My work of romantic suspense, which I plan to re-release after July 5th, won an award.  The cute trophy was waiting for me when I got home from Boston.

My Everything won a Lorie for Best Romantic Suspense.  Click on the link to check out the other winners.

It was kind of exciting to receive the award when I’d never received notification that I’d won.  A fan happened to mention to me months ago that she’d seen my name, but I didn’t hear anything until now.

So, here’s the award.  I stuck it next to my Booksellers Best First Book Award for Captured.   They can be BFFs!

Here’s the new cover!  Thanks, Lories!

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my upcoming re-release?  It’ll be out in July.  Here it is.  For My Everything.  I’ll see you when I get back from Boston/Maine.  Hey, ladies, when I finish the bio of Marilyn Monroe, who wants it?  I’ll mail it to you.  Love, Julia

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Congrats to Tonya, you’ve won a copy of Incorporeal.  I’m pretty sure most of you who left me such kind comments already have the book.  But thanks for your birthday wishes!

Not to appear mopey, but I do get the distinct impression that there are so many book giveaways going on all the time nobody really pays much attention anymore.

Nevertheless, here’s one more book for your Kindle reading pleasure, for one lucky visitor:

In the Flesh:  Lightning in the middle of a blizzard? Dr. Sydney Blake has read about it, but this is the first time in all her life she’s experienced it. Has her truck been struck? Blinded by the flash, she slams on the brakes and dives from the driver’s seat, right into a snow drift. 
As a shivering Syd gropes to her feet, she keeps her eyes shut tight, praying she didn’t actually see what she thinks she saw in that flash of light… a golden giant standing smack dab in the middle of the road. No way. Not possible. Or is it? In The Flesh is the sequel to Incorporeal, a paranormal romance by Julia Barrett.

If you’d like a chance to win a copy, leave me a comment – feel free to talk about the weather!  Lightning strikes in a blizzard are good.  I’m not particular.  Tweet away!

Tonight I’m grateful my son has food poisoning rather than appendicitis.  I’m grateful my husband was put on a plane other than the one that couldn’t fly straight – even if it meant he was stranded twice, first in Montana and then in Seattle – he made it home safe and sound late this morning.

I think tomorrow I’ll discuss the dangers of under-cooked poultry.  (I won’t touch the subject of flying.)

Or why Sunday’s stellar yet, at the same time, disappointing episode of A Game of Thrones reminded me far too much of The Tudors (a re-write of Henry VIII’s court which made me nauseous).

Or I may discuss cover-disconnect (when a cover reflects nothing of the story within).

Or perhaps I’ll mention that I am stunned to find myself incredibly underwhelmed and dare I say, bored, by the book, The Hunger Games.  I never in a million years thought the day would come when I’d actually hear myself utter these words– Twilight is a better read.

You know, blogging is a tough act.  There are so many knowledgeable bloggers out there in the ethersphere discussing the publishing industry and the pace of change. Others teach the craft of writing and still others, carpentry (otherwise known as author platform building).  I don’t spend much time discussing these issues.  It’s not my business to tell  you how to do your work or what to do with your work – some very intelligent people have made it their life’s purpose to fill that role.

However, there are days when I ask myself… why not hang up a Closed sign and just write books?

I think some restructuring is in order, don’t you?  Either this blog needs some thought or an infusion of vampire blood.  I’ll get back to you.

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My birthday is Friday the 13th.  Yay!  Here’s the story of my birth – I was born on a Friday the 13th at 11:55 p.m.  The doctor said to my mother, “If you’re superstitious, I can write the time as 12:05 a.m., Saturday the 14th.  My mother, however, is not superstitious, and in any case Friday the 13th is an auspicious day for those of us lucky enough to be born on the 13th.

To celebrate I’m holding a week-long birthday bash, culminating in the Friday release of the new and improved Beauty and the Feast.

How shall we celebrate?  What do you think?  Want a book?

Monday’s birthday gift is a Kindle copy of Incorporeal, my paranormal romance.  So, even if you already have a copy, tweet this, facebook this, and tell all your friends to leave me birthday wishes.  Please!  Please!  Please!  I can’t wait to give someone a fabulous birthday book!  (U.S. guests are eligible.)

Sara Wise is sick of ghosts. They’ve haunted her since she was a child, destroying her family, endangering her life. When an incorporeal being appears in her shower, she curses him soundly and orders him out, but this ghost is sticky. Not only does he invade her shower, he moves into her home, invading her dreams, sharing her bed. The reluctant Sara finds herself falling in love with a dead man.
Despite Sara’s objections, Natan de Manua isn’t permitted to leave. Protecting the woman is both his penance and his means to redemption. She’s not easy to protect, she fights him nearly every step of the way, except in her bed. Nathan may have come to regain his soul, but instead he risks losing his heart. 

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Yes, I am under the weather.  Sigh.  I don’t often get sick so this is a bummer.  Pity me…

Stephanie, over at Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust did take pity on me, and she sent me an article about a soon to be published work of homegrown Gothic Romance.   She knows I’m a huge Jane Eyre fan.  Team Bronte all the way!

Steph is from Maine and there is a project at the University of Maine, Machias, to resurrect the very first novel published in Maine – Julia and the Illuminated Baron, by Sally Sayward Wood, of York, first published in 1800 by Oracle Press in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  More importantly, this was the first Gothic novel ever published by a woman in the United States.  The book has been out of print for 212 years. This is a good year to bring it back to life, don’t you think, in the year 2012?  There’s a certain symmetry to that.

I am gonna get me a copy of that book.  Now that’s an interesting prospect.

“Julia and the Illuminated Baron is a gothic tale of intrigue and romance. Set in France during the time of the French revolution, it tells the story of a beautiful young woman of impeccable virtues. She falls in love with a baron who is a member of a secret society, the Illuminati. He subjects Julia to his obsessions and imprisonment.

“By today’s standards of gothic writing, Julia and the Illuminated Baron is tame. Wood populated her story with castles, crypts, cemeteries and suspense, but it does not have the blood and gore that people expect in gothic novels today.”

No blood and gore?  Well, that’s all right by me.  I’ll have to get my gore-fix via A Game of Thrones now that The Walking Dead is on hiatus.

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