First, a mini walk for my sick dog.

Second, a hike with a bunch of hill climbing to work the gluts and the quads.

Third, a shower prior to the haircut because it’s just what you have to do, like cleaning your house before the housekeeper arrives.

Fourth, a shower after the haircut to get rid of all the sticky little hairs that will fall down my shirt.

Oh, somewhere in there I need to link you all to my Spotlight over at the Dark Diva’s place.  They are featuring me on Monday morning, along with my science fiction romance, Captured.  As soon as they send me the link I will post it.  Feel free to search their spotlight in the meantime.  They’ll be featuring some great authors this week.  http://ddrreviews.blogspot.com/

Fifth, guess what…head shots!  A friend of mine is a photographer and she will be making me look all perty.  She knows I hate having my picture taken so she’s promised I will look gooooood!  I trust her totally.  One of these days you won’t have to look at a cartoon avatar of me.  I’m really stressing out about what to wear..

For a fun read, check out Samantha Gentry’s blog – she’s one of my fellow Cobblestone authors.  Her post is titled – The Internet Will Fail and 8 other predictions that didn’t come true.

http://samanthagentry.blogspot.com/

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Security consultant Ben McCall is alone. His wife and unborn child are dead, victims of an assassination attempt meant for someone else. Grieving, he disappears. When his best friend is in danger Ben resurfaces, only to find his friend isn’t the target of a murderer, he is.

Grace Adams is one of the walking wounded. Her husband died two years ago. One night she is incapacitated. A man comes to her aid. He’s the man she fell in love with years before, Ben McCall. As the passion between them reignites, Grace too becomes a target of the madman who stalks Ben.

Yes, this is a romance/suspense, but it’s also a sweet story.  I fell so in love with Ben and Grace and had such compassion for their struggles that I did something I will probably never do again, I wrote them an epilogue – I wanted everything to come out right in the end.  Like Job, who got back what he’d lost, I wanted to give my characters back everything they’d lost in their lives.

Thanks to Cris Griffin, cover artist extraordinaire over at Cobblestone Press and Jimmy Thomas, a major hot cover model, I got the above gorgeous cover.  The book is available at Cobblestone and it’s just been listed on Fictionwise.

http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/myeverything.htm

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b110090/My-Everything/Julia-Barrett/?

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Years ago, Grace Adams and Ben McCall were in love.  Circumstances changed and they ended up not being together.  Now Grace is a widow and she loved her husband, very much, but has always felt that he deserved more than she gave him – after all Ben controlled her heart, even when married to someone else.  Now, however, Ben is back in Grace’s life and while he says they can’t have forever, Grace refuses to give up hope.

Ben McCall went undercover and into seclusion with the death of his wife and unborn child.  His type of profession is just that dangerous.  When he is called back to the States in order to help a friend in danger, Ben and his friend realize something – Ben is the one in danger.  Now he doesn’t know who to trust and when Grace Adams, the woman he has never forgotten, comes back into his life, Ben knows that he must keep her safe at all costs.

I adore reading about former lovers finding each other again.  Ben and Grace were special. Grace was strong, stubborn (almost too much) and beautiful.  She kept in touch with Ben’s family even when he left her without an explanation.  Ben, for all of his secrets, desired the warmth and companionship of a wife, one to come home to and that scared him especially when his first wife was killed.  The fact that a madman is trying to get to Grace makes Ben bonkers and I didn’t even suspect the identity of the bad guy until the very end.

I had only one problem with My Everything and that was Ben’s sister at the very end.  Too stupid to live comes to mind – especially with her inability to listen to reason, curtail her stubbornness or even do what she was supposed to do.  The end result of her actions almost ruined the entire book for me.

With a intriguing and highly suspenseful storyline and erotic love scenes that sizzle, My Everything is a good read – just ignore Ben’s sister and all will be well!

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She really enjoyed My Everything.  Her review is so winning – and you know I appreciate her energy.  She’s posted it on two sites:

http://thegeekybookworm.blogspot.com/2010/02/review-my-everything-by-julia-rachel.html

and here:  http://book-lovers-inc.blogspot.com/2010/02/review-my-everything-by-julia-rachel.html

I’m having site trouble, i.e., the link upload so I’ll reprint her review here:

“I received this book as a review copy from the author and after reading the blurb I was like “Okay we will see.”. And I have to say this blurb doesn’t do the book any justice.

The book is fast paced and written in such a lovely way, I just couldn’t put it down. We switch from different POVs through the whole story but it made the story more 3 dimensional and not at all confusing. I loved how Ms. Barrett chose an unique voice for each of her characters. It made them so much more real in my eyes.

Our heroine Grace had a few grave moments in her life. She lost her husband to leukemia after only 2 years of marriage and she suffers from really hard migraine attacks from time to time.But she doesn’t give up and tries to handle this all on her own. She is a specialist for pain management and it would look really unprofessional to have problems on exactly the same topic. While she has one of her attacks she meets Ben, her big teenage crush. He helps her and is more understanding and helpful than many other people in her life.

Ben is broken inside. He lost his wife and his unborn child in a terror assasination he should have prevented. He works in the security sector and it was his purpose and task to prevent things like that but he failed and got punished for his mistake. Or that is what he thinks. We all know that there are certain things in life we just can’t stop from happening. We shouldn’t stop trying to but sometimes it’s just the way it is. And especially in this situation it’s not at all his fault. As you can see I really felt for him. Poor man. He’s a strongly caring person and although he vanished from the surface of his normal life for a year to hide and work through his grief, he still cares for his family and friends. When he hears that his best friend is in grave danger he doesn’t hestitate and immediately starts his journey home. The moment he meets Grace again after ten years his first thought is that she is a distraction. But why? He quickly finds out how unlogical this assumption is and discovers his own attraction and perhaps a bit more for her. Surely he feels guilty for that and even more he knows that this is possibly the worst moment ever to get close and personal to someone he really cares about.

The situation gets even more dramatic when Ben finds out that not only his bestfriend is in danger but his sister got kidnapped to draw him out of hiding. The plot is really suspenseful and I was sitting on the edge of my seat the whole time. The story is a great mix of relationship building and actual story plot. It always gave me what I wanted and it was a real satisfying read for such a short novel.

One thing at the end was a bit “Yeah, sure!” and I don’t mean the supernatural aspect. I won’t tell you more because that would be one gigantic spoiler but if I can forgive something like that other readers probably can,too.

All in all this book was a great read with scorching hot, emotional intense and thrilling action in a perfect mix. I can recommend this book to all the lovers of a nice steamy romance with the right amount of suspense!”

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http://www.tinadonahue.com/blog/

Ya’ll be good while I’m gone – and Dana, if you’re reading, hope you enjoy your book!  love, julia

P.S.  Got a sweet review of Captured from Roni over at:  http://romancebookscene.blogspot.com/2010/02/romance-book-review-captured.html

Author Cindy Spencer Pape gave me a nice mention so right back at her:  http://cindyspencerpape.blogspot.com/

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Release Day from Cobblestone Press.

My Everything is a sweet, spicy, exciting romance/suspense.

Blurb:

Security consultant Ben McCall is alone.  His wife and unborn child are dead, victims of an assassination attempt meant for someone else.  Grieving, he disappears.  When his best friend is in danger, Ben resurfaces only to find his friend isn’t the target of a murderer, he is along with his sister Angel.  On the night of his return, Ben unexpectedly comes face to face with a woman from his past.  She needs his help.  He learns that he needs hers even more.

Grace Adams is one of the walking wounded.  Her husband died two years ago.  One night she is incapacitated.  A man comes to her aid.  He’s the man she fell in love with years before, Ben McCall.  As the passion between them reignites, Grace too becomes a target of the madman who stalks Ben.  She, Angel and Ben must use their wits to stay alive as they fight a man desperate for revenge.

Check it out:  http://www.cobblestone-press.com/index.htm

In other news…Romance Junkies is running a fun Valentine’s contest.  Here’s the link to my contribution:

http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjvalentinescontest/JuliaRachelBarrett.html

Here’s the main page for the contest:

http://www.romancejunkies.com/contests.html

Enjoy!  Hint…breathes fire…

**Dana is the winner of My Everything from Stumbling Over Chaos!

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or working on my current and/or next project (cuz it’s gonna be fuckin’ great)…but…

I’m one of the lucky ones on my block who has a job, so by God, I’m there.

At least my kitty is home and on the mend and my dog and I got out for a hike early this morning on muddy trails loaded with deer tracks.  Big deer, little deer, medium deer.  Yesterday I watched the mating ritual of two gorgeous, huge red-tailed hawks.

The female, at least I assume it was the female, landed on one of the highest branches of a tall, bare oak tree.  The male followed with a low, raspy cry.  As I watched, he handed her something that got her all excited.  She kept bobbing her head and adjusting it in her claws, poking at it, plucking at it, while he stood on a branch facing her looking like he was all that.  Since my dog and I were the only other large creatures around, I stood and watched for about twenty minutes without interruption.  The female would spread her wings and flutter them gently, bob her head up and down.  She repeatedly touched the male with her wing tips.  It was so dang sweet.  Now that’s love.  Hope they build a nice big nest and raise a couple of beautiful chicks.

So…working the next four days.  My Everything comes out tomorrow – hope I have time to celebrate, but I doubt it…maybe Monday.  See ya!  Julia

***New link for the contest at Stumbling Over Chaos – to win a copy of My Everything!

http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/archives/5864

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release date:  2/12/10

Cobblestone Press

http://www.cobblestone-press.com/

Contest – win a copy at Stumbling Over Chaos

http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/?p=5864http://

The contest runs through February 11th.

Mia Watt’s F.U. is up on that site also.

Otherwise, I am too pooped to pop!  I think my kitty may be able to come home today or tomorrow but now the other two are acting a bit sick.  Keeping my fingers crossed that they are tougher than Rico and can hang on without any near death experiences.  With love, Julia

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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!

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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!

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