at[00:00:00] Jane: Welcome to Historical Happy Hour, the podcast that explores new and exciting historical fiction novels. I’m your host, Jane Healey, and in today’s episode, we welcome internationally best selling author Tracy Anderson Wood to discuss her latest novel, Catherine the Wright Sister. Hold it up, because beautiful cover.
Welcome, Tracy. Thank you for doing this.
[00:00:23] Tracey: Oh, thank you, Jane. Thank you for having me. I’m very excited.
[00:00:26] Jane: Me too. So I’m going to do a quick bio on you and then we can jump right in. And every week I always ask tell me in the chat, everybody, where you’re from and what books you’re reading right now.
Thank you for coming tonight. Tracy Anderson Wood is a retired registered nurse and published playwright whose family is steeped in military tradition. She’s the national and international best selling author of The Engineer’s Wife, The War Nurse, and The President’s Wife. She is also the co author of the non fiction book Life Hacks for Military Spouses.
So I think this is perfect to have you on Veterans Day week. Thank you. She lives in Tampa, Florida, and thank you so much again for being on.
[00:01:05] Tracey: I’m thrilled to be here.
[00:01:06] Jane: So I have a special place in my heart for books that are about lesser known women in history, and Catherine Wright is certainly fits the bill.
So talk about the premise of this novel and how you decided to write about the Wright brothers sister Catherine, who is not well known.
[00:01:25] Tracey: And she isn’t and actually it’s my passion to find amazing women in history and so far I’ve talked to American women, but amazing women who have been behind the scenes, but without whom, big things would not have happened women who basically changed history, but we don’t know their story.
So I like to discover them and expose their story. And we can learn so much from them and so much more about history and understanding things if we understand those roles. And it’s also important to me, not only to recognize these women that we should know about, but we don’t, but it’s a reflection on all women.
And all the roles that we play every day, keeping things together, keeping families running, having jobs outside the home on their own. So it’s a story and the stories I write are basically for all women all the people behind the scenes that make things happen.
[00:02:21] Jane: Excellent. Yes. I’ve looked into your backlist too.
So you really you’ve built a career on this, which is amazing. And so I feel like we’re in elementary school, we’re taught about Wilbur and Orville Wright, the Wright brothers, the legend of them. But you go into you really do a deep dive into their story. And focus it on not only them, but on Catherine, their sister.
I didn’t even know that they had a sister. I didn’t know that they had two other brothers. So talk about the research for this book. You go really into the descriptions of the flying machines, and the technical aspects, which I thought was fascinating. What was the research like, and did anything surprise you?
[00:02:58] Tracey: I love research. It’s one of my absolute favorite things because I’m just learning so much. And at the time I’m doing the research, whether it’s, sitting in a library or reading many books I buy or actually boots on the ground, I’m learning things and I’m putting the story together in my head as I’m learning what happened in history, all the different roles of the characters in real life.
I’m imagining them in scenes and seeing how that will become a novel because a novel, of course, is very different from non fiction stories that, we’ve learned in school. Like you mentioned everybody’s heard of Orville and Wilbur Wright, but the things we don’t learn in school are just as fascinating and perhaps even more important.
So that’s why I do like to do a deep dive, as you call it, into the story so we can understand What they went through. I mean that the challenges were enormous, the bravery that they had risking their lives, risking, their livelihoods as well to do something that we don’t take for granted now. We get on a plane, we don’t think much about how it got to be that way.
I like to explore those things so I can learn and hopefully my readers will enjoy and learn as well.
[00:04:13] Jane: Definitely. So talk about Catherine Wright, again, no one’s really heard of her, but she was very much the third, like the silent partner in the relation, of the three siblings.
And how did you learn about her? What, like, how did you develop her voice as a character? I’m really interested because she’s fast.
[00:04:33] Tracey: The funny thing is I hadn’t heard of her either and I actually thought I knew quite a bit about the history of aviation because Dayton actually is my husband’s hometown and it became my hometown as we were military moving around.
That was the stable home that my kids have because that’s where grandma and grandpa were. So I spent a lot of time there and my family is just deep in aviation history as well. So we would go to the aviation museums and all the museums. So I thought I knew, quite a bit about him, but I didn’t know about Catherine and it actually was my son in law who was just flipping through Facebook one day.
And I was just thinking about, who I was going to write about next. And he came across a small article about Catherine and said how she had, helped the brothers and that she was a suffragette, which Some of my previous characters were also suffragettes, so he knew I was interested in that, and that I liked the time frame of the teens and twenties, but also he knew, of course, about our family’s history with Dayton, and so he told me about her, and then I would, then it was just off to the races.
I had to know everything about her, and I was just I guess the most surprising thing to answer that question was how much she did. It wasn’t just a matter of of course someone had to be running the bicycle shop and keeping the family solvent because they weren’t borrowing money and they didn’t have government backing or anything like that.
They did it out of their own funds. So not only was she running the bicycle shop and working as a teacher to support the family financially, but she was. One of the main resources for all the kind of special things they needed special fabric and they needed special wood and they needed fittings and just all kinds of things that she was the one who went out there and found many of these things.
She was also one to push them when they were crashing and failing and failing and didn’t have the money and there was so many times that they couldn’t. They could have given up and and she just didn’t let them. She kept them going and kept them going on the family, the family, the project basically, and and was really the, the light under their feet.
Not only that, but then after the big invention,
[00:06:47] Jane: we’ve
[00:06:47] Tracey: all heard of Kitty Hawk and and the first man, the power to flight, but what happened after that is another whole. Whole story, which, of course, is a big chunk of the book as well, because now they had to market this invention. First, they had to convince people to buy it because It, it hadn’t done, been done before and a lot of things had crashed and people had died and there was a lot of convincing to do.
And the convincing actually happened in Europe before it happened in the US and it was Catherine who did that. ’cause Catherine spoke multiple languages, French and Spanish, and she. Have zero reservations about talking to kings and queens and princes and captains of industry. Where Orville and Wilbur Wright historians say if they were alive today, they would probably be considered on the spectrum.
So that kind of gives you an idea of personalities. So that part was not within them at all to do. And so that was another big part of what she did, not only getting it invented, but then marketing it to other countries, which of course was very fortunate because the allies had the airplane before the central powers did, due to her and the brothers work on the airplane, which turned the tide of World War One.
So historically, it’s actually very important.
[00:08:07] Jane: Amazing. Yeah. And I love the chapters in Europe and how unafraid and bold she was talking to world leaders. And and I didn’t think about the fact that I knew, Auroville as particularly, it was very socially awkward, but now thinking back and reading the book, I’m like, yeah, that, that makes sense.
And they never married the two brothers and they were very socially awkward. And, So interesting. And really just dedicated their life to their work. I think, as well as Catherine did as well. One thing. As I was reading it she, nobody knows about her.
She’s this hidden woman in history. She did. She was actually more recognized in Europe. It seems in here. She received the French Legion of Honor along with the brothers, which was like the highest honor. Besides being a woman, why do you think she’s been left out of the narrative?
[00:08:57] Tracey: I think it it speaks to the age where they were, where women were very much expected to stay home and raise their children.
Families and not, work outside and actually many jobs, of course, were closed off to them. But she, and women were, there were prescribed roles for them. One of them, of course, they could be a teacher, which Catherine was. Women of that time, if they were a teacher, once they married, they had to leave their job.
So there was that whole almost stigma to it, especially in this country. So I think she always stayed on the quiet time just because of the mores of the day. And I also believe that I think her not marrying for, until very much later in life crept off on her. And I got that from most of her letters and her writings.
I don’t think she thought that. Being a right sister was a whole thing of her life. I think she thought she would have a traditional life and it just. Sort of year after year and didn’t happen. So I don’t think she was ever of the mind to develop, her own persona her own thing that I don’t think was, I just don’t think it was important to her
[00:10:08] Jane: interest.
Yeah, that’s true. I kept Thinking about it too, because this was, women couldn’t even vote at this time, so that and it was
[00:10:14] Tracey: more important that she did work on the the suffrage movement. And she actually led in the book, led a a parade and she did work and go to meetings as she could.
She didn’t, have that much time until almost around 1915 or so to work on it. And then that only left. Left four years, but she did work on it and it was important for her to women to get the vote. But I don’t think she saw herself as like the chairman of that movement. She was a, just one of the players.
[00:10:47] Jane: Yeah, she lived many lives. Yes, she did. Really so I want to talk about the structure of the story because it’s focused on Catherine. And, but it’s told from third person perspective alternating chapters between Catherine Orville and Wilbur. And why did you decide to write it that way? And. Was that always the plan?
[00:11:07] Tracey: Yeah, it’s actually written in first person. Oh, first person. I’m sorry. I made the wrong note. That’s all right. I actually didn’t start out that way. My previous books were written in first person, one point of view, the point of view of the protagonist the woman that, that the book was about. But very early on, I realized that I was learning so much more about.
Catherine and her real feelings and her dedication, not from her own writings and her own letters, but from what her father had written in his many letters back home from what Wilbur and Orville had written about her and their points of views and coming out of their mouth. How important she was, I thought was much more powerful than anything she would say about herself and she wouldn’t say it about herself.
So pretty early on, I realized I wanted those voices because that was the truth. And the other reason was a learning curve for me, having written other books where I I had scenes because it’s biographical historical fiction, and I try to stick to, the facts as they happen as closely as possible.
And there’s many important scenes especially like building the Brooklyn Bridge. There were just scenes where Emily was not involved. So I had to, do dramatic work around in dialogue or whatever the device was to bring those scenes to life. That’s actually really hard. And it’s actually much simpler to see a scene.
From the eyes of the character that’s there on the ground. So that was another reason that so many things happened that we know Catherine wasn’t there. She didn’t, she wasn’t at Kitty Hawk. She was home working. So I thought, I don’t want to have to do this through news clippings or stuff.
I want boots on the ground. I just thought it would be, it’d be, we’d feel so much closer to the characters if they could explain it from their own eyes. So that’s when I decided, no, it’s going to be horrible. And then there was, I don’t want to go into what happened with Orville and Catherine, because that’s too much of a too much of a giveaway there.
Spoiler. But I thought it was really important to get into his head.
[00:13:12] Jane: Interesting. Yeah. And now, so did you find this difficult or freeing to write this way from different perspectives?
[00:13:20] Tracey: At first, it was a little bit, cause I was worried about, balancing it. And when do how I didn’t want to make it awkward, the trans which transitions awkward.
I want them to really flow very naturally. So you didn’t really, it wasn’t jarring. So I was, a little worried about that, but really, as I was writing it just. It flowed so beautifully, and I didn’t, and I didn’t think, okay, I did Arbol, now I’m going to do Wilbur, now I’m going to do Catherine, now it’s, I didn’t do it that way at all.
I looked at, what needs to happen next in the story, moving the story forward, and who is the best character to tell whatever happened at this point. And that’s how it flowed. If it was, Wilbur was a person who had the closest relationship to the action than it was Wilbur. And it wasn’t, maybe I have to go back and look to see if I actually alternated evenly.
I don’t think I did. So that, that was actually really freeing and fun.
[00:14:12] Jane: Yeah. And I liked I think for readers now, too, you have some short punchy chapters in there, like just a couple pages, which I think mixes things up for readers in the way that people’s concentration are now.
I like that. Don’t forget about me. I’m still here. Yeah, exactly. That was good. I like that. Format a lot. You brought this up and this is one of my questions too. So you’ve written biographical historical fiction before. What are the unique challenges of writing about a real person in history?
I’ve only done it once. I found it incredibly challenging. You know what? So what are the challenges as opposed to writing a character inspired by a real person?
[00:14:49] Tracey: As in all historical fiction, readers have expectations of certain things to be true and not true. And of course, you’re making up parts too, but there, that’s a huge gray area, right?
What parts are you? Not so much allowed to, but more expected to stick to the truth and what parts can you elaborate or fictionalize? And that’s always a tightrope in historical fiction. In biographical historical fiction, you have a higher bar to reach as far as what you can fictionalize. I think the expectations, rightly with the reader are that you’re as close to history As you can be and of course there’s always things that are not documented and and not really known and actually that’s what I consider my playground and the whole reason really for historical fiction is to fill in the blanks that history doesn’t I don’t write something that we know didn’t happen.
Sometimes I have to move timelines around a little bit just for dramatic effect. But then, I own up to it at the end. But basically, I have a theory that what I write is either true, and it happened, and it’s documented, or it could be true.
If I make up, up something, it’s a scene, it’s because we don’t know exactly what happened, and I’m making it, I’m dramatizing it.
But in a way that it actually could happen. So I guess, I think that’s the challenge in historical fiction is always that tightrope and making it making it believable. And that, it’s believable because it all could be true.
[00:16:17] Jane: Yes, yeah, excellent. Yeah, I talked about this with every writer that comes on, and I think it’s all about if it didn’t happen, is it, does it feel authentic?
Could it have happened? Authentic. Oh,
[00:16:26] Tracey: that’s a good word. I like that. Organic or authentic
[00:16:30] Jane: to the story. Yeah.
[00:16:31] Tracey: Absolutely. And still, you don’t want to take away from the historic record, That’s important. But, the historic record for something like this, there’s actually a lot of historic record because they took many notes and, but no historical picture reader, want to do that.
So the other challenge is What of all this factual stuff that there’s a lot, if you’re talking about ancient civilizations, you don’t have this problem, but with more near historical fiction, you have to winnow away and find the parts that fit with your dramatic arc. And that’s also a challenge because I’m sure you as a historical fiction writer yourself you understand the temptation to put in beautiful little gems that you’ve polished, and you love and it’s so interesting.
And you’re proud you, you found this little gem, but if it doesn’t fit in the story, and it doesn’t fit with the characters, and it doesn’t move the story forward. You have to, build, kill your darlings, kind of thing. So that’s a challenge, but I’ve learned since this is my fourth biographical novel, I know that pit, and sometimes I’ll go ahead and write it anyway, knowing that it’s probably not going to fit, because still you’re learning, even as you’re writing this, you’re learning, there’s probably a little tweak of this that needs to, I wrote 50 pages, but, there’s probably half a paragraph that actually will fit in there.
So another challenge for us.
[00:17:53] Jane: That is such a learning curve. I think my first book, I had so many info dumps because I was like, yeah, the research and I’m like, my early readers would be like, no one cares. Was there anything in the research that you wanted to fit into this book that you just couldn’t get in there?
Cause you just ran out of space.
[00:18:15] Tracey: Yeah, there was a lot more. About Dayton, I would have liked it. I, it’s obviously an important setting and I use lots of historical references and, wheel buildings and things I knew at the time. I, but there’s a whole lot more about Dayton I would have loved to put in there, but just really, Didn’t sit in the book.
There was a lot more technical things, but they mentioned the airplane, which I’m a geek there. In my mind, unless the reader needs to understand a certain thing they need to understand like the concept of an aileron, even if we don’t mention the word really, they need to, cause they get, got to understand why these things keep crashing and what the challenges.
So unless it’s something The readers need to know, you don’t have any business going on and talking about it. So yeah, I would have liked to put in more fun things about airplanes, more things about Dayton. I would have liked to put more about the suffrage movement at the time because it’s, I think it’s really important even today.
But it didn’t fit with, it’s already a pretty darn big story. So those are some things I know when I write the second book about the rights of. There
[00:19:21] Jane: you go. I have some writing questions now and I just want to remind everyone to put questions in the chat or the Q& A for after I finish my questions with Tracy.
How actually we actually just covered this about balancing fact versus fiction. So I’m going to move on to the next one. What’s your process? Are you a plotter? plot things out or do you write by the seat of your pants? What’s your writing process like?
[00:19:47] Tracey: I’m, I think probably this is pretty common with biographical historical fiction.
We, we have a plan already because we’re working on history. So by, almost by default, because of what I’m writing, I’m pretty much a plotter. Some things, character development tends to be a little bit more a seat of the plan. Of the pants because I’m learning the characters and they’re teaching me about themselves as they’re developing and through my research, I have an idea of, what they were like but it, the character really develops and deepens.
As I’m writing, but you know the dramatic arc is pretty much it’s all plotted out.
[00:20:25] Jane: Yeah, that’s my process to I think, especially with biographical fiction you already have your person’s life and timeline you can’t really deviate from that. Was there one book that you read growing up that you just adored and was part of the reason you wanted to write novels?
Was there one, one or more books that you just, were close to your heart?
[00:20:47] Tracey: So funny. There, there’s several. I’m, I love I love Thompson’s Whistle really dating, but I love the Nancy Drew books. Funny because I’m not a mystery reader much now, but those really got me into, to reading.
And There was a book. It was, again, it’s a, it’s not a genre I read much, but it was called half magic and it was a fantasy. And and it was just, I just so amazingly written that I probably read it three times and that was a book that really opened up like, wow. Reading is a lot of fun.
And so you have also the ones that come to mind, or is the series Nancy Drew and that kind of thing. And and. And then later on I really got into dystopians George Orwell and that kind of thing. That would have been more like high school. But actually my very first favorite books were Dr.
Seuss because they were so darn funny. I still love Dr. Seuss. Classic. Classic. They’re just classic. They’re telling a story, giving morals or whatever, but in such a fun way. I love that. I think I developed my sense of humor through Dr. Seuss. Excellent. Ben.
[00:21:48] Jane: Ben. I know we have some aspiring authors in the audience always and you, this is your fourth novel.
You’ve also published non fiction. What’s the best advice you can give about writing and getting published?
[00:22:00] Tracey: Oh, find your tribe. That’s really important. Share your work with others. Get into a reading group online or in person, whatever floats your boat, but read other people’s pages as they’re writing them and critique them and learn from them.
You’ll learn more From reading other people, trust me, then you will having them. You have, it goes here’s my pages, read them and give me feedback. But that’s really a small part of it. You really need to have people read your pages and give you feedback early on. It’s really critical.
Do not. Go out there and start sending querying agents and setting, sending out your work unless you’ve had plenty of eyes on it and not, I’m not talking about your mom, you need to have critical eyes on it. And other writers are just a goldmine because they’re trying to do the same thing and they need your help too.
So that’s my biggest advice.
[00:22:53] Jane: That is excellent advice, finding new people. I had a great writers group when I was first starting out that I’m still close friends with. And it’s amazing how you think something’s good and ready to go. And then you get feedback, you’re like, Oh, I guess it really is not.
[00:23:07] Tracey: It’s shocking. I’m like, Oh my God. And sometimes I can’t wait to have my group read this, it’s it’s the best thing I’ve written. And I’m so amazed with myself. And usually they would like it, but they’re like, What did you think about, I didn’t understand this. I’m like, you didn’t understand it.
So you can’t see the problems in your own writing, especially after you’ve done it a while. It’s not that I now see it. It’s now, I’ve got all their voices in my head,
[00:23:35] Jane: and I
[00:23:36] Tracey: know when I write something I know that Julie is going to say that, that’s not written right or I’ve used that word too many, there’s just so many things and those people travel with you, at least me, they’re still in my head and I still, I still send it out.
Of course, I’ll have my agent and my editor, but I have several very trusted and the readers that I still send it, even though, just close my sixth, the book. But you still, you need those voices because you cannot know how your words impact other minds. You just, you think you can. Yep. And you can’t.
[00:24:06] Jane: Absolutely. True. So true. I wanted people Christine Mo and Courtney Writers are here and so many other lovely long time listeners and attendees. Hi . Can we talk about this gorgeous cover? ’cause Christine just commented on it and your covers in terms of your brand and I’m wearing
[00:24:20] Tracey: the colors.
[00:24:22] Jane: Lovely. So do you have much say in cover design? Because the colors are just amazing, but everything about it. They are beautiful.
[00:24:30] Tracey: I love it. I get a little bit of say, I don’t, I wish I had those talents. I don’t have the talent to design the covers like that. They always come up with these amazing things.
But I do get, No veto power or the the opportunity to tweak things and that’s really what this cover just completely blew me away. The color surprised me. I love them, but I tweak them a little bit. I for example, the flyer that’s in the upper right corner right by Catherine’s hat there. It was much smaller when I saw the first proof.
And actually, I actually, because I live in Florida, I actually thought it was a mosquito. And I like squatted Oh my God. And then I was, Oh my gosh, that’s the fire. And so I made them make that quite a bit bigger. Cause I figured, it’s pretty big feature. So I did that. I insisted the, all my protagonists except for the first one, because it wasn’t that smart.
My first book. They have the, they have a flower that’s associated with them, which is historically based. And and in this case, it’s wildflowers. So I make sure that the flowers are a little bigger and bolder maybe than other people would do it just because that’s my thing.
They all have a flower and there’s a reason why you have to read almost the whole book to find out why wildflowers are Catherine’s flower. So I love that. So I change or tweak that a little bit. The other thing I tweak a little bit is you see the font of the title there, that beautiful golden yellow color.
In the first proof, it was really a lemony yellow. And I felt it didn’t go well with a beautiful sunset color. And so we went back and I’m very color sensitive. I was an interior designer for a short amount of time. So I’m really I’m pretty conscious of that and I just tweak like no, until they finally hit just the right shade of golden and yellow.
And and then it was perfect. I might add something that happened in in one of my events recently, I had talked to the group about the scene early in the book where Orville and Catherine are in his bedroom and then he redoes her bedroom in this beautiful golden color. And it’s a big scene. And I explained to the group, I, I won’t go into that now, but why this scene happened the way it was, because I was in that bedroom, I, on my research and I explained why it was so important to me.
And one of the people in the audience said, do you, and then I was telling them about the same thing I just told you about the covers. Were you so conscious of that golden color because of that scene? In the bedroom and the golden color of the wallpaper and I’m like I had never put that together.
Wow. May that’s why, but thank you, that person in where was it? It was in Massachusetts. It was in it was in Plymouth, Massachusetts where that happened. So thank you, dear sweet person from Plymouth, Massachusetts, because I’d never put that together.
[00:27:07] Jane: Oh, wow. That’s right down.
I’m in Melrose. I’m North, Northern Mass a little bit. Are you ready to share what you’re working on now?
[00:27:17] Tracey: I don’t have a protagonist yet. What I have so far is an age I would like to write about. Slowly working my way through history Mention Years White starts Civil War era, and the Catherine Wright story takes us up to the end of the roaring 20s, which is fun to write about.
So you would think naturally, the 30s and the Depression is the next big chunk of time, and I don’t want to write about that. Kristen Hanna wrote a great book before Wednesday that I just, it’s not, it just doesn’t. It has to really grab me. And then the next big group of time would be World War II.
And I’m going to shy away from that, not because it’s not fascinating, and that there’s a lot of stories there are, but there’s so many wonderful stories already. And the women’s stories are being told. And I just want to, Move on, and I’m going to write about the fabulous 50s and the huge dichotomy between women’s expectations, women’s roles, and this perfect society that we were supposed to be post World War II.
And I think it’s a really challenging time because the social things are changing so much. And that, and then leading up into the early 60s. Prior to 1963, which I think many, the innocence of our country, I think was law. So I want to write about the 50s and early 60s, and I may stay in aviation and write about some of the women who who were first in the astronaut program and then were kicked out because they’re basically women.
Or I may do like a madman kind of thing, because I’m fascinated with madmen. But mad women, some women in power in advertising or in business. And I think that would be really juicy. And really, I just want to write about three martini lunches and smoking, all the things that I never got to do that were okay back then.
Yeah, so I don’t know who, I’ve got to narrow down and I’m looking for my next protagonist, but I haven’t quite decided yet. Oh, exciting. That’s very
[00:29:10] Jane: exciting. And all, all juicy stuff. I love that. Yeah, I love Mad Men too.
[00:29:16] Tracey: I have to tell you my Obsession with Mad Men is probably 75 percent due to Don Draper Jon Hamm.
Yeah that, that’s it, that’s why I watched the whole series three, three times. No, I just think it’ll be a lot of fun. To write about mad women. That
[00:29:33] Jane: was so fun, yes. So how, I, you, I should mention, in the back of the book you have some great book club questions. How can readers best stay in touch with you and do you Zoom with book clubs and things like that?
[00:29:45] Tracey: Yeah, I do. Mostly I go through Zoom through Adventures by the Book. They’re a wonderful organization, and you can actually write to me, as well, if you go to my website, TracyAndersonWood. com, there’s a contact page there, or also my direct email, and I do as, as much as possible, answer all emails, and you can contact me and, give me details if you’d like to do a book club, but it’s probably actually easier for you to just go through Adventures by the Book Club, The book and they will schedule it because I already know my schedule and parameters and all that good stuff and it just saves everybody time, but either way, yes, I will zoom into book clubs.
I love to do events. I’m pretty much done with my big launch tour, but I’m doing events here and there, wherever I’d love to travel. And I love for readers to, to write to me, if they have their, and if they’re writing they’re aspiring writers, aspiring novelists, I love to hear from them.
And I’m always happy to answer a question as I can. I love to hear from them. That’s really, it’s the best part, right?
[00:30:43] Jane: It is. It’s so great. I love it too. Yeah, Courtney Rogers asked, will you be back in Massachusetts at any time soon for book tour?
[00:30:51] Tracey: Oh not anytime soon. It will probably not be till maybe springtime.
I think I’m going up there. I have yeah, it’s not Massachusetts. But yeah, I was in Plymouth. I was in Brewster. I was in Marblehead. Oh, geez. That’s right near me. No, it’s great. You didn’t know. Oh, it’s wonderful. I, yeah, I had a great time there. I have a sister lives upstate. Not way upstate, but with Considered upstate New York.
And so I usually go see her twice a year and I’ll probably do some events I think in the it’d probably be springtime. I think
[00:31:23] Jane: Nice And let me see. We have a couple questions. Send me an offer. I can’t refuse and i’ll come Christine mott asks if you can meet any of the women you have written about which one would you want to meet?
I have loved all of them and appreciate your research Oh, that’s an
[00:31:42] Tracey: amazing thing. It is a good question. I think I’d want to meet the one I’m most scared of, and that would be Julius Gibson. The war nurse because I was a nurse registered nurse for 25 years. And I know how powerful she was powerfully physically, emotionally, psychologically.
And I just knew a lot of nurses like that, but I used to scare me because they were just so strong and I’m powerful, but I’d love to meet her because she was another unsung heroine. She basically almost single handedly. Made nursing into the profession it is today. And yet, and we’ve never heard of her.
So I’d really like to meet her. Christine. I’d like to meet all of them.
[00:32:23] Jane: Yeah. Yeah. Christine says I recommend that one to people all the time, which is lovely. Good. Thank you. One more question. Denise asks do you have a favorite character, the characters you’ve written? Denise Ordo.
[00:32:37] Tracey: I have to say it’s probably P.
T. Barnum. Because he was so much fun to write about. And just, he had so many wonderful quotes already. His own quotes, but just the feeling, his sort of irreverence to things. And, he was just a, actually a very deep thinker. Strangely enough, but just really out there personality.
And such a great foil for both Emily and Washington. I, so he was fun. There are so many great characters, but he was really fun to write.
[00:33:08] Jane: Ah good one. Good answer. Tracy, this was so delightful. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and congratulations on the latest book and your career.
I hope it soars. It came out in September, everybody. It’s beautiful. Remember everyone to like or subscribe to the podcast on my YouTube channel. Next up we have Kimberly Brock next week and Marjan Kamali is coming up and Amy Runyon and then I’m going to do a year end podcast to talk about my new novel, which is coming out in July called the women of Arlington Hall.
But thank you everyone for coming tonight. And thank you again, Tracy, for your time. Have a great night, everyone.
