The Author
Tracey Sinclair
The Masterpiece
Dark Dates
The place where she creates
Newcastle, in the UK, but I’ve been
living in London for the past 10 years.
The genre that gets to claim her
I’ve written in several genres – my
first two books were, I would suppose, ‘literary’ fiction. My
current novel Dark Dates is urban fantasy.
The heart of the story
It’s about a London girl who happens
to run a dating agency for vampires – and who suddenly finds
herself getting an awful lot of attention when someone starts killing
off her clients. She also has to deal with the return of her hunter
ex-boyfriend, who may have something to do with it, and the
attentions of a very flirty vampire. It’s a fresh, funny look at
vampires and how they would live in the modern world.
Tracey's muse like to plan a bit
I write in longhand and create
‘character sketches’ and write unconnected scenes first, and
pretty much wing it after that, at least in my first draft! I like
being surprised by the story.
She wants to see what people think.
That’s not really how I think, but I
have written things that I think, this is so much fun, I’d love to
see how other people feel about it.
She can do allot on her own but did have some help.
I had a collection of ‘beta’
readers from whom I take feedback, but I’m a professional editor so
I cut that cost myself (I know you can never 100% edit your own work,
but I reckoned it would be close enough!) I got a friend to do the
cover.
The writer that made her want to write.
Ooh, tough one – and almost
impossible to narrow down to one writer. I’d say the writer whose
books I know will always make me happy is Terry Pratchett.
Writing is just plain easy for Tracey.
No, I find writing pretty easy – it’s
all the other stuff around it that I find hard!
Her characters always surprise her.
Oh, they totally write themselves. I’m
constantly being surprised.
Tracey's personality tends to leak into her characters.
There’s usually a lot of me in my
protagonists (at least in my two novels so far): I just find it easy
to find that voice, and the differences are what makes it interesting
for me. And writing Cass Bick, in Dark Dates, I deliberately made her
a bit like me because I wanted to create a normal, likeable heroine;
and I’m pretty normal and hopefully likeable!
This is how she makes her living and loves it.
I am a full time freelance writer and
editor, so one form of writing or other is how I make my living!
Her one time travel meet and greet?
Elizabeth I. I think she’s such a
fascinating figure, it would be amazing to see what she was like.
This book in the masses of others in it's genre will stand out because:
Tough one: I think in the admittedly
crowded urban fantasy market, I hope I’ve written a fresh, modern
take on the genre with characters you can identify, hot love
interests and a setting (modern day London) that feels real and very
grounded. Also, it’s fun, and doesn’t take itself too seriously,
so hopefully that will get people interested.
Social media is the key to free marketing.
I think having an online presence is
vital: Twitter, a blog, etc, though you have to be careful not to
make it all about promotion or it gets boring for people. I’ve also
found book bloggers tremendously supportive – a lot won’t deal
with indie authors, but the ones who do are, in my experience,
lovely. I think the important thing to do is not just ask for a
review: consider how you can help them out, for instance by providing
content like guest posts. I usually offer guest posts on my blog,
too, which helps me get content and builds relationships.
And now here is where you can find Tracey and her books:
Blog:
http://bodyofageekgoddess.blogspot.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please no nasty or hurtful comments. This is a site for helping, not hurting.