Celebration Time!

The Heroine Addicts have been a bit quiet for while, but now we really have something to shout about so here goes – our very own JULIE COHEN HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR THIS YEAR’S RoNAs (the UK’s prestigious Romantic Novel Awards) with her novel Where Love Lies!!!

We are all so thrilled for her and are breaking out the champagne.  Please join us while we catch up with Julie with a few Q & A’s:-

How do you feel about being shortlisted for the RoNAs 2015?

Absolutely thrilled. I joined the RNA in 2002, when I was an unpublished author, and they absolutely helped me to become a professional author. In 2004 I was shortlisted for the Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Award (didn’t win) and in 2006 I was shortlisted for the RoNA Rose Award (didn’t win) and now I’ve been shortlisted for the main RoNA award. I don’t really mind if I don’t break my losing streak … I feel like I’ve grown up. 

Was this book special to you in any way?

WHERE LOVE LIES is very special to me. Most of the time, writing a book is an exercise in making your original vision smaller and smaller and more flawed. But WHERE LOVE LIES is the first book I have ever written where I felt, after it was finished, that I had achieved exactly what I had set out to do. That might sound weird but I think most authors will understand it. 

You’ve sort of switched genres from the type of books you were first published with (steamy, delicious HM&B’s!) – was that something you always aimed for or did your writing just evolve that way?

It’s something I’ve always aimed for. My agent and I have had a strategic plan for my career and we’ve always moved towards it. I’ve gone from steamy M&Bs to quirky romcoms to chick lit with emotion to emotional book club women’s fiction, and I’ve enjoyed writing it all. The most important part for me is to keep feeling challenged.

Are you still writing about blue robots in your spare time?  (Do you even have spare time?!?)

Alas, the blue robots have finished for now as my alter-ego Electra Shepherd is having a hiatus, but I will admit to writing filthy Hannibal TV show fan fiction online when I really should be doing other things.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?

Does it count to say that I came down with pneumonia whilst writing WHERE LOVE LIES and got first-hand experience for all the hospital scenes?

And a couple of quickfire questions:-

Favourite ice cream flavour? - Grape Nut. (It’s a Maine thing.)

Are you used to Marmite yet? - Love it now—though when I first tasted it, expecting chocolate, I got a shock!

Do you collect anything? - I am obsessed with knitting owls.

Which of the four Musketeers would you want for yourself? - Can I have Mads Mikkelsen as the baddy Rochefort? 

Huge congratulations on your shortlisting – now let’s party!

Where Love Lies - Blurb:-

Felicity believes she’s happily married, until she starts to experience a strange phantom scent, closely followed by the overwhelming feeling of being in love—with a man who’s not her husband. The feeling is so strong and urgent that she begins doing things that no one can understand. Where does love lie—in the heart, or in the head?

Christina x