When it comes to my writing career, most of my time is spent hiding behind my laptop, staring at the blinking cursor, waiting for the words to magically appear. I swear, it’s the only way it happens! But every now and again, I get the opportunity to do some super-fun non-typing things!
Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Julie Tetel Andersen, whose latest release LOVE AFTER ALL is still hot off the press. On of my favorite hobbies is spending time with fellow authors, learning about their style, and where they draw their inspiration. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and join me while we dive into the world that is Julie Tetel Andersen!
You have quite the residential resume with time spent living in Germany, France, Romania, and Vietnam. As a romance writer, which country do you find most inspirational to your writing?
To me, the most inspiring country so far has been Vietnam where I lived for six months a few years ago. About three months after leaving Vietnam I woke up one day with the beginning of a story set in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Then it turned into the Forest Breeze trilogy. I loved reliving my time there through three interrelated adventures: Tied Up (BDSM-inspired), Captured (Motorcycle Club-inspired), and Knocked Out (Mixed Martial Arts inspired).
Because I spend summers in Bucharest – where I am at the moment and loving it! – you’d think I’d find Romania inspiring. However, I’ve used Romania as the setting for only part of one of my books, namely The Crimson Hour. I don’t currently have plans to feature Romania in a future story – but who knows?
For our romance readers who may not be familiar with the historical subgenre, can you explain the different between a straight historical and a regency romance novel? Which century is your favorite time period to write?
I’ve heard that the definition of a historical is any time period in the past beginning with your grandmother’s childhood. So, Gone With the Wind is a historical, because Margaret Mitchell, who was born in 1900, would have had a grandmother who was a child during the Civil War.
A Regency romance takes place during a very specific time period, namely 1811-1820. It is so-called because this was the time when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince Regent, ruled in his place. When King George III died in 1820, the Prince Regent became George IV. The stories take place in England.
Jane Austen wrote during the Regency period. However, she wrote what would be considered contemporaries. It’s Georgette Heyer, whose writing career spanned 1921 – 1974, who single-handedly created what we now know as the Regency romance.
When I first began writing, I thought I would always write medievals – lords and ladies and castles! But I’m restless, so I moved on to other centuries. I’ve even written three Regencies. However, in the past five years, I’ve been writing contemporaries, such as my Forest Breeze series and now Love After All. So, right now, the contemporary era is my favorite.
In your latest release, LOVE AFTER ALL, a contemporary romance novel set in the grand New York City, you explore the lives of “two fifty-somethings who are at the top of their game professionally but seriously out of practice when it comes to dating and romance …” What was the inspiration behind this story?
My life!
In LOVE AFTER ALL, Laurel Jennings is a thriving NYU professor, while Gino Milano is one of New York’s most successful restaurateurs, do you find you identify with either character? In what ways?
I’m a professor at Duke University, so, like Laurel, I know the academic scene. Gino is a widower whose wife, Rosie, died of breast cancer, and I lost my husband a few years ago to pancreatic cancer. So I know his journey, too. For instance, the dream Gino has of Rosie is exactly the one I had about my husband a few months after he died.
I lived in New York City one semester when I taught in the Duke Arts & Media NYC program and just loved it. There I took an improv class at the People’s Improv Theater. Naturally I have Laurel doing improv.
Usually, I don’t write myself as a main character. I often put myself in as a secondary character or a cameo, like Hitchcock did in his films. But this time, it’s all me, one way or the other – although Laurel is a lot nicer and more thoughtful than I am, and Gino is more of a celebrity than I am. It’s fiction!
LOVE AFTER ALL is a story of finding second chance love later in life. Do you commonly write second chance love or do you prefer a different romance trope?
Good question! I do love to read second chance love, but this is the first time I’ve written such a story. One of my favorite tropes is the arranged marriage, and the historical past is the time when this plot line is believable. It’s more difficult to make an arranged marriage plot work in a contemporary, but I see writers try it – some with success.
Mostly what I like is throwing two characters who do not know one another into a situation where they have to figure out not only how to deal with whatever crisis is at hand but also how to deal with one another.
Thinking outside of the box, you found a way to combine your love of historical and contemporary romance in what you describe as your own version of the time-slip novel. What inspired you to write a double-romance series where your characters not only stand the test of time in a historic setting but are incarnated in the modern world to face the consequences of years past?
My time-slip novels – The Blue Hour, The Crimson Hour, and The Emerald Hour – were my first forays into contemporaries, and they were inspired by all the international travel I was doing. I realized I wanted to write about the places where I was living and visiting. So, Paris is one of the settings in The Blue Hour, Romania and Hong Kong in The Crimson Hour, and London and Brazil in The Emerald Hour.
I wasn’t ready to give up historicals, and the time-slip plot line let me have my cake and eat it to.
If you take the idea of reincarnation seriously – which half of my brain does – then you have to take the idea of karma seriously, too. I can’t see writing a reincarnation romance where the contemporary story isn’t affected by whatever went wrong in the past. A present unaffected by the past doesn’t make sense. Back to the Future is clear on that point.
The characters in all three time-slips first have to understand that they’re having past life regressions. When it dawns on Eloise in The Crimson Hour, she’s put out and exclaims, “What, my life is a rerun?!” Then they have figure out what went wrong in the past in order to get it right in the present. It’s karma.
As authors, we are often approached by aspiring writers for advice. What is the first piece of advice you give every aspiring writer on becoming a novelist?
Honor your talent!
I can hear the voices in your heads (because they were and still are sometimes in my head) telling you there’s no point trying to write because nothing will ever come of it, it’s too difficult, there are too many writers anyway, anyone can do it, you’re probably a no-talent hack anyway.
Here’s my 3-step plan for you:
1) Turn off those negative voices and listen to your creative self. If you aspire to be a writer, then there’s a reason for that aspiration. You have it in you.
2) Your job is to write. You job is not to judge what you write (that’s what editors and critics are for). Of course, your job is to write your story to the best of your ability, but judgment is not part of it. If you think your story is crap, you’re wrong. Flip side: if you think your story is marvelous and everyone will love it, you’re also wrong. (Here’s some more of my ideas about the qualities of ‘real’ writers.) In order to write, you need to stop doing all the stuff you deliberately do to avoid writing: binge watch whatever, go on more-or-less useless errands, hang out with friends who are energy vampires.
3) If you’re well and truly stuck, read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s a 12-step program. Do all 12 steps. It works.
Doesn’t she sound wonderful folks? Below are Julie’s links, go check her out…
http://julietetelandresen.com/blog/
http://facebook.com/authorjulietetelandresen
