Julie Lawson Timmer's night on the town...plus a book giveaway

We're thrilled to have Julie Lawson Timmer back at CLC as part of BookSparks' 2016 Summer Reading Challenge! Today she's participating in our July theme month, which is Loaded Questions (from the board game). Her sophomore novel, Untethered, published exactly one month ago and BookSparks has one copy to give away!

Julie grew up in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband, their four teenage children and two rescued dogs. By turns, she is a writer, lawyer, mom/stepmom, and dreadful cook. Five Days Left (Putnam 2014) is her debut novel. Visit Julie at her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Synopsis:
Char Hawthorn, college professor, wife and stepmother to a spirited fifteen-year-old daughter, loves her family and the joyful rhythms of work and parenting. But when her husband dies in a car accident, the “step” in Char’s title suddenly matters a great deal. In the eyes of the law, all rights to daughter Allie belong to Lindy, Allie’s self-absorbed biological mother, who wants to girl to move to her home in California.

While Allie begins to struggle in school and tensions mount between her and Char, Allie’s connection to young Morgan, a ten-year-old-girl she tutors, seems to keep her grounded. But then Morgan, who was adopted out of foster care, suddenly disappears, and Char is left to wonder about a possible future without Allie and what to do about Morgan, a child caught up in a terrible crack in the system. (Courtesy of Julie's website.)

Fill in the blank: When I want to have a good time, I get dressed up and…
… go on a date with my wonderful husband, Dan, in downtown Ann Arbor. We love going out for dinner--our city has some terrific restaurants--and then to the Michigan Theater, a lovely restored independent theater that always has something going on, from Sundance screenings to concerts to performances by people like David Sedaris. Cap the night off with a drink or a decaf coffee at a second downtown restaurant and it’s a perfect date.

What profession have you always admired?
Oh, so many. For me, any helping profession is incredibly admirable--nursing, medicine, psychiatry, social work. Helping professions that concentrate on children really win my vote--pediatric oncology, foster care case workers, school psychologists, teachers.

Who should be this year's "Person of the Year?"
I’d make this plural, and name the victims of the Orlando shooting. I think we run some risk of moving on to other things and forgetting the hate and violence that occurred that night. Keeping these people at the forefront of our minds may be the only way for us to make the social and political changes we need to prevent something like that from happening again.

What is the funniest movie you have ever seen?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It may not objectively be the funniest movie around, but I’ve never laughed as hard as I did when I first saw that movie as a child. I remember a group of us watching it at our summer cottage, and we were quite literally rolling on the floor with laughter. It was that watering-eyes, can’t-breathe, can’t-stop kind of laughter that’s so good for your soul.

When you look back at pictures of yourself, what age are you most embarrassed about?
You know, I have always been the least photogenic person I know, so I’ve gotten rather used to looking at pictures of myself and cringing. No one period of my life is more cringe-worthy than another, which is either a good thing or a very bad one! My kids get a kick out of my school pictures from elementary school, in which I had short, unflattering hairstyles and tended to show all my teeth to the camera rather than smile.

If you could move to one international city, where would you choose?
London. We took our children there a few years ago and my husband and I immediately had the feeling that we’d like to go back when we’re empty nesters, maybe for a year, or maybe every year for 3 months or so. I’d love to spend time in other European cities but I could see using London as a jumping off point. As a Commonwealther (I grew up in Canada) there’s something very familiar to me about London. It’s like being in the Mothership.

Thanks to Julie for visiting with us and BookSparks for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends July 12th at midnight EST.