Julia Barrett's World

I asked Stacey to drop by to celebrate her new release.  Saving Grace is her first menage and it promises to be a fantastic read!  This baby is over at Siren-Bookstrand and it’s rated SEXTREME!!!  Fanning myself here…pant…pant…

Blurb:

Grace is thrust deep into cattle country with dozens of sex starved cowboys. Her modest, timid nature soon fizzles away to make room for her raging lust. From one night stands to a ménage a cinq, her body won’t allow her to refuse the muscled ranch hands that seem desperate to pleasure her.

Grace explores her sexuality and pushes her personal boundaries. She discovers the sensual woman that remained dormant during her adult years. It is the love of a good man that forces her to let down her guards. Can she commit after everything she has been through in the past? Will she accept the love she’s craved for a lifetime?plores her sexuality and pushes her personal boundaries. She discovers the sensual woman that remained dormant during her adult years. It is the love of a good man that forces her to let down her guards. Can she commit after everything she has been through in the past? Will she accept the love she’s craved for a lifetime?

Links:

Stacey’s Website: http://www.staceyespino.com

Stacey’s Blog: http://www.staceyespino.blogspot.com

Buy Link:  http://www.bookstrand.com/saving-grace

Sex and Love, by Stacey Espino

Throughout history, men have been prided on their sexual prowess. It was acceptable for them to have nameless encounters, with little regret. Men: the heartbreakers, and players. Women, on the other hand, have been respected for their chaste behavior, and any promiscuity has been frowned upon.

Today, times have certainly changed. You just have to look at the climbing popularity of women’s erotic romance, to know that we are more comfortable with our sexuality, and eager to explore it.

But, being the emotional creatures we are, can we love ‘em and leave ‘em, as men seem so easily capable of?

Do women tend to attach feelings, namely love, with sex?

Or is it very possible for them to have their fun, and walk away with no attachment?

I explored this topic in my recent release, Saving Grace.

Grace is forced into a wife swap by her abusive husband. But spending a month on the Wagner Ranch turns out to be the best thing that could ever happen to her. She comes out of her shell, and explores her sexuality. Though she has some affectionate feelings for the men that she fools around with on the ranch, she’s conscious of the fact that she doesn’t love them, and tells them so.

When Mr. Wagner’s own son catches her attention, separating lust and love is much more of a challenge.  Read Saving Grace and learn how Grace copes with her unusual situation.

All the best, Stacey!

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Still waiting for blood tests.  In the meantime, my boy is doing his best to hang in here. Thank you all for your good wishes.

News…

The very busy and lovely author Stacey Espino will be a guest on my blog later this month.  Her menage, Saving Grace, will be released over at Siren-Bookstrand on June 16th.  Gorgeous cover!

There are a few new blogs I’ve been following:  Read React Review:  http://www.readreactreview.com/ Jessica is so damn smart, she’s scary and addictive at the same time!  She just introduced her readers to Rosario of Rosario’s Reading Journal:  http://rosario.blogspot.com/ Just reviews – Who woulda thunk it?  Rosario has some great stuff on her site.

Rebecca over at Dirty Sexy Books has a new WordPress site:  http://dirtysexybooks.com/ Go WordPress!  Her site is not quite as downhome as her old site, but she’s working on it.  Rebecca is one of my daily visits.  She is wonderful about reading comments and responding.  There’s a group of very funny and friendly bloggers, Chris at Stumbling Over Chaos, Susi at The Geeky Bookworm, Larissa at Larissa’s Bookish Life,  Mrs. K. Khan and K.C. of Smokin’ Hot Books, Janna at E-Romance Reader and Anna over at her site, Chronic Bookaholic-Strictly Happy Endings – who go out of their way to make you feel welcome when you drop by.

Let me see…sliced two fingers today cutting up chicken for the dog.  The vet told me to give him pizza if I have to, in order to get him to eat.  I’m not allowed to cut with sharp knives – and don’t give me that bologna (baloney) about how sharp knives are safer than not-so-sharp knives.  That’s a crock.  A number of years ago, I sliced the tip of my middle finger off while cutting ginger and lemons – with a very sharp knife.  Damn, that stung!  I dropped my fingertip in a plastic bag filled with ice and headed to the doctor’s office.  When I pulled the baggie out of my purse, he laughed and he could not reattach it.  Right now I have cotton balls taped to my fingers with Scotch Magic Tape.  Couldn’t find any bandaids.  My guy ate the chicken.  So it’s all good.  What’s a little blood between best friends?

I actually managed to work a bit on my paranormal this afternoon.  Tonight I think I’ll spend some time writing Rescued, the sequel to Captured, featuring Ekkatt’s brother Tirrit.  Be patient.  It will happen.  Lots to distract me right now.

I’m slowly reading Cutting for Stone, all 658 pages.  It’s beautiful and brilliant, but probably because I’m so distracted, my brain cells just aren’t embracing the book in the same way they did the amazing Under Heaven.  Under other circumstances…

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A Tiny Taste of All Four One, My First Menage…

Here’s the cover blurb, sorry – no cover yet!  Dang!

Lira Pakan, heir to the Throne of Zhinshu, has vanished.  Convinced that she’s been kidnapped, her Zealots gather along the border with the neighboring state of Khubuk, awaiting the outcome of her father’s pleas to the World Court.

Captain Tanner Kepp serves in the elite Special Forces of Khubuk.  When the captain is ordered to choose two men to accompany him to Land’s End, an isolated compound on the maritime border between Khubuk and Zhinshu, the last thing he expects to find is the missing princess.  Captain Kepp, Arms Master Cer Watso and Sergeant Redda Till realize they must rescue her and avert all out war.  The princess, however, has other plans.  These men can be more than her rescuers.  According to the law of Zhinshu, she must choose three men as consorts.  Her people say:  “One to guard the right hand, one to guard the left hand, and one to guard the back, always.“

Gotcha?  I hope so.  This was a blast to write.  The intricacies of choreographing a menage kept my imagination on overheat!

Coming with Siren-Bookstrand.  I’ll post an excerpt soon!  julia

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Beauty and the Feast is hot on Fictionwise and All Romance Ebooks.  That scares me.  Yeah, I guess I’ve paid my dues in a sense, but the way we see things in my family, any success whatsoever attracts the evil eye.   Wooooooooo.  It’s like when my husband says – Gee, my car is running great! – and I slap my hand over his mouth and knock on wood – I remind him that speaking of good things is a surefire way to guarantee an immediate blown head gasket!

To make a long story short…thank you for buying my books and please keep buying them.  Maybe one of these days I’ll be PAN Eligible.  I don’t want to talk dollars and cents so if you are wondering what that is, feel free to look it up.

I think my newsletter will be out today or tomorrow – for those of you who don’t receive the newsletter, I have a new contract with Siren for my very first menage – All Four One.  This is a futuristic work of science fiction – the story takes place maybe 150 years from now in the Pacific Northwest.  I do love sci fi.  My husband says that erotic sci fi is a bit of a contradiction in terms but I find it heavenly to write.

Many thanks to Chris from Stumbling Over Chaos for her sci fi recommendation, Babel-17, by Samuel R. Delany, an unknown-to-me author and work published back in 1966.  I told her the story is like a cross between Ringworld, Albert Einstein and The Left Hand of Darkness.  The premise of the book is that language influences thought and perceived reality – not the meaning, but the words themselves.  Deep stuff!  http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/

Many thanks to Susi over at The Geeky Bookworm who asked me to guest post this past week.  If you want to win one of my books, leave a comment – she’s extended her contest for a couple days due to her school schedule.  http://thegeekybookworm.blogspot.com/

Today is Memorial Day – my dad and all my uncles served in various branches of the Armed Forces so thank you, men and women, who put your lives on the line for us everyday!  You are never forgotten.

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Off to Santa Barbara tomorrow and then D-land.  Saw a whale today in the Bay for the second time in less than a week – I’m sure it’s the same whale and I hope he or she makes it back out into the open ocean.

I’m taking Fran Lee’s newest release, A Brief Moment of Pleasure (which I know will be more than a brief moment of pleasure) with me to read on the trip, along with Cutting for Stone.  I’ll maybe write a couple reviews when I get back and as my husband says – finish up this menage/multiple because he’s sick of hearing about it and having to act out the various gymnastic gyrations!  Just kidding…

Thanks all you wonderful friends for making the transition to birthday day easier and brighter.  I’ve never been a big one for birthdays, except for my kids’ – all I can tell you is that I spent my thirtieth sobbing.  I will think of you while I’m riding Thunder Mountain!

Much love, julia

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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

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I’m throwing my hat in the ring and trying my hand at menage.  My philosophy is this – there can be no slut factor and no positions that necessitate unrealistic contortions.  There will be a reason for one woman and her three men…a damn good one.  This is so scary and I wouldn’t do it if I hadn’t A.  dreamed a menage and B.  hubby hadn’t given me an out of this world idea for a second book – m/f/m.  Is that how you describe it?  I actually don’t know the difference between m/m/f and m/f/m.  Anybody?

Oh yeah – I’m off to work today, but Susi over at The Geeky Bookworm is hosting me today – guest blog – how Barry White influenced my romance-suspense, My Everything!

http://thegeekybookworm.blogspot.com/

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Tied for first – Jennifer and Beth.

Coming in a close second – Mindy.

Answers:

The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

John Smith in Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Guy in Galaxy Quest.

Ripley in Aliens.

Imhotep in The Mummy.

White Goodman in Dodgeball.

Annie, or Joanna Stayton in Overboard.

J.C. Wiatt in Baby Boom.

Norman Maclean in A River Runs Through It.

Thanks for participating!

Back to work on the sci fi menage – wink…wink…wink…

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First thing, I’m going to admit that I’m not a big fan of menage.  That doesn’t mean I think it shouldn’t be written, it means I don’t usually read it.  I’m a flaming one man/one woman fan and for me, a work of menage is generally a big, fat, red stop sign.  Why?  The ick factor.  While the concept of menage on paper is intriguing, not to mention stimulating, the reality can be somewhat less than scintillating.  There are only so many things of so many sizes that can fit into so many orifices at one time and still be pleasure inducing.  There…said it.

As a result, unless a friend writes a menage, I pass right on by without a second glance and yes, I know how popular menage is right now.  That message has been drummed into me by many, many writers…editors…advisers.

However, author Mia Watts sends me sliding down that slippery slope toward M/M and Menage without even trying.  Because the sex is so great?  Well…yeah, that goes without saying, but more because her writing is so evanescent.  She writes about love, whether it’s male-male or multiples, like her new work, F.U. I read it in one afternoon.

As I told her, it’s not your usual menage.  Most menages that authors send me are about shifters and I rarely read them, other than Fran Lee’s Hallie’s Cats, which is a spicy little number.  I skip most shifter menages because after reading a few, I began to feel like the cougar or were or bear should just pee on the woman’s leg and be done with it.   The machismo and territory marking become almost comical.  And…here’s where the ick factor comes in for me – sometimes the contortions these characters go through during sex are just god-awful unrealistic and flat out painful and I have to assume they are thrown in for shock value.

Here is why Mia’s F.U. multiple, cuz it ain’t menage, works for me.

The story is damn good.  The writing, superb.  The style, spare, clean and clear.  Despite the fact that four men share one woman, there is a building love story between the guy I consider the alpha dog and the woman, who I consider his mate.  When he shares her, he still directs all the action.  It’s as if the secondary characters, who are drawn quite vividly, are an extension of the alpha dog’s own personality and soul.  F.U. may be a multiple, but it’s overarching theme is that of soul mates – two sets of eyes meet across a room and you know to the depths of your soul he or she is the one and it scares the bejeezus out of you.  Because there are four men involved, the story could easily have crossed the line into sleazedom, but thanks to the author’s skill at shaping characters and situations, it never does.  The female character is an assertive, confident woman and the male characters not only want to fuck her…they respect, cherish and protect her.  It’s actually pretty dang cool.

This is probably the only time I’ll ever post something remotely resembling a review because I believe – to each his own and I respect the time and effort writers put into their creations.  In this case, I have to tip my hat to Mia Watts.  She’s made a believer out of me.

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