Happy May, my friends! 🌸 It is absolutely gorgeous up here in British Columbia, and I am doing my best to soak up all the sun rays while revising my moody dark little horror book.

This month, I’m participating in the 2026 Debut group’s Instagram challenge. I’ll be sharing my responses to the fun get-to-know-you prompts weekly on my Instagram page (@_julielew_) and am very excited because I got permission from my publisher to share something exciting.

Well, two exciting things, actually. One thing might be art-shaped (not the cover!), and the other might be in the shape of a release month? But who can say?

Now that we’re a few months into this newsletter, I realized some of you may know me in varying amounts than others. Some of you are college besties, some went through the film/tv assistant trenches with me, and some may barely know me at all beyond the title of the book I’ve been throwing before you repeatedly (The Wives of Herrick Hall 😉). So I thought why not do an introduction post?

However, whenever I’m thrust into an “introduce yourself” or “share a Julie fun fact” situation, I never know what people find interesting. So I polled you all on Instagram and asked for any questions you have about me, ranging from the serious to the silly. And when I asked for unhinged, you all really delivered (and really, thank you! I love unhinged!).

Without further ado, here are my responses to your brilliant AMA questions ☺️

Favorite drafting font and least favorite?

I sadly have academia so deeply ingrained in me that I draft in 12 pt Times New Roman like a boring person. I did my bachelor’s in film studies with a minor in French language and literature, and then followed it up with an MFA in Film Producing, so TNR both terrifies me yet oddly comforts me, if that makes sense?

I don’t think I have a least favorite, but since I’m married to a designer, I get a kick out of the fury Comic Sans can incite.

What is your least favorite book trope & why? What immediately makes you DNF?

Oooh trying to get me canceled, I see. I don’t like my book boyfriends jealous or toxic, but for more specific tropes I think it’s pretty genre specific. I don’t mind the miscommunication trope, but in a romance, I’m more engaged if the crux of the plot doesn’t hinge on them just needing to have a simple conversation. In fantasy, I can get a little weary of the chosen one trope, unless the protagonist is an unobvious type of chosen one character (like in The Sunbearer Trials).

Also, this is not hate (because I love this trope way too much), but I love my enemies to lovers to start as ENEMIES. Immortal Dark is one of my favorite books in the world because Kidan and Susenyos hate each others’ guts and won’t pass up an opportunity to humiliate and ruin each other.

I don’t DNF many books because most of the time I still think a book can teach you a lot even if it’s not entirely your cup of tea (I am also a proud alumna of the library summer reading challenge and need to finish books to chase that high of rummaging around the library goodie box to get my little plastic toy). But I actually did DNF a book this year, my first in I can’t even count how long. I won’t name the author, but he’s considered one of the greats of American novelists. As I was reading said book, I kept pausing and thinking, “is this misogynistic to make a point or is it misogynistic just because?” A quick Google search told me the author was kind of known for being misogynistic, so I closed my Kindle and returned the book to the library.

Favorite death scene in a book, tv show, or film?

OMG what a great question (and I’ll try to be as spoiler free as possible)! Sherlock and Doctor Who both had me in a chokehold as a teen, so I’ll give a shoutout to The Reichenbach Fall and The Angels Take Manhattan.

For books, please if you haven’t, read the Green Bone Saga. There are two great deaths in the series that completely shocked and emotionally broke me.

How long did you query for?

It felt like an eternity and a half, but I queried my debut novel for eight months, from September 2023-April 2024. If you’re curious about my journey, you can read my HIGMA (“How I Got My Agent”) here.

Do you have any tips for writers currently (waiting & flailing) in the querying trenches?

Firstly, a big hug for all my querying friends out there. ❤️

I think it’s easy when querying to lose faith in your own work and voice as a writer because you hear “no” constantly. When I was querying, I didn’t fully realize how this would still be the case when you’re on submission, and though it’s far from perfect, I’ve developed methods for coping with the rejection while keeping the creative spark alive.

From a logistical standpoint, I never check for rejections when I know they’ll sting me the most (you can either set up a separate email for querying or filter responses from QueryTracker into a folder you only check when you’re ready to). But neither do I push off checking so the thought of rejection grows bigger and scarier in my mind. It’s a fine balance of knowing how you’ll process it and what you need to do to take care of yourself to move forward. I’ve learned never to check before a writing session because it’s hard not to take that energy into a project with you.

Also, I recommend finding at least one thing about your work you love, be it your main character, a scene you totally nailed, or your personal connection with the story that inspired you to spend hours and hours drafting and revising it in the first place. When you feel discouraged, hold onto the spark to keep you anchored. Also, if someone doesn’t get your spark, you don’t want them on your team.

I hope that was helpful. I’m always here to cheer on my querying friends and my DMs are always open. 🙂 

If you were cursed by a witch and became a fruit, what would you want to be?

Oh I love this question! It’s not a simple “what’s your favorite fruit?” (which is a tie between watermelon and mangos), but what fruit I would want to be. I spent so much of this past weekend thinking about this, and I think I would want to be a raspberry bush beside a babbling stream in a forest. I thrive in summer, but I wouldn’t want to be in a field in harsh sunlight 24/7. Also, while I feel like my odds of being eaten are still high, they’d be slightly less if I’m off the beaten path? 😂

What was your last 5⭐ read?

Aaah I can’t limit to just one!! Some of my favorite reads so far this year have been Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa, and A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson.

Some ARCs I’ve read that I really enjoyed too are: Hollow by Taylor Grothe, Salvación by Sandra Proudman, House of Hearts by Skyla Arndt, Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, and Back in the Saddle by Maggie Eckersley.

Fave place you’ve traveled?

I’ve been lucky to have visited some incredible places, but the place that stands out to me the most are the Paris catacombs. It is so otherworldly to wander through tunnels 65 feet below surface level amongst the bones of six million Parisians. My partner and I got separated from a large group ahead of us and for a while, it was dead silent and if you had told me we were in the eighteenth century, I could have believed it.

What’s your fave 🦕🦖?

Eek yes, thank you for this question. The apatosaurus because:

Best and worst ballroom dances on a five star scale?

This question is from my bestie who I met in ballroom dance class (checks calendar) TEN YEARS AGO.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: east coast swing

⭐⭐⭐⭐: cha cha

⭐⭐⭐: waltz (extra half point if it’s the viennese waltz)

⭐⭐: tango

⭐: foxtrot, rumba

Favourite ice cream?

This is a very particular answer, but Thrifty pistachio ice cream from Rite Aid was my go to for birthdays and celebrations growing up. It’s distressingly bright green straight from a bottle of food dye but is soooo delicious:

However, since I now can’t eat much dairy due to fun stomach issues, I’ll take whatever non-dairy Ben & Jerry’s I can find at the supermarket (currently have peanut butter half baked in my freezer).

Favorite lesbian?

Oh my gosh, thank you for asking. But again, how to pick just one?! Some of my favorite lesbian/sapphic authors are Samantha Shannon, Saara El-Arifi, and Malinda Lo. Sarah Waters’ Tipping the Velvet was super impactful for me (the book and the TV adaptation), as was the film Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma.

Also, at one of my old jobs the only comfortable place to eat lunch was in a conference room where soccer matches were constantly playing on the TV. Megan Rapinoe and the whole USWNT really got me through that summer. 🫡

Thank you to everyone who sent a question in! I hope this was fun for you like it was for me. ❤️ I’m off to crack into that pint of B&J in my freezer. 😉

See you next month! 👋

-Julie