This month, I have the pleasure of cornering TRACY TOWNSEND, author of the forthcoming book THE NINE. Tracy was gracious enough to put up with my questioning ways and answer my brief inquest while I had her cornered.
Blurb from THE NINE (Book one of The Thieves of Fate): A book that some would kill for... Black market courier Rowena Downshire is doing everything she can to stay off the streets and earn enough to pay her mother's way to freedom. But an urgent and unexpected delivery leads her face to face with a creature out of nightmares. The Alchemist knows things few men have lived to tell about, but when a frightened and empty-handed courier shows up on his doorstep he knows better than to turn her away. What he discovers leads him to ask for help from the last man he wants to see--the former mercenary, Anselm Meteron. Reverend Phillip Chalmers awakes in a cell, bloodied and bruised, facing a creature twice his size. Translating a stolen book that writes itself may be his only hope for survival; however, he soon learns the text may have been written by the Creator himself, tracking the nine human subjects of his Grand Experiment. In the wrong hands, it could mean the end of humanity. This unlikely team must try to keep the book from those who would misuse it. But how can they be sure who the enemy is when they can barely trust each other? And what will happen to them when it reveals a secret no human was meant to know?
Also, my author website is www.tracytownsend.net, and folks can find me on Twitter @TheStorymatic.
Release date: November 14, 2017
URLs for pre-orders are available here:
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-nine-tracy-townsend/1125814956?ean=9781633883413
Indiebound:http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781633883413
Me: Okay, so THE NINE, I love that title, what inspired it?
Tracy: Once I determined there are only nine subjects of the Grand Experiment God has made of this story world, tracked by the contents of this self-writing book, it seemed as if the title was right there in front of me. So really, the more important question is, why choose that number nine in the first place?
There are many cultures that have strong mystical associations with the number nine. For example, in Korea, if three is a perfect number (consider the emblem of the sam-tegu and its red, blue, and gold portions), then three threes would be the perfection of perfection. Long ago, Jewish culture adopted a system called gematria, in which letters, words, and phrases are assigned a numerical equivalency. It's basically a cipher. The number thirty-six (four times nine) has deep significance because of a mystical group of "righteous ones" called the lamed vavniks (essentially the "thirty-sixers," because there are supposed to be thirty-six of them in the world). But thirty-six was an awful lot of characters to chase down and plan around, and so I pared that piece of mysticism down to nine, as a nod to other religious and ethical systems, and ran with it.
Me: Dang, a self-writing book sounds awesome. I don’t suppose this book wrote itself. (Okay, I know it didn’t because I’ve seen your tweets that happened while this book was still somewhere between your brain and the page. How long did it take you to complete the novel?
Tracy: The rough draft came together over a six month period, followed by another four months of major revisions before I began querying it. Other revisions happened along the way, too, with my agent, Bridget Smith, and my editor at Pyr, Rene Sears. If you add up all time the story spent changing and evolving, it took about fourteen months to come together in its final, publication form.
Me: What was your writing process like for this book? How does that compare to your usual process?
Tracy: My process starts with something that looks like pantsing so it can evolve into plotting, and that's by design. I tend to get past blocks and indecision by jumping to the scenes I know how to write, or want to write, and returning to fill in the gaps later. Usually there's a step where I stop, read the fragments I have, and figure out what the real outline is from there. That lets me sketch out what the missing pieces will look like and slot them in with a total vision in mind, but still lets me take advantage of my initial ideas, building up the momentum I'll need for the much harder work of bringing the whole story together.
Me: So you’re kind of a plotser. Very cool. I promise not to tell your other characters, but now that your book is coming out, who is your favorite minor character from THE NINE? And what part of your life would that character be shocked to find out about their author?
Tracy: This is a tough question, because there really aren't a lot of secondary characters, in the usual sense. That is, the novel features a big cast, most of whom actually play pretty significant roles in how the plot unfolds, even if they don't get as much "screen time" as others, so to speak.
So, my favorite ALMOST main character is the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers. He's based, in a very loose way, on two different physicists I've known and been friends with other the years, is an absolute train-wreck of neuroses and self-aggrandizement, has his own problematic growth arc, and is terribly fun to write because he has no idea how often he's the butt of the joke. He would be cravat-clutchingly horrified at my liberal use of colorful language, and would likely pen a letter to my father raising concerns about the damage I have done to my good name thereby.
Me: If you’re anything like me, some of those colorful words from my father. LOL. Okay one last question because I have you cornered, what is your favorite writing snack?
Tracy: This depends ENTIRELY on whether I'm writing during the day or at night. Day-writer me is a committed fruit-and-veg snacker (particularly berries, edamame, and cucumbers), chased with iced green tea. Night-me is my less, um. . . less virtuous self. That's when the chocolate covered digestive biscuits come out to play, always with a strong cup of hot tea.
Thank you so much for letting me corner you today Tracy. I can’t wait to get THE NINE on my shelf!