Author Interview -Tracy Barrett

Welcome, Tracy. Thank you for joining me here for an interview .
AF - What inspired you to be a writer?

TB -I always liked writing and got good grades in creative writing at school but I never thought I had enough talent to be a writer. I went to college and then to graduate school and began teaching at a university. Although I really liked (and still like) my job I felt the need for something else and I decided that the skills I had learned in graduate school could be used in writing nonfiction for children. I wrote ten nonfiction books before my first young adult novel, Anna of Byzantium, was published. I still enjoy writing both fiction and nonfiction.

AF - Can you tell us about your latest book release?

TB -My two most recent books are nonfiction: The Ancient Greek World, co-written with Jennifer Roberts, and The Ancient Chinese World, co-written with Terry Kleeman. Both are published by Oxford University Press. Jen is a professor of ancient Greek history and Terry teaches ancient Chinese philosophy and religion. We worked collaboratively-they supplied most of the information and I did most of the writing, although they did some writing and I did some research. My most recent novel is On Etruscan Time, about an American boy who's spending the summer in Italy and travels to an ancient village to help save a boy from being unjustly executed for a crime he didn't commit.

AF - What prompted you to write your books? Are they based on true life or are they completely fiction?

TB - Usually what happens is I get an idea and can't shake it. It's like getting a tune stuck in your head-the only way to get rid of it (for me, anyway) is to listen to it. So when I get a character or a scene or a problem in my head and it won't leave me alone I write about it to get rid of it. If I'm lucky that character or scene or problem will lead to another, and then another, until I have a whole book! Anna of Byzantium is based on a real 12th-century Byzantine princess but my other novels are pure fiction.

AF -Would you take us through your typical writing day?

TB - I don't have a typical day! If I have a heavy teaching load on a particular day I usually don't get any writing done, although I think about it and sometimes do some mental pre-writing. On days when I don't have many classes or during vacation I write most of the morning and revise for a little while in the afternoon.

AF -Do you think about your readers when you write a book?

TB - Not when I'm writing fiction-I just write what I feel needs to happen. When writing nonfiction I keep in mind the background knowledge that my readers might or might not have, the curriculum requirements for the grade I'm writing for, that kind of thing.

AF - What sort of things do you do when you're not writing?

TB- I teach! When I'm not doing either, I read a lot, like most writers. I also like to cook and knit. I get bored easily so I try out new recipes a lot and I knit very complicated designs. See http://www.tracybarrett.com/bio.htm for an example!

AF- What are some of your favorite things?

TB - My family-books-museums-dogs-Italy.

AF - Many writers speak about writer's block. Do you ever have that, and if so what are some things you do to get over it?

TB - Yes, I do. I know some writers say it doesn't exist, and congratulations to them, but I get it! I have two solutions: first, I try to figure out what's blocking me. Almost always it's that I've set up a situation where a character has to do a certain thing but the way I've written about that character they wouldn't be the kind of person who would do whatever it is I want them to do. If that doesn't work I go to a different project. I always have more than one thing going. If I'm stuck on one I go to the other and by the time I go back to the first I often find that I've come unstuck.

AF- If you could say one thing to a new writer what would it be?

TB - Trust yourself. Listen to advice, see if it works, and if it doesn't, don't follow it. Write what you need to write, what's keeping you up at night, what you want to puzzle out.

AF - If you could say one thing to the children reading your books what would that be?

TB - Be adventurous. Read new things, and know that sometimes what's new seems uncomfortable at first, but you might find a side of yourself you never knew you had.

AF - When it comes to writing what's next for you?

TB - I'm working on a middle-grade mystery series called "The Sherlock Files." There will be four books published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, starting with The Hundred-Year-Old Secret and followed by The Beast of Blackslope. I don't have titles for the other two yet. I'm also almost finished with the first draft of a novel set in Bronze Age Greece.

AF- Are you available for signings, school visits and writing workshops?

TB- Yes, I love doing them. See http://www.scbwi-midsouth.org/speakers.htm#Tracy_Barrett for details.