Author Interview: Julia Rose Grey
Welcome to our series of Author Interviews, where Charlie Bray chats to a variety of Indie writers about their lives and their books.
If you would like to be interviewed, have your book reviewed, and post a guest blog, sign up now to INDIETRIBE GOLD
Today I am delighted to interview author, Julia Rose Grey
Julia, tell us a little about yourself.
I’ve had a full career that included a great deal of writing — research papers, marketing materials, statements of work for contracts, and work proposals. I am now retired and going back to the fiction I always loved to write. I live with my husband of thirty years in Chester County, west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
How many books have you published so far?
I have two books. Cry Before Supper is the first, full-length novel. My second publication is a holiday novella entitled The Dream Catcher.
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was a child. Short stories, poems, skits. Writing has always been my friend.
Tell us a bit about your novels.
Cry Before Supper is about a family who experiences a tragedy and how the the middle child, the one with the least confidence yet the most endurance and willingness to care for others, makes all the difference. The Dream Catcher is a whimsical tale about the importance of dreams.
What inspired you to write them?
Charlie, in all honesty, I write what comes into my head. That’s the easy part. When I write I have all these pieces of paper on my desk, with bits of a story jotted on them, and then, I sort those bits into a story.
Do you plan out your book beforehand, or does it find its own direction?
My stories seem to find their own direction. I try not to orchestrate the plot too much because I’ll miss something intriguing.
What would you say is the main message of your books?
Resilience. Hanging in there. Keep going. That’s a theme that seems to come up in anything I write.
What are some of your creative influences? Were there any specific ones that inspired a particular book of yours?
My grandmother once told me that, “A woman can do anything she wants!” As corny as it sounds, she is a definite influence because she was a woman of the early 1900s and she dealt with some difficult circumstances in her life. As far as writers who influence me, there’s Stephen King, Janet Fitch, Mark Helprin, Philippa Gregory, and a host of other current writers, as well as a range of earlier writers, including Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Tolstoy, and others too numerous to list here.
What do you enjoy the most, and the least, about writing?
Let me start with what I don’t like – the formatting for publication. It’s a tedious task. I allot a day for formatting, put on some music, and stay at my desk until it’s done. On the coin’s other side, I enjoy people’s reactions and comments the most. The more input, the better, because I can always improve.
Any advice for other indie authors?
Keep writing. You only learn by doing.
Do you have any future projects in the works?
Yes, another full-length novel which is a classic good and evil struggle and another holiday novella that spins off Dorothea Dougherty, a character in The Dream Catcher.
Julie, thank you for taking the time to talk to us today and good luck with all your writing.
I will be reviewing Julia’s book, Cry Before Supper early next month.It is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
I hope you enjoyed reading Julie’s interview as much as I enjoyed doing it.
I look forward to interviewing more Indie authors soon.
In the meanwhile, very happy reading, Charlie
