Authors Interviewing Characters: Julie Valerie

Julie Valerie, author of The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks, interviews her character Holly!

“Picking up where Valerie’s first novel, Holly Banks Full of Angst, left off, this will fit right in with loyal Kinsella readers, fans of Tom Perotta’s Mrs. Fletcher, and those who enjoyed the suburban intrigue of the Netflix show Dead to Me.” —Booklist

“Valerie combines laugh-out-loud situations with heart as Holly navigates her newest challenges…Recommended for those who enjoy reading about relatable heroines and parents who are trying to have it all.” —Library Journal

“Both down to earth and beautifully surreal, Holly Banks’s latest adventure is a story about courage, family, and friendship that had me hooked from the very first page.” —Lea Geller, author of Trophy Life

A wife, mother, and aspiring filmmaker clings to the pursuit of perfection only to have fate play with every plan she’s made in this quirky, contemplative, and empowering novel—The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks by Julie Valerie is the second installment in the bestselling Village of Primm series.

About the Book: Holly Banks is on a desperate mission to have it all, but nothing in life goes according to plan. She’s quickly learning that keeping up with the Joneses is a full-time job, especially when the women of Primm, her new neighborhood, seem to have it together all the time.

With her husband’s job in flux, her daughter’s difficulty with learning to read, and her mother’s new zest for dating, Holly’s life is already anything but picture perfect. Then her dog digs up an old artifact in the village center, and the mishap draws the attention of local media. Because of course it would.

Holly finds herself at the center of a mystery between two rival towns that, if solved, could change the Village of Primm forever. Attention is the last thing she needs as she’s launching a new business, the village-wide “Parade of Homes” is approaching—though she’s hardly unpacked—and she needs to sub

mit her entry for an upcoming film festival. Can Holly still create her perfect (looking) life? Or is fate about to go off script and give her a story she never could have imagined?

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World-building and the creation of a sense of community are central to the Village of Primm novels . . .

Holly, in the first book, Holly Banks Full of Angst, you were newly relocated to the Village of Primm and had to cope with the challenges of being a newcomer in a village with established rules and hierarchies. How well are you adjusting to your new environment in the second, standalone installment in the Village of Primm series?

Great question, Julie. The drive to belong to a community can be a powerful one. In the first book, concepts of welcome, belonging, and banishment play out in the novel in interesting ways. In the second book, though I’m still struggling a bit to keep up with the Joneses, and though Feathered Nest real estate agent Penelope Pratt has shifted everyone’s focus to the village-wide “Parade of Homes” Enclave Tour in the aftermath of that horrible incident in the first book, life in the village narrows a bit to highlight on my life on Petunia Lane. Readers meet a few of my neighbors . . . Houston Bonneville-Cranbarrie, for one. 

Similar to the Hopscotch family lineage—of which Merchant “Meek” Hopscotch the Third, Mary-Margaret St. James, and Penelope Pratt are a part—Houston descends from a legacy Primm family, only his family was a bit rowdy and had a soiled reputation. Much to my chagrin, Houston and my mom, Greta, start dating.

Sweet Aahna Patel lives across the street, as does Maeve Bling, a busybody from the Petunia Enclave HOA. Maeve’s a piece of work.

After joining a new community (the Village of Primm) in the first book, the second book opens with that community at risk of significant economic loss, asking: What’s worth fighting for? To what extent does the role of community evolve from one novel to the next? 

Excellent question, Julie. Not only do characters evolve and storylines evolve, but the community also evolves and has a life of its own from book to book. In the first book, I’m a newcomer to this idyllic village filled with eccentric residents during my daughter’s first week of kindergarten and find myself thrust into the school mom subculture at Primm Academy as a bug infestation is underway in the 

Village of Primm Topiary Park. Taking center stage in that book is the school and prime tourist destinations.

In the second book, I find my home listed on the Village of Primm Enclave Tour. Off-grid living, she sheds, and mancaves, as well as home renovations, take center stage as a decades-old mystery surfaces over land boundaries and natural resources, pitting the Village of Primm against neighboring Southern Lakes.

The Village of Primm includes twelve neighborhood enclaves for readers to explore as well as Southern Lakes, a competing township. And there’s Menander, an urban center located nearby and introduced for the first time in the second book.

Don’t forget dueling resort towns Quixotic and DooLittle.

Can’t forget those! With twelve enclaves and surrounding towns, I suspect the world-building and community-as-character will continue for quite some time.

I certainly hope so!

Me, too.

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About the Author: Julie Valerie is the bestselling author of the Village of Primm series. She serves on the board of directors for James River Writers; earned an editing certificate from the University of Chicago Graham School; and has a master’s degree in education, a bachelor of fine arts in fashion, and certification in wilderness first aid.

A former trend forecaster, Julie enjoys books, the study of wine, hikes on the Appalachian Trail, and travel. She married her college sweetheart, and they live in Virginia with their four children and two English Labradors. Holly Banks Full of Angst released December 2019 with Lake Union Publishing. The Peculiar Fate of Holly Banks, the standalone second installment in the Village of Primm series, releases November 24, 2020, also with Lake Union Publishing. Learn more about Julie and join her author newsletter at julievalerie.com.

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing