Q. Where/when do you first discover your characters?
JW. They just pop into my head. Some I ignore, though, because they’re too weird or too mean.
Q. What first inspired you to write?
JW. Desperation.
When I first got sober, an older sober woman took me to lunch and told me I could write my way into a new way of thinking. I thought she was crazy, but I did it anyway because I didn’t have a better idea. It turned out that she was right.
Q. What comes first to you? The Characters or the Situation?
JW. The voice.
Q. Would you please elaborate?
JW. I walk/hike almost daily, occasionally hearing my inner self say something useful, such as the opening line of Eat and Get Gas, ‘I was six and Adam was thirteen when our brother Teddy was born.’ Yesterday, I clearly heard…’ he was never very good at reading the room.’ I messaged the line to myself (as I often do) and might use it in a short story.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing?
JW. I can’t count the number of times my husband arrived home from work to find me in the same spot I was when he left that morning.
Q. What compelled you to choose and settle on the genre you now write in?
JW. I knew very little about genres when I finished my first novel and was surprised when my editor said it was literary fiction.
Q. Are you working on something now or have a new release coming up? If so tell us about it.
JW. I’ve made a lot of notes lately, and maybe they’re the makings of a novel. I’m not sure yet.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
JW. When I turned forty (over twenty years ago).
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper books?
JW. Perhaps. I was a paperback reader until covid. This past year, I’ve purchased more audio and e-books than paperbacks. I know others who’ve done the same.
Q. What makes a writer great?
JW. I asked Frank McCourt his exact question when he came to NZ to promote Angela’s Ashes. In the greenroom, when he finished his story about never having to wear Florsheim shoes again, he said, ‘Great writers write what they know, be it awful or grand.’ I don’t know if it’s the truth for everyone, but he inspired me to write what I know or think I know.
Q. and the all-important: What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like for you?
JW. Huge exhale!
Q. How have your life experiences influenced your writing?
JW. It’s all connected to my past or present.
Q. What’s your downtime look like?
JW. I walk (hike) several times weekly while listening to audiobooks or music (jazz, classical and sometimes the Allman Brothers).
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre?
JW. Probably not …unless ‘faction’ becomes a legitimate genre
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
JW. I can be a good example or a great reminder.
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JW. I’m the second of four daughters born to Lois and Walt. My father’s family were (are) enrolled members of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians. My mother’s family was in the logging business and lived close to Gifford Pinchot State Park. I grew up in Tacoma, Washington.
Q. Do you enjoy writing in other forms (playwriting, poetry, short stories, etc.)? If yes, tell us about it.
TS. I have a new release coming in May, THREE SINS AND A SCOUNDREL. It’s the final (#6 full length book) in the Duchess Society series. It’s been a really great series for me and readers seem to love the heroes!
USA Today Bestselling author Tracy Sumner’s storytelling career began when she picked up a historical romance on a college beach trip, and she fondly blames LaVyrle Spencer for her obsession with the genre. When she’s not writing sizzling love stories about feisty heroines and their temperamental-but-entirely-lovable heroes, Tracy enjoys reading, snowboarding, college football (Go Tigers!), yoga, and travel.
shoulder. 🙂 That said, I have a writing area in my bedroom. LOL, I live in NYC and we don’t have extra space to give for offices typically. It’s cute, though, and has my writing awards and personal thing, books and swag! My dream would, of course, be to have a room that looked like a Regency library! With shelves and shelves of books!
TS. I’ve lived in Europe and Asia – and my son is adopted from Vietnam! I live in NYC, but I’m a native South Carolinian and still have a place in Beaufort, SC, too that I’ll retire to.
limitations) and I adopted one of my fosters, Banksy. He’s about 8 now and is a love bug! You’ll see he has one eye. He was spray-painted as a kitten by a homeless man and rescued by the police. It damaged his eye, which was removed, and I named him Banksy, after the graffiti artist!
Eyes on the Road, Girlie is my latest offering. Just written a few days ago and now, of course, in rewrites. 
with familial love. Like any other family, the threads are co-dependency, love outside of wedlock, unrequited love, addiction, illegitimate kids, and secrets. Do you know a family without secrets? I don’t. 
Recently a fellow writer and friend asked me this question: “What does the process of going from “no book” to “finished book” look like? I asked other authors to answer that question in my 
don’t beat yourself up if you don’t write for a few days… although I preach that you should write something every day. But if you hit a dry spell, you’ll make up for it with better, more relaxed creative writing.
I am not structured at all. I write a new project in my head for days, weeks and then when my brain is about to burst I begin putting it down on paper (computer). I also write out of sequence and I think that’s okay. My novel’s last chapter was completed months before the middle was written.
1920’s). I had 8 pages of a new play about Winston Churchill written and had to stop to do research. I find that it can be done while I am writing and that is what I prefer. It’s more fun and keeps me interested. I don’t think I would do well having my research all done before I put my story down. I find that the research itself inspires my story line.
25 minutes: into rehearsal
I ran across a description of one of my enemies….DOUBT! And it got me to thinking. Author, Jacqueline Winspear wrote: “Doubt. Was it an emotion? A sense? Or was it just a short stubby word to describe a response that could diminish a person in a finger snap?”
