Happy Book Birthday, Special Interests!

IMG_0009Two years ago today, my second book released. I wrote it to collect incidents and personalities I observed in Washington and ideas I have about the state of American politics. This is probably why Special Interests is wonky and insidery. I truly never thought I’d sell it or that anyone would read it, so I wrote staffers who talked, thought, loved, drank, and snarked liked the one I was and the ones I knew.

I recently re-read it, and I’m a better writer and far more aware of the romance market than I was back in 2012 when I was drafting. But that I wouldn’t write it the same way now–or probably wouldn’t write it at all–is what makes Special Interests, erm, special to me.

It’s a book about two people who meet and are immediately gobsmacked, but because of the narrow yet deep differences in their personalities and worldviews, they can’t imagine a future together. But they can’t quite stay away from each other either.

This has always been one of my favorite bits. It’s from Millie and Parker’s first date.

Continue reading “Happy Book Birthday, Special Interests!” →

Go for Gissing!

Following up on my earlier post, there’s enough interest to commit to a book club on George Gissing’s The Odd Women (1893) to commence on Twitter on April 25. We chatted for about an hour starting at 9 PM EST last time; does that still work? And is #oddgals an okay hashtag?

The first nine chapters gets us through the first third, so let’s make that the goal for our first chat. Digital copies are available for free at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Project Gutenberg, iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, and perhaps elsewhere.

Pseudo Romance Book Club

picture of books on shelves, including several titles by the Brontes and Jane Austen

So in December and January, a group of us read Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and we discussed it here and on Twitter. As that was wrapping up, we talked about doing two more pseudo-book club discussions:  on George Gissing’s The Odd Women and Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette. Spoiler alert: neither of these books have happily ever afters, but they engage with romance tropes and plots. I haven’t read the Gissing (which is set in late nineteenth-century London and addresses romance cross-class), but it looks terrific. And if you’ve been listening to Hamilton non-stop, you’ll enjoy what The Coquette has to say about courtship and femininity in early Republican America. Digital copies of both books are available free on Amazon, Project Gutenberg, and elsewhere.

I’m writing to gauge if there’s still interest in reading/talking about these books. If so, I’d like to propose that we discuss Gissing in about a month (maybe April 25, May 2, and May 9) and then Foster in July (maybe July 11 and July 18). We’d done Monday nights at 9 EST last time; is that still the best option?

Continue reading “Pseudo Romance Book Club” →

For the Love of…Work

I haven’t written a rambling, pretentious blog post in a while, and I have about 850 other things I should be doing, so…yeah.

I’ve been thinking about why I seem to have written so many romances that intimately describe the work of the characters, whether it’s how they negotiate the federal budget in Special Interests, how Anne-Marie made airline reservation in 1962 in Star Dust, or how Lydia prepares her boss for a presidential debate in Party Lines. (And if you like this sort of thing, don’t worry, there’s gobs of work stuff in Earth Bound.)

My initial thought is it might be related to the American notion of identity, which I’ve written about a bit before. For a modern USian, who we are is intimately tied to how we–or our family members–generate income. (I’m just southern enough to have heard young women say to each other at cocktail parties, “What does your daddy do?”)

But it isn’t a “modern” American thing, is it? This one goes back to Jamestown and the “work to eat” rule and the Puritans and their beliefs about idle hands being the Devil’s workshop. The contrasts and rejections we still see some people make between American and European economies are related to stereotypes about hard work and reward–and of course they are stereotypes. I don’t actually think people in the United States work any harder than anyone else, we just tie our mythos to our work in a way others don’t always, leading to great national tragedies such as Death of a Salesman.

Continue reading “For the Love of…Work” →

“How Do You Co-Write?”

I sometimes get questions about the exact mechanics of co-writing. Isn’t writing a book on your own tricky enough? How do you make something sound coherent when two of you are hacking away at it?

If you’re curious, I talked about my co-writing relationship with Genevieve Turner with the lovely Cobie Daniels in this podcast. (Also, Cobie’s debut novel will be out next week! How cool is that?)

Cobie and I talked about where the idea for the Fly Me to the Moon series, the research and co-writing process, the importance of critique partners, the state of historical romance, and Jello. Somewhat ironically, Cobie asked how Gen and I deal with conflict, but in early February when we recorded this, Gen and I hadn’t really hadn’t any conflict. But as we finished and did a first editing pass through Earth Bound, Gen and I finally disagreed about something: whether the possessive form of Parsons should be Parsons’ or Parsons’s. (Please weigh in on this important issue in the comments. And no, I won’t tell you which sides we were both on.)

If you’re looking for all the 60s recipes I made, they’re all here. And since we recorded the podcast, the Earth Bound cover and blurb have been released.

If thirty minutes of my dulcet voice and lucid reasoning isn’t enough of me, I talked to G.G. Andrew about my reading and the best kiss I’ve ever read.

Cover Reveal: Earth Bound

Are you ready for some gorgeousness?

at the top of the image, a man and a woman in mid century clothing embrace. the middle contains the book title (Earth Bound) floating above a sky full of stars. in the bottom are the author names (Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner)

I’ve been staring at it for a month now, so I’m thrilled to finally share it with you. And it fits the book perfectly. To wit:

Houston, Texas, 1961

Eugene Parsons requires perfection from his staff. Anything less would be an unnecessary risk—and Parsons hates both risk and distraction. Nothing is more distracting than the brilliant, beautiful computer scientist on his team, but he’s determined to ignore his attraction since he needs her to get America to the moon.

Charlie Eason is used to men underestimating her. It comes with being a woman in engineering, but anything is worth joining the space race—even if she can’t figure out what’s behind the intense looks one tightly wound engineer keeps sending her. But life isn’t as unemotional or predictable as code, and things soon boil over with the intriguingly demanding Parsons.

With every launch, their secret affair grows thornier. The lines between work and play tangle even as Parsons and Charlie try to keep them separate. But when a mission goes wrong, they’ll have to put aside their pride for the greater good—and discover that matters of the heart have a logic all their own.

We’re aiming for an early May release, but we don’t have preorder links yet. There are some answers to frequently asked questions and an excerpt here and you can add the book on Goodreads, check out its Pinterest board, or join the series mailing list. Now I have to return to the editing cave so you can have this book in your hands in three months!

Valentines Rewind: Private Politics

a red heart with the words "Valentines Rewind"

Welcome! I’m Emma, and I’m thrilled to share a bit more from Alyse and Liam’s life with you. If you didn’t read Private Politics, she’s a Manhattan princess-turned-DC fundraiser. He’s a political blogger who helped her deal with a job-related crisis, during which they fell in love. Well, he was actually already in love with her before all of that, but it took a scandal, and some romance-y, book-y things, and now they’re married.

I am going to put a trigger warning on it because it contains discussion of fertility issues and pregnancy news.

Continue reading “Valentines Rewind: Private Politics” →

Coming Soon: Earth Bound News

This is an announcement…of an announcement, but first the fanfare: As of today, Genevieve Turner and I have a complete first draft of Earth Bound, the next book in the Fly Me to the Moon series. We’re going to reveal the cover, the blurb, and the anticipated release date on the series mailing list next Thursday–and this will include telling you the identity of the woman in the hotel with Eugene Parsons. So if you’re not on it, get on the mailing list here!

If you don’t want to sign up for the emails, don’t worry. We’ll do the public cover reveal on our blogs and social media streams on Friday.

Here’s a teeny, tiny Earth Bound teaser to tide you over.

smoke vulcan

I’m cackling with delight about this one, cats and kittens; it’s so deliciously twisty.

So, we’ll have news next week. In the meantime, don’t forget that A Midnight Clear is still free if you haven’t read it. And check out this fantastic review of Star Dust by the wonderful Miss Bates.

A Fine Romance Friday: The Cutting Edge

So a giant blizzard is about to bury the east coast, specifically Washington, DC. Well, if you’re looking for something steamy set in the Capitol, I have some ideas. You can’t read all the time–okay, you can, but you might not want to–so what should you watch between books and cocoa?

The clear answer is Paul Michael Glaser’s romantic comedy The Cutting Edge (1992).

If somehow you haven’t seen it, it’s essentially an updated version of The Taming of the Shrew set against the backdrop of pairs figure skating. Our shrew is Kate (Moira Kelly), a spoiled and notoriously difficult skater who lost her latest partner 18 months before the Olympics. She needs a new one or else she won’t be able to make a play for the medal she came so close to winning the last time. The only problem is that no one will skate with her.

Enter our Petruchio, Doug (DB Sweeney), a hockey player whose career was cut short by an injury. Skating with Kate not only brings him a healthy paycheck by way of her wealthy dad but is also his last shot to get of his dead-end job at his brother’s bar.

What follows is completely predictably and utterly charming. Kate and Doug are enemies, then they’re friends, and finally lovers, all the while trying to perfect an impossible skating move.

It’s the rare winter romance that comes with scarcely any holiday trimmings (they exchange Christmas gifts and there’s a brief New Year’s scene). But more seriously, I would argue that it’s the first New Adult romance, and it may still be the most influential entry. It includes, fully formed, most of the tropes we still see in the subgenre, including the protagonists’ tragic backstory (Kate’s mother’s death, Doug’s injury), drama with the parents/the struggle for independence, banter, tension, angst, and sports.

The Cutting Edge just about the perfect movie for a snowpocalypse–anytime of year.

Happy Birthday to Party Lines!

 

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Authors probably aren’t supposed to have favorites among their books. I mean, I assume. I’m not very good at authoring. But today is the book birthday of Party Lines. Among the contemporary romances I’ve published…it’s my favorite. (Though the book I’m writing now is giving me major feels.)

To celebrate, I put together some text/image things with some of the best lines. You can see them all on the book’s Pinterest board.

I hope Lydia and Michael are celebrating with banter and bourbon!