Today, I am pleased to welcome the lovely Julie Frayn from my awesome writers group, eNovel Authors at Work. Julie is an accountant, a mom, and a writer of gripping tales that will keep you riveted to your seat. Join me as to find out more about her and her work!
When Mazie Reynolds was a young girl, she believed monsters lived under her bed. Now a grown, married woman, she discovers one sleeps in her bed.
Mazie schemes to save herself and her daughter. Her plan will work, if she can out-maneuver the monster who is a master of manipulation and control. She’s got one thing going for her, the one thing she truly owns. Mazie has moxie to the bone. But will it be enough?
It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead is the BigAl’s Books and Pals 2014 Reader’s Choice Award winner for women’s fiction.
Jemima Stone waited four long years for her missing fiancé to come home, burying herself in her job and feeding the homeless. When Gerald is found dead halfway across the country, she is devastated. Detective Finn Wight promises to uncover the truth behind Gerald’s mysterious death.
Delivering sandwiches to her homeless friends, she discovers a newcomer. Though he refuses to speak, his haunted eyes tell Jemima that he is in trouble — hiding from someone or something. Jemima turns to Detective Wight in hopes of helping the man. But uncovering his true identity leads to the discovery of secrets none of them could have imagined.
Sixteen-year-old August Bailey yearns for more than pig slop and cow shit. She fantasizes about an apartment in the city, not a tiny house on an Iowa farm. She dreams of new clothes and falling in love with a worthy boy. Not hand-me-downs from the second hand store in Hubble Falls, population two-and-a-half, or having her jock boyfriend grope her and push her for sex. During another fight about makeup and boys, August’s controlling mother slaps her. And August hops the next bus out of town.
She arrives in Charlesworth to discover that reality and fantasy don’t mix. After a night of gunfire and propositions from old, disgusting men, she is determined to find the ‘real city,’ the ‘real people’ of her dreams. To prove to her mother, and herself, that she is the adult she claims to be. When her money runs out, she is ‘saved’ by seventeen-year-old Reese, a kind boy with electric eyes and a gentleman’s heart. Reese lives on the streets. Though clean for months, he battles heroin addiction and the compulsion to cut himself. Each day is a struggle to make the right choice. August falls in love with Reese, and knows her love can save him. She breaks down his emotional walls and he tells her his secrets – of abuse and the truth about his mother’s death.
As Reese’s feelings for August grow, so does the realization that keeping her could ruin her life too.
Suicide City is an edgy young adult novel. Told from the points of view of August, Reese, and August’s mother, the story takes an honest and sometimes explicit look at some hard realities including teen homelessness, drug use, child abuse and prostitution. But at its heart, it is the story of first love – and the consequences of every choice made.
Hello Julie and welcome to my blog!
Thank you Fros, it’s great to be here!
What has inspired you to write Mazie Baby?
Like most of my stories, the book stemmed from a spark of an idea. In this case a vision for one scene that involved scissors being jabbed into a man’s thigh started the whole thing.
What other writing have you done? Anything else published?
My first novel, Suicide City, a Love Story, is about a runaway farm girl who falls in love with a heroin-addicted street kid. My second, It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead, won the Books & Pals 2014 Readers’ Choice Award. It tells the story of a lawyer whose schizophrenic fiancé is found dead after being missing for four years, and how she deals with her grief and finds love again. In addition to the novels, I’ve published two short-short story collections, three stories each. Those are also available on quarterreads.com for, you guessed it, a quarter a read!
What are you working on at the moment? Tell us a little about your current project(s).
I am working on two projects. One is the fictionalized tale of my parents’ love affair. It tracks their lives from early teens until just before they have children. In the meantime I started a new book during NaNoWriMo (where you try to write 50,000 words in the month of November – winner!). I’m in love with this new story about a 32 year-old virgin amputee editor who was the victim of a horrific crime when she was ten. She takes a mental red pen to her life, and also edits the newspaper, making the outcomes for victims better. Then her edits begin to come true. It’s psychological suspense cum superhero fantasy. Without the fantasy.
Which are your favorite authors, and what do you love about them?
Agatha Christie. She is to me what Stephen King is to so many others – prolific and diverse and just plain great. I read every one of her mysteries I could find in Canadian book stores before I turned 19. I also love Barbara Kingsolver. I get lost in her stories as I do Wally Lamb’s. My newest favorite author is Laurie Boris. I love her true-to-life characters and honest look at relationships.
What genres do you read mostly, and what are you reading now?
I prefer thrillers, suspense, some mysteries (I think I got my fill with Agatha and needed to leave them behind for a while). I used to love true crime. Mostly I love anything about people who could be real, about their relationships with the people in their lives, with themselves, with their surroundings and their pasts.
Do you have any advice for other indie authors?
Be serious about your work. If you want to be read, want to be successful, be sure to put out your absolute best product. To me, that means hiring some professionals. An editor is a must (no, not your buddy who says he’s good at grammar, a professional editor). Even editors who write books hire editors. And unless you’re a professional graphic artist, hire a cover artist as well. That’s your first impression and it does matter. Yes, this all costs money, but any business venture requires some capital up front. Indie authors are working diligently to ensure the world sits up and takes notice. Those who drop low-quality books filled with errors and bad formatting chip away at the progress we’ve made. Being professional is a way of supporting the whole indie community.
I fully agree, and especially with your last point. I often catch myself feeling frustrated when I see a really bad, amateur cover, or come across a book that is strewn with grammatical errors, thinking how they give the indie world a bad name. Are there any sites or writing tools that you find useful and wish to recommend?
Mostly I rely on my laptop and Word. I’ve tried fancy-pants software, but just spend time trying to navigate them and fight their idiosyncrasies. Give me a blank page in Word and a spreadsheet to track the story’s timeline, and I’m good to go. I do recommend the writing thesaurus books. The Emotion Thesaurus sits at my elbow for easy access.
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
I already have two super powers. I am a mother. I have the ability to love my children unconditionally. And I am a writer. I have the ability to transport people to other realms while never leaving their seats. Those are good enough for me.
Truly amazing superpowers, both of them! What were your most and least favorite subjects in school?
My favorite subject was math because I excelled at it and rarely got less than 98% on my report card before high school. Even won the math award every junior high school year. That might explain why I made accounting a career. My second favourite was English because I loved reading and writing. Duh, right? Least favorite was gym! Man, I hated that class. I was nerdy, scrawny, asthmatic, flat-chested. And NOT athletic. As an adult, I love fitness, especially kick-boxing and weight-lifting. But in school? Torture. Doubled by the horrid stretchy, itchy red polyester shorts we had to wear. The “gym strip” they called it. Whoever came up with that lame moniker?
How would you like to be remembered?
As a good person. A great mom. A good friend. And funny. I want people to think of me and smile. That would be enough.
That’s lovely, Julie. Thank you so much for being here with us today.
Thank you for this opportunity, Fros. I hope your readers will take advantage of the free promo on Mazie Baby till Saturday the 24th!
Are you kidding? I’ll be the first one. It’s such a highly acclaimed book, seems a big shame to miss out!
(chuckles) Thank you for your support, Fros!
BIO
Julie Frayn pens award-winning novels and short stories that pack a punch. And a few stabs. She has published three novels and two short, short story collections. Her work has won two gold medals in the 2013 Authorsdb cover contest, and the Books and Pals 2014 Readers’ Choice award for women’s fiction. And the cherry on the indie sundae? Mazie Baby has been named one of 2014’s Best Books by both Suspense Magazine and IndieReader.com.
A bean counter by day, Julie revels in the written word. When she is not working or writing, she spends as much time as possible with her two children (grown adults, really), while they still think she’s cool.
Other links:
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/juliefrayn
Facebook www.facebook.com/juliebirdfrayn
Great interview, guys.
Totally agree with you about the poor quality of some self-pubbed books that drag the industry down.
Brave of you to show that pic of you in glasses Julie. 98% is maths? Blimey. I struggled to reach the pass mark. 🙂
Enjoyed learning more about Julie. Thank you Fros for the great interview.
Thank you so much, Fros! Great fun to be interviewed by you :). Kerry, why hide the old glasses? That was me, nerdy and scrawny just waiting to emerge from my cocoon… Nerds rule the world!
What a wonderful interview! Loved the kids pictures, and nice to know that your lovely face, Julie, can easily contort into silliness!
Thanks Rebecca. Silliness abounds in my house. Even now that my kids are grown adults and my son towers over me….
Great interview with Julie. And wow, being good at both Maths and English! I loved English and was good at it but maths – even with extra tuition I barely scraped through. Our gym strip was navy blue stretchy shorts! Love the picture with the kids.
It’s interesting that across the pond it’s ‘maths.’ Here it’s just one math… 😀
Another interesting interview. Thanks Julie and Fros. That stroy you started in nano sounds like a great read, Julie. I’ll be looking out for that one. 🙂
Thank you all for your lovely comments, and you Julie for being such a lovely guest, providing these awesome photos 🙂 It’s ‘maths’ also in Greek. I love numbers so was the best in my class, but hated ‘Greek’ for some reason, and it bored me stiff 🙂 Seemed to enjoy French better and was the teacher’s pet, LOL