Q&A with Paranormal and Dystopian Romance Author of Fallen and The Botticelli Affair, Traci Slatton
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Q&A with Paranormal and Dystopian Romance Author of Fallen and The Botticelli Affair, Traci Slatton

Q&A with Paranormal and Dystopian Romance Author of Fallen and The Botticelli Affair, Traci Slatton

Today we are shining the spotlight on an author Traci Slatton who’s dystopian romance book Fallen made me an instant fan! Fallen is a story filled with love, betrayal, mystery, romance, hope, and survival – which is the perfect recipe for a dynamically entertaining whirl-wind of a book that sent me spiraling on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. I could not pull myself away. We follow Emma on her mission both herself and her family after surviving the Apocalypse. Now she is left alone to care for her daughter and a few abandoned children while trying to keep safe from deadly mists that surface from the earth, killing everyone in its path. When she meets Arthur, a man with a safe camp, she offers herself in order to secure the safety of her family. Little did she know that he would soon capture her heart. When the world ends, will you be able to rebuild, to love again, to be the person you once were? Or will you lose all hope and yourself in order to survive? This book will have you laughing, crying, your heart-pumping and will leave you wanting more. Traci’s other book, The Botticelli Affair, will capture the hearts of paranormal romance lovers and art enthusiasts. Here we have a mix of Interview with the Vampire meets The Da Vinci code. It has action, murder, mystery, and romance that will have you racing through the pages.

Traci is here to talk about her books, her life and her life with an “Obsessed Classical Artist!”

Let’s give a warm welcome to Traci Slatton!

Tell us about yourself.
I have a yoga practice that gives me both anxiety and peace. I love to travel and to ride horses and I live with stories roiling around in my brain. When I stand in line at the supermarket, I either read tabloids, to catch up on the gossip, or I daydream in character. I have four daughters, three and a step, who range in age from 21 to 6; when people ask me if I am Mormon or traditionalist, I say, “No, I’m just an idiot who doesn’t understand birth control.” I love writing fiction but my most recent book is a non-fiction coffee table art book written with my husband classical figurative sculptor Sabin Howard, THE ART OF LIFE. It tells the story of figurative sculpture from the earliest times to now, and shows Sabin’s philosophy and process as the finest living figurative sculptor.

Did you always know that you wanted to become a writer?
Yes. When I was six years old, I read my first “big book,” a novel. It was about a child who had died and was watching his family from heaven. I was very moved. I was struck as if with lightning—the best thing in the whole world had to be telling stories that moved people! In my mind, writing and publishing novels is the home run.

Where do you get your amazing ideas from?
I wish I knew! Thank you, by the way. Ideas just show up, like apples and pecans rolling along the floor into a room. I guess I’m always people watching, and especially people listening. I respectfully eavesdrop on everyone because I am eternally on the quest for good dialogue. I get fascinated, with conversations and with images, and then a context of obstacle and conflict occurs to me, and then I’m off….

Fallen is one of my favorite books of the year. I was instantly drawn into the post-apocalyptic world and love all the characters: Arthur’s hope, Emma’s strength, the kids’ ability to still have fun. Which character is your absolute favorite and why?
Ooo, good question. I guess I really enjoy Alexei, the leader of the Russian camp and former drug/guns runner and human trafficker, because he’s a sociopath, and it’s fun to write someone like that. You just don’t know what he’s going to do next. Even I don’t. He’s capable of kindness, but there’s always a tint of pure evil in him. I am fascinated by him. He will be in all 3 books of the AFTER Trilogy.

Art seems to be a connecting factor in both The Botticelli Affair and Fallen. How did you learn so much about art and art history?
I have a PhD in “Living with An Obsessed Classical Artist.” It’s from the School of Daily Marriage. Seriously, Sabin my husband is obsessed with the Renaissance and with art. I always joke that some people pick up smoking because their mate smokes, but I picked up the Renaissance because that’s Sabin’s addiction. You can see what I mean if you look at his website, www.sabinhoward.com And he lives it, too. Michelangelo and Bernini are topics of conversation at our dinner table every day. I’m really glad we wrote the book because he has an opportunity to publicly rant about the devolution of art and how art can be so much more—how it can uplift and inspire people. I think we, as a culture, have forgotten how art is a doorway into a magical realm.

The Botticelli Affair was a paranormal romance while Fallen is a dystopian romance. Which did you have more fun writing?
Another good question. They were both fun in different ways. Laila came to me as a voice: snappy, feisty, funny, irreverent, frisky. It was so compelling for me. I had that voice in my head and I wrote and then rewrote the novel a few times to find the best way to showcase it. Originally, I wanted to do a vampire-time-travel book with her, but people told me that it was mixing mythologies and wouldn’t work. I pictured her as a tall blond, but the brilliant freelance editor Lori Handelman who edits my writing said to me, “I keep picturing LailaLaila could only be a red-head.

FALLEN was fun to write because I was consumed by Emma and Arthur’s relationship, its tenderness and fierceness, their struggle with it and with the devastated world they live in. In fact, that novel first came to me as the relationship, which is frankly sexual but also loving and despairing, in a world that requires all their strength to survive. The butterflies—you know what I mean—were an image of love and loss and hope that came out of my unconscious creativity as I wrote the story. I am very intent right now on COLD LIGHT, the sequel. There is a process of discovery, in writing a novel, that is fascinating and raptly absorbing for me.

I love the relationship between best friends Laila and Fern in The Botticelli Affair. Do you have a friend you can always count on?
I have many acquaintances, but just a few close, dear friends whom I love. My friend Gerda is very special to me. She has a free-pass for life from me. She thinks the best of me, but she will also look me in the eye and tell me something about myself that I don’t really want to hear. She’s so loving and honest and non-judgmental that I sigh and take it in and try to be a better person. My friend Debra Jaliman is someone I’ve known for twenty years and I’ve gotten close to her over the last few; she’s amazing, warm-hearted and interesting, inspirational. She has a book coming out in the spring, SKIN RULES: TRADE SECRETS FROM A TOP NEW YORK DERMATOLOGIST. Her book is fantastic, useful for a skin-care-junkie like me. I’ve been doing what she tells me to for 20 years and people often compliment me on my complexion. Then there’s Geoffrey and Paul and Stu and Rachel. Of late, I’ve become closer to Lane, who is the film producer for my historical novel IMMORTAL. Also Sarah, a young actress who is as beautiful on the inside as on the outside.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
Richard Powell, Daniel Silva, Sue Grafton whose prose is ravishing, EF Benson whose Lucia is mesmerizing, sometimes Richard North Patterson, always Elaine Pagels, Brian Weiss, Rumi.

What books are you currently reading?
I just finished Grisham’s THE LITIGATORS, which I enjoyed. Grisham can tell a rousing, juicy story! I’m reading a non-fiction book about reincarnation right now. I’m about to start UNBREAKABLE.

Was writing and publishing your book how you imagined?
Every book is a journey. In writing a novel, there’s the constant interplay between creative inspiration and structure. Every page is agony. The publishing part has a lot of details and is business-oriented, and there’s the inevitable trek into PR. People can’t buy your books if they don’t know the books exist.

Are you working on any other projects we should watch out for?
Yes, I am working on COLD LIGHT, the sequel to FALLEN. It’s the pivotal book in the After Trilogy. I am also working on the sequel to IMMORTAL, the historical novel set in Renaissance Florence. There’s also a sequel to THE BOTTICELLI AFFAIR called THE CODEX CAPER. And I’ve been taking notes on a novel set during WW2. It’s working title is RECLAMATION, and it will probably take me another few years to write. I have to know the history inside my gut almost perfectly in set a story organically within a particular epoch, and living with Dachau in my gut is almost impossible.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your books or publishing experience?
If I were to do it all over again, I would write my books better! The prose would be cleaner, the story sharper and more intense. I am on a journey of self-improvement. My friend Lynn tells me that I am an exacting and critical person, even with my generosity, but I am far more exacting than generous toward my own work.

What was the hardest part of writing your books?
Middles are hard for me. There’s a burst of creative inspiration at both beginning and end, and then the middle is much trickier for me, and I need a lot more discipline and structure. I am constantly asking myself: What are the stakes? How can I tweak the dramatic intensity? What conflicts and obstacles would organically arise now? Right now, my working definition of story is: how the protagonist does NOT get what she or he wants.

What do you do when you are not writing?
I am raising children, taking care of our home, doing research, reading, walking the dogs, going to yoga, grocery shopping.

What can readers expect when picking up a Traci Slatton book to read?
They can expect to be entertained, delighted, spellbound, and intrigued. It is my ardent desire as a novelist to give readers a story which will stay with them and uplift and enrich them long after they have put down my book.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
Thank you for reading my books! Email me with questions and observations. And much joy and many blessings to you and yours.

XO

THE ART OF LIFE by Sabin Howard and Traci L. Slatton
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THE ART OF LIFE by Sabin Howard and Traci L. Slatton

THE ART OF LIFE by Sabin Howard and Traci L. Slatton
THE ART OF LIFE by Sabin Howard

The sculpture/art history/art philosophy book that I wrote with my husband has some wonderful surprises in it, including a section in the back that reproduces Sabin’s drawings from his 16 years of teaching….

Why is figurative sculpture important?
With lush photos and vivid narrative, THE ART OF LIFE explores figurative sculpture from the earliest times to the present. The work of ancient and classical sculptors, along with that of Michelangelo, Bernini, Canova, and Sabin Howard, is showcased. The book also details Sabin Howard’s clay-to-bronze process, his philosophy, and his drawings.
ParaYourNormal – Where Para is our Normal!: Interview with Traci Slatton
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ParaYourNormal – Where Para is our Normal!: Interview with Traci Slatton

ParaYourNormal – Where Para is our Normal!: Interview with Traci Slatton: Hey, Traci! I’m so excited to have this opportunity to get to know you! Tell us a little bit about yourself that’s not on your site . I l…

 

 

Interview with Traci Slatton

Hey, Traci! I’m so excited to have this opportunity to get to know you! Tell us a little bit about yourself that’s not on your site.  

I love sci-fi movies, sitcoms, horse-back riding, and yoga; Cape Cod and Rome are my two favorite places in the world, with Paris coming up close behind them; Chocolate is one of my reasons for incarnating in the physical body; my husband sculptor Sabin Howard makes the most best shrimp scampi; “For fun and profit” is my usual answer when my kids, those opinionated creatures, ask “Why?”; 3rd Rock from the Sun is my favorite TV show and “Whom the Gods would Destroy” by Richard Powell is my favorite novel; Giotto, Cimabue, Raphael and Chagall are my favorite artists; I think the first TERMINATOR was a perfect movie; I love my dogs, my kids, my friends, sometimes my husband, sunshine, daisies, yellow roses, trees, time by the ocean, and teasing the people I’m close to.

So you’re from a Navy family. I am soooooo sorry! *helpless shrug* However, I must say that my Marine Corps father wasn’t too thrilled when I joined the Army. His only consolation was that I hadn’t joined the Navy. LOL!! How do you think your ingrained military background affects your writing,? 

Your dad was a jarhead? Just joking! I have to defend my dad a little. J Being in a military family gave me an opportunity to experience two things: 1, the idea that service to our country is important, worthy, and honorable—which I think the current generation does not understand; and 2, moving around between cultures. The South is different from the Midwest which is distinct from the Northeast, here in the US. I got to understand at a gut level that there are different and equally valid ways of being in the world. I live now on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, which has its own specific culture, and it astonishes me how so many folks here have an unconscious arrogance about their political beliefs and attitudes, as if theirs was the only intelligent way to live.

You were accepted into Yale in your junior year?! I’m feeling my brain cells shriveling already! LOL! I bet your prose just roll of the tongue in an almost musical sort of way. How did the other kids treat you when you were accepted? 

I think about 10% of my class at Yale was young, having skipped at least one grade. It wasn’t uncommon. My high school classmates already thought I was weird and a brainiac. Sigh. I was just very passionate about becoming a writer, and thus getting the education I needed for that goal.

How did you get started as a healer? What drew you to this? 

I was and am on a spiritual journey. I have never been able to get away from a profound sense of the Imminent. This is not at all related to religion, in my mind. To me, religion is a social/cultural construction that was formulated to ensure secular control by the priestly and aristocratic classes. At best, it’s a structure in which to live a family life and raise children with values about kindness, honesty, generosity, and integrity. At worst, it stifles free thinking, creativity, and the direct experience of the divine. Now, the Divine itself, whatever it is, fascinates me, and constantly taps me on the shoulder. I also have a deep sense of the suffering of others, and a wish to see them released from it.

Let’s talk about your book a bit, shall we? LOL! What is it called and what is it about? 

I have two paranormal novels out very recently: FALLEN, which is the first in a romantic trilogy set during the end times, the AFTER Trilogy; and THE BOTTICELLI AFFAIR, which is a playful romp through the art history byways of vampire lore. FALLEN is a dystopian love story, a tale of survivors in a ravaged world who are haunted by strange psychic gifts and devastating mists that have killed billions of people. TBA is about a frisky art forger trying to go straight while she searches for her missing father and a fabled lost painting. She’s pursued by lethal vampires and falls for a half-souled vampire who can’t consummate their passion.

What inspired this book? 

FALLEN came to me as a situation: a man and a woman, each with secrets, who fall in love despite themselves, and can’t be together. I had a sense of the intensity of their longing for each other. I felt their despair and their tenderness in the face of cataclysm and death, and I always knew it would take 3 books to tell their story. TBA came to me as Laila’s voice, which I found intriguing. She’s strong, tempted, kind-hearted, quirky, a bit zany, goofy, idiosyncratic, hot-blooded. I could hear her in my head.

Tell us something about your characters that we wouldn’t be able to figure out by reading the book. 

Emma the female protagonist of FALLEN will loose everything before she gains everything; Laila in TBA has a dark and vengeful side.

Is there a book 2 in the works? Can you tell us a bit about it? 

The second book in the AFTER Trilogy is called COLD LIGHT, and I am working on it now. Emma is back in Canada and her oldest daughter Beth gets kidnapped by a rogue band, so she sets out to rescue Beth. Laila shows up in THE CODEX CAPER looking for a Mayan Codex that heralds the end of the world, while also pursuing vengeance for her father’s murder. Laila meets a dashing hedge fund manager named Chris Davenport who tries to seduce her away from John Bolingbroke.

Where can readers purchase your book? 

FALLEN and THE BOTTICELLI AFFAIR are everywhere on the internet! Barnesandnoble.com, Amazon, as ebooks on Amazon, iTunes, smashwords and barnesandnoble.com. Readers can also find the recently released and very gorgeous sculpture book, THE ART OF LIFE, which I wrote with my husband classical figurative sculptor Sabin Howard. THE ART OF LIFE has over 100 color photos, and it surveys figurative sculpture from the earliest times to now, showcases the work of Greek sculptors like Polykleitos and Kritios as well as Renaissance and Baroque masters Donatello, Michelangelo, and Bernini, the great Neo-Classicist Canova and the modernist Rodin, culminating in the work of modern day master Sabin Howard. THE ART OF LIFE touches on the philosophy of art and why beauty is important. There’s a lovely back section that shows Sabin’s figure drawings, from which he taught for 16 years. It’s like looking at Da Vinci’s or Raphael’s drawings!

Where can your readers connect with you on the web? 

They can find me at http://www.tracilslatton.com, at www.tracilslatton.blogspot.com, and at www.parvatipress.com  They can find out more about my husband Sabin and his work at www.sabinhoward.com

Catch me next week on PARAYOURNORMAL and HEALTHYLIFE.NET
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Catch me next week on PARAYOURNORMAL and HEALTHYLIFE.NET

 PARAYOURNORMAL Blogtalkradio

Call in number to speak with the host

(619) 639-4626

Next week my voice will be out there. PARAYOURNORMAL Blogtalkradio is hosting me on Wednesday 12/7 at 6:30 pm. I’ll be talking a lot about THE BOTTICELLI AFFAIR, my vampire romp.

The-2BBotticelli-2Baffair-2B-2Bcover

Then Faith Ranoli of HEART AND HOME HEALING will air me on Thursday 12/8 at 4:00 pm ET to talk about my non-fiction books, including THE ART OF LIFE.

Call in and ask questions!