Tracey Cross, also published as Tracey Bateman, is the award-winning author of more than thirty titles and has nearly a million books in print. She lives in Missouri’s Ozarks with her husband and four children.
Always a pleasure to have you back, Tracey. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?
I have a lot of faith and believe God will continue to do abundantly above all I can ask or think. So whatever He asks me to do, I'll do. I have some historicals still to come with Summerside and I'm following the supernatural thriller interest on the other side of my writing. :)
Tell us a little about your family.
My husband is a soldier, currently deployed for the second time. We've been married over 22 years and have four kids. My oldest is my only daughter. She is in College,19 year old son is getting his fitness certification to be a personal trainer (I see free training in my future!!) my third, a boy just started driving himself to school this year, and is working after school at a chinese restaurant. My youngest is 12 and a football fanatic. He plays lineman for his junior high team. I'm so very pleased with God's favor on my little family and I'm grateful every day that each one is serving God wholeheartedly and leaning toward the life He's chosen for them.
I know what you mean. My oldest grandson is on his second deployment, too. And the next one is in college. Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?
I used to read nonstop. Now I can't do that. For a few years I hardly had time to read at all. But I believe it's important to respect the gifts in others and pull wisdom from the lessons God has spent years teaching others.
So I try to read nonfiction books about things I want to grow stronger in. Finances, faith, writing, fitness, etc. I also try to always have a novel that I'm reading. It's important to me to take time to read even if I have to miss a TV show to do it. Our minds are a terrible thing to waste :)
I'm with you on that. I'd rather read than watch most of what's on TV. What are you working on right now?
I'm working on a project I can't talk about and Love Finds you in Sundance, Wyoming, is due in December!
What outside interests do you have?
Not many. That makes me boring, but I like my home. I enjoy running when I've been doing it for awhile, but lately I've slugged off and I'd hate to even try! I like movies and Law and Order. And cooking.
How do you choose your settings for each book?
Usually I set my books in the Missouri Ozarks because I live here and love it so much. But for the Love Finds you Series, I picked what interests me.
If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?
Other than heroes of the Bible, I would love to sit with Harriet Beecher Stowe. She changed the course of history and open a lot of eyes to the horrors of slavery with her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. She brought the issue into the open and I think God used her book as a goad for eventually ending slavery. I would love for God to give me that kind of influence. I would ask her what the fallout of the novel did to her personally in terms of feeling a sense of responsibility to work for the end of slavery. You don't write a book like that without having a passion for the subject.
We'd all like to make a difference with our novels. What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?
How fat you get if you sit writing and eating all day. :)
What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?
Wow, I have so much to learn!! He's recently been encouraging me to give more. Time, money, food etc. Writing is such a solitary life it's really easy to keep your focus inward and concentrate only on your life and your family. But that's not God's plan. To whom much is given much is required and while I don't have a lot materially, I have been blessed to be in this business I love so much and I don't want to take it for granted.
What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?
Pray over your writing, remember it's a business--people are counting on you, If your writing doesn't evoke emotion in you, it won't in a reader. Cry, laugh, and enjoy the process. Ultimately, God brings success, so don't be cocky if it happens and don't be depressed if it doesn't.
Love Finds you in Deadwood, South Dakota, is about a woman who has to find a way to support herself and her child after her husband dies, leaving her penniless and in debt. She learns to haul freight to Deadwood and finds love in the process.
Please give us the first page of the book.
*Chapter One*
*Early April, 1879*
It had simply never occurred to Jane Albright that Tom might be dead. Gracious, if she feared for his life each time he failed to arrive home in a reasonable amount of time, she’d spend every waking minute in an absolute state. After all, the trip to Deadwood took a month, and that was only one way. With weather upsets, the swollen North Platte, and breakdowns, she never expected to see him within three months of each departure.
So, although he was two weeks overdue, she’d hardly given his absence a thought until late last night when Hank Barnes came rolling in on the freight wagon with Tom in the back, covered from head to toe with his bedroll.
Standing next to her husband’s grave, Jane barely found the grace to speak a psalm over him. Even as she said a closing prayer, she found the words automatic and insincere. Were it not for her son, Danny, standing next to her, fidgeting like only a five-year-old could, she might have foregone the funeral altogether and just told Hank to bury him without paying final respects. But she couldn’t have her son remembering that she hadn’t given his pa a proper burial.
Hank, Tom’s partner, stood respectfully by the grave he’d tended to himself, his battered hat clutched in calloused hands that had worked much too hard for it to all end this way.
Jane’s amen brought his head up, and, as one, they turned away from the gravesite of the man who had caused such upheaval for them both, leaving them to salvage what they could of the ruins.
I can hardly wait to read the whole book. How can readers find you on the Internet?
http://www.traceybateman.com/ I'm also on facebook (of course!! :) ) under Tracey Bateman
Thank you Lena!! God bless!
Tracey
And thank you, Tracey, for this visit.
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