Announcing Julia Buckley!
I first "met" Julia Buckley last year when I won a critique on Julie Kenner's auction. She enjoyed reading TATTF, so obviously she's *brilliant*. =)
AND, she's agreed to hang out and guest blog to answer any burning questions you might have--please start asking! Answers will be posted between now and Monday.
Plus, as always, at least one lucky question-asker will win a fun prize! It could be you! (And even if you don't have a question, you can always compliment her on having the great taste in enjoying TATTF and/or congratulate her on the wonderful luck/skill/talent to take her writing in a new direction--see blurb below for more info)
About Julia:
Julia Buckley made her imprint on the mystery scene last year with THE DARK BACKWARD. This summer she launches a new humorous mystery series with her first book, MADELINE MANN, which Kirkus Reviews calls a "bright debut." She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two sons, and she maintains her own blog at juliabuckley.blogspot.com.
Your Turn: Questions about writing? Publishing? Promoting? Tackling different angles of the same genre? The Call? Blogging? Please post your questions in the comments!
Let's be friends!
17 comments--Add your own!!:
I love a humorous mystery (or really a humorous anything...)
I'd like to know Julia's process for coming up with a good mystery. Does she pre-plan like crazy, think of the ending first, let things just work themselves out? I'm very curious...
I'd love to have tips on making this suspenseful yet funny. I'm so into this 'dark humor' gig.
I was going to ask what Alyssa asked..... so instead, I'll ask Julia why she chose to write mysteries rather than any other genre.
I second Alyssa's question. Can't wait to hear her response.
I love the QA’s.
When writing a mystery do you make your villain somewhat likeable or do you have the reader hate him/her completely?
On a sidenote: Erica you will be missed at the meeting bunches!!! It's never quite the same without you, Kelly R, or Julie.
I'm curious to know why, if this is Julia's second book, Kirkus called it a debut. Is it because it's a series debut, or what?
Also, how much plotting do you do, Julia. Can mysteries be written in the seat-of-the-pants style? (I suspect not, which is why I'm curious to hear Julia's take)
Hi, Everyone! Thanks for asking all these great questions.
Alyssa, I'm not sure that I have a good scientific process. I usually start with one basic idea that comes to me in the shower or something. :) Then I spend a lot of time just working it around in my mind. However, I will advise anyone who is a writer or wants to write that the real ideas don't start to flow until you sit down and start pecking something out. That opens the floodgates.
Lacey, I grew up reading Mary Stewart, my all time favorite writer, and you should read one of her romantic suspense tales to see a great example of maintaining tension and mystery while building romance--and yes, humor. She's the queen. But I think if you have a sense of humor it shows up in all of your writing.
Sara and Anissa, I have always loved reading mysteries the most, so when I decided to write I never thought of leaving that genre. In a way, every book is a mystery to me, because there's always the question of how the conflict will be resolved, no matter what the style. And if any of you want a recommendation for a good summer reading mystery, I have an endless list!
Vicki, that's an interesting question, because in the case of my first mystery, THE DARK BACKWARD, I made my villain absolutely evil (and yet, in a dark sense, sort of funny). Some readers have complained that he's too one dimensional, but I never wanted him to be anything else. It was inspired by Macbeth, and the fact that by the end of the play Macbeth has become a "monster," according to his enemy Macduff. The original title of the book was OUR RARER MONSTERS (but that's too hard to say), and I wanted Nob Stevens to be that kind of person--one who doesn't realize that he's lost his humanity and has become monstrous.
Susan, that's a good point! It's because this is the first of the Madeline Mann mysteries. Ironically, I wrote MM before my first book, but I ended up selling the other one first, and then my publisher bought MM, as well.
Did I answer everything fully? Let me know! I'll be happy to answer more, and I thank you for your interest!
Thanks, Erica.
I grew up reading Mary Stewart, my all time favorite writer, and you should read one of her romantic suspense tales to see a great example of maintaining tension and mystery while building romance--and yes, humor. She's the queen. But I think if you have a sense of humor it shows up in all of your writing.
I loved the earlier Mary Stewart books, too - but kinda fell by the wayside when she went all Arthurian on me.
A writing question I'm too ashamed to ask Miss Erica herself: is it ever OK to split your infinitives? I mean, if you want to really, really, really emphasize something, is it permissible to bend the rules?
(And I don't mean in dialogue or indirect speech, where you can call it verisimilitude or whatever, but in your own, serious, meant-for-the-ages prose.)
Bill asked what? :-)
Thanks for being here this weekend Julia!! =)
Hi Bill! No questions are stupid questions! I had a professor once who said the "never split infinitives" mandate came from the days when we were changing from verbs that declined/conjugated (ie, just one word, so impossible to "split") to multi-word verbs, and shouldn't be taken as law. (Have no idea if that's true or apocryphal.) The Star Trek TV Show was the first to make split infinitives hip (ie, to boldly go) and I think it's a "rule" like any other--as long as you write in your voice, in your style, and the rules you break you broke on purpose, I think it's okay. That said (all the Mavens are smirking at me now because I haven't been able to send an email without "that said" for days) if I were writing something more formal I might not bend as many rules as I do with blogging/fiction/etc. But that's just me! =)
Thanks, Erica!
I think your prof was right about the one-word verb forms we all used when we were running around speaking Anglo-Saxon or Old High Norse or whatever; however, to use that as a reason to make up a "rule" strikes me as pedantic. The people who did so, I imagine, died out with the trivium. Cf. Wagner's "Die Meistersinger" on the stultifying weight of the old "rules".
Your answer is pretty much the same as what I was told some decades ago - I was just curious to see if any newer wisdom had developed on the matter. Thanks for the reassurance!
Did anyone notice that my query had a deliberate split infinitive? Just testing to see if y'all are awake. :-)
And Lacey - pffft! ;-)
Bill, I sort of agree. I thought the Arthurian tales were beautifully written (it was Mary Stewart, after all), but I have no desire to re-read them.
I never think of my writing as "meant-for-the-ages." That's very deep. I think this must be a very philosophical blog bar that I stepped into. (Into which I stepped?)
First off - she is living my dream! I would love to someday get my masters in Literature and teach in addition to publishing mysteries. I'd love to know how she balances that all with her family. I've got 2 - soon to be 3 little ones at home!
Hi, Robin. That's great that you have literary goals! I actually wrote Madeline Mann when my first son was little--I think I wrote a lot during his nap time. I'm not sure I could handle three (good for you!), but I think there really are ways to fit writing into any lifestyle.
As for the other stuff, if you're already an English major, it's not hard to get a teaching degree, and a lot of places will hire you while you're getting it.
Now that my sons are a little older (8 and 12), they don't mind if I spend time on the computer. What is still hard is if I'm expected to go away to a conference or something--I feel reluctant to leave the boys, and they don't like it much, either. Not to mention the fact that the promotion side of the business is expensive, and my budget is always hovering near zero. :)
is it too late to ask Julia for her "call story"?
Can't get enough of those!
Do you mean how I found out I had gotten published?
If so, here's that story: I was about to turn forty, and I knew that one of my manuscripts was under consideration. I really wanted it to get an offer, and I wanted it to happen before I left my thirties so I could say it was my last accomplishment of that decade.
My husband picked me up from work on a Thursday, his day off, and he had the boys in the back seat. He kept looking at me out of the corner of his eye. He finally asked, "If I know something, do you want to know that I know, or just find out when you check the messages?"
I felt torn; if it was something bad, I really didn't want to hear it.
"Do you think I'd want to know?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. Would you rather hear something from your agent? She called from New York."
By this time I was dying, so I just told him to spill. He turned to the boys and said, "Mom's going to be a published author!"
It was also right before Christmas, so that made a nice little celebration.
And Rebecca, if that's not what you meant, please let me know. :)
Thanks, Erica--it was fun!
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