Release Blitz: Camp Shifter Series by DJ Jennings

 

The Camp Shifter Series by DJ Jennings is Now in KU!

Series Description:  This paranormal romantic comedy series features standalone stories set at Camp Shifter, a mandatory training facility where adults receive "The Letter" summoning them to learn shifter ways. After experiencing The Morph—the transformation that reveals their animal nature—they must master everything from controlling their shifter forms to navigating public nudity with confidence. Camp Shifter provides classes taught by experienced shifters and serves as a community where people from all walks of life must accept a reality fundamentally altered by their newfound status.

Throughout the series, Camp Shifter serves as the backdrop for fated mate romances featuring humor, heat, and heart. Special events like DarkNight create opportunities for connection in a community where transformation extends beyond the physical. With big misunderstandings, opposites-attract dynamics, and forced proximity bringing unlikely pairs together, these romantic comedies blend lighthearted fun with sensual content as characters learn that accepting their shifter identities and finding love often go hand in hand.

Core Series Tropes

• Fated Mates
• Paranormal Romance
• Shifter Romance
• Camp Romance
• Insta-Love / Fast-Burn Romance
• Discovering Hidden Powers
• Soulmates
• Fish Out of Water
• Found Family
• New Adult Romance
• Forced Proximity
• Opposites Attract
• Romantic Comedy
• Steamy Romance

 

Owl Be Bear for You

Hot summer fun where you’ll change…in more ways than one.

Librarian Mara Scioto lives a nice, neat, orderly existence—except when she’s being attacked by uncontrolled male shifters who need to mate.

Pesky little detail, right?

Raised by a grandmother who hates all shifters, she has one wish: to make it past the age of twenty-five without experiencing The Morph that tells you you’re one of them.

And then the letter from Camp Shifter arrives with her name on it...

Orthopedic surgeon in training Jack Karsten is waiting to see if he’ll follow in his shifter brother’s footsteps. Being a shifter won’t be so bad, if that’s his destiny, but when he meets Mara, he realizes that fate and love don’t always align.

But love always wins.

It can be a bear of an ordeal sorting it all out, but if anyone can help, it’s the staff at Camp Shifter. While they’ll train Jack and Mara on the ways of shifter life, there’s one thing they can’t teach them:

How to get out of their own way and let love leave them changed.

Forever.

Owl Be Bear For You Tropes

• Fated Mates
• Big Misunderstanding
• Librarian Heroine
• Opposites Attract
• Awkward Hero
• Hidden Shifter Identity
• Romantic Comedy
• Forced Proximity 

 

You Shook Me Howl Night Long 

Eliot “Pole” Elianzo is a god in college football, and he knows it. Too bad he’s also a polar bear. The Morph happens on national television, right after a pro team picks him in the draft. It’s official–Pole is a shifter. And boy, is he livid. He can’t choose practice over his mandatory stay at Camp Shifter, but he sure can make camp a nightmare for everyone. Especially the hot ash blonde who’s teaching Undressed in Public 101 classes. Risa Devaneau can’t believe Pole’s in her class, in the first row, and very, very undressed. The former sportscaster and wolf shifter ran away from her testosterone-filled career for the quiet peace of Camp Shifter. Sure, teaching people how to be undressed in public isn’t exactly the most prestigious job, but it got her away from the city. From her overly controlling politician father. From her past. From Pole. And here he is, smirking at her, front and center. In his birthday suit.

You Shook Me Howl Night Long Tropes

• Second Chance Romance
• Celebrity Athlete Hero
• Former Rivals/Reunion Romance
• Forced Proximity
• Fish Out of Water
• Wolf Shifter Romance
• Camp Romance
• Opposites Attract

 

DarkNight of the Moon 

He lurks in shadows and mystery at Camp Shifter, coming out only during DarkNight, the wild, bacchanalian free-for-all where anything goes.

Anything.

No one has seen him in the daylight, no one knows where he lives, no one knows his name–and the shifter nicknamed DarkLover by women, DarkDude by men, will do anything to keep it that way.

Andie Cumbington has been waiting her whole life for The Letter. One of the few shifters who is ecstatic about her newfound status, the chestnut-haired ballerina bear shifter arrives for her month at Camp Shifter with unbridled excitement. On her first DarkNight, she finds wild passion and–to her surprise–so much more, with a stranger who touches her heart as much as he lights up her body.

And then he’s gone, back into the shadows, hidden.

Exactly where he wants to be.

Craving his touch with an insatiable desire, Andie can’t let go. She always wanted the roll in the hay, but she never imagined the passion would be so intense.

Fate drives her to find love.

Then a simple errand turns into mortal danger for Andie, and an impossible choice as DarkLover must overcome his biggest fear in order to save the woman he loves.

But will it be too late?

DarkNight of the Moon Tropes

• Mysterious Hero
• Beauty and the Beast Vibes
• Grumpy/Sunshine
• Protector Hero
• Hidden Identity
• Dark Paranormal Romance
• Fated Mates
• Dangerous Secrets
• Redemption Arc 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon/KU Series Link:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PT45ZLW

Amazon/KU Link for Owl Be Bear for You ($4.99):  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073ZMCJPX

Amazon/KU Link for You Shook Me Howl Night Long ($4.99):  https://www.amazon.com/Shook-Howl-Night-Long-Shifter/dp/1799035832/

Amazon/KU Link for DarkNight of the Moon ($4.99):  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1950172147

 

OWL BE BEAR FOR YOU Teaser Excerpt: 

The sudden kiss took Mara by surprise, Jack’s mouth slanted against hers with a determined passion that she matched without words. For the past forty minutes all she could think about was his face, his body, his eyes, those lips. She reached up and tore her glasses off, tucking them haphazardly into the outer opening of her purse, smashed between them as passion’s frenzy took hold.

Now that she was in his arms, his thighs hard against her belly, his arms warm against her shoulders, she was nothing but pink fire and molten blood.

A beat pounded between them, as if their hearts were in sync, his tongue dividing her mouth and tickling her teeth, the kiss as dangerous as it was unnerving.

Dangerous because Mara felt herself falling for a man she barely knew.

Unnerving because it all felt so right.

She was supposed to argue with herself, fight against this tidal wave of emotion, tell herself she was being reckless and foolish.

Those words weren’t there.

Instead, there were only fevered kisses and touches that made her sigh for more. Now that she was in his arms, she wondered how she would ever live anywhere without being touched by him.

Breaking the kiss, she said breathlessly, “I’m so sorry I never answered your text.”

“You can make it up to me with another kiss.”

And before she could say yes, her tongue was in his mouth, dancing against his, their lips enjoying each other with an abandon that bordered on criminal.

“Get a room.” Two different voices, one male, one female, said the words in unison. Mara broke away from Jack and stared at Sharon and Jim. The two were laughing and nudging each other. Given Mara’s reputation as the prim and proper librarian who never dated, she could only imagine what they were thinking as she totally lost it in front of them.

“I’m—I—oh, I’m so sorry!” Mara stuttered, struggling to catch her breath and gather her wits at the same time.

Jack remained in place, his face suddenly serious, his arm remaining protectively around Mara’s waist.

Without a word, he guided her to the main door and outside.

Her back was against the brick building, his mouth hot and frenzied on hers, before she could even look up at the night sky and spot the moon. Pressing her breasts against his wide chest, she pawed at him, her hands unable to stop touching him.

All the parts that were allowed in public, at least.

Jack’s fevered breath poured onto her neck like hot silk. “I have never been like this with a woman before,” he groaned, his tongue making warm, wet love to the base of her throat. “You do this to me, though. Only you. It’s like—” His abrupt halt gave Mara pause.

“Like fate?”

 

About the Author: 

The author of the Camp Shifter series, Darla Josephine “DJ” Jennings, is originally from Ohio but now lives in Massachusetts in a household full of people who drive her nuts, but she loves them anyhow. She fills her days with writing, business management, and the never-ending task of herding cats. Learn more about her in the New York Times bestselling novel, Random Acts of Crazy by Julia Kent, where she stars as one of the main characters. That’s right! DJ Jennings isn’t real, but Julia Kent sure is.

Website:  http://jkentauthor.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jkentauthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jkentauthor

Newsletter:  http://bit.ly/2PIBi9n

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jkentauthor/

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/dj-jennings

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17035252.D_J_Jennings

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07568TW8X

Release blitz organized by Writer Marketing Services.

Release Blitz: Shopping for a Highlander's Elopement by Julia Kent

 

SHOPPING FOR A HIGHLANDER’S ELOPEMENT

(Shopping for a Highlander Series, Book 3)

Author: Julia Kent

Release Date: June 10, 2025

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance

Cover Designer:  Najla Qamber, Qamber Designs

Tropes/Themes:  Sports romance, secret proposal, elopement, wedding, grumpy/sunshine, on the run, golden retriever/black cat energy, romantic comedy

 

Retailer Description: 

I didn’t expect to fall for a Scottish footballer so annoyingly sunny you need shades to be around him. 

I didn’t expect to say yes to his heart-felt, if loopy, proposal while he lay injured on the pitch, blathering on about banana pudding and sparkly unicorns. 

What I definitely didn’t expect? 

For our engagement to explode into a paparazzi circus, our mothers to turn into wedding bulldozers, and for our wedding protector's perfectly reasonable elopement plan to spiral into a road trip escape. 

So here we are. 

In Love You, Maine, a town that celebrates Valentine’s Day every single day. We’re here to get married. Quietly. No drama. In disguise. 

Although good luck hiding a 6’5” ginger Scottish striker wearing a knee brace and a perpetual extrovert smile. 

Instead of being subtle and blending in? Our quiet escape is vibrating heart-shaped beds, mirrors on the ceilings, secret identities, interfering mothers, and one suspiciously enthusiastic moose that humps dumpsters. 

This was supposed to be a simple wedding. Just me and Hamish. No fuss. 

But nothing about us has ever been simple with us. 

Still, this is what love is, right? It’s chaos. It’s compromise. It’s crying in a wedding planner’s office, then kissing in a hot spring. 

It’s choosing each other again and again, even when everything goes sideways. 

No matter what comes next... this is our comeback story, in more ways than one. 

And no - that’s not a euphemism. :)

 

Shopping for a Highlander’s Elopement is a romantic comedy that blends the worlds of four bestselling series by New York Times bestselling author Julia Kent:

 

- Shopping for a Billionaire

- Shopping for a Highlander

- Whatever It Takes

- Love You, Maine

 

If you love sports romance, surprise proposals, grand gestures, chaotic weddings, Scottish footballers, golden retriever/black cat energy, and characters who love too hard, mess up spectacularly, and always find their way back to each other with plenty of laughter (and lovingly-used scrunchies) along the way, then this is your book.

Other Books in the Series:

 

Shopping for a Booty Call (Prequel)

Shopping for a Turkey (Book 1)

Shopping for a Highlander (Book 2)

Shopping for a Highlander’s Elopement (Book 3)

 

Links: 

 

Amazon US:  https://www.amazon.com/Shopping-Highlanders-Elopement-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DM3CR6M4

 

Amazon UK:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shopping-Highlanders-Elopement-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DM3CR6M4

 

Amazon AU:  https://www.amazon.com.au/Shopping-Highlanders-Elopement-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DM3CR6M4/

 

Amazon CA:  https://www.amazon.ca/Shopping-Highlanders-Elopement-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DM3CR6M4/

 

Apple Books:  https://books.apple.com/us/book/shopping-for-a-highlanders-elopement/id6737852494

 

Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/shopping-for-a-highlander-s-elopement

 

Nook:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shopping-for-a-highlanders-elopement-julia-kent/1146644693?ean=2940184489889

 

Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Julia_Kent_Shopping_for_a_Highlander_s_Elopement?id=e3IvEQAAQBAJ

 

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/books/shopping-for-a-highlander-s-elopement-by-julia-kent

 

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221247053-shopping-for-a-highlander-s-elopement

Teaser Excerpt:

Love isn’t a football game.

It’s a feeling.

A feeling that uses instinct as a tool.

I’m smarter than this. When everything felt off, I should have known that it was off for a reason.

“Jody,” I say softly, “I canna do this.”

“Of course you can. You just have the jitters. Amy’s a wonderful woman and–”

“I dinna mean the proposin’ part. That’s fine. I can do that. I mean doin’ it on the pitch.”

His turn to go green.

“You want to cancel the proposal?”

“Aye. Nae. No’ the proposin’. The doin’ it in public part. I love Amy wi’ all ma body and soul.” I frown. “She’d hate to hear me say it that way. Soul and body.” I wink at Jody. “But it’s really the other way around. Ma body knows more than ma mind.”

“I don’t need to hear every thought that pops into your head, Hamish.”

“I only tell ye the important ones.”

“Like not wanting the big spectacle we arranged for you?”

“I’m tellin’ ye now, aren’t I?”

“We have extra cameramen here for this. Your parents and siblings are in the crowd. Declan and Andrew McCormick are here. We doubled the security.”

“Is this about money? I can pay for all that.”

“It’s not–well, yes, some of it is about the money. But it’s more about publicity and planning. A lot of people put forth a huge effort to make today special for you and Amy.”

“And forty thousand of ma closest fans.”

He closes his eyes and sighs through his nose. “A better time to realize this would have been weeks ago. Not a huge US exhibition game.”

“Ma instincts told me then that this was right. Now ma gut says something else. It all feels off.”

“Your gut.”

I pat my flat stomach. “It’s gotten me this far in life. Good gut.”

He's right. I know how much work all the coaches, teammates, stadium staff and administrators, sponsors–hell, even the car park attendants–have put into helping me today. I don't have cold feet, and I love Amy to the moon and back, but something feels wrong.

As Amy says, hinky.

I can't explain it. If I had words for it, I'd use them. It's a feeling, and those don't always line up nice and neat in words that make sense.

Author Bio: 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future. 

From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy). 

She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls. 

She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on Twitter @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com

 

Social Media Links: 

Website:  http://jkentauthor.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jkentauthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jkentauthor

Newsletter:  http://bit.ly/2PIBi9n

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jkentauthor/

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-kent

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3238619.Julia_Kent

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/Julia-Kent/e/B00A99V268/

 

Release blitz organized by Writer Marketing Services.

Release Blitz: One Night Hand Stand by Julia Kent

 

ONE NIGHT HAND STAND

(Get What You Need, Book 1)

Author: Julia Kent

Release Date: March 4, 2025

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance

Cover Designer:  Qamber Designs

Audiobook Narrators:  Samantha Brentmoor, Shane East

Tropes/Themes:  One night stand, enemies to lovers, mistaken identity, cross-purposes, opposites attract, love at first sight, workplace romance, romantic comedy

Who accidentally has a one-night stand with her yoga instructor?

 

Yep. Me.

 

How did I accidentally sleep with someone, right? I know what you’re thinking. Whoops! I slipped and inadvertently inserted Tab A into Slot B.

 

That’s not quite how it went.

 

But my yoga instructor is really, really skilled with Tab A, if you know what I mean.

 

Slot B never had it so good.

 

What am I supposed to do now, as I walk into my yoga class and find the guy I ghosted this morning… there, in front of the class, perfectly aligned and grinning at me like he remembers touching all my chakras.

 

He's perfect. Too perfect. He's so perfect he's ruining my job.

 

I'm an investigative reporter, working on spec for an article for a national magazine, and my job is to find all the ways this yoga chain is corrupt.

 

The only thing criminal here is that I can't have him in Slot B ever again. And I would. I'd turn myself into a paper doll book if that's what it took for more of that action.

 

I want him. He wants me. Nothing I do will make him back off because the chemistry is off the charts.

 

Except for one pesky little thing:

 

We’re at cross-purposes.

 

I need my exposé to get the job of my dreams. He needs to sell his stake in the yoga chain before I expose the corrupt current owner.

 

That makes him my enemy. My nemesis. The guy I have to get around to get ahead.

 

And now we’re supposed to hate each other.

 

But who ever let that get in the way of love?

 

Short Description:

 

What am I supposed to do now, as I walk into my yoga class and find the guy I ghosted this morning… there, in front of the class, perfectly aligned and grinning at me like he remembers touching all my chakras.

 

He's perfect. Too perfect. He's so perfect he's ruining my job.

 Teaser Excerpt (Spicy):

A little moan escapes out of Sarah, a sound of yielding that makes me groan, our tongues going places that make promises of more, and soon, dinner at a fine restaurant pales in comparison to dragging her back into her apartment, screwing until we're dehydrated, and ordering Door Dash sushi.

“Ahem,” she says as she pulls back, reaching up to wipe lipstick off my mouth with her thumb. Our eyes lock as she smiles at me, full and open.

It's the kind of smile you could jump right into, unabashed and with complete abandon.

A freefall smile, that one is.

“That was a lovely way to say hello,” I whisper in her ear, inhaling slowly, enjoying the warm glow of her.

Buy Links:  

Amazon US:  https://www.amazon.com/Night-Hand-Stand-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DBKBCYC9

 Amazon UK:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Hand-Stand-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DBKBCYC9

 Amazon AZ:  https://www.amazon.com.au/Night-Hand-Stand-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DBKBCYC9/

 Amazon Ca:  https://www.amazon.ca/Night-Hand-Stand-Julia-Kent-ebook/dp/B0DBKBCYC9

 Apple Books:  https://books.apple.com/gb/book/one-night-hand-stand/id6670284015

 Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/one-night-hand-stand

 Nook:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-night-hand-stand-julia-kent/1146231975?ean=2940186117087

 Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Julia_Kent_One_Night_Hand_Stand?id=i88dEQAAQBAJ

 Print:  https://www.amazon.com/Night-Hand-Stand-Julia-Kent/dp/1638802181/

 Website:  https://jkentauthor.com/books/get-what-you-need/one-night-hand-stand/

 BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/books/one-night-hand-stand-by-julia-kent

 Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218390915-one-night-hand-stand

 Audible:  https://www.audible.com/pd/One-Night-Hand-Stand-Audiobook/B0DKPGFCG5

 Amazon Audio:  https://www.amazon.com/Audible-One-Night-Hand-Stand/dp/B0DKPHF8MQ 

iTunes:  COMING SOON

Author Bio: 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. Since 2013, she has sold more than 2 million books, with 4 New York Times bestsellers and more than 21 appearances on the USA Today bestseller list. Her books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, with more titles releasing in the future. 

From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men's room toilet (and he isn't a billionaire she met in a romantic comedy). 

She lives in New England with her husband and three children where she is the only person in the household with the gene required to change empty toilet paper rolls. 

She loves to hear from her readers by email at julia@jkentauthor.com, on Twitter @jkentauthor, on Facebook at @jkentauthor, and on Instagram @jkentauthor. Visit her at http://jkentauthor.com

 

Social Media Links: 

Website:  http://jkentauthor.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jkentauthor/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jkentauthor

Newsletter:  http://bit.ly/2PIBi9n

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jkentauthor/

BookBub:  https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-kent

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3238619.Julia_Kent

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/Julia-Kent/e/B00A99V268/

 

Release blitz organized by Writer Marketing Services.

Book Spotlight: The Time-Travelling Estate Agent by Dale Bradford

 

Out Now—The Time-Travelling Estate Agent by Dale Bradford

Talking with Dale Bradford: 

What inspired the story?

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of time travel, even though the world’s greatest scientific minds maintain that it’s impossible. Fifty years ago my iPhone was impossible though, and the story grew from the idea of me meeting my teenage self, and the people I knew back then, and demonstrating my iPhone’s capabilities to them.

 

How long did it take you to write ‘The Time-Travelling Estate Agent’?

The story is set in 2019, which is when I began writing it, and it became fully fleshed out during the following year’s lockdowns. When the world restarted, the demands of my day job slowed its progress and then I set it aside to write a non-fiction title, ‘From Sex Shops to Supermarkets – How Adult Toys Became a Multi-Billion-Pound Industry’.

With that published, I returned to ‘The Time-Travelling Estate Agent’ and spent the next 18 months refining it and polishing it. So its gestation period was a rather lengthy five years.

 

After all that time, is it a relief to finally hold the finished book in your hands?

It is a relief. I am genuinely proud of ‘The Time-Travelling Estate Agent’ and I have been delighted with the initial feedback it has received. The very first reader – a published author herself – finished her critique with the phrase “So much to enjoy. So funny too, yet so sad,” and in retrospect I wish I’d asked her permission to put her name and that quote on the cover, because it’s a lovely way of summing up the story.

Why should people read this book?

I’ve been told it’s easy to read and it’s a good story. Will they learn anything about the business of selling properties? Actually, they might, because I certainly did when researching it, but the book is pure escapism and offers a few hours respite from the depressing global news cycle.

Its title suggests it’s sci-fi, and there are indeed elements of it, but it also blends a mismatched romance with a murder mystery, while offering gentle nods in the direction of Groundhog Day and 50 First Dates.

Even though it has a male central character, it also has a very strong female character who proved extremely popular with early readers.

 

We understand that your new book was featured on the front page of a property business magazine website: how did this come about?

Sadly I did not plan the marketing in advance of publication, I’m not that clever, which is why there are currently so few Amazon reviews for the new book, which came into the world in mid-November 2024.

I contacted property trade magazine The Negotiator thinking the book’s release might merit a news snippet. To my surprise, the publication made quite a splash with it (headline: Finally! A novel with an estate agent as its hero!) and also tweeted about it. This was seen by the host of property podcast, The Right Move, who invited me on to talk about the book. The episode drops in December.

The launch of The Time-Travelling Estate Agent has also picked up coverage in the adult sphere, including the German and American trade press, due to them knowing about my previous book.

 

Dig out your cheesecloth shirts and flares and journey back to the ‘70s with Eric Meek, the time-travelling estate agent…

 

About the book

It’s December 2019 in a small Welsh town, and 60-year-old estate agent Eric Meek discovers a property which boasts a truly unique garage conversion. Instead of the more customary home office or gym, it contains a hole in space-time that has been developed into a traversable portal.

A by-product of the homeowner’s attempts to emulate the work of pioneering electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, the portal allows movement between 2019 and the day it was first powered up, 3rd July 1976: the best – and worst – day of 16-year-old Eric’s life.

Presented with a chance to right the wrongs of the past, Eric revisits the moment he believes defined his future.

The story alternates between 2019 and 1976 as Eric tries to balance running his business and improving the lives of people he cares about, including his long-dead father. Will Eric change history? Or will history change Eric?

Purchase links

The Time-Travelling Estate Agent is available now on Amazon platforms worldwide in eBook, paperback and hardback, and is free to read on Kindle Unlimited: https://books2read.com/ttea

The first four chapters can also be read online instantly via Amazon’s Read Sample facility.

Bookstores and libraries can also order the title through their distributor.

Excerpt

Saturday 3^rd July 1976

There was no internal gents’ toilet in the Old Oak in 1976, and Eric walked around the outside of the building to the small extension. It was just as rustic as he remembered it. He stood at the aluminium trough and pondered on the events of the past few hours. It was certainly a day to remember, even though he’d be the only one doing the remembering once he returned to 2019.

Eric’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by his iPhone alarm going off. It was the default tone, which resembled the emergency siren on a World War II submarine, and the sound really carried in the tranquil country air. Shit. He’d left it in his jacket pocket. He finished his business as quickly as he could and rushed out to the table where Carol was sitting. She was holding his iPhone.

                “What’s this?” she cried.

                “It’s an alarm clock,” he said. That was true. He had set it to remind himself to call his financial advisor to discuss the property chain. He pressed the home button and turned the alarm off.

                One of the drinkers from inside came outside. “Everything alright?”

                “Yes, it’s just my alarm clock,” Eric said, snatching the iPhone from Carol and shoving it in his trouser pocket.

                “Alarm clock? It sounded like a bloody bomb was going off,” the drinker said. “What do you need an alarm clock for on a Saturday afternoon?”

                Eric laughed. “It’s Monday where I come from.”

                The man stared at Eric. “What are you on about?”

                “I’m so sorry to have disturbed you,” Eric said, taking a five-pound note from his trouser pocket and offering it to the drinker. “Please buy a few drinks for you and your friends.”

                Flabbergasted, the drinker agreed to do just that.

                “Are you bonkers?” Carol said to Eric. “That’s enough for about 20 pints.”

                “It’s only money, right?” Eric shrugged. And it wasn’t even his, it was Big Ben’s.

                “Let me see that alarm clock of yours,” Carol said.

                “Why?”

                “Because it doesn’t look like any alarm clock I’ve ever seen before,” she said.

                “I can’t.”

                “If you don’t, I’ll go in there and tell them it’s a bomb,” she warned.

                “Please don’t do that.”

                “Let me see it then.”

                “Okay but if I do, you’ve got to promise not to freak out,” Eric said.

                She assured him she wouldn’t.

                Eric removed the phone from his pocket and pressed the home button. The jet-black screen displayed the time in crisp, white numerals.

                “That’s amazing,” Carol said. “How come the numbers are so smooth, and how come they’re white?”

                While Eric was holding the phone, Carol pressed the home button and the screen now had 20 little graphics, one of which was an analogue clock with a digitised second hand slowly moving around its face.

                “What’s happened now?” Carol squealed.

                “It’s basically a computer,” Eric said, deciding it was less hassle to tell her the truth than to make something up. “And all these little pictures are programs that run on it.”

                “What programs?”

                Eric took the phone back and gave her a quick guided tour of his most-used apps: “This one’s a calculator, this one’s for appointments, this one’s an address book, this one’s a dictionary and thesaurus, this one’s a notebook, this one’s a map with satellite navigation, this one’s my bank account, this one’s a news channel…”

                Carol reached across and prodded the phone icon and the screen changed to a numeric keypad.

                “Don’t tell me it’s a phone as well.”

                “It is.”

                “How gullible do you think I am?” she cried. “Where does it plug in?”

                “Please, lower your voice,” Eric urged. “It doesn’t need to be plugged in.

                “Let me see you make a phone call then,” she challenged him.

                “It won’t work,” Eric said. “There’s no service in this… area.”

                “How convenient!”

                Eric inputted the number for the Barrington Meek showroom and the message ‘You must disable Airplane Mode to make a call’ appeared. “See?” he said.

                She looked sceptical.

                Eric prodded the camera icon and the screen immediately changed to a view of the table they were sat at. “This works though,” he said, framing Carol’s face in the screen and pressing the white button.

                The iPhone clicked like a real camera and a small thumbnail of Carol’s face appeared in the lower left corner of the screen. Eric enlarged it and showed it to Carol.

                “Fuck off!” she shrieked.

                Eric smirked. He had never heard her use that word before. He returned to the camera screen and slid the menu to video, and the white button changed colour and became red. “What’s your favourite song, Carol?”

                She couldn’t think.

                “Okay, what’s number one in the charts?”

                She thought for a few seconds. “It’s the Real Thing, with ‘You To Me Are Everything’.”

                “How does it go? Can you sing it for me?”

                “I can’t sing!” she protested.

                “Just hum it then,” Eric encouraged, framing her in the screen again.

                Although clearly embarrassed, she hummed the first line of the chorus.

                “That’s fine,” Eric said, and played it back to her.

                Carol was speechless.

Eric played it again. He then switched the camera into selfie mode, holding the phone at arm’s length and leaned his head into hers so they could both see themselves on the screen. “Where are we, Carol?” he asked.

                “The Old Oak,” she replied, pointing towards the building behind them.

                “And are you having fun?”

                “I’m having a day I’ll never forget,” she laughed.

                Eric cleared the screen and pressed the music icon. “It’s also got stored on it every song ever recorded by The Beatles, The Kinks, Kate Bush…”

                “Who?”

Eric went into his song library and played ‘Wuthering Heights’.

Intrigued at first, a look of horror came over her face as the piano intro gave way to the vocal. “What the hell is that?” she recoiled from the device.

                Eric laughed. Carol probably wasn’t ready for Kate Bush yet, not on top of everything else she’d just seen. Quite a few people weren’t ready for her in 1978, after all. He put the phone back in his jacket pocket. “Sorry, I got carried away there,” he said. “It must be the salesman in me.”  

                “How does it work?” Carol asked.

                “I honestly don’t know,” Eric said. “I don’t even know how electricity works. I’m pretty sure microprocessors are involved but don’t ask me to explain what they do.”

                “How have you got it?” she asked in awe.

                Eric stared at her. In for a penny, in for a pound. “Everyone has them where I come from,” he said.

                “And where’s that, Futureland?”

                “Yes, in a way,” he said slowly. “I’m from 2019, Carol.”

                “Fuck off!” she said again. “You’re pulling my leg.”

                “I’m honestly not.”

                A look of genuine fear flashed across Carol’s face. She stood up.

                “Please, Carol, sit down,” Eric said. “You promised me you wouldn’t freak out.”

                “I said I wouldn’t freak out if you showed me your alarm clock,” Carol replied. “This is a bit bloody different.”

 

About the author

Dale Bradford has been a B2B magazine editor since 1995, initially in the video games sector and he moved into the pleasure products sector in 2003 when he became founding editor of ETO magazine.

The Time-Travelling Estate Agent is his third book. Also available are The Honey Peach Affair, a murder mystery set in the adult entertainment world, and non-fiction title From Sex Shops to Supermarkets: How Adult Toys Became a Multi-Million-Pound Industry.

He lives in south Wales and his reading tastes range from sci-fi (mainly John Wyndham, Douglas Adams, and Philip K Dick) to history, politics, and popular culture. He also enjoys video games and (still) buys far too many DVD box sets.

 

Links

F: https://www.facebook.com/dale.bradford.7

X: @DaleBradford 

W: https://dalebradford.com