Julia Munroe Martin

Today I’m a guest at my friend Lisa Ahn’s wonderful blog, where she has interviewed me about my protagonist Maggie True’s intuition, place as character,  the good and the bad about characters in my book, and much more. If you haven’t read Lisa’s posts, you really should. They are wonderfully original and fresh and always full of something to make you smile and make you think, and her favorite words are  ” ‘once upon a time,’ an invitation to curiosity and magic.”

Thank you, Lisa!! Please visit me on Lisa’s post!

I feel so fortunate to have had so many good friends welcome me to their blogs! Thank you also to Shary Hover, Dina Santorelli, Susan Okaty, Lisette Brodey, and Julie Luek!

“Tattoo Boy” AKA A.J. Traverso*

On any given day you’ll find me trying to tie up the loose ends on my self-published book (I’m still working hard to get it into paperback format… it’s a process, believe me). Let’s just say I’ve been spending a lot of time in front of the computer, on email, on the phone, talking to graphic artists, printers, etc.

And my head is spinning. There are a lot of steps involved in this process . . . which is the reason there’s a picture of a partially naked, tattooed man accompanying this post.

Say what?

Let me backtrack. If you’ve seen the cover of Desired to Death, you may recognize the photo. It’s “Tattoo Boy,” AKA A.J. Traverso. But how did I pick that image? Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. I had to go through hundreds of half-naked men pictures on half a dozen stock image sites on the internet.

I even dragged a single friend into the process.

Me: If I look at one more half-naked man, I will . . . (I paused, not sure of what I would do . . .)

K: Let me help. (Smiling.)

Yes, K and I went through page after page of naked man photos (HALF naked, okay?).

We finally settled on this one. Why? Part of it was that we both agreed he was A.J. (AKA Tattoo Boy), part of it was “enough is enough,” and part of it was that day I found myself at Rite Aid Pharmacy . . .

There I was at the self-service photo computer, innocently trying to print a graduation picture of my lovely daughter (she’s graduating from college, soon!!) BUT what should pop up on the screen—filling the screen—but the latest torso of a muscled-up young half-naked guy covered with tattoos. Thank goodness MEH (My Engineer Husband) was with me to step in front of the screen to block it while I quickly, frantically clicked on buttons to close the image. I didn’t want some little old lady collecting her prescription to keel over (or steal my thumb drive).

All this to say, it’s been pure hell getting the cover ready for this book (you have no idea, no really, it has). But I’m about three weeks from the paperback books (of course, I’ve been about three weeks from the paperback books for approximately three months).

At least the scenery has been good along the way.

And if you’re wondering what MEH has to say about all of this? “Meh.”

Cheers,

Julia

*In the interest of full disclosure, some of the tattoos were given to Tattoo Boy by a very talented graphic designer.

Today I’m on a Q&A at blog friend Susan’s, you can see it here!

And here are some other blogs I’ve been on in the last couple of weeks…

An Interview with Smythe True, Canine Hero
Really fun Q&A with Maggie True’s dog, Smythe, by Lola on writer Shary Hover’s blog.

Meet Julia Munroe Martin
Q&A on Dina Santorelli’s blog about the release of Desired to Death.

The Empty Nest Murder Series and Julia Munroe Martin
In this guest post on writer Julie Luek’s blog, I give the backstory to inspiration behind Desired to Death, the first book in The Empty Nest Can Be Murder mystery series.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you remember something from your childhood that makes you realize part of why you are the way you are?

I had one of those moments this past weekend. I was talking to my dad on the phone, and I was telling him about my book (launched as an ebook today), and he said he wanted to read it. Already I’m stressing: A) It has a half naked man on the cover. B) It’s kind of a soft mystery with a female protagonist and he’s a guy. C) He’s a Harvard Ph.D. and he and my mother (also a Harvard Ph.D.) have always kind of intimidated me in the writing department.

But he was interested and kind and supportive, and even when I warned him that it might not be his cup of tea, he still wanted a copy. So of course I said I’d send him one when I get the paperbacks (he doesn’t have a Kindle).

I digress.

When I told my dad what the book was about—a woman who becomes an amateur sleuth to help a friend arrested for murder, and that it’s kinda sorta based on my own curiosity, my own interest in righting wrongs—my dad reminded me of something that happened when I was a kid. And it made me realize that I came by my spy tendencies honestly (and when I say I, of course I mean Maggie True, my protagonist).

One year when I was a kid some mysterious things started happening in our neighborhood: rocks through windows, tires slashed, bikes stolen, peeping Toms . . . shenanigans. Nothing terribly dangerous, but it looked like it might be heading in that direction. At the time we had a small black dog, named Zookie—a cockapoo. Little Zookie was afraid of almost everything, and he would shake and quiver and hide if anything seemed out of sorts. Late at night Dad would walk Zookie one last time, and for a long time I thought that was all it was.

But in reality Dad was on patrol. One night—after hearing about a tire slashing—he hid in the bushes between our house and a neighbor’s, confronted someone who it turned out was just a neighbor. One night he chased a guy down the street (Zookie hid, cowering, in the bushes). One night he ran after a guy who had stolen a bike—Dad got it back. In short, Dad was a badass. He grew up on the streets of Baltimore in the 1940s, and he knew how to defend himself. And his willingness to put himself on the line was pretty awesome, and I knew I wanted to be that same kind of person: hiding in the bushes, chasing down the bikes, protecting poor little Zookie.

Truth is, he never caught the bad guy (long story short, it was a family affair), but he protected the little guy and stood up for what was right. Funny thing, when I created my protagonist in Desired to Death, I never thought about those days, my Dad being a bit of an amateur sleuth of his own, but after he reminded me, I realized that Maggie True and I? We both come by it honestly.

Today is book launch day! Desired to Death is officially available on Amazon (in ebook format; it will be available in paperback in about three weeks). For two weeks, you can buy it for just .99 cents, as a thank you to my loyal friends, fans, and blog followers. Thank you for your support, I truly could not have done it without you!

Cheers,

Julia

I’ve never been able to write in public places; I’ve always been too distracted. But lately I’m too distracted to write at home. The business side of writing (self-publishing) has been cluttering my mind and my dining room table. And I’ve really missed writing (my new WIP) while I’ve been attending to business.

So three weeks ago I did something I’ve never been able to do before: I started writing in a public place, specifically a local coffee shop. I was pretty nervous because I’ve never been successful at it before—still, I was desperate because I’d been making such slow progress at home. The truth is, most days I wasn’t writing any fiction at all.

I tend to be a creature of habit and a stickler for routine, so to ensure my success, I follow the same routine every day. I . . .

. . . Leave the house at the same time every morning—almost like I’m going to work. And it has to be early. The coffee shop fills up quickly! I try to be out the door by eight.

. . . Go to the same coffee shop every day. In fact, I try to sit at the same table (in a corner). That’s why I need to get there early—I think that table is a favorite of other coffee shop workers, too, so I need to beat them to it!

. . . Bring my headphones so I can listen to music—partly because I don’t necessarily like the background music, so I find it distracting, partly because I sometimes get distracted by conversations at neighboring tables and my music blocks those conversations out. I’m there to work, not gather dialogue!

. . . Bring everything I need for a morning of work: research, index cards, notes, pens, pencils, power cable for my laptop. It seems intuitive, but I have forgotten one or more of these items on any given day, and it’s made my work a lot more challenging, so I try to pack up carefully.

. . . Put aside my guilt about hogging one table all morning (this is a biggie). I try to tell myself that the coffee shop (and other patrons) are okay with it, but I’m not sure this is really the case. In any event, I’m doing this for a relatively short time, to achieve a specific goal, so I’m okay with doing it. I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable dominating this one table every morning indefinitely, but I’m okay for a couple more weeks.

And the results? I’m happy to report my plan worked! My productivity soared, and I’m expecting to finish the first draft of my WIP by the end of this coming week . Once I start revisions, I’ll try working at home again. If that doesn’t work, then I may try another spot—maybe a new coffee shop? Or the public library? Maybe a different table in the same place? Now that I know I can handle public WIPping, the sky’s the limit!

Do you ever work in public places? Are you able to concentrate? Do you have any tips to pass along? Do you ever feel guilty (like I do) about dominating a table?

Cheers,

Julia