Genre: Multicultural, Inspirational, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Today, I am pleased to welcome back, Tracee Lydia Garner! Please enjoy this delightful interview.
Have
you always wanted to be an author?
I had no idea stories
were in me at all. The start of my journey starts with depression, flunking out
of school, specifically community college math for liberal arts and an awful
English teacher I did not like at all. In my college days, I just wasn't convinced
I was going to make it and I remember one late night surfing on the computer,
feeling down and I asked God for "something else". I wasn’t very specific,
but I was crying and just calling out to him to help me improve my grades or
give me a good job without a degree. He delivered as He always does. I saw a
contest hosted by a large publishing house and my dramatic crying and tears
actually dried up as I tried to read the details about entering it. I would
enter and later win the grand prize and that launched my writing career and
changed my life. Everything in life improved, my grades, my outlook and I had a
true passion and calling, and I wrote that story (Family Affairs) faster than I
wrote anything so I could meet the deadline and submit it. It was an awesome
time. Before that, writing NEVER really occurred to me as something I would
do. I had wonderful High School English teachers that said I wrote good
essays but publication and multiple stories, no idea.
Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you
feel has influenced your writing?
I think the biggest
influences on my writing are my parents, in a very (later discovered) kind of
way. My Mom left Georgia recruited by the government when she was 17, and moved
to Virginia. My dad left college and came up here to be with her and while I
didn't realize the love story I had right here, I now am in awe of the love
they shared. My father died in 2011 but they had forty long years together and
were high school sweethearts. As a child, you see your parents show affection
and all you think is “Ewe, gross. Don't embarrass me.” But till this day,
my BFF still gushes and reminds me about my parents kissing and showing
affection in front of us and mentions how this impacted her because she didn’t
have it in her own home life. I recall how I used to feel about those
PDA's prior to growing up. With actual writing and reading, Debbie
Macomber was the first to really turn me on to romance. I LOVED her stories and
later of course, popular authors like Sandra Brown, Barbara Delinsky and Brenda
Jackson. Currently some of my favorites include Irene Hannon, Julie Lessman and
Donna Hill but I read MANY new authors all the time some I've never heard
about or read before.
Can you tell us what a typical writing day for
you is like?
I actually work in
health and human service full time - so my writing life really only happens on
the evenings and weekends. Writing my stories is almost a part of my mental
health regimen and escape. As a Peer Counselor in my day job, the tragedies and
atrocities people I see face are so real and even hurtful. I need escape. But I
do try to get some writing in on my lunch break and sneak in a little time here
and there. I do just about everything myself including arranging my own
interviews and doing my own PR. I thank goodness for e-mail because it lets me
get a lot done including when it's time to upload my book and get all the
production stuff done. I try to write as much as I can because time is so
short, and I have my own self-imposed deadlines that I try to meet, and I try
to arrange an event, signing, book event, or attend/teach at a writing
conference workshop about 3 Saturdays out of the month so I have at
least one Saturday to rest/write/plan and sleep in. But I go to a lot of
conferences. I also teach at the community college 3 times a year - each time
is an 8- week Write the Novel class and 3 times a year, on one Saturday, from 9
- 1:00 I do a Self-Publishing Boot Camp, also at the community college. My
writing has launched my platform for speaking and teaching and I wouldn't have
those other outlets or streams of income if not for the books.
What is the best piece of advice you would
give to a budding writer?
The best piece of
advice is twofold - If you write a book -really take time to sit down and plan
(and I'm not talking about planning or plotting the book (because I'm a
“Pantser”), but I'm talking about planning your writer life). Those that write
one book never think that they have books 2 nor 5 more books in them. Believe
me when I say you will have another book in you. So with that said, you should
WAIT until 2 and 3 are done before you release number one.
This is advice I wish
I would have gotten and the advice to gain clarity, let go of things and to
write faster, AND to wait to release - I couldn't wait with the contest,
obviously but I could have really focused and done more to keep the books
coming. You'll fizzle out, life will happen, family will throw a monkey wrench,
but sitting down and planning things out will first give you peace of mind and
free your brain of clutter but also help you gain clarity sooner. I didn’t plan
anything when I started, and I didn’t seek any real counsel. Now I’m a planning
fool. My plans have plans. So, at the end of each year, I either revamp my plan,
tweak it and I note what did and did not work or what excites me so I can keep
doing something or cut something out and it simply makes me feel so good and at
peace. Stopping for a minute and just breathing to really think out what it all
means is key. I will also say that I give myself a pass. I’ve been in
publishing a VERY LONG time and I won the contest at 23 and the book came out
when I was 24. I’m now 40 so I realize that some of the planning I’ve learned
has come with age.
As a writing teacher you meet many writers.
What advice could you give aspiring writers on how to select an instructor or
class?
Look for teachers that have some publishing credits. I think that it is
difficult, because there are many GOOD instructors teaching that aren’t published.
I think that they can still tell you how to do it, provide valuable
instruction, but I believe they can be that much more helpful and forthcoming
if they have had their work published a time or two.
It’s not just about
story formatting and having great characters, it’s about the publishing game
and how have you fared in it and that is so valuable to students, it goes
beyond teaching skill and gets to the meat of how have you faired in the world
of publishing. As a budding writer, I found people who went through the entire
journey, that were much more helpful than someone who just told me about the
story structure and format. I would and wanted to know, about the entire
experience.
What are some of the reasons why talented
writers don’t succeed in publishing?
I think that there is saturation.
I hate to say that
because that’s like saying if it’s so saturated why don’t you stop writing and
of course I won’t. But it’s hard to see one small fish when the area is full of
fish. This is going to probably cause some controversy and maybe I can say this
because I write slow, but I would be willing to have a limit on books.
Isn’t that kind of
sad? Let’s say at book 30 every writer has to take a five-year hiatus. Almost
like seats in a public office. But this would give editors time to discover new
talent, and you better believe I’d be (and any other writer) writing my butt
off in that five-year “vacation”. But that will never happen, that’s too restricting and I
digress.
So, saturation in the
markets, they sometimes may lack development of the skill and notice the
difference between skill and talent. I believe that EVERYONE has talent and
that it really can be cultivated. I really and truly prayed for my writing when
I thought I would flunk out of college and God supplied. Yes, I loved writing
articles, commentaries, loved talking but that didn’t mean it could translate
into good writing and story-telling. If you really want something, talent or
not, you can LEARN to do it and master it. Just go ask Tiger Woods.
What techniques do you use when you hit a rough patch in your
writing?
When I hit a rough patch, I believe that the
issues are about fear of failure or success and
they are more about personal issues rather than the story itself. I once feared
characters
would not do well when I was taking a new direction with my writing and so I
wrote a
letter from the characters point of view to myself and they kind of allayed my
fears or
just confirmed them. Confirming them isn’t terrible, but it lets you know that
these are
the issues and you have to try to move on. Put all those cards on the table,
both good and
bad when you hit a rough patch.
I also hate rewriting, but I have done it before. Sometimes you’ve got to open
a new,
blank document and just start over again. I’m always surprised about how
similar what I
wrote, reflects in the new stuff but it’s still a rewrite even if there are
similarities. You
can’t write the exact same thing and that’s a plus, but you can write, new,
fresher stuff.
