Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 2

A Much Needed Day at the Beach…

that never quitehappened.

After the earthquake cleanup, the continuous aftershocks, the sleepless nights, Jake and I craved an inspiring spirit-reviving energizingday at the beach.

We did. We truly did. We needed it.

So we packed up and headed off. But it was one of those everything goes wrong days.

(Well, the traffic was lighter than usual and that was nice.)

When we arrived and hiked in from the car thingsfelt off. The weather was weird, neither cloudy nor foggy nor sunny. The sea and the sky we...

Daughters of Persephone, Book Three, Reborn.

Do you believe in reincarnation or the transmigration of souls?

I do.

Read about it- for free! This one’s my favorite. It’s dark, deep, and angsty.

A thousand years have passed since the Empress Aja Bokinan and her consort Kyr Aram settled on Calen. As the legend foretold, a great evil has arisen. Black Frocks scour the planets, searching out women, children and even men with a trace of the Royal Blood, sacrificing them to their dark god.

When they see her mahogany hair and gray eyes, Issa Bokina...

Herbal Remedies in Your Kitchen and Backyard.

I’ve been watching Outlander religiously and so I have herbal remedies on my brain. I keep wondering– If I were sent back in time, and I had to practice primitive medicine as a healer (I am a registered nurse) — Would I succeed?

Claire in the herb garden at Leoch.

I’m not a physician, but with my experience I can stitch up cuts, clean and bandage wounds, even set fractures. I can probably diagnose the usual things like asthma, pneumonia, hepatitis, an enlarged prostate, a bladder infection, an...

Julia’s Bolognese Sauce.

Yummy Bolognese!

I cannot, for the life of me, recall if I’ve posted this recipe. It’s my very very very favorite recipe for Bolognese Sauce– which basically is nothing more than a meaty Italian pasta sauce. In Bolognese, the meat is the star of the show.

My recipe is an amalgam of my grandmother’s Bolognese, my mother’s Bolognese, both of my daughters’ Bolognese, andmy own original vegetarian version of Bolognese, so as you can see, the recipe has transformed over the years. This is the curren...

I’m jumpin’ on the Lawrence Block bandwagon!

He has the right idea. I just don’t know if I can implement it.

He goes into seclusion to write a new book.Wow. He’s so prolific!

I could write a whole lotta stuff if I could only put the rest of my life on hold.

Well.

Unfortunately isolation, even for a few weeks, is out of the question.At least for the time being.

But yeah, I can see it. I’m going down my mental list of all those booksin the queue.

Solitude.

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We are blessed.

Napa, the town, suffered terrible damage. Napa, the people, did not. We are so blessed.

When my family and I ran out of our house, shoes on our feet, flashlights in hand, I can only describe what I felt as indescribablejoy.It was by the grace of God or by the grace of somethingthat almost everyone in Napaescaped serious injury or death. One boy suffered multiple fractures and he remains hospitalized. He’s expected to make a full recovery.

Our saving grace? The earthquake occurred at 3:20 a.m. H...

What is a Space Opera?

From Wikipedia:

Space operais a subgenre of science fictionthat often emphasizes romantic, often melodramaticadventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, usually involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced abilities, weapons, and other technology. The term has no relation to music but is instead a play on the term “soap opera”.

Firefly, a television series created by Joss Whedon, is a terrificSpace Opera. (Jayne Cobb is my favorite character.)

Jayne Cobb

My series, Daughters of...

Busting Nutrition Myths – Sports Drinks or Plain Old Water?

I choosea glass of plain old water any day.

One does not need 12 12-ounce glasses of water per day. But one does need water. Water is essential for every single function in our bodies.

I’m guessing I drink 1-2liters of water a day, more on a hot day or if I’m working or playing outdoors. Tea and coffee– milddiuretics– aren’t really all that diuretic. They actually aren’t bad for fluid replacement provided one doesn’t rely solely upon coffee ortea.

(I’m a big fan of iced tea, especially sun tea....

Writing Intelligent Romance. And Why I Have a German Shepherd.

Yes, the two are related!

That’s my overarching theme. My philosophy if you will– Intelligent romance. It is not a contradiction in terms.

I received a letter from a long-time fan, Joy. She wrote to thank me for writing decent heroes.She’s not a fan of what my author friend, Penny Watson, informsme are known asAlpha-holes- Alpha male protagonists who use and abuse women. (Think Fifty Shades or worse.)

I appreciate the feedback, Joy.

It is my goal to create characters who are intelligent, compet...

Why is it when you’ve spent all day making a nice Bolognese

Yummy Bolognese!

your husband texts you at 6:30 p.m. to say he has a dinner meeting?

Sigh.

Wait. You know what this means???

Means I get to watch anything I want that is NOT sports! Yeee Hawwww!

Not Sports!

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