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Interview with Julie Berry
To call children's author Julie Berry busy is an understatement; she's the mom of four young boys, director of marketing for a software company, and a novelist too. Though the characters in her 2009 book The Amaranth Enchantment get a little supernatural help in tough situations, there is no magic in the way Berry gets it all done. Determination, a healthy perspective and some great organizing skills are key. She tells Store & Style how she got her start, and shares her top tips for keeping life under control.
S&S: What motivated you to go back to school when you had four young children at home?
JB: I love my children and definitely chose to stay home, but it was challenging. I had children with special needs whose demands were extremely taxing and I was looking for an outlet. I knew if I could really do what I wanted, I'd go back to school, get a degree in creative writing and write children's books. But I'd always felt that it was a frivolous desire, and I couldn't justify the expense. I finally realized that my happiness was important and it had an economic value. So I started taking classes at Simmons in Boston. After a year I transferred to Vermont College, which was a low residency program. That became more manageable for me with my children and other commitments.
S&S: How did you juggle the demands of your schoolwork, job, and children?
JB: Once I made the decision to go back to school, the pieces came together very well. The college girl next door was looking for part time work and her schedule meshed with mine. That's how I managed the logistics. I've always done my schoolwork after my children were in bed and I still write at night. I often stayed up well past midnight to finish. When you want to accomplish something significant, there is always a price, and for me, the price was sleep. But it was exciting and thrilling to be doing something I loved and I didn't mind.
Julie Berry's Top Organizing Tips:
- Have Kids Help: "I had to send a very clear message: I am not the maid," laughs Berry, who gets her boys involved household tasks, like cleaning rooms, loading the dishwasher, and carrying laundry. "I feel strongly that it teaches them to look out for themselves, pick up after themselves, and take responsibility as members of a family."
- Create a Central Calendar: Berry relies on Microsoft Outlook to plan and schedule. She religiously enters family, work, and school related events into the calendar (and copies her husband on each entry). Electronic reminders keep her day on track.
- Compartmentalize Your Time: "I'm not a paragon of organization," says Berry, "if you looked at my office you'd see clutter, but I'm able to keep many wheels spinning at the same time." Her day is divided in to careful segments, from the half hour she spends each morning answering emails to her writing time, which starts at nine p.m. Maintaining her day's structure is essential to staying on schedule .
- Commit to Your Goal:"If you decide to do a thing, then do it," encourages Berry. "Often we fritter around the edge of things; we blog about things instead of doing them. We buy all the trimmings of a hobby without ever doing much work. If you are going to carve out space in your time and budget to do it, then make the investment. There is nothing that boosts your confidence more than progress toward your goal. Be purposeful."
