Interview with Julie Duck (Blog Tour)

Blurb:

For Natalie Miller, it’s just another family vacation. For someone else, it’s the opportunity he’s been waiting for.

With only a single peck from a guy named Frank, Natalie’s anything but experienced with boys. But when Todd pops out of the water, says hi, and tells Natalie he has leukemia, all of that changes.

She’s never had attention like this from a boy, let alone one who’s a real charmer with sex on the brain and the experience to match. Drawn to Todd like a magnet, Natalie gives him her friendship, her love, and her body. Even when she’s tempted by gorgeous, healthy schoolmate Alex, Natalie’s desire to love and care for Todd pushes her to see how far love can go in spite of the potential for death of the relationship — and death of the one she loves.

Link to buy "A Place in this Life" on Amazon: Click Here

Link to buy "A Place in this Life" on Barnes and Noble: Click Here

Interview

Kayla: Hey Julie! Welcome to Simply Kayla’s Book Reviews, thanks for coming by to chat about you new book A Place in This Life.

Julie: Hey Kayla! BTW, I love saying “hey.” Thank you so much for having me here!

Kayla: When and why did you begin writing?

Julie: I started in the third grade. After reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder – and then picking up a Judy Blume book or two, I knew I wanted to write. I knew I had to write. And so I did, writing, illustrating and self-publishing my first book, Kittyland, and then moving on to poetry contests and anything else I could do. As for why I began writing? Because I wanted to. It felt right, Natural.

Kayla: What inspired you to write your first book?

Julie: In late 2008, my doctor called in the morning to tell me I had a big nodule growing on my thyroid. Within 30 minutes of that call, I was told that the magazine I edited was folding. God, that was a difficult morning. I decided that if I did have thyroid cancer (and they thought I did until I had surgery), I needed to not hold back the stories any longer. I happened upon an old notebook that contained a 20-page account of the summer of 1984, when I met the real Todd. I knew right then and there I had to write about that experience – and expand on it because, in reality, we only went out for a few months.

Kayla: How did you come up with the title for A Place in This Life?

Julie: I thought for some time about what was going on. Here was this girl, in a life she never expected that is in constant turmoil from top to bottom. Where is she going? Where is her place in this life? That was it.

Kayla: Do you have a specific writing style?

Julie: I write real. I know that’s not the correct way to say it, but so what? I feel it’s important to convey what is happening by using authentic dialogue and showing what characters are doing, but not overkill. When I first started writing APITL, I did in fact have overkill, and had to edit about 25,000 words away.

Kayla: Do you have a writing routine, or do you just write whenever?

Julie: At first, I wrote after my son went to bed. So it was something like 8-9 p.m., then I would read and go to bed. I started this routine three days after surgery for my thyroid, and continued it for a year while I wrote APITL and SWELL. Now, I write when I can because I have a full-time job, freelance and a family.

Kayla: A Place in this Life involves a boy that has leukemia, meets Natalie, and they become friends. Is this a very emotional book?

Julie: Extremely emotional. I felt everything because it was like going back in time. I could smell Catalina Island; I could feel my stomach churning with excitement that a boy wanted to talk to me! When I found out that the real Todd had passed away in a children’s hospital a year after we’d met, I was devastated. Couldn’t write for almost a week.

Kayla: I love the cover of A Place in this Life, it’s beautiful! Who designed it?

Julie: Thank you so much! A friend/former coworker, Cathy Rubino Hebert, did the cover. She took time out from being a new mom and came up with a few designs, formatted the selected one for the cover and that was it. I would like to have Cathy do another cover, but she’s getting ready to have another baby!

Kayla: What does your family think about your writing?

Julie: They know that I am writing, and that writing is me. Growing up, they encouraged me by finding used typewriters (yes, that’s right – we didn’t have computers) at garage sales, and getting cheap cases of paper for me to write on. And they never thought it was weird that I’d take my typewriter with me into the bathroom – lol! I couldn’t stop writing for any reason.

Kayla: Where do you get your ideas for your books?

Julie: Most of them are from personal experiences, or those that people close to me have had. I take an idea and wrap a blanket around it, then peel back that blanket to see what becomes of the idea. Nothing is totally verbatim, though, except the beginning of A Place in This Life – that trip and the first few months together.

Kayla: What do you do when you aren’t writing?

Julie: I pick my feet! No (well…). I work full-time as a marketing copywriter, do freelance copywriting and raise my 6-year-old son. He’s going to be an actor, I swear.

Kayla: What is a piece of advice you would give a new aspiring author?

Julie: Write whatever you can. Looking back, I now see the value of writing about the benefits of rip-rap concrete and flooring. Every bit of writing that you do will make you a better writer of books. You will learn to transition your sentences, create a strong voice and offer flow between the paragraphs that pulls the reader through. Of course, reading is important as well – if you want to be a good writer, you should be a good reader as well.

Kayla: Do you have any upcoming or current projects you’d like to tell us about?

Julie: I have so many things going on – right now, I’m finishing a male POV novella called The Joy & Torture of Joshua James. It’s fun to be a boy! I also have two full-length novels that have gone the traditional submission route that I’m thinking of pulling and publishing myself – SWELL and little rooms. Lots of stories for everyone!

Kayla: Thank you so much for answering these questions! I really enjoyed asking them. I wish you the best of luck Julie.

Sometimes it takes a swift kick to start doing what you love. For Julie Rieman Duck, it was more like a full body slam. A health scare and loss of her editing job put Julie square in front of a choice: Do what I love, or do nothing? The decision to write again after 20 years of shelving her voice brought about edgy young adult novels, such as the recently released A Place In This Life, and SWELL, little rooms and soon-to-be-released The Joy & Torture of Joshua James.

Today, Julie bounces between copywriting by day, fiction writing by night and never compromising her love for the written word.



Link to "A Place in this Life" Fan Page on Facebook: Click Here
Link to Julie Duck's Twitter: Click Here
Link to Julie Duck's Website: Click Here
Link to Julie Duck's Blog: Click Here

A Place in this Life Book/Blog Tour was put together by Pedulla @ Stuck in YA Books. Thanks Pedulla for allowing me to participate, and for an awesome book tour.

Click Here for more blog tour dates for "A Place in this Life" by Julie Duck and for your chance to win an e-copy of "A Place in this Life".

-Thank you all for stopping by, I really appreciate it. Please feel welcome to leave comments, I love chatting! I'm sure that Julie would also love to hear from you guys.