This month I had a chat with author of the Resistance Series, Tracy Lawson to find out more about the woman behind these dystopian thrillers.

LJ: Hi Tracy, can you please start off by telling us a little about what you write?
TL: I write YA dystopian thrillers and nonfiction history. I love being able to work in two completely different genres. People often ask which is my favorite, and that answer varies from day to day. My first book, Fips, Bots, Doggeries, and More, is based on a journal written by my great-great-great grandfather in 1838. I received a copy of the journal as a Christmas gift from my parents, because I was interested in family history. I was fascinated by the journal and all it had to say about life and travel in America in the antebellum period. After all the research and fact-checking that went into that first book, I came away from the experience wanting to write fiction! I had one in each genre launch this summer.

LH: Do you have a special place where you like to work your magic?
TL: I like to write on the patio at our house

LJ: Do you have any pets that like to keep you company while you write?
TL: Leo and Jack (by green door)

LJ: Your cats are very cute. Do you have any children?
TL: Our daughter, Keri, is a very adventuresome and well-traveled young lady. She’s been to 16 foreign countries, and did a semester abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She recently graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Economics, and is currently in graduate school, pursuing a Masters and Ph.D in Economics at West Virginia University. Though she’s following in her dad’s footsteps in her career, she spent her growing up years in the dance studio and doing theater productions with me. When I was writing Fips, Bots, Doggeries, and More, she went along with me as I drove from Cincinnati to New York, following the route our ancestors took in 1838. She was eight at the time. Her job was to read the map and the journal and keep the photo log, as it was a time before Google Map apps and camera phones! She also learned how to do research in libraries and courthouses on that trip.

LJ: Can you please share with us a picture or drawing that represents you?
TL: I can’t draw anything more elaborate than a stick figure, so I’m sparing you and submitting the graphic with the Einstein quote!

LJ: Love it! Do you have a favourite quote?
TL: “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”
~Milton Friedman

LJ: Other than writing, what are your other passions or hobbies?
TL: I always loved to dance, and taught lessons in a studio for twenty-five years. Tap dancing is my favorite. Now, I choreograph a few school musicals a year so I can stay involved in educational theater.

LJ: That sounds like great fun. I do jazz, hip-hop and contemporary once a week and it’s lots of fun. Do you have a favourite musical?
TL: It’s hard to choose a favorite musical, but I loved doing Crazy for You because of all the tap! We did that one Keri’s senior year, and I spent from July-April teaching tap technique and routines to the cast. Keri ran a ton of lunch rehearsals, too. I think I made about .05 an hour on that show, but boy was the finished product worth it. About half the cast had never tapped before, but you never would have known it when you saw them perform. Other faves include Legally Blonde, Xanadu, and 13 the Musical.

LJ: How about a favourite band or singer?
TL: Rush is my favorite band.

LJ: If you could go back in time what year would you travel to?
TL: If I could travel back in time I’d go to 1838 so I could meet the ancestors about whom I wrote in my nonfiction books.

LJ: Okay, this is an important questions… Tea or Coffee?
TL: Tea. I have never liked coffee!

LJ: Is there an author you wish more people knew about?
TL: I wish more people knew about is Meredith Tate, author of Missing Pieces. She created a dystopian society in which the trial and error was taken out of reproduction, and children were computer-matched to their perfect mate at the age of six, to be married at age 22. In Missing Pieces, Tate has created a world that’s a chilling combination of a cold, scientific approach to family and uncompromising Puritanical mores about love and sex.

LJ: That sounds like an interesting read. Now, what is something you want more people to know about you?
TL: I’d want people to know something I’ve recently discovered about myself: I’m a lot braver and more badass than I appear…

 

Thank you so much to Tracy Lawson for taking time out of her busy schedule to have a chat with me. You can find her online and purchase her books on the links below.

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Tracy Lawson Books:
Counteract: Book One of the Resistance Series
Resist: Book Two of the Resistance Series
Ignite: Book Three of the Resistance Series
Revolt: Book Four of the Resistance Series
Fips, Bots, Doggeries, and More 
Pride of the Valley
Websites and social media: http://counteractbook.com