Interview with Julia Madeleine: 'I published independently so all the publicity is up to me'

Julia Madeleine is the youngest daughter of Irish immigrant parents from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Born in Canada and raised in a small town in southern-western Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron, Julia honed her duel passions for art and fiction writng from the time she was old enough to hold a crayon. As a teenager she moved to Toronto and graduated in Media Writing from Sheridan College. She wrote for a number of entertainment magazines, while spending all her free time writing fiction, and then in 2000, her passion for art led her, quite by accident, into a career in the tattoo industry.

Home for Julia is Mississauga, where she lives with her husband and teenaged (future tattoo artist) daughter. For a year she lived in the country on a 30-acre property in the middle of nowhere, which became the inspiration for her second novel, No One To Hear You Scream. Currently she is working on the sequel to her first thriller, Scarlet Rose (2008) which will be released sometime in the fall of 2011.

You can visit her website at www.juliamadeleine.com or her blog at www.juliamadeleineauthor.blogspot.com. Connect with Julia at Facebook at www.facebook.com/MadJulia!

Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life, Julia. Can you tell us how long you’ve been writing and how your journey led to writing your latest book, No One To Hear You Scream?

I’ve been writing fiction since I was in my teens. I decided around the age of eighteen that I wanted to write a book. My first manuscript was a really bad horror novel that I wrote long hand, actually printed every word in pen (I’ve always had an aversion to cursive writing). Back than I was reading a lot of Stephen King, so he was quite an influence as I’m sure he was with generations of writers.

I wrote my latest book, No One To Hear You Scream, after my experience buying a country house in foreclosure and being stalked by the former owner, still angry over losing his house.

Q: I love your title…can you tell us why you chose it?

When we moved to the country, it felt like we were so far removed from civilization that I used to say to my husband, “there’s no one to hear you scream out here.” So it seemed quite fitting to use that saying as a title because the family in my story are city people who’ve moved to the country and feel a profound sense of isolation and vulnerability living out in the middle of nowhere.

Q: Why did you believe your book should be published?

Because it’s good and scary as hell. It’s the kind of book I would want to read.

Q: We all know that publishers can’t do all of the publicity and that some lies on the author. What has your publisher done so far to publicize the book and what have you done?

I published independently so all the publicity is up to me.

So far I’ve arranged a blog tour, sent out a lot of review copies, put an ad on Goodreads and did a book giveaway.

Q: What book on the market can it compare to? How is it different? What makes your book special?

I like to describe my book as Stuart Neville’s The Ghosts Of Belfast meets the classic noir thriller, Cape Fear. What makes it unique is the lethal alliance that forms between the main characters. Justine Jameson is a seventeen-year-old single mother who’s moved home with her parents, and experiencing post partum psychosis. When she hooks up with the former owner of their house, Rory Madden, a violent Irish ex-gang member just released from incarceration, the two plot the murder of her parents.

Q: Open to a random page in your book. Can you tell us what is happening?

Page 61. Rory is sitting in the office of his former lawyer after being release from pre-trial custody. His lawyer has stolen a large sum of cash that Rory had hidden in his house after getting busted in a drug raid. Now he’s come to reclaim his money, and he’s brought a Remington12-gauge pump action shotgun as persuasion.

Q: Do you plan subsequent books?

Most definitely. I’m currently working on another thriller that’s scaring the hell out of me. It’s about a young woman on the trail of a serial killer.

Q: Thank you for your interview, Julia. Do you have any final words?

Check out Goodreads for a book giveaway I’ve got going on until July 16th: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/11769-no-one-to-hear-you-scream I’d also like to share my awesome book trailer in which my husband is doing the vocals to one of his original songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOk-dedXWAQ

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