Julie Perry's Page

Life's lessons have taught me to adopt the motto: carpe diem – seize the day!

Coming from an artistically orientated family living in Birmingham, I have vivid memories of my mother working in her kitchen on wondrous hand crafted cake decorations made from sugar and compartmentalising them into numerous boxes in accordance to their size and colour. The smell of alcoholic infused fruit cake is an aroma that my sister and I always associated with our childhood. We were constantly encouraged to watch and experiment. Dad was reliable, kind and won a scholarship to Art College. Both my sister and I attended an art school and excelled in the arts but of course, in different ways. 

My sister was an extremely talented fine artist and our parents showed no surprise when she won competitions and held exhibitions at a very early age. She excelled in her Graphic Design degree. My skills were always more practical and, for me, qualifying as an interior designer suited my hands on approach. Over the years, I have turned my hand to meet new challenges and have also worked competently in business, marketing and human resources.

It is people who interest me most and, in one phase of my life, I organised conferences, exhibitions and courses, which opened opportunities for me to meet the most fascinating people from all over the world. My natural talent, creativity and disciplined approach to problem solving, my joy in bringing people together, working to tight time scales and structured budgets has allowed me to succeed with all sorts of projects and my husband and I have recently gained great satisfaction in finishing our renovated stone cottage. At every stage of building we overcame challenges and achieved enjoyment from drawing plans and seeing them through to fruition. For us, the creation of our home has been quite spectacular and emotional, providing feelings that are hard to describe.  We have had an interesting journey, learning how to estimate, source materials and I have even learnt how to plaster. I am not the perfect plasterer and in the first couple of months I got more on me than on the walls but it is an immensely satisfying feeling, running your hands over surfaces that have been plastered by one’s self.

An eagerness to learn new skills and my constant curiosity has lead me to a love travelling. I especially enjoy trips to Asia, for me this is a fascinating continent where cultures, art and flavours collide. Returning from visits abroad allows me to indulge another of my passions: Cooking. I take great joy in cooking meals for family and good friends with produce from our cottage garden. Home grown fresh food, add greatly to life’s pleasures and we take every chance we get to share the spoils of new ventures and new found tastes.

When I take time to review and recollect my life's experiences, I often look back to my school days in the Midlands, where I thoroughly enjoyed the exploration of books, reading Jane Austin, Shakespeare, Byron and D H Laurence, although I could never quite get into Milton. With many of my projects now complete I find I have returned to an old favourite of mine and that is the enthusiasm for writing. I don't write full time, I squeeze it in between working and running a home.  I am not one of these people who write thousands of words in one go.  I may write a couple of pages a day sometimes more. We all experience writers block especially when the ironing beckons or we get distracted. I finished writing my first book in 2011, called Collusion and Equity. It is a fascinating family saga involving the consequences of one poker game by the heroine’s grandfather at the beginning of the twentieth century in New York and how his actions influence future generations. Collusion And Revelation, the sequel, divulges some dark secrets, some quite abhorrent. It lives up to its title, revelation, an emotive word and there are plenty of poignant moments. Both books cover many issues of today including schizophrenia, greed, mental abuse, homosexuality and cancer.

The uncontrollable waste of life caused by cancer is a subject close to my heart. I have lost several family members to this dreadful disease including my father and sister who both died far too young.  I value life and I have found that through the worst adversity, there is always hope, love, laughter and friendship. It is my hope that my books will bring these emotions alive to you.

I wonder, will you enjoy reading the books as much as I enjoyed writing them? I suppose the primary readers of these two books are going to be women who like a good romantic thriller. I would value your feedback and comments on any or all aspects of my written works because I believe a book should be a two way experience, a shared consciousness built by the writer for the readers and it is from you, the reader that I would most love to hear. So please, 'carpe diem' - seize the day!  Visit my website www.jp-e-books.com

Two Reviews

• Janet Thomas (Friday, October 12 12 12:27 pm BST)

  These books need a lot of concentration owing to the many characters but also because of the plot. The first book sets the scene drawing the reader into the heroine’s world as a child and then you are eased into her adult world where you are introduced one by one to the sinister characters that have, and will change her adult life. It is an eclectic mix of romance, intrigue and murder. The first book ends leaving the reader relieved that the heroine has finally found happiness but this is short lived. What she is about to experience in the second book makes you wonder whether she herself will survive, but what it does do is live up to its title “revelation”. They are thoroughly enjoyable books that deserve your full attention and, if you give them the time that they deserve you will not be disappointed. In my opinion they would easily be made into a film. I am now reading them again because I enjoyed them so much.

• Sharon(Monday, July 30 12 07:14 pm BST)

  Hello Julie
  
  Thought you might like to read my review of your books that I've posted on Amazon:-
  
  A jolly good read that will keep you turning the pages.
  
  An engrossing read with a good mix of romance, conspiracy, deceit and intrigue plus every emotion from friendship, love and passion to grief. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep your interest. The story is well written and the characters believable. From the first page, you become absorbed with Danielle, the main character, through a modern day family saga that is set in the UK, America and France. I was left wanting more after reading Collusion & Equity and was delighted when I found this sequel. I would most definitely recommend these books and hope there is more to come from this author in the future.
  
  Hope everyone enjoys them as much as I did.