I’d like to welcome the talented Julie Gianelloni Connor to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite things: All of the art that I have collected from around the world and my book collection, particularly the books about places I have lived.

Things you need to throw out: Papers, papers, papers. I keep all receipts, tax files, travel folders. Really, do I still need receipts from 1981?

Hardest thing about being a writer: Actually starting to write. There always seem to be more pressing matters to take care of.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Actually doing the writing, once I start.

Things you never want to run out of: Clear plastic bags of all sorts. I am a bit of a hoarder in terms of transparent plastic bags. They are good for so many things, from packing your shoes for travel to letting you see what’s inside without actually having to open the bag.

Things you wish you’d never bought: an Apple iPad. I hate it.

Favorite foods: I love just about all food. That’s why I am overweight. It’s so hard to turn down delicious second helpings

Things that make you want to gag: Sweet potatoes. Beets. Liver. These hates are remnants from too many school lunches at parochial schools in Louisiana. (In Louisiana, when I was growing up, all children received a hot lunch no matter what their parents’ income was and no matter what type of school they attended, public, private, or parochial. That was a legacy from Huey Long.)

Something you’re really good at: Horseback riding.

Something you’re really bad at: Anything to do with technology.

Something you wish you could do: A split. As a child, I wanted to be a ballerina, but even then I couldn’t do a split. I think horseback riding tightened my thigh muscles, making me better at riding but worse as far as being flexible. At least that is my theory.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Be a really good proofreader. I get tired of correcting other people’s errors, and they don’t appreciate me for doing it. As a boss, my staff hated how many times I would send back a document for corrections.

The last thing you ordered online: A replacement remote.

The last thing you regret buying: A blouse that turned out to be from China, was way too small, and was non-returnable. There was no heads up that the sizes ran small or that items could not be returned.

Things you always put in your books: An international setting.

Things you never put in your books: Comic book-like characters.

Favorite places you’ve been: Too many to list. There’s a reason I worked overseas for so long. Every place has something special and wonderful about it. For example, Guatemala is spectacularly physically beautiful, with volcanoes and lakes and indigenous handicrafts, while Indonesia is so exotic and culturally different that visitors have new insights about western cultural biases.

Places you never want to go to again: Any place really cold. I don’t like cold weather.

Favorite books (or genre): Mysteries. My favorite books as a child were the Nancy Drew series. Once I began my really stressful career, I returned to reading mysteries as my favorite escape.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Science fiction. Although, I have read a few sci-fi books recommended by friends and usually enjoyed them.

Favorite things to do: Read, travel, watch PBS News Hour and Masterpiece Theater, spend time with just about any type of animal but particularly with horses and cats and dogs.

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: Having to learn a new technology. I just learned to use the PayPal card reader to sell my books at events and then PayPal ditched the reader for a new contraption called Zettle. Do they do it to torture me?

About Julie

Julie Gianelloni Connor is an award-winning author and retired senior Foreign Service Officer. Her first book, "Savoring the Camino de Santiago: It’s the Pilgrimage, not the Hike," garnered no. 1 status on Amazon in both the category for new books on hiking and walking and the category for Spain and Portugal. It subsequently went on to win a silver medal in the eLit national competition as well as being selected as a finalist by Self-Publishing Review (SPR), in addition to three other awards. She released her second title, a children’s book, in 2021. It won first place in the children’s book category at the North Texas Book Festival and the Grand Prize for children's books from AMI (Authors Marketing International). "The Baby with Three Families, Two Countries, and One Promise" tells an international adoption story. Her short stories have appeared in four anthologies. Julie is the owner and publisher of Bayou City Press (BCP) in Houston, Texas, which focuses on travel writing, Houston, history, and international affairs. Julie writes a weekly newsletter for BCP updating subscribers about activities. She founded BCP after spending 33 years as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, first with the U.S. Information Agency and later with the U.S. Department of State. She had nine overseas assignments in seven different countries: Israel (twice), Paraguay, Guatemala, Indonesia, Colombia (twice), Malaysia, and Chile. In Washington, DC, Julie worked on a variety of matters, ranging from nuclear non-proliferation to narcotics control to women’s issues. She has one son, James, and two cats, Halloween and Charles Augustus V. Her books can be ordered from her publishing website (BayouCityPress.com), from her author website (JulieConnorAuthor.com), or from Amazon.com.

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