Julia Dahl, a six-year resident of Cornwall-on-Hudson, is the author of “Invisible City,” “Run You Down,” “Conviction,” and “The Missing Hours.” Her fifth novel, “I Dreamed of Falling,” hit bookstores last month.

Dahl holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the New School, and a Master’s in Journalism from American University. Since graduating college in 1999, she’s been working as a journalist. She’s worked all over the media landscape, from being a fact-checker at “Entertainment Weekly,” a features editor at “Marie Claire,” a city reporter for the “New York Post,” and a crime and justice reporter at CBS News.

Dahl left the newsroom in 2018 and has since been teaching journalism at NYU and this semester at SUNY New Paltz.

This week she answered some questions about her career for The Local.

Q: What prompted you to write your first book?

A: I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a child and although I’ve been writing since I was a teenager it didn’t occur to me that I could actually write and publish a novel until after college. I’d never met anyone who published a novel, so it didn’t seem possible. I wrote my first novel in my mid-20s and couldn’t get it published - probably a good thing since it was, looking back, pretty bad. But I kept writing. Stopping never seemed like an option. Writing is what I do.

Q: You now have five books under your belt. Why do you continue to write?

A: Writing is how I make sense of the world. I see or experience things and think: how can I write this? I’m also endlessly interested in people and I’m drawn to tell their stories through novels.

Q: Where do the ideas for your books come from?

A: My first four novels were inspired by stories I covered as a reporter. But this most recent book was inspired by becoming a parent, and moving to Cornwall-on-Hudson!

Q: Can you briefly explain what your new book is about?

A: “I Dreamed of Falling” is the story of Roman Grady, the only reporter in a small Hudson Valley town, whose girlfriend and the mother of his son, Ashley, is found dead on a hillside. The police think it was an overdose, but Roman doesn’t believe it. When he starts digging, he realizes that Ashley - and lots of the people he’s known his whole life - have been keeping all kinds of secrets. It’s a murder mystery wrapped in a family drama.

Q: How long did it take you to write from the original concept to the final version?

A: About four years.

Q: What research, if any, went into the writing of “I Dreamed of Falling”?

A: My previous novels were all research-heavy because I was writing about communities and circumstances that I had limited personal experience with: Hasidic Judaism, the NYPD, and sexual assault. But “I Dreamed of Falling” is about a world I know pretty well: a multigenerational family living in the Hudson Valley. It also touches on themes of mental illness and the journalism industry, both things I have lots of experience with. The only formal research I did was a bit into small-town police procedure and what happens to a body in the days after it’s found under suspicious circumstances.

Q: As a veteran author, does the writing/publishing process get any easier with each successive book? Why or why not?

A: Not really! Every time you write a book you have to figure out how to write that book. That said, I now at least have the confidence that I can do it if I work hard enough. The publishing industry is still baffling to me, but now I know enough to ask the right questions. And I know that you have to push your book; no one else cares about it as much as you do.

Q: What do you enjoy most about writing?

A: I love living inside other people’s heads. When I’m writing a book I get to live my own life, and I get to live in the world I’m creating. I tend to start writing knowing only a little about the plot, and I love the puzzle of figuring out how it will all fit together. I also simply love putting words together to create something that, if I’m lucky, entertains and maybe even enriches the people who read it.

Q: Where can folks purchase your book?

A: Anywhere! It’s available in hardcover, digital, and audio. Locally, Good Books in Cornwall, and Golden Hour and Barnes & Noble in Newburgh all have signed copies.

Q: Do you have plans for a sixth book? If so, can you provide our readers with a little insight with regards to what it might be about and when it might reach shelves?

A: Yes! I’ve started writing and this next book will also be a family murder mystery, but it is set in my hometown of Fresno, California. If I can keep up the pace I had with “I Dreamed of Falling” it should be out in 2027 - but you never know!