Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 122
October 4, 2010
Pretty Cover Candy…
[image error] Perfection.
Thank you Evernight Publishing. Come Back to Me is tentatively scheduled for release in November.
I love this cover. It's beautiful. And the blurb is sweet sweet sweet.
http://www.evernightpublishing.com/come-back-to-me.html
Blurb:
Sometimes the safest path is to keep people at a distance…especially men.
Cara's life has been one nightmare after another. Abused as a child and neglected by her parents, she's quick to blame herself for every cruel thing that happens to her. And then there's James, the only man capable of making her forget her misgivings and learn to love again.
James, a young doctor in training, is aware of Cara's history. He's determined to break through her barriers and build a life with her…and fails. Cara runs away in an attempt to reinvent herself and James fears he's lost her for good. When she falls into the hands of a drug dealer and mob boss, life as they know it is about to get a whole lot worse.
Can their love withstand the demons of her past and present?
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October 3, 2010
Monday Morning Update and Go Gigantes!
Yes! Got the purse – because I know you were all waiting to hear…I brought in my 20% off card and a greeter handed me another 20% off c[image error]ard at the door so man, I made out like a bandit and got the purse I wanted. Black, sleek, simple, nothing flashy. My old Coach bag is still in such good shape that I plan to keep it around. Oh, I needed a wallet too because the zipper on my old wallet tanked this weekend.
Okay, um, signed a new contract with a new epub – Evernight Publishing. I'm really excited about this – for a romance/suspense, Come Back to Me. Here's the link: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/index.html
My name is already up there and I have a cover…it's amazing – gotta save something for tomorrow!
I have a vested interest, but for those of you who enjoy science fiction, paranormal and speculative fiction, I've found some great new sites – these ladies always have something interesting to say and, of course, they write some sweet reviews:
Panic in the Lingerie – the name makes me grin! http://shiori.haptism.org/
She has a wonderful review of Daughters of Persephone, Books 1 and 2. Check it out and take a gander at her site – it's fun!
My other new fave? Smart Girls Love Scifi and paranormal romance. http://smartgirlsscifi.wordpress.com/
Seriously, smart girls do dig scifi and paranormal! Charlie has also posted a review of Daughters of Persephone, Books 1 and 2. And it is a totally cool review. Both these sites are fun places to visit.
Plus I have to point lovers of all things vampire in Stephanie's direction at Fangs, wands and fairy dust. She posts the most interesting news about the paranormal genre – contests, reviews, opinions. http://fangswandsandfairydust.blogspot.com/
Last, but not least, I have been fascinated by the varied responses to this Wall Street Journal article about the rise of epublishing. I know how I view the situation, and it's not with fear and trepidation. I see the changes in the publishing world as very positive, the democratization of the publishing world and in the end, as always, the cream will rise. As I've said before, I'm not exactly a capitalist, but when it works, man…it works!
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October 2, 2010
Let that be a lesson to you!
[image error]Never watch the movie ghost while working! What a sensual, romantic, tragic, suspenseful story. I ended up drowning in my own tears, especially since Patrick Swayze is really gone. Don't do it…resist the urge!
Let me say one thing that has nothing whatsoever to do with the movie – I love Demi Moore with short hair. She should cut her hair. Why oh why do women insist upon long hair? Yeah, when you are in your twenties it's all sexy and stuff – even into your thirties, but man, as you hit your forties all long hair does is drag you down and age you. Get yourself a cute short haircut that draws attention to your eyes, your lips, your cheekbones. Short hair gives you a literal lift – takes years off your face. Don't be skeered! Short hair is sexy, ladies!
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October 1, 2010
When all else fails, buy a purse.
[image error]I admit it…I am a Coach addict.
I've been feeling like crap for weeks now, so tomorrow I'm going shopping. Coach sent me a 20% off coupon today – albeit they spelled my name hideously wrong – but no matter, they hooked me and I'm buying a new Coach bag tomorrow. It's my one weakness, well, my second weakness, the first being chocolate…no wait, my third weakness, the first being sex with my sweetie. I swear I will feel better with a new bag.
Many thanks to Suzanne Johnson for replaying her invaluable post here. Yes, sometimes it's okay and even necessary to tell. Narrative is not always a baaaaad thing.
I'm feeling kind of happy despite this lingering illness -what a scary thought! Knock wood because I just know the evil eye, like Sauron, is turning in my direction. I'm wearing my good juju necklace despite some additional bad juju news this week – I've also heard some good juju news.
Anytime Darlin' – five angels from Fallen Angel Reviews – it's in my review page – thank you so much Bella.
The San Francisco Giants, and my guy Andres Torres, the 2010 Willie Mac winner…remember, I saw him first (last year, ladies, so keep your damn hands to yourselves) are, as I write this, one game away from winning the pennant…dear God let my team win!
My puppy ate two herbal cough drops this morning. He likes to smell my breath when I suck on them and he managed to grab a couple off my dresser.
Okay, that's about it. Wherever you are, happy weekend. Sending you good thoughts. Julia
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September 30, 2010
My guest, Suzanne Johnson…Show and Tell.
Add some 'Tell' to your 'Show'
Writing books, workshops, tips from pubbed authors will always include that one bit of advice: Show, Don't Tell.
It's great advice–for the most part. But in writing fantasy (urban or epic), it creates some challenges for both the author and the reader in the opening chapters of a book.
Have you ever picked up a new book, begun reading it with great anticipation, gotten to about page ten, and realized your eyes have glazed over? But you soldier on, and by page fifteen, your glazed eyes have crossed and are at half-mast. Because–now you're willing to admit it–you don't know what the hell is going on in the story and, what's worse, you don't care.
That's the byproduct of too much "show" and not enough "tell" in the beginning of a novel.
I've spent the last couple of days judging contest entries for an RWA chapter in the paranormal category. All but one suffered from this problem. They did a great job of starting the story in the middle of a scene. They grabbed my interest. The characters had potential. And then the scene went on…and on….and on…ad nauseum, and after fifteen pages, I had no idea what the characters were gnashing their teeth over, or whether we were going to be dealing with vampires or goblins, or why I should care.
They didn't need tons of back story–heaven forbid. But, c'mon guys, give me one freaking SENTENCE of context. Ten words of narrative to make all that showing mean something.
This holds true whether you're writing speculative fiction or "straight" romance or erotica. Definitely start the book in the middle of some attention-getting action. But by the end of chapter one (and don't make it a really, really long chapter one), make sure your reader has a few things well in hand even if you have to TELL them.
?What world your story is set in. This doesn't mean you have to be world-building like a sci-fi or fantasy author. If your story is set in modern-day Pigtrot, Mississippi, make sure the reader knows that. If you can't figure out a way to work it into your action, tell us.
?Who your major players are, or at least your hero or heroine if you're going to alternate POV chapters, and if you can't work it into the action for gosh sakes tell us what they do for a living or why they're in the middle of whatever scene they're in and a tiny hint at whatever big issue is going to follow them through the story.
? A clear sense of who's important. In your determination to "show," don't have your opening scene so action-packed that you've thrown a half-dozen characters into the mix, ten of whom end up to be minor players in your book. Your reader doesn't know that and will hate you because they've tried to absorb info about Uncle Earl-Ray they don't really need to know. (Okay, I'm Southern, so I have folksy examples?sorry.)
?At least two significant questions unresolved or unanswered. Set up a short-term conflict and a long-term conflict. Often the long-term conflict is an inner one. The short-term can definitely be shown, but usually the inner conflict has to be at least hinted at with a little tell.
Okay, off the soapbox now. A good test of this is to have someone who doesn't know anything about your story read your opening chapter, then tell you what questions the chapter has raised for them. It should be things that point at the big conflict. If it's about a minor character, or wondering where it's set?or they're so confused they don't know what to ask or, worse, don't care enough to ask…well, you've probably missed your mark.
Show vs. tell: it's just not that simple!
BIO: Suzanne Johnson is an author of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. The first two books of her new urban fantasy series set in post-Katrina New Orleans (because, sadly, she was there at the time) will be released in 2012 by Tor Books, an imprint of Macmillan. You can check out her blog at http://suzanne-johnson.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Suzanne_Johnson. Suzanne lives in Auburn, Alabama.
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September 29, 2010
It occurs to me that science fiction romance might just be…
a means for women authors, female lovers of science fiction and fantasy, to break into a genre that has traditionally been dominated by men. Now, not all science fiction and fantasy is written by men. The best known female authors, I suppose, are Ursula Le Guin, Madeleine L'Engle, Anne McCaffrey, Margaret Atwood (who I do consider a writer of science fiction), P. D. James (The Children of Men)…can I get a show of hands? I know you all know the names of many more female science fiction/fantasy writers.
Women bring a different perspective to science fiction, a softer perspective. Let's face it, we like a little lovin' in our sci fi. Check out the following post regarding a podcast on science fiction over at The Sci Fi Brigade – What is the role of sex in science fiction and science fiction romance? – brilliant!
http://sfrcontests.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-is-role-of-sex-in-science-fiction.html
Then check out Smart Girls Love SciFi and paranormal romance, and her entry about genre labels and SFR:
http://smartgirlsscifi.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/genre-labels-how-important-are-they/
This is good stuff.
News: Still sick – I hate this. Puppy Jake is a hoot and he has a new nickname – for all you Giants fans – Buster Nosey! For all of you googling Andres Torres butt, you came to the right place – my guy is back on the field and lookin' hot…damn hot! So what do you all think of the new Hawaii Five-O? I thought the first episode was a little sappy, but the second episode was good, very good, and I plan to keep watching. The new season of NCIS is starting out with some major bang for it's buck…and speaking of bang – I loved the season premier of The Big Bang Theory – Mayim Bialik, as Sheldon's new girlfriend, was hilarious. This will be my TV (father, mother, secret lover) watching until A Game of Thrones begins…oh, other than baseball that is.
[image error]The UFO stories yesterday were freaky! Think I'll throw in the cover of my alien abduction novella, Captured. Here's the blurb:
Mari never expects to find herself in a cage in a cargo hold on a spaceship. She quickly learns from her captors she's headed to the meat market. When they try to return her to hypersleep, she resists. After allowing her to stay awake, Mari realizes her survival depends on connecting with the male in charge, Ekkatt. She must make him see her as a sentient being or she will end up as dinner.
Ekkatt has never spoken to any human. They are valued for one thing, the money they bring at auction. The Attun race is vegetarian, but other species prize human flesh and bring in good money. Then the female with red hair speaks to him and forces him to admit she has a name. Mari throws Ekkatt's entire life into question, the biggest question…can he watch her sold to the highest bidder?
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September 28, 2010
UFOs and other flying objects.
[image error]Since I'm too dang sick and brain dead to think of a creative post, I'll relate my close encounter of the..
which is it? Apparently, according to The UFO Experience, A Scientific Inquiry, I experienced a sub-type of encounter – otherwise known as A Close Encounter of the First Kind. I saw an unidentified flying object. And it saw me. Ooooh…shivers…
I lived in Israel for a year, on a kibbutz at the foot of Mount Gilboa, the mountain where King Saul and and three of his sons were killed in battle. But I digress, what is pertinent is that it's from the foot of Mount Gilboa that I had my sub-type encounter.
So, picture this…It's midnight. With my roommate, Ruth, in tow, I hike up to the very foot of Mount Gilboa. We've been doing this lately because it's dang hot in our stuffy little room. We like to hang out in the dark at the old swimming pool – way up there on the edge of the kibbutz – because the only light comes from the moon and the stars. We can skinny dip to our hearts' content and cool off.
On this particular night, there's no moon. The sky is a velvet black and we can see the entire Milky Way…I swear – one of the most spectacular sights I've ever seen. After our swim, Ruth and I wrap ourselves in towels and climb up the super high diving platform so we can lie under the stars, relax and dream.
From out of nowhere, we both see this round white light dart across the sky. And I mean dart. At first I think, that's gotta be a satellite, except it's traveling awful fast for a satellite. Then I know it's not a satellite because it comes to a dead stop and retraces it's journey back across the sky, but this time, it zigs and zags like some weird interstellar Frisbee. In the silence of the night, Ruth and I grab for each other. I look at her, she looks at me and we both look up. The round white disc stops directly above our heads, and after only a single second of hesitation, it dives straight for us at an unbelievable, inexplicable rate of speed.
"Move," I hiss, and Ruth and I throw ourselves down the ladder, half falling, nearly killing ourselves getting down. Screw the towels, we race down the mountainside, naked. I look over my shoulder and the thing is getting bigger and closer. The very air around us begins to vibrate. It feels like my eardrums are about to burst. Ruth begins to slow, she's not in the same shape I'm in. I grab her hand and pull her along, running as hard as I can. The ground is rocky and uneven. There are snakes and scorpions, but who worries about stepping on poisonous snakes when you're about to have an encounter of the potential alien abduction kind?
We reach the edge of the kibbutz and squeeze between two storage buildings. We crouch there, staring into the sky. The white, round disk hovers maybe a hundred, two hundred yards above us and then, with an abruptness that leaves both of us stunned, it withdraws, moving directly back up into the sky until it's no bigger than a marble. It turns and speeds off, vanishing behind the mountain.
Hearts pounding, panting from our run, Ruth and I sneak back to our room and we swear to each other that we will never talk about it and that we'll never, ever go back up to the pool at night. Ever. Ever. Ever.
It was several months later that I had the weird experience while working in the chicken farm, the experience I think was the inspiration for my book, Captured. Of course, remember…I can't remember…my memory was wiped.
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September 27, 2010
Tina Donahue is here with her new release.
I'm so pleased to have Tina Donahue here to talk about the powerful world she's created
In His Arms.
Villains you love to hate
In my recent erotic romance In His Arms, I wrote one of the darkest villains I had ever imagined
. . .Anthony Karam. A ruthless monster that captured the essence of what I feel is pure evil.
Because there is so much suspense within the story, I wanted the reader's first glimpse of Anthony to be memorable, but not over the top. So often in real life, monsters look just like everyone else. In many cases, they're handsome, allowing them to move freely among their victims, to captivate them with a smile, to entice them with words they long to hear.
To illustrate what I mean, here's the blurb for In His Arms, and an excerpt:
BLURB:
Owned by one man, loved by another. . .
Abducted and delivered into sexual slavery, Lori has surrendered her will in order to survive. For more than a decade, she's been known as Summer, a lovely submissive, her owner's possession until he gives her to his newest lieutenant, a mysterious man called RJ. Commanding and virile, RJ dominates without cruelty and possesses without threat, engendering a mixture of safety and passion. In his strong arms, Summer enjoys carnal pleasure she's never known and tenderness she's craved. In his heated gaze, she experiences a sense of recognition she doesn't immediately understand until it proves dangerous in a way she could never have imagined. Bound by desire and their growing love, RJ traverses the shadowy world of human trafficking, risking all for Summer's freedom only to learn she harbors a fateful secret that threatens to tear her from him, leading to an irrevocable event that risks both their lives.
EXCERPT: (In this scene, RJ and Summer have just arrived at Anthony Karam's opulent estate)
Hogan went to a set of double doors, their dark wood carved extravagantly, the same as the one at the front of the house. He opened them onto a lengthy, rectangular-shaped room topped by an arched glass ceiling and ringed by columns. Vines snaked up the supports, the verdant leaves thriving in the moist, warm interior that smelled of chlorine. Frail threads of steam rose from the Olympic-size pool. No one swam inside. The placid water reflected the muted light seeping through the glass roof.
RJ glanced at Summer. Head turned to the right, she stared. Color tinted her cheeks. Her lips parted.
He followed her gaze to a sizeable spa at the far end of the room. Vapor rose from the churning water. Within it lounged Anthony Karam.
Eyes closed, head tilted back, he'd draped his arms across the lip of the tile floor, long fingers drooping over the sides. In his mid-thirties, he had the exotic good looks Hollywood leaned toward in casting movies about terrorists, a romantic fiction that the men were more misunderstood than dangerous, their smoldering sensuality irresistible to women.
Anthony wore his wavy black hair short. Heavy dark brows complemented his olive complexion, beard-shadowed face, strong nose and cruel mouth, the bottom lip plump, nearly pouting. His Adam's apple quivered with his swallow. The light coating of hair on his chest sparkled with the spa's spray. Fingers curled into loose fists, he managed an abbreviated stretch. A large silver ring, its design unknown to RJ, glinted around the middle finger of his left hand. His right pinky was missing.
Hogan went to the man first, his approach noticed by Anthony who parted his heavy-lidded eyes, their color as dark as his hair. Positioning himself to the left of his boss, Hogan held his hands behind his back and waited.
Anthony ignored his trusted lieutenant and RJ. His attention went directly to Summer, his gaze touching her eyes, throat, chest, coat and bare legs, lingering there, his eyes seeming to undress her further.
A wave of possessiveness rolled through RJ…surprising, primal, unstoppable. He wanted his reaction to have everything to do with a bruised ego, another man staring so openly at a woman who seemed to want only him last night and her craving the man in return.
In the depths of his mind, he knew better. His intense attraction to Summer, unlike anything he'd experienced with his ex or other women, fueled his response and fed his desire. Last night, he hadn't been able to get enough of her. Each hour he'd touched her and tasted her caused her to burrow more deeply into his world.
Hands at his sides, fingers loosened to hide what he felt, he watched the nonverbal exchange between Summer and Anthony. She seemed to wilt beneath the man's steady scrutiny. Out of fear or desire? RJ wasn't entirely certain, resolved to change both.
Plainly satisfied with his effect on her, Anthony's eyes moved to RJ. He gave him a sleepy smile. "My friend." His melodious voice could have belonged to an actor or singer rather than a trafficker of human flesh. Eyes drifting back to Summer, he continued to speak to RJ. "I trust you enjoyed yourself last night?"
Summer's blush deepened. Her focus remained on Anthony.
RJ pushed back his mounting jealousy. "Very much."
"Tonight will be better." Anthony's tone and broadened smile held a wealth of carnal promises.
With a smile, Anthony can order an execution or beating. He's a villain that many of my fans have said they won't soon forget.
Buy Link: http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-8593-50-in-his-arms.aspx
Email: tina@tinadonahue.com
Website/blog: www.tinadonahue.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tinadonahue
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458023097
To celebrate the release of In His Arms, I'm offering a contest today. One lucky commenter will have her choice of one of my following books**:
Lush Velvet Nights – ebook
Adored – ebook
Deep, Dark, Delicious – ebook
Close to Perfect – mass market paperback
Bad Boys with Red Roses – trade paperback
Take My Breath Away – trade paperback
** Winner chosen at random. Winner in continent al US has her choice of one of the six. Winner outside continental US has her choice of one of the ebooks
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September 26, 2010
The Geeky Bookworm, Thanks for the juju advice, and still sick.
[image error]From Susi -
Review:After reading the blurb for this book I had to swallow real hard. I wasn't sure if I would be up for this. I'm not at all fond of rape in books. I hate when authors use this as a way to make their heroine more vulnerable. It is, at least for me, not a topic that should be talked about lightly. It's something that will influence you and your life severely and it's nothing you can just forget or ignore easily. That being said I have to say it's the first book I ever...
September 25, 2010
Either the bad juju continues or I'm channeling Mia Watt's.
[image error]So here I am minding my own business, on assignment in San Fran, when I'm attacked by a homeless woman.
Let me start at the beginning…
I had to go into the city today because even though I'm sick, I promised my daughter I'd go to a Trunk Show. It's like this, my oldest daughter is getting married next year and when she was here a couple weeks ago, she and her sister went into the city to a designer bridal boutique where they were told that the designer would be in town for two days and two...
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