Julie: I'm a born and bred Texan. I think that about sums it up. In fact, my family came here by covered wagon in the 1840s. But there's so much more to the Lone Star State than ranching, horses, and cowboys. I enjoy showing readers a side of Texas they don't always see, from small town life to the bustle of big cities.

My husband and I currently live on the shores of Lake Travis in the Texas Hill Country. He's a journalist and worked in the Capitol Press Corps when we met. I was working in an art gallery in downtown Austin and he brought in a poster to be framed. It truly was love-at-first-sight, and it's lasted 17 wonderful years.

During that time, I've owned my own gallery, designed a line of artistic T-shirts and hand painted jewelry, and worked as a graphic designer. I still work in oil pastels when I have time.

Donna: The paintings you have on your website are beautiful. My favorite is The Garden! When are you the happiest, writing or painting?

Julie: Writing. Definitely. I became an artist more by default than anything else. Because of my dyslexia, I was functionally illiterate until my twenties when I discovered romance novels and taught myself to read. The day my husband brought home our first computer and told me it had spell check, my whole world changed.

All my life, I'd had stories running through my head, and suddenly I had a way to let them out. I started writing that very day, and spent every waking hour for the next few years learning English as a written language. I still enjoy my artwork, but more for relaxation. Writing is the hardest but most rewarding thing I've ever done.

Donna: How does your family feel about you writing romance - are they supportive?

Julie: Both my family and my husband's family are very supportive. I have to admit, though, I had a bit of a panic attack when I sold DRIVE ME WILD, and realized my mother and my 90-year-old grandmother in-law would be reading the infamous "restaurant scene." Neither of them batted an eye. In fact, the grandmother sat with me at a booksigning and told everyone, "It's very sexy. I may have to read it again."

Donna: Tell us how you decided to become an author and why did you chose to write romance?

Julie: Romance novels are the first books I found that held my attention enough to make me struggle through the ordeal of reading. When I first discovered them, it would take me a month to finish one book, and I'd have to have someone help me. (Usually my husband, God bless his patience.) I read strictly through memorization, so if I see a word I haven't memorized, I have to have someone tell me what it is. Nowadays there are very few words I haven't memorized, so I can read one to two books a week, if I push myself.

I can't imagine wanting to write anything but romance, because they are stories about decent people struggling to do the best they can with what they have. The stories are uplifting and inspiring, and they tell about the greatest force on earth: love.

Okay, so now you know why people tease me about being Pollyanna. I can't help it. I really believe all that. That does not, however, mean I'm straight-laced. No one ever said hot sex wasn't a part of a healthy marriage.

Donna: Which comes first, the characters or the story line?

Julie: For me, theme comes first. Like with DEAR CUPID, I was disgusted by some co-workers for their constant male-bashing. That gave me the spark of an idea to write a book about an advice columnist whose job is threatened when a bitter divorce sours her attitude toward men. She rediscovers her faith in romance when a marriage-minded movie animator hires her as his dating coach.

Donna: Do you work from an outline? Do your characters ever try to take over the story?

Julie: I do work from an outline, but it's a constant struggle to get the characters to behave. You would not believe how stubborn some fictional people can be. I'm telling you, they have no respect for the fact that I created them.

Donna: How long does it usually take you to write a story?

Julie: At least a year. And I so envy authors who write faster. At the rate I'm going, I'll have to live to 120 to get all my ideas down.

Donna: Have you ever found yourself with a case of "writer's block" while in the middle of a story? If so, what helps you get beyond this problem?

Julie: Don't say those words! (Picture me holding my fingers up in the sign of a cross.) I've never had a creative block in my life. But the book I'm working on is about a writer with writer's block, and I'm scared to death I'll get a little too much "in character," if you know what I mean. So do not even THINK those words around me!

Donna: What is the hardest part of writing a story?

Julie: Sleeping. My characters have an annoying habit of waking me up in the middle of the night. They also talk inside my head while I'm trying to drive. And I'm convinced they have meetings when I'm away from the computer where they decide to change the plot and threaten to strike if I don't agree to their terms. Most annoying.

Donna: What is the funniest thing that has happened related to your writing?

Julie: Naming a character Hugh Ashton, then two weeks later having one of you dare an RBL author to name a character Hugh Ashton. I nearly fell off my chair!

Donna: What type of research do you do for your books?

Julie: Oh groan ... I hate research! It's really hard for me. For some reason I can't read nonfiction. I understand this is a fairly common problem for people with dyslexia, but nonfiction simply won't stick in my brain if I try to read it. I have to find experts to interview so I can hear the information. If I hear it, I get it. If I read it, my brain turns to Teflon.

Donna: What has been your favorite question or comment by your fans?

Julie: "Where do ideas come from?" That's the question that gave me the idea to write a book about a writer with writer's block.

Donna: What is your least favorite question from fans?

Julie: "Where do ideas come from?" There's no real answer to that question. Unless all my writing buds are holding out on me. In which case, they have some serious explaining to do.

Donna: Your book covers are fun and they promise a fun, sexy story. Were you happy with the covers so far?

Julie: I've been very happy with my covers. Although the yellow convertible on the cover of DRIVE ME WILD came as a surprise. The hero originally drove a black Porsche coupe, so I had to scramble at the last minute to change it. And that dang car was in a LOT of scenes! Once I saw the cover, though, I agreed with the art department. A yellow convertible was much more striking.

Donna: Your first book, DRIVE ME WILD, was featured as a Doubleday Book Club release. Isn't it unusual to find a debut book offered there?

Julie: I don't know how uncommon it is, but I was totally blown away when that happened. And when I got my author copies of the hardcover edition, I cried. It was that cool. This past week, in New Orleans, I had the chance to see the Doubleday Book Club edition of DEAR CUPID, and it was just as cool.

Donna: In DRIVE ME WILD, the restaurant scene is both funny and very sexy. Do you find yourself laughing while you write the scenes?

Julie: I do, actually. Characters say and do the darnedest things. And it doesn't even feel like it's coming from me. It truly is like they're real people and I'm just taking dictation.

Donna: In DEAR CUPID, Mike recognizes that Kate is his destiny from their first meeting. Since you must fall in love with your heroes when you are writing, was it hard to keep Kate from surrendering early on?

Julie: It really was. Mike is just such a great guy. I felt guilty for putting both of them through so much pain, but hey that's my job. (My editor swears I enjoy torturing my characters, but I really don't. I swear! I bawl through all the sad scenes. Really! Okay, so maybe I enjoy torturing them a tiny bit as payback for all the times they keep me up at night.)

Donna: In both of your books you have little boys near the same age. Is there someone special you use for inspiration?

Julie: Actually, I didn't even realize that. I have no children - at least not the two-legged variety - so they weren't based on children I know personally. The inspiration for the little boy in DRIVE ME WILD came from a true story I heard somewhere. I was incensed by his plight so it stuck with me. I still get mad when I think about it. As for Dylan, in DEAR CUPID, I have no idea where he came from, but he really stole my heart. I guess because I remember how awkward I felt at that age.

Donna: You also have secondary love stories in both books - will this continue through your writing?

Julie: Absolutely! I love my secondary love stories, because I can be a bit more off-the-wall with them. And wait until you meet the secondary couple in my next book, FALLING FOR YOU. Oh man, I laughed my head off over those two.

Donna: What kind of books do you hope to write in the future?

Julie: I enjoy exactly what I'm writing now: contemporary romantic comedy with touches of deeper emotion. And I have no plans to move my settings away from Texas in the near future.

Donna: Can you give us any hints about future stories?

Julie: I just finished FALLING FOR YOU, the first of three books about a brother and two sisters who convert an old mansion on Galveston Island, Texas, into a bed and breakfast. Very funny, and very sexy. I'm having great fun with these characters.

Donna: What kind of books do you read for pleasure? Who are some of your favorite authors?

Julie: I adore Regencies and contemporaries the most, but will read most any time period as long as it's romance. As for favorite authors, there are way too many to name, but the short list would be: Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Johanna Lindsey, the early Judith McNaughts, the middle years from Jude Deveraux, the Mackenzie books by Linda Howard (thank you RBL) - and I recently discovered Suz Brockmann.

Donna: How does the internet affect you as an author?

Julie: You mean there was a time before the internet? A time before message boards and author e-mail loops? How did we live?

Donna: What are some of your favorite web sites and discussion boards?

Julie: Other than RBL? The Author's Mansion and the Cafe, of course. (Links to these sites are available from my webpage.)

Donna: How can we, as readers, best help to promote new authors such as yourself?

Julie: Post positive reviews on the message boards or at Amazon.com and bn.com. Anytime a book touches you, let people know. Even if you don't shop at on-line bookstores, post your positive comments. It makes a difference.

Donna: Do you have any advice for the aspiring authors here at RBL?

Julie: Follow your heart and listen to your gut. If you believe deep inside that you are meant to write, don't let anyone or anything stop you.

Donna: Anything else you would like to say?

Julie: Readers should never underestimate the power they hold, or their importance to writers. Yes, we write because we are compelled to put our stories into words, but knowing those stories have touched another life makes all the struggling worthwhile. Speaking of, I love to hear from readers, so please feel free to e-mail me.

Julie, on behalf of everyone at RBL Romantica, thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to do this interview. And thank you for being a part of RBL Romantica. We've had fun learning more about you and hope you will continue to be a regular on our Message Board.

~Donna~



Ketchup
May 2004










Donna: Julie, please tell us what is new with you.

Julie: I have two new things to report - I switched publishers last fall and recently bought a popup camper - which are actually related. It dawned on me in the past year, that I need a life beyond writing. Ironically, this revelation came right before NAL offered me a super contract for a new trilogy that I'm very excited about. The hitch is, they want the books really fast so they can release them all in a row. Yikes! There went that idea of not writing 24/7.

So, in the interest of having a life while writing, Ken and I bought a popup camper and parked it down at his family's old farm in East Texas. It's sitting next to a picturesque pond in the middle of 248 acres of land. Talk about a place to "get away" on the weekends. Thanks to my trusty iBook, I'm now able to write, spend time with Ken, and watch my Australian Shepherd, Cody, run and bark like the ranch dog he was born to be. It's the best of all worlds.

(And for those of you who are thinking: "Julie camping?" Did you know they make designer sleeping bags? And really cute cooking stuff? And plastic wine glasses? How cool is that!)

Donna: When we last "talked," you were just beginning The Pearl Island Trilogy. Now, we have the last book, Adrian's story, DON'T TEMPT ME. It struck me that Adrian and Jackie are an interesting reversal (and blend) of the more "traditional" romance character roles. Was this difficult to do?

Julie: It was ... a challenge. *G* I decided to do it just to see if I could pull off a hero who had a lot of female energy yet was still really HOT and pair him with a heroine who had the straight-forward approach to life of a man? Adrian was surprisingly easy. He came alive in the very first book, FALLING FOR YOU, and pretty much wrote himself all the way through the end of the trilogy. Jackie, though, proved trickier. Not just because her character - a modern day, female ship captain - was complex, but because of reader expectation. I'd been getting fan mail for two years asking for Adrian's story. So I had this constant cloud over my head of "What if they don't like the woman who wins him? What if they think she's not good enough for him?" I was SO relieved when readers and reviewers proclaimed that Adrian had more than met his match.

Donna: It has been fun visiting with the St. Claire family. After spending so much time with them and Pearl Island, is it hard for you to let them go? Is there ever a temptation to just keep writing about your characters?

Julie: It's been horrendously hard to let them go. Even though I'm in love with a new set characters, I keep toying with ways to set more books on Pearl Island - maybe explore romances between the guests with the St. Claires and even the now-happy ghosts as background characters. I don't know if I ever will, but I'm not ruling it out.

Donna: You mention on your website, that you have a new "Perfect" trilogy coming next summer. Can you tell us more? Are the stories already written?

Julie: This is the trilogy I sold to NAL, which I'm in the midst of writing: ALMOST PERFECT, JUST PERFECT, and TOO PERFECT. I think RBLers will like the stories because they show that - thanks to the age of Internet - distance is no obstacle to friendship. The stories are about three Texas women, former college suitemates, who find their perfect men (three very sexy heroes *G*) while fulfilling separate challenges in Santa Fe, Aspen, and the Caribbean. The women head out on their dares armed with a self-help book written by a fourth suitemate, titled HOW TO HAVE THE PERFECT LIFE. The friends keep tabs on each other's romantic adventures via e-mail.

It's going to be a challenge to weave all of that together, since the stories all start with the same scene (the booksigning where they buy the self-help book) and two of them overlap time wise. If all goes well, they will be released one a month for three months in the summer or fall of 2005. So, wish me luck and good writing vibes!

Donna: What is next after this trilogy?

Julie: Ah. That will be BEYOND PERFECT, to be released one year later. It's going to be one wild, romantic misadventure about the fourth suitemate, the author of HOW TO HAVE THE PERFECT LIFE, whose life turns out to be far from perfect after all. Have I got a man in mind for her!

Donna: Thank you so much for giving us these fun, sexy books. You have been a hugh favorite among us Rebels from the beginning. We look forward to reading more in the future!

Julie: Thank YOU! I love hanging out at the RBL broad, and I think of all of you frequently when I'm writing. More than once, I've dropped something into a scene with one or all of you in mind. In fact ... I was going to save this as a surprise, but what the heck. In ALMOST PERFECT, the first book in the new trilogy, I couldn't resist bringing that really sexy pic of Marco/Marcell, the 2003 Bod of the Year, to life. *G* And I definitely think Jaycee will approve on the hero's, um, attributes.

Julie's Web Site



Return to the
Index of Author Interviews.




Copyright � RBL Romantica!
All rights reserved.
Reproducing material from this site without permission is prohibited.