Lynn Slaughter

I’m so happy to feature Traci Douglass on my blog today! I first met Traci when we were MFA students at Seton Hill. Already a successfully published author, she was one of my role models. And of course, I love romance, which is what Traci writes about. Below are her responses to my interview questions, followed by her bio, contact link, and buy links.

First off, congratulations on your two new releases, The Vet’s Unexpected Hero and Her One-Night Secret! Can you tell us about them and the inspiration behind these stories?

Hi Lynn! Thanks so much for having me on your blog. My inspiration behind my first duet with the Medicals line was an abiding love and respect and gratitude to all our first responders out there. After the year we had in 2020, I wanted to write something that celebrated their bravery and courage, while also giving them a much-deserved happily ever after. Then there’s also the great backdrop of Key West too, which is always inspiring—to me, at least.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer? Were there books that really inspired you as a child?

Actually, no. LOL. I came to the writing game late. That’s not to say that I didn’t love to read and make up my own stories as a kid. I guess it just never occurred to me to write my own. As a child, I loved everything. Mysteries like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, to more contemporary stuff by Judy Blume and even the Babysitters Club books. Then I got into reading romance in high school and the rest is history. I didn’t write my first manuscript until 2011, when I had a dream that wouldn’t get out of my head until I wrote it down. That idea became the basis for my first published book, SEAL OF DESTINY, a paranormal romance that came out in January 2013.

You’ve built a wonderful career as a best-selling author of romance. What drew you to the genre?

Great question. I’m very much into understanding relationships between people and how our individual pasts and traumas play into our search for love and whether we think we deserve love and a happily ever after. And of course, romance is all about hope. Hope and empowerment for women. It’s the only discourse written by women, for women, where the women take charge of their joy and their lives and their sexuality.

You’ve described your stories as “sometimes funny, usually awkward, and always emotional.” Does that reflect your personality as well?

Yep. LOL. That’s me in a nutshell.

Do you consider yourself a pantser, plotter, or somewhere in-between?

In between. When I first started writing, it was pantsing all the way. But as I started getting published and had deadlines to meet, I discovered I had to have some sort of a plan ahead of time to get anything done. So, I now do character bios and backstory wound sheets for my main characters, then build a rough outline based on those plus a beat sheet for the romance and the external plot. I think of it very much like a braid. One thread for the external plot, one for the internal emotional character arc, and one for the romance. Then, once I have that all sketched out, I can start writing. It also helps me get a synopsis done for the book too, which my agent and editors needs for new proposals, so win-win.

You’ve been so productive as a writer. What’s your writing schedule like?

I write in the mornings, since that seems to be my most productive time. Usually from around nine until around one. Then I break for lunch. Then if I have other things to get done, I go back and finish them up in the afternoon. Like editing or PR or whatever.

By the time you arrived at Seton Hill for your MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, you were already writing professionally and publishing. How did the program impact your growth and development as a writer?

Ah. Another great question. I started the program the same month that my very first book came out. I was contracted for another book in that same series to come out later that same year, but then at the end of January 2013, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. She was gone by June of that year. I was devastated. Lost my writing mojo for a long time afterward, like three years. Didn’t write a thing. If it hadn’t been for the program at Seton Hill and the support and love I got from all the wonderful people there, I’m not sure I’d be where I am today. So yes. I tell people that it’s the best decision I ever made. The people there made all the difference in getting me back on my feet and writing again. I joined because I wanted to know why what I wrote in that first book worked and how to recreate it so I wasn’t a one-book wonder. I stayed in the program for the knowledge and the people. And I graduated knowing that I could do this and have the writing career I wanted if I worked hard enough for it.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently writing two new books for the Medicals line, one a standalone story set in a family practice clinic on Whidbey Island, Washington, and another book that will be part of a four-author summer continuity project that’ll come out Summer 2022. Plus I’ve got other projects in various stages of proposals with other publishers too.

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?

Reading, gardening, watching movies, cooking. More reading. LOL.

Anything else you’d like to add, or wish I’d asked that I didn’t?

Nope. I think you covered it all. Thanks so much again, Lynn for having me on your blog today!

 

HEARTFELT HEALING HAPPILY EVER AFTERS

Traci is a USA Today Bestselling romance author with Harlequin/Mills & Boon, Entangled Publishing, and Tule Publishing and has an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She writes sometimes funny, usually awkward, always emotional stories about strong, quirky, wounded characters overcoming past adversity to find their forever person. She believes Love is Love and is grateful for every thread in her intricate brocade of happiness, though she rarely remembers everything.

Represented by Jill Marsal at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, LLC

Social Media Link: https://linktr.ee/TraciDouglassAuthor

Buy links:

The Vet’s Unexpected Hero:

https://books2read.com/TheVetsUnexpectedHero

Her One-Night Secret:

https://books2read.com/HerOneNightSecret