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On the Scene: Author Julie Caldwell conjures fantasy success from resilience

Julie Caldwell
juliecaldwell.com
Julie Caldwell

Navigating the worlds of independent art can often feel like stepping into a larger community and finding new friends and spaces with which to share your time, especially if you’re breaking into the live music scene or sharing artworks in galleries and exhibitions.

But it can be more difficult to find your way into the creative scene when both your art and your audience are spawned entirely through words and imaginations.

That’s definitely been the case for Julie Caldwell - the award-winning Oklahoma City-based author behind the young adult fantasy novel “Of Witches and Ruin” and its sequel, “Of War and Magic” – who had to push herself to turn the unfortunate loss of one creative outlet into a new opportunity to showcase her own imaginative storytelling.

After a serious injury made it impossible to continue the photography business that she had worked for years to develop, she found herself falling back into her love of fantasy and into the unique potential of reading for escape and adventure.

Julie Caldwell: I love to escape in stories, so I escaped in my own stories, and in 2019 when I got injured, I kind of had an identity crisis of like “what do I do?”

Because at that point, I had invested five or six years into the photography, and I was so sure that was what I was supposed to be doing, and I was completely wrong.

Brett Fieldcamp: Instead, Caldwell put her love of stories – and of storytelling- into action for herself in 2021, committing to the annual writing challenge National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, to complete a full draft of a novel entirely within the month of November.

Julie Caldwell: I wrote “Of Witches and Ruin,” my debut novel, for National Novel Writing Month. I finished 50,000 words in 30 days. But I did it, and I was like “I put so much work into this, I am going to publish it one day.”

Brett Fieldcamp: Rather than take her chances in the difficult and often impenetrable world of corporate publishing, Caldwell decided to self-publish “Of Witches and Ruin,” her fantasy adventure of a teenage witch facing both a potentially world-shattering, magical threat and high school.

For her, the way into the writing world, and the key to finding everything from help with design and editing to the community, and eventually the success that she’d been seeking was social media.

Julie Caldwell: Mostly for me, it was just online because that was what I knew how to do. That was how I marketed the book. I used Tik Tok.

You know, even before the book was published, I would make videos of “oh my gosh, I finished the first draft” or like “I just got the cover designer,” and I think really getting personal with it is what made the book do well.

Brett Fieldcamp: For Caldwell, those online platforms provided the same kind of supportive and creatively nurturing community that she’d like to see more of in person across the Oklahoma City writing scene, a community that she believes is hungry right now for more direct connection and encouragement.

Julie Caldwell: I think it’s here. I think we need to dig for it a little bit and then shine a light on it.

Writing groups and, like, hosting writing nights where you chat with other authors, you spitball ideas with each other, use each other as sounding boards. I think that could make a really, really good place and kind of a safe community.

Brett Fieldcamp: That’s the community that Caldwell hopes to inspire among the next generation of readers and imaginative minds through her work, especially as she embarks on a new young fantasy series that she hopes to publish in the fall.

She was a recipient of the NextGen Under 30 Oklahoma Award in 2024, in part for her plans to bring her work to students and aspiring young writers across the state, to spread not only the joys of fantasy, but also the same powers of reading, writing, and embracing imagination that she says have shaped her own life.

Julie Caldwell: What I plan to do with my career is travel to high schools and middle schools in Oklahoma and teach younger readers about how reading cannot just be an escape, but actually a tool to teach them courage within themselves.

When people ask me why I write, it is because I want younger readers to realize that they have that strength and resilience in them.

It's always been that way. I was always encouraged to read. I was always encouraged to be creative, and it shaped me in a way that if I hadn't been encouraged to do that, I do not know what I would be doing.

Brett Fieldcamp: Caldwell is set for an in-person signing event at The Floating Bookshop in OKC on March 8th, and she’s eyeing a release for the first book in her next young adult fantasy series in the fall of this year.

To find her books and updates – or to contact her for readings or writing education events – visit juliecaldwell.com.

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Brett is a writer and musician and has covered arts, entertainment, and community news and events throughout Oklahoma for nearly two decades.
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