Author Interview - Julie Cohen

Julie Cohen wrote her first novel at the age of 11 about a sorceress and evil wizard. Spending most of her free time at the library in Rumford, Maine, Julie got a part-time job at the library and while ‘pretending’ to stock shelves, she was secretly reading romance novels. After achieving her first degree in English Literature, she moved to the United Kingdom in 1992 and pursued a postgraduate degree. While tending to her career as a secondary school English Teacher, Julie would sneak in a bit of writing while her students were taking exams. In 2006, Julie had her first book published with Harlequin Mills & Boon. Residing in Berkshire, England with her husband and young son, Julie writes humorous and sexy novels for Harlequin Mills & Boon and Headline’s Little Black Dress imprint. Her first women’s fiction novel with Headline Review will be out in hardback in 2010.

Darlene: Welcome, Julie, it’s a pleasure to connect with you again!

Julie: Thanks for having me, Darlene, it’s always great to hear from you.

Darlene: Tell us a little more about yourself and how you began your writing career.

Julie: I’ve always been a writer, but I only started writing seriously for publication in about 2000. I’d started a Harlequin-type romance novel years before, for fun, and I dug it out and finished it, and then realised I really knew nothing about writing books. So I joined the Romance Writers of America, and the Romantic Novelists’ Association in the UK, and I began hanging out on eHarlequin’s writing romance message boards online. I kept on learning and writing, and in 2004 my fourth manuscript finalled in the Golden Heart competition. It was the start of everything for me. Within four months I’d signed with an agent and sold that book to Harlequin Mills and Boon. A combination of hard work and editorial delay meant that in 2006, I had five books published with two different publishers.

Darlene: You have a new release out, Girl From Mars, June 2009. Can you tell us the premise of this story?

Julie: It’s the story of Philomena Desdemona Brown (Fil for short), who’s a female comic book artist for long-running British comic “Girl from Mars”. Along with her two geeky best male friends, she takes a vow (in Klingon) to forsake all romantic relationships. But changes are afoot for Fil, her friends, and her comic book, too—starting with a handsome stranger she meets in a café. It’s published in the UK, but you can order a copy with free shipping. (find the link below)

Darlene: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Julie: Um...everything? I find I get one or several “suckage points” in every book I write, where I’m convinced that every word I write really, really, really sucks. I’ve long recognised that this is part of my process, but it still isn’t easy. I get very cranky and my husband hides under the duvet.

Darlene: You have a flair for mixing sexy and humorous romance with science fiction. Where do you get the inspiration for your stories?

Julie: Actually, though my titles might imply otherwise, I’m writing straight-up contemporary stories. But I love to mix elements in my writing—for example in Girl from Mars I got to make up the story for the comic book Fil is drawing, featuring a time machine and an evil former lab assistant called Glypto. My next book has a lot of gothic elements in it, though it’s not a paranormal, and my last book (Honey Trap) had a bit of suspense and a lot of stories about the rock ‘n’ roll touring lifestyle. I find inspiration everywhere and one of the most excellent things about being an author is having the excuse to research things I’m interested in. For Girl from Mars I got to research comic books and science fiction, and I spent a couple of blissful days visiting places in London where my story is set.

Darlene: When writing, do you have a particular routine you like to follow?

Julie: I’ve got a toddler, so I’ve got to write whenever and wherever I can. Generally, it works best for me if I write a dirty draft first, straight through the whole story from beginning to end without stopping to edit or change things. If I don’t know something, I’ll put XXX in the story and make a note to research, and keep on going. I aim to write 1000 to 2000 words a day. This produces a horrible first draft, but it means that by the time I’m done, I know where I should have been going from the beginning. Then I spend several weeks revising and editing to pull the whole thing into some sort of shape.

Darlene: Do you still sneak in time to read? And if so, what do you like to read?

Julie: I think that it’s a vital part of an author’s job to read, so I always have one or more books on the go. I read everything, though when I’m writing the beginning and middle of my own stories I often find it’s best to avoid books in my own market. So I’ll read science fiction, fantasy, young adult, historical and literary novels, and nonfiction that connects with the research for my book. When I’m between books, I usually indulge myself totally with chick lit, women’s fiction and romance. The last book I read and loved was a YA slightly futuristic novel called The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins and before that I really enjoyed American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Darlene: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

Julie: Hanging out with friends and family. I find writing is so solitary that I really appreciate my time with other people I care about, and I don’t get to do it enough because I’m a cranky workaholic.

Darlene: Who in your life has been the most influential in your journey toward being an author?

Julie: That’s a really good question. I was really encouraged by my eighth-grade English teacher, Anne Wood, and my grandmother Lilllian Cohen, and inspired by lots of authors, but the one person who probably influenced me the most to become a published author is my dear friend, Kathy Love. We used to write together for fun in school and and we both started writing for publication about the same time. When she was contracted by Kensington I was so pleased for her, and it put a fire in me too to achieve the same thing! We still love to brainstorm and plot together and I just love reading her stories (at the moment she’s writing paranormals for Kensington Brava).

Darlene: How do you combine writing with your family life?

Julie: Generally, very badly. (See “cranky workaholic” comment, above.)

Darlene: In August 2009, your alter ego B.H. Dark published a novel, Close Encounters. What was it like collaborating on this novel with your best friend and writer, Kathy Love?

Julie: We had a blast! Kathy lives in the US and I live in the UK, so we wrote it together using the phone, Instant Messenger and email. The book is an erotic science fiction romantic comedy about space aliens abducting four humans in order to form an intergalactic porn empire, and we just laughed the whole time we were writing it.

Darlene: You deliver many workshops to professional writing groups and creative writing students. Which of your workshops is your favourite to discuss and can you give us a brief exercise from one of your workshops?

Julie: I think my most notorious workshop is on writing sex scenes; it’s been quoted in national newspapers, I’ve given it on two continents, to all sorts of writers and readers and even on television. It was one of the first workshops I ever gave and got picked up by the media, and it’s enhanced my reputation no end. I think my favourite workshop is my creating character one, though; you start out with a piece of paper, a pen and a coin and by the end you have a fully-fledged complex character you can use in a story of your own. A simple and really useful exercise from that workshop is this:

Draw a line splitting a piece of paper in half. Choose your character’s most admirable strength—for example, generosity, friendliness, courage. On one side of the paper, brainstorm ways that this strength could help her in her life.

Then, on the other half of the paper, brainstorm ways that this strength could be perceived as a weakness. For example, a generous person may give too much of herself, or she may start feeling shortchanged when others don’t reciprocate her generosity.

This exercise helps you to realise that a person’s qualities and faults can be connected to each other, and it can help create inner conflict, because a person will be reluctant to tackle her faults if she perceives them as strengths.

Darlene: Can you give us a hint as to what we can expect from your next novel, Nina Jones and The Temple of Gloom?

Julie: It’s the story of a woman who starts out as a typical chick-lit heroine—she loves shoes, partying, and her rich boss. Then she loses it all and is forced to live in a crumbling gothic mansion with spiders, gargoyles, and an upstairs neighbour she’s pretty sure is a vampire. I like to think of it as “Bridget Jones meets Northanger Abbey”. It’s out in March 2010.

Darlene: Julie and I connected several years ago on a Struggling Writers forum. It’s quite exciting to say that I knew her before she became a successful author. Her talent shone then and shines even brighter today. Thank you so much for the interview, Julie! It’s been wonderful talking with you. I wish you much continued success with your writing career!

Julie: Thanks Darlene! It’s always nice to reconnect with fellow writers!

You can visit Julie at:
Web link: http://www.julie-cohen.com/
Blog Link: http://www.julie-cohen.com/blog/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/julie.cohen.author

To buy Girl from Mars with free shipping worldwide:
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780755341399/Girl-from-Mars

To buy Close Encounters:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1605043346/ref=s9_k2a_gw_ir05?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0VW8A9YW3QVDGRSYSSHP&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846