Virtual Book Tour with Author Tracee Lydia Garner
Welcome Author Tracee Lydia Garner
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.
Let’s talk about your new book. Can you
tell us a little about it?
Deadly Affections as the second book in the Parker
Family Trilogy - a story about five adopted brothers and I’m only exploring
three of those five. The trilogy began with Cole and Allontis’s story in (2015)
Anchored Hearts. Deadly Affections visits
Dexter Parker, a single father and a doctor. Years prior in his initial foster
care family, he was a part of a family that was everything except good,
respectable people. Dexter was also in love with another young person there in
the foster home, Leedra Henderson. Leedra is all grown up, returns to Virginia
and rekindles her romance with Dexter. Leedra is searching for her missing
sister and that is her singular goal. Some of the themes throughout the story
include forgiveness and a theme I didn’t realize was there that became clearer
toward the end, is how we as human beings often lump people together thinking
they are one way and they turn out not to be that way. Dexter often thought his
father was one way, and such thinking caused him to miss out on the time he
could have spent getting to know his biological father and permitting his father
to know him and his family. By the time we realize the truth, it’s often too
late. It’s easier to reach for negativity and falsehoods, than it is to ask and
seek the truth and forgive. That is a painful lesson to learn and even harder
when you’re running out of time. Dexter and Leedra learn many painful lessons
and we get to watch and see if they can overcome their past or will their own
internal struggles and outside threats keep them apart?
What is the best piece of advice you would
give to a budding writer?
The best piece of
advice is two fold - 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.
Tracee Lydia Garner is a bestselling, award-winning author who writes stories full of complex
heros and heroines, relationships and families that experience tough but realistic life challenges in
their quest for love. Born and raised in a suburb of the DC metro area, Tracee works in health and
human service by day, has a degree in Communication and is a speaker and advocate for people
with disabilities. Find Tracee on the web at www.Teegarner.com, or connect with her on Facebook
and Twitter.
heros and heroines, relationships and families that experience tough but realistic life challenges in
their quest for love. Born and raised in a suburb of the DC metro area, Tracee works in health and
human service by day, has a degree in Communication and is a speaker and advocate for people
with disabilities. Find Tracee on the web at www.Teegarner.com, or connect with her on Facebook
and Twitter.
Social Links
Tour
hosted by Creative Expressions Literary Services
Comments
Post a Comment