A Life of Words

When I knew Julia Heaberlin as a colleague at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in the mid- to late-1990s, she was a seasoned journalist and outstanding editor who oversaw a Features staff of mostly veteran reporters/writers offering readers engaging, entertaining stories every day. I never worked on her staff, spending the bulk of my 13 years at the S-T in the Sports and News departments, mostly as an editor who rarely wrote after having started my career as a sports writer in Odessa.

For three weeks in late May/early June 1997, I had the chance to work with Julia and her staff when I was recruited from Sports (OK, told) to fill in as an assigning editor in Features leading up to and during the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Believe it or not, I learned a lot during that brief stint, including what a great leader, collaborator, and editor Julia was.

But I had no idea that an infinitely talented writer waited, no doubt impatiently, to emerge all those years ago. Now — marveling at the heights my friend and former colleague has reached as a bestselling author of thrillers whose sixth novel has just come out — I know. And I’m awed and proud of what this incredible woman has accomplished over the past 11 years since getting her first book published.

Night Will Find You, Julia’s new novel, officially hit bookstores this week and she had her first two launch events last Saturday at Interabang Books in Dallas and Tuesday at Barnes & Noble in South Fort Worth. Kay and I attended the Fort Worth event and had a wonderful time watching Julia field questions from the audiobook’s narrator, Karissa Vacker, who also expertly read two excerpts and talked about her recording process. A crowd of around 40 listened as Julia talked about her latest book, her own creative process, and whether she’s already working on another (of course she is!). A number of former Star-Telegram friends/colleagues attended to see and support her, and it was such a treat reconnecting with them all.

Julia — whose husband, Steve, happens to be my colleague and boss at UT Southwestern Medical Center and also a former S-T colleague — can weave a tale of suspense with such extraordinary skill, it’s almost uncanny. It’s not just her mastery of words, her gift for using description, metaphor, simile, and imagery with brilliant precision, and her ability to keep her readers rapt with the tension that fills her plots. Her storylines are strikingly creative, compelling, and involved, each chapter a cliffhanger. As cliche as it is, the term “page-turner” fits Julia’s books perfectly.

All of her intricately developed stories take place in Texas, where Julia grew up in Decatur, northwest of Fort Worth, devouring books as a kid and dreaming of becoming a novelist. Under the “Who I Am” section of her website, Julia says of her writing, “No matter how gritty my theme, I can’t write a book without hope and humor. I want deeper ideas roaming my plots—cutting-edge forensic science, the death penalty, date rape, and dementia, to name a few. I like to play mind games. There are dark things inside me I didn’t know about. And I will never forget where I came from.”

Unbelievably, as she told us at Barnes & Noble, Julia does no outlining or pre-planning — she just sits down and writes, and her stories take amazing shape on the screen. Like any good journalist, she does extensive research to ensure accuracy in every detail, from Odette Tucker’s prosthetic leg in We Are All the Same in the Dark to the astrophysicist main character Vivvy Bouchet in her new book.

Julia builds her characters so vividly and completely that you get to know them down to their souls, and you become emotionally invested in her protagonists, bonding and empathizing with them. I’ve found myself constantly and anxiously waiting, wondering, wishing, hoping as the mysteries of Julia’s stories unfold, and I’m often surprised — no, shocked — when we find out. Her books are taut with emotion.

As I confessed to Julia when it was my turn for her to sign my copy of her book, I’ve actually read only two of her first five novels — and did so in audiobook form, that being my mode of book-reading choice these days. (I also told her that I prefer nonfiction.) But I’ll definitely read her hardback of Night Will Find You now that I have it.

Here are Julia’s six novels thus far and the years they published:

Playing Dead (2012 — I’ve read)

Lie Still (2013)

Black-Eyed Susans (2016)

Paper Ghosts (2019)

We Are All the Same in the Dark (2021 — I’ve read)

Night Will Find You (2023)

Including Julia, at least three of my former Star-Telegram colleagues have gone on to become prominent authors. My Sports copy desk teammate Johnny Boggs has written nearly 70 Western novels since leaving the newspaper business in 1998, winning a record nine Spur Awards. Jeff Guinn, who was a writer on Julia’s Features staff, has published seven acclaimed historical nonfiction books on topics including Bonnie and Clyde, Charles Manson, the Jonestown massacre, and the Branch Davidian siege.

If you weren’t familiar with Julia Heaberlin before, I trust you are now and hope you’ll check out not only her new book, but her first five. She keeps her readers spellbound and, as I told her when I saw her Tuesday for the first time in person since I left the S-T for The Dallas Morning News in early 2000, her writing is truly remarkable. When you put together a flawlessly engrossing story, characters you become intimately passionate about, and writing as polished and imaginative as Julia’s, you’ve got a superb work of fiction that has must-read written all over it.

Congratulations, Julia!  🙂