Ask the Author: Tracy Clark
Answered Questions (25)
Tracy Clark
Hi, Amy! So glad you enjoyed ECHO. Next installment, EDGE, releases next December.
Tracy Clark
I wish I knew too. The publisher pulled the plug on the award-winning series after the fourth book. Had I known the series would end with Runner, I would not have ended it in a cliffhanger, which is unfair to the readers. My plan for the 5th book was to have whatever Whip was involved in become Cass' new case. She would follow Whip into whatever he'd gotten himself into and together the two of them would solve the problem. That's as far as my thinking went. Now, of course, I'm in the middle of a new series, featuring Det. Harriet Foster, and it's all Harri, all the time. Maybe at some point, I will get the chance to revisit Cass. Maybe I'll wrap up the Whip & Cass idea in a short story, or something.
Tracy Clark
Hi, Amy. First, thanks so much for choosing the books. I'm so glad you enjoy both series. Now, of the two main characters, Cass or Harri, whom would I rather have dinner with? Honestly? Neither. Cass doesn't do small talk and she's always got one foot out the door. Dinner with Harriet would likely devolve into a very curt interrogation with a quick cocktail thrown in. Both women are not very good conversationalists. Cass is too snarky and opinionated, and Harri is quietly assessing and closed off to anything that doesn't pertain to her job. All business. So, for dinner, I'd opt instead for a good friend I can yuk it up with without any pressure to keep the conversation going.
Tracy Clark
I don't wait for inspiration. I write. If you wait for inspiration, you'll never do it. Get up. Sit in a chair. Write!
Tracy Clark
Keep writing. The more you write the better you get.
Tracy Clark
This is a question for the OTHER Tracy Clark. I write crime fiction set in Chicago.
Tracy Clark
Hi, Dorothy! I love libraries. Yes, I would absolutely come to Niles-Maine.
Tracy Clark
Hi there! Thanks for the question. There are 4 Cass Raines books so far. No word yet on the next installment. Meantime, I've begun a new series featuring Det. Harriet Foster of the Chicago Police Department. The series' first novel debuts 1/1/23, and is entitled HIDE. I hope you'll check it out. I hope to get back to Cass at some point. I kind of left her at a crossroads, didn't I? I've got to figure out what trouble Whip has gotten himself into.
Tracy Clark
Hi there! Thanks for the question. There are 4 Cass Raines books so far. No word yet on the next installment. Meantime, I've begun a new series featuring Det. Harriet Foster of the Chicago Police Department. The series' first novel debuts 1/1/23, and is entitled HIDE. I hope you'll check it out. I hope to get back to Cass at some point. I kind of left her at a crossroads, didn't I? I've got to figure out what trouble Whip has gotten himself into.
Tracy Clark
Hi, Anthony! Thanks so much for reading BORROWED TIME. I'm glad you enjoyed it. There are not enough WOC in this genre, I agree. But, luckily, I can point you toward a good one. Try Rachel Howzell Hall's AND NOW SHE'S GONE, if you haven't already. Excellent. Rachel also writes the Lou Norton series, Lou a black, female homicide detective in LA.
As the the PI genre, I think it may be an acquired taste. LOL. It doesn't speak to everyone. Me? I love a good, scrappy gumshoe.
As the the PI genre, I think it may be an acquired taste. LOL. It doesn't speak to everyone. Me? I love a good, scrappy gumshoe.
Tracy Clark
You're revising your book. It's due in two days.
If that ain't horror, nothing is.
If that ain't horror, nothing is.
Tracy Clark
I'm going to Oz. Even with the witch flying around on that smoking broom, I've always wanted to ride in that carriage pulled by that horse of a different color.
Tracy Clark
I'm currently reading Jamie Mason's THE HIDDEN THINGS and THE WAREHOUSE by Rob Hart.
Tracy Clark
For my debut novel, BROKEN PLACES, the bodies of a priest and gangbanger are found in an empty church. I got the idea for the location while actually sitting in a church. While sitting in the pew, daydreaming, my eyes wandered toward the confessional, and I asked myself, what if someone found a body in there? Then I glanced toward the altar steps. Two bodies, I thought. One in the confessional, one on the steps ... in a pool of blood. I was off and running at that point.
Tracy Clark
Inspiration doesn't enter in. If you're a writer, you write. You sit down in front of the computer, get comfortable and start in. If you waited for inspiration, nothing would ever get written. You write every day. Same time. Same spot. You keep at it until you have something that doesn't stink. No secret. No magic. It's a job.
Tracy Clark
I'm currently working on the second book in my Chicago mystery series, starring Chicago PI Cass Raines. I started this story by asking this one simple question: Who would go to the trouble of murdering a dying man?
Tracy Clark
Keep writing. Don't stop. The more you write the better you get at it.
Tracy Clark
Being able to craft interesting stories and populate them with characters that quickly take on a life of their own.
Tracy Clark
I haven't experienced writer's block yet. There are brief stretches where I take time to think things through, but once I've worked out whatever problem I'm mulling over, I'm right back in it.
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