An Interview...with Novelist Julie L. Cannon

"As an author you do not have exclusive rights to publish under your own name," Julie L. Cannon warns. She learned this when a fan of her southern "Homegrown" series left an irate message on her answering machine about her latest book. Julie had just broken away from her series, featuring the middle-aged country woman looking for life after the death of her husband, to write a teen coming-of-age story. What could be wrong with that?

"(The Romance Readers' Book Club) seems to, for want of a better term, 'piss off' certain romance writers who feel it may be shining a not-so-flattering light on their genre," she admits, but that wasn't was happening to this one reader.

Julie wrote the Homegrown series under her married name Julie Cannon. Just before The Romance Readers' Book Club was released, another Julie Cannon published Come and Get Me…a lesbian romance…and Julie began to get more letters, emails and phone calls. Much to her distress, she found there was nothing she could do about this woman whose work nearly sullied her professional reputation. To avoid further confusion, Julie opted to add a middle initial L for her maiden name.

What is the Homegrown Series?

Currently three books make up the series, though Julie has the synopsis and sample chapters of a fourth with her agent: Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes, 'Mater Biscuit and Those Pearly Gates. Each follows Imogene Lavender, her daughter Jeanette and niece Lou as they try to find love, happiness and life through Imogene's garden.

"The Homegrown series has become for me," Julie's online biography reads, "a celebration of the gifts of my rural southern heritage."


Much of her material stems from stories she heard while spending summers at visiting her grandmothers and extended families. "The Homegrown (books) are tributes to my grannies," she explains, "but I had to dream up most of the plot based on how I figured they'd react to life's calamities."

The series sprung from the 100,000 words left over after she sold Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes to Hill Street Press. The publisher only wanted 80,000 and when they sold the paperback rights to Simon & Schuster, they wanted a second book.

"Happily I just carved all the extra plot and characters (from Truelove) into 'Mater Biscuit." Then came the third book. "I get many emails wondering when the fourth Homegrown book will come out." That's one of the benefits of writing a series: building an audience. Also you develop a familiar "feel" for the characters and the setting.

So why break with The Romance Readers' Book Club and its teenaged heroine?


The book isn't all that different from the Homegrown books, Julie claims. "There are five, no, maybe six elements in southern lit," she says. "Food, family, faith, a strong tie to the land, and the grotesque/bizarre. Terry Kay adds the sixth - race relations." In her books faith and a strong tie to the land figure prominently.

"These things were very important to me growing up." She admits there's a lot of her in Tammi Lynn, growing up in a rural setting, raising chicken, sheep and 4-H beef steers. "I was a very introverted girl who found her adventures in books. I would get so involved in a story I would carry it with me to the supper table, while brushed my teeth for bed…just get lost in it."

With this latest book, released in December, Julie has expanded her audience, which she had always believed were older southerners. Lately she's been seeing interest from people in California, younger readers and has even received notes from male readers of the book. "That's what's blown my mind! MEN who have read and enjoyed (Romance Readers')!"

The book introduces Tammi Lynn, who finds a stash of romance novels and starts a secret book club. When a drought strikes her tiny farming community, she feels it is her own "sins of the flesh" that have stopped up the rain.

While Julie hasn't planned another book for her teenaged heroine, she tends to overwrite. So there are folders of scenes and characters still waiting for their chance. If there's enough interest, she could probably write something more for the girl. But now Julie is finishing her sixth novel set in Oglethorpe County, GA. Her fifth, set in Athens, GA, is already with her agent. She hopes to return to the next Homegrown novel after that.


What advice would Julie give a novice writer?

"Read, read, read, read. Study classics - I marked up a lot of books." She also recommends studying the craft of writing with how-to books, writer's conferences and writer's groups where you can get your work critiqued. Keeping journals are also important to her, especially sensory imagery.

"Write it down. It'll get to be a part of your subconscious. Write, write, write and don't give up."


To read more about Julie and her books, visit her website.

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