Tracy Novinger has been a member of WLT for three years and is registered for one of WLT’s upcoming classes. She lives in Austin, TX.
Scribe: In what genre(s) do you write?
Tracy Novinger: I am currently writing literary fiction and recently completed the fifth rewrite of a novel. I am a freelance writer and have written two nonfiction books on intercultural communication published by the University of Texas Press.
Scribe: What authors would you like to have coffee or a beer with and which beverage?
TN: I would like to have coffee–or more likely a “cream tea”–with Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling) of the Cormoran Strike series and on a separate occasion with Ken Follett. I would ask each of them to talk to me about their tight plots and unusual characters.
Scribe: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book would you want to have with you to keep you sane?
TN: I hope the Writers’ League realizes it is a form of torture to ask this question because it means having to contemplate going with just one book. If I must, taking particular note of the word “stranded” which might mean a very long time, I choose my unusual five-language dictionary which I will plan to memorize to make time pass faster–unless in the meantime I acquire a book on how to survive on a deserted island; it will need to include recipes for sea slugs. May I bargain for a blank notebook? And pens or pencils? I HAVE to write.
Scribe: What have you learned from your association with the Writers’ League?
TN: a. That some good books may not get published simply because the writer wears out before it happens. b. That many successful authors have seen many years and an astonishingly high number of rejections before publication of a book. c. One of the Writers’ League class teachers has become my guru; I learned I need this connection because writing is hard and solitary work.
Scribe: Where do you see your writing taking you (or you taking it) in the future?
TN: I will seek an agent for my current novel. Next, I will begin writing the second. Each novel will be set on a real and specific tropical island where I lived for a long time. My goal is to see both books published.
Scribe: Is there anything else about you that you would like to share with the world? An opportunity for blatant self-promotion!
TN: I am excited about my current novel as well as the second one I have planned. In each book I want to take the reader with me to an exotic time and place that I know intimately well. I built a website that will anchor the “online author platform” talked about so much at the recent (and excellent) Agents & Editors Conference here in Austin. Take a virtual trip to paradise: http://arubawinds.blogspot.com. I welcome your comments. Stay in your write minds. With the Writers’ League of Texas you are not alone.
