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!

Read Full Post »

Slow Summer Burn – Cover Reveal!

Today, I am super thrilled to show you all the cover of Slow Summer Burn!

It’s Val to a T! Slim, lean, strong…and oh, those shoulders! I especialy love the patch of sand on his abs. Nice touch, right?

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.

So what do you all think? Love it?

I’ll be sharing some super special sneak peeks of Long Simmering Spring and Slow Summer Burn on my newsletter, so be sure to sign up here (just go to the bottom of the main page).

And in case you’ve missed my interweb sightings over the past few weeks while I’ve been buried in edits, today I’m at Romance@Random talking about endings and beginnings, and last month I wrote two posts with the amazing Jennifer Probst–first at Romance@Random and again at USA Today’s HEA where we riffed on all things mommy-esque.

Read Full Post »

Blogging, WIPs and Bruises

So I did something absolutely awful to my back. So awful, in fact, that I can barely move without wincing in pain. It’s this lower-back sharp pain/muscle spasm/really-I-have-no-idea, but it’s bad. The worst thing is, I don’t know what I did. It’s not like I felt something tear, or someone jumped on me or I helped a friend move and now I’m paying the price. I just woke up this way one morning late last week. The kids now know my refrain of “Mommy’s back hurts,” and say it to each other when one asks for something from me that would require me to lift. Or stand. Or sit.

When the pain first kicked in, I stretched out, did some yoga and took some Advil. When that didn’t work, I went to get a massage. All that succeeded in doing was in turning my lower back the colors of a dark rainbow. I think at this point, I just need to rest it, because nothing’s helping. I have, however, experimented with body positions and determined that I can work mostly pain-free by lying a certain way on my back on the bed with my laptop balanced over me. This works until I stand up.

Sigh.

On a happier note, I’m cooking along with Slow Summer Burn. As of today, I’m 60K words in and chugging towards the finish line. And today I’m also being hosted by the wonderful folks over at Kindles & Wine, where they’ve reviewed Deep Autumn Heat (and said some lovely things about the book), *and* asked me all sorts of interesting questions which I hopefully answer in interesting ways. Join me over there, leave a comment, and you could win a print copy of the book. Yay!

That’s all I have for today. If anyone has any good suggestions for getting rid of lower back pain, lay ‘em on me. I BEG YOU.

 

Read Full Post »

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!

Read Full Post »

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! 

**************************************************************************

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!

Read Full Post »

Ch-ch-changes!

End of summer. Typically a time of reflection for me, a chance to take a deep breath and look ahead to what’s coming up on the horizon. But not this year! Not only are things already starting (so much for that last gasp of summer!), but there have been some huge changes. The big news is that my oldest little guy is heading off to kindergarten next week. Kindergarten! It’s really hard for me to process that. And my two little ones are moving up in their preschool classrooms–big changes for both of them. I’m in the thick of things right now, so I haven’t had time to really ruminate on what this all means, but I’m sure it’ll hit me in a month or so.

I’ve got loads of stuff popping up writing-wise, too! I’ve been hard at work on the third and fourth Star Harbor novels, Long Simmering Spring and Slow Summer Burn, writing, writing, and writing some more. Long Simmering Spring is done, and is currently with my (generous, very kind) beta readers. I’ve also started planning my next project (in secret mode, for the time being).

And the big news–Blaze of Winter will be released on September 10th. You can read an excerpt on Scribd here. I’m very excited about this book because the hero, Theo, is just awesome – intelligent, a bit quiet, and rugged. Plus: he wears glasses. Hot. Officially, my blog tour starts on August 31st, but I’ve prepared a tempting post about all the Grayson brothers – and sneak peeks into the heroes of Long Simmering Spring and Slow Summer Burn for Romance @ Random today.

Read Full Post »

Sold!

Great news! I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve sold the next two books in the Star Harbor series to Random House! Long Simmering Spring and Slow Summer Burn are due out as part of the Loveswept line in Spring and Summer 2013, respectively. If you’ve been following along, you might know that the first book of the series, Deep Autumn Heat, was released on July 9, and Blaze of Winter is coming on September 10. I’m very pleased that Loveswept wants all four books, and that the full series will be releasd so quickly! A bit about the two books I just sold:

In Long Simmering Spring, Cole Grayson finally returns to Star Harbor as the town’s new sheriff. He and Julie Kensington, the local physician, have known each other since grade school, and she’s less-than-impressed with the bad boy he used to be. But after stints in the military and on Boston’s police force, this leopard has definitely changed his spots. It isn’t long before Cole realizes that his sweet, sexy doctor will force him to confront his past and help him to face the future.

Slow Summer Burn is Val’s story. The oldest Grayson brother has been a strong, steady presence in his younger brothers’ lives. Now that the other Grayson men are settled, Val is able to focus on himself … and he has gorgeous, privileged Cameron Stahl in his sights. Cam has just opened her second antique store in town, and is more than receptive to sexy-as-sin Val’s advances. But Cam’s family isn’t too keen on their precious daughter dating a DEA agent. It’ll be up to Val to convince Cam–and himself–that he’s worth it. And man, is he worth it!

Both new books will feature more of Star Harbor and its inhabitants (including fan favorites Buster and Babs), pirate lore, and a mystery or two to keep everyone on their toes.

All of this happy news just gives me more reason to celebrate at the RWA National conference, which I can hardly believe is coming up next week! If you’re going to be in Anaheim, California on July 25th, please come find me at the Literacy Autographing (Table 802), where I’ll be signing copies of Deep Autumn Heat.

If you can’t make it to Anaheim, and would prefer to follow me around from the comfort of your own home, check out the two guest blog posts I did this week! My topic at Romance@Random is “Act Now, Think Later,” and there are some tantalizing personal anecdotes in there, including one about Mr. B! I also made the rounds at RomCon, where I answer questions about Star Harbor, Deep Autumn Heat, and what’s coming down the pipeline! Leave a comment on either site, and you could win a copy of Deep Autumn Heat!

Catch you on the flip side of RWA!

Read Full Post »