Julia Barrett's World

I posted the other day about joining Seven Sexy Scribes, but I neglected to give you an address so you can actually join - if you’re interested - and follow along - for chats, contests, prizes, new books…all that stuff. Here is the address:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Seven_Sexy_Scribes/

On to other business. Evernight Publishing - a new pub in town - and the publisher of my soon-to-be released, full-length romance/suspense, Come Back To Me, is hosting an amazing website launch contest - check this out…

http://www.evernightpublishing.com/pages/Contests.html

1st Prize

$50.00 Amazon Gift Card

2nd Prize

$15.00 Evernight Gift Certificate

3rd Prize

2 Evernight E-Books of your choice

For every e-book that you purchase through the new Evernight Publishing website (not including distributors), your name will be added to the draw. The more books you purchase, the more entries you receive.

Contest Draw Date: December 17th, 2010

Here’s their newest unusual release: The Soul Dealer, Redemption, by Yolanda Sfetsos

Might break out the Talisker tonight!

If you head over to Siren-Bookstrand, you can buy yourself a copy of my oh-so-sexy sci fi tale, Captured. Ah, the link: http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/

First of all, you gotta admit Jinger Heaston made me a great cover - she really captured the spirit of the book and she got the dragon tattoo exactly right!

This is my first work of science fiction…and I am a science fiction freak! A total BSG/Firefly/Star Trek/The Big Bang Theory geek! Guess I’ve been saving up all that good stuff!

Captured is based upon a true story and what might be a true story. You see…it’s like this…Once upon a time, I lost an hour of my life. Lost it. Vanished. No memory whatsoever of one entire hour. And I knew when I lost it that I’d lost it. Somehow, during that lost hour, I managed to collect the eggs from twelve chicken coops - an impossible feat, I kid you not. My act came to be known on the chicken farm as the Miracle of the Eggs. If you want to hear more, head over to Seven Sexy Scribes and read the interview I gave Katalina Leon. http://sevensexyscribes.blogspot.com/

Mari’s story in Captured is, perhaps, what happened during that lost hour. You know you want to find out!

First the bad - there’s a sick stray/feral cat in my backyard and animal control was unable to catch it. It went after my huge dog and my two kittens. Now I have to try and trap it or shoot it and I’m not into shooting animals - but it appears to be suffering so I’ll do the best I can, besides, I don’t want my own animals injured. God, this makes me feel awful!

The good - Captured, my first erotic work of science fiction, starring a redhead, will be released by Siren this Wednesday. Yay!

http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/ Look for my name and you’ll find my book!

Katalina Leon will be featuring Captured and an interview with me over at the Seven Sexy Scribes site on Wednesday - please drop by and check out the inspiration for this totally fun, sexy work!

http://sevensexyscribes.blogspot.com/

I’ll be chatting, along with Siren author Karenna Colcroft, on January 7th, with Beth Wylde. You can join the fun and win a book if you sign up - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/

Please come and share this exciting day with me. Oh…and I’ll be giving you a taste with an adult excerpt on Seven Sexy Scribes on January 8th. Don’t miss it! http://sevensexyscribes.blogspot.com/

Okay, ya’ll, wishing you good things in this new year. Julia

*Postscript: Still feeling sick over the cat which seems to be fixin’ to die in my backyard. Trying to keep my own black cats indoors and my dog from going after this poor sick thing - animal control can’t get under the deck to get it.

Steve Haber has written an amazing article about the future of the publishing industry in the Huffington Post. You really should check this out - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-haber/the-death-of-print-doesnt_b_394476.html

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