Tag: Private Politics

The Easy Part on Sale!

An old price alert told me that Private Politics and Party Lines are both on sale for 99 cents. Private Politics has never been this cheap, and Party Lines has never been on sale before. I have no idea how long this sale price will last. So if you’ve been waiting to grab them, do it now.

Private Politics is a friends to lovers romance featuring a socialite/non profit fundraiser who discovers shenanigans at her job and fears she’s being set up as the patsy. She enlists help investigating from a blogger who’s wildly infatuated with her, and of course they fall for each other. Liam is my most cuddly, vulnerable, REAL hero, and I love how he finds his confidence (and Alyse her ambition). You can get Private Politics at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. Barnes and Noble isn’t currently matching the price, but I hope it will.

Party Lines is enemies to lovers featuring rival campaign staffers. She’s a Republican who wants to change her party; he’s a Democrat who’s lost all his idealism. I think this is the best romance I’ve ever written, and you can get it at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play. Again, B&N isn’t matching the price, but maybe soon.

While these are the second and third books in the series, you don’t need to read book one (Special Interests) to start here. But please note that I wrote these books in the Obama era, and they feel like it. While I wanted them to have verisimilitude, they’ve become pure fantasy. I wouldn’t write Party Lines today, at least not the way I did. While this isn’t a book about the protagonists moving to the middle or deciding partisanship doesn’t matter, plots do cultural work. And the work this book does might not be the work you need or want right now.

I still love both these books, and it would delight me if more readers found them. But I get that these are tough sells in 2020.

Private Politics On Sale

book cover reading

I’m so sorry about posting several “buy this book” posts in a row (I try to avoid that), but I just found out that Private Politics is on sale for 99 cents! It’s never been discounted before, so grab it now if you were waiting.

I’m not sure why it’s on sale or how long that price will last, but I’m super fond of this book, and here’s the best pitch I can make for it: Liam is maybe my favorite among the heroes I’ve written. He’s smart, nerdy, not insanely good looking or rich–but completely gone for the heroine Alyse. Alyse was more polarizing, but I love her. She’s been living her life as a vacuous socialite, but she’s realizing she wants other things. There’s a scandal involving illegal giving by foreign entities (so quaint) and a lot of DC insidery stuff, but it’s mostly this quiet romance.

The sale price is only showing up at Amazon and Google Play, but hopefully it’ll proliferate later.

ETA: and the sale price is now also at B&N, iBooks, and Kobo, but it does seem to be US only (I’m sorry!). Again, I have no idea how long this will last, so click fast.

The Books that Write Well…and Those that Don’t

book cover reading "Private Politics, Emma Barry." It shows a door opening into an office. A couple in profile is having a heated argument in front of a window.

Last month was Private Politics‘ second book birthday, and next week is Star Dust‘s first. They’re a tale of contrasts. It took Genevieve and I approximately nine months to write the first draft of Star Dust. In contrast, while I started Private Politics during the summer of 2013, I wrote most of it in 6 weeks in September and October of that year. I don’t think I’ve ever written a book so well, so painlessly.

But does that mean Private Politics is better than a book with which I struggled?

There were moments when I didn’t think I’d survive Party Lines, for example. Of the four manuscripts I’m working on–by myself and with Genevieve–one of them is going splendidly. The other three…aren’t.

Continue reading “The Books that Write Well…and Those that Don’t” →

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” →

Winter Blahs Giveaway

Thanksgiving has barely ended, Hanukkah is just over a week away, and Christmas looms. Winter weather is sending almost everyone in the United States scurrying for our blankets and cranking up our thermostats. And I’m up to my teeth in papers to grade and dissertation defenses to prepare for (really there’s just the one).

To help with the stress and cold, I’m going to give away a digital copy of a book–specifically one copy of any book I’ve written. There’s the Civil War, second-chance-at-love angst of Brave in Heart, the cynic/idealist budget negotiation of Special Interests, the opposites attract scandal of Private Politics (which has a Jewish beta hero!), and the not-releasing for a month cross-party campaign banter of Party Lines.

The rules: you must be able to accept either an .epub or a .mobi file. And you must comment below and tell me which book you’d like. I’ll pick a winner on Friday, December 15 make that 12, at midnight EST.

ETA:

Screen shot 2014-12-13 at 8.07.49 AM

I gave everyone a number, 1 through 9, and the random number generator spit out 2. The winner has been emailed!

A Tale of Five Opening Sentences

Until Party Lines (which will be out in January!), I had never written an opening chapter that remained in the final version of the manuscript–and I don’t mean that I made a few minor revisions to the writing. In every manuscript until Party Lines, I had dumped at least one chapter and significantly changed how I introduced the characters and the conflict. I previously shared with you the original opening chapter of Brave in Heart (compared to its actual opening chapter) and I could do the same for Special Interests as well as for my drawer novel.

In the case of Private Politics (which released yesterday! woo-hoo), I ran through five different openings. That’s right: five. There were three entirely different concepts and then, when I’d found the right one, I tweaked it until I got the first paragraph right. The reasons why the first four didn’t appear in the book varied. But let’s catalogue them!

(Warning: there are very minor spoilers for Special Interests in here. There are also references to the premise of Private Politics. If you’ve read the blurb, none of this will surprise you/ruin the book for you, but if you like to experience books without any information whatever about the premise, don’t read this post.)

Continue reading “A Tale of Five Opening Sentences” →

Private Politics Release Day

A year ago, I was finishing the first draft of a book. A book about a snuggly blogger hero and the socialite fundraiser he loves from afar. About a scandal and money and influence. About finding yourself and shattering others’ expectations. And about shoes–lots of shoes.

Private Politics Cover

That book, Private Politics, is now out! And you can buy it at cool places like Amazon, B&N, Carina, iBooks, Kobo, All Romance, and Google Play or add it to your Goodreads shelves.

I had to write Special Interests, the first book in the series. Millie and Parker wouldn’t leave me alone. Writing was an attempt to excise them from my head. That translated into the intense chemistry between the characters.

Alyse and Liam were different. Writing their book was scarier because my publisher had bought it on spec and I was worried about living up to their expectations. But it was also the first thing I’d written where I felt confident about myself as a writer–where I thought about myself as a writer at all. And for that reason, it’s a very special book to me.

To celebrate its release, I’m going to gift three (3) copies to lucky winners. In fact, the winners can decide if they’d prefer Special Interests or Private Politics, in case they haven’t yet dipped their toes into the world of my sexy, smart, overworked, and frequently hilarious political aides.

So enter today. As Rafflecopter and WordPress don’t get along, here’s the link.

And, to whet your whistle, a third and final entry in The Easy Part series will be released on January 12, 2015: Party Lines. Because if you thought DC was fun, you haven’t met the campaign trail.

Private Politics: Teaser 2

Only two weeks until Private Politics will be out! And today, I’m going to share one of my favorite moments: the epic hug. I’ve teased this before, but it’s a scene that I wrote and thought, “Oh, I like that.” And I’m very critical of my own writing.

The context: Alyse and Liam have a stressful conversation with a third party. Then this happens. There a few bad words.

Continue reading “Private Politics: Teaser 2” →