Five Things You Didn't Know About Julia Brewer Daily: A Guest Post by Julia Brewer Daily
I’m on maternity leave! During this time, a few of my favorite authors offered to step up and write guest posts so that this blog would remain active while I adjust to my new role as a mother. I may also be a bit slower to respond. Thanks for understanding and for being so supportive of me, my family, and my blog. Want to donate a few dollars to keep this blog running or perhaps contribute to my diaper fund? You can do so on Venmo or Paypal.
Five Things You Didn't Know About Julia Brewer Daily: A Guest Post by Julia Brewer Daily
1. I am an adoptee from a maternity home in New Orleans. I searched and found my birth mother and, through DNA results, my birth father’s family. My debut novel has a thread of memoir running through it because my three protagonists meet at a maternity home in New Orleans to relinquish their babies for adoption. Also, one of the characters, an adopted child, has a story almost verbatim to my own childhood. My adoption theme also carries into the next generation in my life. My eldest daughter adopted four older children.
2. I am a Texan with a southern accent. I lived 62 years in Mississippi to be buried in Texas. We were looking for a second home with cooler summers than the Deep South. But we visited the Hill Country of Texas, with its beautiful rolling hills and friendly people, and found a place we loved. Our town, Fredericksburg, is quaint with history from the 1800s when a group of Germans settled the area. It was a sleepy little village until fifty wineries began operation, and now tourists descend upon it from all over the world.
3. I don’t sleep. I am like a vampire wandering around the house late at night or early in the morning. I’ve always been a night owl, but it is far advanced now. When I sleep, all conditions must be perfect—68 degrees, sound machine, earplugs, mouth guard, particular pillow, mattress, sheets, and melatonin. If I am fortunate enough to fall into a deep, undisturbed sleep, I dream fantastic dreams, vivid and unforgettable. It feels like the situations truly happened after I awaken and can linger in my mind for days.
4. I am an animal lover. My husband and I did not have pets during our careers, thinking it was unfair of us to have them waiting alone at home all day, but as soon as we retired, we acquired two Labrador retrievers. They are our “at-home” children now, and we schedule play dates, swimming parties, and park visits for them every week, just as if they were actual humans. And, our ranch has many creatures because I feed all of them. When the deer see me running the dogs with my four-wheeler, they follow me around the property, waiting for a treat of corn.
5. I wrote my debut novel in my 60s. I thought about writing this story forty years ago, but I was a single parent working long hours, so I waited until retirement. Now, I am celebrating other authors who wrote their first books after the age of fifty with a podcast called Authors Over 50—catchy title, huh? It is interesting to interview accomplished writers who just happened to wait to write until later in life. I am inspired by them every week. I spent most of my career in public relations and marketing, so I am happy to pay it forward to older writers who may not always receive the publicity they deserve.
Five Things You Didn't Know About Julia Brewer Daily: A Guest Post by Julia Brewer Daily
Julia Brewer Daily is a Texan with a southern accent. She holds a B.S. in English and an M.S. degree in Education from the University of Southern Mississippi.
She has been a Communications Adjunct Professor at Belhaven University, Jackson, Mississippi, and Public Relations Director of the Mississippi Department of Education and Millsaps College, a liberal arts college in Jackson, MS.
She was the founding director of the Greater Belhaven Market, a producers’ only market in a historic neighborhood in Jackson, and even shadowed Martha Stewart.
As the Executive Director of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi (300 artisans from 19 states) which operates the Mississippi Craft Center, she wrote their stories to introduce them to the public.
She is a member of the Writers’ League of Texas, the Women Fiction Writers’ Association, the Pulpwood Queens Book Club, Women Writing the West, and the Women’s National Book Association.
A lifelong southerner, she now resides on a ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas, with her husband Emmerson and Labrador retrievers, Memphis Belle and Texas Star.
