Betsy Horvath

Category: Books

  • New Releases!!!

    Hello, everyone!  It’s been a very busy couple of weeks here at the Palatial Horvath Estate, but I’m delighted to let you all know that the next TWO books in the Hardy Falls series are out and available now!!!

    First, Trusting Love – Welcome to Hardy Falls book 2


    Her life is falling apart. He doesn’t want any complications. Obviously, they’re a match made in heaven.

    Josie Kline used to think she had things under control. That was before she got laid off from her job, kicked out of her apartment, and found herself driving through the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in the middle of a surprise blizzard.

    When she slides, literally, into the Country Time Bar and Grill, she discovers not only a haven from the storm but new purpose—helping to save her hometown’s landmark business from financial ruin. Now, if she could stop thinking about Mateo Guerrero, the darkly handsome, yet incongruous dishwasher, everything would be great. Doesn’t she have enough problems?

    Mat is still surprised to find himself working as a dishwasher/bartender in Hardy Falls after leaving a broken relationship behind in Texas. The last thing he wants to do is get involved with a beautiful stranger who blew in with the storm and stayed to be a thorn in his side. Josie has trouble written all over her, and Mat refuses to risk his heart again. Too bad she’s as enticing as she is annoying.

    Once Josie and Mat succumb to their overwhelming attraction, it’s supposed to be a casual, short-term fling. But the deeper they get, the harder it becomes for either of them to walk away. Then, just as everything looks like it might work out, the ghosts of Mat’s past raise their heads, jeopardizing any future he and Josie may have together—and any hope they have for a lasting love.

    Welcome to Hardy Falls, Pennsylvania, where sometimes love can pave the way for a new beginning—as long as you’re brave enough to accept the challenge.

    Click here to read the first chapter.

    Available at:

    Amazon   |   Nook   |   iBooks   |   Kobo

     

    And also available is Expecting Love – Welcome to Hardy Falls book 2.5 (this is a novella, so it’s shorter)

    Two couples just starting out. Two life-changing surprises. Sometimes love gives you more than you bargained for.

    Hannah Frederickson always thought the only family she’d have would be the people working for her at the Country Time Bar and Grill. She’s thrilled when, just a few months after realizing her bartender, Deacon Black, is also the man of her dreams, she learns her life is about to change yet again. But why isn’t Deacon as delighted as she is about the news? Didn’t he want this to happen?

    June Esperanza has been taking care of herself for a heck of a lot longer than she’s been employed at the Country Time. She’s not about to stop now, not even after finding a second chance at love with Calvin Hardy. Then June discovers she does not have a stomach bug, and everything changes. When it comes down to it, can she count on Calvin? Or will she have to deal with this the way she’s handled everything else in her life—alone?

    As Christmas draws near in the town of Hardy Falls, two couples grapple with the unexpected. Will Deacon embrace Hannah and their new adventure or let his fear and doubt rip them apart? Will June finally bring Calvin into the center of her life or push him even further away? Are any of them ready to face the challenges ahead?

    Welcome to Hardy Falls, Pennsylvania, where love can take turns you didn’t see coming. Better just hold on for the ride.

    Click here to read an excerpt.

    Available at:

    Amazon   |   Nook   |   iBooks   |   Kobo

     

    They’re out!  The ebooks are flying free!  And they’re available everywhere!

    Well, okay, they’re not live on Nook yet, but that’s only because Nook is the bane of my existence and is taking longer than a geriatric sloth to complete their processing.  I didn’t want to keep holding up this post waiting for them since God only knows how much longer it will take.  [Updated 12/29/17 – the Nook publishing process FINALLY finished, so the books are all up on Nook now, too]  I also have to figure out how to publish on Google Play, which looks like it will be a real treat (sarcasm).  Paperbacks are in process and will be available soon – I’ll let you know when they are available.

    PS – Handling Love and Believing Love are once again available everywhere and are no longer exclusive to Amazon. In case anyone is interested.

    PPS – if you happen to read the books, please consider leaving an honest review on any of the stores or on Goodreads.  Your reviews help other people find the books and are very important.  I’m grateful for every one my books receive. (I really am).

    One day, I’ll get my act together and figure out how to release and launch a book.  But it appears that today will not be that day. Ah, well.  Mistakes were made, but lessons were learned.  And that’s all we can ever hope for.

    Most importantly…the books are out.

    Now, I’ll get back to writing the next one.

    And figuring out Google Play.

    But maybe I’ll dress the cats up in party hats first.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Cover Reveal, Revised Titles, and Other Updates

    Hello, my friends!  I’m so excited to share the cover for my new book, which will be coming out soon.  Here it is!

    Now, you may ask me WHEN it is coming out, and at this point, I can’t set an actual date, but it will be by Christmas unless something really goes wrong.  But since things DO go wrong, and planning, they name is Betsy, I can only say it will be soon.  How soon is soon?  Hmmmm…..

    Some day I’ll get this whole timing thing u9nder control.  Some day…. Hope springeth eternal.

    In the meantime, here’s the blurb –

    Her life is falling apart. He doesn’t want any complications. Obviously, they’re a match made in heaven.

    Josie Kline used to think she had things under control. That was before she got laid off from her job, kicked out of her apartment, and found herself driving through the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in the middle of a surprise blizzard.

    When she slides, literally, into the Country Time Bar and Grill, she discovers not only a haven from the storm but new purpose—helping to save her hometown’s landmark business from financial ruin. Now, if she could stop thinking about Mateo Guerrero, the darkly handsome, yet incongruous dishwasher, everything would be great. Doesn’t she have enough problems? 

    Mat is still surprised to find himself working as a dishwasher/bartender in Hardy Falls after leaving a broken relationship behind in Texas. The last thing he wants to do is get involved with a beautiful stranger who blew in with the storm and stayed to be a thorn in his side. Josie has trouble written all over her, and Mat refuses to risk his heart again. Too bad she’s as enticing as she is annoying.

    When Josie and Mat finally succumb to their overwhelming attraction, it’s supposed to be a casual, short-term fling. But the deeper they get, the harder it becomes for either of them to walk away. Then, just as everything looks like it might work out, the ghosts of Mat’s past raise their heads, jeopardizing any future he and Josie may have together—and any hope they have for a lasting love. 

    If you enjoy sassy heroines, sizzling heroes, and smart, sexy, small-town romance, you’ll love Trusting Love and the rest of Betsy Horvath’s Welcome to Hardy Falls series.

    For those of you who are subscribers to my newsletter, you already saw a version of the cover and the blurb when you had the chance to read the unedited first chapter.  You may notice something is different now – and that’s the title!!  Oh, and the blurb changed too, but that’s always a work in progress.  The title change is a bigger deal.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I somehow decided that I should change the titles for my books.  And thus Believing It has become Believing Love.  And lo, Handling It hath become Handling Love.  And verily the book formerly known as Beginning It has been transformed thusly into Trusting Love.

    The books already published have gotten revised covers (see below) and new descriptions which will be migrating to the website and Amazon as soon as possible.  Changing titles isn’t unheard of, but it does cause a lot of work, so I’m plowing through it.  I expect the changes to be in place everywhere soon.  (there’s that “soon” word again…)  Oh, and I’ll be adding the info for Trusting Love, too.

    Now why, you may ask, did I bother changing the titles if it would cause extra work and add extra expense from having the covers revised?

    Well, I did it because I wanted to place this series firmly in the romance category.  I don’t want there to be any doubt what these books are.  If you are looking at a list of my books, I want you to say “those are romance”, even if the covers aren’t with them.  I also like that “love” is a softer word than “it” and not as ambiguous.

    So, I’m thinking it was a good decision, but I’ve been wrong before.  Only time will tell!  I am sure that if I wanted to make a title change, this was the time to do it.  The two books that are out already are not, shall we say, best sellers, and it was much better to change them before the next two books come out.

    Yes, I did say TWO books were coming out.  A short novella, Expecting Love, is being finalized and I hope it will be available by the end of the year as well unless it turns out to be complete, um, poo-poo and not worthy to see the light of day.  I don’t have a cover for it yet, but I’ll share it when I do.

    In addition, I’ve started the first draft for the next book in the series, and I’m revisiting a story I’d been writing earlier this year to see if it’s worth giving to the newsletter subs.  And I have to up my newsletter game.  Oh, and update and streamline the book page here.  In other words, there’s an awful lot going on!   What am I, nuts?  (the answer’s “yes”)  All that means the rest of the year is going to be crazy, so blog posts may be a bit sporadic for a little while until the books are released.

    And, thus, while I can, I wanted to take this time to wish all of you a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (just a little bit early)  I have a lot to be thankful for this year – and I’m especially thankful for all of you who have joined me on this crazy journey and tolerated my meandering ways.

    So….thank you and Happy Thanksgiving, no matter where in the world you live!

    Here are the three books together – soon to be four!  I hope!

          

  • Imagination

    Computer ReadingBaby, I might not have a lot, but I’ve got me one good imagination.

    For the most part, this stands me in good stead.  Imagination lets me inhabit the heads of different people in different places when I write, but there’s more to it than that.  Imagination is what lets you see beyond what’s there in front of you to what it could be.  It’s what let me look at a piece of jewelry and realize the clasp would make a perfect deadbolt for the door in my miniature room.   It lets me look at my mother’s garage and envision it as a studio apartment (although, thank God, that probably won’t have to happen).  It lets me look around my house and see it as it could be – see the Palatial Horvath Estate spread out before me.

    Sure, there are problems sometimes.  I sometimes forget that what I see in potential is not, in fact, the reality.  And sometimes imagination can take me on a wee bit of a downward spiral – as witnessed this afternoon by my mild panic attack regarding the leak in my roof and its possible consequences.

    But for the most part, imagination is where it’s at, in my opinion.

    And this is the biggest gripe I have with our extremely video oriented culture.  It codifys imagination and puts it in a straight-jacket.

    Books can codify imagination too, to a certain extent.  Unless you are in a “choose your own adventure” novel, you are limited to the plot and characters the author has created.  But within that, you have freedom.  I tell you that Katie, in my book Hold Me, has curly red hair and freckles, but you are free to imagine how she actually looks.  You can picture her as Minnie Driver, or Debra Messing, or anyone else, or no one at all.  You build her image in your own mind – and your Katie probably looks a lot different than my Katie (although I’ll bet neither of them look anything like the book cover model – LOL).

    With video, you know what the character looks like.  Iron Man is Robert Downey, Jr.  Captain Jack Sparrow is Johnny Depp.  You immediately know what those characters look like because there is a person who played that role, and that person looks a certain way, and that image has been accepted by the culture.  You did not have to create their image yourself.

    In fact, you don’t have to do much of anything yourself with video.  You participate in books.  You live the plot of the book in your mind along with the characters – even when the book is an audio book.  In other entertainment medium, you are often just an observer.  You sit and take it in, big eyes blinking at the screen, but your mind is not actively involved.

    That’s a problem.  If you are just a sponge taking in information with no need for action on your part, your brain will turn into a large gray rock.  You need to use your imagination to keep it alive and well – the world needs more imagination, not less.  We need to be able to see and create for ourselves – not just absorb what we’re being told.

    I guess what I’m saying is, go on out there and read a book.

    DO IT!

    PS – If you take a look below, you’ll notice I’m ending a post about reading by linking to a video.  Want to make something of it? LOL Hey, I just love the song. But I did have a point here. When I read “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as a kid, I did not envision the chocolate room or Willy Wonka this way. After seeing the movie, when I think of Willy, I think of Gene Wilder (sorry Johnny Depp). I accepted that image and internalized it. Now I don’t imagine Willy Wonka anymore. And that’s too bad.

     
    [tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-uV72pQKI[/tube]
     

     

  • Strangled By Books

    BOOKS!I haven’t had time to blog this past week because I’ve started to sell books. I don’t mean I’ve become a bookseller. I mean I’ve started to sell my own books.

    I had a lot of books. A LOT of books. At the time HOLD ME was published, one of the fun facts I gave the publisher was that I had well over 3000 books. Since then, the number, um, swelled.

    A LOT of books.

    I love books. Freaking love them. I think every house should have lots and lots of books. If I get interested in a subject or latch onto a new author, I purchase EVERYTHING I can find about that subject or from that author.

    That’s not necessarily bad, but my acquisition of books had gone well beyond the point where it was healthy. I can’t tell you how much credit card debt I’ve acquired from purchasing books and e-books. I’m a publisher’s dream. I distinctly remember a time when Amazon was delivering boxes to my house EVERY DAY. Once sanity raised its head, I found I had charged well over a thousand dollars for books. And don’t even get me started on Kindle’s One Click purchasing system…

    The worst part was, I didn’t always READ the books I bought. Don’t get me wrong – I always wanted to read them, I always intended to read them. And I kept them because I told myself I would read them. Someday. Besides, what if I needed them?

    I want to be clear here – collecting books – even books you don’t read – is not a bad thing. But for ME and in MY circumstances, it wasn’t good anymore.

    A few weeks ago, I had one of those dreams. I dreamt I was struggling to walk down a road, but I could hardly move because I was weighed down by my books. They were strangling me. When I woke up, the dream clear in my mind, I realized I had begun to think of my books as a burden instead of a joy.

    After thinking some more, I saw that I thought owning a lot of books meant I was happy. If I wasn’t happy, I just needed to buy more books to become happy again. I had tied my happy to books.

    Now, I know books CAN make you happy. If you read them, and they work their magic in you, they are wonderful. But if you just own them and give them space in your house, if you resent them because purchasing them has put you in more debt, then they don’t make you happy any more.

    I also realized I’ve held onto books simply because people have mocked me for owning a lot of books. They haven’t understood the importance books have in my life. So part of it was stubborn pride on my part.

    But you can’t let the things you own strangle you just because of stubborn pride.

    So I’ve started to sell my books. Not all of my books – NEVER all of my books – but the books I owned for the sake of owning a lot of books. So far I’ve gone through my hundreds and hundreds of reference, literary and various scholarly-type books. I’ve even made money from them (thank you, book buyback sites) and what I couldn’t sell I’ve been able to donate. I haven’t really touched the paperbacks yet, but I’m making progress.

    The books left on my shelves mean something to me now. They aren’t just owned.

    It’s so easy to think that you have to hold onto something without considering why you’re doing it. It’s so easy to get to a place where we work to support our possessions because we think we need them to be happy.

    But sheer quantity of possessions – even books – can’t make us happy.

    And lifting all of the boxes of books to ship or donate them sure has built up my muscles! Here – let me flex for you.

    FLEX!

  • Be Careful What You Give Up

    readingI know not everyone will relate to this, but I’ve made it a practice to give up things for Lent.  Every year I pick one or two things I consider to be important, and try to give them up for the seven weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter.  I’ve done this for years, with varying degrees of success.

    This year, I had the bright idea to give up fiction.  For seven weeks, I would give up all fiction but my own.  Books, television, audio books…all fiction.

    First, let me say I didn’t give up fiction because I consider it to be bad.  Quite the contrary.  I knew I loved fiction so much it was going to be a real sacrifice.  And I’ll admit I was hoping the “fast” would force me to focus on my writing.

    I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

    To be honest, it’s been an interesting experience.  I don’t think I ever really understood how vital fiction was in my life.  That was pretty stupid.  After all, fiction is what I do.  Not only do I write, but I read constantly – fiction – and listen to audio books – also fiction.  If I watch television (which I don’t do too often), I’m usually watching movies.  Fiction, fiction everywhere.

    Over the past few weeks, I’ve still been reading and listening to audio books, but I’ve confined myself strictly to non-fiction.  For the most part I’ve stuck with history, books on writing, and spiritual/self-improvement-y type stuff.

    I knew I used fiction as a way to escape after dealing with the usual crap all day.  I didn’t realize it was essential for my mental stability.  I don’t think that’s bad.  Sometimes you just need to be swept up in lives that aren’t your own and taken away from what’s ailing you.  Most non-fiction doesn’t do that for me.  It’s too fact-oriented.  Plus, it really happened, so there’s no fantasy.

    I was also surprised to realize how much I learn from fiction.  To be honest, I’m feeling kind of browbeaten by my strict diet of non-fiction.  Everyone is so serious and…certain. 

    Fiction tends to teach you more obliquely.  See this person?  See what they’re doing?  Let’s watch and see what happens to them…

    Now, don’t get me wrong.  Non-fiction is awesome.  But I’m more than ready to have my fiction back too.  I need the balance it brings me.

    I guess my point is – be careful what you give up.  You never know how important it is to you until it’s gone.

    Can someone read a novel and let me smell your fiction breath?

     PileOBooks

  • Audio Books

    audioWhen my sister and I were little, my mother used to read us books almost every night.  I especially loved it when she acted out all the parts.  She made up a song for “The Best Nest” that still haunts me, lo these many years later.

    That’s probably one reason I love audio books so much.  It takes me back to when I was a little girl and my mom was reading (or singing) to us before bedtime.

    I didn’t start listening to audio books until after I read Stephen King’s “On Writing”.  He said that many of the books he read each year were audio books and I thought – “Hey!  That’s a good idea.”  I started checking them out of the library, and I was hooked.  Now, between my Audible account and other direct download sources, my iPod is jammed packed full of audio goodness.

    There are several other reasons why I think audio books are wonderful.  For one thing, listening to them means that you can read while you are doing other things.  With the way my life goes, that is a huge plus.  In fact, I have to say that most of my reading is done with audio books these days.  I listen to them in the car, at home, even at work, if the task permits.

    Another big advantage of audio books for me is that they force you to listen to every word.  When I read, I tend to skim in certain passages.  You don’t skim an audio book.  I’ve listened to books that I had already read, and realized I’d missed a great deal just because I was reading the paper book too quickly.

    As a writer, listening to audio books is good training for dialogue and pacing – the pop and snap of a story.  We are told to read our books out loud as we are writing them for just such a reason.  Listening gives you the music that is inside a book.

    In other words, I love me my audio books.  If you’ve never listened to one, why not turn off the radio or the television and give it a try?

    And if you see me wearing my headphones (earbuds hurt my ears), apparently laughing or crying for no good reason, you’ll know what I’m doing.  I’m reading a book!

     headphones