18Q Ann Tracy Marr

Ann Tracy Marr

1. Did you choose the writing profession or did it choose you?

I would have to say that I chose to be a writer. It was a conscious decision to produce a novel. But I would also have to admit that the profession chose me because the first manuscript I wrote was inspired by an undeniable compulsion to tell a particular story. Working on my family genealogy, I found that two of my great great grandmother's brothers were railroaded into prison for murder. The story begged to be told from the point of view of the two men stomped on by fate. I knew I had the skill to write and felt a responsibility to present their side of the story.

2. What is your background? (education, work, etc.)

English major turned Administrative Assistant, turned Computer Consultant. A boring life finally fulfilled by creativity.

3. When did you 'know' you were a writer?

I knew I was a writer half-way through my first manuscript. My family acknowledges it now that I am published by Awe-struck E-Books.

4. How would you describe your style of writing?

Whimsical Regency mixed with hair pulling action and baked at a high temperature.

5. What is your writing process?

Get everyone out of the house so it is quiet, then turn on the computer. Do NOT play games. All else is seat of the pants with a broad spectrum plot nestled in my head.

6. What was your path to publication?

With over 100 rejection letters stuffed in a file, my path to publication was as torturous as the crooked man who walked a crooked mile. Try here, dart there. Finally, Awe-struck E-Books took pity on my wandering.

7. What is your favorite self-marketing idea?

Christmas cards to everyone I have ever known. A letter stuffed in the cards begs them to tell everyone they know to try my book, Round Table Magician. It hits all corners of the US.

8. What are the biggest surprises you've encountered as a writer?

How easy it is for the publishing world to ignore a well plotted, entertaining manuscript shocked me. If the book is hard to pigeonhole in a marketing category, agents pass on it in favor of works they can place easily. Publishers churn out novels that echo the last bestseller and shy away from new ideas. How did the concept of the original idea get lost?

9. How do you inspire yourself? What are your sources of creativity?

I take a basic situation and daydream about it. The creativity to expand the situation into a full novel must be a gift from the gods.

10. What is your proudest writer moment?

I should say that reading the email from Awe-struck E-books accepting Round Table Magician for publication is my proudest moment, but it isn't. Instead, I was thrilled down to my toes when I realized that meandering my way through a plot, dreaming up amusing incidents for protagonists to share, I managed to include a theme in my story. Themes are serious business. I didn't know I had it in me.

11. What's the best advice you were given about writing?

Do it. Again and again. Start, work on, and finish a manuscript. Then start a new one. Practice may not make perfect, but it will make better output. Make each work in progress as full bodied as you know how.

12. What is your most embarrassing writer moment?

Uh, duh, give me time to daydream one up. I can't think of an embarrassing moment.

13. What business challenges have you faced as a writer?

Even Da Vinci had to channel his creativity to please his employer. Your soul screams, but you have to chase the all-mighty dollar.

14. What is your writer life philosophy?

Be out in the world as much as an incipient hermit can manage.

15. When you're not writing what do you do for fun?

I continue to be creative. Needlepoint, a dying art, has been a passion most of my life. Reading is more than fun. Curiously, when I am creative, I remember my dreams. If I neglect creative activities, I don't dream. Then I wake up dissatisfied.

16. Who do you like to read?

I have no favorite author. If the book is well written and nicely plotted, I;ll enjoy it. The first badly written paragraph makes me wince. If that is followed by a plot point that doesn't mesh what has gone before, I tend to drop the book.

17. What's your advice for new writers?

Develop a thick hide so when someone picks apart your manuscript you are not destroyed.

18. What are you currently working on?

A historical romance series of an alternate universe. Kings and the Round Table rule Britain . In the Regency period, magicians are as rare as geniuses, but the majority of humanity trundles along just as they did in reality.

The first novel of the series, Round Table Magician, will be followed by Thwarting Magic and To His Mistress. Of the ten known magicians in Britain , at least two are passably handsome and eligible, perfect candidates for romance heroes. But if I mention two eligible magicians, what about the third book? Well, there aren't that many magicians around a girl would like to marry.

Ann's 18Q