Goodreads asked Julie Mathison:

How do you get inspired to write?

Julie Mathison I never want for inspiration. I have six completed novels in my computer, most of which I will eventually get into publishable form. They range from books based on Russian folklore to YA fantasies that draw on the tarot, to whimsical portal fantasies to historical mysteries. The genesis for most of my books is just an interest or a feeling, which leads to research, so I can get grounded in the world I'm writing in. But I write intuitively, and the voice that I discover on the first page in some sense "writes" the book. In addition to the above books that are already written, I always jot down a note if I have a fleeting inspiration -- for instance, I'd like to do something that explores artificial intelligence, but combined with an old film noir aesthetic. Those two ideas came to me together, and exploring how they fit is one of the joys of creation.

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