Julia Barrett's World

Siren-Bookstrand authors are running an amazing week-long Valentine’s contest. You can win ebooks and Strandbucks to buy books from Siren. Sign into the Siren Reader’s Group for links to the blogs and contest give-aways. My day is tomorrow, so check back here and find out how to win a copy of my science fiction romance, Captured.

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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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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Enough with the nicey nice nice posts. I’m a MILF! It’s official.

Pardon me for a moment while I paraphrase Kohelet, or as he’s known by his more common name, Ecclesiastes:

Vanity…vanity…all is vanity.

I admit it…I am as vain as they come. A couple weeks ago I headed over to Whole Foods and I got the look…in fact I got several looks…you know the head down, eyes up appraising look, the interested double take…got it from three guys having coffee in front of the store -sitting at three different tables. I called my daughter and I said, “I am so vain…I tell you, I am so fucking vain. The day I no longer get those looks is the day I hang it up. Does that sound awful?”

Like mother like daughter, she replied, “No, mom, I totally get it. I feel exactly the same way.” Thank you Jesus!

I’m not vain in the plastic surgery or makeup or short dresses or manicured nails way. Never had plastic surgery, don’t wear makeup, hardly own a dress and I bite my nails. But I am vain in the I like the attention of the opposite sex kind of way.

Follow me here…

1. Two days ago, my husband and I went out to our favorite local dive with a couple friends and I ran into a guy I used to hike with…he’s maybe ten, fifteen years my junior and hot. And married. And I like his wife. A lot. He gave me a hug and took down my new cell phone number so he could call me about going on a hike.

2. Yesterday afternoon, I had to go for a mammo because there have been some issues lately that I am not ready to discuss until I have the good word - anyway - the little Hispanic mammo tech, as she’s fitting my small breast into the machine of squish torture asks me if I have kids. Grimacing, I say, yeah, three. She replies, three kids! You are one hot mama! You are what my sons would call a MILF! I burst out laughing while she giggles and tells me to hold my breath and says - See, now it don’t hurt so much!

3. Last night, my old friend (see no. 1) sent me a text and then he called. He said - I was so happy to see you the other day! I felt like a teenager again. You look so good, I wanted to jump your bones. His words rendered me speechless, which doesn’t happen very often, but I finally said…we’re both married buddy. He said, Yeah, I know, but damn girl!

4. It’s called the stress-related don’t eat, don’t sleep, exercise excessively, along with a lot of hot, hard middle of the night lovin’ from your sweetie school of MILFing.

5. I am gloriously happily married to love of my life and the best fuck I ever had so ain’t nuthin’ ever gonna happen, but damn girl…I’m gonna enjoy my MILFing while I still got it!

In other news, my good MILF bud, Mia Watts, has a new release and if you head over to Resplendence you can pick it up along with any book you like and get a discount in the bargain - so go! Type in: Mia20 and receive 20% off your book purchase!!!

http://www.resplendencepublishing.com/

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Come Visit.

You’ll find the link on my sidebar - every time I try to upload it here, it goes all funky on me! I’m blogging in Germany so get your passport and come visit! Totally a day behind thanks to work and the holiday!

In other news, my friend, the Goddess of Poetic Prose, Mia Watts, has a new release, Open Sesame. Her style makes me drool like Pavlov’s dog.

Alister Baban overheard a business discussion which netted him and his Uncle Cassimer a lot of money. When the Simsim Group stock crashes and declares bankruptcy within weeks, the owners immediately suspect the Babans of playing dirty.

Oz Adamo, one of four brothers who owned Simsim Group, agrees to abduct Alister to obtain information and win back the lost pensions of former employees.

Tied to a bed and lusting after his captor, Alister fights the sexual attraction he has for Oz. They want information and he isn’t about to give it. But Oz loves a good challenge and shrewd, serious, sexy Alister is naked and his—at least for now.

Cool excerpt:

He stood off to the side, forcing Alister to completely look away from the first three to see him. Like the others, he had an olive complexion with a head full of dark straight hair. This brother’s hair swept off his face to skim the top of his broad shoulders. Trimmed but unrelenting black brows slashed over his mahogany colored eyes with very little arch. The color reminded Alister of finely polished wood reflecting undertones of reddish tints. Like the sunlit glass of port had been spilled over one of Cassimer’s antiques.

Chiseled and angular, there was nothing pretty about him. He was beautiful, startling, in the way ancestry had selected the best traits and bestowed them on this man. Alister couldn’t help but stare. The white dress shirt had been rolled up his forearms, tucked neatly into charcoal slacks. He stood an inch taller than Cain, with a silence of conserved energy and motion. As Alister watched, the man folded his arms across his wide chest. Letting his gaze fall, Alister noticed the substantial disturbance in the line of the man’s slacks.

Buy link: http://www.resplendencepublishing.com/

Oh, Mia, you are so fucking good!

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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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Off to my Nazi esthetician

for an emergency pimple-ectomy and skin scraping. Gawd, I love Tammy. There is no one on earth who can take care of a painful pimple like my Nazi esthetician. I had to run my daughter over there yesterday for the same thing, an emergency pimple-ectomy. One of the drawbacks of Mediterranean/Sephardic skin - no wrinkles, but occasional breakouts. Today will be fun because Tammy will torture me with the works! An eyebrow wax, bikini wax…ow…micro-dermabrasion, extraction, and then she’ll soothe me with an ultra-sound deep moisturizing treatment. Ah…so painfully good.

I woke up this morning with my German shepherd lying next to me, in my bed. He’d burrowed under the covers and laid his head on my husband’s pillow. He looked just like a little hairy man, or a big hairy man. My husband gets mad because I’m not a cuddler except with the pets. I’ll bury my nose in the dog’s hair and sleep with my arm around him all night. He’s so big and so wolf-like in appearance that I feel as if I’m sleeping with a wild animal. If I raised a lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah, they’d be sleeping with me too. Wouldn’t you just love to bury your face in a lion’s mane? I sure would.

Speaking of cuddling - do you sleep all wrapped up with your sweetie or do you need space? Aside from the pets - and I sleep in a pile with the hundred pound dog and three cats, I need space. Can’t sleep if any part of my husband’s body touches mine. Is that weird? I can sleep with a cat on each shoulder, one on my feet, and the dog lying with his head on my stomach, but if my husband pokes a finger in my direction, I push it back to his side of the bed. Does that make me a bad person?

Oh yeah, and Mia Watts said that if Julia Barrett was a man, she’d be my love slave for life! Uh-huh. Go, Mia. Go, Mia. Check out our love fest at http://miawatts.blogspot.com/

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So Mia Watts

mentioned me in her recent blog post. I love her voice. She is a master at poetic prose. As my…well, as one of my mentors says, her voice resonates with shades of Lord Dunsany, a Twentieth Century British fantasy writer. He influenced many authors, including Mia - though she never realized how well she channels him, in fact, she’d never even heard of him before I mentioned his name.

God, her prose is beautiful. I told her recently that I lust after her voice. Especially in Claimed By Darkness. Look her up. Go to her site - get your butt over there and buy yourself a copy.

In college, my very favorite professor told me…well…told us, his class that is, Write What You Know. In other words, don’t write in a phony voice. The discerning reader will pick it up immediately.

He also said - Say What You Have To Say As Simply As Possible. Use Adjectives And Adverbs Sparingly. Words to live by, except in Mia’s case - she makes it work. She doesn’t overuse the adjectives and adverbs, but she writes magnificent descriptive prose.

And pick up some Lord Dunsany and his protege, H.P. Lovecraft while you’re at it.

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