We’re glad to have you all back for Duck Chat! Welcome!

Today Julia Barrett is with us, so get comfy, enjoy this time with her, and you may have just found a new author you’d like to read!

In my roughly five years as a reviewer, Julia is the only author who’s taken a so-so review from me with grace and then offered up her next release to go through the process again. She definitely takes after the heroines she writes – gutsy, courageous, gets the job done and never lets go, all the while being kind and gracious. Julia Barrett is the complete package.

She lives in Northern California with her husband and has three grown children. Hiking is a favorite pastime, something she’s done all over the U.S., depending on where she lived or vacationed at the time. Since we’re getting to know Julia today, if you’ve got a question for her, be sure to ask, or just leave a comment for her, and we’ll toss your name in for a copy of Beauty of the Feast, one of her latest releases.

Now let’s chat!

DC: Welcome to the Pond, Julia! Glad to have you here today. For those readers who haven’t yet read your books, would you tell them a little bit about yourself, the woman versus the author?

JB: Well, the woman and the author are the same, my author alter-ego simply has a different name so I can maintain some anonymity.  I’m as active, outgoing, opinionated, stubborn, and as observant as my characters.  I like to feature strong female heroines who know who they are and what they want – like me.  I wasn’t always assertive.  Growing up, I was quite shy, the quiet, brainiac type, who could be found with her nose buried in a book.

DC: If you could retire any interview question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

JB: Oh, here’s one that bugs me – Do you get turned on when you write your books?  OMG!  How can I answer that?  It’s waaaay too personal.  The answer?  Depends, and that’s as much as I’ll say.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

JB: Absolutely.  It’s as if the characters speak through me, as if I am merely the vehicle for their story.  I know some authors talk about their muse.  I don’t know exactly what a muse is…I’ve always thought of my cats as my muses because they cuddle beside me when I write.  But I guess my answer is yes.  My characters surprise me all the time.  I do not plot out my stories, I just write and my characters take the directions they take.  I actually have a tough time writing a story if I can’t hear the characters’ voices in my head, which is why I struggle with deadlines.  I can’t make a character talk to me.  They say what they have to say when they are good and ready and once they start talking, they’ll often keep me up at night until I get their story finished.

DC: When you began writing, was erotic romance what you always had in mind or did that come later after trying other genres?

JB: Erotic romance totally came later!  I write nonfiction, mostly health and nursing related stuff and I began my career as a poet.  In college, I majored in creative writing and I figured I’d write the next great American novel by the time I was thirty.  What a laugh!  In my opinion, the last great American novelist was John Steinbeck.  East of Eden is brilliant.  Anyway, I was lucky enough to have some poetry published while I was still in college, but once I graduated, life intervened and I needed to make a buck in a hurry.  I returned to school to get a nursing degree.  I’ve worn many other hats over the years.  Four years ago I was laid up due to a climbing accident – really laid up, for nearly eighteen months – and a friend gave me a Linda Howard book.  I began to read romance…well, maybe devour is a better word, and I realized I could write it.  Hey, I’d lived it and I write what I know.

DC: What is it that drew you to erotic romance?

JB: Passion.  I don’t just mean sex.  I mean a passion for life.  A good erotic romance is filled with passionate people, characters who have overcome significant obstacles and despite tough odds, never give up, love life, and manage to connect with a true soul mate.  I do not like to read gratuitous sex scenes and I’m not big on really graphic language.  I prefer to read about a robust, realistic, overwhelming, passionate attraction between two strong people who, in the end, want to be together forever.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

JB: No.  Never.  If I did, the characters would probably win.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

JB: I am easily distracted.  I’m one of those people who when she sees a butterfly, drops everything and runs outside to get a closer look.  I never sit still.  It’s very hard for me to stay in one place to get any writing done.  I’ve been like this my entire life – guess I have a little ADD.  I do the best when I hike with my dog first thing in the morning – anywhere from three to five miles – use my elliptical for forty or fifty minutes to burn off some additional energy, and then I manage to sit and work.  If I’m really antsy, I head to a busy coffee shop and write.  Even when I was in college, I found that if I tried to study in a library, I totally lost it.  The quiet distracts me.  I had to go to a bar or the student union where I could focus against a lot of background noise.  My real life job takes a lot out of me and usually I have to crash for a day or so after several shifts in a row.  That’s when I surf the web, check out blogs and sites and maybe do some cooking and baking to chill out.

DC: You’re just beginning a very busy year of new releases, so let’s talk about your 2010 books. First up is Captured that came out in January. Please tell our readers about Ekkatt and Mari.

JC: This year is crazy and totally unexpected!  I thought Captured would come out in April, but it was released by Siren on January 6^th.  Captured is a work of romantic science fiction.  I actually dreamed the entire book and had to stop another work in progress to get this story told.

Mari finds herself captive on an alien vessel bound for the meat market.  She’s forced to hide her fear and tries to somehow connect with her captor in order to save her own life.  She succeeds but suffers survivor guilt, and worse, falls in love with the man who took her in the first place.  She compares her situation to that of collaborators in World War II.  Ekkatt is more than he seems.  He’s a trapper.  He traps human women for the market.  Their flesh brings a high price.  He took this job because of the perks – traveling through the galaxy, a chip in his brain that allows him to learn new languages, the money that helps to support his family – but he’s not stupid and he’s not cruel.  Despite everything he’s been taught by the religious and state authorities on his home planet, his encounter with Mari opens his eyes and he comes to realize humans are not insentient beings.  They are intelligent, despite their primitive technology.  They can feel pain and they do have souls.  He puts everything on the line to save Mari and he is overcome with guilt.  For years, he’s sent sentient beings to the meat market.  When he finds himself falling in love with Mari, he feels that first he must earn her forgiveness.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

JB: Nope.  I still write smart-mouthed, talented women who are, above all, survivors and hard, hot, intelligent, loyal heroes who do not hesitate to go after what they want – which are of course, my heroines!

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

JB: I’m working on a ménage.  This is a very scary genre for me, and it’s really not in my nature to share when it comes to a partner or a lover.  However, I have a unique story in mind that involves two men in love with the same woman and I find it necessary to push my boundaries in order to figure out exactly how I want to handle the situations my characters may find themselves in.

DC: We meet Eric and Kate in You Just Might Get It, which is a novella in the The Cougar anthology. Can you give us a look into their story?

JC: Ooh cool!  I was unaware you knew about that story.  Eric is a chef, Kate is a nurse.  He’s twenty-something, she’s forty-something.  Eric is attracted to Kate, and he’s definitely the aggressor in this situation.  He’s mature and confident while Kate has been through a nasty divorce and stayed away from the dating scene.  When Kate gets locked out of her apartment building on a rainy day, Eric gets to play the hero and he invites her over for a quick supper.  The attraction between the two is undeniable, but you’ll have to read the rest of the story for yourself!

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

JB: Hmmm.  I have no idea.  I’ve been through a lot, lived a lot, done a lot.  I’ve messed up lots and lots.  But, I’m not entirely certain I’d change a thing.  Everything that’s happened to me over the years has made me the person I am today and I’m in a good place.  I have great kids, an amazing husband, cool pets and healthy parents.  What more can I ask for?

DC: Beauty and the Feast is coming out this month, takes place in Napa Valley, and revolves around Eva, who is a chef, and Gabriel, a winery owner. Sounds like a whole lot of fun going on. Tell us about it.

JB: I loved loved loved writing this story!  I’ve actually been a personal chef and a pastry chef, and owned a catering business and a restaurant.

When Gabriel Abbott hires Eva Raines to put together a seduction dinner for another woman, he has no idea he’s the one who will be seduced – by Eva’s food and her sweet voice.  He begins fantasizing about her, just as Eva, a shy country girl, begins to fantasize about the man who hired her.  When the two characters come face to face under unusual circumstances, they nearly burst into flames!  Beauty and the Feast is a straight contemporary with a fantastic, elegant, sensual love story, filled with interesting people, places and humorous situations.  I had so much fun with this!  Over the next year or two, I’ll be writing another contemporary about Quincy, Gabriel’s half-brother.

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

JB: Oh, this is an easy one – my book, Cara, which is no longer available, is autobiographical.  Here’s the blurb – Cara Franklin’s life has been one nightmare after another.  She grows to adulthood blaming herself for everything that’s happened.  She believes her safest path is to keep other people at a distance, especially male people.  James Mackie, a young doctor who is aware of Cara‘s history, is determined to break through her barriers, enter her world. and love her.  Cara cautiously allows him in and returns his love, only to watch her new world of happiness, a world she never genuinely trusted, comes crashing down.  She turns from James and runs far away in an attempt to reinvent herself.  She discovers old habits die hard. She’s run out of the frying pan and straight into the fire, into the arms of an abusive drug-dealer, Micah Welsh.  Now Cara must fight for her very survival and for the survival of her unborn child.  No one, not even her beloved James, can rescue her.  Cara must believe in herself or perish.

I’m hoping that one day the book will be re-released, but I’ve been told that the subject matter is too dark for today’s economy!

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

JB: Oh, you mean like Homer Simpson?  D’oh!  Actually, like most of my heroines, I suffer from a bad case of potty mouth – my voice’s tagline would probably be something that includes the F-word.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

JB: Well, I love the cover for Daughter’s of Persephone.  The artist expressed my vision perfectly.  It’s up on the Resplendence site and it is very sci-fi-ish in a Dune sort of way, which is what I was going for.  If you look at Captured, Jinger captured Mari and Ekkatt quite well.  She nailed Mari’s dragon tattoo.

DC: How about your least favorite cover?  Why?

JB: Oh gosh.  Covers are a sore subject with me, so I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut.  I’m happy with the covers of my current books.  I do believe strongly that the cover should reflect some aspect of the story within.  In the past, I’ve had covers that reflected nothing of the story and that is misleading to the reader and difficult for the author to accept.  We don’t always have a say in what our covers look like.

DC: What romance book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run? (Yes, in addition to any Julia Barrett novel!)

JB: Well, in addition to any Julia Barrett novel, I’d have to say my two favorites are Linda Howard’s Kill and Tell and After the Night – I love both those books are re-read them all the time.  I’m a big Julie Garwood fan too and I’m a sucker for Karen Marie Moning’s hot highlanders.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

JB: Well, I’m still doing it – I’m a hospice nurse.  Despite the intensity of the work, I love it.  It’s just that now I can do it part time.  I’m a restless soul and about every four years, I change careers, though I’ve kept my nursing license current since I graduated.  Hospice nursing is the first job I’ve stuck with for a relatively long period of time.  From time to time I toy with the idea of going back into catering and I dabble.  Every once in a while I’ll cater a wedding or a graduation party.  But, really and truly, I want to write.

DC: In July Books 1 & 2 of your Daughters of Persephone series is slated to be released, followed by Books 3 in August. Would you tell us first about the series as a whole and then give us a tiny sneak peek into each book?

JB: This series started out as a self-challenge.  I’m a huge science fiction fan and I decided to go for it and write my own version of a sci fi romance.  Here’s the story in a nutshell…In the final days of Earth, a cadre of elite scientist from across the globe join forces to create a line of genetically enhanced females to guide the remnants of humanity, to try to save us all.  The scientists decide to use women as women are less prone to violence than men.  Over succeeding centuries, the project, known as Persephone, takes on a life of its own and as the women evolve, they are able to make their own genetic adaptations within a single generation.  The series involves time travel, space travel, colonies of survivors far from Earth, blood, warfare, family, love and the power of hope.

DC: What else is on the horizon for Julia Barrett?

JB: I’ve got a challenging few years ahead of me.  I’m teasing out a sequel for both Captured and Beauty and the Feast.  As I mentioned, I’m working on a ménage – it’s a work of science fiction and this ménage is practice for the paranormal ménage I have planned.  I just want to make sure this is a genre I can do justice to – not only for the readers, but for myself.  I also have a couple previously released works of romantic suspense that I’m hoping to find a home for.  To be honest, I think I’ve found my niche in two areas, science fiction and contemporary, and I’ll probably continue to write in those genres.

Lightning Round:

– dark or milk chocolate?       – Milk – I know dark chocolate is more complex, but I love the creamy mouth feel of milk chocolate.

– smooth or chunky peanut butter?      – Chunky!!!  Don’t waste my time with creamy.  And I like the non-hydrogenated kind that you have to stir.

– heels or flats?      – Boots with heels.  After all the knee surgeries I’ve had, high heels are out, but I can get by with boots.  Mostly though, you’ll find me in my hiking boots.

– coffee or tea?     – Major coffee drinker – I love my Nespresso machine.  Nespresso, not espresso.

– summer or winter?      – Both and spring and fall.

– mountains or beach?     – Again, both.

– mustard or mayonnaise?      – Mustard, spicy brown or Dijon and I like it with the little mustard seeds in it.

– flowers or candy?     – Roses, big, fat, fragrant roses.

– pockets or purse?     – I am so hard on purses.  Mostly it’s my keys and cell phone in my jacket pocket and my wallet locked into my glove compartment.

– Pepsi or Coke?    – Oh, don’t even go there.  Coke.

– ebook or print?     – Both, but I love holding a book in my hands.  However, reading is the thing – turning pages or flipping a screen.

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word?   – I love language.  I don’t have one single favorite word.

2. What is your least favorite word?    – Moist – ew – the connotations in the nursing field, can’t go there!

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – Hiking in the fresh air with my dog, galloping a horse across a mountain meadow, river rafting, water skiing…I guess nature and activity really turn me on in every way.  I love sports and I find baseball to be quite a turn on.  Of course, my husband turns me on too…

4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?     – A lack of sleep really does a number on me.  That and too much of the day job.

5. What sound or noise do you love?      – The sounds of making love.  The noise a horse makes when he or she is happy to see you.  The silent meow of my black cat.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – The noise of leaf blowers.

7. What is your favorite curse word?     – Merde.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?      – I would love to own a bakery!

9. What profession would you not like to do?     – Pathology – I could not stomach an autopsy when I was in nursing school and I couldn’t dissect anything for anatomy and physiology.

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?    — “Not too bad, not too bad at all.”