It seems about the same time Julie was finishing her Alex St. James series (Deadly Blessings, Deadly Interest, and Dead Ringer) the White House announced the appointment of its first ever female executive chef, Chef Comerford. And from that, Chef Olivia (Ollie) Paras was conceived. And as Julie says, "The White House chef is uniquely positioned to overhear secrets. And with a little luck, intelligence, and verve, she's able to help prevent attacks on our country."

Julie admits she doesn't have any insider knowledge of the White House or its kitchens. "I'm having a wonderful time researching the White House and I try to include some of the fascinating things I learn in each of the stories. Based on what readers have told me, one of the things they love the best about the books is seeing the 'inner workings' of the White House."

Even with relentless research, Julie is hampered somewhat by the many security precautions that protect our president and his home. She has toured the White House several times as a tourist and has yet to get a promised tour of the kitchen. She hasn't given up hope on that tour though!

For the foodies out there, the White House chef books feature a recipe section with comments from Chef Ollie. In State of the Onion, the recipes represent a typical day for the presidential family. In Hail to the Chef, the recipes were for an exciting array of appetizers. Julie depends on the services of Chef Denise for the recipes she uses in her books, and has personally tried almost all of them. "One of my excitements in writing a new book is to work with her to come up with the selections we include with every novel," Julie said.

Today Julie is writing for two series. In addition to the White House Chef novels she will have the first of her Manor of Murder series, Grace Under Pressure, published in June. The fourth adventure of Chef Ollie is about a year away from publication and is tentatively titled, Buffalo West Wing.

This isn't the first time Julie has been writing two series at the same time. She was writing the third Alex St. James novel, Dead Ringer, at the same time she was penning State of the Onion. "At first I thought writing for two different characters at one might be difficult, but I found the experience invigorating. Whenever I felt stalled, or just tired of working on one story, I switched to the other and suddenly...newfound energy.... I got more writing done in those months than ever before."

This prolific writer once dedicated herself to writing two pages every single day ("no misses!) for five years. In 2007, she realized she no longer feared stopping ("Starting back up is often the hardest thing.") and moved to a more general schedule working weekdays from about 11AM to 2PM. She uses the early morning and late afternoon to take care of business associated with her success.

Julie's writing career began in the eighth grade when she started writing science fiction after falling in love with Ray Bradbury's "poetic prose and heart-tugging short stories." Her first professional sale, some years later, was a short story for a Star Trek anthology. Much as she enjoyed writing science fiction, Julie realized her style was best suited to short stories and she wanted to write novels and the novels she preferred to read were mysteries and thrillers.

"What I loved about science fiction was that I could invent anything I needed to make the story work. Oddly enough, what I love about mystery and thriller [writing] is that I can't manipulate the universe that way. There's a limited world out there in which to craft a story. Somehow, that just makes writing that much more fun."

Besides writing Julie likes to read. She has just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road and just started Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Usually she is reading four or five books at any one time but recent deadlines have restricted her reading time.

So who does she like to read? Besides Ray Bradbury, she has many favorites. She says, "most of whom are ITW members. Too many to mention."
 

Terry DiDomenico has spent most of her professional career editing and writing for university publications with a little freelancing on the side. She lives with her husband and two cats on four acres in south central Pennsylvania. She is working on her first novel - a thriller of course.