Julia Boggio didn’t set out to become a novelist in the traditional sense; instead, her entry into fiction came through a world she already knew intimately, one shaped by cameras, weddings, egos, and the quiet chaos of capturing other people’s most emotional days.
Her debut novel Shooters is the first in a trilogy, a romance set in the high-pressure, visually rich world of professional photography. It feels cinematic by design: fast-moving, emotionally charged, and rooted in the kind of real-life detail that only comes from lived experience.
The idea, she explains, arrived almost accidentally, the way many creative pivots often do, in conversation rather than solitude.
“I was a professional photographer for 15 years and I thought it would be an interesting world to set my books in… I was out for coffee with a fellow photographer when I said I wanted to write romance about photographers and she said, ‘Oh, like the Jilly Cooper of photography.’ And in that moment, the title and story arc for a trilogy popped into my head. That’s how Shooters was born, a riff on Riders.”
That sense of energy, dramatic, slightly chaotic, deeply human, runs through both her writing and the world she builds on the page.
Rather than observing photography from the outside, Julia writes from within it. Her protagonist is not an outsider looking in, but someone learning the profession alongside the reader, navigating its beauty and its intensity in real time.
“In the book, the heroine is discovering the world of professional photography herself, so she takes the reader on that journey with her. If anyone is thinking of becoming a wedding photographer, this is the perfect book to read because the world is rooted in my lived experience. There are lots of egos and beautiful locations to give it that dramatic flair.”
If Shooters is structured like a romance, it is also grounded in something more observational: a behind-the-scenes portrait of creative work itself. The emotional stakes are not limited to relationships, but extend into ambition, identity, and artistic pressure.
Julia’s writing routine reflects that same balance between discipline and unpredictability.
“I try to get to my desk by 10 a.m. and write until school pick up time. Sometimes the words flow; sometimes I find myself staring at the wall. In that situation, the best thing to do is head out for a walk.”
For her, creativity is less about forcing output and more about managing attention, particularly in a digital environment that can easily pull focus away from the page.
“A lot of social media is geared towards making the viewer angry and I don’t need that when I’m trying to write funny. I’ve actually hidden the apps on my phone and added facial ID to open them so there are barriers that give me time to remember I don’t want to be looking at that stuff. The struggle is real.”
That honesty about creative resistance mirrors the tone of her work: self-aware, grounded, and unromantic about the process of making art, even while writing romance itself.
When asked how she stays inspired, she avoids any idealised version of the writer’s life.
“It’s a roller coaster ride. Sometimes I feel creative and sometimes I don’t. If I’m not feeling it, I don’t try to force it, I’ll go do something else.”
Instead, inspiration often returns in movement rather than stillness.
“Nothing unlocks the creative juices like a good ramble and fresh air.”
If Shooters invites readers into a world of high emotion and visual intensity, it is also anchored by a sense of accessibility. Julia is not writing from a removed, abstract place, but from one shaped by everyday rhythms, school runs, writing windows, and the reality of sustaining a creative practice over time.
For her, the reader experience is the point.
“I hope they feel like reading the next book in the series.”
That emphasis on connection carries into her upcoming novel All I Want for Christmas Is Hugh, a festive romance that leans into nostalgia, comfort, and cinematic reference points.
“The book is full of nostalgia and cosy Christmas vibes… It follows an American woman who moves to the UK looking for her very own Hugh Grant. Does she find him? You’ll have to read it and see.”
But beneath the humour and romance, there is a clear throughline in how she defines success, one that resists industry metrics in favour of human impact.
“Every time a reader tells me that they loved one of my books, that feels like success to me.”
And sometimes, that impact goes beyond entertainment.
“One time, a woman who had read Chasing the Light told me that my book had changed her life because it led her to getting a diagnosis for a problem she’d had for years. That’s probably one of my standout moments that felt like success.”
In the end, Julia Boggio’s world is not just about romance, or photography, or even storytelling itself; it is about attention, where we place it, what we notice, and how we turn lived experience into narrative.
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