Meet Julie Cosgrove

Julie is a digital missionary. She writes and edits articles and devotionals for Cru Canada’s Power to Change internet ministries as well as being an award-winning, traditionally published author and inspirational writer for four publications. Her fictional genres include romance, suspense, and cozy mysteries as well as contemporary women’s issues. She is also a freelance content editor and proofreads for her publishing houses. Julie is a professional speaker who leads faith-based and writers’ workshops.

Tell us about your newest book.

The newest to release is the third novel in a cozy mystery series called The Bunco Biddies Mysteries. The first book, Dumpster Dicing, won best Cozy in Texas 2017. The second is entitled Baby Bunco, and the third is Threes, Sixes & Thieves. These are set in a fictitious senior community called Sunset Acres. Active senior ladies power walk each morning and play Bunco on Thursdays. When crime begins to seep into their community, they decide to take action and use their years of wisdom to help the police catch the criminals. Each book has a Bunco theme and is humorous.

What genre do you focus on and why?

I began writing suspense because reading it always gets my blood pumping. However, my publisher at the time was Inspired Romance (Prism Book Group) so I wrote a few romance novellas for them as well. My sister queried as to why I didn’t write mysteries since I read them and watch them so much on TV. So I researched that genre and presented it to my publisher, who thankfully went out on a limb and offered me a three-book contract. I am now under contract with two publishing houses for two cozy series.

Why do you write? What drives you?

I wrote my first story at the age of eight. I took creative writing in high school and college but then life as a working mom got in the way. However, stories kept filtering through my brain and I would spend months and months at a time developing them in daydreams while stuck in commuting traffic, when I couldn’t sleep, or while doing housework. God placed it on my heart to start freelance writing as a source of income, so I did that for six years. But my desire was to write solely for the Christian audience. As I got more “gigs” to write devotionals and inspirational books, the niggling to delve into fiction emerged again in 2008. So I began to hone that craft through workshops, critique groups and online courses. In 2010 I got my first contract.

Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?

In the Bunco Biddies series, Janie Manson is the main character. She is the widow of a police detective who often bounced his puzzling cases off her brain for a new perspective. She is independent, sharp-witted, a bit stubborn, and a born leader who values friendship and family. I picked out her first name as I studied girl’s names popular in the 1950’s (when she was born) because it fit the visual image of her I had in my head. Frankly, I have no idea why I picked that last name. It simply sounded right.

What does a day in your writing world look like?

I write in spurts. Actually I carve out writing time. It is as if I get an itch that needs scratching. When that happens and I sit down at my computer with a cup of hot tea, my fingers start clicking over the keyboard and the hours pass by. Summertime and winter are usually my best writing times because my other obligations are lessened. I usually begin a new novel during November for NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writers’ Month).

What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?

Marketing! Most of us writers are introverted creatures that are happiest when we live in front of our computer screens. Tooting our own horn is not natural. Besides, there are so many great works being written now in the faith-based market, I can’t read them all even in the genres I like the best. So much competition! I often feel as if I am shouting into a tempest.

What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?

The best part is twofold for me because I write fiction and nonfiction. For my nonfiction, it is when my words touch a heart and I know God has used my writing for His purpose. There is nothing comparable to the joy. The same is true to some extent in my fiction writing, but it is also fun to see where my characters lead me and how the Holy Spirit guides me in the process of developing the plot. And, I have to admit, to write “the end” is a great sense of accomplishment. I often refer it to birthing a baby—exhausting, excruciating at times, but oh so worth the effort. Then, when it arrives in print and I smell the new ink on the page, well that elation never grows old.

What are you most proud of?

I also edit, and love to help other authors make their works shine, whether it is an article for Power to Change that leads someone to Christ or a novel of a budding author that gets published. I enjoy being a small part of that process.

What is your favorite pastime?

I love word games and puzzles as well a reading and watching mysteries. I also am a very amateur bird watcher.

Do you have other books? We’d love to know.

To date I have sixteen books published—ten fiction and six nonfiction. I have four more fiction mysteries under contract. You can peruse them on my website www.juliebcosgrove.com and view trailers, read first chapters, etc.

What are you working on now?

The 4^th Bunco Biddies, Until Dice Do Us Part, is in edits with a release date later in 2018. I am beginning a newly contracted series, The Begat Buddies. It is about a trio of thirty-something women who decide, after reading the “begats” in the Gospel of Matthew, to discover more about their own genealogies—and of course, discover some family secrets along the way that some people prefer not be uncovered. I am in initial edits with the first one entitled One Leaf Too Many. All of them will have “leaf” in the title because on a popular genealogy research website that is what you find when it comes to tidbits of information about your ancestors.

Website: www.juliebcosgrove.com

Blog: Where Did You Find God Today?

Link to book: http://amzn.to/2eN4K9W

Social media links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliebcosgrove.tx

Twitter: @JulieBCosgrove

Amazon Authors: https://www.amazon.com/Julie-B-Cosgrove/

Goodreads:   http://bit.ly/2E6ebfi

LinkedIN:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliebcosgrove/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cosgrove_julie_b/

Pinterest:    https://www.pinterest.com/juliebcosgrove/