Ask the Author: Julia George
Answered Questions (3)
Julia George
We (my husband George and I) have finished Celia's story. We have just signed with a publisher and the book will be released towards the end of this year. The title will most probably be Love and Redemption. We are so glad to be able to redeem Celia's character in this novel based on George's conversations with Celia and his father, Ivan Kovach, who met her in Vorkuta and married her when they were released. We were also grateful to George's father, Ivan, for his detailed and often entertaining memoirs of his time in the Soviet Gulag. Celia's story is one of the most horrific tales of the Twentieth Century and deserves to be told as she and Ivan told it to us. We will be posting news of the book on our website at juliageorgeauthor.com. Thank you for your interest. It's been a long road to finding a publisher - but not as long as the road Celia had to travel to find love and redemption in her life.
Julia George
We (Julia and George) are currently working on a series of novels that are based on the true stories from George's (my husband) family. We are calling it the Broken Lives Trilogy.
The first book (and it's in edits right now) is about George's stepmother and his father. His stepmother was sent to Auschwitz when she was sixteen. After Auschwitz she returned home to Slovakia, was arrested by the Soviets as a German spy and sent to the Gulag (Vorkuta) for ten years.
Yes, this is just like Cilka's Journey. The difference is that our book is written by the real relatives of "Cilka" - her stepson (George) and her stepdaughter-in-law (Julia). It makes extensive use of the memoirs of Ivan Kovach (George's father) and the personal discussions George had with his father and Celia over the years. It is written in novel form, first person Celia. It is the true love story that was missing from Cilka's Journey. We hope to publish it this year. The working title is One Redeeming Love.
Julia George (Julia and George) have started on the second book in the trilogy. Islands of Memory. This is the story of George's grandmother who was born and raised in Imperial Russia, went to university to study to become a doctor, and before that could happen was driven out of Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1919. She barely made it out and many of her close relatives were murdered by the Bolsheviks. It is a story of love and hope, courage and fear. This book too is based on the memoirs of George's grandmother, Julia Gudim Levkovich/Gersdorff.
The third book in the Broken Lives Trilogy will be about George's mother (Julia's mother-in-law) Galya Kovach/Tarakanov - wife of Ivan Kovach. She escaped the Bolsheviks in 1919 as a one-year-old, grew up in exile in Yugoslavia, married Ivan in graduate school where she was studying to become a lawyer. When Ivan was arrested by the Soviets when they took over Czechoslovakia, she escaped with her three-year-old son (George) across the border into Germany. A near thing as there were Soviet guards shooting at them. She made her way to Canada where she - a woman with a degree in law - scrubbed floors in a bank to support herself and her son. Through courage and hard work, she mastered English, waited for and gained US citizenship, and became a professor of Russian language and literature at Oakland University in Michigan. She was an amazing woman, full of energy, who loved to laugh.
The writing of these books is an act of honoring the memory of George's father, mother, grandmother and stepmother. Eternal memory.
We hope readers enjoy these journeys into a world almost forgotten.
Now, all we have to do is get one published and the other two written.
Wish us luck.
The first book (and it's in edits right now) is about George's stepmother and his father. His stepmother was sent to Auschwitz when she was sixteen. After Auschwitz she returned home to Slovakia, was arrested by the Soviets as a German spy and sent to the Gulag (Vorkuta) for ten years.
Yes, this is just like Cilka's Journey. The difference is that our book is written by the real relatives of "Cilka" - her stepson (George) and her stepdaughter-in-law (Julia). It makes extensive use of the memoirs of Ivan Kovach (George's father) and the personal discussions George had with his father and Celia over the years. It is written in novel form, first person Celia. It is the true love story that was missing from Cilka's Journey. We hope to publish it this year. The working title is One Redeeming Love.
Julia George (Julia and George) have started on the second book in the trilogy. Islands of Memory. This is the story of George's grandmother who was born and raised in Imperial Russia, went to university to study to become a doctor, and before that could happen was driven out of Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1919. She barely made it out and many of her close relatives were murdered by the Bolsheviks. It is a story of love and hope, courage and fear. This book too is based on the memoirs of George's grandmother, Julia Gudim Levkovich/Gersdorff.
The third book in the Broken Lives Trilogy will be about George's mother (Julia's mother-in-law) Galya Kovach/Tarakanov - wife of Ivan Kovach. She escaped the Bolsheviks in 1919 as a one-year-old, grew up in exile in Yugoslavia, married Ivan in graduate school where she was studying to become a lawyer. When Ivan was arrested by the Soviets when they took over Czechoslovakia, she escaped with her three-year-old son (George) across the border into Germany. A near thing as there were Soviet guards shooting at them. She made her way to Canada where she - a woman with a degree in law - scrubbed floors in a bank to support herself and her son. Through courage and hard work, she mastered English, waited for and gained US citizenship, and became a professor of Russian language and literature at Oakland University in Michigan. She was an amazing woman, full of energy, who loved to laugh.
The writing of these books is an act of honoring the memory of George's father, mother, grandmother and stepmother. Eternal memory.
We hope readers enjoy these journeys into a world almost forgotten.
Now, all we have to do is get one published and the other two written.
Wish us luck.
Julia George
To be able to be so many different people. To inhabit the minds and hearts of heroes, heroines, villains, victims, children, and even animals. To live in the worlds I create for them. To find a way to bring them all to life. To actually BE the characters for the time it takes to write the book. And most of all, to entertain readers. Because, bringing laughter to others makes me happy. To guide readers through the maze of a mystery is fun. And the sense of accomplishment when I've finished a book gives me courage to start another. When someone who has read and enjoyed my books tells me so, it like Christmas.
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