Interview with Julia Tagliere - Author of the Literary Fiction Widow Woman.
Julia Tagliere is a freelance writer and editor and studied in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program at DePaul University.
Her work has appeared in The Writer and Hay & Forage Grower magazines, and she is a featured author at Buzzle.com and an active blogger.
Interview with Julia Tagliere
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| Author Julia Tagliere |
Julia Tagliere: I am a freelance writer and editor and studied in the M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program at DePaul University. My work has appeared in The Writer and Hay & Forage Grower magazines and I am a featured author at Buzzle.com. I’m also an active blogger and past finalist in The Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series Competition.
Who are your favorite writers, your favorite books, and who or what are your writing influences?
If I had to choose one favorite writer, it’d be Neil Gaiman, hands-down—I love everything he writes. My favorite book is Good Omens. Outside of him, I cycle through other writers at will, either devouring their entire bodies of work (Clancy, Patchett, Tan, Rice, Brown, Leonard, Larsson, Crichton, Cornwall, King, Pilcher, Garcia Marquez) or picking them off one book at a time. I just finished Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son and loved it. I like rich, complicated plots that slowly reel me in and once they’ve set the hook, never let me go.
When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?
I started young, writing my first poem at around age 11, but I didn’t truly contemplate embracing writing as a career until I left teaching for good. I was a high school Spanish and French teacher for a decade and left to raise my children; writing is what kept me sane during those early years. Well…relatively sane.
Tell us about your writing process. Do you have a writing routine?
I wish I could say that I did, but truthfully, I’m rather frenetic. I do a lot of soft writing, storing things up in in my mind, jotting notes here and there, researching, and then whenever I have the time, I write like a fiend and obsessively revise everything later. If I could choose a routine, it would be to get up early, before anyone else in my family is awake, and write then, but my family’s schedule is often unpredictable and my dog wakes everyone up, so I just write whenever I can.
What do you find easiest about writing? What the hardest?
The easiest thing for me about writing is getting lost in the story. Once I’m in the zone, I don’t eat, sleep, drink, take phone calls, register people trying to speak to me, notice the passing of time. It’s entirely too easy for me to get lost in that world I’m creating. The hardest thing is trying to maintain a disciplined process. That just doesn’t come naturally to me.
Julia, please tell us a little about your novel 'Widow Woman'.
At its core, Widow Woman is really about forgiveness. After her mother’s death, my main character, Audrey, discovers her mother had been hiding a secret that, in the early 1960s, would’ve come as a tremendous shock. Audrey not only has to come to terms with her mother’s death but also with the ramifications of this revelation. Can she accept the truth about her mother, or will she allow this new, disturbing knowledge to destroy the love she and her mother shared? The novel follows Audrey on her journey to discover the answer to that question.
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| Click to Read an Excerpt |
What inspired you to write the book?
Everything I write, at least as far as fiction is concerned, begins with the same question: What if? In this case, the “What if” arose when I learned that a couple of my mother’s friends had come out publicly to their families after years of hiding. Just thinking about what that might have been like for their children, to learn something so, for lack of a better word, big about someone you thought you knew so well. I tried to put myself in their place, to ask the question, “What if it were my mother? What if it were me?” and explore the answers in the book.
Who do you see as your target audience and where can we buy the book?
My target audience is mainly women. The primary perspectives in the book are theirs: mother, daughter, wife, widow. While I did attempt not to specifically exclude the male perspective, it’s certainly not the dominant one in the book.
"The coolest thing for me has been hearing from readers what parts of the book really affected them [...]"
How would you describe the success of your book so far? (Sales, Awards, Reviews)
Sales are heating up, which is exciting, but frankly, I get more satisfaction from the reviews readers are posting, which have been uniformly positive. The coolest thing for me has been hearing from readers what parts of the book really affected them, because everyone hits on something different, something that moved them on a profoundly personal level. Seeing all the different ways my book is touching them is a source of endless gratification for me. They’re getting it, on so many levels, and I just love that.
How long did it take it to write the book?
It took several years, but truthfully, I dealt with many sidetracks during the writing of Widow Woman, periods where I had to just set it aside and deal with life—it happens. I’d probably put it at 3-4 years total, but closer to 5 or more, if you’re talking strictly calendar years.
Please, tell us where you self-published the book.
I began with Kindle Direct Publishing exclusively, sort of testing the waters. I’ll be adding Nook and iTunes versions, hopefully by year’s end, with a print version coming out in early 2013, most likely through Createspace.
How smooth went the self-publishing process? Any issues? What are things to look for when self-publishing a book?
I would’ve liked it to go more smoothly than it did, but I look at this as a learning process. This is only my first book; I’ve got two others in progress, so I will just take those lessons and apply them to the next one. The issue I have is that I’m not as technologically proficient as I’d like to be, which hamstrings me when there are problems. For example, we found a couple of errors after it went live that will entail an entire re-conversion of the file, which I’m not adept enough to accomplish myself, so I’m having to just grit my teeth and wait until the corrected version posts, which could still be a couple of weeks yet. It’s very frustrating, but I’m trying to take heart from Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, the first edition of which contained several errors that make it quite valuable nowadays.
"Hire the best [editor] you can afford."
Did you hire an editor and/or Cover Designer for your book?
Yes, I did, and I would urge others to do the same. Even with a professional editor and a number of skilled beta readers, we still missed those couple of things. Hire the best you can afford. Especially if you only have an e-book, your cover design is critical—you have maybe 2-3 seconds to catch a potential buyer’s eye, so it has to be outstanding, and I love Widow Woman’s cover design.
Can you give some tips for other Indie Authors regarding the writing and self-publishing process?
It’s not for the faint of heart. Persist; make sure you’ve got a strong support system behind you; don’t be afraid if things take a little longer than you had hoped or if you experience a setback—we only take extra steps back to be able to leap farther ahead. Start building your author platform long before you launch your book. Make social media your friend. Have a budget; publishing through KDP may not cost anything by itself, but there are things on which it’s worth spending—editing, cover design, promotional items. There’s that old adage, it takes money to make money. I hate to say it, but it’s true.
Are you working on another book project? Can you tell us a little about it?
Yes, I’m working on two, actually, a youth fantasy and a general fiction book. My 3 children are in the age group for which I’m writing the first one, and they have read the first few chapters. They’re badgering me to finish it because they can’t wait to find out what happens next. (Me, too!) But to be honest, the second book calls to me every day. I’d really love to focus on that one exclusively, but I made a promise to my kids I’d finish “theirs” first, so that one is not getting as much attention right now as I’d like. I’ll be sharing some exclusive excerpts in the coming months.
Are you planning to move forward as an Indie author or are you looking forward to have one of your next books to be traditionally published?
When I began the process, I vaguely felt it was something I’d do just for this one, and then the next one, I’d definitely pursue conventional publishers and agents again. But a funny thing has happened to me along the way: I’ve discovered how much I adore the freedom I have to choose my own cover, create my own marketing plan, make all the decisions about where and how I use social media to promote the book, and, thanks to the KDP structure, I’m enjoying all that autonomy and independence with a larger royalty share than I would ever be able to command through a conventional publisher as a first-time or lesser-known author. I’m not sure I can ever go back at this point.
Where do you see the book market in 5 or 10 years? Will there be only eBooks and will book stores disappear like record stores disappeared?
Book stores will never disappear completely. There will always be those who want to hold a book in their hands, feel its heft, dog-ear the pages. And some books, like coffee table books or cookbooks, just don’t lend themselves well to eBook formats. Do I think the demand will be greatly reduced? Absolutely. But I don’t see it ever disappearing completely. I mean, there are record stores out there today; they’re harder to find, but their patrons are devoted and passionate. I think that’s the way it will be with books, forever.
Do you write full-time or do you have a day job?
I’m a freelance writer and editor now, so I have a fair amount of control over my daily schedule. Some days, I spend the whole day writing for someone else, but when you love what you do, that’s okay. At some point, I may wind up in the corporate world full-time, but it hasn’t happened yet, so I’m enjoying every minute of this flexibility now, for as long as it lasts.
How can readers connect with you?
Gosh, where can’t they connect with me? I’m all over the place! [See Contact Links below]
Thank you very much for the Interview, Julia
About the Book Widow Woman
.jpg "Widow Woman (Julia Tagliere)")
Audrey must overcome dual shocks, both her mother's death as well as the unanswered, haunting question: Was anything she knew real?
Tagliere’s debut novel delivers a sensitive, compelling, and timely exploration of the true nature of love, in all its incarnations—and the lengths to which we will go to hold onto it.
- “ 'Widow Woman' is an amazing novel that pulls real-life experience, perceived history and future consequences into one thought-provoking story of loss, love and learning to move ahead despite the questions that plague us after someone leaves us. The story draws you in and keeps you turning the page until the very end. And the writing is absolutely superb and rich with description, dialogue and a plot that leaves you thinking about 'Widow Woman' long after you've finished reading it. ” - Kristen Brown
Links to the Author and the Book
Link to the Author's Blog (juliascribbling.wordpress.com)
Link to the Author's Website (www.justscribbling.com)
Connect with the Author via Twitter: @juliascribbling
Connect with the Author via eMail: julia@justscribbling.com
Link to the Kindle eBook Widow Woman on Amazon with Excerpt
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