And He Cooks Too…with Barbara Barrett
Hi everyone! I’m so excited to welcome Barbara Barrett to my blog. Below, she’s wishing you an amazing new year, sharing a blurb from her contemporary romance (And He Cooks Too is FREE on Amazon right now!!!), and she’s even got an author bio for you to check out!
Barbara…
This isn’t your typical beginning-of-the-year “let’s focus on goals for this new year” blog. No suggestions here for what goals to set, how to set them, how many, etc. Nope. Would, if I could. Here’s why I can’t and why, when considered, that’s not such a bad thing.
Tests, term papers, and project deadlines have always turned me into the classic Type A personality – focused, anxious, unable to enjoy anything else until finished. Once finished, I relax and come up for air only to discover the same world still revolves around me, only I am different, because I no longer feel overburdened. But this luscious calm soon slides into amorphous apprehension as the “what next” feeling settles in.
I’m experiencing a similar unease at the moment. I’ve been working for some time on the latest revision to my current manuscript and just recently finished the last chapter. Suddenly, the energy, the drive, the focus – gone. Okay, significantly reduced.
So here we are just starting 2013, the time when many of us tend to plan for the year ahead and set goals, and I’m not centered. Not exactly drifting, but not quite ready to dig in and move ahead.
A less adjusted person might panic, bemoan their fate. Me? I’m back to the tried and true remedy I perfected back in high school and college with those tests, term papers and projects: stay busy. I used to clean my dorm room, do laundry and write letters. These days I organize. So far, I’ve cleaned off my desk top, filed away papers, and located my marriage certificate, which I stuck in drawer a few years back after I got my new driver license. I’ve also enjoyed my own personal movie marathon, since so many great films tend to be released this time of year.
In other words, I’m not letting this particular period of writing inactivity get to me. Two months down the road might be a different story, but for now, I’ve learned that every so often the brain needs to take time off. Chill. Refresh. So that’s what I’m letting it do. And I’m not feeling guilty about it or attempting to jumpstart an engine that isn’t ready to turn yet.
The brain may be resting, but it’s also absorbing external information while recharging. New thoughts are latching onto old ideas and germinating. Surely new goals won’t be far behind. What better way to have enjoyed the holidays?
So here’s to all of you. Take a few minutes to breathe and enjoy the season, even if that goal list has yet to materialize. Wishing you and your brain a productive and reenergized new year.
And He Cooks Too [Book blurb] Free on Amazon right now!!!
Three men, three lies. One thought it was for her own good, one did it for his own good, and the third nearly destroyed her career. Blacklisted by the city’s finest restaurants, Chef Reese Dunbar must now put the resuscitation of her battered reputation in the hands of yet another man. The television experience Nick Coltrane’s cooking show offers is her best option for restoring her name and becoming the Big Apple’s super chef. But after giving her body and heart to him, her trust is put to the test when she discovers that Nick has lied about the real reason he brought her on board, and worse yet, Nick can’t cook.
Author Bio:
Barbara Barrett spent her professional career as a human resources analyst for Iowa state government, and that training has stayed with her in her writing of contemporary romance fiction. The theme of her writing, “Romance at Work,” reflects her fascination with the jobs people do and infiltrates her plots almost to the point of becoming secondary characters.
A member of Romance Writers of America and several of its affiliate chapters, she was first “published” in sixth grade when a fictional account of a trip to France appeared in her hometown newspaper, the Burlington Hawk-Eye. Years later, she was fortunate enough to visit the subject of her essay, although in it she never envisioned that she would trip on a curb near the Arc d’Triomphe and have to limp her way through the Louvre.
Now retired, Barbara spends her winters basking in the Florida sunshine and returns to her home state of Iowa in the summer to “stay cool.” She is married to the man she met in dormitory advisor training her senior year of college. They have two grown children and six grandchildren. When she’s not writing, she’s busy lunching with friends or playing Mah Jongg.
Niecey…
Thanks everyone for stopping by. And thanks again, Barbara, for being a guest on my blog 
Don’t forget to visit Barbara and check out her website at http://www.barbarabarrettbooks.com. And remember, And He Cooks Too is FREE at Amazon today!!! You can also follow Barbara on twitter at https://twitter.com/bbarrettbooks.
Niecey Roy
Coming May 3, 2013 - Fender Bender Blues, a romantic comedy
published by Wild Rose Press
nieceyroy@gmail.com
http://www.nieceyroy.com/
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