On the cusp of adulthood, Rebecca Grey has no idea where her life is headed. Like many of us, she struggles to build a sustainable identity, a task made even harder by the fact that her mother is engaged in an extended breakdown and her absent father has another family to worry about. Dealing with their problems leaves little time for her own, and pretty soon, something has to give. As she toils under the weight of a tragedy that was never hers to begin with, Rebecca faces the impossible task of carving out a future for herself, all the while shadowed by the mistakes of her parents. Told with an experienced voice through the eyes of three characters.
Another Rebecca tells the story of one family’s moving inability to let go of the past, of love lost and found, and a young woman’s determination to pull herself out of disaster.
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Author bio
Tracey
spends her writing time in her much-loved shed. It’s a world of her own making, like her stories. She says that
stepping inside and closing the door behind her induces a feeling like the one
you get in the hushed atmosphere of a church.
She
is the mother of four children, three of whom have now left home: one of them
particularly far away. Still, she’s sure that Australia will
provide as much inspiration for her writing as Iceland has done, (another place
she was introduced to by her son). She’s really hoping to witness a full
show of the Northern Lights next time she is there.
Closer
to home, Tracey enjoys travelling in the bus-with-a-woodstove with her husband
and their Labrador, Riley. They are always on the lookout for a scenic layby in
which to sleep. Last year they spent time all over the British Isles, including
the Outer Hebrides, which will be the setting for a future novel. In a few
years they plan to set off on the road (by way of the sea) for an extended
period of time: after all, writing can be done anywhere.
INTERVIEW
Where are you from?
·
Lincoln, a historic cathedral
city in the UK.
Tell us your latest news.
·
My husband Phil and I have just
instigated a new Small Press called Wild Pressed Books. We plan to publish
three books next year, two by international authors as well as my third novel, The Eliza Doll. We’ve already signed up
an Icelandic author and are in talks with a young German one.
When did you first consider yourself a
writer?
·
When I began to get some good
critical feedback for my novel The Last
Time We Saw Marion in 2011 onwards.
What inspired you to write your first book?
·
Reading and being read to as a
child. I remember being particularly inspired by Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and a book called The Dream in the House, which I would
dearly love to read now. That book was about twins and they’ve always been an
interest of mine in literature. So I attempted writing novels of my own from
the age of 10. I started making serious headway when I was about 17. My
character Marianne Fairchild first came into being when I was 18 – she appeared
in many different stories until she finally settled down in my first completed
novel in 1989. That was the book which eventually became The Last Time We Saw Marion, published with Inspired Quill in 2014.
Do you have a specific writing style?
·
I think so. In my early writing
years I was influenced by Alice Hoffman (White
Horses) and Janice Elliot; her anorexic character named Mercy in Summer People was an inspiration in the
creation of my Marianne. Later I discovered the novelist Julie Myerson. Her
novels are dark family tales. There is often a lost child and a haunted feel to
each story and a sparse but intensely evocative narrative style. Her book that most
affected me is The Story of You. So I
suppose I’m trying to say that my writing style may have developed from the
influence of these writers.
How did you come up with the title?
·
Another Rebecca. The book began as There is no Night, which is the title of
the painting that inspired the short story I wrote (again in 1989 – that was a
creative year for me!) I rediscovered my short story in 2011 and developed it
into a novel. The first title I had was Veil of Grey, but 50 shades of Grey was
popular at the time so I changed it to Bitter and so Sweet (because of the
mother and daughter characters). Then I started thinking of Rebecca-related
titles and went through The Last Rebecca, The Wrong Rebecca, and finally
settled on Another Rebecca because I thought it was a good to reference the
famous novel by Daphne du Maurier as well as the fact that my novel has two (or
more?) characters named Rebecca.
Is there a message in your novel that you
want readers to grasp?
·
I hadn’t thought of Another Rebecca having a particular
message, and yet I suppose it has in a way. Stay strong, be self-reliant, and
learn to live with loss. Loss doesn’t need to wreck your ability to love. The Last Time We Saw Marion could be
said to have the same message…
How much of the book is realistic?
·
The underlying human emotions
in Another Rebecca are genuine, the difficulties of family life and
relationships, the struggles of a young girl to find her place in the world and
a mother to cope with the extreme loss she suffered in her youth. I also tried
to make Jack, Rebecca’s father realistic. He wants to be the knight in shining
armour for the young, grieving Bex but when it doesn’t work, he gives in easily
to the charms of another woman.
The story also involves a
fantasy that permeates the lives of both mother and daughter and dictates the
course of the novel.
Are experiences based on someone you know
or events in your own life?
·
The young Rebecca is strongly
influenced by me at the same age. She lives in a caravan for a while, as I did
while my dad was building the family a new home. She lives with alcoholism in a
family member, which I also experienced. She is naïve and unsure of how to
relate to boys. I too found those things difficult at that age. Iris, Rebecca’s
aunt, is partly based on my late older sister and on a couple of women I know
in real life.
What books have most influenced your life?
·
Books that have stood out for
me most are Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Bronte, Wuthering Heights by Emily
Bronte, Brother of the More Famous Jack
by Barbara Trapido and The Time
Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. As for which have actually
influenced my life? Hmm. Hard to say. Let’s go with Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. The message is keep hope
alive, and appreciate whatever is around you.
If you had to choose, which writer would
you consider a mentor?
·
I was lucky enough to spend two
days in workshops with Audrey Niffenegger in 2013, as part of Random House
Writers Academy. I couldn’t have chosen a better mentor. The writing of Another Rebecca was directly influenced
by the sessions, as it was during them that I decided to add Jack Portman as
the third narrator of the book, so that he could give the reader a different
perspective on Bex and Rebecca.
What book are you reading now?
·
I am utterly engrossed in A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear
McBride. It’s quite a difficult read because of the style of writing. It plants
the reader directly into the girl’s flow of thoughts, but it is also
heart-rending and powerful. If you’ve got the time to devote to it I would
highly recommend it. I will certainly learn from it as a writer.
Are there any new authors that have grabbed
your interest?
·
Emma Healey with Elizabeth is Missing. I listened to her
read from her novel and answer questions at the London Book Fair this year.
What are your current projects?
·
I am editing a work by an
Icelandic author for publication with Wild Pressed Books next year, and putting
post-editing touches to my third novel The
Eliza Doll, before sending it off to be professionally proofread. The Eliza Doll will also be published by
Wild Pressed Books in 2016.
As well as this I am
researching and beginning to write my 5th novel. (The 3rd is
Of His Bones and is the sequel to The Last Time We Saw Marion and I am
currently in talks with Inspired Quill Publishing with regard to bringing it
out in 2017.)
My WIP is called Island
Babies and is set on the Outer Hebrides. I’m giving myself two years to write
it and bring it into its final form.
What would you like my readers to know?
·
I’d like them to know that I
write from the heart, and that I’ve brought my life experience into the stories
of my novels, and that I’d love readers to give my books a try even if they’re
not something they would normally read.
social media links:
Instagram
https://instagram.com/authortrace/
GIVEAWAY
The prize will be 2
ecopies of Another Rebecca.
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