Books
Teal Paisley Tights
After graduation, Jadyn Simon expected to launch her art career. Instead, this Pittsburgh native finds herself locked into a low-paying marketing position with an impossible boss.
Evicted from her apartment because of a small spending problem, she is forced to move in with her know-it-all sister. While everyone else plans a neat, buttoned-up life for her, Jadyn longs to paint professionally. Stretched like canvas between responsibility and dreams, she must choose.
Will practicality always win?
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Vinspire Publishing
Release Date: November 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1732134881
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Take a Right at the Mistletoe: A Very Vienna Christmas
Each and every holiday season at Vienna’s Christmas market, Matilda bakes confections for holiday tourists and quirky locals alike. Looking to escape the market drama, she sets her heart on culinary school.
Dylan has come to Vienna and the market to recover from a career-upending mistake and to unearth new inspiration. But when he nitpicks Matilda’s marzipan, she hears fighting words and perhaps the key to her culinary school application. They strike a deal: he’ll taste test and she’ll show him around Vienna. With each new pastry experiment and Viennese adventure, their relationship sweetens.
But their relationship doesn’t seem written into life’s cookbook. Dylan can’t stay in Vienna, and Matilda has to follow her dreams, so it seems some ingredients just don’t belong together. And yet, their hearts have already committed. Will a Christmas filled with marzipan and mistletoe give them both what they want the most?
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Vinspire Publishing
Release Date: November 9, 2020
ASIN: B08KRLP6SC
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Notes on Being Human
Forty-nine microfiction stories and poems that explore the human existence across the spectrum of love, self-discovery, conflict, and loss.
Each thoughtfully-crafted story opens the door to universal truths and heart-twisting emotions. From “The Art of Being Human,” meet Talia as she realizes she’s been living life on everyone else’s terms, and in “Tied Tight,” relive the hug of a lost loved one. Laugh as you read “I wonder what would happen if you drank it.” And lastly, step into a poignant exchange between a mother and her daughter of “I’m keeping a promise to myself.”
Every scene invites you into your own memories, even as you experience stories of friends, families, mothers, and lovers.
Genre: Short Story Anthologies & Collections
Publisher: Cordially Yours Publishing
Release Date: January 20, 2022
ASIN: B09P42338S
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Barbara Brutt, Romance Author
Barbara Brutt believes stories heal. Whether written, performed, or read, stories have a way of building a bridge from the heart to the mind.
Her storytelling explores the art and act of being human.
Barbara considers herself to be an eclectic 30-something hope-in-progress bent on growing despite the gritty, pot-holed road of adulthood.
Listen to Barbara on the PGH Dreamer Production’s podcast. Click here!
Her work experience includes a smattering of jobs including Pittsburgh’s Pastries-a-la-Carte shop girl, nonprofit project manager, legal blog and web copy writer, and digital content specialist with a healthy dose of nanny, doughnut maker, Pittsburgh Aerialist and Instructor, and house-cleaner. Basically, I’m your Jane of all trades.
She’s lived in three countries (USA, Dominican Republic, and Austria), and She’s visited 17 more countries on top of that. Barbara’s goal is to visit the world. Shhh! A girl can dream!
Currently, Barbara lives in Pittsburgh with her Korean Jindo pup, Fiona. Her most cherished dream (besides traveling the world) was to become a published novelist, and she did so with her first novel, Teal Paisley Tights, that was published by Vinspire Publishing in December 2018. And then AGAIN, in November 2020 with Vinspire Publishing (closed in October 2024), she wrote (in 2 months?!) and published Take a Right at the Mistletoe, a Vienna Christmas story novella! Barbara also published Notes on Being Human in January 2022 with Cordially Yours Publishing.
Her work-in-progresses include a sequel to Teal Paisley Tights, another Christmas novella, and a collection of romance novellas (you can catch a few on her Instagram @CordiallyBarbara).
She rarely turns away ice cream (peanut butter please) and only buys purses that provide room for a book or two (or a kindle).
Barbara would love to connect on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. Quick! Go message her your current read!