Julia Barrett's World

I have a contest going on at Stumbling Over Chaos:

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

The link will go live after midnight tonight, Pacific Time.

Drop by. Leave a comment, and you might win yourself a copy of my new romance/suspense with Cobblestone Press - My Everything. The contest will run through February 11th and the book releases on the 12th.

In other contest news - check the post below regarding Mia Watt’s menage/multiple, F.U.

Leave a comment with the words - Enter me! Enter me now! and put yourself in the running for a copy of her fantabulous book. I’ll choose a winner, at random, on Monday and announce it right here.

In the meantime, enjoy the cover and stay tuned for exciting announcements over the weekend and next week. Interviews! Contests! A week of Valentine’s fun and prizes from Siren-Bookstrand authors!

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Yee-hah! My romance/suspense, My Everything, will be released on February 12th with Cobblestone Press. Just got word this morning.

Never had so many releases in such a short period of time.

Check it out in the coming soon section.

My Everything, by Julia Rachel Barrett

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

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I don’t have a release date, but I received some fabulous cover files from the artist at Cobblestone Press.

The results are stunning. She managed to get the visuals exactly right, from the bodies to the tattoo to the L.A. skyline.

Here’s a blurb for this work of romantic/suspense.

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.

Coming soon!

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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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What’s between the covers?

You can’t judge a book by its cover. So says conventional wisdom. Hmm. I’m not entirely certain of that because the way I see it, readers judge a book by it’s cover all the time. Let’s face it, right or wrong, we judge pretty much everything by its appearance.

It’s best not to make assumptions. For example, yesterday I took a break from work and headed over to the local Starbucks to catch up on edits. A guy, who for all intents and purposes, appeared homeless - judging by his dress, the unkempt state of his hair and beard, and his smell, sat at a table next to mine. He carried with him a black case and a plastic grocery bag. After setting down the black case, he pulled a bag of potato chips out of the grocery bag, popped them open and began to crunch away. I assumed he wasn’t there to buy coffee, rather, he just wanted a warm place to hole up out of the rain. A few minutes later, he turned to me -

“Would you mind plugging this in for me?” he asked as he handed me the cord to his laptop. I plugged it in. “Thanks,” he said.

Over the next hour, we chatted. Who was he? A former investment banker who had lost his job, that’s who he was. He was bright, articulate, and beneath the filthy exterior, a nice man. I bought him a cup of coffee and another patron recognized him and bought him a pastry.

See?

So here’s what I think. My first impression was right and wrong. I was right in that the man was indeed homeless, but if I’d had the time to make any further assumptions, I would have been dead wrong about him. He had a whole lot more going on between his covers than I assumed.

Books are the same. I recently bought and read a book with a fabulous cover - sucker that I am - and found that I had wasted my money. But why did I buy the book? Because the cover caught my eye. Once again, my impression that the book would be great because the cover said so, was wrong.

I’m feeling lucky these days - Resplendence has given me a magnificent cover for Daughters of Persephone and I’m impatient to see the covers for my other books coming with them, not to mention my covers from Siren and Cobblestone. I hope my readers find that what’s between the covers will be every bit as good as what’s on the cover.

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I’ve been fortunate.

My editors have been amazing women. As a former editor myself, I appreciate the work they do - reading and reading and reading and actually attending to, not only the author’s words, but the author’s intent. They have to pull out every error, every misplaced comma, every incorrect grammatical construct and either fix it or suggest an appropriate fix.

An editor has to make sure words flow seamlessly. Is an author guilty of relying upon too many commas? Too few? Does he or she overuse incomplete sentences? Does the author try to emphasize a character’s words by relying upon Bold print, caps or exclamation points? What about the adjectives and adverbs? Do they need to be culled? How much back story does the reader need - can it be trimmed or is it essential for understanding why our characters do what they do? Feel what they feel? Think what they think - erroneously or not?

A good editor doesn’t dumb things down. She doesn’t say - this word is too big for the readers. As a reader, I want to be challenged. How do you think I increased my vocabulary growing up? By reading. I read new words and I either understood them thanks to the context in which they appeared or I looked them up. One of my mentors taught - say what you have to say as simply as possible. So no, I don’t use…what are they called…ten dollar words when a ten cent word will suffice, but occasionally a scene requires a word that says a bit more than - he walked across the room. Perhaps he strode or stomped or danced or skipped or hurried or tripped or picked his way across the cluttered room.

I will take this sentence - she stood on the curb, in rapt attention, watching the parade pass by, over this sentence - she was on the curb while the parade went by - any day.

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Don’t have a date yet, but

I’ve signed a contract with Cobblestone Press for My Everything, a romance/suspense previously published with Cerridwen. This is exciting news. The Good, the Bad and the Unread gave me a lovely review months ago - which of course thrilled the hell out of me. Sandy M. graded the book a B+ and said:

” I gave Ms. Barrett a little bit of a hard time on my review of her first book, Anytime Darlin’. There were things about that book that I liked but more things that I didn’t. But Ms. Barrett was very gracious, took her average grade from me, finished up her next book, and came back to us for another review. I’m glad she did.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed this sophomore book by Ms. Barrett. The storyline is intriguing and the hero and heroine have great chemistry. Now, that isn’t to say there aren’t a couple of little problems, but for the most part, I see growth in this author’s writing and I will continue to read her books.”

No, it doesn’t bother me to admit that Sandy gave me an average review for my first romance, Anytime Darlin’. An average review from a tough reviewer is all right with me - I happen to love Anytime Darlin’, but Sandy took issue with a few aspects of the story and that’s okay. I think if we are willing to keep an open mind, we can learn a great deal from our critics…unless, of course, they criticize without reason and/or resort to name calling. Besides, despite Sandy’s issues with my first book, there were portions she liked a lot and she thought enough of my ability as a writer to read my second. She could have blown me off entirely.

I’ve been writing for a long time and although I don’t have a thick skin, over the years I’ve gained enough confidence to keep on keepin’ on. That’s what we do.

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Do you write to music?

Many of my author friends do. Katalina Leon, a writer with Ellora’s Cave, mentioned in her blog over at Seven Sexy Scribes that she likes to put on a song and loop it so that it plays over and over again. I’ll do that on occasion, but only when I’m alone in the car and I can sing at the top of my lungs. And only with certain songs. I pity the poor fool driving behind me on the freeway watching me dance in my seat at 75 mph!

I found myself wondering just the other day, the Allman Brothers blasting on my car stereo, why do we sing? Birds sing. Some insects sing…sort of. What evolutionary advantage does singing confer? I came to the conclusion that it provides none - I guess I think of singing and music as a gift - oh…I don’t know…as in a gift from the gods? I suppose one could surmise that a person who could sing the best got the pick of the litter, attracted more mates, because most of us do love to listen to a beautiful voice, but somehow that doesn’t seem right. Men and women are attracted to each other for more reasons than I can count, the ability to make music is merely one.

I think we sing for the sheer joy of it. Or maybe out of sorrow - poetry and weeping put to music. Yes, to sing is to be one with the heavens. Music is sublime…well, aside from maybe William Hung.

So. My favorites? Too many to mention but I am partial to rock and roll and Motown. In my contemporary romance, Beauty and the Feast, coming out in March - Resplendence Publishing - my heroine, Eva Raines, likes Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George of Little Feat. Grace Raphael, in My Everything, coming with Cobblestone Press, is a big Barry White fan. Both women love to sing. Me too!

Little Feat - Dixie Chicken

The Allman Brothers, Whippin’ Post

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To all who participated in my first contest!

Anna, Gayle, Fran, Amber, Jenn, and Mortal Sinn…great name!

My right hand is raised in solemn promise that I will not inundate you with never-ending emails and spamish-type stuff!

Each of you has earned a copy of Captured upon it’s release from Siren - As you can tell, I am super excited about this book!

Announcement - when I was a kid, at camp we used to sing: Announcements…announcements…announcements…what a horrible way to die!

Anywho…Cobblestone Press just offered me a contract on a previously released work of romance/suspense My Everything. I am walking on a cloud today because this is one fun book that earned great reviews and I can’t wait to see it back out there in the ethernet!

*Note - anyone who tried unsuccessfully to sign up - even though it may say error, you are still signed up provided you received an email asking you to confirm. Please confirm and you will be added to the newsletter list.*

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