Ask the Author: Julie Berry
Answered Questions (22)
Julie Berry
Narnia, and try to get a hug from Aslan. <3
Julie Berry
My book is late. My career is over. ;)
Julie Berry
Hi there! I love Ovid, though it's been years since I've spent time with the Metamorphoses. I wasn't thinking of Philomena, but I'm flattered by any comparison. :)
Julie Berry
I don't, alas! I wish I did. I'm terrible at this sort of thing. If you come up with any good ones you'd like to share, I'd love to hear them. :)
Julie Berry
It will indeed -- both. There's a wonderful audiobook coming out, and it will be available both on CD and via Audible.
Julie Berry
That would be cool. The truth is, I didn't know the correct pronunciations until after the audiobook was made. The audiobook producers found an Old Provencal expert who could instruct them on the pronunciations. It was very welcome news to me. It's well-nigh impossible to know for sure how a nearly-lost European Romance language was pronounced almost 800 years ago. Same for spellings.
Julie Berry
Oh, I wish! None are planned at the moment. It's the publisher's call. Please give your son a fist-bump from me.
Julie Berry
Hi Cintia! I can relate to that feeling of discouragement you describe, and I remember, the first time I attended a writing conference, feeling overwhelmed by the number of people in the room. Surely, with so many people so serious about writing, I didn't have a prayer. But I have since learned that one never really knows what other aspiring writers are doing -- working on their craft? Watching Netflix? -- and in any case it doesn't matter. In a very real sense, there is no competition in this industry because no one else can write the book you would write. The only way to stay sane is to write because you want to, because you love it, because you want to prove to yourself that you can finish it, because you're curious to see how it ends. Paradoxically, it's only when you write a book like you don't care about publication that you actually have a shot at publication. But publication shouldn't really be the goal -- finding your voice and saying something with it, telling a great story, should be the goal. Only when you've begun to do that more or less regularly is publication something you should think about. Don't worry about what other people do. Write for writing's sake, for your own sake. Otherwise you'll always stay in a stalled place, wondering what-if. Best of success to you!
Julie Berry
You are very close. I've made a page on my website to help readers puzzled by this very question. Here you go! http://www.julieberrybooks.com/about-...
Julie Berry
Right now I'm reading All Quiet on the Western Front. I also plan to read A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway and Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain. Beyond that, I'm not sure! Hope summer brings great reads your way. :)
Julie Berry
Ah, yes! It pained me not to be able to answer that question in the book. But, you see, the only way it could be in the book was A) if Botille ever learned what had happened to Plazensa, or B) if Plazensa got caught. I didn't want either thing to happen. So, here's my clue: Plazensa's, er, petit ami, was Litgier, the fisherman. So, he has a boat. And the meeting place where the sisters were to meet was a sheltered cove where Botille waited. But every time she saw a boat pass by, Botille hid. So ... (wink wink)...
Julie Berry
Prostitution was common. It was almost the only option available to girls who didn't have families to support them, and and high mortality rates left many young people without guardians. Perhaps some found shelter in religious orders, but usually it took a great deal of money to secure a place in a convent. Tragically, in so many parts of the world today, poverty still drives young people into prostitution by hundreds of thousands.
Julie Berry
I think it's always been my dream, but it wasn't until I was raising my little kiddos that I began to think seriously about becoming an author. And even then it took me a long while to begin to take that dream seriously.
Julie Berry
Oh, how I would love to! The decision's not solely mine to make. But I'd love to revisit those girls.
Julie Berry
I like to leave that to your imagination. :) But I foresee for them a great deal of happiness.
Julie Berry
Harley, I am so sorry that I never saw this question sooner! I just came upon it tonight. Yes, I would be happy to do a Skype visit to your class. If you visit my author website, you'll see contact information there. Just have your teacher get in touch with me and we'll set something up. I'm so glad you enjoyed DOLSSA!
Julie Berry
Thank you so much, DK! I appreciate your kind words.
Julie Berry
Hi there, Lauren! That means so much to me. I'm flattered that you'd spend an entire weekend with my novels. :) It's always been one of the ironies of this business -- you give a novel a year or two years of your life, and people read it in a day. It feels unfair somehow. (But I'm very glad when readers drop whatever they're doing to read my stuff.) I will be publishing another YA novel before too long with Viking Young Readers Group, but I'm still in the idea stages so far so it's bound to be a while yet. You might try The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place. It's a bit younger, but I think it still has enough snark and wink-wink humor to appeal to an adult reader. It might tide you over! There's also Secondhand Charm, which has been cross-marketed to YA and upper Middle Grade. Thanks for writing!
Julie Berry
I wish I was The Doctor's companion and could go sailing around with him in a Tardis, seeing every period of history! Except I'd have to be one of those companions with a boyfriend on the side, because of, you know, my husband. I really do love history, and I cast a broad net in my attempts to study and understand it. I do find, though, that I'm more drawn to European and Asian history than to American. And I'm pretty enamored of the Middle Ages. I guess that's no secret. :)
Julie Berry
Right now I'm revising my next novel, a middle grade forthcoming from Roaring Brook called THE EMPEROR'S OSTRICH. It's been a lot of fun. If all stays on schedule, it should release in the Spring of 2016.
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