Books help us understand life and Julie Holland writes contemporary fiction about women in midlife who are facing life changing choices with emotion, family and location playing important roles! And she's even written a book with a ghost as one of the main characters.
Listen or watch on Spotify:
Chapters:
Chapters:00:01:35 Julie Holland
00:05:20 Novel inspiration
00:07:06 Life doesn't end at 50
00:08:37 Is the hunky artist real?
00:10:31 The "Sandwich Years"
00:12:40 You are not your Grandmother
00:13:23 Full Circle Love Story
00:17:30 Here-After
00:20:33 Wealthy Woman Protagonist
00:24:02 The Afterlife
00:32:03 Writing as a creative outlet
00:36:01 Julie's writing routine
About Julie Holland:
Contact Julie: https://www.facebook.com/JulieHollandAuthor
Website: https://heartsandmindsart.com.au/
Buy Julie's books on Amazon (affiliate link):
That Summer in Nautilus Cove https://amzn.to/3Xm2EEH
HERE-After https://amzn.to/4eicvBk
Transcript:
Ep 103 Julie Holland the Infinite Life with Katische Haberfield
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Infinite Life Podcast. I'm your host, Katische Haberfield. This podcast is a journey of discovery as we learn how the soul evolves over various incarnations to understand all about the complexities of being a human being who has to bravely navigate viewing life as a non dualistic struggle between good and evil through consciousness raising experiences that test our valor.
[00:00:39] Julie Holland: You know, life doesn't end at 50. Life doesn't end in midlife. And all the books at the time were such full, full of angst. And I wanted it to be full of new relationships with maybe a bit of sex in there as well.
[00:00:55] Julie Holland: I want people to go away from my writing thinking, Okay, no I can do this. Or, yes, there are problems, but no, you know, this is a good time of life. This is, this just isn't all over.
[00:01:06]
[00:01:32] Katische Haberfield: Welcome back to the Infinite Life podcast.
[00:01:35] Katische Haberfield: You're here with me, Katische Haberfield, and I have a wonderful guest this week and her name is Julie Holland.
[00:01:40] Julie has worked in many industries from advertising to travel. Education to public relations. She dabbles in painting and
[00:01:47] photography, writes inspirational verse. And is a prolific reader.
[00:01:51] Julie grew up in Melbourne and is the mother of three sons now in their thirties and grandmother to three active grandchildren. With her partner, Greg julie made a sea change to the beautiful sunshine coast in Queensland, where she writes. And due to life taking a different turn now owns an art and homewares store hearts and minds art in Noosa. She has a chapter book and several children, books publish, but contemporary women's fiction is her love. Her first novel that summer in Nautilus Cove.
[00:02:21] And second of Here-after, after were published in 2021, With her third and fourth books due later this year. Her stories focus on mature women who are faced with life-changing choices with emotions, family and locations, all playing important roles. Writing fulfills Julie's need for creative outlet. Her stories are warm, humorous, and inclusive.
[00:02:44] Katische Haberfield: Julie, welcome to the podcast. Good morning, Katische. Now, both Julie and I have the pleasure of living in the best state in Australia, Queensland. Although, Julie originally wasn't from Queensland, I don't think, were you?
[00:02:59] Katische Haberfield: I
[00:02:59] Julie Holland: was born in Brisbane. Oh, you were born in Brisbane, okay. Yeah, yeah, but my family moved to Melbourne when I was four. Okay. So, yeah, moved back to the Sunshine Coast about 15 years ago. So most of the time, Victoria, yeah, haven't lived overseas or anything.
[00:03:15] Katische Haberfield: I was wondering if you were one of the many people who were the influx from Victoria during or after COVID, but no, you were here long before that.
[00:03:23] Julie Holland: Yeah. Before that, there's been a lot since then, haven't there?
[00:03:27] Katische Haberfield: Yes. There's been a lot.
[00:03:28] Katische Haberfield: We're from the Sunshine State where it's beautiful and warm, except for this winter. And Victorians usually have to live with cold and rain and it's very much like London, isn't it? Yes, absolutely. And so the reason that I'm bringing that up is because you are an author and I didn't realize that you'd written some children's books as well, but what I came across as your books for grownups, so to speak, and the themes that you talk about sea changes and life changes and changes that we need to understand and work through privately.
[00:04:06] Katische Haberfield: Bye. publicly in the middle of our life. Now I define the middle of the life as forties, fifties, sixties. So when I read your books, that seemed to be the age group that they appealed to. Is that, is that how you, who you see when you write in your mind?
[00:04:20] Julie Holland: Yeah, my target audience really is mainly females for some reason, although I have had a lot of feedback from men who loved my, my books, my stories 40 plus pretty well, 40
[00:04:32] Katische Haberfield: plus.
[00:04:33] Julie Holland: Some people say, Oh, I'll give this to my daughter to read. And I thought, look, I'll be interested actually to hear the feedback from a younger person's perspective, you 20 year olds, but the target audience is older for sure. Yeah.
[00:04:46] Katische Haberfield: Yeah. And what I noticed and I'll just, it'll be back to front, but and cause I got the filter on, I'll have to move back, but in all the promos, you can see the, the books and we linked to them.
[00:04:58] Katische Haberfield: You can buy them from Julie's website, I think, can't you? Or Amazon and I'll have all the links in the show notes. So the two books that you've got here, one is based in Nautilus Cove, which is, Noosa, basically, where your shop is, and the other one is based in Melbourne.
[00:05:20] Katische Haberfield: And what I was wanting to understand is where the inspiration came from. Is it based on things that you were going through in your own life that then inspired you to write these novels? Because there's two very distinct situations about what could happen midlife. One is about a sea change and basically characters who.
[00:05:44] Katische Haberfield: come to Noosa, which you call Nautilus Cove to help a sister out in a shop. And when I started reading this, having just met you, because I walked in at Christmas time with my mother and my sister and my niece, and I came up to the counter and bought these copies from you. And As soon as I read them, I was like, well, I wonder if she's writing about her real life or if this was just inspired from your own sea change or other people's sea change, or just an idea that came to you?
[00:06:15] Julie Holland: I've always loved writing. So no matter what it is, children's books or anything, I've always loved it. I gave it a big gap in my life. To do other things, raise kids and whatnot. Then when I came back to it, I came back to it, writing inspirational this, and with the thought behind, well, I'd rather do a novel.
[00:06:37] Julie Holland: Huh? How much, how hard can it be? You just expand. It doesn't work like that. And because of the response I got from my inspirational verse, really positive feedback, mainly from that target audience of 40 plus, I thought. Gee, this is a segment of people, including myself, that really needs some kind of pat on the back or just to say, it's, it's going to be all right.
[00:07:06] Julie Holland: You know, life doesn't end at 50. Life doesn't end in midlife. And all the books at the time were such full, full of angst. And I wanted it to be full of new relationships with maybe a bit of sex in there as well. Not ignoring the problems of that age and stage, you know, being family, fortunes, location of where to live, whether you're by choice, or whether you're forced to do that.
[00:07:36] Julie Holland: And I just wanted to, Wheedle through a story, really, of a woman who has to confront that. But to have it with a really positive note. I want people to go away from my writing thinking, Okay, no I can do this. Or, yes, there are problems, but no, you know, this is a good time of life. This is, this just isn't all over.
[00:07:59] Julie Holland: It isn't all over. So then I took that sort of want in my writing, in my creative space, to expand on that and find a character. I couldn't help put in bits of myself, bits of people I know. Nobody is clearly one person. I just wouldn't do that. I don't want to get sued for one thing, but I don't want friends to think that I'm criticizing them or that I moved on because of something that they've done or anything like that.
[00:08:30] Julie Holland: So my characters are a little bit of a nice mix, a bit of a porridge of lots of people I know or don't know.
[00:08:37] Katische Haberfield: I'm sure there's plenty of readers, though, that have asked you if the hunky artist is real. Yes. Is that Greg? They're all wandering around Hastings Street. Where is he? Where
[00:08:48] Julie Holland: is he? Where is he?
[00:08:51] Julie Holland: There's certainly personality traits from Greg.
[00:08:53] Katische Haberfield: Yeah.
[00:08:54] Julie Holland: Yeah. And he's one of my greatest readers, actually. I mean, he'll read my manuscript multiple times, you know, and I say, get your red biro out. I don't want to be told, like any writer. I don't. I just don't wanna hear. Oh, it's great, honey. You know, go for it.
[00:09:10] Julie Holland: I'm be told where the pitfalls are.
[00:09:13] Katische Haberfield: Mm.
[00:09:14] Julie Holland: But he did say too, oh, I actually recognize that scene or something
[00:09:21] Katische Haberfield: So, yeah. I, I, I would, would say that the, the character who is the artist, and I don't wanna give it away for people, but he's, he's so real that you do think. Oh, I wonder if there is an arts, art studio and you know, you do go and you Google the location where he has his room on the, you know, the the islands and you're like, oh, okay, now I understand what that's based off, but it's not real, but it's so, it's so descriptively written that you could imagine.
[00:09:50] Katische Haberfield: Yeah, and I, I guess it's that theme of people always are looking for a holiday romance and so it appeals, it works. Yeah. Everyone wants a holiday romance. Yeah.
[00:10:00] Julie Holland: Setting it locally has been a big encouragement for other people, I think, to, Maybe go somewhere that they're unfamiliar with and walk along the river, walk along the streets, just maybe get out of their comfort zone a little bit.
[00:10:17] Julie Holland: As she did, as the character did. Yeah, and she's got the frustration of her sister, so that whole family dynamic friendship fiction it's called, comes into it as well. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:10:31] Katische Haberfield: And you call it the sandwich, the sandwich years as well, you know, which was the pen I hadn't heard because that's not my problem yet.
[00:10:39] Katische Haberfield: My kids are still at home, so and my mum's still at home. So I'm kind of there in a few years time, but not yet. So that was the first time I heard of the sandwich years, but I have other friends who are going through that right now in terms of having to deal with, you know, their parents rich. Needing to go into retirement villages or not wanting to, or, you know, being stubborn and staying at home or, you know, dealing with that.
[00:11:00] Katische Haberfield: And then, you know, redefining yourself when your kids have left, because that's a, a big thing for somebody to transition from the identity of mum or dad into kids are busy off doing their own life. And now who am I? And this character in this book, well, she's single. So it's a whole. Extra thing, isn't it?
[00:11:20] Katische Haberfield: It's like kids are gone, they're busy. My mum's I've got to deal with my mum. And then I've got to deal with who am I, what do I want? Do I want to stay single? Do I want to repartner? You know, all those sorts of things. So and there's lots of people who do find themselves divorced. Suddenly, you know, the, the classic end of the kids have left school.
[00:11:41] Katische Haberfield: Boom, the marriage. Blows up kind of scenario, or they have like in my family my dad died at 63, so my mom never got to retire with that. So there are a lot of singles who are single very early unexpectedly. So I think that there's, you know, quite a lot of groups of people who then identify with You're not only dealing with changing hormones and perimenopause and menopause and life changes and you know, suddenly you're at this age where you're 40, 50 or 60 where it's like, geez, when my grandmother was alive, she was half dead by 60 because they were a lot older back then, you know what I mean?
[00:12:21] Katische Haberfield: They were cups of teas and a scotch finger biscuit and that's it, you know, kind of a life. And now we're getting to 50 or 60 and going, hang on, I feel like I'm 20 still. I'm starting to slow down with my. Emotions and, you know, I've got to be more careful with self care and I'm going through menopause or whatever it is.
[00:12:40] Katische Haberfield: But inside, I feel a lot different than my grandmother's generation. So that was what very appealing to that summer in Nautilus Cove because it takes away that idea that, You're a sexless, emotionless old woman, so to speak, but you're still, you've still got 50 years to live. Right. So hello. Adventure.
[00:13:02] Katische Haberfield: Absolutely.
[00:13:03] Julie Holland: Yeah, and everybody's situation is so different. Everybody's internal location as well as physical location is, is different. You know, some people's kids don't leave home. Or you're the one that's moved and we were the ones that moved. My kids stayed where they were in Victoria. They were all adults.
[00:13:23] Julie Holland: Adults and Greg and I, 'cause we were , we're one of those full circle stories, love stories, which is really nice. We went out as at school and then we each had our families divorced, so went our separate ways, but reconnected. Ah. So then after some time, once my kids left home, because Greg lived with us when my three boys were at home, once they left home, we just wanted to do something.
[00:13:50] Julie Holland: different. So we were the ones that ran away. If you're like, yep. They're all doing their own thing. They're in their twenties. We thought, Oh, we can't stay here. So that was a huge decision and one that I felt guilty about for a long time. My friends certainly said you're deserting your kids, you know, I actually lost quite a lot of friends over that time because of that decision to move.
[00:14:15] Julie Holland: We thought, Oh, for heaven's sake, it's just up, you know, we'll just get a quick jet start, you know, cheap flight backwards and forwards bit harder during during COVID. So you do and I don't regret that decision ever. And I've spoken to my boys about it, you know, over time, even now saying, did you ever feel that?
[00:14:33] Julie Holland: I deserted you, but gosh, it was a strong decision on my part. I just couldn't not do it. I just had to try something different. We both had to try something different. And I think that's something that as women, we've really got to try and hold on to. A lot, just to have the courage to do that. And it doesn't have to be moving interstate or doing a big thing.
[00:14:57] Julie Holland: It might be taking yourself on your own for a coffee and sitting in a cafe on your own. It took me a long time to do that after, and I don't know why, you know, I don't know. So I'd start with a book. And then a diary. And then, you know, just to make it look like I was doing something. And then after a while, you know, you would feel comfortable in your own space.
[00:15:23] Katische Haberfield: Yeah. And just for, we'll have mostly international listeners. So for international people, if you drive from, Brisbane to Melbourne, it's, what would it be, I know Brisbane to Albury is 1600 kilometres, so it's another three hours.
[00:15:39] Julie Holland: Oh, that's just nice, yeah. I mean, it's, it's days away. Australia's so big.
[00:15:43] Julie Holland: Australia's so big. Yeah, so,
[00:15:45] Katische Haberfield: but air flights are very quick, and then what is it? Yeah, two and a half. Two hours? Two and a half hours to Melbourne. Okay, so that's what we mean by when we say you can jump on a plane, because you wouldn't drive it, because you're going through three states. Yeah. Yeah. To, to get there, but it's a quick flight.
[00:16:00] Katische Haberfield: So the being two states away is it's part of that whole decision about, you know, are you deserting? So that was, that's very interesting. My sister lives in New South Wales, so that's not a thing for my mom. She's decided to stay here. She's always been here. She, although she was born in New South Wales moved here and then has stayed here.
[00:16:22] Katische Haberfield: Whereas us kids moved away and came back and moved away and came back and yeah, my sister stayed away. So she doesn't have that experience like you do where she felt like she was deserting because she's been the one that's just always been here and always been in, sorry, Max is always been in the same house.
[00:16:41] Katische Haberfield: So yeah, it's a, it is a big decision. And that whole friendship thing, you know, just like as a young person who gets a career and you change friends from your uni days or you change, change friends from high school days when you are in your forties, fifties and sixties, it's also a different interest again.
[00:17:00] Katische Haberfield: So those who will, who will, stay in careers, those who start new careers. And I guess those who go into the nana years by choice or not choice, you know, ill health or, you know, people stay and, and other people move. So, yeah, it is brave to, to confront that loss that you have to do with a loss of friendship, but then come out and create new friendships and new identities and new lives.
[00:17:27] Julie Holland: Yeah, not easy. It's, it's no,
[00:17:30] Katische Haberfield: no, no. And so the second book that Really struck me as interesting was the hereafter because this book I remember when I bought it off you, you said to me there's a ghost in it. Are you okay with that? And I was like, yeah, no, that's right up my alley. And I was interested to hear what kind of reactions you have from people that the mere fact that you have to say.
[00:17:51] Katische Haberfield: There's a ghost in it. I don't, I
[00:17:56] Julie Holland: mean, people read the back and it says it on it. And usually I'm standing at the counter and I let people have their free time and they pick up the book. And I don't say I'm the author straight off because they're both contemporary fiction. That's not what a lot of people read.
[00:18:10] Julie Holland: So I thought, no, you just make your choice. And then if they sort of hold it and flip through. I say, if you have any questions about it, actually I'm the author and which most people love quite a few people are turned off by the ghost. I'd say, look, there is a ghost in it. not paranormal. It is not because people see this whole ghost thing as something to be feared.
[00:18:34] Julie Holland: No, I think he was Stephen King or something. I don't know. I don't actually ask because it's, I don't, it's not that I don't care. It's just not what my book is. So it is a link. And I said, it's. I said, have a read, have a read of a few paragraphs and some people will put it back and say, which is fine.
[00:18:54] Julie Holland: And others say, Oh no, that's, that's really interesting. And often I get a story back, which I love. I get a story back on somebody's experience and I do love that. In a lot of ways, that's why I do it. And in a lot of ways, that's how with my inspirational verse, it all started and grew and why I hold on to it because of other people's stories and experiences as well.
[00:19:24] Julie Holland: Gosh, there's so much out there that is so wonderful and I love absorbing that. It's so, it's so beautiful. It's lovely for a writer to get that. And
[00:19:32] Katische Haberfield: what made you choose to write about the situation that the main character comes in? So if you could give us like without giving the story away, yeah, give us the elevator pitch so that people can understand, and then we'll ask you the motivation for choosing that storyline.
[00:19:49] Julie Holland: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think when you write several different books, you have to be careful, particularly with a female protagonist, as to how she came to her situation. I don't think you want all the time for the husband to have died, or the husband to have cheated, or for her to have cheated, or whatever.
[00:20:07] Julie Holland: So you've got to mix up why she's in the situation that she's in. With this one her husband has died. She was madly in love, they were madly in love, it's set in South, South Melbourne. And she's a wealthy woman. And I had to really make a decision about that, because that doesn't instantly grab the sympathy or the empathy from a reader, if the woman is, has money behind it.
[00:20:33] Julie Holland: Because people think, oh, she couldn't do anything. But, that's what I wanted. She, she had from a wealthy family, so she could afford. to buy this house and it was a terrace house and if you know south melbourne it's a very old area gorgeous all terrace houses and things so she this is a long elevator so she on a whim she buys this house this terrace house because her and her husband We're going to set up a restaurant and he had always wanted to buy this building and this building came on the market when she was looking so she buys it.
[00:21:12] Julie Holland: And because she can afford it, she buys the cottage next door and often there's a little cottage next to the terrace. I imagine a terrace house like this and there's a little cottage next door. So she buys it and she's very, very excited. She moved, she has to renovate it. It's run down. And during those renovation phases, she gets a feeling that there's something else in the building.
[00:21:35] Julie Holland: And it comes to pass that there is a ghost in the building that has not passed over because he has a message for her. And I wanted to write about, I had to have a ghost somewhere in one of my books. I'm very, How do you describe it? I don't, I'm just drawn to that whole, I'm just drawn to that possibility and well, in my mind, certainty of all of that.
[00:22:04] Julie Holland: And I had to write about it. So I wanted him, Not to be the focus of the story, because he, he does go, but he had to have a reason. He had to have a reason to be there, and he had stories about her husband that she did not know. He was a very good friend of her husband's. So it's just that her finding out about him, being confronted by him during the renovations, meanwhile meeting The love interest next door and the lady next door is fully sympathetic to her.
[00:22:37] Julie Holland: She's very open. She starts to see these signs being the feathers and the coins and all of those sort of triggers. And that's where the story takes us. So it's, it's really investigating, I think, Whether you have something from that kind of exposure, which I've had and I, I wanted to get it down and I wanted to put it into a, a, a beginning, middle and end scenario and up with hereafter and the, the title meaning here now.
[00:23:11] Julie Holland: The hereafter, as well as here and now of what you've been through. So you've been through loss, you've been through grief, you've been through farming out about your ex husband, but you're here now. So moving forward, it's the hereafter. And once again, that's sort of the message of There's a lot of life to live, no matter what.
[00:23:36] Katische Haberfield: It's not a one dimensional story. There's so many different elements about her journey both with her husband, her husband, the death, the friend, and, you know, a potential new love and being an empowered woman. So there's a little bit of everything in there for, for everyone, but are you willing to tell us a little bit about your experience and how it is that you knew to write about the signs and the experiences that you would feel?
[00:24:02] Julie Holland: I, I've always been open to the afterlife and I don't, I love that whole possibility. I don't think I am really, well, I'm not, not like a self trained in, in percepting that, but I did have an experience which cemented my belief and it was, A long time ago, and I was in bed, it was after my divorce, so I was in that, you know, ghastly time, not knowing what I was going to do, being told by everyone I'd made a mistake, you know, the whole thing, and I was in bed, and it was, and I believe this is the time often when it can happen, between that waking time, deep sleep and waking time.
[00:24:49] Julie Holland: And I saw and felt, Oh, I'd like, it was like I'd had a dream and I was running. Imagine Disney's now hall of the mountain King, you know, with that music going and I was running around and around, around the mountain. And I came out the bottom and I was, I don't know what I was running from, whether it was a feeling or a person, I don't know, but I was very scared.
[00:25:13] Julie Holland: My heart was beating. And as I came out the bottom of the mountain, just these arms caught me. And there was nothing visual. It was just this feeling. And in an instant, I knew it was my grandfather. I didn't have a face. I didn't have a smell. I didn't have, but I just knew it was him. And in this half awake state, I said to him, I've missed you.
[00:25:41] Julie Holland: He 10. But I was very close to him when he was alive, Jordan, and he said, I've missed you too, but you're okay. You're okay. And he said that, and he opened his arms and released me. And I woke up fully, but that feeling that I got, and I can't explain except to say it was the warmest, most comforting, full of love feeling you could ever get.
[00:26:13] Julie Holland: Ever, ever imagine it was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. Not, not crushing because it was very soft. Oh my goodness. It was felt so safe and so wonderful. And I tried to, and I could retain it. I'll just lay there and thought I've got to keep this. I knew I could remember what I felt and saying, and I thought I've got to keep this feeling forever.
[00:26:40] Julie Holland: But obviously over time it does weaken and it does go away, but I'll never ever forget that experience or how I felt at the
[00:26:49] Katische Haberfield: time.
[00:26:50] Julie Holland: And I don't know how I knew it was him, but I just knew it was him. And really from that moment, I've just maybe been more open. I've been more open to seeing the feather on the floor if I've been thinking about my mum, who's passed.
[00:27:06] Julie Holland: We've been, we went to a funeral of a friend. Maybe 10 years ago, and he died in a, in a plane crash in Melbourne and the funeral was in a big hangar down on the Mornington Peninsula. And there are a lot of people there. He was very popular. And when someone dies like that, flying a plane, you know, the planes take off and then one goes away to commemorate that one pilot.
[00:27:34] Julie Holland: And as that plane separated in the sky, this huge butterfly. Came and just circled around Greg and I, there were hundreds of people there, but it came and just sat on and circled around. And I think if I hadn't been open, I wouldn't have thought about that. I just knew, I just knew. And there are other instances that I see your story about Harry, you know, clouds.
[00:28:01] Julie Holland: Wow. That was, I had tears in my eyes watching that. It was so emotional and so important. You know, and I, I came to see the importance that's, I think that's probably a good word of sharing that and just, just feeding it in a story. So that's another reason why I did the painting that her friend or she does, you know, just inserting those little treasures.
[00:28:29] Julie Holland: I just like to just hint that is so someone can read the book and think, Oh, actually. Maybe there is something to that, whatever that I saw or felt, then you can just say maybe there is,
[00:28:41] Katische Haberfield: I think it's a very gentle way to introduce the topic because I think that I was watching because my kids are away at the moment Tyler Henry, I don't know if you know him, he's a medium in America, he's called the Hollywood medium, anyway, he's really, he was really, really young, he was 10 when he started Realizing he could communicate with, with spirits from the afterlife.
[00:29:04] Katische Haberfield: And whenever I listened to those messages that he brings through the whole point of it, it doesn't matter who it is or who died or who the person is receiving the message is to know that you're not alone. Yes. That we all experience regrets from relationships. Nobody has a perfect relationship, be it their mother, their father, their brother, or an aunt or a school teacher or whatever it is, everybody says something and does something that they regret.
[00:29:31] Katische Haberfield: Or is nasty. Like we're not perfect. We're, we're good and bad. We have negative emotions and positive emotions. We treat people nicely. We'll treat them not nicely. And all of the messages that I've ever seen through a medium is the chance for the spirit to communicate anything that they didn't get to say.
[00:29:48] Katische Haberfield: Regrets information that they think is important. And then it gives the person who's receiving the message, a huge ability to release the burden. Release their own emotions, give themselves permission to, to grieve, to finish that grieving and to know that everything is going to be okay. It's, I guess when we're in our midlife and we're starting to have people die around us that aren't just our grandparents, you know, people your own age die.
[00:30:18] Katische Haberfield: Who are young in your own mind, forties, fifties, and sixties, you know, it's that confrontation of, Oh my God, I'm going to die at some stage. And then you have to come to face with your own mortality and then you have to come to face with, have I lived my life the way I wanted to live? And if with my experience with being able to communicate to spirits and ghosts, it's about what holds us back.
[00:30:44] Katische Haberfield: That is what we most regret at the end and being able to process and be conscious of what is holding us back. What we regret, what we feel guilty about, what we're angry about. You know, all of our emotions, we can release that burden so we can finish our life or continue our life fully so that we don't be that person that comes to being on their last moment full of regret.
[00:31:14] Katische Haberfield: And I think it's very powerful that people can use fiction as a way to just slowly confront that, because that's what this story is about as well, is about regret and things unsaid and information. And every time I've seen a Communicator with a Spirit that wanted to communicate. It's about understanding what it is to be human and that you're never alone.
[00:31:40] Katische Haberfield: And I think that's in midlife because everything changes so much. You do feel alone a lot. And we've come through a very isolating time with COVID and lockdown and If you don't communicate with other people, what you're going through, or don't have anyone to communicate, then you can feel isolated and alone, and that can reduce your capacity to live fully.
[00:32:03] Julie Holland: Yes. Yeah. And I think the writing is that creative outlet where I find that rather than probably ring somebody and talk about it, I'm probably more likely just to write it.
[00:32:18] Katische Haberfield: Yeah, to process it through writing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's beautiful. And do you have more books in the works?
[00:32:25] Julie Holland: I do. I have two more.
[00:32:27] Julie Holland: Two? Okay. Two more. Yeah, one's finished and one's, these, these books were self published. Yep. I did get to the end. I did have an agent and go down that path and did get near the end with HarperCollins with one, but then they, they knocked it back in the end. So I just thought, well, I'll do it myself. So I did.
[00:32:45] Julie Holland: Once again, how hard can it be? Very, very hard. Huge learning curve. But the three books are out and I'm very happy with them. So the one I've just finished is called Full Circle. And it is about going back and visiting once again, a woman wins the lottery and it started out. That's the way it started.
[00:33:11] Julie Holland: But as I got into the story and went along I realize that's not the point of the story. So that part of her is diluted somewhat. And I just decided to put it a little bit about Greg and my story, that full circle thing. And she goes back to her childhood. town where her dad is not well. So pretty well mirroring what you were just saying about them.
[00:33:38] Julie Holland: They have a very feisty relationship, regrets that her dad, she and her dad didn't get on better. Finds out secrets of his life while she's there. So it's, it's that whole finding yourself again. Questioning your past life again. So that book called full circle is doing the rounds of, of agents at the moment.
[00:34:01] Julie Holland: If I don't get a positive response, I'll do it myself again. So, and it's getting to the pointy end of that, actually, I'll probably just do it because I'm impatient and I want it. The next one, book number four, I've started and you'll find it and I'll have to chat with you so much more over time about this.
[00:34:23] Julie Holland: Because it's. They're based in cemeteries, the, the scenes, and it's around and I hope I'm not spilling the beans on this. I don't know. But there's a lady in America who has found recipes on gravestones.
[00:34:40] Katische Haberfield: Oh yes. Yeah. I've, I've seen one post on that. Yes.
[00:34:44] Julie Holland: Yeah. And I, the first post I thought, that is, wow, what a lovely idea.
[00:34:49] Julie Holland: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For whatever reason, and there's a multitude of reasons as to why which is really lovely. So once again, woman on a, on a mission to find out about people and it's very community, small town oriented, you know, the people in the small town as to how they honor people in their town with these recipes.
[00:35:10] Julie Holland: So, yeah. So that's that's sort of just started.
[00:35:16] Katische Haberfield: Oh, good, good. Well, MyGrove, I'm afraid.
[00:35:20] Julie Holland: No?
[00:35:20] Katische Haberfield: I don't like cooking. Ah! I hate cooking.
[00:35:24] Julie Holland: Well, apparently there's one where, where she was a bit notorious, this old lady. And there is one on there and she people were always asking her, and I can't, I think it was for an orange cake or something.
[00:35:35] Julie Holland: And she People are always asking her for the recipe and she'd never give it, but she said, I'll leave it on my gravestone and she does, but she leaves out half the ingredients, even, even, even in death, she refused to leave the recipe. Oh, well, she did it on purpose. That's hilarious. So that's where, that's where I'm heading, but still with those trickles of there's something else.
[00:35:58] Julie Holland: Yeah. Yeah. I just love it. I just love it.
[00:36:01] Katische Haberfield: And you, because you have your store, where do you, where do you fit in writing? Are you a person who gets up early in the morning to write? Do you do it late at night? How do you, what's your creative?
[00:36:11] Julie Holland: I do a lot of thinking. I do a lot in my head before I actually get it down.
[00:36:16] Julie Holland: They say that you're either a pantser or a prancer. I'm just a pantser. I just, you know, go by the book. Skin on my teeth really with the, with the plot lines and then I go back and redo it all. I just write everything down. I think a lot. I know that there's an underlining premise for it all. My inspirational verse, I tend to think a little bit and then just get it down, put it away.
[00:36:42] Julie Holland: And then go back and reread it and then fix it. I haven't been doing as much of that lately and I'd like to do some more of that. I haven't had the headspace to sort of think for that. But I do it, I have three days off. So Greg on his three days off plays golf and I write. Okay, fair enough. Or think about it or get it down or re read or, you know, I try not to.
[00:37:08] Julie Holland: I used to go down that whole rabbit hole of other authors and what they're doing and all of that, but it became a bit overwhelming and I, it became a bit, I became a bit depressed by it all, to be honest, you know, because a lot of it wasn't how I operated and I started to doubt myself and started to doubt if that was what I was supposed to be doing and I just thought it's not helping myself here.
[00:37:30] Julie Holland: I really need to just do my own thing and see where it goes.
[00:37:34] Katische Haberfield: And do you find that the process of writing these books has helped you process your own life?
[00:37:41] Julie Holland: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Nice question. Yes, I think so. Because if I didn't, I always think, and I used to say this to my kids, if you don't know, look at the flip side.
[00:37:50] Julie Holland: If you don't do this, what's the flip side? And that's what we thought when we thought, okay, if we don't Make a sea change. What's the flip side? We stay where we are. We keep doing what we do and it's the same with my writing. If I don't do this, what will I do? And I know I've got the shop, but that's and that's really nice because it's a very creative space and people walk in and say, Oh, this, this shop feels nice.
[00:38:17] Julie Holland: Like it has a nice feel to it, which is the greatest compliment. But if I don't write, I, I do feel a bit of a gap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to do it.
[00:38:28] Is there any advice that you'd have a tip for other midlife people who've never picked up a pen to write
[00:38:37] Julie Holland: that want to.
[00:38:38] Julie Holland: Oh, just that want to just start and it doesn't matter what it is, you know, I believe in, I, I actually don't.
[00:38:46] Julie Holland: Journal so far as I don't write in a journal every day, like you're supposed to, and like, you know, Elizabeth Gilbert up behind me probably is dying on the bookshelf that I don't, but I don't, you know, as a, again, I hate, you know, yeah. Keep a lot in their heads, but write something, a sentence, a description of, if you're sitting in a coffee shop, a description of the lady over there, a a feeling, a smell, because you'll use it, you'll use it later on and it gets it on paper.
[00:39:18] Julie Holland: If it's a worry or an angst, get it down. It sort of transfers that feeling a lot. If you can just write it down and it doesn't have to be good. so much. Dot points, and then you'll start to expand those dot points, and then you'll start to do paragraphs, and then you'll start to learn about more about the crafting.
[00:39:37] Julie Holland: You have to start somewhere, but as they said, I don't know who said, I think it was Stephen King, said you can't edit a blank page. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So just, just start. It doesn't matter. And it also depends what you want to do it for. Do you want to do it for publication? Do you want to do it for your own little book that you're going to self publish to give to family?
[00:39:58] Julie Holland: Are you wanting to rule the world? You know? Look at why you want to write and what you want to write. I think I think that's really important.
[00:40:06] Katische Haberfield: Yeah, exactly Exactly. Well, very we wish you very good luck with the publishers and agree totally just do it yourself If it's not the thing, you know A publisher can come along in the future and republish your books under their brand if if they want to but yeah You got to get it out in the world, especially Plenty of people who've done their own thing and then a publish to take it on and republish it.
[00:40:27] Katische Haberfield: Also you have a Facebook page, which is just facebook.
[00:40:30] Katische Haberfield: com slash Julie Holland author. So, you share a lot of photography of the Sunshine Coast, which is lovely. So people can get to see what the locations look like and some of your inspirational prose as well. So give Julie some love on Facebook.
[00:40:48] Julie Holland: Thanks Katische. for bringing me on. I appreciate it so much.
[00:40:52] Katische Haberfield: Oh, my, my absolute pleasure. I think you're a very fascinating lady. Thank you.
[00:40:59] Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm.