Tracie Podger currently lives in Kent, UK with her husband and a rather obnoxious cat called George. She’s a Padi Scuba Diving Instructor with a passion for writing. Tracie has been fortunate to have dived some of the wonderful oceans of the world where she can indulge in another hobby, underwater photography. She likes getting up close and personal with sharks.
Tracie wishes to thank you for giving your time to read her books and hopes you enjoy them as much as she loves writing them. If you would like to know more, please feel free to contact her, she would love to hear from you.
Social Links:
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1. How and when did you get started as a writer?
I suffer with depression and some time ago was hospitalised. During my stay I was encouraged to write a journal. Once I returned home, I read back through that journal and noticed an ‘event’ that I thought might make a good story. I sat down at my laptop and just wrote, and wrote and wrote. It was more a project to exorcise my demons but I got lost in the characters and the story and forgot about my troubles for a while. A Virtual Affair was something I wrote just for me, however I now intend to publish it in 2015. Once I had finished A Virtual Affair I couldn’t stop writing. Robert Stone came to me in a dream - sounds mad, doesn’t it! I would wake during the night and write down the dream as a way of discharging it from my brain. But, like that journal, when I read through I knew I had to write his story. When I had finished A Virtual Affair I started Fallen Angel, Part I, Part II and Robert. This was back at the end of 2009 I think and I published Fallen Angel, Part I in December of 2013. I spent a long time writing, rewriting and editing before I felt confident enough to hand my babies over to the public.
2. How do you usually find your ideas?
I’ve been fortunate to have been born with a very imaginative mind. A Virtual Affair is based around a real event although most of the book is fiction and as I said, Fallen Angel started as a dream about a man. A man who was dark and dangerous but had the most wonderful heart, he just didn’t realise it.
3. Where do you write from? (home, office etc.)
I do have an office at home, however at the moment the laptop is firmly stuck to the kitchen table. I am running out of space and really need to get organised a little more and move fully into my new writing cave.
4. How long does it take you to write a book?
A Virtual Affair, Fallen Angel, Parts I and II and Robert took about nine months to write. I wrote back to back, seven days a week and probably a good ten or so hours a day. The novella, Evelyn took just a matter of weeks. I wrote Fallen Angel, Part III in a month. I’m very fortunate in that these books are a continuation of Robert and Brooke’s lives and right now they won’t get out of my head so coming up with new plot lines is quite easy.
5. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
I wish I could say I was very organised but I’m not. I’m also easily distracted. I start my day by checking my social media, checking in with my team and answering emails or messages. I’ll then edit the next release for part of the day and write the next book for the rest. Now Part III has gone to my editor, I can concentrate for a week or so on writing the next book, Travis. I’ll spend most of the day, every day doing that. Oh, and I also have my takeovers to do as well. I get the opportunity to take over bloggers Facebook pages which I tend to schedule only for weekdays and in the evenings. At the moment, things are very busy and I’m loving it.
6. Do you have any suggestions to help become a better writer? If so, what are they?
Be sure to make each book you write better than your last. Learn by your mistakes. We should never stop learning. Beta readers are a must and not just family and friends, someone who will be honest with you. Be open to listening to that honesty.
7. Something personal about you people may be surprised to know?
Oh, a difficult one. I’m pretty much an open book! I’m not good in crowds of people, something I shall have to address before my signings next year.
8. What is your greatest weakness?
Admitting that I don’t have one. Perhaps not putting myself first sometimes would be a weakness, I’m forever helping and advising others and don’t always take that advice myself.
9. What is your greatest strength?
I am loyal to the core. I have also learnt over the past few years to recognise situations or people that are not healthy for me to be around. I guess one of my strengths is being able to remove myself from those.
10. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I wanted to be an actress and was a member of the Old Vic Youth Theatre for a while. I also wanted to be a model but I never made it past five feet tall, that ambition came to an abrupt halt.
Quick Q&A
1. Favorite movie. Shawshank Redemption.
2. Favorite website. Facebook!
3. Favorite color. Red.
4. Favorite book. Depends on my mood at the time of reading. I have many!
5. Favorite country. My own and Italy for the culture and wines.
On the first day of her holiday to Washington DC, Brooke Stiles meets Robert Stone.
Dark eyed, damaged and dangerous - Stone has never had a normal relationship for fear of his past being exposed. Not knowing how to respect nor love, he struggles with his feelings for a woman who makes him question everything that he is.
Brooke falls in love with him and as their relationship grows she learns who he really is. Her future is set. She is to heal her man and mend his broken soul. But can she do the one thing that he asks?
This is a story of an ordinary woman who falls in love with an extraordinary man and has to discover whether she is strong enough to forgive him his past.
~Amazon US~Amazon UK~
~Amazon US Paperback~Amazon UK Paperback~
When Brooke Stiles had said, “It was in a small room in an office block in Washington, DC, that my life changed, forever,” she had no idea of the enormity of that statement.
Just a few short months ago, Brooke, had lived a quiet suburban life in the UK. She now owns a closet of clothes she could only dream about and has been swept off her feet by trouble with a capital T.
Once Robert Stone came to terms with the fact that he was in love with Brooke, he knew he could never let her go. Not letting her go means introducing her to his life, past and present.
However, when Robert’s past and present collide, Brooke does the one thing that Robert begs her not to. Does it change her? Has that light that he sees in her eyes been extinguished?
This is a story of an ordinary girl who finds the strength to become an extraordinary woman, and keeps her promise to the man she owes her existence to.
~Amazon US~Amazon UK~
~Amazon US Paperback~Amazon UK Paperback~
Evelyn was sixteen years old when she fell in love. She fell in love with a murderer.
Rocco has been sent from Italy to live with the Morietti family in Washington, DC, for his safety, for his protection. He hadn’t banked on meeting the beautiful, but young, Evelyn, the daughter of the man who has given him refuge. He hadn’t banked on falling in love.
How hard is it to love the daughter of the man who holds your fate in his hands? And once you fall, how hard is it to keep your love a secret? Which is the greater threat to them both, to keep their secret, or to admit and fight for each other?
Evelyn and Rocco are forced to accept a life of secret meetings, lies, love and loss. Few relationships can survive it, and not every romance has a happy ending. But if there is a chance....... is it not worth a try?
This is the story of young love, of dreams and hopes for a future not possible. This is the story of Evelyn.
~Amazon US~Amazon UK~
~Amazon US Paperback~Amazon UK Paperback~
Fallen Angel- Evelyn's Story
Robert arrives home from school, alone. He lets himself in with the key expertly attached by string to his blazer and makes himself some tea. It's late when he is woken by a knock on the door. Two policemen and a neighbour are there to tell him his parents are dead, killed in a car crash. He is 6 years old.
This is Robert's story, his life growing up in a house with a mad old aunt who believes he has the devil in, living with regular beatings and being preached to, endlessly. It tells of his time on the street with Travis and ultimately, his life with a crime family, running the neighbourhoods of Washington DC.
Robert thinks he has a great life, he has money, he has the respect he craves, he takes part in illegal boxing and he kills two men. He also knows he is incapable of loving or being loved. That was until he met Brooke Stiles, in a kitchen in his office block.
In his head and body, all hell lets loose. He has no idea what the emotions, the feelings that are now coursing through him, mean or how to react to them.
He struggles with his feelings for her, to understand how he should behave and as much as he wants to tell her he loves her, he can't utter the words.
That is until he thinks he has lost her.
~Amazon US~Amazon UK~