Release Day | Black Bird

May 16, 2020May 16, 2020 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a long road, but now we’re here!

Swan I wrote Black Bird back in 2018, right at the end of the year. I sent it to one on my beta readers who didn’t like it at all, and then I didn’t touch it for more than a year. I kept it on all my to-do lists and every time I was about to start a new story, I saw it there, mocking me LOL.

So, when this year started, I told myself it was gonna be my clean-up year, because Black Bird is far from the only story I move from to-do list to to-do list, it’s not even the only story I have lying around with beta notes attached to it.

And now, I’ve crossed it off my to-do list. Yay!

I have three releases coming up, and none of them are old stories I’ve fixed, so you see how well I’m doing on the whole clean-up year LOL.

But never mind that now! Today is the day Arlo Barman and Nash Silver step out into the world. It’s a paranormal M/M Romance with a werewolf and a caladrius bird. It’s hurt-comfort, age-gap, soulmates, opposites attract, size difference, small town, autumn, kidnapping, a love for plants, vampires, psychics, and lots of other nice things…like black phlegm.

Nash shoved the sandwich into his mouth to not have to talk to Ellis. The frown peeking up behind the shades was enough for Nash to know nothing fun would come from the conversation anyway.

“Your coffee, gentlemen.”

Nash tried to swallow, and swallow, but the bread got stuck in his throat. He tried coughing discreetly to get it unstuck all the while he was looking up at Arlo trying to smile and nod.

Worry shone in pale blue eyes—not the best way to impress someone. Ellis snorted, and Nash gave in and coughed for real, unclogging his throat—sexy as fuck.

“Are you okay?” Arlo reached out as if to touch him, but then he tensed, and dropped the hand with more force than necessary.

Nash blinked away the tears from his eyes and grabbed the coffee cup Arlo had placed before him. “Yeah, sure.” His voice was rough, and he took a mouthful of scalding coffee and fought the reaction to the burn.

“Are you sure?”

Arlo looked at him, his eyes— Then Arlo blinked and everything was normal. The tears must’ve fucked with his vision. “Yes, I’m fine.” He smiled, but before he could check Arlo’s eyes again, he nodded and went away.

“Smooth.” Ellis smirked.

“Fuck you.” There was no heat in the words, and while Nash wished he hadn’t choked in front of Arlo, he had to admit it was pretty funny.

“He’s an odd duck, that one.”

“Odd how?” Nash sipped on the coffee again, more carefully this time around.

“I don’t know, he’s just odd.” Ellis shrugged.

“Because you think he looks odd or because you’re sensing something?”

“Sensing?”

“Seeing.” Nash’s irritation spiked again. Ellis knew what the fuck he meant.

Ellis rubbed his temples. “I don’t know, I have a headache.”

“Hungover?”

“No, I only had one beer yesterday. It’s like it is too much, my brain’s scrambled.”

“Too much of what?”

Ellis shook his head. “It’s a bird, and Gilbert is unhappy—”

“Gilbert’s unhappy?” Nash had missed that. Sure he’d been a little grumpy yesterday, but he’d been hungry and he was always grumpy when hungry.

“No, not yet…I don’t think, but he will be unless something changes. And I keep seeing myself clutching my stomach—I never see myself, it’s like a rule for psychics, we don’t see ourselves.”

“There are rules for psychics? You ever met another psychic?”

“No, but since I’ve never seen myself before I’ve decided it’s a rule. It doesn’t matter, it’s… everything is jumbled, it doesn’t make sense, and lightning is drilling holes in my skull.”

Ellis was paler than usual, Nash had been too focused on Arlo to notice.

“And you’re chasing a bird.”

“I’m chasing a bird?” Nash had never chased a bird in his entire life, and he had no desire to change that.

“A black bird.”

“I’m chasing a blackbird?”

“You’re changed, clothes are ripped as if you’ve changed in a hurry, it’s dark and rainy, almost foggy, you know? And you’re running after a black bird.”

Nash rubbed his neck; he couldn’t think of one single reason that would make him chase a bird.

books2read.com/Black-Bird (20% off in new release in at JMS-Books)

After seven years of being on the move, Arlo Barman wants nothing more than a place to call home. But unbeknownst to him, Arlo is a caladrius healer, so staying in one place has never been an option. The compulsion to separate himself from those he’s healed is all-consuming and leaves him little choice but to pack up yet again.

Nash Silver is the only werewolf in his small coastal town. Living undetected in a human world is imperative for his kind, and he and his small circle of friends—a vampire and a psychic—have done so for decades. But Nash’s anonymous existence is jeopardized when a man with an enticing scent moves into town. From the moment Nash lays eyes on the stranger, nothing is more important than being close to him. Not even guarding his secret.

Arlo isn’t interested in a relationship or even a date, his past has taught him nothing good comes from it, but the rather pushy local popping up everywhere he goes has his heart somersaulting. If his heart is somersaulting or not doesn’t matter, because when Nash gets injured, Arlo is the only one who can save him.

Having used his powers, Arlo has to leave Nash and the cozy town he wanted to make his home, but can Nash survive being separated from his mate?

Quarantine Reading

May 13, 2020May 12, 2020 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

I was trying to come up with a good word on Q to have a headline of alliterations (Swedish is a germanic language, the early verses of the germanic languages were built on alliterations and repetition, and I might not have worked as a teacher for the last ten years, but deep down I’m still a Swedish teacher who finds history of language interesting.) but Quotable Quality Quarantine Reading didn’t seem like a good idea. And While Quiddich works with most things, Quarantine isn’t one of them….or, maybe it is LOL.

Ok, enough with the craziness! JMS-Books is running another giveaway. These are hard times, and we all need something to distract us with, therefore several authors have come together to offer you a whole bunch of titles that will be free for the rest of the week.

You’ll find all the titles here!

This time around, I’m giving away Jaeger’s Lost and Found. I loved writing it so much! It’s a paranormal little tale of 28k words. It has a vampire about to die, and finder who’s, reluctantly, trying to help him.

You’ll find an excerpt here.

Jaeger’s Lost & Found is the only finder shop to be had on the whole of the west coast. The problem is, Archibald Jaeger, the last of the Jaeger line, seems to be defective. A result of too many generations of crossbreeding with humans. But Jaegers are finders, and there’s nothing to be done about it.

Gael Murray has lost his connections. A vampire can’t survive without the energy exchange he has with the members of his coven through mental links. And, as of this morning, they’ve all vanished. Gael will die if he doesn’t reinstate his connections through a blood exchange. And his only hope to find the other members of his coven is to hire a finder.

Even a terrible finder is better than no finder at all.

Together they set out to save Gael’s life, but what was an already difficult task becomes nearly insurmountable. And Archie, who can never find what he’s looking for, finds himself falling in love with a man he’ll be hard pressed to save.

A Tour through the Black Bird world

May 9, 2020May 15, 2020 ~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

When I write, I most often make up a city or town, give it a name, and I hardly ever specify where in the world we are. I think it’s because the first stories I wrote were set in Sweden, but after a few people mentioning that I was a Swedish author, I stopped placing my characters here.

I don’t want to be ‘the Swedish writer’, I just want to be a writer like everyone else LOL. There will always be something Swedish in the way I write, we always bring part of our culture with us wherever we go, and that goes for fictional places too.

But, I want people from all around the world to be able to pick up one of my stories and feel connected to it, sure the environment will always be kind of Swedish, but I don’t want it to be so pronounced that you feel you’ve been dropped into a foreign world (unless I write a foreign world).

But, Black Bird… I never name the city, just the streets, the shops, the pubs, the buildings, the little shortcuts.

I grew up in a small west coast city in Sweden. I left home at 16 and moved 1070 km (about 665 miles) up north, where I lived for four years, before moving south again. But no matter where I live, that city will always be home to me. Maybe I was homesick when I wrote it, I don’t know, but Black Bird takes place in my hometown.

So, today I’ve amused myself by ‘walking’ the streets through Google maps. You can’t get to all places, but have a look!

This house reminded him of where they’d lived when he’d (Arlo) been a little boy—it was happiness and freedom on a small piece of land with a tiny house. The town was a ten-minute drive away and while not as picturesque as the red wooden cottage, it still had some small-town charm going on. (Google maps don’t go in on small roads like this, but Arlo lives in here.)

Nash poured yet another beer down his gullet. The sounds in the bar were so fucking loud tonight—people everywhere, the same boring people.

A young blond was trying to get his attention by the bar. Nash recognized him, but it had to be a couple of months ago. He didn’t do repeats, and the sooner the guy got the message the better.

The bottom floor where they were sitting had the decor of an old-fashioned pub, tables and chairs in dark wood, and by the windows were booths made up of black leather sofas with tables screwed to the wall. The upper floor was more like a nightclub with a dance floor and its own bar. Luckily, the DJ hadn’t begun yet.

“What’s up with you today?” Gilbert frowned at him.

“Nothing. Tired is all.” (At Herman’s)

He (Arlo) slowed down as he neared the Big Square. It was a small square, but according to Holly, it was called the Big Square. When he came up close to the coffee shop, he turned left down a slope and there on his right was an apartment building. He checked the street sign to make sure he was on Tradesman Street and parked the car.

For a few seconds, he sat and looked around. The street was narrow, at the bottom floor of the buildings there were shops—a retro bakery, a fabric parlor, a travel agency, and one place that looked like a pharmacy and yet not. At the end of the street, right as it overlapped into a cobblestone road, was the local newspaper in a beautiful white stone building as old at the street itself.

Arlo sighed. It was a charming little town, but he shouldn’t be in the middle of it on a Friday night.

Arlo’s feet ached as he turned into the cobblestone road passing the newspaper building. He could see the river between the old wooden terrace houses, it snaked its way past town, dark and rapid and it would reunite with the sea by the Southern bridge. In daylight it would be beautiful, now it made him shudder.

Nash bolted out of there, jogged down New Street, crossed through the Bathhouse Park, and zigzagged through the narrow cobblestoned alleys of Old Town until he came out on Harbor Street. Ellis lived in one of the newly built apartment houses there, and he almost crashed into an old woman as he rounded the corner to his door.

black bird

Having used his powers, Arlo has to leave Nash and the cozy town he wanted to make his home, but can Nash survive being separated from his mate?

books2read.com/Black-Bird