WELCOME JULIE TETEL ANDRESEN
JULIE TETEL ANDRESEN
Julie Tetel Andresen’s seemingly disparate writing activities – fiction, non-fiction and essays in foreign languages – all arise from a unified sense of her writing self.
As a professional linguist, she loves language, while as a romance writer she loves the language of love; and when learning a foreign language, she loves nothing more than exploring the limits of her ability to express herself in that language on paper.
In her academic writing, she has long been devoted to exploring the history of linguistics, and this disciplinary exploration parallels her devotion to writing historical novels. In her most recent academic work “Linguistics and Evolution” (Cambridge 2014), she shows the ways that the history of linguistic theory and practice informs the current state of the discipline, and this sense of the past pressing on the present informs her time-slip series.
Her writing activities have always been entwined temporally. She wrote her first historical “My Lord Roland” while writing her PhD dissertation “Linguistic Crossroads of the Eighteenth Century,” and all her early academic articles were written mostly in French. Twenty novels and dozens of journal articles later, she wrote her Regency novella “French Lessons” while waiting for the 2012 autumn meeting of the Cambridge Press Syndicate to decide to issue her a contract for “Linguistics and Evolution.” At the same time, she happened to be in Ho Chi Minh City learning Vietnamese and happily writing her Vietnamese essays.
She firmly believes that one type of writing strengthens the others. Her historical novels have honed her craft of plotting and sub-plotting, while her time-slip series has given her the Kraft (in the German sense of the word ‘power’) to handle the long historical arc and multiple characters involved in “Linguistics and Evolution.” Her professional study of language, in turn, makes her sensitive to the vocabulary and rhythms of speech in other places and time periods; while writing in a foreign language– be it French, German, Romanian, or Vietnamese – is to her like the pianist warming up with scales and arpeggios or the yogini trying out a new asana. Can she get her leg behind her head in Romanian?
No? Well, then how about triangle pose? Can she get into full lotus in Vietnamese? Again, no? Let’s see about half-lotus.
Andresen grew up in Glenview, Ill. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Duke University and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has taught at Duke University for the past 20 years where she specializes in linguistics.
Connect with Julie at these sites:
Julie has also uploaded a short story entitled The Wedding Night onto her website (http://www.julietetelandresen.com) that readers can download for free.
Q&A with Julie Tetel Andresen
When did you develop a passion for linguistics?
Ever since I was about five years old. I remember lying in bed at night in the room I shared with my
older sister, making up new words that I would teach her. When I discovered there were other
languages in the world, with the words already made up, I couldn’t get enough. I didn’t know,
however, that there was such a thing as a discipline of linguistics until I was working on my Masters in French. After that I was hooked.
How do you bridge your career as a romance writer with your life as a professional linguist and
academic?
The two activities wrap around another almost every day in my life, and this has been the case for the last twenty years or more. Today I’m at a resort on the Black Sea in Bulgaria. My friends are on the beach. I can’t tan, since I have redhead skin and was told by a dermatologist years ago to stay out of the sun. I’m happy enough, however, because I’m on the balcony of my room overlooking the sea, and working on the some of the early chapters of the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell book, Languages of the World, skyping with my co-author, Phillip Carter. When I take a break from this, I’ll probably download a werewolf story or a panther shape-shifting story. I got into these subgenres in the past few months. At the moment, I can’t get enough of them.
How do your two writing careers strengthen each other?
All good writing is story telling, and this applies to academic writing, as well. I love reading about
language, and the question is always, “What story is this linguist telling me?” I am currently reading
The Last Speakers by David K. Harrison, and it’s a wonderful world tour of the stories of speakers of
endangered languages. My favorite linguist may well be Stephen Levinson. Although it might not seem like his Space in Language and Cognition would make for a gripping story, I read the book (several times, actually), enthralled by the world Levinson was opening to me. Following a good (academic) argument is like reading a well-plotted novel.
I think it was Fred Astaire who said: “If I don’t dance for one day, I feel it. If I don’t dance two days in a row, the audience will feel it. If I don’t dance three days in a row, I should find another job.” Having two writing careers keeps me in writing shape. It’s cross training. Yoga and Pilates.
You have lived and traveled all over the world – to France, Germany, Vietnam, Romania,
Greece, and Brazil just to name a few places. How did this influence your writing?
I’ve always loved historical romances, but I began my time-slip series when I realized I wanted to write about the places I’m visiting in the here and now. I love it when a place is a kind of character in a novel, ever-present and shaping events. I also happen to love botanical gardens and the tropics, so I find myself gravitating toward southern latitudes and the equator, where everything is lush. When I write a story and find I need to check out the details of a place I’m using as a setting, I can easily persuade myself I need to revisit the location in order to make sure I have the details right. While writing The Emerald Hour, I made sure to revisit the spectacular Jardim Botânico in Rio. In fact, it would have been irresponsible of me not to revisit the location.
Your collection of books explores so many points in history. Is there one era that has a special
place in your heart?
This is a choosing-among-children question, only slightly less difficult to answer than, “What’s the
favorite book you’ve written?” All historical periods are fascinating. Especially the present one, since I’m living in it.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The lovely Anne Chisholm is tricked into a handfast—the custom of marriage for a year and a day when a couple plights their troth—with Alexander Sutherland only to discover that her new husband is wanted for treason by the English authorities, in particular, by her father.
BOOK DETAILS:
Publisher: Julie Tetel Andresen; 1.01 edition
Publication Date: August 3, 2011
Number of Pages: 92
ASIN: B005FY0WYUPURCHASE LINKS:
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