The story is semi-autobiographical. I promised myself I would write this story when I was a kid.

Julie A. Swanson – 2 September 2025

The Back Flap

For fans of Kacen Callender, Lin Thompson, and Kyle Lukoff, comes a middle grade novel set in 1973 about a child who feels more boy than girl and is frustrated that people act blind to that when—except for her stupid hair and clothes—it should be obvious!

Shy fourth grader Jess Jezowski turns the tables on her mom when she’s given yet another girly baby doll for Christmas. This time, instead of ignoring or destroying it, she transforms it into the boy she’s always wanted to be—a brave, funny little guy named Mickey. Making him talk, Jess finally lets the boy in her express himself.

But when Mickey evolves to become something more like an alter ego whose voice drowns out her own and the secret of him escapes the safety of her family, Jess realizes Mickey’s too limited and doesn’t allow the boy part of her a big enough presence in the world. She must find a way to blend him into her—so she can be that side of herself anywhere, around anyone.

About the book

When did you start writing the book?

I started writing North of Tomboy in 1987, first as a picture book.

How long did it take you to write it?

Well, all told from the year I began it until it will be published, thirty-eight years! But I took breaks from working on it in between versions—I wrote many different versions of it—and in between rejections. But I would say at least half that amount of time was spent working on it. So nineteen years?

Where did you get the idea from?

The story is semi-autobiographical. I promised myself I would write this story when I was a kid. Parts of it have been fictionalized, and the time frame’s been condensed and is one year off my actual birth year to make the plot work better with historical events, but the truth of the story is there in terms of how I felt and many of the things I experienced.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Yes, many! It took a while to settle on what tense to tell it in. I have a version of it told in third person past and first person past but settled on first person present. I wrestled with structure and plot, too, where to begin it, the age of the main character, the length of it…

What came easily?

Dialogue. Since it’s semi-autobiographical, I could hear characters’ voices in my head and knew just what they’d say and how they’d say it.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

The characters are fictitious, but many are based on family members or are conglomerations of people I’ve known. I have exaggerated things as well. My one brother for instance, I make him more of an antagonist to the little alter-ego Mickey character in the book than he actually was.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

The authors who first made me want to become an author are Roald Dahl and John Peterson (the author of the Littles series, which are early chapter books about tiny people with tails like mice who live in the walls of the Bigg family’s house). Although I wanted to be the next Roald Dahl, and tried to copy his style, I’m not nearly as funny or wonderfully wacky as he was and learned early on in my writer career that I’d better embrace my own voice.

Do you have a target reader?

My target reader as an author overall is middle grade and young adult readers (one of my stories yet to be published is for New Adult readers), but with this particular story, North of Tomboy, my target reader is any kid age 7 and up, most probably 7-12, who feels different, other, alone, not what the world or someone important in their life would ideally have them be.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it? Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I wish I could outline, and I’m not going to say I never have, or that I’ve never tried to, but it’s usually after-the-fact that I try to get organized and outline, rather than starting out with an outline like many say you “should.” In my writing process, I’m more like a patchwork quilter;  I usually have these parts of a story I know are going to be in it, and I start by writing those, writing down everything I want to, and then trying to connect those patches, maybe reordering some of them from the way I thought they would go. I do give these “patches” chapter titles, but I tend to over-write, so usually they’re much longer and wordier than they end up being.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

A little of both. When I notice one of my rough draft chapters is way too long after I’ve finished getting it out, I’ve learned by now that it helps to go back through it and see if I’ve completely gone off on a tangent somewhere and entire chunks can be cut, or if the one chapter is really two, etc. But most of the editing happens after I’ve finished a draft, after each draft.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I did not hire a professional editor with my first novel (a YA novel, Going for the Record, Eerdmans’s Books for Young Readers, 2021) because I worked with the editor there at Eerdmans, a small independent publisher in Grand Rapids, MI. With North of Tomboy, I did hire a professional editor, because I was asked to have it copyedited (they said what I submitted needed a “light copyedit”) and that with a hybrid publisher (or at least with SP) that falls to you as an author, is not part of the services provided when you sign up with SparkPress. They cover the proofreading, but not any copyediting that might be required.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

No, I used to enjoy listening to music while I wrote, but now I like silence. I don’t seem to have a problem getting my fingers tapping unless I’m somehow stuck in a story, and then a good long walk really helps, or a good night’s sleep.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

Yes, I’ve tried to get an agent at three different points. The first time was right after my first book came out and another editor at a large publishing house was interested in a different story of mine and wanted me to do revisions for her. I actually signed with an agent then and was very excited about it, but things didn’t pan out. The agent wanted me to take my stories in a direction I didn’t want to go. Since then, I’ve been rather gun-shy about getting an agent. And I haven’t been successful in landing one, which is partly why I decided to go with a hybrid publisher.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

As I said above, I haven’t been able to find an agent and it’s really hard to find many publishers that will seriously consider your work if you don’t have an agent or some type of huge platform or highly commercial concept. I started seriously looking into going with a hybrid publisher, or self-publishing, about 5 years ago. It was a gradual process because of the expense—it took me a while to come to terms with making that kind of an investment in my work, in myself.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

My book cover was professionally done—SparkPress and She Writes Press have an art director, Julie Artz, and a team there who do the covers. Mary Ann Smith designed my cover.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I have a marketing plan for it. I really want this book to do well as it’s the first in a series.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Not really—I still consider myself a newbie at this, at hybrid publishing at least. Once my book has come out, and some time has passed and I know how it’s doing, then I think I’ll be better able to speak, or more fairly speak, about my experience hybrid publishing. But so far so good, and I do not regret my decision for a second. Indie publishing can also be publishing with a smaller press like I did with my first book, too, and that was a very different experience than this. I’ve had much more input on this book, which I really like. As for hybrid publishing, about the only advice I would have now, is save up! You are going to want to do things (that cost extra) that you didn’t realize you would, things you didn’t even know existed. I image the same is true of self-publishing, if you’re really going to go all out promoting your work.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I was born and lived in Milwaukee until I was six, but then we moved to Leelanau County, Michigan, and lived there until I went away to college and got married. My actual hometown, Maple City, is little more than a four-corner intersection with a blinking red light, a post office on one corner, a gas station, restaurant, and store on the other three corners, a church up the hill—very rural.

Where do you live now?

Charlottesville, Virginia

What would you like readers to know about you?

My first impulse was to say, “Nothing. I don’t need anyone to know any more about me than I reveal in the answers to all these questions!” But if I’m honest, I wrote this book so readers would understand how I felt as a kid, and so that readers who are like I was will know that they’re not alone, that someone understands. I always felt different (especially in the way I felt about my gender), like no one understood me–and nobody could or ever would–because I couldn’t express myself fully or even much at all. Hopefully I won’t have to feel that way anymore now that I’m expressing it in North of Tomboy.

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on launching North of Tomboy and polishing up the next book in the series after this one.

End of Interview:

Get your copy of North of Tomboy from Amazon US.