Release Day for Long Simmering Spring!

I’m thrilled to announce that Long Simmering Spring, the third Star Harbor book, is available today!

Cole Grayson, featuring his abs.

Here’s the official copy:

Spring comes to Star Harbor, bringing unexpected passion for a sexy sheriff, as the next Grayson brother finds love with the town’s beautiful doctor.

Julie Kensington grew up in the same small town as the Grayson brothers and remembers when the boys were nothing but trouble. As teenagers, Cole’s rugged sex appeal set Julie’s heart ablaze, but she did her best to ignore it. Now a grown woman with a medical degree, Julie still can’t resist her searing attraction to the roughest, toughest Grayson. He’s ex-military, tormented, and sexier than ever, but are his wounds too deep to be healed by her loving, gentle touch?

Even back in high school, straight-arrow Julie had a way of making Cole think twice about his bad-boy lifestyle. When Julie decides she’s finally ready to embrace her wild side, Cole knows he is just the man to show her the way, unleashing years of pent-up desire. Neither of them counted on falling in love, but when Cole’s demons threaten to derail their relationship, it’s up to Julie to show him that together, they can overcome the past . . . and build a future.

Also, if you haven’t read the super sexy excerpt posted on Scribd, you can read it here.

For those of you who’ve pre-ordered the book, thank you! If you haven’t yet 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

And if you’d like to follow along on my blog tour for the book, I’d love to see you. Today I’m at Romance @ Random and USA Today, but you can check out the other stops on my tour here.

Oh, happy day! Thanks for celebrating with me!

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Happy Friday!

My blog tour for Long Simmering Spring kicks off today at Romance Junkies, where I’m talking about the Grayson men of Star Harbor and their cars. Join me for some fun and a giveaway!

Have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday for release day!

 

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The Calm Before the Storm

Last week was very work and writing-heavy for me, and it was a good, productive week. I worked through the final round of line edits on Slow Summer Burn, and I finished the first draft of my Tahoe book, which ended up close to 50,000 words – short for me, but a heck of a lot of fun to write. We’ll see what my beta readers have to say about it. Over the weekend, it’s virtually impossible for me to work, except at night when I’m so bone-tired, I can’t really contemplate working unless I actually have to. Still, that doesn’t mean I didn’t *do* anything. Here are the highlights. This weekend, I:

*Marched in a big parade with my three children in ninety-degree weather

*Went to a birthday party with one of my children and played in the sandbox

*Did five loads of laundry (and it wasn’t even laundry day)

*Swam with my children and Mr. B in a lovely, warm pool

*Made homemade guacamole and orzo salad to go along with my grilled chicken and corn-on-the-cob for our Sunday night dinner (not very Cinco de Mayo of me, but the fam loved it anyway)

So, yes, I did a lot. In other news, later this summer, I will be heading to the big RWA national conference. What this means is that I really need to clear the decks of swag from last year’s conference to make room for the inevitable swag I will get from this year’s. So one lucky commenter will receive one audiobook of your choice from my stash (I’ll give you a choice). Just let me know what you did this weekend! Also, I know Friday seems to be the giveaway day of choice for most folks, but Monday works for me for a bunch of different reasons so I’m thinking I’ll keep the giveaways going on Mondays, at least for a while.

Finally, in just one short week, my third book, Long Simmering Spring will be released! So far, people have been saying some very nice things about the book (thank you, thank you!) and my blog tour for Long Simmering Spring starts this Friday. I hope you’ll join me for giveaways and fun over the next few weeks to celebrate! I also have a little excerpt for you to whet your appetite. Just to give you a bit of set-up, Cole and Julie are on their first date and the past starts to bleed into the present.

“After what I’ve done, I can guarantee I’m not the same guy I used to be.” He shook his head. “Maybe not all my change is for the better, but it’s no surprise you’ve turned out to be someone incredible.”

It seemed that it was confession time. “There was another reason I slapped you.”

“Yeah?” he asked, his gaze steady, as if readying himself to take whatever she dished out. “What’s that?”

“I thought if I gave you the chance—if I let you in, even for a second—you’d break my heart. And I couldn’t let that happen. Not then. Definitely not now.”

A terrible look of sadness flashed across his face for just a moment, before he composed himself. “That isn’t me and that isn’t you. Not anymore.”

Long Simmering Spring (c) 2013 Elisabeth Barrett

Like it? Order it!

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The Final Countdown!

There are only two weeks left until Long Simmering Spring hits the (virtual) shelves on May 13th, and I realize that I haven’t been doing my part to whet your appetite. Because it’s a crazy, crazy week for me, I’m just going to get to the good stuff (i.e. an excerpt) and leave it at that. I will give you a little set-up, though. Our hero, Cole Grayson, has a past which colors the way others perceive him, and most definitely colors the way he perceives himself. Here’s Cole, thinking about Julie Kensington, a high-school acquaintence who’s now the local doctor:

Forget about who he was now; all she probably remembered was the guy he used to be. Bad. There was no other way to put it. He and his brothers had raised some serious hell in high school, and he’d been the worst of them all. The pranks, the drinking, the girls—God, it was embarrassing to even think about. Yet he’d come so far. He might still be one of Star Harbor’s notorious Grayson brothers, but instead of a cocksure hellion, he was a decorated military hero who worked every day to improve his community.

Maybe Julie didn’t care. They’d run in totally different circles—he with the bad boys and she with the good girls. He’d done nothing to distinguish himself to her back then until he’d confronted her—and himself—the afternoon he’d run into her behind the track at the high school. He’d made a play, and she’d turned him down, taking him apart with a few choice words. And then, bonehead that he was, he’d gone in for the kiss anyway. He’d gotten what he deserved that day—a slap so hard it had rattled his teeth, and a lecture on making something of himself.

Words he hadn’t heeded until years later.

Long Simmering Spring (c) 2013 Elisabeth Barrett

I s’pose I should put up the buy links. Here they are: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple | Other

And just because you’re awesome, I’m doing a giveaway! In honor of my release, give me your best spring memory, and I’ll send you one lucky commenter will win a copy of Fatal Justice by the excellent Marie Force (U.S. only, please). Stay tuned for another excerpt and giveaway next Monday!

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Read Long Simmering Spring Before Everyone Else (Birthday Edition)!

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. If you haven’t received an email from me, please check your junk/spam folders and email me at ejbarrett15 (at) gmail (dot) com with your full name, NetGalley username, and NetGalley email.

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Today is my birthday, and in honor of this special day, I’m giving away free preview copies to the first 50 people to fill out and submit this form. I’m also well aware that it’s tax day, so hopefully this should ease the pain a little bit.

So sign up . . . you know you want to!

I’ll close the form when I get 50 entries, so if you can see the form, the giveaway is still open and you will get your book! Once I get all the entries, I’ll send out an e-mail with details (so watch for it and check your junk mail folder if you don’t get anything).

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A Little Something to Whet Your Appetite

Oh, my, my, my. The good folks at Random House posted an excerpt from Long Simmering Spring on Scribd, and you should go read it. Right now. Unless you are at work.* Because it is verrrah dirty. Ahem.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Okay, I was shooting for sexy and emotional, but I’m okay with dirty.

Go. Go now. Unless you are at work.*

Also, I want to give you a heads-up that you should check this space on Tax Day, aka April 15, aka Monday, aka my birthday because I’ll be doing something very special and you will want to be here. Trust me on this one.

*At an office. If you work at home, do whatever you want.

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Long Simmering Spring and Tahoe. Yes, Tahoe!!

Happy day after April Fool’s day. I had this post ready to go yesterday, but I worried that whatever I posted on April 1 might be taken as a joke, so I decided to hold off! Today, I’m back in the saddle. I turned in my line edits for Slow Summer Burn to my awesome editor yesterday (not a joke!), and today I’m catching up on everything I’ve neglected over the past few weeks.

First, I can hardly believe it, but Long Simmering Spring, Cole and Julie’s story, is coming out in just over a month(!!!) and I owe you some excerpts. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The telltale sound of the metal-on-metal rigging clanging above deck was a clear indication that Cole Grayson wasn’t inside a stifling-hot canvas tent in Kunar Province. The gentle pitch and roll under his back and the aromas of salt and sea could mean only one thing: he was on his brother’s houseboat in Star Harbor, thousands of miles from Afghanistan. His eyeballs were sticking to his lids, but for once, waking up early didn’t bother him.

He’d finally slept through the night. It had taken him only seven years, three months, and nineteen days.

Not that he was counting.

(c) Elisabeth Barrett 2013

Cole Grayson, featuring his abs.

First page, first glimpse of our hero, and yes, I really love this man—his whole tortured, repentant, honorable, sexy self. I hope you enjoy reading about him as much as I enjoyed figuring out what made him tick! Pre-order links are here, if you’re so inclined.

Oh, and if you want more, sign up for my newsletter, where I promise to give more tantalizing excerpts and sneak peeks of my upcoming books! If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late. Just go to the bottom of www.elisabethbarrett.com and follow the prompts. I’m non-spammy and infrequent—I swear!

Next, believe it or not, the fact that my third Star Harbor book is coming out next month isn’t even the main point of this blog post. The main point is to give you a glimpse into my research for my WIP—a Tahoe-based book about a scientist and an actuary. No, no—it’s not boring—really! See, the scientist is really a snowboarder, and the actuary is really a skier and together their chemistry is off-the-charts hot. Like burning up a snowy mountain hot. Trust me on this.

I’m calling the book Tahoe for now, even though I have another working title in my head because the working title is long and kind of confusing. So, yes, it may change.

I’d been thinking about writing a California book for some time and hoped to set it in Silicon Valley. Then I had a great idea about opposites attracting, and somehow the Tahoe angle came into play. Only problem was I’d never been there. And there was only one solution to this problem: ROAD TRIP!!! The first person I called was Spence, my BFF, to see if she’d join me. She didn’t even hesitate. Yes! We wanted another friend to come, but she was in Mammoth Lake that weekend. She tried to get us to come to Mammoth Lake with her instead, but I was undeterred. Tahoe it needed to be, and so Tahoe it was!

It was a whirlwind trip. Spence and I left Silicon Valley on Friday morning after I dropped the Barrett Pack off at school and we were on our way! On the drive up, we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. We didn’t take a tour, but we did indulge in some jellybeans!

Jelly Belly

And after a 4-hour drive, we were in Tahoe!!! We saw the lake. It was so blue.

Lake Tahoe

We climbed a mountain in the snow.

Spence on the backside.

We checked out some of the ski resorts.

Squaw from the approach.

And we found this sign:

Star Harbor!!!

YESSSSSS!!!!!

Okay, we knew the sign existed because when Deep Autumn Heat was released, my friend told me about the Star Harbor sign up in Tahoe. Obviously, Spence and I made a pilgrimage to check it out.

We also ate some great food, checked out the local watering holes (no pics, sorry!) and had a blast driving around. We were back home by 6 p.m. on Saturday. See? Whirlwind!

So there you have it folks: Tahoe in photographs! I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I promise to share some snippets from Tahoe soon. Have you been to Lake Tahoe? Tell me about your experiences!!

One more thing. If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, on Satuday, April 6 at 10 a.m., I’m speaking at the Monterey Bay RWA chapter. Information about the meeting can be found here. It’s only $5 (cheap!) at the Watsonville Community Hospital and you get to hear me talk! Yay!

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I wish I could tell you that I was a total slacker and had a completely relaxing holiday, but alas, it was just not to be. I worked my little kazookies off. Writing, editing, work…it all came to a head the last two weeks in December and the first week in January. Throw in some inclement weather and some kids home from school, and well, you know how it went….

I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, though. Work is tapering off, and will continue to taper more through the end of the month. I’ve completed my line edits on Long Simmering Spring, and after one last look tonight, I’ll be sending it back to my editor. And I’ve kickstarted my work on my fourth Star Harbor Book, Slow Summer Burn. I also got super inspired for another book – this one a stand-alone, I think – which is Silicon Valley-Tahoe based. I’m going to try something totally new for me which is to try to write two books simultaneously, as I’m excited to get back to my Connecticut Contemporary series I started in mid-2012.

This all makes for a very inspiring start to the year!

I don’t have any goals this year except to push myself hard. There are so many things I want to write, that I’m inspired to write, and I’m just raring to go!

I thought I’d whet your appetite, though, with a little excerpt from Long Simmering Spring. Let me just give you a little background.

The characters:

Cole Grayson - ex-military, smoking hot, and kind of tortured, now Sheriff of Star Harbor

Julie Kensington - straight-arrow family doctor trying to keep her practice afloat and doing her best not to get drawn in by said smoking hot sherriff

The plot:

Cole and Julie work together to ferret out bad dudes doing bad things in Star Harbor while falling in love. Plus, the hottest sex scene I’ve written (to date).

This 5-sentence snippet is from Cole’s point of view after he’s had a run-in with Julie and she’s still dodging him:

What he wouldn’t give to run his fingers through her hair, crush her to his body, and see how high he could make her fly. See how far he could push her until she unraveled in his arms. But, clever woman that she was, she hadn’t given him an opening. She’d shied away from him since he’d returned, dodging him for months, and always with the same excuse: work. He took a deep drink of his lager, pushing back against the nostalgia, coupled with a smidge of bitterness.

From Long Simmering Spring, (c) Elisabeth Barrett 2013

Like it? Preorder links are here!

I’m looking forward to a great 2013! Hope your year is everything you hope it’ll be!

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Contest Over – Cover Reveal for Long Simmering Spring

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to check out the cover for Long Simmering Spring! You know I am in love with it, and I’m glad you like it, too. Winners are angieia and Kelly Lovato! Thanks! 

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I have been sitting on this for just about a week, trying not to go crazy because I love it so much. Without further ado, here’s the official cover for Long Simmering Spring, the third book in my Star Harbor series featuring the sexy-as-sin Grayson brothers:

If you click on the cover, it won’t make the picture bigger (boo!) but it will take you to the official book page at Random House (yay!). Long Simmering Spring is Cole’s story, and has the distinction of being the first book I ever wrote (and rewrote and rewrote again) so it has a special place in my heart. Here’s the official blurb:

Spring comes to Star Harbor, bringing unexpected passion for a sexy sheriff, as the next Grayson brother finds love with the town’s beautiful doctor.
 
Julie Kensington grew up in the same small town as the Grayson brothers and remembers when the boys were nothing but trouble. As teenagers, Cole’s rugged sex appeal set Julie’s heart ablaze, but she did her best to ignore it. Now a grown woman with a medical degree, Julie still can’t resist her searing attraction to the roughest, toughest Grayson. He’s ex-military, tormented, and sexier than ever, but are his wounds too deep to be healed by her loving, gentle touch?
 
Even back in high school, straight-arrow Julie had a way of making Cole think twice about his bad-boy lifestyle. When Julie decides she’s finally ready to embrace her wild side, Cole knows he is just the man to show her the way, unleashing years of pent-up desire. Neither of them counted on falling in love, but when Cole’s demons threaten to derail their relationship, it’s up to Julie to show him that together, they can overcome the past . . . and build a future.

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: Deep Autumn Heat, Blaze of Winter, and Along Came Trouble.

Heroes and Heartbreakers has the exclusive cover reveal – major thanks to all the H&H staff who made this happen so quickly!!!

And because it’s the holiday season and I’m over the moon with excitement, I’m doing a giveaway! I’ve got a copy each of Deep Autumn Heat and Blaze of Winter, so leave your comments letting me know if you like the new cover, and I’ll select two random commenters. Please sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of the home page of my website so I know how to contact you. They’re paperbacks, so U.S. only, please! Contest ends 12/15 at 9 p.m., PDT.

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Contest Over – Ah, Autumn

The contest is over and the winners are Pat and Melody May! I’ll be contacting you to get you your prizes! 

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Things at the Barrett house have been crazy, what with work, writing, kids, school projects, my own projects, birthdays, anniversaries, and oh, yes, the release of Blaze of Winter (yay!). It is not a coincidence that today I’m at Romance @ Random with a post entitled De-Stressing in Autumn. In it, I lay out five steps I’m going to take to help me relax. They are:

(1) Set aside some serious reading time.

(2) Take a walk outside in the crisp, fall air.

(3) Bake something autumnal.

(4) Listen to my favorite fall music.

(5) Try not to get wrapped up in the little things.

I think these are good first steps, and I want to start on them immediately because goodness knows things aren’t going to get less stressful as we head into holiday season. In fact, I already began by baking pumpkin bread and banana raisin muffins (which admittedly aren’t the most autumnal, but certainly do smell good). I’d love it if you stopped by here or at R@R to give me your best tips on how to relax!

On the writing front, things are going well, but never as quickly as I would like. I’m about halfway through Slow Summer Burn (Star Harbor #4), and I just got edits back for Long Simmering Spring (Star Harbor #3). I’d like to have everything done by the end of 2012, which is extremely ambitious with my work/family schedule. We shall see how things play out.To make everyone (including myself) a little less stressed out, I’m doing another giveaway! Hooray, a giveaway! (See, I’m less stressed already!) I have tons more book goodies from RWA and one copy of Robyn Carr’s Sunrise Point that went unclaimed during my last giveaway. I’ll give two winners a couple of books each from my awesome romance stash.

Rules:

(1) Winner must be a member of my mailing list. Please sign up for my mailing list here.

(2) In the comments section below, tell me what you do to relax.

(3) TWO random commenters will be selected.

(4) U.S. only, please! (I’ll be shipping paperbacks).

(5) Contest ends 10/21 at 9pm, PDT.

Good luck! I can’t wait to hear from you!

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