An accidental dog swap unleashes an unexpected love match in You Lucky Dog, a new romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Julia London.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Julia about her new novel, writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Julia! Tell us a bit about yourself!
I’m the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than sixty romance and women’s fiction novels. I live in Austin, Texas. I am a dog lover, a book lover, a wine lover, a kilt lover, and not necessarily in that order. It depends entirely on the day.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I have always loved reading and making up stories on my own. Always. I wrote a story in the first grade that featured me as the lone girl on a wagon train heading west, and I had to fight off attacks from marauders. It actually had a bit of a plot! As a young teen, I re-wrote every episode of the old television show, Alias Smith and Jones, featuring me as the damsel in distress, who in the end would help Smith and Jones kick butt, ala Charlie’s Angels style, all the while pining over which of them I’d end up with. When I wasn’t writing my complicated love triangles, I read Go Ask Alice and The Flame and the Flower among many other books. Whatever I read then had to be salacious. In college, I wrote letters home featuring me as the girl on fire—I thought I had the world by the tail. And I read Important Literature, deemed so by the New York Times Book Review or Oprah. But as I matured, my reading tastes changed. I still like some Important Literature, but what I really gravitate toward is stories about relationships. Between men and women, women and their families, men and the world—just every sort of relationship where human hearts are involved. I never imagined being a fiction writer until several years after college when the job I had seemed so Deadendsville that I had to do something. I wondered if maybe I could write what I liked to read. So, I tried it. The short answer is, I always loved to write but didn’t know that I could make it my passion until I was in my thirties.
With the current state of the world, what are you doing to cope with the changes we’ve had to make with our day-to-day?
This is so hard. On the one hand I find myself in a home-schooling situation and I suck at it, and on the other hand I have elderly parents who I need to see and can’t as often as I’d like, and I worry about all of them. The current state of the world is so distracting on so many levels that it’s hard to remain focused on anything. For stress relief, I exercise a lot by running or riding my Peloton—it has to be a hard exertion to blow out the cobwebs and bits of rage floating around my head. And then, I step into a world I’ve created where none of my day to day problems exist. Writing is magical like that. Don’t want to deal with Covid today? Then please, come with me to a place where the streets are all tree-lined, there is a coffee shop with a cupcake bakery on one corner, a wine shop on the other corner, and a seriously hot guy that lives in the apartment across the alley from you, and you can see into his bedroom. That’s much more appealing than the real world.
You Lucky Dog is out today! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Wrong dog but right guy.
What inspired you to write You Lucky Dog?
I am inspired to write because I love what I do. I was inspired to write this particular book because I personally love rom coms. And I love a great meet-cute. The kernel of inspiration came on a run one day when I passed a guy walking two identical dachsunds. They were both brown, both about the same size and trotting in unison. I wondered how he knew which dog was which. And then I thought how funny it would be if he got them mixed up, and oh, how funny would it be if he was a dog walker and couldn’t tell them apart. And then I called my writer friends and said, don’t you think this is hilarious, and what if the dog walker got them mixed up and delivered them to the wrong house, and we all howled. Voila, You Lucky Dog was born. Postscript: the dachshund guy now has a third long-haired dachshund and a corgi. He’s got himself an actual herd of dogs.
Now for a very important question. If one writes about dogs, one surely must know and love dogs… Is this true? If so, tell us about the doggo/s in your life!
I dedicated the book to all the dogs that have been a part of my life so far (although I very much regret that I forgot to add Sun, a beautiful Irish Setter who loved to run). Right now, I’ve got lumpy old Moose, a bronze Labrador. He’s nearly eleven, and he’s starting to get all the old dog lumps and bumps and bad knees. He has allergies, so he’s always chewing on some part of his body. He barks at everyone who walks past our house and refuses to sleep on the ultraluxe dog bed I got for him. Did I mention he has a sensitive stomach? But I love Moose, and on those days he gets to see his friends at doggie day care, I truly miss him sleeping on my feet or laying his head across my keyboard when he thinks it’s time to eat. Which is always.
Were there any challenges you faced while writing?
Oh sure. Changes in the marketplace, changes in editors, changes in publishers have all presented challenges at one time or another. A former husband certainly was a challenge, LOL. Covid 19! Every day is challenging if you’re a writer—finding the time to do it, finding the space to do it (for me the space needs to be free of people and quiet), finding the fight to do it. Some days the words flow, and some days I can hardly down a sentence. Some days I think no one cares what I write and wonder why I do it, and some days I get such a heartfelt note from a reader that I can’t imagine ever doing anything but write. In spite of popular perception, writing is not a cushy job. Rarely is anyone I know in a charming mountain cabin in the woods or in a lovely beach cottage with nothing but time to write and the scenery to inspire it. When you live where you work and work where you live, the lines become blurred and maintaining a healthy balance is challenging.
Without spoiling too much, is there a favourite moment that you really enjoyed writing in You Lucky Dog?
I loved writing the scene where Carly and Max meet for the first time in the quest to correct the dog mix-up. I think people are rarely what they seem at first blush, and I love writing that first blush.
What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Ageless advice: Write something every day. Writing is a muscle, and like any muscle, if you don’t use it, you lose it. If you let a story go for a couple of weeks or more, you will be amazed at how hard it is to get back into the flow. Plus, you lose some of your story instinct unique to that book. If you want to get better, you have to keep at it and remain present and hone the instincts.
Lastly, what are you currently reading and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I am reading kc dyer’s Eighty Days to Elsewhere and Byron Lane’s A Star is Bored. Both are funny reads, and that’s what I need right now.
