Betsy Horvath

Category: HOLD ME

  • HOLD ME is live! Again!

    Well, I am both happy and relieved to let you know that, in between shoveling the massive amounts of snow falling on the Palatial Horvath Estate over the last week or two, I was able to set up everything I needed to re-release my first book, Hold Me.

    That’s right – the book that launched me on my author journey lives again! I actually got the rights for it back at the beginning of 2020, but then, well… 2020.

    But now it’s finally out again as an ebook and a paperback.  The ebook should be available on most stores as I write this post. The paperback takes longer to get into the system so it’s still percolating through. But soon it will be available for purchase, download, or order pretty much everywhere.

    If you already have the edition of this book that was originally published by Carina Press…. thank you!! I did scrub up the text a little bit, and changed the cover, but basically it’s the same book it was before.

    Here’s the information –

    Everything can change in an instant…

    Katie McCabe’s life might be stuck in idle these days, but she dreams of more. More love. More excitement. Just more.

    When FBI Special Agent Luc Vasco’s undercover assignment blows up in his face, he finds himself running for his life. Injured in the escape, Luc makes a decision that could change Katie’s world forever. And his own.

    Suddenly both Luc and Katie must deal with far more excitement than either of them ever expected.

    Just one moment sets the pair on the adventure of a lifetime, and a journey neither one could predict. In Hold Me, sizzling romantic suspense, sassy humor, and lots of heart combine in a non-stop race to love.

    Click HERE to read the first chapter

    Available Now

    Ebook

    Kindle  |  Nook  |  iBooks  |  Kobo  |  Google Play

    Paperback

    Amazon  |   coming soon to other retailers (it really is–I promise)

    There’s also an audiobook for this one because it was produced when it was originally published. Even though the rights have reverted back to me, the audiobook will still be available until the end of 2021. It doesn’t include any of the changes I just made, but, like I said, those changes were relatively minor, as far as I know.

    I honestly haven’t listened to it myself–it was too strange hearing someone else reading my words–so I can’t comment on production quality or anything like that. But I thought I’d mention it exists because it won’t be offered anymore once the contract ends. At least for now. Audiobooks aren’t exactly cheap to produce!  LOL

    Audible  |  iTunes  

    And, in case you couldn’t guess from the blurb, this book is a romantic suspense and it is not a part of my Welcome to Hardy Falls series… Yet!

    Now I just have to find my notes of how I thought I was going to continue the series… Hmmm…  But first–back to Hardy Falls!

    Anyway… hooray! Hold Me lives again! Woohoo!

    And, oh my glory, please make it stop snowing!!! And sleeting!!!! And icing!!!

    Be careful out there!

    You can get Betsy’s Blog by email by signing up HERE.! Or get the RSS feed

     

     

  • When Mom Read My Book

    Today is my mother’s 83rd birthday. It occurred to me recently that I don’t talk about my mother much here on the blog. If I’m talking about a parent, it tends to be my father. That might be because I’m in the throes of things with my mother, but I have the benefit of distance with my father.

    But I don’t want you to think that I don’t love her, because I do. And I don’t want you to think that she’s not an important part of my life, because she is.

    Mom is a huge reader, and when I was writing my book I knew that she would want to read it if it ever got published. The thought made me choke a little bit – I couldn’t go some of the places the characters were taking me because I kept picturing my mother reading it later. I mean, my book isn’t erotica or anything, but I was still shy about having my mother read sex scenes I’d written. It was a real problem until I metaphorically stuck my fingers in my ears, closed my eyes, and pretended nobody else would ever see it but me.

    Then my book got accepted by Carina Press. Hooray! Then my book came out and was available for sale. Hooray! And Mom wanted to read it. Ummm…. well…. okay….

    I thought I was safe because it was an digital book and she doesn’t have an e-reader. I made various excuses not to lend her my Kindle (well you know, Mom, I use my Kindle ALL the time...). I knew she wouldn’t want to listen to the audio book. Safety!

    Until one of her neighbors, who has a Kindle, told her that she had bought my book and liked it. She asked Mom if she wanted to borrow the Kindle and read it. And Mom, of course, said yes.

    Here’s the conversation we had when she told me she was going to read my book-

    Me: You know, Mom, there’s pretty much cursing in there.

    Mom: Oh, I know curse words.

    Me: And you know, there are, um, sex scenes.

    Mom: Oh, I know sex.

    AACK!!! TMI!

    So, Mom read the book and she really liked it. Well, that’s what she told me anyway. It happened that when she finished, I was a little down because I’d just gotten a rather nasty 1 star review on Audible. She said, “well I liked it. I would give it 5 stars. Okay, maybe 4 and a half.”

    Thanks Mom! LOL

    Ironically, she really liked the sex scenes. I’m glad she wasn’t bothered by them, although it does disturb me in a part of my soul I will not acknowledge to know that my mother enjoyed sex scenes I wrote. She didn’t especially like the foul potty-mouth language, but I warned her so she only has herself to blame there.

    And the advantage of the whole thing is that I’m not nearly so shy about writing whatever happens in the story now. I figure I’ve gotten the worst out of the way.

    She still doesn’t have an e-reader, but when HOLD ME gets printed for the direct to consumer program I’ll be able to give her a print copy of the book for her own. I’ll even autograph it for her.

    Dear Mom,

    Thanks for everything.

    Love, Betsy

    Happy Birthday, Mom!

     

  • A Post About The Book(s)

    This is just a quick post to keep you updated on the ebb and flow of my book life.

    First of all, I  have to mention that my romantic suspense novel, HOLD ME, is STILL available for sale at Carina Press,  Amazon, Barnes and Noble or pretty much anywhere you can buy e-books. It’s also available as an audio book from Audible. Just in case you were wondering.  No…no reason…

    For my Harlequin friends, I wanted to tell you that HOLD ME will be part of the Harlequin mystery and romantic suspense program in July or August (I’m not entirely sure which month). This is a direct to consumer program, which means that people who have subscribed receive a certain number of mystery and/or romantic suspense books per month. And mine’s going to be one of them!

    That’s really exciting. It means the book will be printed and made available to a whole new audience who would not necessarily purchase it as a digital book. I’ll get a few printed copies (and I’ll be able to give one to my mother), but it won’t be for sale as a print book in bookstores at this point.

    A few people have asked if I hope to write a sequel, and the answer is yes. I would like to write THRILL ME and KISS ME (shocking titles, no?) for a trilogy. There’s no guarantee they’d ever get published, but I’d still like to write them. The book on which I am currently working is NOT the sequel, because I wanted to work with different characters. Of course, now that I find out HOLD ME was picked up for this mystery and romantic suspense program thing, I kind of wish I’d started on the sequel right away so it would be ready to submit. Ah, well. The best laid plans…

    Once I have a break in my writing schedule, I’m going to update the Extras page with copies of some of the posts I wrote for other people’s blogs during my release week blog tour.  Hey, better late than never. I’ll also post more short stories (once I write them). I’m sure that Katie, Luc and Spot will feature prominently.

    Finally, I’d like to ask you a favor. If you’ve read HOLD ME, please consider ranking and/or reviewing it on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible or wherever you found it. When readers rank or review a book, it really does help word of mouth. I hope you enjoyed the book if you read it (obviously), but please be honest in your rankings and any comments you might want to make. Unless you’re my sister. Then you have to give it 5 stars.  I’m kidding. 5 1/2.

    So, that’s what’s going on! I’ll keep you updated as things develop.

    And now, back to our normally scheduled paranoia…

     

  • Random Notes

    These are a few random things I keep forgetting to tell you. You know how I am.

    First – to everyone who has read my book or wants to read my book, THANK YOU! Seriously. And thank you for your support and well-wishes. If you’ve, um, supported and well-wished me. LOL

    Next – to everyone who has taken the time to review my book on Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, or wherever, THANK YOU! I appreciate all of the trouble you’ve gone to. If you’ve read the book, and you feel the urge to review, the reviews really do help. And if you review, please, please be honest. Unless you’re my sister. Then you have to give me 5 stars. 😀

    That being said, I’m going to try not to read the reviews anymore. It’s not because some of them have been a little less than flattering. It’s because reading them is making me feel extremely self-conscious. Also, I don’t want to start thinking – “oh! I should write this because people like it” (or don’t like it).  I’ve gotta keep it real, man.

    Third – a lot of people have been asking me whether I’m working on something else. The answer is yes…and no.

    I have been working on another book – several in fact, but I haven’t been working on them very diligently over the last couple of months. There’s been some issues in my non-writer life, but even more importantly I needed to decide if I WANTED to write something else. After all, with the publication of Hold Me, I was mission accomplished as far as that project went. The book was written, published an released. BOOYAH!  Did I want to go through it again?

    If you’re not a writer, I’ll tell you that writing fiction – especially writing romance fiction – is kind of scary. You’re trying to be honest, so you’re making yourself vulnerable to anyone who reads what you’ve written. Plus it’s an awful lot of work. I had to decide if I wanted to take that on again. I think a lot of first-time published authors probably go through the same thought process. That’s why there are so many people who publish one book and then walk away (witness Harper Lee with To Kill A Mockingbird).

    But I’ve come to the conclusion that for me the answer is “yes”. I love writing and I’d really like to keep doing it. I want to write sequels to Hold Me, and I want to write other books. I want people to be able to read them. Now that the decision is made, and Hold Me has been released, I feel like I can finally move forward.

    On the other hand, I don’t think you’ll see a WIP page here on the blog, at least not until those WIP’s are close to a finished state. Up until now I’ve kind of been the mad writer locked up in her den. I think one of the things that’s weirding me out about the whole publishing thing is how much exposure there is, even for someone at the beginning of their career like me. So I’ll probably play it a little close to the vest for a while.

    Finally, regarding social media.  I am going to try to keep the blog at 3 times a week, at least for the near future. I’ll also continue to be active on Twitter and Facebook, but I don’t think I’ll be able to update or respond during the day any more, due to some other issues. I’m on Google Plus, but I’m not planning on being very active there unless Facebook changes make that a preferable platform.

    So, there you go. Just a few notes in case you care. Tune in Tuesday as we resume our normally scheduled blogging program. 😀

     

  • Release Week Reflections

    As you may have guessed from this blog post, release week made me a little manic. There has just been so much to do, so many people to talk to, so many comments to be made and answered. I actually felt my heart palpitating at work one day when the stress of the day job met the stress of the release. So I decided it was time to stop, sit down, and reflect on things a little bit.

    Carina Press acquired my manuscript in September 2010. The manuscript was released on September 5, 2011. That’s a pretty long time in ebook land. In a lot of ways, it was good to have the interval between acceptance and publication. It gave me time to get set up and established on various social media sites. It gave me time to set up my blog and start blogging regularly. It gave me time to finally get high speed internet. Most importantly, it gave me time to get to know many wonderful authors, as well as the terrific people at Carina Press and Harlequin. I’m so glad I had the year to get set up and running.

    The problem with having so much time, however, is that it gave me time to think.  I’m soooo dangerous when I have time to think.

    I watched what the other authors were doing, and decided that I would try to do that too. I looked at what authors I have followed did, and decided I would do that too. I thought about what people did that made me want to buy their books, and decided I would do that too.

    Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?

    I think I did some things pretty well, and I think I did some things not so well. I found out that running a contest is harder than you think – especially when you don’t have a lot of traffic on your blog and your first book isn’t out. I found out that a month-long countdown is wonderful, but a lot of work. I found out that there are wonderful people on Twitter and Facebook and eHarlequin and elsewhere in the blogosphere who support you and are rooting for you.

    At the beginning of August, I decided that I was just going to have fun with it all, I was going to enjoy the roller coaster ride of the last weeks leading up to release.  And I was able to keep it fun.  For the most part anyway.

    But towards the end of August, and especially the week the book released, I became truly insane. There are so many fleeting opportunities for a new, and newly released author. I’ve been feeling that if I miss a chance it will never come my way again. Plus now there are rankings and reviews and positioning and promotions to think about. That’s a lot of pressure.

    After I had my heart palpitations, it occurred to me that this was not a good way to be. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do the best I can. I’m going to have fun. And I’m not going to look at my Amazon rankings. I’m going to try not to read all of the reviews.  I have to believe that if I do the best I can and have fun, some people will buy my book. Then I hope most of them enjoy it.

    Besides, I should probably spend the time writing something else 😀

     

  • RELEASE DAY!


     
     It’s Release Day!

     
     

    HOLD ME

    by Betsy Horvath

     
     

    Available NOW at:

    CARINA PRESS
    AMAZON
    BARNES AND NOBLE
    BOOKS ON BOARD

    And anywhere fine ebooks are sold.

     

    Wow.