1. Tell us a little about the journey of Polar
Night – inception to publishing. Based on your journey do you have any advice
for novice writers?
The idea
for Polar Night came from a dream I had back in 2011. I dreamed that I was on
an ocean liner in the 1920s and met a man who talked about a woman he had loved
and lost in Russia during World War I. It was a strange dream and involved
significantly more detail than the dreams I usually have! I originally planned
to set the story in Finland but I realized quickly that I was way out of my
depth and it would be much better for me to set it in the United States.
Eventually it all came together in Alaska and the Russian history of Alaska fit
amazingly well with the story.
Once the
ideas were in place I wrote the story fairly quickly and began shopping it
around in the spring of 2012. I sent out queries to agents and to small presses
and eventually found my home with Ink Smith Publishing in the fall of 2012. The
book was released in February 2013 so there really wasn’t a big time gap
between the inception of the story and its publication.
I still
think of myself as a novice so I don’t know if I am qualified to give any
advice, but I would definitely encourage writers to look into all of the
different publishing avenues that are available. I have friends who have gone
with agents and traditional publishing houses, friends who have published with
small presses like I did, and friends who have self-published. I don’t think
there is any right way to do it – do your research and decide which path is the
right one for you to pursue.
2.
Polar Night is a supernatural thriller, is that your favorite genre? What are
your long-term writing goals? Tell us a little about your next project.
I don’t
really have a favorite genre, but I definitely enjoy writing stories with some
kind of supernatural or paranormal element. My next project is called The
Ghosts of Aquinnah and it will be published in December 2013. As you can guess
from the title, it features at least one ghost, so while it’s not a thriller it
does have a supernatural element. It’s a combination love story, ghost story,
and mystery and it takes place in both 1884 and in the present day on the
island of Martha’s Vineyard.
One of my
writing goals is to continue writing novels and I hope to have the sequel to
Polar Night written by next year. I also want to do more freelance writing and
hope to write features for print and online media outlets.
3. If
you could change anything about the world today, what would it be and why and
if you could change one thing about your life what would it be?
If I could
change one thing about my life, I would go back in time and start writing
earlier. I didn’t start taking my writing seriously until I was in my 40s and I
wish I had realized this was what I wanted to do much sooner. I feel like I
wasted quite a few years! But then I also think maybe I needed to make the mistakes
I did in order to get to the place I am now.
If I could
change one thing about the world, I would stop the treatment of women as
second-class (or worse) citizens in so many places. I recently became familiar
with the Half the Sky movement, which works to halt the oppression of women and
girls worldwide, and it was both eye-opening and horrifying. The gender-based
violence, forced prostitution, and lack of education and opportunity for girls
that is all too common in many areas is simply infuriating.
4. What is
our favorite quote, why, and how have you applied it to your life?
My favorite
quote is “It is never too late to be what you might have been” by George Eliot.
I went through a difficult period of depression around the time I turned 40 and
came upon this quote at that time. I put it up on my refrigerator and it’s been
there ever since. It helped me stop focusing on the past and what I hadn’t done
and focus instead on the future and what I wanted to do. I started writing and
my whole attitude about life changed.
Thanks Julie, for sharing your journey with us!
When Detective Danny Fitzpatrick leaves his hometown of Chicago and moves to
Fairbanks, Alaska he wants nothing more than to escape the violence and
heartbreak that left his life in pieces. Numbed by alcohol and the frozen
temperatures of an Alaskan winter, Danny is content with a dead-end job
investigating Fairbanks' cold cases. That all changes when a pretty blond woman
goes missing on the winter solstice, and Danny stumbles upon some surprising
connections between her disappearance and that of another Fairbanks woman three
years earlier. Forced out of his lethargy, Danny sets out to both find the
missing woman and solve his own cold case.
The
investigation points Danny towards Aleksei Nechayev, the handsome and charming
proprietor of an old asylum turned haunted tourist attraction in the Arctic
town of Coldfoot. As he tries to find a link between Nechayev and his case,
Danny's instinct tells him that Nechayev is much more than what he seems.
Danny has
no idea that Nechayev is hiding a secret that is much more horrifying than
anything he could ever have imagined. As his obsession with finding the missing
women grows, Danny finds his own life in danger. And when the truth is finally
revealed, the world as he knows it will never be the same.
Julie
Flanders is a novelist and freelance writer who has written for both online and
print publications. She is an animal lover and shares her home in Cincinnati,
Ohio with her dog and cat. Her debut novel Polar Night, a paranormal suspense
thriller, is now available from Ink Smith Publishing at Amazon,
Barnes
& Noble, and Smashwords.
Her second novel, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, will be published by Ink Smith in
December, 2013. Find Julie online at her website,
and on her blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and Facebook.
** ******************* **
Julie is
hosting me today on her blog as I talk about my Alaskan Adventure and the
inspiration for my books.
