Texas is always a central character when this Fort Worth-area novelist tells a story
Most Texans can agree this state has a personality of its own, from the people to the landscapes to the history.
Grapevine author Julia Heaberlin amplifies that in her novels, making Texas a character in her stories.
“I feel like I wear Texas like a second skin,” Heaberlin said. “I’ve lived here since 3 and I’m constantly fascinated and defensive about all the weird and wonderful things about Texas.”
She says that shows in her newest book, “We Are All the Same in the Dark,” released Aug. 11. The story follows the youngest cop in a fictional Texas town and a man whose sister disappeared years before as they try to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
That journey is spurred by the bizarre appearance of a one-eyed girl in a field, whom the cop fears may reignite grief in the community as the two try to unravel the mystery of her appearance.
“I just cannot keep Texas out of my books,” she said. “It’s always a major character.”
“We are all the Same in the Dark,” Heaberlin’s fifth published suspense novel, has drawn the attention of TV producers at Sister Pictures, the same company that produced “Chernobyl” and “Broadchurch.”
While the release of her book and the decision by Sister Pictures to option the story for TV are cause for celebration, the former Star-Telegram features editor said it is more of a relief than anything.
“Promoting in a pandemic at home was more intense and harder than anything I’ve ever done,” said Heaberlin, who worked at the paper from 1996 to 2006.
She said promoting on social media without being able to do any in-person promotions has made it difficult to get the word out about the book. She has taken on extra tasks, such as personally mailing out advance copies from her kitchen table.
But all that work pays off. Heaberlin said it has been amazing to see the interest her books have garnered, especially internationally. She’s been on radio talk shows in England and had book store windows decorated with artwork for “Black-Eyed Susans,” her third novel, which made best seller lists internationally.
“I was a small-town girl from Texas, and I would never have thought anybody in the U.K. would know my name,” Heaberlin said.
Heaberlin, who grew up in Decatur, has a history of storytelling. As an editor for the Star-Telegram, Dallas Morning News and The Detroit News, she oversaw the telling of true stories. That experience gave her tools that have helped in researching and writing her novels.
For her latest novel, she interviewed a man who creates prosthetic eyes and women who have received them. She researched which handguns do and don’t have safety mechanisms (and how different safeties work). She even spoke with a SWAT team leader to help build the character of Odette Tucker, the police officer in the book.
Working as a features editor also exposed her to different writing styles, she said, giving her more insight and helping to develop her own literary voice.
“Feel like I learned a lot about writing my novels by editing a lot of the different voices of a lot of different creative people,” she said.
That interest in journalism, especially narrative non-fiction storytelling, which uses observations like sight, smell, sound and touch to tell a true story, impacted her writing. It’s slow burning, she said, and more atmospheric.
“This is probably the most atmospheric book I’ve ever written,” she said. “A very action-plot driven thriller is just personally not as interesting to me. A lot of people call my books a slow burner but I don’t think they are, I try to make them tense along the way.”
Instead, her books are driven by the characters. She said she spends time developing those characters through interviews and explores them in her literature.
But between the COVID-19 pandemic and the anticipation and marketing leading up to the release of “We are all the Same in the Dark,” Heaberlin said there hasn’t been much time for that.
A lot of her time has been spent as the interviewee promoting her book or on social media getting the word out. And she’s reread “Silence of the Lambs,” which she calls an ode to feminism with some of the best characters ever created.
And that’s something she tries to create with her books: strong female leads who are flawed in real, relatable ways.
She said writing about characters who live with prosthetics has also changed her outlook on the world, and she hopes it will change the way others think. Everybody has struggles and disabilities, she said, and sometimes those are physical.
“One of the things that I got out of the research is simply the idea that I don’t think I’ll ever use the word disabled or disability again after talking to these young women,” she said.
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 11:10 AM.