About Jules

How many brothers and sisters do you have?  Is anyone else in your family a writer?

One brother, who is now a dinosaur digger and cool public speaker. As I studied archaeology, I guess we both like digging! No other writers, except that my grandfather read English at Cambridge in the 1930s, then taught English, so everyone says I get my love of books from him. He died the year I was born, so we never met, but at the moment he died, my mother says I gave my first in-utero kick.

Did you enjoy school? What is your most vivid memory of your school years?

I was the first to start reading, and always loved stories. I topped English, spelling, and writing, in all twelve years of school. One thing that stands out now is my third grade teacher clutching my mum’s hand and saying “never let her stop writing!” Old teachers seem to have some psychic abilities.

What educational qualifications do you have?  Have you had any formal tuition in creative writing?

I have a Bachelor of Science in Archaeology, and a Grad Dip. in Public Relations. I have no formal writing training, except reading non-stop from the age of five. That’s a lot of study.

Did you always want to be an author?

I always wanted to write, and even when I was seven or eight I’d go off by myself on family holidays and write stories about tribes of little people living on the beach. When decision time came to pick what I would do at university, I scanned the list of available occupations and looked longingly at “author.” After great deliberation of the other choices, I kept coming back to that, but no one in my family considered that a “real job.” So I chose psychology. Within weeks, looking at diagrams of frog nervous systems bored me. “Author” was still a pipe dream, but I also had a passion for ancient history, so I switched to archaeology instead. It was still quirky, but vaguely academic, at least. I’m glad I did, because now I can marry my two loves, writing and history.

What were the first pieces of writing that you produced?

Loads and loads of poems, and little stories. I wrote a “novella” at fifteen, and won a writing competition. I wrote a book of free form poems. When I was small I also made up my own pantheon of gods and goddesses, which I thought were much more interesting than the Greek ones. (I also illustrated it, but there’s a reason I have not pursued art!)

Which writers have influenced you the most?

I loved being swept away to other places, so the Narnia books and Tolkien were huge influences at first, although my own books are not fantasy, but reality (or reality how I imagine it, based on sometimes flimsy historical facts!)

All of the Celtic books by Alan Garner, Susan Lewis et al were firm favourites when I was younger. Through these, I was not only immersed in the mythology of Britain and Northern Europe, but also the British landscape of oak trees, blackberries, and snow, none of which I’d ever seen. Anything that involved lots of nature and mystical things usually won me over.

Later, as my love of history grew, I began to devour anything that merged fiction and history. As an adult, my two favourite authors have to be Marion Zimmer Bradley of Mists of Avalon fame, and Diana Gabaldon. I think I’ve learned more of history through the pages of good novels than I have through non-fiction. That’s what appeals to me ­as a historical writer, too – giving people an escapist thrill while they learn!

What jobs did you have before you started writing?

During the study years, I worked on a gold mine in the deserts of Western Australia, driving very very big trucks, hauling ore. At one point I lost control of a vehicle on a slippery mine road – so at least I can say that I have spun three hundred and sixty degrees around in a fifty-ton truck. Not an experience I want to repeat.

During the travel years I worked on a Roman archaeology dig in Germany. But my first real job was after completing my PR degree in 1995, when I was 26. After one year in a PR agency I just knew I had to write for a living, even if it was business writing. So I ditched my job and was a freelance business writer for six years.

What was your goal then?

My goal has been, and remains, the same. I want to create stories that move people emotionally the way I have been moved by other writers. I like including spiritual ideas, too, seen through the lens of Celtic religion, but people don't have to get my books on that level unless they want to.

What personal experiences do you feel have informed your writing? Do you have a connection with or fondness for particular characters or locations?

Q. 1. I had to overcome a great deal of emotional adversity in my early life, and so the passionate certainty that you must strive always to remain open to love, no matter what has happened to you, will probably infuse all of my writing in one way or another. My long relationship with my wonderful husband has been both the test of this and the success.

Q. 2. Bizarrely, although I grew up in hot, dry, beach-mad Australia, I have always felt the strongest connection to the misty Celtic lands of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Although it’s trendy now, it was not in 1970s Australia! My parents are both English immigrants, but even they did not inspire me with that. It just came from nowhere. Even at uni, I lived and breathed for my one unit of European archaeology, with a crazy lecturer pretending to be a deer rampaging across the Ice Age plains of France. That’s what excited me.

What inspires you? 

Anyone having the courage to chase their dreams, and being passionate in life - about anything! People being true to what they are in their hearts. As an aside, all the windy, barren, isolated, lonely places here on this planet! I have to get away from people and drift in my own mind to let stories and characters come through.

How do you write each book?  i.e. do you block out the narrative first, take each page at a time, create the central character, build a cast of characters etc?

Like CS Lewis, my books start as snapshots of images and snatches of dialog I can hear in my head. I knew only that I wanted to write a fiction book based on historical events that happened to Celtic peoples in Britain. But the actual story only emerged piece by piece.

The very first scene I wrote years ago actually did not fit into any of the books! When I wrote it, I did not really know where the story was going. I just thought I’d better write out all these strong images that were coming to me. As the scenes came, the characters emerged. You might say the full narrative only really solidified about three quarters of the way through, when I sorted out who all these people were.

The characters are all very strong, so once they formed, it was as if they were sitting in a waiting room in my head. Whenever they wanted to “come out” on stage, up they got and started banging on my head, demanding to be let out. Any one of them could run away and have a whole book on themselves. When they feel neglected, I know it!

 So I just kept letting these people speak, and waited until I had enough material for the holes between scenes to fill. Only then, when I knew the full story, did I really start to write the rest of the book chronologically. I only wrote like a normal person late in the piece. I read once that Diana Gabaldon writes in a similar way.

What is a typical writing day?

I’m most awake in the morning, so that’s when I write. I can do about five hours straight, with no breaks in writing. I feel energised while writing, but if I take a break then, I slump. Fortunately, I can write about 1000 words an hour, so I still get a lot done in five hours. Walking is my favourite exercise. It totally clears my mind. In fact, I get all my best ideas while walking. Then I just have to trust that I’ll remember them when I get back to my keyboard. Since I’m writing about a pre-industrial world, being out among the trees, and seeing the sky change in the seasons, and smelling the air, are all vital.

How long does it take you to complete a novel typically? 

The White Mare took four years on and off, because I was working, as well. The Dawn Stag took one year full-time and The Boar Stone two. Being based on history, the research takes some time. Luckily for me, I read books about Celtic archaeology for fun (!), so when it came time to do these books, I already had a good knowledge base.

What do you do when you are not writing? What are your hobbies?

I walk and read. I’d like to say I’m more active than that, but if I don’t get “dreaming” time then I can’t cook up all my ideas.

Can you tell us a little bit about future directions?

I am in love with the Celts, so the next two books are retellings of famous Irish myths set at the same time as my current trilogy. But there are lots of fascinating historical events just waiting to be brought to life: I would love to migrate (in a literary sense) to Egypt, ancient Greece and perhaps North America. Anywhere I can write books with strong, interesting female characters, with adventure, love stories and spirituality thrown in for good measure, always merging archaeology and fiction together.

What single thing might people be surprised to learn about you?

That someone so passionate about ancient British history, and illuminating a neglected part of the Roman-British story, is Australian. I never set foot in the UK until I was 23. I grew up surrounded by gum trees, baking air, scorching sand, kookaburras and kangaroos, yet I spent my entire childhood looking out the window dreaming of mist and mountains and green fields and snow, sword fights, and stone circles. I call myself a “reverse immigrant.” Australia is the lucky country, and I love it, but some calling in my soul always drew me to the UK.