Meet the Author: Julia Heaberlin

Image (c) Jill Johnson

Julia Heaberlin is the author of the international bestsellers Black-Eyed Susans, Paper Ghosts, and We Are All the Same in the Dark, her newest crime novel set in the moody landscape of Texas where she grew up.

Her psychological thrillers, all set in her home state, have sold to more than twenty countries. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed Playing Dead and Lie Still.

As a journalist, she worked in features as an award-winning editor at The Detroit News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and The Dallas Morning News and has always been especially interested in true crime and how events play out years later. You can find Julia's novels on our catalogue.

1. Who were your literary heroes as you were growing up and when did you first realise that you wanted to write?

Anne of Green Gables, Harriet the Spy, Jo of Little Women, Laura of Little House in the Big Woods. Note that they are all strong and feisty female heroines! I first realized I wanted to write my own novel around age 15 after reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The gothic mystery completely transported me from the hot and dusty town in Texas where I grew up. It was surreal later in life to have a bestseller in England. I can assure you that young Texas girl who said "y’all" never thought anyone in England would know her name.

2. What is your writing routine? Do you have a favourite desk and a view? Do you keep particular hours?

I am a night owl, so I like to start writing about noon. I usually keep up a steady pace for about five hours, take a break, then work until ten p.m. or so. I write in a comfy old chair in our living room with a window that looks out on our back yard. My office, mostly a receptacle for files and boxes, has been turned into a Zoom studio for book clubs, events, etc. during the pandemic.

The truth is, I can get lost in my head and write anywhere—the doctor’s office, the car, the kitchen table. I didn’t start writing novels sooner because I thought I had to have the perfect place to write and the perfect outline of the book. Then I read Stephen King’s On Writing, and he allowed me to throw those ideas out the window. That doesn’t mean I don’t dream of setting my old chair in front of an ocean view or an infinite piece of Texas ranch land.

3. Do you enjoy researching your books? How do you know when you have enough to start writing the story?

Absolutely. It’s one of my favorite parts of the process because it makes my characters and the plot much richer and more interesting. I’ve also developed lifetime friendships this way, including with an incredible forensic scientist/human being who worked at 9/11 and identified victims out of bits of bone and cloth. I’ve researched dementia, the Texas death penalty, mitochondrial DNA, prosthetics. I’ve learned the effort and skill required to hand dig a grave; I’ve stood outside the Texas Death House during an execution.

I do some research up front but not all of it; when I’m stuck writing, I know I need to stop, call an expert, and explore the topic more. For We Are All the Same in the Dark, I had intimate conversations with several women who wear prosthetic eyes so perfect that they can keep them a secret. These women inspired the ferocious nature of Angel and Odette, the two heroines, and they also changed my perceptions of physical beauty and strength.

4. Your latest book over in the UK is We Are All the Same in the Dark. Can you give Suffolk readers a flavour of that?

The beginning opens with Angel, a young woman of mystery, found along the side of the road near a turbulent Texas town. She is missing an eye and won’t speak. Angel is one of two kick-ass female heroines in this book, the other being Odette, a cop eager to solve not just the mystery of the girl with one eye but the cold case of a friend who disappeared in the town a decade earlier.

Angel and Odette connect randomly but become bound by their personal traumas and make a profound impact on each other’s lives. Dark is like my other novels—a gothic psychological thriller set in Texas—but there is also a layer that explores prosthetics and the stereotypes of ideal human beauty. Also, to my utter excitement, Sister Pictures is now working on turning this novel into a television series.

5. Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?

I’m in deep-writing mode now! My plots are always driven by my characters so even I don’t know the ending yet. What I can say: The heroine is Vivvy Rose, a young woman uncertain whether she is or is not psychic although she definitely has a very particular skill at prediction.

She becomes involved in helping solve two missing persons’ cases. When she crosses paths with a popular Texas podcaster and conspiracy theorist, her life takes a rather terrifying turn as he publicly delves into the secrets of her childhood and the nature of her psychic gift. And then she turns the tables.

6. Your books have sold in 20 countries now. What is it about them that you think translates so well to different countries?

It’s amazing to me that this has happened, and it’s thrilling every time a foreign country picks up one of my books. I think there is a fascination with Texas, its eccentricities and diversity. That said, I hope it’s also because I spin original psychological tales with universal themes. I wish I could read and understand the translations. I’m grateful to the translators who take on explaining my twisty plots!

7. What was your best book read/best music/best TV of 2020?

I’m going to be painfully honest. I’m just now starting to read again. I had a lot of trouble finishing novels and non-fiction during the pandemic. With a front row seat to the national chaos in the United States, it was tough to focus. Instead, I read a lot of poetry, old and new. I absorbed Bobby Fischer’s advice in his book on playing chess, after I was inspired to take up chess again by the Queen’s Gambit, my favorite television show of last year. (Let it be noted that however much Bobby Fischer advises me, I lose chess to my husband nightly.)

I spent a lot of late nights with television—Derry Girls, The Crown, Justified, True Detective and a boatload of shows on conspiracy theories (to research my latest novel). My current obsession is the French show Call My Agent. My musical pandemic taste has run toward country—a lot of Turnpike Troubadors and Johnny Cash. And I love to listen to the indie folk music of my niece, who is part of a duo called Cricket Blue.

8. What is the best advice you were ever given?

That if you take the wrong path in your career, it doesn’t mark your future forever. You can always reverse course. Change your mind. I didn’t start writing thrillers until I was 45. But the best advice I give to other people I learned on my own.

Rejection is tough but not fatal—remember that the people who are rejecting you might not be all that smart. Keep going. Work harder. Don’t give up. Black-Eyed Susans was at first dumped by a major publisher, and it turned into my first bestseller with a television contract.

9. Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

A stranger saved my life when I was 27. I always think how much her one act of courage changed the course of things. I gave birth to a son several years later. He is about to be a doctor so I think about how she will also have a hand in the lives he saves. I’m certain this kind of randomness runs through my books because of that traumatic experience at 27.

Also, my first boyfriend was named Bubba. I don’t think there is anything more Texas than that.