I’m so happy to share the covers for the next TWO Fly Me to the Moon books with you. We’ve been sitting on these for forever, and it’s been very hard not to wallpaper the internet with them.
The blurbs and some FAQs are after the break.
Continue reading “Cover Reveal: A Midnight Kiss and Star Crossed”
Happy Fourth of July to my American friends and readers! (And happy treason day to everyone else?)
I imagine Millie, Parker, Alyse, Liam, Lydia, and Michael (from The Easy Part) would probably grill and watch their kids play and snark about the election. And all the astronauts, engineers, and other folks from Fly Me to the Moon would cook out at Margie’s and perhaps eat a Jello mold like this one.
If you want to replicate it on your own, I used this Sparking Summer Berry Jello recipe. I omitted the rum and scaled it up for this 10-cup mold which belonged to one of my grandmothers. It did not turn out perfectly, but it’s certainly festive and dramatic.
I’m in my writing cave at the moment, but I’ll be back soon with new words. Happy summer!
“Why, dear Emma, do you write mid-century romance, a subgenre which isn’t really a subgenre?”
“Well, gentle reader, the answer is simple: Down with Love.”
That’s right, this week’s fine romance Friday is Peyton Reed’s rom-com Down with Love (2003), which if you don’t know, stars Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.
To talk about the plot of this movie is almost to the miss the point, but to blurb it briefly: Ewan McGregor is Catcher Block, “a man’s man, ladies man, man about town” who writes for KNOW Magazine (basically GQ). His newest assignment: write a tell-all about Barbara Novak (Ms. Zellweger), whose bestseller Down with Love is setting off a feminist revolution. He blows her off, then she insults him on TV, he becomes intrigued by her and pretends to be an yokel astronaut in order to seduce her and reveal to the world that she’s a–no, not that!–fraud. Except of course none of this works out. Hijinks ensue. And roll tape.
Look, you’re either intrigued by this set-up or you’re not. And I wouldn’t blame you if you want to run away screaming; this movie probably isn’t most people’s cup of tea. Except here’s the thing: I grew up watching way too much AMC, but back in the early 90s when AMC actually played classic movies. (Remember that?) And among those films were That Touch of Mink, Send Me No Flowers, Lover Come Back, and most of all Pillow Talk.
Last night, I tweeted a bunch of funny, sexist, offensive, and odd nuggets from Gen’s and my research for the Fly Me to the Moon books. I Storify-ed the entire thing here in case you missed it.
On to today’s movie recommendation: The Dish, a 2000 drama directed by Rob Sitch starring Sam Neill and Patrick Warburton.
Before we get into the plot, I must warn you that this is not technically a romance. Which is to say that there is a very small, though very sweet, romance subplot. But since my conceit with these posts is fine romances, the real romance here is with humans and the moon. What’s on that big rock in the sky? Can we get there? And what will we risk to share human exploration with the world? (And yes, I’m trying to tie it into my promo this week. Just roll with it.)
The Dish begins a few days prior to the July 1969 lunar landing. It’s set in Parkes, Australia, home to the largest satellite dish in the world. Parkes is one of the sites that’s going to help transmit the images from the moon to television sets everywhere.
The Dish is an ensemble piece, flitting from story to story: the bumbling mayor, with his devoted wife and his would-be radical daughter; the nerdy engineers and technicians who work at the dish who chafe under the oversight of the incredibly uptight engineer sent from NASA to oversee their work; and everyone else in town who can’t believe a man is going to walk on the moon and they are kind of, sort of adjacent to history.
The plot isn’t any more complicated than that. Things go wrong, and they fix them. History is achieved, and the pictures transmitted. It’s based on real events, although one major plot development is invented and I’m sure much of the rest is heavily fictionalized. But the charm of it comes in things that I can’t summarize for you: quiet conversations between friends, a fabulous late 60s soundtrack and perfect costumes, and this amazing thing that, almost 50 years later, it’s stunning that humans achieved. This isn’t an earth-shattering movie, but it’ll make you smile.
For this week’s fine romance Friday, cook up some lamb and watch The Dish.
It’s finally here! Charlie and Parsons have finally arrived. This book, y’all, this book. Gen and I wrote the first draft Earth Bound in about six weeks over the winter holidays. Once we started working on it, the words poured out.
It’s a workplace romance about two grumpy, brilliant people who are so smitten, but so bad at feelings. Erin from Binge on Books described it on Twitter as a cross between Mad Men, The Martian, and Pride and Prejudice. It’s dark, but funny. It’s about early computers, but it’s sexy. I just love it, and I hope you will too. (And for anyone who hasn’t read Star Dust or A Midnight Clear, you can start the series with Earth Bound no problem.)
If you’re so inclined, you can purchase Earth Bound in e-book (and print!) at Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Google Play, and Kobo. You can also add it to your Goodreads shelves, join series’ the mailing list, or visit the book’s Pinterest board.
How else could I appropriately celebrate a book I adore this much? I’d already made a retro feast for Star Dust. But there was an new frontier: booze-y Jello.
Continue reading “Earth Bound Release Day (and Champagne Jello!)”
We’re only eight days away from the release of Earth Bound, a book of which I am fiercely proud. And to make sure you’re sufficiently excited about it, I’m going to share the prologue with you today.
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.
Are you ready for some gorgeousness?
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!
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.
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.
Emma Barry 