Julia McDermott is the author of domestic psychological suspense novels DADDY’S GIRL and UNDERWATER, and French travel/young adult romance MAKE THAT DEUX. Her short story, The Riverfest, is included in anthology DOWN TO THE RIVER, a collection of crime stories taking place near a river. In between publication of her suspense novels, she penned creative nonfiction ALL THE ABOVE: MY SON’S BATTLE WITH BRAIN CANCER, awarded Finalist-Georgia Author of the Year Award (GAYA). Her suspense novels were GAYA Nominees, and UNDERWATER was a Nominee for the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award (Best Novel).
Julia is also the author of “Personal Journey” Fear and Gratitude, published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution on July 10, 2016. Read it to learn about her book ALL THE ABOVE and how her son’s journey with cancer changed his life, and hers.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Julia lived there for five years and spent one year in Boston and two years in St. Louis before her family moved to Atlanta when she was eight years old. Her first experience writing fiction occurred when her 7th grade English teacher assigned the class to write a novel. Julia’s story was about a girl named Jeannie and her annoying little brother, “the Kevin-brat.” When Julia read her chapters aloud to the class, she was delighted that her classmates couldn’t wait to hear about Jeannie’s latest adventure and that they laughed out loud at the Kevin-brat’s antics. Her dream to become a writer was born.
Four years later, Julia graduated a year early from high school and went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a degree in Economics and French. During her Tar Heel days, she spent a year in France on UNC’s (very young) Year-Abroad Program in Montpellier, where she lived in a beachfront apartment overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and traveled around western Europe when she wasn’t studying French. After college, Julia put her dream to write novels on the way back burner, moved to Dallas, married her college sweetheart, and worked for a couple of downtown banks and a financial software developer. While working full time, she aced her MBA courses at the University of Dallas and North Texas State University, but chose to abandon her pursuit of that degree when, at five months pregnant, she learned she was carrying twins.
A few weeks after their first birthday, Julia retired from the work force, and over the next dozen years she had two more kids and moved across the country four times. As her family grew and her kids went to school, she somehow found time to volunteer in the school computer lab and to write articles, speeches, newsletters, and website content. Once they began to leave the nest, she attended a variety of writing workshops and seminars, joined a writers’ critique group, and launched a career as a multi-genre author.
Julia has appeared as a panelist at crime writers’ conferences Killer Nashville and Bouchercon, at Atlanta’s Decatur Book Festival, and at other Georgia literary events in Decatur, Dahlonega, Milton, Woodstock, Peachtree City, Athens, and Augusta. In addition to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, she has been featured in VoyageATL, Simply Buckhead Magazine, Northside Woman, Atlanta’s Neighbor and Crier Newspapers, and in the Carolina Alumni Review. She was named 2017 Solopreneur of the Year by the Atlanta Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
In 2021, Julia and her husband sold their Atlanta home and moved to far northeastern Florida where they live only a few miles from the beach. She is a fan of the UNC Tar Heels and the Atlanta Falcons (but she is open to supporting the Jacksonville Jaguars) and she enjoys watching football, reading, and binging French (and sometimes British) television series. Julia is an active member of Amelia Island Writers, a chapter of the Florida Writers Association. A fluent French speaker, she loves most kinds of art and all things French.
Visit her Amazon Author Page here.
JULIA MCDERMOTT 