Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 30

It’s a Saturday night Monday morning update.

OMFG!  It’s a good thing I have a lot of hair (Penny) or I would lose it (Penny).

Which shall I choose?

God never closes a door but he opens a window?

When life gives you lemons make lemonade? 

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?

Shit happens?

I think I’ll go with simple and elegant– shit happens.  And you deal with it.  You can’t run from it, you can’t hide from it, you just fucking deal with it.

I’m currently on a leave of absence from Hospice but I worked with Hospice patients for twelve years.  Before that, with a few breaks between becoming a nurse and Hospice, I worked ICCU and CCU.  Major shit happens and you deal.

Who said life is fair?  Nobody.  Life is inherently unfair.  Once you get that through your head the weight lifts from your shoulders.  I swear it’s true.  It’s only when you abandon the quest for fair that you are open to joy.

When I was a kid, my dad, who is big into justice, taught us we should always fight injustice, that it was our job to make the world a better place.  I love my dad, you know that, but he drilled the obligation into us.  It’s sort of a Jewish thing, you know, our task as the chosen people in case you never knew what that designation meant.  Our assigned task is to mend the primordial broken vessel.

This is ancient – practically in our genes after so many centuries.  It’s a mystical concept – in the beginning there was perfection, ONE PERFECT THING (God) THAT ENCOMPASSED ALL– everything in existence, or as the Aborigines of Australia describe it– the all at once time.  But then the vessel shattered, (kind of like the Jewish version of The Big Bang Theory), and thus we are left with a shattered vessel, an imperfect world.

This was a heavy burden to lay on children.  My two sisters didn’t hold up well.  I’m tough, but I carried that notion into adulthood, feeling responsible for every single awful thing that happened in this world.  And then one day I shut it all down – erected some barricades, protected myself – I decided I couldn’t fix the world, the best I could do was fix me and if I fixed me I could raise conscious children and hope they would raise conscious children.  One person cannot save the world.  One person can only do the best he or she can.

At the very least I hope my children will leave the world no worse than they found it.  Hey, I’ve worked my ass off to try to ensure that.

I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have the support of my friends right now.  And how humbled I am by the fact that our son in law survived his accident.  Now that his surgery is over and his difficult recovery is beginning, we’re realizing the full extent of his injuries and, as my husband says, “His life was saved by divine intervention.”

Vessels get broken.  Sometimes we puny humans manage to glue, tape, nail, screw them back together again.

Speaking of joy, my daughter has hooked me on all the TLC wedding dress shows– Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown.  Can’t look away, I swear.  Even my husband was transfixed last night.  We stayed up so late watching brides try on wedding dresses– had to pry ourselves away from the television.  And to think, just two days ago I was busy proclaiming my hatred for reality TV.

Face plant!  But how can anyone resist?  (Ray)  Look:

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Freaky Friday. Well, I don’t know about freaky…

A peek into the mind-ramblings of Julia Barrett~

Julia Barrett hates referring to herself in the third person.

When I die, I will leave my children with these parting words of wisdom:  Never try to run fibrous material through your garbage disposal.

Radish greens. Fibrous.

I would run for president because I’d make a darn good president, but I can’t because I have too many skeletons in my closet.  Besides, politics makes me nauseous.

Why has Anthony Weiner entered the race for mayor of New York? What is the story behind that boner, uh, I mean bonehead move? Inquiring minds want to know.

Couldn’t bring myself to post a photo of Anthony Weiner.

Why are the Kardashians famous?

Alicia Keyes seems like a nice person.  So does Julianne Moore.

She writes poetry too!

Riding a horse is better than the best sex.  Not in a sexual way though.  In a thoroughly mind-body-spiritually fulfilling way.  Yes, my husband and I have discussed this.

Water skiing is more fun than snow skiing.  I wish I was water skiing right now.

Not me – I have a blue bathing suit. But I do prefer slalom skiing.

When an insane motorcyclist zips past me on a winding two-lane road in a no-passing zone and he’s traveling well over the speed limit… like say he’s going maybe 70, 80 mph in a 45 mph zone, and he’s endangering any number of people, I always wonder what I will do if I see him flattened on the pavement.  Will I stop and help, or will I just drive on by?

My daughter, the one who never wanted to grow up and always made sure we all knew she never wanted to grow up, is having to grow up really fast.  Makes me cry weird bitter-sweet tears.  Reminds me of Passover.  Bitter/Sweet.

Do you think it’s really worth it to blog?

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Thursdays with Jake- The Miracle.

Those of you who know me best know the main reason I spend time in Montana.  A little over a year ago my older daughter married a Montana rancher– and there’s a larger story behind that which will have to wait for another time.

Ranching is, well, it’s a way of life, it’s a religion, it’s a passion, it’s a labor of love and devotion and sacrifice, and it’s also dangerous.

Yesterday our beloved and adored son in law was in an accident.  He and our daughter had been on horseback, working cows, for twelve hours.  They put up the horses and she headed back to the house in the truck, he headed up to a pasture a mile beyond their house to check on some fences.  He took the four-wheeler because the horses were tired, he needed to carry tools and the ‘mule’ is too slow.

He wasn’t doing anything unusual, as in he wasn’t driving in a reckless manner.  As he headed up the rutted dirt road, a cow and calf darted in front of him.  (Normally cows and calves move away from the four-wheeler so you can pretty much ignore them.) Our son in law tried to brake and he swerved, hit a rut, and the four-wheeler flipped. As he says, he went ass over teakettle.

His guardian angel was watching out for him because he landed in a shallow drainage ditch beside the road with the four-wheeler on top of him.  If he hadn’t landed in the drainage ditch he would very likely be dead. He managed to crawl out from under the four-wheeler and reach his cell phone so he could call our daughter.  She’s not exactly cool in an emergency… she sort of goes into shock, but she hauled ass down the road.  She says he looked pretty bad.

This is a ranch.  Eight thousand acres in the middle of nowhere – forty miles from the nearest tiny town.  Our daughter didn’t want to move him so she called a friend– twenty miles away– an EMT.  He drove like a bat out of hell to get there.  He determined our son in law probably did not have a broken neck or a broken back.  Between the two of them, they stabilized him and lifted him into the rescue vehicle.  My daughter followed them into town to the small hospital where they evaluated him and sent him by ambulance to the closest large hospital.

Thanks to his guardian angel, he suffered nothing worse than a badly broken shoulder, humerus and scapula. He has torn ligaments and muscles pulled away from the bone. A specialist has been called in to perform surgery on Friday, to stabilize his shoulder and repair the torn ligaments and muscles.

My son in law will be fine, he’s pissed off as hell, but he’ll be fine.  This is the busiest time of year on the ranch.  There are babies to care for, fences to mend before the cattle are moved up into the mountain pastures– which entails a four day cattle drive on horseback– bulls to move after the cows, hay to plant and harvest, in the meantime all the livestock needs feeding.  At least they’ve already finished branding, vaccines and castration.

I know everyone, all their neighbors, will pull together and help out– ‘Oscar’, our youngest daughter, (even Jake) and I will head up there whenever they need us, if it’s only to cook and clean and feed and support the riders.  I’ll even rake hay… I don’t care.  Whatever they need we’ll do.

Life is messy, folks.  This could have been so much worse.

From my personal wedding album.  The ceremony and reception were held on their ranch, and that’s their truck, not a prop.  Yeah, we hauled in a full bar.:

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Wicked Wednesday – A Space Opera!

It’s a damn good thing I have a bunch of books out there because I’m getting NO work done.  I am, however, getting sick again which pisses the hell outta me.

On the bright side, the second volume of my Space Opera, Daughters Of Persephone– Exile – is free on Amazon for the rest of the week.  See here.

A wicked excerpt:

Ennat reached over and closed Karna’s open mouth.

“By a gack’s shit, is that how all you women fly?”

“Of course.” Ennat grinned at him. “You’ve never flown with a Woman of the Blood. You must try it.”

“I’ve heard stories of my gran, but I didn’t believe them. I thought my father was simply telling tales.”

“Your gran?” Ennat’s eyes opened wide. “That was what Kyr meant? She was a pilot?”

“Yes. She flew the route between Calen and Matsu.”

Ennat closed her eyes. “How did I miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“Your smell. I should have smelled it. You are of the Blood. Why didn’t I know this?”

Karna laughed. “I should hope I don’t smell like you. You smell far too pretty.”

“Karna, I’m not teasing. Only a Woman of the Blood can fly between Calen and Matsu through the Tionay Nebula. That’s the route she took, isn’t it?”

“So says my da.”

“Let’s test it,” said Ennat. She reached for Karna’s hand. “Fly with me and we’ll see if you’re of the Blood. Let’s take the Glory to the repair station. I’ll pilot.”

“You’ll pilot?”

“Of course. You saw Aja take off in that tiny craft. You watched her flash right above our heads. Exactly who do you think trained with whom? Your brother seems to have no problem with her, with the way we fly.”

Karna considered her words for a moment. He wasn’t so certain his stomach would hold up under those turns. He had no desire to appear less than a man in front of his woman. Davi Fedd had described at length how sick he’d been with Aja at the controls.

“All right, just let me settle—”

“It’s all settled, they’re all settled. They’ll be leaving to gather their troops. Arms shipments won’t arrive until tomorrow. Let’s have a bit of fun together.”

Karna raised an eyebrow. “What we do in my bunk isn’t enough fun for you?”

Ennat laughed. “Oh yes, that is most very fun. But I haven’t flown in weeks and I love it. It’s so thrilling, so exhilarating. Please? Please, Karna, fly with me.”

“Now you sound like a woman begging for a new gown.”

“Hah. As if a gown matters to me. I’d rather be dressed like you. Your weave is far more comfortable than this clothing. I hate formal garb. I find it so restrictive.”

Karna dragged her against him. “Restrictive? I like the way it restricts certain parts of your anatomy. But I must say, I didn’t notice you putting on any undergarments. All I need do is lift up that skirt…”

“Stop trying to distract me.”

“But it’s working, isn’t it?”

Karna stared at her exposed cleavage. He watched as Ennat’s breathing became ragged and she shoved her breasts forward, giving him a more pronounced view.

He led her to his quarters wondering what is this thing that happens between a man and a woman of the Blood? This overwhelming desire, this lust that seems to increase even more once you’ve shared the Blood?

All Karna had to do was look at Ennat in a certain way and he knew he could make her tremble with desire for him. He was certain this warrior woman had never felt this kind of weakness in all her born days. Despite his own weakness where she was concerned, he’d never felt more of a man.

When they reached his cabin, Karna kicked the door shut behind them. His nostrils flared with raw desire.

“I can smell your heat,” he said, blunt as ever. “Gods, it smells like you’re on fire for me.”

Ennat didn’t protest when his big hands lifted her skirt and his palms slid upward along the inside of her thighs. Ennat sagged in his arms.

“Stand up, woman. Don’t you dare fall.”

Ennat began to whimper, and Karna knew he had her. She was trapped by her own desire for him exactly as he’d been caught by her the moment he’d seen her, sword raised, drenched in sweat, eyes on fire when she challenged him to fight her.

“You may be able to best me with a sword or a knife, you may be the better pilot, but woman, you belong to me. Never forget it. And remember…” He laid his lips against her ear. “Always leave off the undergarments.”

“Bloody male chauvinist.”

“Yes I am.” Karna was unrepentant. “And that’s why you love me. You may be able to slice me six ways to Solsday on the battlefield, but…” He pressed his erection against her. “Only I can do this to you.”

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The Flexitarian Pantry- Science Fiction Included.

As my husband, ‘Oscar’, says–  ”You’ve gotta have your head so far up your ass you’re looking out your ear.”

Read this:  From the San Francisco Chronicle– Here’s My Plan to Stop Eating Food

Julia says– “No fuckin’ way!”

Now, watch this:

The film, Soylent Green, is based upon the science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room!, written by Harry Harrison.

Shall I continue?

The Flexitarian Pantry – Real Food for Real People who do not have their heads up their asses because if your head is up your ass you surely can’t chew… at least not very well so therefore perhaps you should ‘stop eating’.

Sweeteners:

You may buy into the myth that all sweeteners are created unequal, as in it’s much healthier to cook and bake with honey or maple syrup or coconut sugar or palm sugar or date sugar or any alterna-sugar instead of white sugar.

Well, you would be wrong, more or less.  While it’s true that the less processed sweeteners do contain marginally more nutrition– as in a few more anti-oxidants than does plain old white table sugar which basically is just sucrose– for the most part the body metabolizes sweeteners exactly the same.  The body does not differentiate.  To the body, glucose is glucose is glucose.  The body even metabolizes fruit the same– which is why it’s best to eat the whole fruit, not just drink the juice.

Right or wrong, there are a couple of sweeteners I avoid in principle – high fructose corn syrup and plain fructose.  Fructose is not good for the liver.  Not good.  Avoid.  (Fruit contains fructose.  Fruit also contains fiber, vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, anti-oxidants so therefore fruit is good, but plain old fructose me thinks is bad.)

Not only do I use white sugar for baking, I use Superfine Sugar because it makes the best pastries, cakes and cookies.  It’s not like I’m stuffing spoonfuls, or spoons full, of sugar into my mouth for god’s sake.  All things in moderation!

So here’s what I keep in my pantry–

Superfine Sugar– Best for baking.

Superfine Sugar.

Confectioners Sugar– Best used for frosting or if you need a sugar which will dissolve almost instantly.  It also sticks to warm cookies and fudge, creating a nice sugar coating.  It’s nothing more than pulverized white sugar.

Confectioners or Powdered Sugar.

Brown Sugar– Brown sugar is a mix of sugar and molasses.  It remains soft and makes super good cookies!

Brown Sugar.

Raw Unrefined Sugar– Best for sprinkling over cereal, oatmeal,  into coffee.  We’re talking the same difference folks – there is no difference, nutritionally speaking, between the way the body metabolizes raw unrefined sugar or coconut sugar or palm sugar.  You can damn me all you want for that statement but it’s the truth. Raw sugar can be used for baking but it’s a little too grainy for my taste.

Raw Sugar.

My Personal Stash of La Perruche Pure Cane Rough Cut Cubes– Perfect for my coffee!

Rough Cut Brown Sugar Cubes.

Raw Honey– Here’s my fave~ Branches Black Button Sage Honey.  Oh my god!  It’s heavenly!  Remember, honey is a more concentrated sweetener than sugar.  It contains both fructose and sucrose.  Any recipe must be adjusted if you substitute honey for sugar.  I have a great honey cake recipe from my grandmother, but for the most part our honey gets spread on peanut butter toast, drizzled into tea, and used for coughs.

Black Button Sage Honey.

Maple Syrup– A sweetener which is also in my list of Sauces and Seasonings.  I prefer Grade B.  The taste is less refined and much more robust than Grade A.  I don’t often use maple syrup when baking, instead I use it in cooking and in marinades.  That being said, I will use it to sweeten a pecan pie or a custard or pudding.

Maple Syrup.

Secondary Sweeteners:

Molasses– I keep molasses around in case I want to make a pot of baked beans or I feel like including molasses in a marinade, otherwise I don’t much use molasses.

Karo Syrup– This is corn syrup, not high-fructose corn syrup.  I use Karo Syrup for two food items and two food items only – pecan pie and my grandmother’s Whiskey Cake.  Therefore one bottle of Karo Syrup might sit in my pantry for five years or more.

Golden Syrup– This is a very sweet sugar syrup, mostly fructose.  It’s actually a by-product of sugar refining.  Golden Syrup is much more commonly used in Britain, which is, in fact, where I bought my can of Golden Syrup.  I still haven’t figured out how I want to use it.

I don’t keep them on hand, but there are other Alterna-Sugars: there is palm sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar, agave syrup (somebody gag me with a spoon), brown rice syrup, carob (gag me again).

Sweeteners alone are not food, although they are a part of the food palate – I view them more as flavor/food enhancers.  Some people believe sugar to be poison, and it may well be.  Certainly when one considers the current obesity epidemic it’s easy to point an accusing finger at sugar.  However, I tend to think it’s more the hidden sugars in processed food, and the processed foods themselves, that contribute to obesity, not the judicious use of sweeteners in homemade foods.

***The one caveat – Diabetics have an entirely other set of issues and must find alternatives to natural sweeteners for cooking and baking.  It is not my intention to suggest any foods to diabetics– a diabetic diet is between a patient and his or her doctor or diabetic educator.

 

 

 

 

 

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A Memorable Memorial Day.

Most of the time we go to the beach, swim, picnic, hike.  Today I think we’ll kick back and remember the veterans and their families who have given so much for our sake.

A worthy cause:  The Warrior Dog Foundation

About The Warrior Dog Foundation from their website–  

“The Warrior Dog Foundation was established by Mike Ritland who fought as a Navy SEAL in Operation Iraqi Freedom and other deployments.  

“Warrior Dog Foundation helps to transition dogs from an operational environment into our state-of-the-art kennel facility.  We strive to educate the public on the importance of K-9s in the combat environment, and showcase the level of sacrifice these dogs give in support of our troops.  We care for each individual SOF K-9 with dignity and grace, including both mental and physical rehabilitation for the rest of their lives.”

Have a memorable Memorial Day, ‘Oscar’, Julia and Jake!

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‘Unwelcome Speech’ – Talk about disturbing.

I’m disturbed in the same way the story of the boy who cried wolf disturbs me.

Sexual abuse is no laughing matter.  It’s serious.  Yet we trivialize a very serious matter by making subjective judgement calls about what constitutes sexual harassment or ‘unwelcome speech’.

Whose ‘unwelcome’ speech are we talking about?  

By these new nebulous standards of ‘unwelcome speech’ anyone who disagrees with someone politically or sexually or religiously could be accused of ‘unwelcome speech’ and his or her reputation could be impugned and his or her job imperiled.  I’m willing to bet a million bucks we ain’t talking about a threat to left of center political, sexual or religious sensibilities.  And I’m left of center in many ways.  I’m offended by this new Politically Correct version of ‘unwelcome speech’.  It’s unwelcome.

I can’t think of any classic novel or movie that doesn’t contain ‘unwelcome speech’.  To Kill A Mockingbird?  Women In Love?  The Turn of the Screw?  Jane Eyre?  Little Women?  Sounder?  Old Yeller  surely constitutes ‘unwelcome speech’ in doglandia.  The collected works of William Shakespeare?  Dante?  The Bible?  The Koran?  Remember the days of banned books?  What about all the James Bond movies?  Uh, sexist anyone?  I think I’ll go stage a sit-in at The Hangover III cuz that movie epitomizes  ’unwelcome speech’.

Ooh, and Mad Men would have to go.  ’Unwelcome speech’, I tells ya!  Hey, blood-sucking over-sexed vampires offend some people.  Better get rid of True Blood.

Sharon Osborne made fun of Anthony Weiner’s nose on The Talk just this past week.  I think Anthony Weiner is a joke of a human being and the fact that he’s running for mayor of New York is ludicrous, but her comments about his nose could be construed as racist and offensive.  Should I file a complaint with the FCC?

I can’t think of a single comedian who wouldn’t be banned from performing because comedians are all about ‘unwelcome speech’.  Farewell to the Colbert Report or The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live, or, god forbid, The Simpsons!  And Eddie Murphy?  Wow!  He’s known for his hilarious equal opportunity offensive ‘unwelcome speech’ humor.

So it’s like this–  I find green peppers offensive.  Perhaps I should file a lawsuit asking that green peppers be banned from all stores, markets and farmer’s markets because in my world they constitute ‘unwelcome speech’ as even the mention of a green pepper makes me uncomfortable.  I need to be protected from green peppers!

You think I’m being supercilious, but I’m not.  As a survivor of child sexual abuse, rape, and domestic violence, this stupidity diminishes and dilutes the real issues.  Besides, it’s flat out unAmerican.

In America we are allowed to disagree.  When I was a little kid, my dad was big into the Civil Rights Movement.  He took me to rallies before I could even walk.  At some point in time – obviously when I was older – I asked him why certain groups were allowed to preach hatred of other groups, and he replied – “This is America.  This is the greatness of America.  We do not legislate speech.  Under our Constitution, even hate groups have the right to express their views just as we have the right to disagree with them. Totalitarian states restrict freedom of speech.  I don’t want to live in a Totalitarian state.”

See here:  Feds rooting out ‘unwelcome speech’ on campus:  But what is that?

Here’s a portion of the article, a pointed comment from Wendy Kaminer on Atlantic.com:

“Moreover, what’s troubling to some critics is that the idea of subjectively silencing “unwelcome speech” about sex may seep into other corners of campus life, even going so far as to poison debates about personal ideology and politics.

“I doubt [the new sexual harassment policy] is intended to be fairly enforced,” writes civil libertarian Wendy Kaminer on Atlantic.com. “I doubt federal officials want or expect it to be used against sex educators, advocates of reproductive choice, anti-porn feminists, or gay rights advocates, if their speech of a sexual nature is ‘unwelcome’ by religious conservatives.”

“When people demand censorship of ‘unwelcome’ speech, they’re usually demanding censorship of speech that they find unwelcome,” Ms. Kaminer writes. “They usually seek to silence their political or ideological opponents, not their friends – all in the name of some greater good.”

We must always guard our freedoms and be wary of unintended consequences.

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Not So Freaky Friday. Best Moment Award.

Best Moment Award for New Friends.

Marylin Warner, in her wonderful blog – Things I Want to Tell My Mother - graced me with a blog thingy.  It’s not exactly an award, rather the blog hop recognizes appealing or unusual or funny blogs.

Thank you, Marylin.  I don’t think of myself as anything special.  You, on the other hand, write heartfelt and heartbreaking posts week after week.  If there’s a take-away message here it’s this – go subscribe to Things I Want to Tell My Mother.

Marylin gave me The Best Moment Award for my post about New Friends – meeting Tom and Ishbel Stronach, twitter friends, in real life.  Meeting Tom and Ishbel truly was a Best Moment.  We are now friends forever.  BFFs!

Oh wow.  I don’t even know where to begin.  I read so many marvelous posts.  I would say this… If you want to laugh and cry and learn and be amazed and you only have the time to follow a handful of people these are the people I would follow:

Marylin Warner at Things I Want to Tell My Mother.

Penny Watson at Penelope’s Romance Reviews.

J. W. Manus at Ebooks=Real Books.

Passive Guy over at The Passive Voice.

R.H. Mustard at City Noir.

Tom Stronach at Is It Me?

Stephane Gabart at My French Heaven.

Roberta at More Thyme Than Dough.

Special mention – all things paranormal at Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust – Steph has a great post about the end of an era – Dead Ever After, by Charlaine Harris.  Sookie’s Not Dead and Gone, She’s Just Gone Off Page.

If any of ya’ll above want to run with this… go for it!

 

 

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Thursdays with Jake – Where the Lion WAS.

So here’s where Jake first spotted the mountain lion.  Of course I couldn’t see it… yet.

Looking down the ravine.

Here is the slope Jake hauled me over in his haste to follow the lion.

Up over the rocks.

Here is the tree.  The lion jumped up into this little horse chestnut tree just down the ravine from where we stood.

Lion Tree.

We hurried on down the trail, spying the lion’s prey, a small buck deer.

Jake knows exactly what he’s looking for.

This is the slope just ahead of us, looking up above the trail where we saw the lion in the grass.

It was just there at the peak.

Still no warning sign at the park, but neither have I seen the lion for a week.  Although he left a couple big piles of scat right in the middle of the trail.  I did see two newborn fawns the other day… so sweet!  Probably good eating, if you’re a cougar.

Towhee baby update – both fledglings have survived and, knock wood, are thriving in my backyard.

The robins returned this week and began a new nest.  Hopefully this endeavor will be more successful than their last.

Oh, our parrot laid an egg!  She’s been building a nest in the bottom of her cage for a couple weeks.  Looked like she was ready to lay her egg last night but my husband and the dog opened the bedroom door and she climbed back up to her perch.  This afternoon I found a single egg in the bottom of the cage.   Last time she did this we ended up with seven eggs.  I’ll keep you posted!

 

 

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Wicked Wednesday – My Red-Headed Stepchild, One Four All.

That’s my hand and arm and my tattoo on Lira Pakan, my intrepid heroine. This story is… ahem… Science Fiction Romance.

From Penny Watson (OMG she makes me laugh) at her site, Penelope’s Romance Reviews:  Orgie Porgie Puddin’ and Pie

“Every once in a while, Julia Rachel Barrett will make a comment about her “menage” book and giggle. That’s right. She’s actually incapable of discussing this book without laughing. I kept hearing about the “menage” book, and I incorrectly concluded it was a “menage a trois” which, for those of you not familiar with the French language, is a “threesome.” So, I decided to read this giggly threesome, One Four All. The heroine is Lira, a totally kick-ass royal from another planet. And her “good buddies” (French for “good buddies”) are Cer, Redda, and Kepp. Wait a minute. Cer, Redda and Kepp. That’s three good buddies. Let’s do the math…

3 good buddies + 1 heroine = 4!

“OH MY GOD! This isn’t a menage a trois! This is a foursome! Julia wrote an orgy book! (The title One Four All should have been a dead give-away, but I guess I’m a bit dense.)

“I tormented Julia for several days with the fact that she did indeed write an orgy book. However, I wasn’t giggling while I read it. I was sweating! This book is hot! It is also extremely well-written, has a cool sci fi storyline, a very believable 4-some going on–dealing with feelings of possessiveness, lust and love–and a satisfying ending. It’s one of the best written multi-partner (a.k.a., orgy) books I’ve read. Nevertheless, I shall continue to torment Julia. Coz it’s fun!”

Lira Pakan, heir to the Throne of Zhinshu, has vanished. Her zealots gather along the border with the neighboring state of Khubuk, awaiting the outcome of her father’s pleas to the World Court.

Captain Tanner Kepp serves in the elite Special Forces of Khubuk. When the captain is ordered to choose two men to accompany him to Land’s End, an isolated compound on the maritime border between Khubuk and Zinshu, the last thing he expects to find is the missing princess.Captain Kepp, Arms Master Cer Watso and Sergeant Redda Till realize they must rescue her and avert all out war.

The princess, however, has other plans. These men can be more than her rescuers. According to the law of Zhinshu, she must choose three men as consorts. Her people say: “one to guard the right hand, one to guard the left hand, and one to guard the back, always.”

You all don’t get an excerpt.  I’ll start giggling.  Go read it for yourself.  One Four All is available:

Kindle

Siren

 

 

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