About Julia
As an adult, Buckley pursued an English degree, eventually earning a Master of Fine Arts in English Studies. Her graduate work helped to inform not only her work as an English teacher, but also her career as a mystery writer.
She published her first mystery, The Dark Backward, in 2006, and she went on to publish the Madeline Mann series before signing with Penguin (now Penguin Random House) with her first cozy, The Big Chili. She has written four PRH cozy series, including The Undercover Dish Mysteries, The Writer’s Apprentice Mysteries, The Hungarian Tea House Mysteries, and The Dinner and a Murder Mysteries (the last under the name Veronica Bond). Recently she introduced a new literary series, called the Shakespeare’s Bookshop Series, which allows her to celebrate her love of Shakespeare’s writing.
Always inspired by literature, Julia tends to start books with a page of epigraphs, along with putting an epigraph at the beginning of chapters. Several of her titles are also borrowed from literature, including The Dark Backward (from a line in The Tempest), The Ghosts of Lovely Women (from The Odyssey), and Lovely, Dark, and Deep (from a poem by Robert Frost).
Julia is a long-time member of Sisters in Crime, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Chicago Writers Association. Her short story “Evening Call” won first place in the SinC Chicago Chapter’s short story contest in 2017; her novel A Dark and Stormy Murder was recently optioned for film, and her Undercover Dish series was translated into Japanese.
Julia is married to Jeff Buckley and they have two adult sons and two beautiful daughters-in-law. Their current home companions include four cats and one big Labrador.
She is currently writing a book and pondering about five series ideas. To reach her, visit the contact section.
