Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 14

How Low Can I Go?

This new book I’m writing? It’s dark, folks. Can I go dark? I mean really dark? As I wrote yesterday, tears streamed down my cheeks. (The one upside of knee surgery– I get to write the story I dreamed up six months ago. Captive audience, so to speak.)

It’s not romance. It’s Lit Fic, the kind of Lit Fic which is known these days as YA, a category of fiction I consider a marketing ploy. This may involve younger characters but it ain’t no YA.

This is a dark dark book.

How dark can I go?

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I’m losin’ it, man!

So Jake came into my bedroom yesterday. It was maybe 5:30, 5:45. And he wore a look of desperation.

“I’m losin’ it, man,” he said. “If we don’t get out and do something fun, I don’t know… I just don’t know what’s gonna happen. I can’t take any more of this. We have to DO SOMETHING NOW!”

He was lucky last week. ‘Oscar’ worked from home. This week Jake has been stuck with me, the cripple. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. I’m a lame-ass cripple. (Now somebody’s probably gonna call the PC Police even...

What does he want?

I was speaking with J.W. Manus about my WIP and she asked me this question regarding my main character–

“What does he want?”

I gave her an answer, but she asked,

“What does he really want?”

I gave her another answer and she asked,

“But what does he really really want?”

And then she had to leave our chat to take care of her mini-minion.

But she left me with that hanging question, kind of like a hanging glacier or a dangling participle. It nagged at me.

What does he want?

Last night as I worked on the b...

Recipes!

So check my recipe page. I’ve uploaded three recipes:

Gramma Jennie’s Silky Chocolate Sheet Cake

Julia’s Baked Ziti

Slow Cooker Pineapple Salmon

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My New Love Affair- The Slow Cooker. Or when in desperate straits do what the desperate, i.e.,...
Slow Cooker Pineapple Salmon. Slow Cooker Pineapple Chicken Toss the following into the slow...
Gramma Jennie’s Silky Chocolate Sheet Cake Cake Whisk together dry ingredients: 2 cups flour 2 cups...

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My New Love Affair- The Slow Cooker.

Or when in desperate straits do what the desperate, i.e., pragmatic, do– use a slow cooker. Slow cooking is very new to me. I bought myself a slow cooker after Christmas– having been terrified of them since I was young when our neighbor’s kitchen caught on fire from a short in a slow cooker.

However, thanks to my son and his love for slow cooking, I’ve since learned how safe and practical and versatile a slow cooker really is.

Using a slow cooker is pretty much all I can do these days anyway si...

Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are deliciously Machiavellian.

Talk about skewering the powers that be… With Style.

House of Cards.

Oooooh. If I was a Washington insider I’d be shaking in my boots because of

House of Cards.

Every episode is a scathing review of the way our government functions.

Genius.

The writers have obviously studied The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, from cover to cover. I know I did, back in high school. The work made a big impression on me.

Politics have no relation to morals. Niccolo Machiavelli

It is better to be feared than loved, if y...

I truly hate photos of myself,

especially selfies, when I’m trying to balance without my crutches, when I look like I’m near death– that’s what my dad always says about himself in photos– “I look like I’m near death and people always tell me, Oh Maynard, I’m soooo sorry you’re ill.” And my hair is all wet and stringy.

But I LOVE this Passive Voice tee-shirt so much I’m gonna suck it up and post this!

Go ahead, enlarge it and read the tee-shirt. It’ perfect.

Yeah, stop looking at my face, you’re supposed to be reading the tee-...

Am I Allowed to Ask Why?

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been the victim (several times) of the dreaded Amazon Review Removal Syndrome. Happened again. Two reviews for two of my books were removed this past week. One review was removed from a book for which I haven’t had a new review on in, oh, I don’t know… Maybe two years?

It strikes me as so arbitrary because I–

A. Don’t ask anyone to write a review for me, ever.

B. Don’t send out ARCs or review copies of my self-pubbed works— nothing, nada.

C. Don’t know a single one...

I figure he’s dead. All Is Lost, a Robert Redford Film.

Abandon All Hope You Who Enter Here, Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy.

The Old Man and the Sea.

All Is Lost. Yup. No way did Robert Redford survive. He endured hell and in the end he went to heaven. Because I always knew Robert Redford would not go quietly into that good night. He would not vanish without a fight. (Independence Day) Amen.

The movie is almost entirely without dialogue. The theme is this poem~

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good nigh...

What do we have here?

I’ve wanted the perfect romantic cover with just a hint of suspense for my novel, My Everything, for the longest time. Got it!

Security consultant Ben McCall is alone. His wife and unborn child are dead, victims of an assassination attempt meant for someone else. He blames himself. Grieving, he disappears, dead to almost everyone and everything from his past. When his best friend is in danger Ben resurfaces, only to find his friend isn’t the target of a murderer, he is.

Grace Adams is one of t...