Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia London.
Hi Julia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I never aspired to be a writer, but from an early age, I was always writing stories. It came to me naturally—I preferred written exams over multiple choice. I had a diary into which I poured my earliest attempts at fiction under the heading of “autobiography.” But my childhood fantasies of foreign service and glamorous international travel led me to study geopolitics and political science, and that turned into a federal job at the Department of Commerce and later at the White House. These were jobs in policy, which required that I master different writing skills. Looking back, all my jobs have depended on my ability to write.
The other thing I have always been is a reader of all genres. I read whatever looked good without thinking too much about how it was catalogued—love stories, thrillers, nonfiction, literary fiction, history—the gamut. I never thought of combining my love of reading with writing until I was an adult.
I discovered politics was not my thing. I returned to Texas after an administration change and took a job in public administration—as an executive in charge of your tax dollars. Politics was not my thing, but public administration was a soul-sucker to me. I was still writing, but they were briefs and statistical reports and memos on top of memos, and I could not have been more bored. I was young—I couldn’t imagine doing that kind of work for the rest of my life.
One day, I picked up an old romance by Iris Johansen and I devoured it. I wondered if I could write something like that. If nothing else, it was something to challenge me and take my mind from my job. So I tried. I started with a single paragraph and decided that if I could make that paragraph interesting to the reader in me, I would write another one. I wrote my first book paragraph by paragraph, without a road map, with nothing to guide me but a vivid imagination. The final product was a mess of ideas and structures, but I learned how to build a story arc and how to create a beginning, a middle, and an end. How to hold the reader’s attention through editing and editing and editing some more.
I decided to try again. The next book I wrote was The Devil’s Love, the first book I sold. That was 1996; I have seen more than 60 works published since then in the genres of romance, women’s fiction, and romantic comedy. I have had books on the New York Times, USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists, as well as a host of regional bestseller lists. I’m happy to say I have not looked back and I have not yet run out of ideas. I’ve expanded my four sentence paragraph to an exercise in chapters, but I still work that way—I endeavor to construct a story with the words that will make the reader want to know more.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I wish I could say it’s been a smooth road, but what would be the fun in that? I envy authors who appear to be living life on a bed of roses (thanks a lot, Instagram).
From a career perspective, challenges cropped up for me with significant changes in the publishing industry, and specifically, the advent of ebooks and the ability of anyone to self-publish. Suddenly, genre readers weren’t going to bookstores as much and were downloading reads at cheap prices, set by authors who were self-publishing with very little overhead. Shelf space shrunk and publishers consolidated, going from 7 major publishers when I first started to about four now. Then came streaming services where the ability to binge entire series tore attention away from books in general. For some, having an entire series at their fingertips set an expectation that an entire series of books should be available at once, too. It took a few years before balance was restored in publishing, during which time many authors put down their pen.
And then came the pandemic. Bookstores closed. Distribution channels closed. No one was picking up books in airports and were ordering online, which reduced discoverability of many titles. More authors put down their pen. I am one of the lucky ones—I’ve held on to my reader base and my contracts, but a times I have felt like I was hanging on by my little finger. But I have held on.
Personally, twenty-three years in an occupation is a long time, and I’ve had my share of upheavals—a divorce, becoming a legal guardian to two teens, aging parents, losing a parent to COVID, sick dogs, the mental space eaten up by elections and pandemics—all of it had messed with my head and my time. The thing about working at home is that you live where you work and you work where you live. It’s difficult in the best of times to maintain a healthy division between the two. But in the course of family turmoil and then a pandemic, it’s been nearly impossible. Again, I somehow soldiered through these storms, sometimes unwittingly, sometimes unwillingly.
What I learned from the pandemic in particular is that I need to be careful about the projects I take on. Time is not what it used to be for me, and I have to make sure that I have enough time to create, the mental capacity to dig deep, and enough time outside of the creative process to live.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have written more than sixty novels. I am best known for my Jane Austen-esque historical romance novels, but I have also written many contemporary novels as well, including romance, women’s fiction, and romantic comedy. Earlier in my career, I would have said I was most proud of seeing my books on the New York Times and various other bestseller lists or the many awards for which I’ve been nominated. But I have learned that those career markers are fleeting. Now what I am most proud of is my longevity and consistency. I continue to create novels that I am proud of and readers across the globe enjoy. I can look at a book on my shelf and think…I did that. That makes me proud every day.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
The best way to support any author is to buy their books. But an increasingly important way to show support is to leave an honest review where you might buy the book or on social media channels. Discovering new reads and authors new to you has moved online, and the best way to boost the discoverability of an author or a book is to mention it—algorithms pick that up and make sure more people view the book.
Contact Info:
- Email: juliaflondon@gmail.com
- Website: www.julialondon.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/julia_f_london
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/julialondon
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/juliaflondon
Image Credits:
In the Still Photography (red shirt against wall)
