Monday, February 1, 2016

In Another Life - 12 Things About Julie Christine & AGiveaway

Summary:
Historian Lia Carrer has finally returned to southern France, determined to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. But instead of finding solace in the region's quiet hills and medieval ruins, she falls in love with Raoul, a man whose very existence challenges everything she knows about life--and about her husband's death. As Raoul reveals the story of his past to Lia, she becomes entangled in the echoes of an ancient murder, resulting in a haunting and suspenseful journey that reminds Lia that the dead may not be as far from us as we think. 

Steeped in the rich history and romantic landscape of the Languedoc region, In Another Life is a story of love that conquers time and the lost loves that haunt us all. 

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Twelve Things About Julie Christine Johnson

1.    Salt is my thing. I can easily give up sweets. But salty, crunchy? Get out of my way. Food Should Taste Good ® Olive Tortilla chips are the devil. SO GOOD.

2.    Like Lia, In Another Life’s central character, I am acutely claustrophobic. I’ve walked up (and, um, down) twenty flights of stairs to avoid an elevator. I call ahead to hotels to make certain I can access my room via stairs.

3.    Publishing my first novel is amazing, but being able jump back from bakasana (Crow) pose to chaturanga is my most recent personal triumph. Yogis will know what I’m talking about. It finally just clicked. And I was all, Woman! I do it every chance I get. In grocery store aisles. At crosswalks, waiting for the pedestrian signal to change. Pumping gas. People have gotten hurt.

4.    When we moved to New Zealand in the late 2000s, my husband and I downsized from a three-bedroom, two-bath house and all the furniture that filled it, plus two cars and two jobs, to fifteen boxes filled mostly with packing peanuts. No jobs, no home waiting for us on the other end of the world. It was exhilarating. Bound to do it again someday.

5.    Speaking of marriage, we’ll celebrate our twenty-fourth anniversary this September. How did that happen? I’m still just twenty-three. Okay, twenty-eight. I’m so crazy-grateful for my sweet man. We met in a French literature class at university. This first novel of mine, set in France, belongs to him.

6.    In 2002 I went to Ireland for the first time. I fell hopelessly in love with the country and I’ve returned several times to hike different regions. In 2014 I wrote a novel set on Ireland’s Beara Peninsula, which I’d hiked during that first journey in 2002. The novel was inspired in part by the work of an Irish poet who grew up on the Beara Peninsula: Leanne O’Sullivan. Last summer, I returned to the Beara to study poetry with Leanne. Life can be so breathtakingly beautiful, can’t it?

7.    Oh, and that novel, The Crows of Beara, will be published September 15, 2017 (Ashland Creek Press).  I’m astonished and proud.

8.    I’m a friendly introvert. Not shy and—surprise, surprise—I enjoy public speaking. But I need A LOT of alone, quiet, private time. I rarely go out. I finally dropped book club because the once-a-month commitment was too much for me.

9.    On the other hand, I’m crazy for karaoke. I’m such a ham behind a microphone. But I rarely sing anything written after 1985. And I need to be home by nine o’clock. That’s bedtime.

10.Like many introverted writers, I am very thin-skinned. It makes sharing my work with the world and being public person excruciating at times. But I don’t want to grow a thicker skin. I want to feel everything, and feel it deeply. That’s part of what makes the writer I am.

11.My favorite quote is by writer Barry Lopez: 'Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.'

12.I lead writing workshops and I’ve recently started a freelance editing/writer coaching business, which is a dream come true. My goal is to weave storytelling, my experiences as a writer, and my love for teaching into helping the vulnerable and unheard, particularly women and girls in developing countries, to share their stories with the world.

About the Author:
Julie Christine Johnson is the author of the novels In Another Life(February 2016, Sourcebooks Landmark) and The Crows of Beara(September 2017, Ashland Creek Press). Her short stories and essays have appeared in several journals, including Emerge Literary Journal; Mud Season Review; Cirque: A Literary Journal of the North Pacific Rim; Cobalt; River Poets Journal, in the print anthologies Stories for Sendai; Up, Do: Flash Fiction by Women Writers; and Three Minus One: Stories of Love and Loss, and featured on the flash fiction podcast No Extra Words. She holds undergraduate degrees in French and Psychology and a Master’s in International Affairs. Julie leads writing workshops and seminars and offers story/developmental editing and writer coaching services.

A runner, yogi, and wine geek, Julie makes her home on the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington state with her husband. In Another Life is her first novel.

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2 comments:

  1. Sounds really good. Thanks for the recommendation.

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  2. I loved reading about Julie! It made me reflect on myself. Sometimes I wonder if I am a friendly introvert, too. I can't wait to read this book and her next one, too.

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