Julie is the award-winning author of In Another Life (Sourcebooks), The Crows of Beara (Ashland Creek Press) and forthcoming in 2026, Upside Down Girl (Rootstock Publishing)—novels that blend lyrical storytelling with deep explorations of identity, place, and the natural world. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Julie returned to her roots on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula after three decades of living and working around the globe—including years in France, Japan, Chad, and New Zealand, where she trained in culinary arts and worked in the wine industry.

With a background in international affairs and a career directing university study abroad programs, Julie brings a global perspective to her writing. Her fiction often follows characters on transformative journeys, searching for belonging across landscapes both inner and wild. In Another Life, inspired by the medieval Cathar Crusade, was named Book of the Year in Fantasy (Adult Fiction) by Foreword Indies. The Crows of Beara, set in southwest Ireland, was a finalist for The Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature.

When not writing, Julie hikes the misty forests of the Olympic Peninsula, practices yoga, works as a non-profit finance administrator, and continues to find inspiration in the quiet magic of home.

The rest of my story

I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and I live not far from my childhood home on the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington state. I returned to this place of peace and beauty after three decades of adventures elsewhere, including study and teaching abroad in France, Japan, and Chad, graduate school in the Midwest, and a career as university study abroad program administrator that took me around the world. In 2006, I moved to New Zealand where I attended culinary school and entered the wine industry. Returning to Seattle in 2008, I worked as a wine buyer before moving to the Olympic Peninsula in 2013. Here I have written four novels and I’m working on my fifth. I craft stories about characters searching for a sense of self and place. I hope to move readers with fiction that navigates the borders of heart and mind.

My first novel, In Another Life (Sourcebooks), set in present day and 13th century France, is a timeslip fantasy inspired by the Cathar Crusade. It was named Book of the Year (Fantasy, Adult Fiction) by FOREWORD Indies at the 2017 American Libraries Association Annual Conference. 

The Crows of Beara (Ashland Creek Press), was a finalist for The Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature, judged by PEN/Faulkner author and Man Booker Award nominee Karen Joy Fowler. It takes place in contemporary Co. Cork, southwest Ireland, and weaves together themes of industry vs. the environment, addiction, creativity, and hill walking.

Forthcoming in October 2026 is Upside Down Girl (Rootstock Publishing), a contemporary drama set in New Zealand. Upside Down Girl considers questions of motherhood, family, community, and the universal longing for somewhere to belong and someone to belong to.

I recently completed my first work of crime fiction, The Deep Coil, set in an Olympic Peninsula seaport town and featuring a disgraced former Seattle Vice Detective with a keen sense of justice and a keen nose for small batch bourbon. I’m now at work on a new historical fantasy (working title Divine Sparks) that might just star Mary Magdalene, Rilke, and benevolent honey bees.