Author Julie Day took some time during the launch period of her debut novel to talk to Suite 101 about her inspirations and her journey to being published.
When did you first decide that you wanted to be a writer?
About 18 years ago. I’d had a dream in the night, which returned a couple of nights later and wouldn’t go. So I thought the only way to get it out of my brain was to write about it. Once I’d started writing, the ideas came and went on and on.
Where is your favourite place to write?
At home - the dining table. At work – our meeting room. Both places I can spread my work and belongings out as I like space.
Your book Rosie and the Sick School is based in the school that you attended in real life. Did you enjoy your time at school?
Only in the 6th form when I did Business Studies, which is what I wanted to do. For most of the other years I was bullied. But despite that I did enjoy English, Art and Home Economics.
Has your book had a warm reception at the school?
I haven’t sent it to them yet. Perhaps I should do so.
You write both romance and children's books. Which do you find easiest to write?
Children’s. I think I can relate to them better as I remember my school days quite clearly still, despite being an adult. Maybe I’m still a child at heart.
Have you ever considered combining your passions and writing romance for teens?
Do you mean writing teen romance? If so, then yes. In fact, I have in mind a YA novel to write once I’ve written the romantic suspense novel I want to rewrite next year.
Tell us about the inspiration for Rosie and the Sick SchoolI’d been doing a Writer’s News writing for children correspondence course and one of the assignments was to write the first chapter of a book for your age range. I remembered a story I’d written in English at secondary school about the school being under siege. In fact, the pupils fell ill and got better after eating hamburgers, the opposite to what I do myself now. As I was a healthy eater, I decided to reverse it so that the pupils fell ill after eating junk food and got better from eating and living healthily. It went from there and the book you see today is the final version.
Which authors inspire you?Authors that inspire me. For adults it has to Catherine Cookson, Josephine Cox and Danielle Steele. For children I would say Jacqueline Wilson (I have most of her books) and Anthony Horowitz (am currently reading the 6th Alex Rider book Ark Angel).
Tell us about your journey to being published and how you felt when you first held your book
When I’d finished Rosie and I was happy with it, I decided to query it to agents. I did think about sending it to a critique service but thought I’d bite the bullet and go straight for it. I wrote to 3 agents, all whom rejected it straight out. I then wrote to several publishers, again they all rejected it. I was determined not to give up. Then one day I read an interview in Writing Magazine with a woman who’d had her first children’s book published by Pegasus and decided to give them a go.
I checked out their website and noticed that they’d published children’s books with similar themes to Rosie. So I queried them mentioning what I’d read and seen and waited. 4-5 weeks later I got a reply saying they wanted to see the rest of my book but it didn’t necessarily mean acceptance. I was happy because it was the furthest I’d been so far with Rosie.
At that time I went to a romance writers’ conference where my happiness was obvious and on the last day we had a talk by an agent, whom I plucked up courage to approach over lunch. She rejected Rosie in the end. 5-6 weeks later though I heard from Pegasus saying they liked my book and wanted to offer me an author funding contract. After discussion with my mum, with Pegasus and another Pegasus author, who said he was happy with them, I decided to go with them. Then I got the contract and not having seen one before sent it to the Society of Authors to check, and they told me they didn’t think it was suitable for me.
I phoned Pegasus and had another long chat with the editor and finally decided I was happy with what they told me and said I would go ahead with it all. And as they say, the rest is history
I got my copy of Rosie the day after it was published (there was a delay at the printers as a machine had broken down). I held it in my hand and said to my mum, “Mum look, my book.” I still look at it from time to time and smile, as I can’t believe it is happening to me.
So will Rosie be to teen health what Sportacus has been to the under fives? Only time will tell, and of course reading the book which you can buy online from Amazon.
To read more about Julie and for a link to Rosie's blog visit Julie Day's website.
Dulcinea Norton-Smith - Dulcinea is a writer, an avid reader, a loving wife, a terrible housewife, a mother of two, a Civil Servant and of course a freelance ...
Join the Conversation