Make-Believe Mondays With Julia Knight

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Julia Knight.

Julia, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Julia: Well I’m working on two at the moment. One’s an historical erotic romance, with pirates. The other is the third and final installment of my Oathcursed series (book 2 is released by Samhain in January)While we’re still following the heroes and heroine from the first two – Hilde, Hunter and Ilfayne – other characters are coming along to complicate their lives. Nerisse is a rather willful girl – thoroughly spoilt, but overly protected by her father, who has good reason to believe someone will take revenge on him through her. When the chance comes for Nerisse to escape and live a little, she grabs it with both hands – only to find out her father was right. As usual there will be big dollops of romance to offset the adventure!

Debra: Pirates, did you say pirates? :-) I'll bet they are fun to write about. Adventure and romance, what could be better?

Ray Bradbury said, “We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Julia: Reading widely and daydreaming. Reading, to see what works, what doesn’t, what’s already been done to death. And daydreaming scenes, playing them as movies in my head, with all different possibilities tried out. I could spend all day doing that.

Debra: Yes, the already been done to death part can make it difficult. Thankfully that daydreaming imagination can vanquish that one.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Julia: Oh yes – they talk back to me all the time, the monkeys. Usually it takes me a few chapters to get a feel for them. Then they’ll be somewhere with something nasty happening to them (I do so like to torture them) and all of a sudden they’re saying ‘There is no way you’re getting me to do that! I’d do this instead.’ One reason I don’t outline – the characters always end up pulling me in different directions to the ones I’d envisaged.

Debra: Sometimes character are like unruly children that way. Outlines are too much like rules to be broken.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Julia: The first one I really remember grabbing me was an old book about King Arthur – you know the ones that had colour plates and gold edging on the pages? I grew up with the Pig Sty Prince, the White Dragon and the Red, the Fairy Hunt. All evocative, romantic ( in the literary sense, not the genre sense) stories. They took me to another place, and I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so entranced by any story. I still have that book – it’s one of my son’s favourites.

Debra: Yes, I remember those! And the color plates and gold edging made the physical book as romantic and enticing as the stories.

Julia, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Julia: Thank you! It’s always fun seeing new types of questions.

Visit Julia at
juliaknight.co.uk
juliazknight.wordpress.com
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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

I've been hard at work on the contemporary romance and hope to be submitting it very soon. Then will turn to finish the western historical romance. (Not a sequel to A Desperate Journey, but a story that is very different.)

What are you doing this Halloween weekend? I will be attending Gatalop. Gatalop is held in Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island close to Mobile, AL. It's an SCA event. (SCA is the medieval reinactment group I'm a member of.) My group is staying inside the fort. The fort is believed to be haunted, so if I see any ghosts, I will come back and tell you about it! ;-)

The site is open to the public from 9:00 to 5:00 and I will be there in the merchant area selling my books.

www.debraparmley.com

Until next Monday, Happy Halloween and Happy Samhain!

Love,

Debra