Julia Barrett's World

if I could travel back in time

to the Court of Henry the VIII, I think I ‘d take one item…actually, one related cluster of items - my LCD TV and surround sound system and parts one, two and three of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.

I’d play the movie for the King’s Court and I bet they’d just love it. Of course my husband says I could play them Gilligan’s Island and they’d love it…but no, it would have to be The Lord of the Rings because they’d understand it. Even if some of the words were foreign, the symbolism and the action would make sense and I know Good King Harry would cry. I just know it. Men were much more sentimental back then.

Of course I’d go back to the Court of the young King Henry, the golden boy of Christendom, to the time when he felt chivalrous and knightly and still possessed a sense of humor, before he became old and irascible and autocratic.

Ah well, French champagne and baked cheese and The Lord of the Rings on New Years Eve.

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My dad always says,

“There is nothing so over as Christmas.”

He’s right. It’s a bittersweet feeling, especially this year. All three of our children have been here, and on the one hand, I feel as if I’ve done nothing but dishes since Thanksgiving…on the other hand, I don’t want them to leave!

My husband and I were talking about it in bed this morning. We find ourselves at a point in life where our children are stretching their wings and flying off toward the next stage in their lives - independence - I mean, it’s kind of hit or miss, but they are most definitely on their way. At the same time, our marriage and our commitment to each other has never been stronger.

I knew two things about me from the time I was a kid - one, I wanted children - a husband was incidental, and two, I would raise those children to be good people. I somehow managed to achieve both those goals. And meet the love of my life in the bargain.

Last night, we watched old videos of when they were just little things and we laughed and cried and reaffirmed our love for each other. Unfortunately all good things must end. Now it’s over and everyone hops a plane or drives off to his and her new home.

My husband and I have decided to embark upon a joint venture for the new year, or perhaps I should say, adventure - stay tuned - more on that after I get my house cleaned up!

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Romance Novel Sales are Booming

in this tough economy. While other genres are down somewhere between 14% and 17%, Romance has seen an increase in sales - some studies sight an increase of 2.5% over last year, while other information indicates an increase in sales upwards of 34%!

What do we want for Christmas around here? I guess we want a happy ending, by gum, by golly! This economy - while perhaps stabilizing and even improving in some sectors, it sure sucks around here…where I live. My very intelligent, very capable son has been out of work for a year and a half, and despite his endless applications, he’s had nary a nibble.

FYI, the nurses I work with have been forced to accept 1-2 days a week of unpaid furlough, thus my on-call hours have been cut because my co-workers who need the income to support their families vie for the extra shifts I would normally get. It’s the trickle-down effect.

What do I want to read in these economic times? Oh, honey, save the depressing angst for pundits! Every day I spot my neighbor’s pickup in his driveway, I know he still doesn’t have construction work. Every morning I see the guy across the street head out for a run instead of a job, it means he’s still looking for an accounting position. Every time I glance at the empty shell of a house that was home to our best friends until a year ago, tears fill my eyes. Enough already! Bathe me in love, romance, passion, mind-altering sex!

Romance is affordable and you know you can count on an HEA. Sentimental sap that I am, I’ll take an HEA any day.

Speaking of romance writers, author Ericka Scott is over at Literary Escapism, talking about her new release, Crisscross - head over there and you might pick up a new recipe, not to mention a new book!

http://www.literaryescapism.com/

Plus a big thank you to all who wished me a Merry Christmas and those who signed up for my newsletter! Your books will eventually be in the email!

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May be setting myself up for some disappointment here, because I know you’re all busy making holiday merriment…

but…check the website over the next couple days, comment or sign up for my newsletter and win yourself a copy of something -

Beauty and the Feast, a contemporary romance with Resplendence coming in March.

Captured, a romantic science fiction story with Siren coming in April.

Daughters of Persephone, books one and two, a futuristic romance with Resplendence coming in July.

Daughters of Persephone, books three and four, see above, coming in August.

My Everything, romance/suspense with Cobblestone coming 2010.

First five people - go for it!

Merry Christmukah, everyone!

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Hmmm…

Today’s post will be short and sweet - lots of cooking and baking to do and my baby is arriving home! Yay! Besides, hubby came down with the stomach flu yesterday and chances are, I’ll be indisposed pretty soon. Yeah, maybe I’ll get me the flu for Christmas! Thanks, hon!

Just finished Corvus, A Life with Birds, by Esther Woolfson, this totally cool Scottish lady who rescues crows, ravens, magpies - the story of Spike is so touching without being maudlin or Old Yeller-ish.

I just started a book I’ve wanted to read for years, The Jew in the Lotus, by Rodger Kamenetz. Three chapters in and I’m completely hooked, of course I’m sort of…kind of a BuJu/JuBu anyway. The book chronicles the meeting of the minds between the Dalai Lama and various representatives of the Jewish community, including Jewish renewal guru Reb Zalman Schacter, at least so far. The sharing of information took place back in 1990 in Dharamsala, India. It’s a pretty dang cool book.

What’s in the queue? What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures, by Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve enjoyed everything else he’s written, so why not? By the time I finish, it will be back to work on the fourth installment of the Daughters of Persephone.

In the meantime, even obsessive-compulsive me needs a break on occasion. I’ve been writing nonstop for eighteen months. Whew! Course, I’m working on edits as we speak!

Merry Chrismukah! Oh, and by the way, congrats to Mia Watts - her book, She’s Got Balls, is a number one best seller on All Romance Ebooks! Go Mia!

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or, Disney does a morality play.

Ya’ll remember Bambi, right? That sweet Disney movie that traumatized me as a five year old. Darling Bambi, running ahead of his mother, trying to escape Man, the Hunter. He made it home free, and then turned to look for his mother. She was gone. Oh. My. God. I had to be carried from the theater, wailing.

Coming onto Christmas every year, I think about Bambi. Maybe it’s because I remember Bambi’s first winter and his wonder and utter delight at the sight of snow.

You know, some historians have speculated that the author, Felix Salten, an Austrian Jew, wrote Bambi as a secret political treatise criticizing the political oppression of his day. I disagree. Bambi was first published in 1923, a full ten years before Hitler came to power, during a time when the Jews of Austria had full citizenship.

Other historians have called the book the first environmental novel. Again, I disagree. There’s no science in the book. The story is told from the point of view of the forest’s inhabitants like a fable, like an Aesop’s Fable. It’s pretty dark, even darker than the movie which I think is damn dark, especially for a kid’s movie.

No, I suspect Salten wrote the book because he loved animals and nature, and frankly, the man probably opposed hunting. The book made quite a stir when it was released, becoming immensely popular all over Europe and the United States…until 1936 when the Nazis banned it because Hitler believed the first reason to be true - that Salten had written Bambi as a political allegory about the Nazi treatment of Jews. They burned all the copies they could find. Damn those Nazis!

Anywho, Salten managed to escape to Switzerland, where he stayed out of Nazi hands and wrote a sequel to Bambi. He died April 8, 1945.

Aren’t you glad you tuned in for this uplifting post? Well, I think about a lot of random stuff at Christmas time, being Jewish and all - with a Christmas tree sitting in my living room - now that’s an interesting German tradition related to the old Norse gods, but I’ll save it for another post!

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Nothing relaxes me like baking

and I adore the smell of chocolate chip cookies. There is nothing to compare to the taste and texture of a just out of the oven slightly under-baked chocolate chip cookie.

With the possible exception of chocolate cherry cookies or maybe my grandmother’s melt-in-your-mouth cookies. Baking all three today and on Saturday, I’m baking my grandmother’s chocolate sheet cake for hubby’s birthday while he’s off clamming.

Cooking, baking, sex - all smell taste and sound good. Real good. Course, I’ll just have to work out harder for a few weeks to burn off the extra calories. But it’s worth it.

The holidays are all about family, home, hearth, warmth, light and life and around here we are a warm, loving, passionate, argumentative, open, dysfunctional, opinionated, eclectic bunch of cookie eating folks.

Back to baking!

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