Julia Barrett's World

A fellow blogger recently posed the question to herself - Are we, as erotic romance writers, encouraging women to have unprotected sex by writing unprotected sex scenes? Are we encouraging women to behave irresponsibly?

Hmmm. To me, that’s like the Twinkie Defense. Because I ate a lot of sugary food products as a child, I therefore commit violent crimes as an adult for which I am not responsible. The Twinkie made me do it. I’m going to give women a whole lot of credit here and say that they know the difference between fantasy and reality. For instance, just because I read Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres and because she’s a good writer and she made me feel her main character’s pain, doesn’t mean I’m going to find me some wild parsnips, dig them up, and poison my sister. Or even consider doing something like that for one second.

I don’t worry too much about safe sex in romantic fantasies because that’s what they are, romantic fantasies. Like in dreams, I can do whatever the hell I want. I did write a safe sex scene for my story, You Might Just Get It, in The Cougar Book, because a condom made sense under the circumstances. Logical Lust did not give me a rule that said - you must include a condom in this story. I wrote about a forty-something year old divorced nurse who begins a relationship with a twenty-something year old chef. It’s not like she’s carrying a condom around in her pocket because she expects to…you know… just get it. She’s not expecting to ‘get it‘ at all. But the guy has a condom because guys have condoms. I swear, every guy I ever dated carried around a condom or two in his wallet. It’s a guy thing. A condom fit this particular story because this story is realistic. If I was in the dating scene now, I’d be making sure that every protruding part of any guy I was with was covered with latex and I’d probably wrap myself in plastic sheeting, just to be on the safe side!

When I read a romance, especially an erotic romance, I guess I’m looking for Erica Jong’s Zipless Fuck. For those of you under the age of thirty-five - Fear of Flying. I want to imagine being so caught up in the throes of passion that the world and all its myriad problems vanishes, while I melt into a puddle of love everlasting where STDs and unwanted pregnancies do not exist.

I’m writing under the assumption that readers of romance are pretty dang savvy and can be responsible for their own safe sexual practices. I write to entertain and enchant, that’s it.

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C’mon guys, this is an easy one! What movie and who said it? Hint…hint….

Here’s another hint for “Try not to puke. You might have to lie in it for a while.” Think food and charity work. Huge hint!

I’m working this weekend, yeah, for real, and I was awfully impaired today. Super tired. Hubby came home late last night and ooh-la-la! After you know, it was all over, I said, that was a rousing fuck! “That sounds like a salute,” he said and to illustrate, he jumped up yelling - “Sir. Yessir! A rousing fuck, Sir!” Sometimes he’s just that kind of guy! But then I couldn’t sleep so I went to work on the WIP for a while and finally fell asleep around three a.m. At four, hubby jerked like he was in the midst of his own private earthquake and the three cats, who sleep piled on top of me every dang night, leapt straight up in the air like cartoon cats and landed back on me, un-sheathed claws and all, then hightailed it under the bed.

At five a.m., they all wanted to go outside. I shut them in at night to avoid getting myself into the dreaded you-never-know-when-a-newt-is-going-to-drop-on-your-face situation. So I dragged myself out of bed to open their cat door. After that, I gave up, made some coffee and left for work at seven-thirty. Gar matey!

In news of the world according to me, Stacey Espino, author extraordinaire, has an upcoming release with Siren -

Nice cover, huh!

Buy link: http://www.bookstrand.com/fearless-desires

Delius never asked for his fate, but in a world that placed all its faith in prophecy, he would be a fool to challenge it. He felt like a parasite, forced to live off the fear of humans.

From the first time Delius became trapped in Selina’s mind and seduced by her provocative thoughts, he was drawn to her. She was a mystery that turned into an obsession. Yet, for them to have a life together, Delius would have to go against his own race that demanded he fulfill his destiny. One that did not include Selina.

It’s available for pre-order. The official release date is March 17th - St. Patty’s Day!

Okay, gotta go take care of more extremely sick people. See ya! julia

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