Interview With Julia David

Please join me in welcoming author Julia David to Interviews & Reviews. Julia is an avid journal writer, published romance author, serial DIY'er, and certified life coach.

Addicted to Hallmark movies and baking, she believes it's crucial to have some predictable things in life. Her tag line 'escape to an era where true love prevails' was from her own reason for reading stacks of books.

Married and mother to five, she also ministers to pregnant and parenting teens.

Today, Julia is going to talk to us about her book Western Historical Romance, The Messenger's Mischief. And she is giving away one print copy to one lucky winner in the U.S. and one ebook for one lucky person outside the U.S.!

Julia, welcome to I & R!

---

How long have you been writing?

I wrote my first romance Burgundy Gloves about twenty-five years ago. I was the mom at home with a troop of kids in the pool. My area of Northern California gets into 110-120 mid-summer. My desk and computer faced the pool, and I preferred being the lifeguard with air conditioning, so I sat and began my hobby/ journey of romance writing. But I didn't pick Burgundy Gloves back up until I was fifty, and self-publishing was more commonplace.

How many books have you written since then?

My newest release, The Messenger’s Mischief, is #10.

Do you travel to the places you’ve written about?

Light bulb! About six books in, I realized I had the richest settings for historical romance only a few hours away. My series: Love Pure Gold, is 1849 Goldrush stories, all set in my Northern California— Placerville, Auburn, Coloma, Grass Valley. I was that crazed tourist with an ice cream in one hand and every brochure from every museum and historical site in the other. It was beyond fun. The history literally came alive in me, and now I only needed to add a bit of fiction and romance. 

Virginia City, Nevada, and Fort Churchill (state park with the 1860’s adobe fort-sooo cool) did the same thing, and The Messenger's Mischief came alive in the series Wells Fargo West.

That sounds like a fun part of writing! What is the hardest thing about writing for you?

100% marketing and social media. 

But while I have you…the fun part for me is the covers. I’m totally Scarlett O'Hare in Gone with the Wind, when she makes her new outfit from the green curtains. My town has no costume shop, and I even tried the local high school drama department to no avail. So all the covers, God granted me daughters and friends, for models and the ability to sew from childhood. Also, I'm a crazed thrift shopper. The amazing blouse and skirt on The Messenger's Mischief cover are all from Goodwill. I wish I had lovely period costumes to choose from, but being a woman of thrift and a needle is really another creative outlet. God always provides, I suppose I should apply that to marketing.

That is awesome! Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?

All my romances have flawed folk in need of redemption. My sister-in-law asked me how I write a full-length story. Off the cuff, I said, you have to keep the tension real but have the thread of love woven in. (Another) Light bulb! That’s all of our stories! We live in the tension of our failures and the world around us, but God’s love is the thread that holds us tighter.

You can say Amen-

Miss Elaine Balderhoff is the quirky OCD teacher/ heroine in The Messenger’s Mischief. She wants her scripture and moral code to be represented in all things. So I threw her on a Wells Fargo stage headed for the wild 1860’s Virginia City. Saloons, brothels, miners, and unruly folk force the schoolmarm to re-evaluate her code of ethics. Will her romantic feelings for the Wells Fargo shotgun Messenger help or hinder her survival?

I feel inspired in all my stories to represent real people with weaknesses and questions. All my romances are clean but have more than 0-1 chaste kiss. Romance is notoriously messy. Attraction should show up on the page. I always want romance and redemption to be the main storyline with God's touch of approval, forgiveness, hope, purpose, and grace. Luke 4:18.

I love a clean romance with a redemption story! Thank you for sharing with us Julia. And now Dear Readers, if you would like to win a copy of The Messenger's Mischief, fill out the form below!

This giveaway ends August 31, 2021. One winner from the U.S. will receive a print copy of The Messenger's Mischief and one winner outside the U.S. will receive an ebook. Winners will be notified via email and will be announced here and on Facebook. Failure to claim your giveaway within five days will result in another winner being chosen.

---

Congratulations to Amy Smelser! You have won a print copy of The Messenger's Mischief.

The Messenger's Mischief, a winning combination of humor, hope, heroics, history, and heart-hugging romance.

The plucky Miss Elaine Balderhoff’s life is hanging by a thread as the Wells Fargo stage races across the Nevada desert. Adding to her terror, the Virginia City new schoolmarm isn't sure she'll get to her post in one piece. Bandits have attacked the stage, and the shotgun messenger sworn to protect the passengers is now the one in desperate need of help. And in all the ruckus, the unthinkable has happened. He's lost her cat. Finding her beloved Moses will certainly trump Mr. Roth's need to stay alive.

Overly snoopy, Miss Balderhoff realizes when the Wells Fargo man isn’t snarling from pain, he’s quite handsome. More than Christian duty sparks her steps to service.

Sawyer Roth could care less about a silly cat. Without a working shoulder, he's no good as a Wells Fargo shotgun messenger. Gutsy and kind, he'll give Miss Balderhoff that. But her sweet smile and warm touch will not persuade him into affections with a gal so odd and peculiar as her. And a shotgun messenger’s not allowed to marry, so there is no future to entertain. Or is there?

---