Please turn the page for a very special Q&A with Colleen Faulkner!

 

What was the most difficult thing about writing Julia’s Daughters?

 

I think the hardest thing about writing this kind of book is being unable to separate myself from the feelings of the characters I’m writing about. While I’m aware that the characters in books aren’t real people, in order to write about their pain, Julia’s in particular, because I’m also a mother, I couldn’t help feeling some of that pain. The upside is that when Julia and her girls were able to laugh or feel good about themselves, if only for a moment, I felt that joy, as well.

 

 

In Just Like Other Daughters, As Close As Sisters, and now in Julia’s Daughters, you tackle some pretty difficult life challenges. What makes you gravitate to these kinds of stories?

 

I come from a family of very strong women, particularly my mother, and I was fortunate enough to have known not just my grandmother, but my great-grandmother and my great-great-grandmother. They were such amazing role models and they told the best stories about their lives, stories I still carry with me even though most of them are gone now. The thing that struck me about the Faulkner women is the same thing that I see in the women in my life today, friends and family. It’s in the face of adversity that ordinary women become extraordinary and I think we all have the capacity to be extraordinary women. Unfortunately, it’s often only when we’re faced with difficult circumstances that we find out just how strong we can be.

 

 

Tell us a little bit about how you write. Computer or longhand? Do you write every day? Do you have a special place to write where you feel most creative?

 

I write Monday through Friday, about nine to six, and rarely on weekends, except to make up for a missed day. I know that sounds boring and not at all creative, but I’ve been writing and publishing for twenty-eight years and keeping to a schedule means I make my deadlines. I have an office in my home where I’ve always worked, but about a year ago I started getting up in the morning and going to a local coffee shop to write. You would think that the noise and confusion around me would be a detriment to my creativity, but it isn’t. Writing is such a solitary vocation; I think I like being out in the world. I write on a laptop and rely totally on the wonders of modern technology. I never print hard copies of anything, which worries my mother because she’s a writer, too, and she’s always worried I’ll “lose” my work. The only people who read my manuscript before it goes to my editor and agent are my mom, who reads it for content, and my husband, who finds the typos.

 

 

What’s up next?

 

The next Colleen Faulkner book will be released in November of 2016, but I’m one of those writers who never likes to share what she’s working on until I absolutely have to. I consider myself more of a storyteller than a writer and the storyteller in me doesn’t like to tell the same story over and over. Somehow it loses some of its magic in the retelling. By keeping my book to myself, I find I’m eager to get up every morning and get to work because each day is the first time I’m telling that story. Eventually, though, I’ll be forced to share the details with my agent and editor, so you can check my Web site periodically for news on the new book: www.colleenfaulknernovels.com