motorcycle trips, spending time with family and friends, and catching up on all the books and movies she misses when she’s busy writing.

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Spring Fever Book promo/kindleFire Giveaway! Day #1

February 28, 2018 By Barbara 16 Comments

10 days of Spring Fever is coming your way!

Discover great deals on books for the next 10 days! Stories of redemption and grace, romance and mystery, and much more! Stories that will take your mind off the bitter cold and long, dark days of winter until the thaw has begun and spring has really sprung!

With 10 Christian fiction authors involved, you have 10 chances to win awesome prizes!

First up on the Spring Fever docket is ME: Barbara Ellen Brink! If you love mystery or suspense with a touch of romance, you’ll want to pick up today’s deals:

 

Here is a little about Barbara’s two book deals:

Running Home is free at Amazon thru March 2nd (reg price 3.99)

In Running Home, Ivy’s husband disappears in a cloud of suspicion and leaves her and the children to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on without him. Back in her hometown she dreams that everything will be better. She can start over and hopefully not make the same mistakes she made in the past.

But her philandering husband left her with more than bills to pay and children to raise. He left her in a world of trouble. The FBI thinks she knows something and the bad guys think she has something.

When her husband is found murdered, special agent Samson Sinclair is assigned to keep an eye on her. He’s willing to take a bullet for her, but can she trust him with her heart?

Ivy’s attempt to assemble the broken pieces of her life is proving harder than she anticipated. Will her husband’s secrets push her over the edge or into the arms of grace?

Split Sense is a Christian thriller that interweaves the lives of two families, twins separated at birth, and two different but unbelievable gifts that each child discovers which impacts their lives and others in startling ways.

Connect with Barbara online:

Facebook

Twitter

Bookbub Author Page

Author webpage

Split Sense is on sale for .99¢ at all online stores thru March 5th (reg. price 4.99)

The 3rd book in the Second Chances series will be (fingers crossed) coming soon! Barbara’s first grandbaby is due to arrive in a couple of weeks, so she won’t make any set-in-stone promises, but visit her webpage and/or sign up for her newsletter for all the newest updates!

*Sign up for Barbara’s newsletter on her webpage and also get a free copy of Entangled!

Enter the Rafflecopter now for your chance to win! a Rafflecopter giveaway
~For another chance to win, the secret word of the day is… blatherskite.~

Be sure to check in tomorrow for the giveaway as we meet author Brenda S. Anderson! A link to all the authors and all the ways to enter for the next 10 days> HERE 

 

Barbara Ellen Brink is an award-winning author of action-packed mysteries brimming with suspense and interweaved with a thread of romance. She grew up on a small fruit farm in Washington State, but now lives in the mean “burbs” of Minnesota. In her spare time, she likes to take her motorcycle for a spin, hang out with friends, or go hiking with her husband and their spoiled dog.

She is currently working on the 4th book in her Double Barrel Mysteries series and the 3rd in her Christian romantic suspense series, Second Chances.

 

 

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Clean Indie Reads Fall Sale!

October 4, 2014 By Barbara 2 Comments

 

CleanIndieREadsFallSale                                                           OCTOBER 5TH-11TH

LEAVES ARE FALLING AND SO ARE PRICES!

IMG_0319

This week DOZENS of great BOOKS, in many different genres, ARE ON SALE at LOW, LOW, LOW PRICES!

HOW low WILL THEY GO???

FREE                     $1.99               FREE                       #3.99            99¢

99¢         FREE                       $2.99                       FREE                        $4.99!       99¢

RAKE UP A PILE OF BOOK BARGAINS AND GET READING!

Check out all the books and authors at the Clean Indie sale page: 

click here  —->  CLEAN INDIE READS FALL SALE  <—- click there

Four of my own books are included in the sale:

entangledcovertiny  Entangled (reg 2.99) .99¢

   RunningHometiny Running Home (reg. 2.99) .99¢

SplitSenseNewtiny Split Sense (reg. 4.99) .99¢

       Chosentiny  Chosen (reg. 2.99) FREE!

~~Thanks for stopping!~~

Barbara

Barbara Ellen Brink is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels, Split Sense (winner of the Grace Award), Running Home, Alias Raven Black, & The Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy.
Barbara Ellen Brink is the author of The Fredrickson Winery Novels, Split Sense (winner of the Grace Award), Running Home, Alias Raven Black, & The Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy.
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Revisiting Entangled

September 30, 2013 By Barbara Leave a Comment

In celebration of the release of the third Fredrickson Winery Novel this week, I’m revisiting the first two novels in the series. Today I have an excerpt for you from ENTANGLED. 

Enjoy! entangledfrontcover2013

Dreams of shadows hovering over me stole the restfulness from my sleep, and I woke still tired and irritable. I got up and moved about the room, admiring the view from my window, and taking a closer look at the artwork on the walls. In here too was an assortment of paintings, abstract and bold in composition, frightening in intensity. I didn’t like them and blamed the room’s heightened atmosphere for my less than adequate nap. I promised myself that I would take them down and store them in the back of the closet before I slept in here again.

I stole into my mother’s room and saw that she was still sleeping, a little mascara smudged beneath her eyes, but her hair quite perfect in its protective shell of spray. Mother was one of those people who always woke fresh as a spring flower, happy and talkative. When I woke, no matter how long I slept or how still I lay, I always looked like Attila the Hun after a night of pillaging and mayhem.

The sound of a child singing wafted through the open window, and I tiptoed past the bed where Mother slept to lift a slat of the closed blinds and peer out. Our rooms were situated at the back of the house where the view of the vineyards was obscured by dozens of full-grown oak, redwood, and eucalyptus trees. A small boy of about six was sitting in a tire swing, suspended from the branch of a tall oak. He pushed his bare feet against the ground for momentum as he sang at the top of his voice.

“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys…”

I watched him for a moment, a smile on my lips, as he swung higher and higher, his voice floating up into the branches of the trees. Suddenly I felt a shiver run down my spine as the scene changed and I imagined myself as a little girl sitting in that tire, swinging back and forth, back and forth, like the pendulum on a clock, unable to stop or get off.

I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. What was wrong with me? I wasn’t remembering this place, that swing, the week I spent here as a child. I blew out a breath of exasperation, realizing my imagination was working overtime. My father had hung a tire from a large maple tree in our yard in Minneapolis when I was seven. That’s what I remembered. I’d fallen out of the thing one time and broke my arm. I turned away from the window and silently exited into the hall, closing the door behind me.

Exploring the house alone was like rummaging through a stranger’s underwear drawer. I felt strangely voyeuristic. I knew it would all belong to me eventually, once the paperwork went through, but I didn’t necessarily relish the idea. Inheriting “holdings” was one thing, but becoming the proud owner of someone else’s toilet brush, kitchenware, and music collection was quite another. I made a mental note to schedule a yard sale as soon as possible.

The kitchen door opened into the backyard, and I went out in search of the boy. Was he one of the field worker’s sons or a neighbor child wandering aimlessly, looking for entertainment in the long afternoon? I followed a path of stepping-stones through the trees to the back section of the house where I’d seen him swinging. The tire hung empty now, but still moved gently with the breeze as though a ghostly hand were in control. I stood there a moment, straining for the sound of his voice in the distance, but there was nothing but the creak of the branches above me and the rattle of leaves in the wind.

I walked toward the front of the house, following the flagstone path back past the kitchen windows and on around to the garage. Rose bushes climbed a trellis along the outside wall, reaching for the sun, their blooms a deep, startling red against the pale brick. I picked one and held it beneath my nose, breathing in the heavy, sweet fragrance that I loved, enjoying the touch of the delicate petals against my skin.

“I see you’re making yourself at home.”

Handel’s caustic voice brought me out of my mellow mood and straight into defensive mode. “You startled me.”

“Sorry,” he said, stepping closer. He’d changed clothes at some point. Now wearing khaki slacks, a pale blue polo shirt, and a dark blue sport-jacket, his hair combed straight back from his forehead; he looked like a model for a sailing magazine. “Did you find everything to your satisfaction?” he asked.

I met his gaze, my eyes narrowed against the setting sun, and nodded politely the way I’d been raised to. My mother would be so proud. “Yes, thank you.”

“Well, if you and your mother are interested I could give you a tour of the winery before dinner.”

“My mother is sleeping. Traveling always wears her out. But I’d be interested, if it’s not a bother,” I said, giving him my brightest smile. Perhaps the old adage was true, you caught more flies with honey. Not that I wanted to catch him. I just wanted to be treated with respect, and ironically, also admired for my long legs.

“No bother. Most of the employees have gone for the evening. You won’t be in the way now,” he said, as though my presence earlier would have set back wine production indefinitely. “Shall we go?”

I breathed in the heady fragrance of the rose bushes once more before following Handel Parker toward the winery.

~~~

Purchase links for Amazon: ENTANGLED  CRUSHED  SAVOR

Purchase links for Barnes & Noble: ENTANGLED  CRUSHED  SAVOR

Available at most online stores

There is also a Goodreads giveaway going on right now! Enter for your chance to win a paperback of SAVOR

~~~

Thanks for stopping!

Barbara

Barbara is the author of the Fredrickson Winery novels, Entangled, Crushed & Savor, the award winning thriller, Split Sense, and Christian suspense novels, Running Home and Alias Raven Black. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and two lovable mutts.
Barbara is the author of the Fredrickson Winery novels, Entangled, Crushed & Savor, the award winning thriller, Split Sense, and Christian suspense novels, Running Home and Alias Raven Black. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and two lovable mutts.

 

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Reunited and it feels so good!

July 21, 2013 By Barbara Leave a Comment

Separated for sixteen years by lies and murder, gifted twins find their destinies irrevocably linked. One feels the emotions and hears the thoughts of those around him, the other is a gifted musician with the ability to heal with her music. Together, nothing can stop them.

SSCovergreeneye72

SPLIT SENSE – ON SALE FOR KINDLE ONLY 99¢

ENJOY!

BARBARA

Barbara Ellen Brink is the author of Entangled, Crushed, Split Sense (winner of the Grace Award), Running Home, Alias Raven Black, & The Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy.
Barbara Ellen Brink is the author of Entangled, Crushed, Split Sense (winner of the Grace Award), Running Home, Alias Raven Black, & The Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy.
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Spring Fling Giveaway!

April 10, 2013 By Barbara 4 Comments

According to the calendar it is spring in some places in the world…just not necessarily where I live. IMG_1073

 

 

 

 

So, using your imagination, memory, or just by looking out the window, tell me what you love about spring!tulipsInChairSmall

 

The lucky winner will win a signed copy of SPLIT SENSE! frontcover

 

 

I will announce the winner on Friday afternoon, so don’t get left out in the cold.

Leave your spring comment for a chance to win!

Barbara

Barbara Ellen Brink is the author of Entangled, Crushed, Split Sense (winner of the Grace Award), Running Home, and Alias Raven Black.
Barbara Ellen Brink is the author of Entangled, Crushed, Split Sense (winner of the Grace Award), Running Home, Alias Raven Black, and the Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy.
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Split Sense

Split Sense

When a senator and pharmaceutical giant partner to experiment with a new drug on pregnant women, they tap into a world they never knew existed – the supernatural touching the natural – and it will cost the innocent more than they know. Grace Awards Winner!

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