Tracy Clark
Echo
From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes the third book in the Detective Harriet Foster thriller series, a taut tale of renegade justice with a heart-stopping finale.
The Writer’s Dossier 12/3/2024 – A Tracy Clark Update
It was a thrill to attend the 2024 Midwest Mystery Conference in Chicago on 12/9/2024 where I spoke with Tracy Clark again about her awesome crime series. Here are some updated details for her writer’s Dossier you don’t want to miss.
The great Chicago conference
DOSSIER: We chatted at the Midwest Mystery Conference about crime in Chicago and how you’re settled in a great place to come up with stories. Since you’re in such a big city with a long history of crime, do you go out and look for new situations to put Detective Harriet Foster into, or are they just right there in front of you for the taking?
CLARK: I live in the city I write about. The city’s in my bones, in my head. I’m a Chicagoan. When I’m looking for situations to put Det. Harriet in, all that knowledge, the feel of the city, the vibe of it, the attitude, is just kind of there. I often scout around for good places to set a scene, but I never have to search for the city’s rhythm or pace or for its many wonderful characters ideal for putting in a book.
On Sara Paretsky
DOSSIER: One of the best moments at the 2024 Midwest Mystery Conference was the story you told about stalking Sara Paretsky when you were starting out. What did you enjoy most about the conference, and why should people book it for next year?
CLARK: I love the MMC. It one of my most favorite conferences all year. I like it because it’s more intimate, friendly and easy-going. It’s very welcoming. It all takes place in one day, and there’s not a lot of hustling and bustling around. Readers can get real access to their favorite writers, and writers, in turn, have an opportunity to meet their readers or acquire new ones, and really connect. The entire day is about nothing but books and stories and craft and process and, occasionally, something unexpected will happen and a writer will make a fool of herself by relaying her profound admiration for her writing idol IN FRONT OF HER WRITING IDOL. (That’s moi, by the by.) I failed to mention that my stalking was always respectful and from a sane distance. Words can’t express how encouraging it was for me when the writing wasn’t going well or I’d gotten another rejection letter, to just drive by Sara’s house and “refuel” so to speak on inspiration and determination. I always drove away feeling that a certain amount of courage had wafted out of her windows, courage that kept me writing and dreaming and pressing on.
Ahead in 2025
DOSSIER: With everything that’s going on in your world, what’s your 2025 schedule look like?
CLARK: I haven’t even thought too much about 2025 yet. I’ll be writing, that’s for sure, and I think I’ve got a couple of events on my schedule for the early part of the year. Readers can check my website for upcoming dates. Otherwise, I’ll just be here in Chicago living the dream, scoping out locations, writing characters, coming up with stories and trying to work a nap in when I can. Winter’s my second favorite season, fall is first. Not sure how much snow we’re expected to get in Chicago, but I’m ready for it. I brought a new snow scraper and everything. Bring it!
The Writer’s Dossier original interview 9/24/2024
Don’t leave me hanging!
DOSSIER: You’ve gone from four novels in the Cass Raines mystery series to now finishing three novels in your Detective Harriet Foster series. What prompted you to shift from a main character in one series to creating a whole new one in a completely different series?
CLARK: The fickle publishing business. I finished the fourth book in the Cass series, Runner, and was ready to start right in to book five when the publisher decided not to continue with the series. No book five. It really bummed me for about a minute because I’d invested so much in Cass and her world. I babied that series for more than twenty years, honing it, focusing it, making it the best I could make it, now I was losing it. Cass now belongs to somebody else. It more than bummed me, actually. It still does. It’s like a sort of death. Had I known the series would be ending with Runner, I would have ended the book differently, since it sort of ends on a cliffhanger. No author is going to end a book on a cliffhanger if there’s not going to be an opportunity to pick up the thread in the next book. I was forced to. I still get emails from readers wanting to know how that cliffhanger resolves. I don’t know. I never got to even think about it. But I’ve got an excellent agent. I got picked up by a new publisher almost immediately, and the Det. Harriet Foster series was born. It’s going strong so far (knock wood), readers seem to like Harriet. I like Harriet. I’m writing book four in the series now, Echo.
Real characters … real people
DOSSIER: Your characters are often very relatable people in a real world type of setting. Where do you fall on the scale of wanting to create a character that’s seen as a “normal/relatable person” vs someone who really stands out because they’re different in some interesting kind of way?
CLARK: I try to achieve both things, really. I want my characters, all of them, to feel real, look real, sound real, and act as a real person would. This is how you draw readers in by reflecting back to them a humanity they recognize. You want a reader to literally say, “Ah, I know a person just like that,” or “Yes, I know exactly how that feels.” I give characters challenges they have to face, the same ones real people deal with – stressful jobs, societal tensions, vulnerabilities, shortcomings, strengths, fear, loss, regrets. I give them a life, a life that reflects the ones we lead out in the real world. I make them human. That’s the framework. The uniqueness comes when I start adding flesh and sinew to the frame. Take Harriet. She’s a cop. There are many cops. She’s a female cop. There are many female cops. But Harriet is a female cop in a very interesting place when we meet her in Hide, book one of the series. She’s a cop who wonders if she’s still got it to give. She’s a cop who has been damaged and knocked off her beam. She’s a cop who can’t even bring herself to pull her car into the cop lot to start her shift. The why of this is unique to her. It’s the why of every character that the levels are revealed. So, it’s a balancing act all the time. Reflection of humanity to get that reader engagement and the other end where you add the specificity to make it that much more interesting.
Not all heroes wear capes
DOSSIER: Can you create a “normal” character who’s extraordinary at the same time? How would you do that?
CLARK: I do it every day. Often it’s the normalness that is the extraordinary part of building effective characters. Not to knock Superman, but you pretty much know that if Superman’s got the cape on, he’s going to save the world. And I don’t think Superman’s fretting the opposition, really. I mean, who’s going to out Superman Superman? But what about regular folks just trying to make it through? That female cop, for instance. She puts that gun and badge on every day to meet whatever comes not knowing if she has enough on any given day to serve and protect and survive. The extraordinary part about that is that my cop, and real cops, too, keep coming back, keep stepping up to the line, keep facing the most messed up things society can throw at them. What makes my characters extraordinary is their commitment to facing down the bad guys because it’s the right thing to do, and because if they don’t do it, who will? Extraordinary is being afraid or weary or spent but sucking it up and walking down that dark alley at 2 a.m. because somebody needs you to do it. Not all heroes wear capes. That’s true in real life and it’s true in fiction.
Writing 5k words on a flight
DOSSIER: Self-imposed deadlines and consistency is important in writing, but when and where do you like to write and what environment works best? Is there music, silence … the scream of the “L” rattling by there in Chicago?
CLARK: I’m up at 5:30 a.m. every day to write. I write for two and a half hours, and then swivel over to my day job. I write from my messy desk in my den, a glass of V-8 at the ready. No music. No TV. No phone. Just my thoughts. I have written, effectively, in other places. I do have the ability to tune things out when I get in the zone. In fact, I wrote five thousand words on a flight to LA once, though I have never been able to replicate that feat since. But my best writing spot is my desk in the early morning when things are quiet and still. Fortunately, I don’t live near the L, but I don’t think the screeching or rattling would bother me a bit. I love the sounds of Chicago.
On the writing community
DOSSIER: You’ve been heavily involved in the Midwest Mystery Conference in Chicago (the 2023 meeting was fantastic!). How important would you put author networking on the list of what new writers should consider when they’re trying to get started?
CLARK: Glad you had a good time! And I hope we’ll see you back this year. It’s very important, in fact, it’s crucial. Writing is such a solitary thing. It’s just you and the words in that writing room. What makes writing not so lonely is community. Writers helping writers with advice, support, commiseration when it’s needed, or a hearty hail, hail when something good happens, is everything. The writing community is where you’ll find your people. I would encourage any writer at any stage of their writing career to find their group and jump in. If you write crime as I do, definitely consider joining Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers. If you’re a writer of color, join Crime Writers of Color. Participate in their activities, take advantage of the many seminars and webinars and events that they hold. Soak it all in. Best decision, I think, you’ll ever make.
DOSSIER: I can’t wait to see you there again!
DOSSIER: As a writer who’s locked into Chicago life, what kind of books do you think you would have ended up writing if your homebase had ended up being somewhere else like El Paso, Texas or Missoula, Montana?
CLARK: Honestly, I think I’d be writing the same kinds of book only they’d be set in El Paso or Missoula. It has always been mystery and crime for me. That’s my jam. In my books, somebody’s going to die and somebody’s going to be there to figure out how and why it happened. I like the puzzle. I like the high stakes. I love a good action scene. I’d bet good money I wouldn’t get five pages into a rom-com before I bumped somebody off. I don’t know what this says about me, but I am of the opinion that crime writers are born not made. We’re all a little macabre, a little twisted. Who else spends happy hours writing about stuffing a body into a drainage pipe?
The Big Deal
DOSSIER: Do you have any news or announcement you’d like to disclose in your Dossier?
CLARK: I am hard at work on book 4 in my Det. Harriet Foster series. It’s entitled Bliss. Echo, book three, releases on Dec. 3, so I’m gearing up to start promoting that everywhere. And I’m looking forward to seeing you at this year’s Midwest Mystery Conference? And for those writers out there, new or old, who want to find their people and connect with community, find a group, a local chapter of the national organizations I mentioned, and go. Join in!
Find out more about Tracy at: Tracy Clark | Instagram | Amazon Author Page