Helena Fairfax

I’m absolutely delighted to introduce today’s author, Julie Stock. I’ve met Julie in real life (not just drinking tea in my virtual garden, like my usual interviews :) ) as we were roomed in the same corridor at the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference last year. As you can guess from her photo, Julie has a really sunny disposition, and she made my full first conference a memorable one with her friendly welcome.

Good to see you again, Julie!

Where do you live, Julie? I live in a small, rural village in Bedfordshire in the UK.

Where is your favourite place in the world? I’m very lucky to have travelled to some wonderful places in my life so it would be hard to pick one. I do have a very soft spot for Paris though, along with most other parts of France. Paris is where I got engaged, where I went on honeymoon and where I have spent a few other important dates over the years.

What romantic memories! Have you thought of using Paris as the setting for one of your novels?

Being a writer is a great job.  What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? The worst job I ever had was my very first one! I had just started at a very large fast-food chain restaurant (you know the one). My shift was seven hours long and within the first couple of hours, I was given the job of cleaning the toilets! It was so awful that I told them I was leaving and I never went back. I managed to get another job in a High Street chemist’s, not long after, which was much more pleasurable.

Oh no! What an introduction to your first employment!

What book do you wish you’d written? I love ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ by Audrey Niffenegger, which manages to touch me very deeply every time I read it so I would like to have written that book.

What’s your favourite song? Aargh! I can’t pick one song, it’s impossible. Some of my very favourite ones are ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ by Barbra Streisand, ‘Piano Man’ by Billy Joel and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Dire Straits.

If you could meet anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and what would you say to them? I’d like to meet Martin Luther King and to ask him whether he would have protected himself more if he had known just how much danger he was in.

If only we really could go back in time.

What’s your happiest childhood memory? All the time I spent with my grand-dad. He was the only stable male influence in my life as a child and we shared a common love of languages and music that has persisted throughout my adult life.

Lovely memory!

If you had to marry a fictional character, from film, television, or books, who would it be? That’s a tricky question! I’d be looking for someone with strong principles and a good sense of what life should be about so I’d probably go for Atticus Finch from ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’

Great choice. A hero in the true sense of the word.

What’s the most important lesson life has taught you? I think for me it is the fact that you can reinvent yourself again and again. Your life can be whatever you want it to be and it’s important to re-evaluate it from time to time just to make sure that you’re not just doing stuff out of habit.

And finally, please tell us about your latest book, where we can find it, and where we can find your blog/website

My debut contemporary romance, From Here to Nashville, has a country music theme. It tells the story of Rachel, who dreams of being a successful singer in Nashville, and Jackson, who’s over in the UK scouting for talent for his independent record label.

Available on Amazon.

You can contact me via my website, My Writing Life.

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 I’ve downloaded your novel, Julie, and I can’t wait to start reading it. And I love the cover! Congratulations again on release.

If you’ve enjoyed Julie’s interview, or have any questions or comments, please let us know. We’d love to hear from you!