The Story Behind the Story: His Heart’s Desire
June 16, 2019 05:15 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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Since His Heart’s Desire is my first published novel, the story behind this story is basically my journey to becoming a writer. I’ve always been an avid reader, and as a child, I used to make up stories to entertain myself, but I never really envisioned myself as a writer. I’d always had excellent reading comprehension and grammar skills, but the mechanics of writing are a far different beast than actual storytelling. I just didn’t know if I had a good grasp of the nuts and bolts that were involved in creating an entire novel. Then in 2008, I started my book review website, The Hope Chest Reviews, something I’d been wanting to do for a while. Writing reviews is something I’d tinkered around with before, but then I really got serious about it. |
Categories: The Story Behind the Story, Writing
Tags: His Heart's Desire
The Story Behind the Story: Butterfly Serenade
January 17, 2018 04:14 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
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Warning: Language As writers, I think we often borrow inspiration from various creative sources, such as other books, television shows, movies, photographs, works of art, etc. In the case of Butterfly Serenade, the thing that created the initial spark for the story was my reading of Debra Anastasia’s Poughkeepsie. In her book, there is a scene in which one of the female leads strips naked and dances seductively and with abandon for her hero. However, he doesn’t make love to her in that particular moment, and instead, helps her get dressed afterward. It was a sweet scene that stuck with me and gradually began to take on a different, and somewhat darker, form in my mind’s eye. |
Categories: The Story Behind the Story, Writing
Tags: Butterfly Serenade
2017 Writing Update
January 13, 2018 02:58 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
As promised in my last newsletter, here’s my rather lengthy update on my writing activities in 2017 (or lack thereof :-)). I’m sure you’re all eagerly waiting for me to publish a new book, and I swear I’m working on it. In all honesty, I wasn’t being a total slacker in the writing department last year. I just had some unexpected things come up, as well as some things that simply didn’t go as planned.
As you all know from my Bookaversary celebration this month, I published my third novel, Butterfly Serenade, in January of 2017. Normally, I try to do things at a steady but leisurely pace, because I have an anxiety disorder and my brain has a tendency to revolt if I put too much pressure on it. Although I managed to stay sane, I did push myself pretty hard in the months leading up to the release in order to meet my goal of getting it out by mid-January, which left me a little burned out. Even after that, I had a lot of new release marketing to take care of, so that was what I focused on for the next couple of months.
Tags: The Key to Her Heart
My Introduction to Romance Novels
October 11, 2016 02:52 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
An integral part of my journey to becoming a romance author was my introduction to the romance genre. Throughout my life, even as a child, I was always drawn to fairy tales and other romanticized stories. When it came to movies, many of my favorites were Disney classics like Snow White and Cinderella. And no matter what medium the story came in, the part I liked the best was when characters fell in love and (hopefully) lived happily ever after. So I guess it’s no surprise that when presented with my first romance novels, I eagerly devoured them and immediately begged for more.
The first romances I recall reading were in high school when I was probably about fifteen or sixteen years old. I went to a small, private Christian school that was primarily self-taught. They didn’t have much of a library to speak of, but they did have a bookshelf in the main classroom with a few titles on it. We were welcome to borrow books from it if we finished our classwork. I was a bit of an overachiever and nearly always finished my work before the end of the day, so out came the books with which I happily immersed my imagination for the remainder of my time at school.
Categories: Slices of Life, Writing
Tags: Barbara Cartland, Janette Oke, Julie Garwood, June Masters Bacher, Little House on the Prairie, Outlander
TV Tuesday -- The Science of Sex Appeal (How It Relates to Writing Romance)
June 24, 2014 05:39 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
There were several shows I watched this week that tempted me to write about them, but none more so than the Discovery channel documentary that I viewed on Netflix called, The Science of Sex Appeal. As I mention in my bio, another of my hobbies is feeding my insatiable thirst for knowledge, and this particular show did that while also appealing to the romantic in me. I was quite fascinated by the information presented in this show, but I'll start by prefacing that it focuses only on heterosexual relationships and the biological responses that drive us to seek mates. That said, I still found it very intriguing how our bodies and our brains are constantly making calculations about the opposite sex of which we are mostly unaware.
Categories: TV Tuesday, Writing
Tags: Attraction, Discovery Channel, Romance, Sex Appeal
