Hurry! Round Trip Fare is only $.99 TODAY! Kindle Countdown price rises until 31 Aug. #SciFi #Fantasy #Bargain

Posted in Reblogged by Cathy

SALE!

For a VERY limited time**, Amazon has reduced Round Trip Fare from ~~$4.99~~ to $.99! You can get your very own copy here at this amazing price.

Click on image for previews, reviews, and buy links from Amazon!

**As part of the Kindle Countdown, today’s price is $0.99. But that price will increase each day over the promotion until it’s back at the regular $4.99 after 31 August.

[My apologies in advance to readers and followers: apparently ‘real’ writers do all this publicity stuff. Lots. Although I basically suck at that, I’m going to spend the next couple of days tweeting and posting about this special countdown promotion that Amazon Kindle is running before I return this blog to it’s regularly-scheduled random confusion. Sorry about that.]

Reviewers are saying:

Round Trip Fare RWA Contest Finalist 2015 “A detailed and complex plot lends itself to lots of fast paced action. Add humorous dialogue, super heroines, hunky men – with tattoos –…

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13May2016

50% off ROUND TRIP FARE by @barbtaub PLUS win designer bracelet! #UrbanFantasy

Posted in Reblogged by Cathy

Barb Taub

SALE! Coupon for half-off regular ROUND TRIP FARE price from Smashwords**.

Warden Carey Parker’s to-do list is already long enough: find her brother and sister, rescue her roommate, save Null City, and castrate her ex-boyfriend. Preferably with a dull-edged garden tool. A rusty one.

(**If you’re a Kindle reader, or want to read ebooks on just about any other device including your computer, you can still take advantage of the sale with super-easy file conversion by Calibre.)

AND A SPECIAL OFFER:

You could win this gorgeous bracelet by designer Liz Kecso. Incorporating the themes of Round Trip Fare, it will go to one lucky reader. For a chance to win, just “LIKE” the Null City page on Facebook and/or send email to barbtaub (at) gmail (dot) com BEFORE 12 June, 2016.

Reviewers are saying:

“…once you enter Barb Taub’s world of urban fantasy where superpowers sometimes just suck, angels aren’t always…

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8May2016

More Favourite Opening Lines 2016 #Books #amreading #SundayBlogShare

Posted in Book Related, Favourite Opening Lines by Cathy

It’s all on twelve months since I first wrote about my favourite opening lines, so I reckon I’ve read enough books to warrant another selection. So in no particular order, here they are. Clicking on the book title will take you to my review if you’d like more info.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Mabel had known there would be silence. That was the point, after all. No infants cooing or wailing. No neighbour children playfully hollering down the lane. No pad of small feet on wooden stairs worn smooth by generations, or clackety-clack of toys along the kitchen floor. All those sounds of her failure and regret would be left behind, and in their place there would be silence.

Lowcountry Punch by Boo Walker

The Miami I knew wasn’t all G-strings and mojitos. We were undercover, working our way up the stairs of a parking garage in the Latin Quarter, minutes from a cocaine exchange, with no backup. We’d been trying to get to whoever was up there for two weeks and needed to make arrests. I’d be damned if we were going to let them walk away just because there hadn’t been a chance to call it in. Continue reading →

22Apr2016

Round Trip Fare (Null City #4) by @barbtaub #UrbanFantasy #FridayReads

Posted in Urban Fantasy by Cathy

Author: Barb Taub
Released: April 2016 by Hartwood Publishing
Category: Urban Fantasy

Is it wrong that shooting people is just so much easier than making decisions? Carey wonders—and not for the first time. But the Agency claims this will be an easy one. A quick pickup of a missing teen and she won’t even have to shoot anybody. Probably.

Carey knows superpowers suck, her own included. From childhood she’s only had two options. She can take the Metro train to Null City and a normal life. After one day there, imps become baristas, and hellhounds become poodles. Demons settle down, join the PTA, and worry about their taxes. Or she can master the powers of her warrior gift and fight a war she can’t win, in a world where she never learned how to lose.

The story begins in 2002 when sixteen year old twins Carey and Connor Parker are being supervised and protected by their guardian, Harry Daniels. They were entrusted to his care by their older sister, Gaby, when she left on a mission to help end the secret Nonwars between Heaven and Hell. Continue reading →

7Apr2016

Released Today! ROUND TRIP FARE by @barbtaub #NewRelease

Posted in Reblogged by Cathy

If Urban Fantasy is your thing, you’ll love this series.

Barb Taub

I’m so excited to announce that Round Trip Fare is now live!

**Although a sequel to Book 1 (One Way Fare), this is the stand alone story of twins Carey and Connor Parker.

Round Trip Fare
by Barb Taub

Click on image for special preview and buy links from Amazon

Is it wrong that shooting people is just so much easier than making decisions? Carey wonders— and not for the first time. But the Agency claims this will be an easy one. A quick pickup of a missing teen and she won’t even have to shoot anybody. Probably.

Carey knows superpowers suck, her own included. From childhood she’s only had two options. She can take the Metro train to Null City and a normal life. After one day there, imps become baristas, and hellhounds become poodles. Demons settle down, join the PTA, and worry about their taxes. Or she can master the…

View original post 2,844 more words

22Mar2016

#Interview with Barb Taub @barbtaub & Excerpt from her #newrelease #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Excerpt, Interview, Spotlight by Cathy

I’m very pleased to welcome Barb Taub, a firm favourite in the world of writing and blogging.

In halcyon days BC (before children), Barb wrote a humor column for several Midwest newspapers. With the arrival of Child #4, she veered towards the dark side and an HR career. Following a daring daytime escape to England, she’s lived in a medieval castle and a hobbit house with her prince-of-a-guy and the World’s Most Spoiled Aussie Dog. Now all her days are Saturdays, and she spends them traveling around the world, plus consulting with her daughter on Marvel heroes, Null City, and translating from British to American.

That’s some bio, Barb. Anything you can add? And you kind of answered the next part of my question which was going to be, what do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing? But maybe you could elaborate 🙂

I’ve always thought of myself as a writer. Although I was a journalist when younger, and had a syndicated humor column in several American newspapers, the financial realities of raising four kids who had unrealistic expectations — they thought they should eat EVERY day, sleep in actual beds, and wear clothes—meant that I spent many years on the Dark Side (HR professional). You can’t believe how much money employers are willing to pay you to fire people. Continue reading →

24Jan2016

FREE! Award-Winning #UrbanFantasy ONE WAY FARE #SundayBlogShare

Posted in Reblogged by Cathy

Barb Taub

As a special intro to upcoming release ROUND TRIP FARE, I’m offering readers a copy of award-winning ONE WAY FARE (Null City Series Book 1) absolutely free!

ONE WAY FARE, Null City Book 1

It would have been nice if someone told them the angels were all on the other side.

Superpowers suck. If you just want to live a normal life, Null City is only a Metro ride away. After one day there, imps become baristas, and hellhounds become poodles. Demons settle down, become parents, join the PTA, and worry about their taxes.

ONE WAY FARE: readers’ choice Fantasy/SciFi Golden Rose winner for 2015

Null City is the only sanctuary for Gaby Parker and Leila Rice, two young women confronting cataclysmic forces waging an unseen war between Heaven and Hell. Gaby and her younger brother and sister are already targets in the war that cost their parents’ lives.

Meanwhile…

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10Jan2016

Do Not Wash Hands In Plates ~ by @barbtaub #Travel #Memoir #Humour #SundayBlogShare

Posted in Humour, Memoir, Travel by Cathy

Author: Barb Taub
Photography: Jayalakshmi Ayyer/Janine Smith
Category: Travel, Memoir, Humour

Once upon the Land Before Time (or at least before mobile phones), my two best friends and I decided to leave the US from separate locations and meet up in Europe. To everyone’s shock, Janine, Jaya and I pulled it off—mostly because we went to Luxembourg, a country so small the odds in favor of chance street encounters were almost 100%, but also because Jaya was carrying the BS, a blue suitcase so enormous it took up approximately a third of the country’s square footage and was visible on satellite images. We couldn’t possibly miss.

Barb, Janine and Jaya decided to arrange another get together and chose to meet in India. Barb was travelling from Scotland, Janine from Washington DC and Jaya, who lives in India, would meet them at the airport. A recipe for disaster? But no, they hooked up without too many problems. There follows a hilarious account of an Indian trip of a lifetime, which includes delicious food, wonderful attractions, food, temples, more food, Dehli belly, Indian medicines, lots of food and death-defying driving, to spotlight just a few features. You’ll notice food is the most predominant. As Barb explains ‘I was in India, and it could only mean one thing. Soon it would be time to eat again.’ Continue reading →