Julie Anderson (Jules to her friends and close colleagues) has long joked that she is a full-time author trapped in an IT professional’s body. She’s been an avid writer since elementary school, preferring written word over most social interactions. However, her creativity and ability to weave imagination into affairs of reality enable her to build out vast and colorful scapes of literary magic.
Anderson has long been a fan of both high and low fantasy works to include The Wheel of Time series, Tolkien’s world, the Dune world and Pierce Anthony’s works. Surprisingly enough, the book that provided the initial inspiration for Owl Eyes: A Fairy Story was written by Stephen King. Using a storyteller’s point of view in The Eyes of the Dragon prompted the initial research into fairy tales and finally the basic premise for Anderson’s novel.
“It was a logical evolution in my writing,” She said. “I have young children that love fantasy and dragons and magic. I myself enjoy spending time in video game words where I can immerse myself in elvish and other magical races. It’s almost a therapeutic break from the harshness of real life.”
She sits comfortably on the barstool in her well worn boots, jeans and a T-shirt offering you to “Toss a coin to your Witcher”. She’s nursing a dark, malty beer for our interview. As a fellow fantasy fan, I’m very excited to be here asking the questions.
“I’m so happy we could meet up and chat, Jules. Nice shirt.” I wink.
“Thanks, Henry, It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She blushes a little.
“So, tell me,” I say, “What was the biggest challenge you faced with this project?”
“Ironically enough, time and point of view were what caused me the most grief. Where to begin? I couldn’t very well go back to the very beginning. A paragraph of Silmarillion epic is going to lose most of my readers. At the start of the novel, the hero isn’t born yet. So she can’t very well be the one telling the story, not really. So who is going to tell the tale? It isn’t the queen, Sabine, she’s unreliable and a little too narcissistic to tell a good well-rounded story. The elf that is in love with her? No way. Also too bias and he isn’t there the whole time. The only character that is present for the entire novel is possibly the dragon, and he doesn’t talk.
“So, first person was just to be out. I wanted some intimacy, so readers could really get into the primary character’s heads. Subjective third person was really the only way to go. Throw in some flashbacks and story time to fill in the past events that didn’t make the birth-cut, so to speak.”
“Tell me about your hero, Freya.”
“Well, Freya,” She begins, “ is half human, half elf. As elves are mostly linked with nature, Sabine is able to create a direct consulate to the energies of nature itself. This causes some problems.”
“Sabine. She’s not the altruistic leader we are looking for?”
“She’s a great leader. Kind of. She protects and takes care of her people, but keep in mind that she’s stealing the life force from her daughters to retain her beauty and health. So her true self is pretty twisted. Not my favorite character.” She laughs a little sarcastically.
She takes a sip of and sets her drink down and casually tucks her hair behind her ear.
“Thank you for taking the time to meet up, Jules. Your book has been out for only a few weeks and its already caught the eye of a lot of other fantasy fans. I’m looking forward to a sequel. Will there be one?:
“You never know,” She says with a smile.
This was a piece I wrote for one of my creative classes. No, I have never met Henry, and no, the novel is not yet complete. Both of these are “yet”.
Be well folks, have fun! 💜
Julie M Anderson 