Julia Barrett's World

Songs and their movies pop into my head, like -

Everybody’s Talkin’ at Me…

and – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head…

and – Mrs. Robinson…

Tweet This Post

Please feel free to take a look around and check out the site, read about my books, upcoming releases, reviews, sign up for my newsletter…Whatever you like.

Here’s an update on our boy.  He’s improved slightly with massive doses of steroids.  We don’t know if this will get him over the hump so he can fight what appears to be more of a viral infection or if the slight improvement is just the steroids talking.  Hubby was man enough to stay up all night with Louie.  I hit the wall yesterday evening and when he got home from work, I was huddled in a corner sobbing and incoherent.  I wish I could be stronger, I mean for Christ’s sake, I’m a hospice nurse, I work with dying people, and I’m really really good at what I do.  You’d think I’d be able to handle this situation.  I suck.  I just suck.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll have better news.  Much love, Julia

Tweet This Post

Thanks for inviting me over to your place, Julia!  I love reading your blog. Now I get to play over here! Yay!

You asked me to give your readers a glimpse into the creation of the characters in my latest novella, “Nothing but Sex”, and to talk a bit about how they came to be. If you have read any of my books, you will notice that I tend to create characters that are as real and down to earth as you and me…and almost always with a humorous streak. Whether the hero is a hard-as-nails pro wrestler like David Chance in Out of Her Dreams, or a hard-working Native American rancher like Mike Running Elk in Nothing but Sex, my heroes are men with needs, wants, and insecurities just like every male in existence. These men are not perfect specimens. They sweat. They breathe. It isn’t unusual for my heroes to walk into the bathroom while the heroine is brushing her teeth and lift the lid to take a leak without bothering to ask if it’s okay with her. My heroes are just…guys. Even my alpha heroes sometimes need a kick in the pants to realize they are alpha. But once they realize what they want and need, they go after it with a vengeance.

I was surrounded by “guys” my entire life. Growing up, I had three male cousins who were all as alpha and as rock-headed as they come, and they drove my sister and I nuts. They were never wrong. They were never patient. And they were always getting into mischief and trouble. After my own sons were born, they followed the same path, and made life hell for their poor little sister. LOL! I firmly believe that in at least five of my many past lives, I was male. I was the worst tom-boy growing up. I asked for farm sets and ranch sets instead of dolls at Christmas. I never played with other girls. They were wussy! J

I can easily create a hero for my books by simply fishing into my memory banks and picking out the personality I am searching for, and then running with it.

My heroines are always just a little bit…me. Stubborn, loving to a fault. Self conscious and unaware of how others see them as people or lovers. Some of them are downright tomboy…others are alpha females. One of my novels from Resplendence (A Brief Moment of Pleasure) is about a female blackbelt in the traditional Japanese Martial Arts. She’s a toughie. But the hero is just tough enough to catch her. My heroines are normal, down to earth, and charismatic. And often I draw on my own real life experiences to plot my books.

No…that does not mean I do all the stuff that I write (grin) even though I would love to.  It simply means that something that happened in my past triggers a plot in my head, and I sit down to write.  I never plot out a book. I take an idea and start running with it, and never look back. While I write, I am “inside” my character’s heads. I am coming from their point of view. I use the language they would normally use, and that sometimes drives my editor nutty. When my well educated writer is thinking and talking, I use proper grammar and syntax. But when my hero thinks and talks, I use his point of view and voice.

I sometimes have an editor e-mail and ask why he swears so much. Why the heroine uses “frigging” while the hero uses the four-letter vulgar equivalent. LOL!  How many guys use the watered down term? Hmmm?  Most guys talk dirty when they are alone or in their own mind, and only clean it up when they have to. If in mixed company most will shift from WTF to “what the heck”. But not when they are alone or blissfully without a female audience.

I can’t write stuffy characters. It’s a mental and physical impossibility for me. I write what I know. I write what I feel. And I write what I like to see happen between my H/H.  I am very careful to round out my characters with background as I write, but I have noticed lately that there are readers who seem to skim right over the “filler” that gives them important info about the characters, and sets the scene for why they do what they do…and these readers are telling me that the story never explained how something happened. Or they didn’t get why the character did this or that.  I have to tell you…never skim in my books. If you do, you will miss something that is integral and important, and will come away thinking “Huh?”

When I put an entire story into less than 75 pages, the story is packed with loads of backstory, and loads of info. If you skim, you will undoubtedly miss a lot of that.

Nothing but Sex is a tight, fast paced 63 page novella that is a part of the Cougar Challenge Series. I believe that mine will be the tenth in the series, and is a stand-alone novella that can be read without reading the other nine…but I highly recommend that readers check out the others. The authors are hot and the books are great.

Here is a blurb and an excerpt:

Lee Blackhorse is hardly Cougar material, no matter what her friends over at Tempt the Cougar say. A forty-two-year-old woman who lusts after her thirty-year-old weekend helper is just plain nuts. Or is she? She’s been secretly hot for the man for years.

Mike Running Elk is the hottest thing ever to don tight jeans and a second-skin t-shirt…and he has no problem seeing himself in the role of lover. In fact, if he can just get the hot-as-hell woman to realize he’s plenty old enough to ring her bells, he plans to do more than just clean her barn and mow her grass. He’s waited for her long enough.

When her Saturday helper appears at her door with an injured hand, Lee can’t pull her eyes off his naked, ripped chest. And from her heated gaze, Mike can’t believe she’s as oblivious as she acts. The ice has been broken and he intends to heat things up even more…

An Excerpt From: NOTHING BUT SEX

Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2010

All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

Mike swore foully as he caught his glove on one of the murderously long barbs on the roll of wire fencing that he was trying to move and he tugged his leather work glove off to find that the barb had made it through to his palm. He shook his head and shoved his hair back from his face with his other hand before he tugged his unused handkerchief from his back pocket and wrapped it around his hand, which did very little to staunch the flow of blood. Swearing at his own clumsiness, he headed across the wide work yard to the back porch and stepped inside, knocking on the inside screen door.

She appeared from the archway to the living room, her face pink and her lower lip caught between her teeth as she caught sight of him and he realized that he hadn’t bothered to pull his damn shirt back on. He saw the way her eyes darkened as they slid over his body and he felt a shot of anticipation run from his gut to his cock. Her lips were full. Her eyes were smoky blue. A small vein throbbed in her throat. And it struck him forcibly that she most certainly was as aware of him as he was of her.

But before he could wrap his mind around her reaction to him, she was hurrying up the stairs to the bathroom and he was following, his appreciative eyes on the lush swell of her generous, gorgeous ass as he held the tea towel she had just handed him tightly to his bleeding hand. Sweet Jesus, but he loved her ass. He had loved it ever since he’d first seen her, when he was just eighteen, and he had asked her if he could do some odd jobs around the place to make some cash every week. Right after his dad had died. Watching her walk around in tight jeans had made him forget a lot of the pain in his life back then.

She filled a pair of jeans like they’d been poured onto her. His mouth watered and his cock grew impossibly harder. Even the stinging pain in his hand couldn’t distract his attention from that ass.

As she entered the bathroom and stretched up to the shelf above the toilet to lift down the first-aid kit, he almost whimpered. Was she trying to kill him? If she didn’t stop wiggling around, he was gonna blow.

“I can handle it from here,” he grated as she opened the box and started to take the soaked tea towel out of his grip. But she shoved his free hand away and gently placed his hand in the sink, rinsing it with icy-cold tap water that nearly made him yell at the pain. He stared down at her bent head as she probed and cleaned the wound and each time her body brushed his, he almost lost it.

He lost track of what was happening with his hand as every drop of blood in his body raged into his groin, threatening to explode. Maybe that was a good thing, because his hand might stop bleeding.

“I still think we need to get you to the clinic and get this stitched. It’s way too jagged to heal right, and it’s still bleeding.”

Her words were lost in the hot muddle of his emotions and body. But when she looked up into his face, he forced himself to pay attention. “Hold this clean towel in your palm. Press it tight. I’ll get my car keys.”

Tweet This Post

Translation, please?

Do you get spam like this?  I do.  The above is a good one.  Usually it’s more like ‘horny housewife wants to get with you tonight‘.  Yay.  Can’t wait.

News:  Author Regina Carlysle has a new release with EC – Drilled – part of the Cougar Challenge series.  Knowing Regina, the story will be great!  http://reginacarlysle.blogspot.com/

While I’m on vacation, not only am I strolling the sandy beaches of Santa Barbara – on my way to Disneyland – I’m enjoying Fran Lee’s A Brief Moment of Pleasure - her contemporary romance which is so much more than a brief moment of pleasure!  It’s not often you read an erotic romance and learn a new skills set, I mean other than the obvious LOL! – This is a very detailed and realistic story of a female martial arts teacher and her determination to be respected for what she can do, not how she looks.  For those of you who don’t know, the author herself is a skilled martial artist.  I’m loving the story of Lisa’s early training with Matasi Kanegawa and her meeting with her new employer, the deliciously hot, James Rhee.  http://fran-lee-romance.angelfire.com/ Good stuff!  Here’s the delightful blurb:

Lisa Hampton is serious about her martial arts career…but a woman in the traditional Japanese martial arts is seldom taken seriously. At least, not until one hunky and hot man takes her…very seriously.

James Rhee runs his own brand of martial arts studio…teaching advanced moves and technique to movie stars and competitors who want to win. Something Lisa genuinely doesn’t want any part of.

Being a serious teacher of serious stuff, she finds it hard to swallow his methods. But she soon finds it’s damn hard to refuse the maddening man anything…including her body.

Anyway – we’ll head on down to L.A. tomorrow, but we’re staying in a lovely bungalow tonight.  I love the central coast of California, especially driving along Highway 1, which we skipped this time because we poked this morning until we were about three hours late getting out of town.  See you later!  j

Tweet This Post

Interesting movie but nothing special.  Maybe it’s because I’m not a George Clooney swooney.  I will admit that I enjoyed him in this role, probably more so than in any other movie of his that I’ve seen.  I’ve often heard him compared to Cary Grant, an actor I do swoon over, or would have swooned over had I been alive in those days, but this is the first time I’ve seen any likeness.  Perhaps it was the understated, subtle way Mr. Clooney handled the part.  Maybe it was the expression on his face at the one climactic moment that reminded me a bit of Cary Grant in the movie, An Affair to Remember.  In any case, Up in the Air isn’t a movie that will stay with me.  Anna Kendrick, on the other hand, will.  She stole the show.

Anybody else watching basketball today?  I’m already statistically eliminated from my pool, but at least I won’t come in dead last!

Contests:  I have book copies to give away!  I’d love to hear your hooks for a romance novel!  You can win a signed hard copy of The Cougar Book – full of some fun and very sexy stories!

Have a great weekend.  julia

P.S.  Happy ipad day for those of you who plan to get yours!  Talk about the widespread dissemination and coolness of ereading!!!  Bodes well!

Tweet This Post

Are You Over The Hill?

Rebecca over at Dirty Sexy Books, http://www.dirtysexybooks.com/Dirty_Sexy_Books/Home/Home.html posed a couple of interesting questions to her readers yesterday – Why are most romance heroines in their twenties and is thirty-five over the hill?  Here’s a direct link to the post:

http://www.dirtysexybooks.com/Dirty_Sexy_Books/Home/Entries/2010/3/30_The_Importance_of_Age.html

I thought about this question all night, and I’m kinda pissed because I had this really great post written and then my damn computer shut itself off to update some POS and I lost the post – so here I go again!

I’ve come up with some answers.  I’ll discuss them in no particular order.  First, the no-brainer…

1.  Because it sells.  Readers seem to want to read about twenty-something heroines with thirty-something heroes.  The truth is, women mature faster than men, so in my mind, there is not a great deal of difference between, say, a twenty-eight year old woman and a thirty-six year old man.

2.  Guilty as charged.  Most of my heroines tend to be between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-nine, except for Kate in You Might Just Get It, who is a forty-one year old confident, cute, sexy nurse dating a twenty-nine year old chef.  (The Cougar Book)  I looked deep into my heart and asked myself, why is this?  Well…

3.  Because in our twenties, we are not set in stone.  We are still malleable and we are risk takers.  At least some of us are – certainly our heroines are, even if they are reluctant risk takers.  In our thirties, less so.  In our thirties, most of the time we’ve discovered a pathway, a career path, a family path, a marriage path, and we are reluctant to put any of those things at risk.  I look back on my twenties and wonder how in the hell I ever survived that decade.  Jesus, I took risks, risks that I would never have taken in my thirties when I had so much to lose!

4.  As a writer, I can spin a woman in her twenties any way I want.  She is a blank slate.  I can give my heroine what I wished for myself in that decade – actually what I ended up getting at the age of twenty-seven – my hero, my true love – and my life was pretty damn dysfunctional up until then.  Maybe notorious would be a better word.  I can’t do that quite as well with a woman in her thirties because a woman in her thirties is not a blank slate.  She is full of history, mystery and in possession of a much deeper, more complex back story.

5.  I can write a story about a woman in her twenties from the perspective of what I had learned by the time I was in my mid-thirties – which is why my heroines tend to be tough survivors and unusually mature.  Most romance writers are over thirty.  My favorite writers allow their maturity to trickle down over their characters – occasionally you find the brilliant twenty-something putting out a really compelling story – usually paranormal or urban fiction/fantasy – but my favorite writers in all genres (not just Romance) tend to be old enough to have lived a little, gained some perspective and learned some valuable life lessons.

6.  Perhaps the reason romance readers enjoy stories involving young heroines is that we want to re-envision that decade for ourselves, romanticize it, so to speak.  Make it over into a period of  time when we didn’t fuck up quite so much.

In any case, I do plan to write a work for Rebecca and myself involving a thirty-six year old heroine.  First I have to finish with three other WIPs – damn it!

Tweet This Post

Psyche!

The only distraction is the heat my written words generate!  My distractions involve the day job and family matters.  I’ve made a decision, one more month and the day job is history.  I’m going to focus on writing and a number of home improvement projects that I’ve stuck on the backburner for a couple years.  My  birthday is coming up.  So is my anniversary and my very dearest friend’s birthday.

To celebrate all of the above, I’m announcing a big contest – In five hundred words or less, and believe me this is major challenging, write the opening paragraph or two of your romance novel.  (I won’t ding you if you go a few words over.)  Email your entry to Julia@JuliaRachelBarrett.net

***Wait…hold on…stream of consciousness here…refining contest:  sell me on your story in 500 words or less.  I’m asking you to do the same thing I have to do with my works except I get 250 words or less.  Let me give you an example from Captured:

Mari never expects to find herself caged in a cargo hold on a spaceship. She quickly learns from her captors she’s headed to the meat market. When they try to return her to hypersleep, she resists. After allowing her to stay awake, Mari realizes her survival depends on connecting with the male in charge, Ekkatt. She must make him see her as a sentient being or she will end up as dinner.

Ekkatt has never spoken to any human. They are valued for one thing, the money they bring at auction. The Attun race are vegetarians, but other species prize human flesh and bring in good money. Then the female with red hair speaks to him and forces him to admit she has a name. Mari throws Ekkatt’s entire life into question, the biggest question…can he watch her sold to the highest bidder?

Prizes:  Ten lucky writers will receive a signed hard-copy of The Cougar Book containing my story You Might Just Get It.

Two lucky writers will receive an ecopy of Beauty and the Feast, two more lucky writers will receive an ecopy of My Everything, and one lucky writer will receive a raincheck for Daughters of Persephone, books 1,2,3 and 4!

The contest runs through April 21!  Happy writing!  Julia

Tweet This Post

I invoke the Passover Rule…

Here’s my take on life – give the bitter with the sweet.  Or sweeten the bitter with the sweet, you know…sweeten the moror with the haroset.

If I have a critical word to impart to someone…like, let’s pretend one of the new nurses I work with totally messed up her med sheet.  Should I get all up in her face and say – Hey biatch!  You totally effed up this med sheet and I wasted two valuable hours of my time fixing it so you better get your damn act together and shape the hell up! Should I approach her like that?  If I stood in her shoes, I’d smack the crap out of me.  I much prefer to approach the matter thusly – Hi Meggie, love your hair.  That cut really looks good on you and the color brings out the blue in your eyes.  Say, I noticed over the weekend that the med sheet for so and so was missing a few items.  I straightened everything out with the pharmacy and the family and re-wrote it for you.  Do you need some help with these new med sheets? They’re a bit confusing…

I bring this up because I have a friend, and she’s a really good friend, (Gentlemen Prefer Blonds), and every damn time she reads one of my books – which I always comp her – the first thing she says isn’t – Wow!  Love the cover! or Damn, girl, that story brought me to tears! or Shit, that was a hot read! It’s always like this…I started your book.  There’s a typo on page 23, line 10, or you’ve left a dangling participle on page 59, line 15, or I don’t think that word is the right word for what you’re describing.

Smack.

In other news:  I’ve decided to risk the two a.m. newt face dropping.  It’s a trade-off.  Either I risk a newt or I put up with three cats playing whack-a-mole on my bed all night.  I’ll take my chances with the newt.

I’ve developed a major girl-crush on author Donna George Storey, whose short story, Comfort Food, is near mine in The Cougar Book.  She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to interview her because she is interesting as all hell.

Last but not least – I love this commercial and until Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit, it never occurred to me to associate her with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEXZ2hfD3bU

Tweet This Post

Sometimes I worry about over-exposure.

It’s not my fault!!!

Jack Nicholson made me do it!

When 2009 began, the farthest thing from my mind was that I’d have four releases in three months.  Whoa Nelly as in – never look a gift horse in the mouth, but good God, people must be sick to death of me!  I’m sick of me!

The past few years have been beautiful in many ways, tragic in a few, and flat out frustrating when it comes to my career as an author.  This year took me by surprise.  I expected to see Captured in April, but Siren was really on the ball and I found out in late December that it would be released on January 6th.  My Everything was released by Cobblestone on February 12th, The Cougar Book with Logical Lust came out on February 14th and now Beauty and the Feast with Resplendence.

Believe me, I ain’t complaining, but I barely have time to breathe!  Besides, I do really worry about over-exposure.  Isn’t it better to play hard to get?  You know…like a little goes a long way?  Or is it out of sight, out of mind?  Really – which platitude is it?  I’m hearing Jack Nicholson’s voice in my head – The truth?  You can’t handle the truth! I get like that when I’m overtired…you know…can’t spell worth a damn and Jack Nicholson speaks to me like some perverted devil on my shoulder.  OMG, now I’m flashing on China Town…My sister…my daughter…my sister…my daughter...

Oh, BTW, I think of Captured like I think of Legolas….ahhhhhh…Legolas…..sigh.  Writing Captured was just – like – that.  Sigh.

Tweet This Post

Yeah, some days it’s like that!

Rebecca at Dirty Sexy Books wrote a genius piece back on February 23 entitled -

The Ten Biggest Mistakes Authors Make On Their Websites.

You can check it out here:  (and I asked her permission to quote her, thanks Rebecca!)

http://www.dirtysexybooks.com/Dirty_Sexy_Books/Home/Entries/2010/2/23_The_Ten_Biggest_Mistakes_Authors_Make_on_Their_Websites.html

The first mistake she mentions is the lack of a website.  I have to agree.  In this internet age I’m shocked when I try to find information about an author and her books and google turns up bupkiss!

The second mistake?  No blog.  She’s right – every single day isn’t necessary but a once a week would be nice.  I do get frustrated when I hope to hear what other authors are up to and they have a site, but the last post was a year ago.  Where are you, my friend?

Uh-oh, the third mistake is to bury our stuff under a nest of links.  Guilty as charged?  I try to keep my links to the side but sometimes I wonder if I have too many – but I love those links!  Each one means something to me.  I’ll try to keep in mind, simplify and minimize!

Fourth – link bait for bloggers – Ladies, we need a hook so bloggers find us interesting, you know, like a freebie, a short story that ties into our upcoming release, a freebie for readers and fans.  Okay – workin’ on it!

Five – ignoring your website – that kind of ties in with Mistake Number Two.

Six?  A picture of myself?  Are you effin’ crazy?  I have deep and abiding personal reasons for NOT having a photo.  I do have an icon.  I know it’s not exactly me, but my icon is a smiling redhead, like me!  If you read Captured, you know what I look like and you know what kind of potty mouth I have.

Seven is very important, IMO.  Mistake Seven – They don’t promote anyone but themselves.    This one is of such significance that I think I’ll quote it in its entirety:

Your website is one of your best marketing tools, and so this statement might seem counterproductive, but don’t always talk about yourself.  That’s right, talk about other books, places, and people too.  It’s uncomfortable to visit a site that sells itself too hard, so to avoid that trap, spend some time promoting your favorite authors.  I love to visit Charlaine Harris’s website because she blogs about what she’s reading every few weeks.  Maybe you’re wondering, what if I read something that stinks like a road-kill skunk?  Then preserve your reputation and don’t mention it (let an asshole like me stomp on it), but be sure to give props to the books that you DO like.

Mistake number Eight – We forget to mention and/or link to the reviewers who review our books.  Rebecca suggests a separate review page that contains links to all our book reviews.  Again – workin’ on it!

Number Nine – Author’s don’t interact with their fans.  Well, I do and most authors I know do.  My fans are precious to me.  If they take the time to comment or email me, I will reply.  I’ve been on the non-receiving end.  I’ve written to authors to tell them how much I enjoyed their books and I never hear, so…their books come to mean less to me.  On the other hand, when an author responds, his/her books come to mean a great deal more.

Last but not least – Number Ten – We don’t offer a high-resolution image of the cover.  Sorry, my website won’t always support a high res cover image and I suck at sizing.  Some authors are really savvy.  They know exactly how to fix these things and they are on my most admired list.

I am terrible when it comes to taking advice – stubborn, headstrong, impulsive, but Rebecca has made some excellent points.  I’m trying to learn how to learn when it comes to this blogging stuff.  Thanks!

In other news – Beauty and the Feast - waiting for your recipes and go visit with the delightfully irreverent Chris and her kitties at Stumbling Over Chaos to see how to win a copy.  http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/

Brynn Paulin is hosting me over at Wednesday Wonder Writers:  http://brynnpaulin.blogspot.com/

Stop by!

Author Donna George Storey has a great little novella in The Cougar Book – Comfort Food.  I have a copy of the book to give away, signed by me cuz I have a story in there too – great minds think alike!  Speaking of websites, here’s hers -

http://www.donnageorgestorey.com/

Okay, done for the day!  Julia

P.S.  Just finished:  Game Change.  Just started:  The Lady in the Tower.

Tweet This Post

A quick note and I’ll stop by later!

Captured is up on Amazon and available for download on your Kindle.  Go for it!  My hubby did!

http://www.amazon.com/Captured-Siren-Publishing-Classic-ebook/dp/B00371V7WO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267807147&sr=8-1

Remember the contest – I want your sexiest recipes!  Oh…and I received my hard copies of The Cougar Book yesterday.  It’s fabulous!  Anyone want a signed copy?  Leave me a recipe and you could win one of those too!  This book is hot!  My story, of course, is hot and sweet, ‘cuz, you know, it’s kinda like me.

Releases:  Out of the Shadows, by Cammie Eicher, the first in the Shadow Ancient series,  Resplendence Publishing. This vampire romantic suspense creates a new mythology of vampires, and features a dark and sexy vampire hunter forced to protect the Ancients’ child of prophecy — and the woman who eventually must choose between her love for him and her promise to protect the newborn.

Buy Link: http://www.resplendencepublishing.com/

Check out Cindy Spencer Pape, she tagged me!  http://cindyspencerpape.blogspot.com/

Tweet This Post

Playing with the big cats – so much fun!

The Cougar Book has been officially released over at Logical Lust.  Yay!  I cannot say enough good things about Logical Lust’s professionalism and personal touch.  The pub has been amazing and the book is just as fine.

http://www.logical-lust.com/cougar.html

For a great read, pick up a copy.  My contribution is You Might Just Get It, featuring a forty-something nurse and a twenty-something chef.  The story is yummy!

So…one more hell day at work and then back to the usual schedule.  I do love me some cats!  Just ask Yoshi, Rico and Ichi-ban…and that cougar mama and her cub I run into at the wilderness park.  Shhhhhh – keep it to yourself, somebody will trap her…

Tweet This Post

Siren-Bookstrand authors are running an amazing week-long Valentine’s contest.  You can win ebooks and Strandbucks to buy books from Siren.  Sign into the Siren Reader’s Group for links to the blogs and contest give-aways.  My day is tomorrow, so check back here and find out how to win a copy of my science fiction romance, Captured.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SirenBookstrand/

You can find my interview over at the Logical Lust blog.  Leave me a comment and on Valentine’s Day, I’ll draw a name for a signed hard copy of The Cougar Book.  Link:  http://bit.ly/ZWnZq

Stumbling Over Chaos is running a contest for a copy of My Everything – my suspense romance coming out with Cobblestone Press on February 12th.  The contest runs through the 11th.  http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/?p=5864http:// Head over and leave a comment.  The book makes for a fun, sexy afternoon read.

There’s a contest running over at Romance Junkies too!  I just don’t know exactly where it is – but I think there are lots and lots of freebies over there!

In other news, my kitty will recover from his life-threatening illness – it was touch and go all weekend and he finally turned the corner.  The vet called to give me the good news.

The winner of Mia Watt’s F.U.?  Linda!  Here ya go!  Mia will contact you.  Congratulations!

Tweet This Post

Today is my interview day on the Logical Lust Blog

http://bit.ly/ZWnZq

Drop by, leave me a comment and you can win a signed hard copy of The Cougar Book!

This is one sizzling read, containing stories from twenty-three amazing authors.

My contribution is – You Might Just Get It.  Here’s an excerpt:

Excerpt from You Might Just Get It, by Julia Barrett, The Cougar Book, Logical Lust

Eric lifted his eyes and studied the woman seated across the small table from him.  Her damp curls surrounded her head like a halo.  The first time he’d seen her, in the window across the courtyard, her hair had been damp, just like this.  Sweet.  Very appealing.  He wondered if she had any idea her kitchen window looked directly into his.  Probably not.  She’d only moved in ten days ago.  Eric assumed she was still busy unpacking.  That was one of the reasons he’d invited her to dinner, one reason among many.  He wondered briefly how old Kate was.  It was hard to tell.  She could be anywhere from twenty-nine to forty-five.  But he wasn’t about to ask her and he didn’t care.  Her age didn’t matter to him.  Her laugh did.  Her big brown eyes did.  Her luscious lips.  Her wide white smile.

When he’d arrived home and found her soaked to the skin and shivering on the stoop, he got to play the hero.  That was twice in two days.  There was no way he’d pass up an opportunity to spend time with her.  He’d hoped she’d accept his offer of dinner and he‘d been pleased when she did.  It was no big deal, one of his easy meals.  Oven toasted rustic bread with melted gruyere, roasted tomatoes, baby arugula and a soft fried egg.  Simple and sensuous.  The sandwich was messy and it required the use of all your fingers.  There was a lot of runny egg yolk and licking involved.  Eric hoped he could segue that licking into something else entirely.

God, there was a lot to like about her.  Not only was Kate easy on the eyes, she was intelligent, articulate, mature, and she appreciated his sense of humor.  Plus she blushed at the drop of a hat.  Eric found that adorable.  She wasn’t jaded or flighty, like so many women he’d met recently.  He’d bet the farm she hadn’t grown up in California.  Probably Iowa or Illinois.  Someplace rural.  An old-fashioned country girl.

“Where’d you come from?  I mean, where are you from originally?” he asked.

“Blair, Nebraska.  It’s a little town near the Missouri River.  I went to school there.  Dana College.  You?”

“Minneapolis.”

“You’re kidding?  You don’t have a Minnesota accent.”

“Yeah, well, I worked hard getting rid of that.  I can do it if you like.”

“You mean like…Minnesooooota, North Dakoooooota, ya think?  Like that?”

It was Eric’s turn to laugh.  “More or less.”  He looked at her plate.  “Finished?”

“Oh, yes, thank you.  The sandwich was great.  I can cook, but I guess it never occurred to me that such simple ingredients could taste so good together.”  Kate reached for his empty plate and set it on top of hers.  “Let me help clean up.  That’s the least I can do.”

He watched as Kate rose from her chair and stretched.  He enjoyed watching.  Her breasts were pert.  Not large, but pert with perky nipples.  Two handfuls.  That’s all he needed.

“You have a long day today?”

“Not too bad.  Really.  It would have been better if I hadn’t locked myself out.  But…what can you do?  I was sort of hoping to curl up in a hot bath with a good book, but I left my book in the car and then the key…well, you know the story.”  Kate carried the plates to the sink.

Eric followed with the empty glasses.  “You can still have a hot bath,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess,” she replied, rinsing off the plates.

Eric set the glasses down on the counter and ran a hand lightly through the chestnut locks that hugged the back of her neck.  He watched goose bumps rise as he trailed his fingers along her shoulders.  He heard Kate’s sharp intake of breath.  He waited momentarily to see if she’d move away, but she remained still.

“I mean, if you’re interested, you could have a hot bath…with me.”

***Today begins the Siren-Bookstrand Valentine promotion.  Win ebooks and Strandbucks.  Contests will run all week on

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SirenBookstrand/

Tweet This Post

It never rains but it pours!

Let me try to pull my thoughts together:

The contest for F.U., by Mia Watts, is still alive!!!  Write the words – Enter me!  Enter me now! – and you’ll be entered in the contest for a free copy of F.U.  I’ll draw the winner at random on Monday and announce right here.

My own contest, hosted by Stumbling Over Chaos, runs through February 11th.  Stop by the site and leave a comment and you could win a copy of my Romance/Suspense, My Everything, from Cobblestone Press.  Damn, that cover is hot!  The book comes out February 12.  The link:  http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/?p=5864http://

You can find My Everything over at Cobblestone:  http://www.cobblestone-press.com/

Other news – The Cougar Book, with Logical Lust comes out on Valentine’s Day.  My short story, You Might Just Get It, is one of twenty-three fun, sexy, hot reads.  The book is available for pre-order in both ebook and print and I think if you order early, you can get a copy of Swing!, another sizzling anthology.  Here’s the link:  http://www.logical-lust.com/cougar.html

Every day in February, a contributing author from The Cougar Book is being interviewed on the Logical Lust blog.  My day is Sunday, February 7th.  Please drop by and leave a comment.  If you do, you’ll be eligible to win a copy of any book from my backlist, including Captured, my new sci fi with Siren.  Link:  http://bit.ly/ZWnZq

Katie Couric is officially a Cougar – dating a man 17 years her junior.  Go Katie!

Last but not least, the authors over at Siren-Bookstrand are running a seven-day event, beginning tomorrow.  You can win Strandbucks by visiting blogs all week.  There will be lots of contests.  Head over to Siren-Bookstrand and join the Siren Readers Group.  It’s a great opportunity to get to know some fabulous authors in all genres and pick up some Strandbucks to buy a few books!  http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/

Paranormal and Sci Fi Day is Tuesday, so stay tuned for my blog and my contest!  You can win a copy of Captured!

Tweet This Post