Tracy Barrett

I grew up in a town where many authors live, and thought of writers as just ordinary neighbors. The wonderful Jean Fritz was one of these authors. She gave me an original illustration from her book that is still my favorite, The Cabin Faced West (the drawing is now hanging on the wall above my computer). And since I liked writing I thought it might be a good job to have someday.

But when I grew older I got discouraged about writing, because every time I read a wonderful book I would think, “Oh, I could never write that. Why even try?” And I was right. I could never write Charlotte’s Web or Mrs. Mike (two of my favorite books). It took until I was grown up to realize that this was okay—I didn’t need to write those books. Someone else had already done it! But there were other books that no one but I could write. So I started writing again. My first book wasn’t published until I was almost forty, and I regret that I wasted all that time being discouraged.


FAQs

Where do you get your ideas?
I learned about Princess Anna Comnena while doing research on medieval women writers. I wondered how she became the kind of person she was, and even when I finished my research, I couldn't get her out of my mind. So I wrote Anna of Byzantium to try to figure her out. I'll never know if I succeeded in uncovering why the real Anna Comnena turned out the way she did, but at least I was able to stop wondering about her!

The idea for Cold in Summer came to me slowly. We used to spend a lot of time on Center Hill Lake in Tennessee, which was formed when a dam was built, flooding a valley. It felt creepy to swim above what used to be a town, with houses and churches and stores. But that odd feeling wasn’t enough to make a story.

The author Sid Fleischman says that one idea is like a stick: you can’t do much with it. But two ideas are like two sticks: you can rub them together, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a fire. My “second stick” for Cold in Summer was something that an old man who lived by the lake told my husband. He said that there was a crack in the side of the hill that blew out cold air in summer and warm air in winter. These two ideas came together to form the basis for Cold in Summer.


Will you write a sequel to Anna of Byzantium?
No, because I'm not curious about her any more!

I did, however, write a sequel to Cold in Summer. The main character (Ariadne's younger brother, Hector) gets involved in time travel to an ancient village in Italy where he has to right an old wrong without influencing the present. It's called On Etruscan Time and it came out in May, 2005.


How long does it take you to write a book?
I never know! I squeeze in writing between so many other things that I don't think I could ever count up the hours. I wrote one book in six weeks, but others have taken two or three years. I lead a busy life (I teach at a university and have a family and pets) so I fit my writing in where I can.


Which of your books is your favorite?
Whichever one I'm working on at the moment!


Are you working on anything now?
I usually have a lot of projects going! Books in the works include King of Ithaka, a historical fantasy about Telemachus, the son of Odysseus (hero of Homer's Odyssey), which will be published by Henry Holt in fall, 2010. Book 2 of "The Sherlock Files," The Beast of Blackslope, is due out in May, 2009. Book 3, due in May, 2010, is The Case that Time Forgot. Still working on a title for the fourth!

I'm also working on a historical novel about a slave girl, set in the Viking era.