Author Empi Baryeh's Blog

In 2011, Harlequin Desire put out a submission call for new writers to pitch their story ideas to their editors. At the time I was a new writer and had only ever written two romance stories previously. But I was a huge fan of the Harlequin Desire line with some of my favourite authors being Day Leclaire and Brenda Jackson. So you can imagine how excited I was to pitch a story to them. The pitch event went well and I can still remember how excited I was when I messaged Empi to say they had requested the first 3 chapters of the story, which meant I had to actually write the full story. Yikes! Anyway, long and short of it, I wrote the draft while blogging it and a few of my online friends read the story as I went along and gave me helpful pointers. I submitted it to HD. Eventually they came back and said it wasn't for them. At the time, I had just signed a contract with Breathless Press, so I decided to park the story and concentrate on completing the Men of Valor series which I had ...

Hi Peeps! It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t posted anything in 2014, and then I heard about the Evernight Love Scene Blog Hop and thought this would be a perfect way to start my blogging year. So I welcome you to the Love Scene Blog Hop where EP authors are sharing a love scenes from their books – as you know, Valentine's Day is only a week away. The  Grand Prize  is a $100 Visa gift card for a night out to be randomly chosen from all blog comments. Please include your email address in the comments. My Prize is   a $10 Evernight gift card (see rafflecopter link below). My love scene is from my Evernight novel Most Eligible Bachelor , which also happens to be a Valentine’s Day story. It's the beginning of the first love scene in the novel, and to give you context, here's the blurb: BLURB - MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR Heat level: 2 Magazine columnist Chantelle Sah doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day—not since her fiancé’s betrayal three years ago—and after botching her ...

First of all I want to say a huge thank you to all the authors and bloggers who made donations and signed up for the Color of Love blog hop, and then to all lovers or IR/MC romance who stopped by to take part in the hop by leaving comments and taking part in the rafflecopter promotion. This hop wouldn’t have been a success without all of you. A special shout out to everyone who stopped by my blog and left a comment or followed me on Facebook or Twitter. I don’t want to brag or anything, but I'm thrilled about the results, so THANK YOU. Please remember to check out my updates, especially since I am more than half way done on my current WIP. And  now, it’s time to announce winners of my blog prize! Okay, so I said my blog prize was a $10 gift card , right? Well, I have changed my mind (in a good way, so keep reading). In honour of US Thanksgiving Day, I've decided to give one additional prize! Since random(dot)org picked a winner from the rafflecopter, I decided to add an additi...

It's November! For many in writing world that means NaNoWriMo, but for me it also means the Color of Love Blog Hop is at hand. Bloggers/Writers, have you signed up yet? The Color of Love Blog Hop which runs from 21 – 25 November, is co-hosted by Empi Baryeh (moi), Kiru Taye and Nana Prah . As African romance authors, we've decided to celebrate romance books featuring characters of color either in multicultural or interracial settings/relationships. We hope you’ll join us and sign up using the linky link below. We’re offering overall hop Grand prizes of a Kindle Fire , gift cards and multi-ebook packs. Donation to the grand prizes is not required for the sign up. However, you are welcome to donate just $5 (or more) to the grand prizes and contribute an eBook to the multi-eBook pack. In return the cover to your eBook will be displayed on the blog hop sign up page from now to the end of November 2013. Also your ‘Follow-me’ details will be added to the overall Grand Prize raffl...