Author Archive

Not even winter yet
07
September
Julie

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been a flake.

Lee Modesitt commented to me that I was one of the least consistent bloggers on the planet. And he’s likely accurate on that assessment. But my excuses are good. I could be either writing on my blog, or writing on my new book.

I chose the book.

See? It is a good excuse. And I just finished it! The book I’d meant to make 60,000 words finally came to its conclusion at 96,000 words. I really need to work on my brevity. I’ll let it sit for a week or so while I reward myself and read all the books I’ve been missing in the last four months. Then I’ll go into revision mode and see what I can pare down to get it to a more manageable word count.

The book is currently called Lucidity. It was once called Dream Writers, and will likely be called something else by the time it sees publication. It’s a YA paranormal horror. I know . . . I know . . . I’ve already said I don’t write scary stories. I didn’t actually realize that this was a scary story until one night when Mr. Wright left town. I went to bed but couldn’t get to sleep because I was terrified by the things I’d written during the day and worried they might revisit me in my dreams. It was at that moment of going to sleep with the lights on that I realized what I’d done. I’d written a scary story.  If the book were to be made into a movie, it would be shelved with the horror films. The book is twenty shades of awesome.

I was reading in Scientific American last night and found an article that just might revolutionize the writing industry. Apparently, an inch behind your forehead lies the place in your brain that deals with physical pain.

And apparently, lumped into that same space is where we deal with mental or emotional pain as well. You hit your thumb with a hammer or get rejected by your one true love, the hurt registers to your brain in the same place and in the same manner. So they did a test study where half the participants were given placebos, and the others were given two Tylenol. Then they put them in situations where they could measure the stress and strain of rejection and failure.

Overwhelmingly, the people with the Tylenol felt better than the people with the placebo.

How does this revolutionize the writing industry? Maybe those rejection letters won’t hurt as much if we take a couple of Tylenol and wait a half hour before we open them? If it doesn’t hurt as much, maybe we’ll submit more. If we submit more, we’ll get more feedback, become better writers, and ultimately sell books.

Maybe.

Right now my agent sent my manuscript, Death Thieves, to the publisher of my dreams. It’s with a few other publishing houses as well, and all of them are reputable, but one of them is the one I’ve wanted from the inception of writing for the national market. You can bet I’ll be taking a couple of Tylenol before opening any emails from my agent.

Just in case.

Category: Random Rants On Writing  One Comment
Cross My Heart cover!
24
August
Julie

Isn’t it adorable???

I got a peek at my new cover for Cross My Heart a few weeks ago. I was in a situation where Internet wasn’t available while I was out of town, so I was hanging out in Barnes and Noble when the email came through. The cover was so awesome, I had to bite my tongue to keep from girl screaming in public. Anyway, I figured I should share it, now that I’m back in town, have met the various deadlines required of me, and have Internet access again. YAY.

Seriously, out of all my books, this is my favorite cover so far. The designers did a great job and the back blurb is awesome. I am beyond pleased with my publisher. They’ve done a great job, and I truly appreciate them. Look for Cross My Heart to hit stores soon. It’s a romantic comedy that is just plain fun. It releases October 1st.

Category: Random Rants On Writing  3 Comments
The Hazzardous Universe
09
July
Julie

The phone call from my editor: “Hey Jules, how are you doing?”

“Good . . . I am good, aren’t I?”

“Well that depends on if you’re okay with an early 2011 release of The Hazzardous Universe . . . we were thinking February.”

This is where I rupture my editor’s eardrums with my girl screams and do a happy dance that makes me look maniacal on the front porch of my country store.

This moment has been a long time in the making. In 2007, I went to LTUE (Life, The Universe, and everything). I spoke on several panels, sold a bunch of books, and made some new friends. One of those friends was an artist. His name was Kevin Wasden. He drew me a little dragon, and a little ogre, and bought one of my books.

Several days later, he wrote me an email, asking me to lunch. Turns out he had been sketching a particular character for years and he wanted to see this character in a book. But he was an artist, not a writer. He needed a writer. And since he’d bought my book, went home, and read it, he decided I was the writer he needed.

We met for lunch and he showed me all his ideas for this character. The sketches were amazing and I had to say yes to the project because only an idiot would turn down a character with a wicked awesome name like Hap Hazzard.

The book has been through several revisions and morphing as the story grew beyond just a single book. We’d have to do a series. I finished book one and outlined the series–deciding we’d write the next book when the first book sold.

We’ve had a LOT of interest over the last couple of years, but it seemed an author/artist combo was an impossible sale to publishing houses who already had their stable of artists. No one was willing to take us as a team.

Until now.

My editor (Kirk Shaw–the brilliant)  asked me to send it to him–even though my publishing house didn’t do science fiction. He sent it off to readers, got amazing reviews back and prepared a kick butt presentation to a marketing board who felt wary of embarking into a genre they’d never done before.

And bless them all, they were interested. Interested enough to want to meet with Kevin and I and hear more. The meeting was awesome, Kevin shone like  a rock star, and they told us they’d discuss it again in their committee meeting.

The next 24 hours were nerve-wracking, and ended with the above phone call conversation. Kevin and I have been officially accepted as a team and will be able to do the book as we envisioned in the beginning. The first book of the Hazzardous Universe will release in February of 2011 and it is going to be awesome!

I am humbled and thrilled that my publishing house believes in me and is taking this chance to sail into new waters with me. They are awesome!

Seven months until blast off! I’d better get writing book 2!

Category: Jules is Celebrating, Random Rants On Writing  Tags: , , , , ,  16 Comments
Stream of Life
09
June
Julie

I’m writing today. I’ve been writing with absolute diligence these last several months. I’ve completed one book and am so close to completing another I can almost taste the ending. The book is awesome, beautiful, and awesome. Did I mention it was awesome? I cannot wait to have it done. Today I’m writing to the music composed by Garry Schyman called “Praan” which is an adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Stream of Life” from Gitanjali (or song offerings).

I just wanted to share the beauty in the words of the poem. Translations are below as made by the author from the original Bengali.

Stream of Life

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.
It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Category: Random Rants On Writing  11 Comments
31
May
Julie

As a child, every memorial day centered on the town of Oak City where my grandfather was buried. It was the town my father, aunts, and uncles had grown up. It was the town my grandma had spent the majority of her adult life. For them it was home.

For me . . . it was home too. Though I didn’t live there (not yet) and only visited a handful of times every year. For me, Oak City was the place of four wheelers and frog catching. It was getting lost in fields of rye grass taller than me. It was the candy store, the camp fires, the moon rising over the mountains,  taking walks without anyone worrying over where I’d gone and when I’d be back. It was childhood freedom.

And it was the cemetery.

We always went to the cemetery. We’d walk with grandma, taking our place in the family pilgrimage to the edge of town. Grandma always shed tears at the graveside of my grandfather. I hadn’t known him. He’d died before I was born. But I knew her, loved her, wanted to be everything she was, and if grandma was sad, then the moment needed to be respected. But I was young, and had never lost anyone I’d loved. The sadness was hard to understand even while it was being respected. I had no attachment to any of the people under the grass and stone markers. Memorial Day was festive, bright, and filled with flowers. The tears didn’t make sense.

Until later.

When it was me standing at Grandma’s graveside, when one of the biggest reasons Oak City felt like home was gone.

Today–twenty years later from that time I’d been forced to say goodbye, the tears felt fresh, the wound felt new instead of scabbed and scarred over with time. My aunt had bought little plant markers for when someone plants a garden patch so they remember where they put everything. She’d also bought a ton of flowers ready for planting. She put every child, grandchild, and great grandchild along with their respective spouses that had all blossomed under the love of my grandparents on those markers and placed the markers in the flower pots.

I’ve never seen such a beautiful sight.

Grandma would have loved it.

So on this day where we honor our dead, I just want to say hello to my grandmother. Hello, and I still miss you every day.

Category: Random Rants on life, family life  Tags: , , ,  4 Comments
Bright Lights, Big City
24
May
Julie

I know I am the least consistent blogger on the planet, but it’s been a busy month. I’m finishing up a book, attending children’s school programs, preparing presentations for writing conferences, and have recently returned from New York.

New York was awesome. Aside from an absolutely terrifying subway ride with a crazy racist (is there any other kind?), the trip was delightful. Honestly, in my 38 years on this planet, I’ve never once witnessed racism and hate to that degree. I always knew it existed in the world, but it has never been so in my face before. Since it was the most frightening and ugly experience of my life (and I’m old and desensitized), you can imagine what it might have been like for my 14 year old daughter.

She wept for the lack of humanity in humans for quite a long time after we’d departed the train. It broke my heart to see her belief in basic goodness stripped from her so completely. But to my husband’s credit, he stood up for the four young men who were under attack by that horrible angry man. Since he did take a stand, he became the center of the man’s attack for the rest of the train ride. But he bore it well, and cracked the joke that he bet our daughter had never heard her dad called names like that before. It was genuinely awful and unfortunately the bright lights of the big city were dimmed just a bit.

But the rest of the trip was great. Mary Poppins was delightful, the park beautiful as ever, and the subway musicians on key and awesome. My street vendor in Washington Square who has great curry was still there and the food was worth the return trip. And really, it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, it’s just fun to  be with my family. Due to the recent unpleasantness regarding terrorism in NYC, security was heightened to an amazing degree. I haven’t seen that much visible policing since just after 9/11. We even had an armed escort from the coast guard while we rode the Staten Island Ferry.

My daughter said she’d be willing to go again, but only if her dad was with her. :)

Over the last few weeks I’ve written 100 new pages in my work in progress, which fills me with glee and a wee bit of vexation since it should be a higher page count, but I’m glad to be moving forward. Great things are on the horizon for publishing; stay tuned for more news which should be coming in the next couple of months.

And something I’ve taken away from my trip to the big city is that we all have opportunities every day to offer kindness to one another. I hope to waste fewer of those opportunities in the future, because in spite of a crazy man on the subway, I believe there is greatness in humanity. There really is.

Category: Random Rants On Writing, family life, idle blogging  3 Comments
LDStorymaker Conference Report 2010
28
April
Julie

Conference was twenty shades of awesome! There is nothing finer than hanging out with 450 writers for a weekend.

Bootcamp was awesome. Registration for bootcamp started at 6:30, but like Sarah Eden, I think 6:30 am is a thing better left not acknowledged. I got to play bootcamp instructor for five writers who were delightful to associate with and who had good work to share. One of them was a sixteen year old kid who is definitely on the up and coming list of new authors. I envy the opportunities that simply didn’t exist when I was his age. Think of how much better I could have been . . . seriously bootcamp rocked. Sarah Eden and the critique group that kicked it off was fun and definitely beneficial for the attendees.

editing at bootcamp

Bootcamp!

I got to do a pitch for one of my novels to Krista Marino who is delightful in every way. She likes thrift stores. How could I not love someone who likes thrift stores? This is one of the things that will forever bond Josi Kilpack and me together. We have had some good times in thrift stores. But I digress. Krista rocked. And now I am pleading with the gods of ink and paper to make her my editor so that I can shop with her and eat with her (she has great taste in food as well) And she obviously has great taste in writing, because she asked for the full manuscript. Yay! I feel a little dumb because my pitch was pretty pathetic, and I’m grateful my writing can stand on its own or she might have thrown me from the room.

After I’d finished the pitch, I felt like I could relax, so I went back to the bookstore to help Mr Wright, who deserves accolades and awards for putting up with all the stuff I make him do. I helped for about an hour when he said, “Your presentation isn’t tomorrow. You know that right?” Thinking he was messing with me, I argued that causing me stress on one of my busiest weekends was way uncool. So we had a bicker moment until he finally had to prove himself right by actually opening the syllabus and showing me that the class I was supposed to teach was indeed in 28 minutes. Nice.

My powerpoint wasn’t done and although I had 18 pages of notes, they weren’t totally organized into something that would flow smoothly. So in 28 minutes, I wrapped up the powerpoint, glanced through the notes, and rushed off to teach my class (halfway hoping that everyone had gone to the editor’s class being held that same hour). No such luck. The room was full. I think it went well in spite of me. I am so glad I had good notes! The class was on emotion in writing. So at least it was something I’m good at.  Mr Wright saved me, even if he had to argue with me and twist my arm to do it. I so owe that man.

Since my presentation AND my pitch was over, my friday night was totally open. I almost talked Josi into shoe shopping with me after dinner, but our keen sense of moral obligation took over and alas–no shoes. Instead I went back to the bookstore area to hang out and chit chat–as is proper and fun at a conference. This is where I found that the dress Janette planned on wearing to the Whitney banquet wasn’t going to work because she’s already worn it the day before and didn’t want a repeat. Because I am overprepared on everything except on the classes I’m supposed to teach, I had several dresses that were award banquet worthy, so Janette Rallison, Annette Lyon, Jessica Day George, and I went up to my hotel room and played dress up. So. Much. Fun. Janette is beautiful. We stayed there until nearly midnight when Mr. Wright showed up and mostly broke up the party.  And I just now remembered I promised Annette a head massage. I owe you big time Annette!

I sat next to Michael Flynn for lunch on Saturday, and so enjoyed meeting him. He is the producer of The Best Two Years. He is awesome and I might have fun stuff to share later on about that.

I got the chance to chit chat with Kirk Shaw, my editor at Covenant and I just think the world of him. Not only is he a discerning reader (since he chose to publish my books) but he is truly awesome. He’s just sweet and good to everyone and it’s fun to work with someone I respect so much.

The whitney banquet was lovely, as usual. Dan Wells did an amazing tribute to Dave Wolverton that made me get weepy in every way.  It was  a beautiful night and even though I didn’t win the Whitney Award, I loved being there and honoring those who did.I have to be honest, I’d held out hope that if I was going to lose my category, I wanted to lose to Riley Noehren. Gravity Vs. the Girl was so much fun and it would have been an honor in every way to lose to her. She did win the best novel by a new author alongside Dan Wells for I Am Not a Serial Killer. So deserved–both of them.

The highlight of my evening came after. Hanging out with Jessica and Janette is just so much fun! We had some pictures with our loser cake to assuage the pain of not taking home any awards (all said tongue in cheek, please know we were all okay and happy for those who did win). Another girl party in my hotel room (poor Mr. Wright). Later Howard Tayler helped us clean the bookstore up and load our car which was sweet beyond words and Mr. Wright and I talked until 2 am about all we’d seen and done. Some of my best moments in life are lying in the dark, holding his hand, and talking about our lives, our children, our dreams.

Another awesome aspect was Kim Vanderhorst brough me chocolate from Canada, and Don Carey brought me Dr Pepper in real glass bottles from Texas. I love these people! You guys spoil me.

And now I am off to prepare one manuscript for a film producer, another for my current publisher, and yet another for a national publisher. I plan on being busy. Wish me luck!

Dave Wolverton and Me

Mr. Wright

Janette Rallison looking fabulous as always

Eating our comfort cake after losing the Whitney's :) Jessica Day George, James Dashner, Me, Janette Rallison. Great writers all of them!

The women from www.LDSwomen'sbookreview.com, Janette and me

Category: Random Rants On Writing  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  16 Comments
The Sapphire Flute
09
April
Julie
Lesson learned: never leave a manuscript you’re working on unattended. I came back to my computer to find my son had finished my sentence for me: “And then her head blew up.”
I guess it’s better than some of the “sentence-finishers” my husband has left me when I’ve left my computer open.
I promised to review a book a while back and then never got around to writing the review so I am doing that today (since I am now done with taxes, wrote 3300 new words in my work in progress, and the kids are in school–and yes, I am putting off preparations for the class I’m teaching at the writer’s conference in two weeks).
Karen Hoover is one of my very dear friends. She is my favorite roommate for the LTUE science fiction and fantasy symposium. She puts up with my whining, my snarky attitude, and the fact that I snore. Seriously. She is a true friend. When I first met Karen, it was at a storymaker writing conference. James Dashner invited her to dinner with us and things just grew from there. After that dinner, she went home and wrote a poem called the poser because she felt so out of place at a table full of published authors. I told her she was wrong. She is not a poser. She was working on her writing and she’d be published soon enough.
And now she is.
And I couldn’t be more proud of her. Karen is such a humble, good person. She makes me a better person when I am with her. I am grateful for every twist of fate that put her in my path and allowed her to like me. And so it is with honor and excitement that I get to review her book, The Sapphire Flute
 
The Sapphire Flute
It has been 3,000 years since a white mage has been seen upon Rasann.

In the midst of a volcanic eruption miles outside of her village, Ember discovers she can see magic and change the appearance of things at will. Against her mother’s wishes, she leaves for the mage trials only to be kidnapped before arriving. In trying to escape, she discovers she has inherited her father’s secret–a secret that places her in direct conflict with her father’s greatest enemy.

At the same time, Kayla is given guardianship of the sapphire flute and told not to play it. The evil mage C’Tan has been searching for it for decades and the sound alone is enough to call her. For the flute to be truly safe, Kayla must find its birthplace in the mountains high above Javak. The girls’ paths are set on a collision course…a course that C’Tan is determined to prevent at all costs.

Ember, Kayla, and C’Tan are all strong female leads who carry a very character driven story. The magic system is brilliant and something I never would have thought up, so now I have magic system envy. And the action is strong enough to pull along the reluctant reader. When I first read this book, Mr.Wright  asked what I was reading. I told him and then he asked, “Is it any good?”
“Of course, it’s good, or I wouldn’t be reading it.”
“You’re just saying that because she’s your friend and you love her,” he said.
“No. I’m saying it because it’s true.” At this point I’m ready to throw a boot at Mr. Wright’s head.
“Prove it. Read me the first page and if, when you get to the end, I want you to turn the page and read more, then we can safely say it’s a good book.”
So I read the first page and stopped.
“Hey!” He became indignant. “Why are you stopping?”
“The first page is over.”
Then a little sheepishly, because he was so caught up in the story that he’d already forgotten our deal, he said, “Fine. Turn the page.”
Turn the page indeed. Great job, Karen! Great book!
Category: Jules is amused, Random Rants On Writing, reviews  Tags: , , , , ,  8 Comments
Cross My Heart
04
April
Julie

Cross My Heart!

That’s the title to my new book and I really like it. It goes along with a bitter piece of poetry I wrote back in college when I’d determined all men were evil minions of Satan. I think the title works great for the story and am excited for the release!

It’s coming out in October, and if you couldn’t tell from the title, it’s a romance novel–romantic comedy to be exact. My previous two books were a wee bit emotionally draining, so I needed a pick-me-up and wrote Cross My Heart. I laughed pretty much the whole time I wrote it and loved every minute of that story. I was able to go back to Boston a couple of years ago on a research trip which helped me write both Cross My Heart, and the novel I just turned into my agent, Spell Check. It was a whirlwind trip of filming locations, taking pictures, figuring out plots, and romancing Mr. Wright  in the city that lies at the space between my childhood and growing up.

I lived in Boston for a short while when I was eighteen. I loved going back. I loved going back with him. And I’m excited to share the fruits of that trip with my readers. Seriously guys. You are going to love this one.

And how weird is this, I was doing genealogy and came across some things that belonged to my great grandma. Turns out she was a writer. Turns out she was published in several little magazines and such. What I came across were several suspense/mystery short stories. The stories were fun to find and read, but what was really fun?

She had a rejection letter from Ladies Home Journal attached to one of those stories, and along with that, she had the actual magazine where the story finally found publication. It was an odd sort of kinship I felt, reading this letter sent to my great grandmother in 1952. I love that she saved the letter, the original story and the magazine. All those things together paint a vivid picture about my great grandmother. She believed in herself, and she didn’t give up.

It must run in our blood. I have rejection letters to books I’ve later held in my hands as published works.  Giving up is never an option. As I sit here with my fifth book about to be published and several more completed and awaiting their turn in print, I wonder what would have happened if I’d quit with that first letter? What would I have lost? What friendships and associations would I have never known?

It makes me physically ill to think of all I would have missed.

Thanks Grandma. May whatever’s flowing in our DNA never die.

Category: Jules is Celebrating, Jules is amused, Random Rants On Writing, family life  Tags: , ,  17 Comments
Women of the Book Of Mormon Review
26
March
Julie

Okay, take a moment to ooh and aah over the cover, then get back to me and my review. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. I’m just generous like that.

In Heather Moore’s book, Women of the Book of Mormon, we are allowed glimpses into the lives of all the women who were mentioned throughout the entire Book of Mormon.  We learn about the twenty-four Lamanite women who were taken captive by Amulon and his band when they were found dancing by the river. We learn of Abish, King Lamoni’s wife, and of our first mother, Eve. Much of what is written in this book is background on the lives of the women from that time period. We learn about the daily work they had to do, the value they had in society, and the importance of the faith they taught to their children.

Heather’s previous books show the possible trials and faith of the women of the scriptures, which has been one of the many reasons I have found myself drawn to her writings. What was fun with this book going over the intimate implications of these women was the comfort women gain from other women. In a very real way, we need each other. We need those examples of faith to carry us through times that are too difficult for us to handle alone.

I found it interesting how Sariah gained comfort going through her trials by leaning on the faith of other women mentioned in the scriptures. I especially liked the reference to that mother we all share, Eve. It never occurred to me to think of the pain she had as mother raising Cain and then losing him to the jealousy and hatred he had for his brother. Heather points out that not all of us grow up with a mother who teaches the belief in Christ, but that we all share our first mother who stands as a supreme example to all of us.

There is an astounding amount of research put into this book and it’s obvious Heather as meticulous at crafting each segment.

A quote from the back cover:

Explore the lives, circumstances, and choices of women in the Book of Mormon in this uplifting and inspiring volume that illustrates the parallel between the lives of the women of the Book of Mormon and LDS women today. With new insights on practically every page, author Heather B. Moore explores the written and unwritten stories of the prominent women in the Book of Mormon—taking familiar material and providing vivid details about family dynamics, domestic practices, and other aspects of daily life. By applying historical and cultural contexts to the situations of women like Sariah, Abish, Eve, Mary and the faithful mothers of the stripling warriors, you will peek beneath the surface of the scriptural accounts to better understand both the righteous women of the Book of Mormon—and the women who didn’t use their agency wisely.

I recommend this book to any who desire a better understanding of what it might have been like to have been a woman throughout the ages of scriptural history. I walked away from reading this book edified and expanded in my knowledge, and appreciate the opportunity to have read it.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Category: reviews  Tags: , ,  4 Comments
« Previous Entries