ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tracey lives in the west of England and has done so for the last 20 years or so. She started writing to encourage her son to read something other than train magazines- the idea being that he would tell her what would happen next and then she would write it for him, ready to read at bed time. Yes, you're quite right- it never happened. Work shifts got in the way and though some of the stories were added to, there were often months and even years between writing sessions. The unfinished manuscripts were found during a decorating session and determinedly finished over a four year period- four in all. Growned was the first one finished and edited. Others now published are The Angel in Towerhouse Wood and (as Beryl C Jones) a token Romantic adventure called A Foreign Land, which seems to have gone down quite well. Finding Richard is the last of the four and is due out any time soon.It needs further editing and she won't have time to do it til the holidays. And no, her son still hasn't read them- though she has inspired him to start writing fiction himself. Maybe, some day, he'll be able to keep his mum in the lifestyle to which she'd like to become accustomed.


 

Interview with Tracey Meredith

Who are your favorite authors?

Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt are probably the only authors I actively seek out.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

Having to pay the bills. The dog and cat contribute quite a bit too. On non work days, I am loathe to waste my free time doing nothing- there's always too much to do and too little time to do it!

When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?

Working, housework, all those mundane things. I also have an allotment that I grow vegetables in and that takes up a lot of free time from April to September

How do you discover the ebooks you read?

Generally just picking free books that sound interesting, at random. It usually takes a while before I get to read them, unfortunately.

Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?

Good grief, no. I used to write lots when I was a kid. As an adult, probably the first I finished was a Mills and Boon which I wrote as a joke for my Mum. Unfortunately, she passed away before I finished it, so she never read it. It's currently languishing at Amazon, but will probably find its way onto Smashwords idc. It's not bad, but will probably require a pseudonym.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

Not at all. I remember some of my favourite reads when I was, what 10- 12. I think we had nearly all the Enid Blyytons in the house, and I adored the Willard Price Adventure series (very into animals at that age- I think I wanted to be a vet). My older sister recommended The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to me, so I fell in love with Narnia (and, yes, I did keep looking in the wardrobe, hoping...)

What motivated you to become an indie author?

Having written the stories for my son, it seemed pointless just sitting on them. At least they're being read on Smashwords. I'm going to have to write a story with Dark Elves and lots of sword play to get my son to read anything I've written!

What are you working on next?

I'm just on the verge of finishing the last of the stories written for my son, Finding Richard, which is about a boy(Joel again) who gets on a steam train and ends up in Bristol (England) in December 1940. This was when all the major cities in Britain were subjected to intense bombardment during the Second World War. He meets a boy called Richard and they have some adventures while Joel is waiting for his chance to get home. You see what I was doing there? I brought trains into the story I was writing for a train anorak! Did it work? Was he nagging me incessantly to finish it? Nothing like as heck. If I changed my name to Salvatore and created a character called Drizzt, maybe then he'd take note. Children? Who'd have 'em?

 What are your five favorite books, and why?

That's a hard one.
Figures in a Landscape by Barry England
The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by JJR Tolkein
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
 These were all books I enjoyed so much I felt bereft when I finished them.

Describe your desk

Generally cluttered. Actually, I tend to write in long hand and then type up on the laptop. I usually to do this sitting on the bed. I'm looking to upgrade the desk and the chair as they give me back ache and things are always falling off the desk.

Published 2014-11-06.



For those who might care, since this "interview", I have published A Foreign Land via Smashwords,under the name of Beryl C Jones and have bought a new desk and chair. The desk is still cluttered.  TAM, 08 April 2015

September 2015

 Things  haven't gone to plan. Finding Richard is still on my computer, awaiting publication. A revised version of The Angel in Towerhouse Wood has, at last, been published on Smashwords today, and I am waiting for it to pass the final vetting process prior to being eligible for the Premium Catalogue. My fingers are crossed on this one, as the revised version gave me no end of formatting problems. If I've resolved them, the new version should pass through, no issues. If and when it does, I will know there are no issues and it will then be sent to Kindle. I am upping the price of the revised version to $2.99, which will hopefully raise its profile on Kindle. I will report back if there is any significant increase in sales.
 With that out of the way, I can concentrate on Finding Richard, which isn't too far from publishing- it's at the checking and rechecking point now. If I don't have too much school work in the next couple of weeks, it should be out by the end of September, and certainly by the end of the October break. Then I can get on with some new stuff, particularly the story for my nephew, Elian- which I wrote 14000 words for over Christmas, but haven't looked at since. I also have a short anthology of my daft poems brewing, some of which have appeared on my blog in their raw form, but there are quite a few that have yet to see the light of day.
With the experience that publishing Growned and Towerhouse have given me, I am hopeful my future attempts will be ready far more quickly. We'll see...

TM