Interview with Julie Brooks - Author of 'The Heirloom'

Interview with Julie Brooks - Author of 'The Heirloom'

See my Review here

(Photos by Julie Brooks of her England research trip are used by permission.)

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What inspired you to write The Heirloom? Tell us a bit about the story.

Story ideas are a bit like butterflies — very pretty but also elusive. I find it difficult to catch the moment when a story idea appears. They usually sneak up on me, a little idea here, another there until one day I have a number of characters, a gestational plot and some themes flitting about in my head. In the case of The Heirloom, I began thinking that I’d like to write a story about a ‘witch’ but not one set during a historical witch hunt, nor one steeped in big magic, more the everyday kind of historical wise woman who finds herself in a spot of trouble. The setting snuck up on me during research when I found that Sussex had a long history of ‘witchery,’ but no one had ever been executed for it. And somehow a little family secret about one of my distant ancestors marrying her husband’s nephew after the husband died also turned up in the story.

Did you take any research journeys that helped with the writing of The Heirloom?

My husband and I drove around East and West Sussex for a week, exploring small villages and visiting the Weald and Downland Museum near Chichester for a day. I took so many photographs! For the Queensland settings I relied on memory, having lived in Brisbane as a child and making many journeys to southern Queensland over the years.

The cover reflects the stunning story inside so well. How important do you think covers are at drawing in readers?

Covers are so important. They need to entice, but they also need to reflect what the story is about so that the right readers pick up the book. Readers that are likely to enjoy the genre. It’s not only the photo and visual elements; it’s the title and the taglines.

Do you have an interest in genealogy and how does it play a part in this story?

One of my main characters — the contemporary heroine, Mia’s, love interest — is a probate genealogist. The inciting event is when Mia receives a letter informing her that she is heir to the estate of a grandmother in England she thought died decades earlier. As for me, in the past I have researched my family history and discovered quite a few secrets!

Which character did you enjoy the most creating in the novel and why?

Of course, it was Philadelphia. She is the complex woman at the centre of the novel, who dreams of a different life to her wise-woman mother, Susanna, but cannot escape her own powers, nor her destiny. Her creation involved a great deal of research in many areas — herb lore, esoteric practices such as tea-leaf reading and love potions, Regency fashions and millinery, early 19th century inquests, Sussex houses, etc.

Was it difficult to write in more than one timeline and what purpose did it serve in telling your story?

I like to write dual timeline novels and don’t find it difficult, although it does demand attention to the interwoven nature of the two stories. I like them to resonate with each other — events reverberating down the centuries — just as our ancestors’ lives reverberate through our own.

Describe the characters Henrietta, Celia, Mia and Philadelphia with three words each.

Henrietta — controlling, obsessive, perceptive

Celia — empathetic, guarded, anxious

Mia — haunted, uncertain, artistic

Philadelphia — ambitious, creative, determined

Is Historical Fiction your favourite genre to write? If you had a chance to try another genre, which would it be and why?

Yes! I absolutely love writing and reading Historical Fiction. However, my just completed manuscript does venture into new territory. It’s dual-timeline fiction as before but it’s also a ghost story.

If you could time travel to the past to do research for a novel, when and where would you go, who would you most like to meet? What two questions would you ask them?

Hmm, I might go back to medieval days, provided I could return to the 21st century with a click of my heels. I’d like to meet Chaucer and ask him, ‘Where did you get your ideas for The Canterbury Tales?’ and ‘Were your characters based on real people?’

Please share your writing/publication journey. Have you always wanted to be a writer or did something or someone inspire or encourage you in that direction?

I suppose I have always wanted to be a writer, and have always written, but for the first two decades of my career, I also had other jobs, as a teacher and then as an editor. I began by writing for children and have written all kinds of children’s and YA fiction and non-fiction under a different name. I only began writing historical fiction about ten years ago.

Do you have a special place where you love to go and write your stories?

No, I can and do write anywhere. Much of the work of writing happens without a computer or pen in hand. Walking, daydreaming, lying awake in the early hours…

Name three favourite novels you read in the past twelve months. What was it about each you loved.

Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan — so erudite and wickedly funny

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel — playful, inventive and optimistic science fiction

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin — just plain Regency fun

Are you working on any new writing projects that you can tell us about?

I’ve recently finished writing a novel that is currently in editing. It’s set in Venus Bay, Victoria, in the 1950s and the present day, and it plays with the idea of ghosts. Do they haunt us, or do we haunt ourselves? It’s a bit creepy, full of things that go bump in the night and I hope, intriguing. Due for release next January.

Thanks to Julie for being my guest author today. Get a copy of her new novel at your favourite book store as it is available now!

Visit Julie’s website for more information and to connect with her.

Julie Brooks was born in Brisbane, Australia, but has lived most of her life in Melbourne. She taught English and Drama in secondary schools before working as an editor of children’s magazines. Previously, she has published a variety of children’s books and two adult historical novels writing as Carol Jones.

Married with two adult children, she lives in a city apartment overlooking the water in Melbourne but spends as much time as she can travelling throughout Australia and abroad.

Her dual timeline novels as Julie Brooks are: The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay published in 2021 with Headline Review, followed by The Keepsake in 2022 and now The Heirloom (released in January 2025).