Books by Julie
“A dynamite first novel by someone who is sure to be a major literary force. Suicide City is cinematic, painful, funny, honest, and so alive with flesh-and-blood characters, you’ll find yourself wanting to drive downtown to rescue them. This is a story not to be read, but to be savored like a five-dollar coffee.” ~ Scott Morgan, award-winning journalist and bestselling author.
Romeo is Homeless (formerly titled Suicide City, a Love Story) is my first novel. This baby had a long gestation period, beginning as a short story in 1999 and becoming a gleam of a novel in this writer’s eye in 2004. It wasn’t until August of 2011 that I picked it up again. I haven’t stopped writing since.
Romeo is Homeless is the story of August and Reese, a runaway farm girl and a drug-addicted street kid battling to stay clean. Can August’s love save him? Or will it ruin her?
Romeo is Homeless made it into the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, and was a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Review 2013 Book Awards.
The cover won two gold medals in the Authorsdb 2013 cover awards: Best YA cover, and Best overall top 50
You can find Romeo is Homeless in Kindle and paperback formats on Amazon
*content warning* – this book is edgy YA. What makes it edgy are graphic depictions of sex, drug use, child abuse and death. Despite that, one reader commented “…the idea of such a dark topic… I never felt depressed by it.”
It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead is a dramatic romance (or a romantic drama?), it tells the tale of Jemima Stone, a lawyer, and Detective Finn Wight. They meet under unfortunate circumstances – the disappearance and murder of her fiance – but find love and peace in each others arms. Jem comes to terms with her grief and loss by feeding the homeless in a local park each morning. There she meets a new resident that she is certain doesn’t belong. Can Jem and Finn find the truth about this man and reunite him with his family?
It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead is the winner of the BigAl’s Books and Pals 2014 Readers’ Choice Award for women’s fiction
You can find It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead in Kindle and paperback formats on Amazon
Mazie Baby is a multiple award-winning novel about the harrowing tale of Mazie Reynolds. This book won the 2015 Indie Reader Discovery Award for Literary Fiction, was named to 3 Best of 2014 lists including, Indie Reader, Reedfree.ly, and Suspense Magazine. She was nominated for a Books & Pals Readers’ Choice award, and is short-listed for a BookHippo UK SpaSpa (small press and self-published author) award.
When Mazie Reynolds was a young girl, she believed monsters lived under her bed. Now a grown, married woman, she discovers one sleeps in her bed.
Mazie schemes to save herself and her daughter. Her plan will work, if she can out-maneuver the monster who is a master of manipulation and control. She’s got one thing going for her, the one thing she truly owns. Mazie has moxie to the bone. But will it be enough?
You can find Mazie Baby in Kindle, paperback, and audio format on Amazon
Goody One Shoe is the story of Wilhelmina (Billie) Fullalove, 32-year-old virgin and below-the-knee amputee thanks to a shoot-out in an alley when she was 11. Her parents died in front of her eyes. She spends her adolescence coping with grief and loss and hating Batman. When his parents died, he didn’t lose a leg. He gained a secret identity.
Billie pursues her dream of becoming an editor for a big publishing house. She takes her red editor’s pen to the newspaper to right wrongs and bring proper justice to victims who are re-victimized by an inept court system. When her edits come true and criminals start dying, can she discover the identity of the vigilante who is acting out her revenge fantasies?
You can find Goody One Shoe in Kindle format at Amazon.
A Trilogy of Unrelated Shorts is my first collection of short stories. A mini-collection really. Just three (duh, trilogy!), and all under 1500 words. You could read the whole thing in under 20 minutes! The collection includes:
Eli and Ralph, about a purple balloon and his boy.
Samburger and Flies, a short story about, well, gruesome things. Don’t eat while reading! This story came in third out of 300 in a Writer’s Digest short story contest.
This is Me, about a woman coming to terms with the ravages of cancer.
Available at Amazon in Kindle format.
Two Wins and an Honourable Mention is a collection of three short stories that resulted from my participation in the NYC Midnight 2014 Short Story Challenge. Two of my stories won in their heat, the third took honourable mention (pretty original title, don’t you think?). This collection is only available in Kindle format on Amazon.
The collection includes:
End of the Line, about Gordon Fisk, a lonely and isolated man who turns hero in one fateful day.
The Final Bow, my first ghost story, about the love Gabriel has for Adrienne that can never be consummated.
God Damn, the Fisherman, about dueling serial killers.
Suicide City sounds very intriguing – you are an inspiration Ms. Frayn!
Thanks, Colinda! You are too kind…
It’s there, I can see it and FEEL it – the passion, the want, the need for writing. I’m shocked at how in the same boat you and i are (aside from the kids part!). Adults who want to write, who find the time when possible. Do I have that finished novel? Well, three or four ALMOST finished ones. Does that add into one? Short stories, like you, also. One published piece that is nowhere to be found now and not all that worth it, really. “Suicide City” sounds fascinating. Persevere, you WILL be published. Also, like you, putting myself “out there” as a product? Well, it needs to be done.
My one novel was unfinished for seven years. I couldn’t make it happen, kept freezing at the keyboard. So I wrote other things instead and took courses and just kept writing. Then all of a sudden, with a push of support from my daughter, boom! The fuse was lit and it happened. I think it is timing. This story would have been totally different had I finished in 2004. Glad I didn’t
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