Welcome Back Julie Mulhern!

I’m so happy to welcome Julie back to the blog! I am a big fan of Julie’s books and her as a person. She’s generous, innovative, and thoughtful. I’m looking forward to her upcoming release — Fire and Rain!

Julie: The sixteenth Country Club Murder will release next Tuesday. I would say it’s the sixteenth murder, but if you’ve read the series, you know the heroine Ellison Russell Jones finds more than one body per book.

This book, more than any I’ve ever written, has been a challenge. And as I approached my deadline, I grew increasingly unhappy with the ending.

If I wasn’t happy, how would my readers feel?

I drank way too much coffee. I lost sleep.  There may be a correlation between those two. I agonized. And last Friday, on the day the book was due to be uploaded, I made the decision to rewrite the last several chapters.

This meant changing the release date and disappointing readers who’ve been eagerly awaiting Ellison and Anarchy, Max and Mother, and Grace and Aggie. I am truly sorry for the delay.

When I hit the buttons to change the date, I cried. Relief? Stress? Disappointment with myself? Caffeine jitters? Maybe a combination of them all.

The whole experience got me to thinking about perfectionism, and how, as women, we pressure ourselves to reach near unattainable goals, then beat ourselves up when we fall short. I fully admit to falling short most of the time. And I am definitely beating myself up over this.

Can a book ever be perfect? Not one written by me. That said, the new ending is so much better! There are new characters to love, as well laughter, shenanigans, and a dastardly murder.

Thanks to all who read Ellison’s adventures. I am more grateful to you than I can ever say!

Readers: Do you beat yourself up when you don’t do something as well as you expect yourself to?

Bio: Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders and the Poppy Fields Adventures.

She is a Kansas City native who grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean–and she’s got an active imagination. Truth is–she’s an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.