Elisabeth Barrett's Blog, page 4

Life, The Universe, and Good Swag – Contest Over

Thanks to everyone who commented. Michele and bn100 are the winners, and I’ll be emailing you shortly to get you your prizes!  

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Last week, the universe conspired against me. If you look at my Google calendar, it’s totally crazy–booked solid from 8am-10pm every single day. Needless to say, I got pretty much zero personal stuff done, zero sleep clocked (but a ton of work done, of course) and by the end of the week, I just wanted to curl up and cry.

This will have to change.

Other things have to change, too. Like the exercise thing. And the eating right thing. And the taking time for myself thing. I think there are too many things, which seems daunting, but I’m going to start making lists, and hopefully everything will be better once I have my lists. I like lists. And friends. One of the things that made me feel better about the week was that S and T, two of my best friends, came over on Friday night and I served this delicious roasted lamb with carrots and potatoes, and white beans and French string beans and S brought a giant salad and T brought chocolate-covered brownies (!) and we drank some Pinot and it was good. Here are some pics of the feast:

The Roasted Lamb

White Beans

Haricots Verts

And speaking of good friends . . . when I was at the RWA National conference this year, I was fortunate enough to attend the literacy signing. We were all seated alphabetically , and I was at one of the “B” tables with some truly remarkable and lovely authors. Sophie Barnes, Marilyn Baron, Ana Barrons and Christi Barth were all at my table (as Barrett, I had the honor sitting dead center). They all gave me some great swag. Sophie donated an awesome totebag, Marilyn gave me a SIGNED copy of Under the Moon Gate along with a cool bookmark, Ana offered a SIGNED CD copy of Betrayed by Trust, and Christi handed me a beautiful bookmark.

Goodies From Some Lovely Authors

So how about I divide up the swag into two groups? I’ll give it away to two lucky winners who leave a comment (and are on my mailing list – sign up here) telling me a good, recent friend story. Contest ends Thursday at midnight, Pacific time, and I’ll announce the winners on Friday. U.S. only, please, but international commenters are always welcome!!

Last but not least, I’m blogging with Fresh Fiction today, so hop on over there, leave a comment, and you could win a digital copy of Slow Summer Burn. And since everyone here’s probably read it, I’ll send it to a friend if you win!! Also, I’m doing a Goodreads Giveaway of two paper copies of Long Simmering Spring, so please friend me on Goodreads and enter the giveaway!

Life, The Universe, and Good Swag

Last week, the universe conspired against me. If you look at my Google calendar, it’s totally crazy–booked solid from 8am-10pm every single day. Needless to say, I got pretty much zero personal stuff done, zero sleep clocked (but a ton of work done, of course) and by the end of the week, I just wanted to curl up and cry.

This will have to change.

Other things have to change, too. Like the exercise thing. And the eating right thing. And the taking time for myself thing. I think there are too many things, which seems daunting, but I’m going to start making lists, and hopefully everything will be better once I have my lists. I like lists. And friends. One of the things that made me feel better about the week was that S and T, two of my best friends, came over on Friday night and I served this delicious roasted lamb with carrots and potatoes, and white beans and French string beans and S brought a giant salad and T brought chocolate-covered brownies (!) and we drank some Pinot and it was good. Here are some pics of the feast:

The Roasted Lamb

White Beans

Haricots Verts

And speaking of good friends . . . when I was at the RWA National conference this year, I was fortunate enough to attend the literacy signing. We were all seated alphabetically , and I was at one of the “B” tables with some truly remarkable and lovely authors. Sophie Barnes, Marilyn Baron, Ana Barrons and Christi Barth were all at my table (as Barrett, I had the honor sitting dead center). They all gave me some great swag. Sophie donated an awesome totebag, Marilyn gave me a SIGNED copy of Under the Moon Gate along with a cool bookmark, Ana offered a SIGNED CD copy of Betrayed by Trust, and Christi handed me a beautiful bookmark.

Goodies From Some Lovely Authors

So how about I divide up the swag into two groups? I’ll give it away to two lucky winners who leave a comment (and are on my mailing list – sign up here) telling me a good, recent friend story. Contest ends Thursday at midnight, Pacific time, and I’ll announce the winners on Friday. U.S. only, please, but international commenters are always welcome!!

Last but not least, I’m blogging with Fresh Fiction today, so hop on over there, leave a comment, and you could win a digital copy of Slow Summer Burn. And since everyone here’s probably read it, I’ll send it to a friend if you win!! Also, I’m doing a Goodreads Giveaway of two paper copies of Long Simmering Spring, so please friend me on Goodreads and enter the giveaway!

Summer’s Gone – Contest Over

Thanks to all who left comments! The winner of the paper copy of Long Simmering Spring is Sue G.! If you didn’t win, there will be more chances, starting . . . now! I’m doing a Goodreads Giveaway of two paper copies of the book, so please friend me on Goodreads and enter the giveaway! Have a great weekend, everyone, and I’ll see you next Monday!

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So here we are in September. Wow! I’m kind of in shock myself. As you may have gathered from my last series of blog posts, I’ve had my nose to the grindstone for the past month, thanks to work, school, Mr. B’s travel, the family, and everything else life has thrown at me. I’m not complaining. Everyone’s healthy and doing well. It’s just that there has been a lot going on, writing included.

As I was preparing the final blog post for my Slow Summer Burn blog tour (at Fresh Fiction next Sunday), I started thinking about how summer kind of ended before I even realized. And then I started thinking about this really awesome song by Stephen Sondheim called The Girls of Summer. It’s an anthem to regret. To not letting go, only to realize at the end that’s exactly what you wanted. It’s really hard to capture how sad the song is (in E minor and the sweeping lines of it just gouge your heart out) so I’ll just post the lyrics here, and I’ll encourage you to search for someone singing it on YouTube.

The Girls of Summer

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

The girls of summer get burned

They start the summer unconcerned

They get undone by a touch of sun in June

Plus a touch of the moon

The girls of summer get fooled

’cause soon the summer heat has cooled

And come September they can’t remember why

Things were hot in July

Not me

It’s too easy to fall

The moonlit sand, a faraway band, and that’s all

Not me

I don’t easily thrill – Never did, never will

The end of summer’s at hand

I thought the summer was grand

And here I am with the same undamaged heart

That I had at the start

The girls of summer forgot to run

The girls of summer were bound to lose

The girls of summer have all the fun …

I have nothin’ but blues.

So once I started thinking about the song, I started thinking about whether there was anything I regretted not doing this summer. Well, yeah, sure. Plenty. Not spending as much time with Mr. B as I’d hoped. Not getting a chance to truly get away with my family. Not reading as much as I would have liked. And the list goes on.

There was plenty of stuff I did get to do, though, so don’t cry a river for me. I got to spend tons of time with my kids, grilled plenty on the barbeque, hosted some really fun parties, attended RWA, and launched Slow Summer Burn. There’s more, of course.

What about you? Did you get everything done that you wanted? Any regrets? One commenter (who’s also a newsletter subscriber, so sign up here if you’re not yet a member) will receive a rare, RWA Exclusive paper copy of Long Simmering Spring (which was nominated for the Book Junkie’s Choice Awards – keep those noms coming, please!). Contest closes Thursday, September 5 at midnight, and the winner will be announced on Friday. It’s a paper copy, so US and Canada only, please!

Summer’s Gone

So here we are in September. Wow! I’m kind of in shock myself. As you may have gathered from my last series of blog posts, I’ve had my nose to the grindstone for the past month, thanks to work, school, Mr. B’s travel, the family, and everything else life has thrown at me. I’m not complaining. Everyone’s healthy and doing well. It’s just that there has been a lot going on, writing included.

As I was preparing the final blog post for my Slow Summer Burn blog tour (at Fresh Fiction next Sunday), I started thinking about how summer kind of ended before I even realized. And then I started thinking about this really awesome song by Stephen Sondheim called The Girls of Summer. It’s an anthem to regret. To not letting go, only to realize at the end that’s exactly what you wanted. It’s really hard to capture how sad the song is (in E minor and the sweeping lines of it just gouge your heart out) so I’ll just post the lyrics here, and I’ll encourage you to search for someone singing it on YouTube.

The Girls of Summer

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

The girls of summer get burned

They start the summer unconcerned

They get undone by a touch of sun in June

Plus a touch of the moon

The girls of summer get fooled

’cause soon the summer heat has cooled

And come September they can’t remember why

Things were hot in July

Not me

It’s too easy to fall

The moonlit sand, a faraway band, and that’s all

Not me

I don’t easily thrill – Never did, never will

The end of summer’s at hand

I thought the summer was grand

And here I am with the same undamaged heart

That I had at the start

The girls of summer forgot to run

The girls of summer were bound to lose

The girls of summer have all the fun …

I have nothin’ but blues.

So once I started thinking about the song, I started thinking about whether there was anything I regretted not doing this summer. Well, yeah, sure. Plenty. Not spending as much time with Mr. B as I’d hoped. Not getting a chance to truly get away with my family. Not reading as much as I would have liked. And the list goes on.

There was plenty of stuff I did get to do, though, so don’t cry a river for me. I got to spend tons of time with my kids, grilled plenty on the barbeque, hosted some really fun parties, attended RWA, and launched Slow Summer Burn. There’s more, of course.

What about you? Did you get everything done that you wanted? Any regrets? One commenter (who’s also a newsletter subscriber, so sign up here if you’re not yet a member) will receive a rare, RWA Exclusive paper copy of Long Simmering Spring. Contest closes Thursday, September 5 at midnight, and the winner will be announced on Friday. It’s a paper copy, so US and Canada only, please!

Drowning in Paperwork + Giveaway – Contest Over

Thanks to everyone who left comments! The winners are Shari and lscarchuk. I’ll be emailing you shortly to get you your prizes! Have a safe, fun and relaxing Labor Day weekend, and I’ll see you back here on Monday for another giveaway!

 

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Who else has kids back in school? I knew that having them all in school (at least for a portion of the day) would give me more free time–and it has–but I’ve been using it all up on paperwork! Questions from the teachers, release forms, insurance forms, medical forms, and “who am I” projects for three kids is making me a little nutty. Now that most of it is done, my resolution is to take time for myself and to take care of myself again. I haven’t been exercising, eating properly, or even giving myself permission to relax. This much change . . . starting now! I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

As for the writing, it’s going well. I’m 20K words into a new manuscript and the themes and ideas are just starting to solidify on paper. I really love that. I’m back in my mom-mobile (aka my mobile office), parked in my safe, well-lighted lots just writing, writing, writing.

So for this week’s giveaway, I have two books–The Marriage Ring and Lyon’s Bride, both by Cathy Maxwell, who was one of our inspiring speakers at this year’s RWA National Conference. In the spirit of my resolution to take care of myself, why don’t you leave a comment as to how you’re going to take care of yourself this week? I’ll choose two random commenters who are also newsletter subscribers (sign up at the bottom of the page here). Contest ends at midnight, Pacific time, on Thursday, and I’ll announce the winners on Friday. And because these are paperbacks, US only, please (though if you’re in another country you still can, and are encouraged to comment)!

Drowning in Paperwork + Giveaway

Who else has kids back in school? I knew that having them all in school (at least for a portion of the day) would give me more free time–and it has–but I’ve been using it all up on paperwork! Questions from the teachers, release forms, insurance forms, medical forms, and “who am I” projects for three kids is making me a little nutty. Now that most of it is done, my resolution is to take time for myself and to take care of myself again. I haven’t been exercising, eating properly, or even giving myself permission to relax. This much change . . . starting now! I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

As for the writing, it’s going well. I’m 20K words into a new manuscript and the themes and ideas are just starting to solidify on paper. I really love that. I’m back in my mom-mobile (aka my mobile office), parked in my safe, well-lighted lots just writing, writing, writing.

So for this week’s giveaway, I have two books–The Marriage Ring and Lyon’s Bride, both by Cathy Maxwell, who was one of our inspiring speakers at this year’s RWA National Conference. In the spirit of my resolution to take care of myself, why don’t you leave a comment as to how you’re going to take care of yourself this week? I’ll choose two random commenters who are also newsletter subscribers (sign up at the bottom of the page here). Contest ends at midnight, Pacific time, on Thursday, and I’ll announce the winners on Friday. And because these are paperbacks, US only, please (though if you’re in another country you still can, and are encouraged to comment)!

Just another Manic Monday + Giveaway! – Contest Over

Hi, all, and thanks for your patience! The winners of the amazing Slow Summer Burn bookmarks are Kathleen O, ButtonsMom2003, and Pat Egan Fordyce. I’ll be emailing you shortly. Thank you to everyone who commented, and just so you know, I have a couple more of these beauties lying around, and I’ll do another contest in the future to give them away!

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Wow! What a crazy Monday! I was expecting things to settle down after last week’s  successful release of Slow Summer Burn (thank you to all who came out to show your support, and the blog tour is still going on!), but no. Things were even crazier this week, thanks to three kids doing three different move-ups to new classrooms/grades/schools. It’s been brutal, and I predict the mayhem and madness in the Barrett household will continue at least through the end of next week.

But . . . over the weekend, a little package arrived. A totally awesome game-changer. Because look what was inside:

Slow Summer Burn Bookmarks

Yes!!!! SLOW SUMMER BURN BOOKMARKS!!!! These little beauties were made for me by Michele, one of my incredible fans. I got to meet Michele in person at RWA this year in Atlanta and she was just as lovely as you might imagine:

With Michele at RWA 2013

The bookmarks are about 10 inches long (26.5 cm for you metric folks), and the craftsmanship  is amazing. Here’s a detailed picture of the beadwork:

The beautiful beadwork

And there are little pictures of Val at the top of each one! That alone made me smile!

Tiny Vals

Michele, I can’t thank you enough!!! You have made my rough week a jillion times better.

And so, in case you hadn’t figured it out, this week’s giveaway is for three (3) of these incredible Slow Summer Burn Bookmarks by Michele. To win, you need to be a newsletter subscriber (sign up at the bottom of the page here if you’re not already), and leave a comment about how your week is going! Contest ends Thursday at midnight, Pacific time, and winners will be announced on Friday!

Just another Manic Monday + Giveaway!

Wow! What a crazy Monday! I was expecting things to settle down after last week’s  successful release of Slow Summer Burn (thank you to all who came out to show your support, and the blog tour is still going on!), but no. Things were even crazier this week, thanks to three kids doing three different move-ups to new classrooms/grades/schools. It’s been brutal, and I predict the mayhem and madness in the Barrett household will continue at least through the end of next week.

But . . . over the weekend, a little package arrived. A totally awesome game-changer. Because look what was inside:

Slow Summer Burn Bookmarks

 

Yes!!!! SLOW SUMMER BURN BOOKMARKS!!!! These little beauties were made for me by Michele, one of my incredible fans. I got to meet Michele in person at RWA this year in Atlanta and she was just as lovely as you might imagine:

With Michele at RWA 2013

The bookmarks are about 10 inches long (26.5 cm for you metric folks), and the craftsmanship  is amazing. Here’s a detailed picture of the beadwork:

The beautiful beadwork

And there are little pictures of Val at the top of each one! That alone made me smile!

Tiny Vals

Michele, I can’t thank you enough!!! You have made my rough week a jillion times better.

 

And so, in case you hadn’t figured it out, this week’s giveaway is for three (3) of these incredible Slow Summer Burn Bookmarks by Michele. To win, you need to be a newsletter subscriber (sign up at the bottom of the page here if you’re not already), and leave a comment about how your week is going! Contest ends Thursday at midnight, Pacific time, and winners will be announced on Friday!

Release Day for Slow Summer Burn – Contest Over

Thank you all for the amazing release day support! I’m happy to let you know that the winners are Joanne B and angieia! There are still chances to win copies of the book at Romance@Random, Kindles & Wine, and Under The Covers! Good luck, and stay tuned for another giveaway next Monday!

 

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Slow Summer Burn is out today, and I am extremely excited to share Val and Cam with you all. I know many of you have been waiting a long time for the oldest Grayson brother to get his HEA, and I’m happy to say that day is finally here!

Here’s the official copy:

As the sizzling Star Harbor series concludes, the fourth sexy Grayson brother, a dedicated DEA agent, shows a high-society beauty the true meaning of love.

Cameron Stahl has everything, so why does she feel like her life is incomplete? A beautiful Boston socialite and a successful entrepreneur, she’s just opened her second boutique in Star Harbor and business is booming. But one searing look from Val Grayson sends fire through her body and shows her exactly what’s missing from her life: a real man who doesn’t play games and who makes her feel like the most desired woman on earth.

DEA agent Val Grayson has always looked after his brothers. Now it’s his turn to find love—though Cam is the last sort of woman he ever dreamed he’d fall for. When courageous Cam realizes she has the insider connections to help Val take down a major drug player within Boston’s political elite, he can’t stop her from putting herself in danger. But as the drug bust of his career looms, all Val cares about is saving the woman he loves before it’s too late.

People have been saying some very, very nice things about the book.

Heroes and Heartbreakers gave it a lovely “first look” review and it was an August recommended read at Contemporary Romance Café!

For those of you who’ve pre-ordered the book, thank you! If you haven’t picked up your copy, you can buy the book everywhere e-books are sold! Here are some links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Google | Other Places

I’m also (blog) touring, and I’d love for you to join along. Today, I’m at Romance@Random and USA Today’s HEA, so please stop by and say hi! The rest of my schedule is posted here. There will be giveaways galore, including here!! For release week, I’m giving away digital copies of Slow Summer Burn to two newsletter subscribers who leave comments (if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, you can sign up here). And if you’ve already gotten your copy, I’ll send it to one of your friends! Contest ends at midnight on 8/15 and I’ll announce the winners on Friday!

Release Day for Slow Summer Burn

Slow Summer Burn is out today, and I am extremely excited to share Val and Cam with you all. I know many of you have been waiting a long time for the oldest Grayson brother to get his HEA, and I’m happy to say that day is finally here!

Here’s the official copy:

As the sizzling Star Harbor series concludes, the fourth sexy Grayson brother, a dedicated DEA agent, shows a high-society beauty the true meaning of love.

Cameron Stahl has everything, so why does she feel like her life is incomplete? A beautiful Boston socialite and a successful entrepreneur, she’s just opened her second boutique in Star Harbor and business is booming. But one searing look from Val Grayson sends fire through her body and shows her exactly what’s missing from her life: a real man who doesn’t play games and who makes her feel like the most desired woman on earth.

DEA agent Val Grayson has always looked after his brothers. Now it’s his turn to find love—though Cam is the last sort of woman he ever dreamed he’d fall for. When courageous Cam realizes she has the insider connections to help Val take down a major drug player within Boston’s political elite, he can’t stop her from putting herself in danger. But as the drug bust of his career looms, all Val cares about is saving the woman he loves before it’s too late.

People have been saying some very, very nice things about the book.

Heroes and Heartbreakers gave it a lovely “first look” review and it was an August recommended read at Contemporary Romance Café!

For those of you who’ve pre-ordered the book, thank you! If you haven’t picked up your copy, you can buy the book everywhere e-books are sold! Here are some links:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Google | Other Places

I’m also (blog) touring, and I’d love for you to join along. Today, I’m at Romance@Random and USA Today’s HEA, so please stop by and say hi! The rest of my schedule is posted here. There will be giveaways galore, including here!! For release week, I’m giving away digital copies of Slow Summer Burn to two newsletter subscribers who leave comments (if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, you can sign up here). And if you’ve already gotten your copy, I’ll send it to one of your friends! Contest ends at midnight on 8/15 and I’ll announce the winners on Friday!