Elisabeth Grace Foley

Historical Fiction Author

Bridge to Trouble is now available in paperback!

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Today’s news: by popular request, Bridge to Trouble has been released in paperback and is now available for purchase!

I’ve got to admit, Bridge to Trouble is one of my personal favorites of my own books, and so I’m delighted that readers are liking it just as much. For some reason I’d always thought it wasn’t long enough to make a decent-sized paperback, but recently I re-checked the wordcount for some reason and realized that it was almost the same length as A Sidekick’s Tale—and so there was absolutely no reason not to do a paperback. Therefore, here it is!

Despite the fact that this is the tenth paperback I’ve produced, doing the formatting is always something of a fraught experience. At least I learn something new every time! This round taught me a number of useful things about fonts and ink color, and reminded me again how generous and helpful the indie-publishing community can be. I have to say a special thank-you to book designer Phillip Gessert for diagnosing a problem with my manuscript file that was beyond my technical skills, and offering suggestions that fixed it in time for my launch date.

What readers are saying:

“This book is just so good. The humour is brilliant…the mystery and suspense was so intense and totally kept me both on my toes and the edge of my seat. The characters were awesome…I loved the theme and the setting, and honestly it was one of the best, cleanest adventures I’ve ever read!”

“Plenty of adventure, lively characters, a rich natural setting, and a touch of romance.“

“The writing style, the dialogue, the adventure, the unexpected twists, the character arc – all of it made this one of the most memorable novellas I’ve read this year.“

“If you’re looking for fast-paced, well-written historical novella with lots of danger and a hint of romance…Bridge to Trouble should certainly be your next read.“

Get your paperback copy!

What I’ve Been Up To: January & February

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– writing –

I’ve been working on the first draft of a new novel since the beginning of January. It’s something a bit different than anything I’ve written yet…and I’m pretty excited about it…but I don’t feel ready to talk more about it just yet. I decided I wanted to get to a certain point in the first draft before I shared anything about it or shared any snippets, and I hope to reach that point by next month at least. So, stay tuned…

On an already-published note, I recently released Bridge to Trouble as an ebook at Amazon, Kobo, et al. It came about after Goodreads deleted the book page on the grounds that the title wasn’t available anywhere but for free through my website; and I eventually decided that having it for sale would be a good thing in more than one way, in that it would give readers more of a choice as to how they wanted to get the book. New subscribers to my email list still have an option to download Bridge to Trouble for free, but anyone who wants to read the book yet doesn’t care to subscribe can buy it at their favorite ebook retailer.

– reading –

I’ve been so focused on writing that I actually haven’t read very much this month! That does tend to happen with me: I’ll go through spurts where I’m really involved with a project and don’t read as much, and then read a ton when between projects or in a more relaxed stage of the writing/editing process. I have been re-reading a couple of favorites, though. I’ve been slowly working through Dorothy Sayers’ The Mind of the Maker since before the holidays, and it’s the kind of book with enough depth in it that you take away new thoughts when you revisit it at different points in your life. The chapter “Problem Picture” certainly yielded more now that I’ve read Gaudy Night—which was amazing, by the way, perhaps even more so as a deep and meditative novel than as a mystery. I should mention that that chapter in The Mind of the Maker includes complete plot spoilers for it, which I inadvertently ran smack into on my first reading years ago. I think perhaps since I already knew the basic solution of the mystery when I read Gaudy Night, I was more tuned in to the character development and philosophical themes of the book.

I’m also re-reading Georgette Heyer’s The Unknown Ajax, and oh my, I’m rediscovering why it’s one of my favorites of hers—top three or maybe even top two now. It was one that I liked just moderately when I first read it, but it’s grown on me since, especially this time around. It’s delightful and hilarious and that long climactic scene is just a brilliant piece of writing. In the right hands it would make an awesome movie, by the way.

– listening –

Mainly the playlist for my WIP…which is also a subject for another day. But one of my recent discoveries while listening to classical music radio was a charming waltz by English composer Eric Coates, “Dance of the Orange Blossoms.” I went on YouTube to look it up again afterwards, and of course ended up hopping to another video of a Coates composition and then another, and I think I’m going to enjoy listening to more of his work!

Also, I don’t think I’ve mentioned the Petersens on here before—they’re an amazing family bluegrass band I discovered a little over a year ago, and their music is wonderful. Just about everything on their YouTube channel is worth a listen, but a few of my favorites are “Sweet Beulah Land,” “Landslide,” “Carolina in the Pines,” “You’re Still the One,” “Moments,” and “Amarillo by Morning.” They also have several full live concerts on there which include most of their best songs, including some I just mentioned.

– otherwise –

I finally have a working computer of my own again! I got it for Christmas, actually, but there was a tiny flaw in the screen, so we had to exchange it, and…the second one had an issue with the keyboard, so we had to exchange it again. And then had to spend a couple of weeks after the third one arrived trying to get hold of Microsoft customer service for help with a software issue, and that’s about as easy to do as getting an audience with an emperor. But the kinks are all worked out at last, and I can once more use a word processor and check my email without having to borrow a computer from a long-suffering family member.

I’ve been taking a hiatus from Twitter while working on my new novel, and I think it’s done me good. I haven’t decided exactly what I want to do with my social media moving forward, but even if I don’t leave Twitter I’ll probably spend less time there. In that case I’d like to try and focus more on my newsletter and on this blog (perhaps post a little more regularly, even if not super-often). I’ve also been having fun getting a little more involved with the bookish community on Instagram, so if you’re on there stop by and check out my posts sometime! My username is @elisabethgfoley there, as with most places.

photo credit: me

Introducing “Bridge to Trouble”

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“Well, this is a fine time to tell me,” said Keith, but without rancor. “I suppose it would be too much to hope that she might simply settle into domestic life and not notice the gangsters playing hide-and-go-seek under her window?”

“Who, Mother? Goodness, no, she doesn’t miss a thing. She’ll be onto it sooner than I was.”

If I was a superstitious person, I’d swear that talking about one of my WIPs on social media was as good as jinxing it. I had a great first week working on my new novella, then in a rash moment posted the title and a brief description on Twitter and Facebook—and immediately a combination of household tasks and nasty headaches limited my productivity this week to a handful of hard-won sentences.

However, I am not a superstitious person, and so in pursuance of my original plan, I shall tell you a bit about this new WIP, Bridge to Trouble. It’s a romantic-suspense novella set in Montana in 1920, involving a girl, some guys, gold, gangsters, and a ghost town. And some sheep. (Lest I be guilty of raising hopes only to dash them, I should warn you that the ghost town plays only a small, though key role in the plot.)

What pleases me about this story is that it’s a dramatically made-over version of an old concept that I’d hung onto for years in a binder full of scraps, because I always felt it had a grain of promise in it somewhere. I wanted a new novella for a particular reason (I’ll tell you about that in a moment), and when I realized that this old concept would work, I was thrilled.

What pleases me even more about this story is that it’s turning out to be full of Witty Banter and I am having a ton of fun with that.

The particular reason I wanted a novella? Well, if all goes well this is going to be a free treat for my newsletter subscribers. Since I’m focusing on historical mystery/suspense, I wanted to write something that would be a nice introduction for new readers—and writing it is a nice way to get into the swing of the style and themes I want to explore from henceforth. And yes, current subscribers will get the novella for free too—it’s every bit as much a gift for you as it is a welcome for new readers! I’m not making any promises on the release date, but I want it to be sometime this winter.

Until next time…