Thursday, 7 May 2015
Another Rebecca by Tracey Scott-Townsend
Release Date: 21st March 2015
Publisher: Inspired Quill
Publisher: Inspired Quill
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
Another Rebecca tells the story of one family’s moving inability to let go of the past, of love lost and found, and a young woman’s determination to pull herself out of disaster.
Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to welcome Tracey to the blog with a great author interview.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
On the cusp
of adulthood, Rebecca Grey has no idea where her life is headed. Like many of
us, she struggles to build a sustainable identity, a task made even harder by
the fact that her mother is engaged in an extended breakdown and her absent
father has another family to worry about. Dealing with their problems leaves
little time for her own, and pretty soon, something has to give. As she toils
under the weight of a tragedy that was never hers to begin with, Rebecca faces
the impossible task of carving out a future for herself, all the while shadowed
by the mistakes of her parents. Told with an experienced voice through the eyes
of three characters.
Another Rebecca tells the story of one family’s moving inability to let go of the past, of love lost and found, and a young woman’s determination to pull herself out of disaster.
Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to welcome Tracey to the blog with a great author interview.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Do you write under
your real name or is this a pen name you use?
Tracey
Scott-Townsend is my real name – the one I have now, anyway! I was born as
Tracey Wilson, became Tracey Scott at my first marriage, and added Townsend to the
Scott on marrying for the second time. My husband and I chose to join our two
names so we would each keep a part of our children’s family name.
Where are you from?
Lincoln, UK. It’s a cathedral city with a very steep hill
leading up to the top. And it has two commons, the West and the South. I was
born here and moved away to Hull for 17 years, where I was married the first
time and had all my children. I moved back to Lincoln in 1999, but plan to make
a permanent home in Hull with my husband (when we’re not travelling) in 2017.
That’s the year Hull becomes UK City of Culture.
Did you write as a
child?
Yes. Always. I wrote my first ‘novel’, Bonny, King of the Brumbies when I was 10. I wrote poems from the
age of 7 and when I was 12 my teacher put up a display of my poems for open
evening.
What was the first thing you ever had published?
In 2012 I began my publication journey with a short story
called ‘Fox Haven’ in Cassiopeia Magazine, an online literary and arts journal.
This was followed by further publication of short stories in 2013 and 2014. My
first novel, The Last Time We Saw Marion
was published in April, 2014.
Do you have a writing
routine?
I try to. The plan is to prioritise writing during ‘normal’
working hours – i.e. between 9AM and 6PM. That means ignoring the washing,
washing-up, wiping-down and evening meal preparation, not to mention the calls
of dog, cat and guinea pigs on my way out to the Writing Shed across the
garden. So I sometimes get distracted. On the other hand I will often work late
into the night, so it balances out.
Ideally, the routine would be to write/edit/research between
9 and 12, then take a break for sunshine, tea or perhaps a quick domestic duty
or two. Then back to work between 1 and 3. Then walk the dog (combined with shopping
for food – I have a pull-along trolley). The dog gets a treat for waiting
patiently outside the store, tethered, of course. Finally I’ll get in another
writing or editing stint between 4 and 6PM.
Having a writing shed helps because I keep nothing in there
other than work-related stuff and personal things such as photographs and books
which help to keep me inspired.
Do you have any
writing rituals?
1/ Tidy the working space. I can’t work amongst clutter,
it’s too distracting. 2/ Gaze around my shed because I love it in there so
much. 3/ Check Facebook, Twitter, email etc. before beginning writing.
Do you have a current
work in progress?
Yes. I’m writing a novel provisionally entitled Island Babies. It’s about Lauren and
Neil who move to the Outer Hebrides; Neil to take up a position as a GP and
Lauren to write an academic book. The couple are getting over a personal
tragedy and living on the (fictional) island of Kerensay brings Neil’s past back
to haunt both of them in different ways.
Where did the idea
for Another Rebecca come from?
It was originally inspired by a painting: There is no Night by Jack B. Yeats. The
painting is an abstract, intensely coloured landscape incorporating the figure
of a blond-haired man and a galloping white horse. I wrote a short story
inspired by this in 1989. Another Rebecca
is a development of that story. At the beginning of the book, Rebecca
effectively goes into the painting and the theme of it underlies her whole
broken childhood.
Who was the first
person you gave the book to to read?
I first put some chapters of the book – then provisionally
titled Veil of Grey – up on the
writers’ community site Authonomy dot com. It was critiqued by a particular
group I was a member of, and it was also chosen for the site’s ‘One to Watch
Wednesday’ spot in May 2012. The first person to read the finished manuscript
was my friend Ali Edgley who gave it a read-through and made suggestions for
improvement.
Do you have any
advice for budding authors?
Write a ‘dirty draft’ without worrying about editing or
improving along the way. Then go back to the beginning and rewrite. Then go
back to the beginning and edit, then go back to the beginning and edit again,
then… and so on. Eventually you will ‘know’ that it’s right. And then send it
to an editor who will make many suggestions for improvement, and then go
through the whole process again.
Thank you to Tracey for appearing on the blog. You can catch my review of Another Rebecca on the blog tomorrow!
BUY
LINKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracey
spends her writing time in her much-loved shed. It’s a
world of her own making, like her stories. She says that stepping inside and
closing the door behind her induces a feeling like the one you get in the
hushed atmosphere of a church.
She
is the mother of four children, three of whom have now left home: one of them
particularly far away. Still, she’s
sure that Australia will provide as much inspiration for her writing as Iceland
has done, (another place she was introduced to by her son). She’s really hoping to witness a full show of the Northern
Lights next time she is there.
Closer
to home, Tracey enjoys travelling in the bus-with-a-woodstove with her husband
and their Labrador, Riley. They are always on the lookout for a scenic layby in
which to sleep. Last year they spent time all over the British Isles, including
the Outer Hebrides, which will be the setting for a future novel. In a few
years they plan to set off on the road (by way of the sea) for an extended
period of time: after all, writing can be done anywhere.
social media links:
Website http://traceyscotttownsend.com/
Facebook Author page https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTrace
Twitter @authortrace https://twitter.com/authortrace
about.me http://about.me/traceintime
Instagram https://instagram.com/authortrace/
Post a Comment