Julie Hyzy is the best-selling writer of the White House
Chef and Marshfield Manor cozy mystery series. She is a two-time winner of the coveted Anthony Award. Recently Julie was a guest on my online radio show, Stephen Terrell: Just Us.
Stephen Terrell: Just Us is broadcast Tuesday nights at 9 pm on www.indianatalks.com. Past shows are available in the station's archives and can be downloaded to Itunes.
Julie's newest book, Grace Takes Off, was released July 2. Here are the highlights of my discussion with Julie.
Born writer:
I wanted to write since was just a little kid. I've been
writing since I was a little kid.
We recently came across some of my old stories that my mom had saved
when my brother and I we were cleaning things out. We found a lot of stuff that that I had written when I was 6
or 7 years old. It's been a
constant thing in my life.
Sidesteps:
When I went to college I said I was going to be an English
major, and everybody said 'are you going to teach?' And I said no, I'm going to write. And my family and friends
and everybody said, 'You're going to starve.' So they talked me out of being an English major and into
being a business major.
I graduated from Loyola University with business major. I thought, I can write on side. Didn't
happen at all. Now I was
married, and I thought once have baby can stay home, and can write. Couldn't Didn't happen either
Back to the dream:
When my youngest about nine or ten, I started writing and submitting in earnest. I figured it was now or never. I didn't want to be 120 years old and
sitting in a chair and thinking back and saying, I never tried or I never
attempted to do it. I wanted to
see. If I fail, I fail, but I
wanted to try.
I started submitting.
And after a while, I had a little bit of luck. I had some short stories published, then a novel. And I
enjoyed writing a novel so much, I started writing a series.
Living the dream:
It's just been the best. Better than I could every possibly imagine when I was
ten years old and wanted to be a writer.
Winning the Anthony Award - twice:
I got to tell you, I'm really blown away by this. It's like it couldn't have happen, yet
it did. . . .
In 2009, State
of Onion won the Anthony Award and the Barry Award in Indianapolis. It was my most favorite Bouchercon
ever. I was so excited.
Then last year Buffalo West Wing got nominated and won again.
I'm so excited I can't believe it.
It's pretty awesome.
A friend of mine, a very good friend of mine . . . immediately after the Anthony Award in Indianapolis, he came up to me and said "Julie. Julie. Guess what?" And I said "what?" And he said, "You have your obituary now.
On the White House
Chef series:
It's been a true joy to write.We've not heard back from White House chefs. We've tried repeatedly to get the books
into their radar. . . but we have no idea whether anybody has noticed them or
paid any attention to them.
We don't know if they are aware of them. (The next book in this series, Home of the Braised, is set
for release in January 2014
On the Manor House
Mysteries:
The first book, we suggested the title "Grace Under
Pressure" because the principal character was Grace. The Publisher has decided to keep Grace
in all the titles, which I didn't know was going to be happening. And I think it's just a genius
idea. [The newest book in
the series, Grace Takes Off, was released July 2, 2013].
Grace is young girl.
She doesn't have Ollie's (White House Chef Olivia Paras) strength of
character or confidence yet, because she suffered quite a few blows, like the
loss of her mother, and her fiancé left her for her sister. So she suffered through a few things,
but she's finding her strength now.
She has her own story to tell and I'm having a lot of fun with her. A lot of fun, because she's
discovering herself Ollie
knows who she is.
Favorite character:
Probably at this point, it's Frances, who is Grace's
assistant at work. She is probably
my favorite character. She's just
annoying as all get-out . She's
snarly and not happy. But you know
that she's a marshmallow underneath.
You just haven’t' found it yet. But I'm having fun with her.
Advice to aspiring
writers:
I think the first thing I say is that if someone can talk
you out of being a writer, then you're not meant to be a writer. Anyone who is meant to be a writer
can't be talked out of it. They
may push it aside for a while, they may say "Oh my God, I have priorities"
and go with whatever the priorities are for a while. But if they can't be talked out of it -- if it's something
that makes them return to telling stories -- then they need to stick with
it.
And that's probably the number one thing --
perseverance. Because there are so
many moments where things feel down, or things feel negative.
The publishing world is changing now, and the role of agents
and the role of publishers, they're evolving. Still, if you're going to be publishing in a traditional
manner, you're going to have to go through agents. You're going to have to go through editors. And there's a lot of rejection.
If you're going with the self-publishing route . . . there's
the difficulty of dealing with rejection on the part of buyers who either don't
buy the book or who buy it then review it poorly.
So it's a very tough road, and unless you believe in
yourself, or you believe you have the ability to grow and change, and learn,
and constantly learn, it's going to be very tough.
My best advise to anyone starting out, who truly believes in
themselves, is to not give up. To constantly learn. To give themselves every opportunity to learn more. To take it in, and then let it come out
through their writing.
Best writing advice
ever:
I had an instructor tell me once, and I thought this was the
best advice I have ever been given, you learn as much as you can. You're a sponge. You take in as much as you can, and
then you let the magic come out of your fingers. And I thought that was just beautiful.
Expose yourself to as much as possible, and put it into
practice as much as possible. And write every day.
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