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This is what I look like now. On the right I'm holding Perdita the cat, and I'm wearing glasses. On the left it's just me. Take your choice, but if you copy them, please give credit to the young and talented photographer Joanna Wilson, who took the photographs.

WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME? - JULIA JARMAN

When I was born I lay without a Christian name for three whole weeks. My parents were so convinced I was going to be a boy - called William - that they hadn't even thought of a girl's name for me. Eventually I was named Julia after a character in a book my mum was reading, but she can't remember which book! I'd love to know. When I started writing I wondered whether to use my maiden name, which was Julia Hudspeth, but decided to use my married name, Julia Jarman, because I like alliteration.

 

WHEN WERE YOU BORN?

I was born on the 28th March just after the war had just ended. My parents called me their peace-baby. I am peace-loving and I try to be peaceful, but I'm a fiery Arian, a ram who's always bumping into things.

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

I live in a village north of Bedford, which is about sixty miles north of London. I bought my house because it was next door to a farm with pigs on it - I love pigs. When the farm was sold to a builder, who destroyed the farm and built an enormous house on the land, I wrote a book called "THE GHOST OF TANTONY PIG" about a phantom pig who haunts the new house.

WHO DO YOU LIVE WITH?

Peter, my engineer husband, who is my complete opposite. I'm fascinated by people. He loves machines - the model traction engine and steam locomotive that he's building, his Morgan sports car, his computer and mine, fortunately. When it goes wrong I yell, and he can usually put it right.

We now have a beautiful black cat called Perdita. I put all my pets into my books so I can remember them after they've gone. Ka, the cat in THE TIME TRAVELLING CAT series, is a mixture of three of my cats, Mr Grey, Ms Mitten and Mrs Gingerbits.. Ka has the wandering nature of Mr Grey, the super-intelligence of Mrs Gingerbits and the affectionate nature of Ms Mitten. We used to have a lovely mongrel dog called Tramp. He's Cerberus in my book OLLIE AND THE BOGLE.

 

This is a picture of me with Oscar, also called Mr Grey. His real life exploits led me to write the Time Travelling Cat stories. I call the cat in my stories Ka. She's a female cat and you can read about her Egyptian adventures with her friend Topher in "The Time Travelling Cat and the Egyptian Goddess". Their second journey through time takes them to Elizabethan England, their third to Roman Britain.  Their fourth - out next year - will take them to the time of the Aztecs.

The photograph first appeared in the Bedfordshire Times and Citizen

The picture of Ka was drawn by David Atack.

My three children have all left home, but visit us a lot, especially for Sunday dinner. They say my books are good but my roast potatoes are excellent.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE?

Pigs and plays, cats and computers, food and books.
Gardening - this is a recent addiction - and earthworms, but mostly I like bookworms!

WHAT DID YOU LIKE BEST AS A CHILD?

Reading - anywhere. I liked to find a secret place where no one would disturb me, up a tree or in the churchyard.
Going to the library - sometimes twice a day, despite a ferocious librarian who used to turn me away.
Staying with my grandma and being spoiled.

WHAT DID YOU HATE MOST?

Washing up and tidying my bedroom.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE BOOK?

There were three at least. Ned the Lonely Donkey - a Ladybird book by Noel Barr,
Little Women (and all the sequels) by Louisa M Alcott.
*I became a writer because I wanted to be like Jo March in all these books.
Bows Against the Barons - a brilliant book by Geoffrey Trease. It's about a boy who joins Robin Hood's band of not-always merry men. Robin Hood is a hero of mine.

HOW DID YOUR WRITING CAREER BEGIN?

First of all by reading. See above*, but I became a teacher after studying English and Drama at Manchester University. Then I got married and had children. One day I told my daughter, Josie about something very naughty I'd done as a child and she said, "You should write that down. You've always said you wanted to be a writer really." So I did - in WHEN POPPY RAN AWAY.  

Through writing it I discovered my writing recipe.

 

HAVE YOU ANY ADVICE FOR WANT-TO-BE-A-WRITERS?

Read read read
Write write write
And don't expect it to turn out right first time. Most writers do many drafts. I do.

If you would like too know more, see my Authorgraph in Books for Keeps by clicking onto

http://www.booksforkeeps.co.uk/406/

 

I f you would like to cook up a story, why not try the Writing Recipe below?

1. Take some REAL LIFE.

 

2. Add some WHAT IF?   - to activate your IMAGINATION!!!
3. Ask yourself more questions - who? what? where? when? how? to gather more ingredients.

Characters,  plot (the action) and setting/s

A beginning

Start with one main character.

Give him/her/it a problem. (Another character perhaps)

A middle

Let your main character try to solve the problem

• once
• twice
•  three times at least

but the problem gets worse!

Keep your reading guessing

Keep the excitement rising - how is it going to end?

An end

Make it the most exciting bit of your story.

Surprise your reader if you can!(CLIMAX!)

Your character solves the problem! (unless you like unhappy endings)

When I draw my plan I start with the sloping rising line to remind myself:

1.The excitement must rise

2. The tension must mount - that's why my plan looks like a mountain.

3. The story must build UP to a CLIMAX, the most exciting bit of the story.
 

I want my readers to identify with my main character/s early on.
I therefore  try to involve the reader right from the start by
a) showing character’s feelings.eg.
‘“Bum!”
Poppy punched her pillow!
...
How could Mum be so mean?’ When Poppy Ran Away (Andersen Press)
 Or
b) intriguing them by something mysterious or funny eg.
‘No one saw the pig.
 No one saw it trotting down the church path, which seemed to flow beneath its hoofs. The clock of St Anthony’s had just struck midnight.’
     The Ghost of Tantony Pig (Andersen Press)
or both a) and b)
eg
‘Georgie Bell was off computers - right off.  Weird things had been happening recently. She’d been sucked in twice!  Yes really! Into her computer!  And she’d nearly been eaten by a dragon.  Her brilliant brain had saved her - just - but she was definitely going to get a new hobby.  Something safer ... like bungy jumping.’
     Georgie and the Computer Bugs (Collins)
To summarise:
1. I introduce a character early on.
2.I give the character a PROBLEM. (I want my readers to care whether my character copes with or solves the problem.)
3. I include the setting, so that readers can SEE ( and maybe hear, feel and smell the scene) and  to create a particular atmosphere which can be mysterious, jokey, realistic or fantastical.

NB.  As a writer I need to name my characters early on.  I can’t get going with the plot till I have correctly named my characters. This involves collecting names and their meanings, searching in Name your Baby books etc.