Author Archives: Barbara Raffin

A FEW JUDGING COMMENTS FOR SEEKING BLISS

 

From the Aspen Gold competition: I enjoyed the mistaken identity first meet and the plot twists about the gaming world that kept you guessing about what Robbie had gotten himself into.

I loved the beginning. Just too fun.

From The Write Touch Readers’ Award: “What a phenomenal read. Well written characters. A love story you could believe in. The heroine healing the hero. This one deserves to win.”

Seeking Bliss

I’m grateful for the readers who take the time to read, judge, and comment on my books.

NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT

Shape shifter of clone? Which has returned Rebecca Tierney’s husband’s body to her nine months after he was cremated? THE VISITOR searches an old Victorian house perched on the bluffs of Lake Superior for the key that will stop the dying among his kind. Rebecca Tierney has returned to her husband’s family home on the largest, deepest, coldest, and most unforgiving of the Great Lakes to dispose of his ashes.

But the old house holds more than memories of a love ended too soon and the promise of immortality. Its secrets can free Rebecca from her grief and teach a man of logic that love is worth more than eternal life…if only Rebecca can open her mind and THE VISITOR his heart.

Buy THE VISITOR in paperback or hard cover at

Written Dreams

Amazon

Or order from any book store

DIGITAL FORMAT coming in September

DEBUT EVENT FOR THE VISITOR

Wednesday night, Written Dreams Publishing sponsored an author signing at The Attic bookstore in Green Bay. First picture is of the attending authors. I’m front row center with the cover of my just released paranormal romance, THE VISITOR.

Written Dreams Publishing was represented by a diverse group of authors. Back row L to R: Lexi Jordan with her debut novel, a dystopian futuristic, RESURFACED. Evan Michael Martin, author of a series of Wiccan & Sorcery books. Katerine Nohr, author of courtroom mysteries. Nathan Huff with his soon to be released historical fantasy. Front row L to R: Mary Grace Murphy, author of culinary mystery DEATH NOSH. Myself, Barbara Raffin, with the cover of my just released paranormal, THE VISITOR, and Gail F. Meintzer with his memoirs, DETOURS: A Memoir of a Railroad Man.

WRITTEN DREAMS PUBLISHING is making its mark as a publishing house unafraid of putting out unusual stories of exceptional quality. Of notable interest, Lexi Jordan, back row left, is a mere sixteen. Look for her distopian futuristic, RESURFACED, this fall.

Picture two: L to R: Brittiany Koren, owner/editor of WRITTEN DREAMS PUBLISHING & me, Barbara Raffin

Picture three includes the Publisher Koren and her WD staff of interior designer, copy editor, and cover artist.

 

PRE-ORDER THE VISITOR

Pre-order THE VISITOR from Written Dream Publishing
http://writtendreams.com/store/…

Nine months after he’s been cremated, Rebecca Tierney’s husband shows up in her living room…naked.

NEW COVER REVEAL

I’m so excited to share the cover of my upcoming release, THE VISITOR. Watch for release information later this summer from me and/or my publisher, Written Dreams Publishing.

Shape shifter or clone? Which has returned Rebecca Tierney’s husband’s body to her nine months after he was cremated?

Rebecca has returned to her husband’s family home on the largest, deepest, coldest, and most unforgiving of the Great Lakes, Superior, to dispose of his ashes. But the old house holds more than memories of a love ended too soon. A Visitor searches the old Victorian house perched on the bluffs of a lake that never gives up its dead for the key that will stop the dying in his world.

The secrets of the house cloistered from the world by towering pines and iron rich bluffs in an isolated finger of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula can free Rebecca from her grief and teach a man of logic that love is worth more than eternal life…if only she will open her mind and he his heart.

SAVING ANDI A WINNER!

Okay, it’s not new news. I posted about SAVING ANDI winning the Write Touch Readers’ Award when I was notified. I even posted a pic of my local Wisconsin Romance Writers of America group giving me a dozen red roses. But the celebration continued at the WisRWA conference May 19-20. Check out the beautiful plaque I got!

WHERE DID I GET THE IDEA TO WRITE SAVING ANDI?

Saving AndiSince winning the Write Touch Readers Award with SAVING ANDI, I’ve been thinking maybe you’d like to know what prompted me to write this romantic suspense.

It started with Andi Johanson making an appearance in CRAVING A HERO. She’s the character who plows out Kelly’s family camp when Kelly and Dane get snowed in (don’t get me started on the bombshell that forced togetherness exposed) and later for their Valentine Day winter wedding.

Initially, Andi was a guy with a different that was going to make a walk on and never be heard from again. But this young woman living hand to mouth reached out from the back of my brain and I knew SHE was supposed to be driving that beat up old truck with the plow. When Andi let me see into her past–see what a hard childhood she’d had, I knew she had a story that needed to be told.

In my last blog post about SAVING ANDI, I mentioned Andi’s rough childhood. Cruel is a more appropriate adjective what with an alcoholic father who viewed women as little more than chattel to do his bidding and an older brother following in his path. Her mother’s premature death left Andi to take on the household duties and to mother her younger brother. Put them all in an isolated cabin on a wooded lake living hand to mouth because Dad couldn’t hold down a job and you have a recipe for everything from poaching to outright burglary.

This is the environment that shaped Andi, the only saving grace her need to protect her younger brother—to see him free of the harshness of their lives. Her mother had instilled at least that much integrity in her before she died.

But a drug addicted older brother, a protective young brother, and the law all came together to one fateful afternoon, shattering the one hope she had in life; that her baby brother could escape their wretched life. It left her with the burden of guilt and a big distaste for cops.

A year and a half with her baby brother dead and big brother in prison, Andi has given up on life–hope…until she finds Cole McCall, a man with a bullet hole in him and no memory. Prime for a dangerous liaison, she takes him in, nurses him back to health, and hides him from the authorities. Too bad whoever wants Cole dead are still tracking him.

Find SAVING ANDI at most online book sellers, including:

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

iTunes 

 

SAVING ANDI WINS WRITE TOUCH READERS’ AWARD!

Having been a finalist in this prestigious competition in the past, I am thrilled to win with SAVING ANDI. This Romantic Suspense  is the first of my new spin-off series, St. John Sibling: FRIENDS. That my Great Green Bay Area Wisconsin Romance Writers of America group would honor me with a beautiful bouquet of roses puts me over the moon. Big THANK YOU to my fellow writers for your thoughtfulness. Having a community of fellow writers to share the good times with is priceless. And thank you to all of you readers who judged SAVING ANDI in THE WRITE TOUCH READERS’ AWARD CONTEST and found it worthy.


For those of you who haven’t enjoyed reading SAVING ANDI yet, let me share a little about the story and its characters:

Cole McCall is shot, dives off a bluff, and hits his head. Now he has amnesia and can’t remember who wants him dead or why. He doesn’t even know which side of the law he operates on.

Fortunately for him, Andi Johanson finds him at the camp he’s broken into. Given her family history of being on the wrong side of the law, her distrust of lawmen, and a guilt she carries over her younger brother’s death, she takes Cole home rather than to a hospital and nurses him.

All that togetherness feeds their attraction to each other. But their love is jeopardized by his unknown past, her secrets, and the fact whoever wants Cole dead has tracked him to Andi’s cabin.

CHECK my FB author page for snippets about what inspired me to write this story and what shaped these characters.

VISIT MY WEB SITE to read excerpts from all my books and learn more about me. Dog lovers, there’s a surprise waiting there for you. But above all know this about me. I love to write romances that will make you laugh and cry.

BUY “SAVING ANDI” from most online stores including: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, D2D, and Apple iBooks

 

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Includes my SEEKING BLISS, book 4 in the St. John Sibling Series. Get it at this BARGAIN PRICE.

Limited Edition Boxed Set––Grab your copy today before it’s gone!

 

FIND US FEATURED AT KOBO UNTIL JUNE 19TH

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NEW RELEASE FOR THE ST. JOHN SIBLING SERIES!

Award-Winning author Barbara Raffin offers book 4 in the St. John Sibling Series: SEKING BLISS

Barbara_SeekingBliss

Bliss O’Hara poured all her love  into raising her orphaned brother and the romance novels she wrote. Now that her brother’s an adult and gone, why isn’t she looking for Mr. Right? Because the perfect man for her might just be a creation of her imagination, the hero she penned to life in her crossover action-adventure series. He’s not real…until the flesh and blood image of her fictional hero strides off the pages of her novel and onto a television talk show set during an interview.

Former Navy SEAL Jake St. John, the eldest of the St. John siblings, runs a high risk security firm out of Mexico. He’s livid someone is putting him and his men at risk by detailing their missions in a novel.  Searching out the author leads him to Bliss O’Hara. Turns out the source of Bliss’ research has been her brother…who works for Jake as his computer guru, and the kid knows too much. But now he’s missing.

Add kidnapping, the Illuminati, on-line gaming, and a foreign setting and you get a wild ride of gunfights, intrigue, and sexual tension. Most of all, working with Bliss to get them all out of danger forces Jake to face he’s more than the weapon SEAL training has made of him.

REVIEW QUOTE:  “Barbara Raffin has a way of breathing life into her characters, making them seem so real, loveable, and humanly flawed.”  Valerie J. Clarizio, author of the Nick Spinelli Mystery series

Seeking Bliss: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FCDHSFE
B&N http://bit.ly/1NpwJL8
iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1112166678
KOBO https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/seeking-bliss#_=_
Page Foundry/inktera http://bit.ly/1Wqlm9c
Scribd http://bit.ly/1TbogKO
Draft 2 Digital https://www.draft2digital.com/book/166803