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GUEST PROFILE An Interview with Julie Compton 
Julie Compton was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, the setting for Tell No Lies. She’s been married to her husband Rick for over 20 years now, and they have two daughters, 15 (almost 16!) and 13. Though she spent the first 32 years of her life in St. Louis (and still gets quite nostalgic for it), she’s since lived in the suburbs of Boston, Philadelphia, and now Orlando, Florida. She earned both her undergraduate degree in English Literature and her law degree from Washington University. She no longer practices law and spends most of her time these days writing. Living in Florida now, though, she also likes to spend a lot of time outdoors – at the beach, running or bicycling on the trail near their home, playing tennis with her older daughter, and attending her younger daughter's soccer games. She enjoys a much healthier lifestyle in Florida than she did up North. MWLM: You have an impressive professional background. Do you connect with former colleagues or friends (writers or not) who’ve supported and encouraged you since the early stages of your novel? JC: “Most definitely. As you'll see in my Acknowledgements, there are certain people who were there from the earliest stages and without whom I don't think I'd be here answering your questions. Alison Hicks of the Philadelphia Wordshop Studio acted as an important mentor for me from start to finish, and we have continued to keep in touch after my move to Florida. Her Monday night workshops were instrumental in my writing the novel. Both Alison and my current workshop leader, Jamie Morris of Woodstream Writers, are also providing guidance and inspiration on the current novel I'm working on. “Although most writing is, by necessity, a solitary activity, in my opinion no writer (if she's smart) should try to go it alone. I've been lucky to have many people support me along the way, both with encouragement when I didn't believe in myself, but more importantly, with honesty when I was blind to my writing's shortcomings. “I've only recently become more involved in online writing communities, but they've been a blessing not only for commiserating with other writers at any time of the day or night, but for help in getting the word out about the book. I tend to be reticent about promoting myself – I know it's what I should do, but it makes me feel terribly self-conscious and uncomfortable, so the online writing communities help me get over this. Not only do the other writers understand the need to promote, but they often assist in my efforts by spreading the word on my behalf! I try to return the favor whenever possible.” MWLM: Take us back in time to the initial stages of your novel. How did you squeeze in writing time with your daughters and other obligations, such as the soccer mom end of things? JC: “It's funny you mention ‘soccer mom end of things’ – because I'm sitting at the edge of the soccer field, watching my daughter practice, as I type my answers! “The first time I left the practice of law to stay home with my kids, I wasn't even thinking about writing. I had tried the part-time route with my first daughter, and I simply felt I wasn't doing either job well – practicing law or raising my girls. I know many women manage it just fine, but it was hard for me. So I decided to stay home full-time after giving birth to my second daughter. “Once I'd been home a few months, I realized it would be a good time to begin writing creatively again. (I've written for as long as I can remember, but I'd given it up once I'd entered law school; I just didn't have the energy after a long day of classes and studying cases.) I still remember writing the first 20 pages of what is now Tell No Lies. I reached page 20, ran out of steam, and stuck it in a drawer. When I moved to Philadelphia, I joined Alison's writing workshop mentioned above, and when it came time to submit a manuscript for critique, I brought in my 20 pages. I'd hoped listening to others' comments might help me figure out how to move forward with the story. Needless to say, it did! “I was home for six years before returning to practice, and it was during the last 2-1/2 to 3 years of that period that I completed the first draft of the novel. My older daughter was in elementary school, and the younger one was in preschool, so I squeezed in my writing during school hours. The novel was done, but not yet edited, when I accepted a job with the U.S. Department of Justice and returned to practice. I decided to stay home again when we moved to Florida for my husband's job, and this time it was a writing-related decision. The job with the DOJ had been a dream job for me – one I knew I couldn't duplicate in Orlando – and I realized I missed the long days of writing.” MWLM: Did your experiences as a trial attorney play a large part in the inspiration behind Tell No Lies, or is your novel more heavily weighted in the everyday dramas between people and their relationships? JC: “I think my experience as an attorney certainly influenced my decision to portray my characters as lawyers. At the time I started writing the novel, I had been home with my children full-time for about a year, and I think I really missed the practice of law. Writing about lawyers and their world was my way of being back in that world without actually having to go back to work. The first scene I ever wrote had Jack and Jenny eating lunch and arguing about the death penalty. (It was cut from the manuscript a long, long time ago!) But I didn't set out to write a legal thriller; the plot just grew organically as I wrote. For me, the novel – and everything I write, really – is more about the relationships between the characters. I'm more concerned with the motivation and the morality behind their actions. Ultimately, Tell No Lies is more of a ‘whydunit’ than a ‘whodunit.’” MWLM: Many women change or side step along their career paths after motherhood. Do you see yourself returning to law later in life, or do you now consider writing to be your true passion? JC: “I think writing was always my true passion; I just didn't have the nerve when I was younger to follow it. I recently renovated my home office, and I came across some old high school newspapers. For the last issue of our senior year, we were asked to describe what we thought we'd be doing in 10 years. I answered that I wanted to be a writer living on the East Coast somewhere (I think I said I preferred North Carolina), married to Randy (he was my high school sweetheart), with a yard full of kitties. It was eerie to read that and realize how much I really did know myself: (1) I've been living somewhere on the East Coast since 1996; (2) instead of Randy, I married Rick, my college sweetheart (who ironically also attended my high school); (3) not only do we have kitties everywhere – three to be exact – we also have a dog, a bird, two turtles and two rats (pet rats, that is); and (4) it took a bit more than 10 years, but I finally feel comfortable calling myself a writer! “I don't really see myself returning to law. I miss it sometimes, but not enough to want to return to a full-time practice. I volunteer as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children, and though I don't act as an attorney in these cases, it does keep me in the courtroom. My daughters are quickly approaching college-age, though, and we all know how expensive that can be. So I'll never say never!” MWLM: Your novel debuted in the U.K. in February 2008. Of course, we want to know about your promotional “mini-book tour,” as you called it on your blog. JC: “Tell No Lies came out in the U.K. on February 1, and will be released here in the U.S. on May 13. Having the U.K. release first has been nice, because it's given me a taste of what to expect before the book comes out here. There's a real learning curve associated with the publishing and promotional end of the business, and it's very different from the writing end. “I did travel to England shortly after the novel's release. Several months beforehand, my husband asked me if I wanted to go over for the book's debut. Neither of us had ever been there, so of course I said yes. When I planned the trip, I certainly hoped I would have the opportunity to do some promotional activities – and made it clear to my publicist that I was at her disposal – but really, we planned to go regardless. It was a good excuse to visit England and I just wanted to see my book in the stores! “Until just a week or two before I left Orlando, I thought that would be the extent of it. Shortly before our departure, though, I heard from the publicist about scheduling various events. So yes, it turned into a mini-book tour, I suppose, though our sightseeing heavily outweighed promotional events! “The radio interviews were the most daunting. Ironically, the day or two before the interviews, there had been a story in the news about the sentencing of some youths who had beat a man to death. Apparently, the sentence was somewhat light given the crime, and the man's wife was calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in England. As I mentioned above, one of the ‘issues’ in my novel is the death penalty (my main character opposes it, but fudges his position to get elected as DA), and thank God my publicist gave me a heads up about this current event. Each interviewer asked me about it. MWLM: You’re a regular contributor to Lake Mary Life Magazine and you’ve contributed to Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine. Do you think these credits with magazines have been helpful stepping stones? Furthermore, did they help with the author’s platform? JC: “I think my other writing activities were helpful because they showed I was serious about writing. One of the things my publisher asked me prior to making the offer was, ‘What else are you working on?’ I think the best publishers want to make an investment in an author, not just a book. Fortunately, I was able to say I had started on my second novel, and so my contract was for two books. “The other activities are helpful from a promotional standpoint, too. My editor at Lake Mary Life Magazine has been one of my biggest supporters, touting my book at every opportunity. Also, writing for the magazine keeps my name out in the community, and my book club column enables me to connect with numerous readers. And of course, you never know where things might lead: this interview is a perfect example. We "ran into" each other on Inked-In (an online writing community), but the fact that Mom Writer's Literary Magazine had published one of my poems a few years back was an additional connection between us that we didn't even realize until we started talking. It's sort of like that "Seven Degrees from Kevin Bacon" game!” MWLM: That’s true! Since you’re working on your second novel for Macmillan, what would you like to tell us about it? JC: “My second novel has another male protagonist, and there's plenty of suspense (I hope!), but he's not a lawyer and the novel is not a legal thriller. There were a few false starts on other ideas between finishing Tell No Lies and starting the current work-in-progress (still untitled). It's set primarily in Florida, although part of the story takes place in New England and Africa, also. It's basically a story about a guy who, as he's trying to literally save the life of the woman he loves, ends up figuratively saving his own, too.”
JC: “I constantly tell my girls: ‘Do what you love, the money will follow.’ I think it's really important to follow your dreams, not only for yourself, but as an example to your children. I want my daughters to understand that if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen if you're willing to do the work. I hope that with my writing, I've shown them a passion can be more than a hobby. I know they see how much happier I am now that I'm writing full-time. It's just a joy for me.” MWLM: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers? JC: “If you really want it, don't give up. Don't blame others when you get rejected, but take a look at your work and figure out how you can make it better. My workshop leader Alison always said, ‘It's not necessarily the best writers who get published, it's the most persistent writers.’ I think to a large extent this is true, because we all know people who write beautifully, but they never finish anything, or they finish but never submit, or they submit but give up after the first few rejections. Keep writing, keep revising, keep learning, and don't give up.” MWLM: Thank you, Julie, for sharing your success!
Sue Donckels writes from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she lives with her husband, son, and daughter. She’s the managing editor for MWLM, she’s written themed articles for WOW! Women On Writing, and she runs InkBridge, an online internship service that matches emerging writers with publishers who need affordable and talented assistance.
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MWLM: What would you identify as the biggest inspiration for you as a writer mom, overall? 
