Interview with author, Tracy Banghart
The art of crafting captivating stories for diverse genres and age groups.
If you've been following my Substack, you probably remember Tracy from our stories about creating her debut picture book, Love Like Chocolate. Before diving into picture books, Tracy made a name for herself as a novelist with a wide range of collections, including mystery, action, romance, and fantasy. Even though I work in children's book publishing, I love reading adult novels! I'm super excited to have Tracy Banghart join me today to share her novel writing process and new book releases!
Alina: Did you enjoy writing as a child? When did you decide to become an author?
Tracy: I actually started writing my own stories around five years old…I pretty much knew from the jump that I wanted to be an author. I wrote a lot of poetry and short stories as a kid, and even went to camp for creative writing! It was just something I always liked to do, and my dream was always to become a published author.
Alina: You have written many books in various genres and styles, including young adult novels and children's picture books. Can you explain the similarities and differences in writing for readers of different age groups and genres?
Tracy: Writing picture books is SO different from writing novels! I love writing picture books, because I love how you can play with rhythm and sound, and imagine what an illustrator might do with your words. I’ve always been very visual when I write…when I’m writing novels, I can see them play out in my head like movies. For picture books, I try to imagine what an artist might do to show the story on the page. In terms of the writing process, novels take a lot longer and can be a slog, particularly during the drafting stage, while picture books are harder at the conceptual stage, at least for me. Trying to contain a theme, a voice, and a plot into 500 or so words is tough! Luckily I have some great beta readers who are always on call – my kids!
Click the link to read all about Love Like Chocolate collection postings.
Alina: You write such a diverse range of stories, from time travel sci-fi in the Future Chronicles series to fantasy in the Grace and Fury series, as well as horror in Perfect Girl and heartwarming stories such as Love Like Chocolate. Can you share your writing inspiration?
Tracy: Ha! I do run the gamut, don’t I. Usually my stories start with a feeling or a question or a memory or a thought I have that I want to write about. It can be something like, “I want to write about my grandmother’s chocolate sauce” or “My childhood home is super creepy. It’d be fun to write a scary story set there.” Or “The state of the world is making me angry…I want to write a story where girls and women fight back.” Often, I find myself processing something…like, in Perfect Girl, I was processing my thoughts and feelings around how dangerous expectations of good behavior, like being polite, can be. You might think, how can being polite be dangerous? And obviously, it normally isn’t. But it can be if it overshadows our own instincts, if we are conditioned to be polite even at the expense of our own safety. I think women in particular are often taught to stifle their own instincts and needs to meet others’ expectations. Phew! A little bit of a tangent there.
Alina: What does your writing schedule look like when working on a book?
Tracy: This is tricky! I find that what works best for me is doing writing sprints and trying to set aside time to write in the afternoons, when I’m not too distracted by the business side of things but also not too tired to be creative. I also usually have to do a working weekend or two, where I send my family off on an adventure without me, or I go off somewhere on my own, so I have a longer stretch of uninterrupted time, especially when I’m staring down a deadline. In all honesty, I’m constantly looking for processes that work better for me, because I am a QUEEN of procrastination. In fact, this interview is a procrastination tool to avoid my current project. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone. ;-)
Alina: Your debut picture book, Love Like Chocolate, was inspired by your family story. When you first switched from writing for older readers to much younger ones, were there any creative adjustments or challenges you encountered?
Tracy: It’s SUCH a different experience. I think the picture book learning curve is just as steep as the novel one, and alas, I kind of had to start at the bottom again when I began writing picture book. I did a lot of workshops through SCBWI and read a TON of picture books to help train my brain in this new method of storytelling. I also wrote a lot of really bad picture book manuscripts before I wrote Love Like Chocolate. It was a lot of trial and error and reminded me a lot of my early days of writing novels, when I was just starting out and didn’t know what I was doing. I’m still learning and still honing my craft. I’m not sure that will ever change, honestly!
Alina: How do you overcome writer's block when you feel stuck?
Tracy: I don’t have a great answer for this, unfortunately, because it honestly depends. Sometimes the block comes from the story itself, and once I figure out what needs to change, the words flow. Sometimes it stems from insecurity, not feeling confident I can write a story, or that anyone will want to read it. In those cases, sometimes a pep talk from a writer friend can help, or taking a short break to help recharge my self-confidence.Ultimately, though, I have to find the time and will to write…and both can fluctuate.
Alina: You recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for your latest novel, Rebel Wing. Can you tell us more about this new book?
Tracy: Funny enough, it’s actually not a new book! REBEL WING is a young adult romantasy I wrote back in 2010, when my husband was deployed. It’s about a girl who disguises herself as a man to follow her boyfriend to war, only to discover there’s more to fight for. Think Mulan meets Fourth Wing meets Top Gun (she’s a fighter pilot). At the time, my agent struggled to sell it to traditional publishers, so I decided to self-publish it. Then, to my great surprise and delight, Alloy Entertainment, a book packager, reached out. They were starting a joint publishing venture with Amazon to publish original ebooks, and they wanted to buy the rights! I wrote the complete trilogy and released the books with them in 2014. Unfortunately a few years later the imprint closed, which was a bummer, but I was able to get my rights back. I LOVE this series – it means a lot to me – and I wanted it to be in the world. Kickstarter is a FANTASTIC platform to fund fancy special editions, so I thought I’d see if I could fund a fancy special edition of REBEL WING. And it was successful! The Kickstarter ended a couple weeks ago and I was able to raise enough money to print a special edition with all the bells and whistles. My plan is to launch a kickstarter for each book in the trilogy, so the full series can finally be in hardcopy. So stay tuned for more!
Alina: You usually publish with a commercial publisher. What influenced your decision to release Rebel Wing through Kickstarter? What are your thoughts on the pros and cons of commercial versus independent publishing?
Tracy: I sort of answered the first part above, but to speak to your second question, I think it depends on what you want to get out of publishing. I love that self-publishing is an option, and that, with Kickstarter and similar platforms, it’s becoming easier to make beautiful self-published books. Self-publishing gives you full control of the process, which is amazing. But it also means a LOT of work, and that you have to be more than an author – you have to be a designer, marketer, production expert, salesman – and I’m not awesome at all of that. Traditional publishing offers a whole team to support your book, and an editorial eye and vision that can be lacking when self-publishing. My preference is traditional publishing because I love seeing my books in bookstores and working with amazing editors and publishing professionals. I am happy being part of a team. But I do love the freedom of self-publishing too. Ultimately, I feel fortunate to live at a time when lots of options and opportunities are available to me as an author.
Alina: What is the best way for readers to support your Kickstarter campaign and get a copy of Rebel Wing?
Tracy: Unfortunately, the kickstarter has ended, but soon the standard editions of Rebel Wing will be going up for preorder, and the kickstarter for the second book in the series, STORM FALL, will launch this fall, so keep an eye out for that! You can check out my website www.tracybanghart.com and subscribe to my newsletter for the latest news!
Alina: Are there any fun stories related to your books that you have never shared?
Tracy: PERFECT GIRL, my horror coming out in November, was partly inspired by a bank robber who hid out in my basement when I was a teenager. My childhood home had a utility basement that was only accessible from the outside – and one day when my parents were out, my brother and I noticed the basement door was open. We knew, based on the news, that there was a manhunt in progress, so I called the police, even though I was totally scared to! My parents got home just as the police officer was driving up the driveway and they were SO mad. But while we were telling the police officer what we saw, he got a call on his radio that the suspect had been spotted…just down the street! They caught the bank robber in the basement of a neighbor’s house. The police theorized he’d been hiding out at our house and then made a run for it. So yeah. Bank robber in the basement. Fun times. :-)
Alina: OMG!!! I would be so scared if a bank robber were hiding somewhere in my house, too! Wow, the real-life inspiration is already so thrilling! I can't wait to read Perfect Girl!
If you could spend a day in the world of any book, which book would you choose?
Tracy: Ooh…I need to find a cozy, low stakes fantasy. Usually the worlds of books seem pretty scary to me!
Alina: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Tracy: Read as much as you can, especially recent books in your chosen genre. Give yourself grace…there will be lots of no’s, no matter how good you are. We get them at all stages. It’s just part of the process, not a reflection of you or your worth. Celebrate everything, even the little moments. Writing is hard work. You’re awesome!
Alina: Do you have any new book projects you are working on or upcoming book events that you would like to share with our readers?
Tracy: I have a few projects in the works that I can’t talk about yet, but of those I can…
Perfect Girl comes out on November 19th! It’s available for preorder now! https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250902863/perfectgirl
The kickstarter for Rebel Wing’s sequel will launch this fall/winter, so stay tuned for more on that!
Alina: Where can readers keep up with your future projects and follow you?
Tracy: I’m fairly active on instagram: @ tracythewriter
And I have a newsletter that I send out only when I have actual news, usually 3-6 emails a year (I promise, I do not spam!) You can subscribe at www.tracybanghart.com
Thanks so much for chatting with me, Alina! This has been so fun! Now I guess I need to get back to my work in progress……
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