Happy Wednesday Everyone! I’m double-booked today. I’m also participating in the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop if you’re looking for that post.
Today I’m excited to have Julie Berry here to celebrate the release of her YA If Looks Could Kill. It sounds like a fast-paced story combining true crime, historical fiction, and fantasy. It’s everything I like in a story, so I’m looking forward to reading it.
Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:
.JPG)
From
Printz Honor–winning and New York Times bestselling author
Julie Berry, a true-crime-nailbiter-turned-mythic-odyssey pitting Jack the
Ripper against Medusa. A defiant love song to sisterhood, a survivors’ battle
cry, and a romantic literary tour de force laced with humor.
It’s autumn 1888, and Jack the Ripper is on the
run. As London police close in, he flees England for New York City seeking new
victims. But a primal force of female vengeance has had enough. With serpents
for hair and a fearsome gaze, an awakened Medusa is hunting for one Jack.
And other dangers lurk in Manhattan’s Bowery.
Salvation Army volunteers Tabitha and Pearl discover that a girl they once
helped has been forced to work in a local brothel. Tabitha’s an upstate city
girl with a wry humor and a thirst for adventure, while farmgirl Pearl takes
everything with stone-cold seriousness. Their brittle partnership is tested as
they team up with an aspiring girl reporter and a handsome Irish bartender to
mount a rescue effort, only to find their fates entwine with Medusa’s and
Jack’s.
Before I get to Julie’s interview, I have my IWSG post.
Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day.
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
The
awesome co-hosts this month are: Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina
Constantine!
Optional Question: What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?
I’ve only written two manuscripts. The first is a middle grade fantasy and is my favorite. I wrote the first draft quickly, which feels like a miracle now.
I went to my first SCBWI conference, where I knew nothing about getting published or writing a novel and got a critique while a Little Brown editor was giving her talk. I had to go up to her afterward to find out what she was looking for and how to submit. I didn’t know anything about pitching to an agent or editor. But after I told her about my manuscript, she told me to send her the whole manuscript after I finished revising it. I mailed it to her about a year later. You had to mail them back then. About a year later, she returned it with a note that she’d taken my manuscript to acquisitions, but the team didn’t think it was strong enough. It was exciting, even though I didn’t know it was happening until after the fact.
Also, my daughter told her second-grade teacher about my story, and I did a school visit, even though I wasn’t published. It was fun.
Interview with Julie Berry
Hi Julie! Thanks so much for joining us.
1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.
I’m the seventh kid in a big family from farm country in Western New York State. Today I’m a mom of four boys, all of whom are now grown and gone, which still surprises me. I got my start writing satirical humor columns for a suburban Boston-area newspaper, The Metrowest Daily News. I had a weekly column for several years before going back to grad school and starting to write fiction.
2. Where did you get the idea for If Looks Could Kill?
If Looks Could Kill is, in a nutshell, a myth-meets-true crime thriller that pits Medusa versus Jack the Ripper. Medusa was the germ of the idea for the novel. I’d written about Greek gods, and now I wanted to explore Greek monsters. I settled upon Medusa and began building a story around her, which ultimately brought me to Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the late Victorian era. While researching a book about the Bowery neighborhood of the Lower East Side, I came across a mention that Jack the Ripper may have lived there for a time. A credible suspect in the Jack the Ripper investigations left London, slipping bail after the last of the Canonical Five murders, and sailed to New York trailed by London detectives. I already knew that to write a Medusa story I needed to find a villain worthy of Medusa’s wrath, and my research served him up on a silver platter.
Your Writing Process
3. I love how the mention of Jack the Ripper you found helped you with the idea for your story. What research did you do into New York City in 1888, Jack the Ripper, and Medusa? How long did it take you to complete?
My research involved mountains of reading, as well as a research trip to NYC and one to London. I also found a subject matter expert, Michael Hawley, who is a foremost authority on the particular suspect in the Ripper investigations whom I cast as my Ripper in this novel. I worked on and off on the novel for about three and a half years.
4. Once you came up with your storyline, what was your process of writing the manuscript? Did you plot it out or start writing?
I always come up with the storyline through the process of writing the novel. I like to say that I write for the same reason people read: to find out what happens next. If Looks Could Kill was no different in that respect.
5. It’s good that you’re confident enough in your skills to not have to plot out the mystery aspect of your story. You’ve got more than one plot line: Jack the Ripper being chased by Medusa and Tabitha and Pearl trying to save a girl in a brothel. How did you keep track of these separate plots and weave them together?
Film and television have trained us to consume narratives consisting of many points of view braided together, and to actually enjoy that method of storytelling. For one thing, multiple storylines break up the claustrophobia of always and only following one point of view character through a linear adventure. To be sure, many wonderful stories use that form, which is the default of all prose fiction, and are anything but claustrophobic. Even so, dual points of view create a nice rhythm and allow us to break up both too much monotony and too much tension.
6. That’s great advice on the benefits of writing from multiple POVs. Reviewers have said that your pacing was excellent, especially the last third of your story, and they didn’t want to put it down. How did you keep increasing the tension? What tips do you have for other writers on this?
The great thing about serial killers is that they bring tension into your story effortlessly. It’s kind of like inviting a patisserie chef to your dessert potluck. They can’t help hitting it out of the park. Aside from that, I think two of the most useful skills that practice has given me are: a) an exceptionally forgetful mind, so I can read manuscripts not remembering what comes next, and b) a keen self-awareness when monitoring my own level of boredom or engagement with what I’m reading. I can smell it when my attention wanders. If my own story can’t even keep me captivated, other readers are snoring. So I trim and fix as needed. My advice, therefore, is to practice writing and revising relentlessly, and to do whatever is needed to create some distance from your manuscript before diving in (take a break from it if needed), and train yourself to monitor your level of attention to what you’re reading.
Your Road to Publication
7. Great advice! Your debut book was The Amaranth Enchantment, a YA fantasy published in 2009. How did you get your first publishing contract?
I met an agent at a conference. She had read the first page of one of my novels on a “First Pages” panel and had said nice things about it. So I introduced myself, and she gave me a card. I emailed her a couple of manuscripts, and she offered me representation. We went out on submission first with The Amaranth Enchantment, and Bloomsbury bought it. I was lucky. Everything sort of fell into place as one hopes it would.
8. What a great story of how you got your agent. And it’s a good example of the benefits of attending conferences. You’ve had at least nine other books published, including three picture books. Many are award winners. Share how you have grown your career after your debut book was released.
It was always important to me to not pigeonhole myself into one genre bucket or one reader age category. There was a certain pressure early on in my career to stay in my lane and to let a publisher cultivate my “brand” as a writer of X, Y, or Z. I wanted no part of that. I vehemently resisted it, and I’m glad I did. I never want to write the same book twice. I get bored and restless too easily. Styles and tastes change; creativity evolves; curiosity roves around. By writing all over the map I’ve kept it fun and interesting for me, and I hope for my readers also. I believe that choice that I made early on has been important to the ongoing health of my career. It leaves me free to keep on challenging myself in new ways.
Marketing Your Book
9. I looked at your events on your website, and you have about 29 events scheduled from early September through early November. How did all these appearances get scheduled? Do you do as many appearances for all of your books?
My publicist at Simon & Schuster is a dynamo. Other than a few local events, he set them all up for me. Aside from festivals, all were scheduled with independent bookstores. In some instances the hosting venue is a public library but the event organizer is still an independent bookstore. That was very important to me. I’m indie all the way.
I do like to get out there and share my books with the
world when they launch, so I’m well accustomed to touring, but this is the
biggest tour I’ve undertaken. The Covid pandemic took a bite out of book promo
travel for a while, and then I bought a bookstore, which kept me busy for a
while, so this is my first time back on the road since 2019. I’m excited.
10. If you’re referring to the publicist I’m working with on your book, I agree that he’s awesome! What tips do you have for other authors on marketing their books?
Never underestimate the power of starting locally and building relationships, one at a time, with local bookstores, local booksellers, nearby schools, and local librarians. There’s real power in tapping into where you live, as well as places where you used to live, where people know you. Book marketing that works is an extension of relationships of trust, and readers are consistently keen to support authors who share a hometown or local area connection. Always take great care of those local book people. Show up when you’re supposed to. Be a gracious professional; don’t be difficult or demanding. Send thank-you notes. Shop at their stores. Refer your friends to shop there. Encourage other authors to reach out to them about events. Give back, and don’t just take. Show booksellers that you understand and honor their success as well as your own.
11. You also own Author’s Note, an independent bookstore in Medina, New York. How do you juggle owning a bookstore with your busy career as an author?
I guess I like my life with a heaping dose of chaos. But I have an incredible team of booksellers at Author’s Note who do a stellar job of running store operations smoothly, keeping us stocked with sought-after titles and sidelines, and making all our customers feel warmly welcomed. That leaves me free to focus on events, marketing, relationship building, and writing. Fortunately both are jobs that I love, and they certainly feed each other. Owning a bookstore has made me a better writer, and being an author has made me, at least, a capable promoter and a bookseller better attuned to author care, and to what authors hope events will accomplish for them.
Thanks for sharing all your advice, Jule. You can find Julie at julieberrybooks.com and on Instagram and Facebook. Details about her If Looks Could Kill book tour can be found here.
Giveaway
Details
Julie’s publisher is generously offering a hardback of Ghoul Summer for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by October 11th. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.
If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Julie on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is U.S.
Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops
Today, October 1st I’m also participating in the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop
Monday, October 13th I have an interview with author Lynne Kelly and a giveaway of her MG Three Blue Hearts
Wednesday, October 15th I have an agent spotlight interview with Sophie Sheumaker and a query critique giveaway
Thursday, October 16th I’m participating in the Silly Pumpkin Giveaway Hop
Monday, October 20th I have a guest post by author Claudia Mills and a giveaway of her MG The Last Apple Tree
Monday, October 27th I have an interview with author Dusti Bowling and a giveaway of her MG Holding on for Dear Life
Wednesday, October 29th I have an agent spotlight interview with Renee Runge and a query critique giveaway
I hope to see you later today and on Monday!
0 comments:
Post a Comment