Tracy Wise
Author Interview - Tracy Wise
Author of Manufacturing a Duchess
Financially desperate widower and single parent, Alec Raeburn, Duke of Selkirk, leaves his faltering estate to seek an heiress on the Marriage Mart and a mother for his daughter. He’s accompanied by his wealthier cousin, Finn Mackenzie, Duke of Galloway. As the London Season begins, wealthy industrial heiress Aurora Hardcastle also arrives with her titled but financially distressed friend, Lady Millicent Wentworth. Aurora has resigned herself to the process of finding a husband, but her heart remains in the world of her father’s factory.
An outing to the Tower of London brings the four together, and Aurora befriends Marjorie. But it is beautiful Millicent who is the Season’s Incomparable, not Aurora. Gradually, Alec and Aurora grow closer and contemplate a match, but a devastating discovery launches a chain of events that threatens everything. None of the four adults, or Marjorie, will ever be the same again.
Business and duty vs. love: must it always be an either/or?
Author Interview - Tracy Wise
Author I draw inspiration from:
Elizabeth Gaskell. My favorite of hers is Wives and Daughters, but North and South is my second favorite.
Author Interview - Tracy Wise | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
I love to read a book sitting in one of the chairs I inherited from my parents, with comfy cushions and a hand-knit shawl around my shoulders if it is chilly. It is right next to two windows, so I can see the sky. And there is a table to my right which capably handles a perfectly hot cup of tea.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen). I can tell you how I would love for it to play out (Lizzie has a sharp tongue and I would hope not to fall on her bad side): I truly hope it would go swimmingly and that we would both end up laughing hysterically and that she would find me equally fun and delightful. I hope.
Author Interview - Tracy Wise | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
Before I could read, I would sit in front of my parents' bookshelves and look at the spines of all those books lined up, imagining what was inside them. They were mainly paperbacks, as I recall. They seemed magical and wondrous. To become an author was, to me, the pinnacle of achievement.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardback #1; Paperback #2. I like the heft of a hardback, its weight. I like the portability of a paperback.
I have so many ebooks on my nook and my Kindle, but I find I just don't end up reading on those devices; I also prefer not to read books on my computer, laptop, or phone. I don't put deeply loved books I want to keep on those devices because I know ebooks can be snatched back by the company which has "loaned" them to you for a price--if I love a book and want to keep it, I buy a hard copy.
Audiobooks are my least favorite because I don't like to listen to anything except music when I am driving, and I like quiet around the house. So, I simply do not end up listening to audiobooks. Though I will always remember Salman Rushdie reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories; he did all the voices and was wonderful.
The last book I read:
Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi
What I thought: I love discovering first books by older writers, and Levi’s life is all over this rich novel—it is filled with art, literature, history, and culture. It was solidly written and builds a sense of community and caring, which adds emotional depth to the story’s final twist. This is definitely a feel-good book to curl up with.
Author Interview - Tracy Wise | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I prefer to journal using pen and paper, but I prefer to do my writing-writing on a computer. The reason is, for my non-journaling, my thoughts move so quickly I get impatient with the slowness of my hands and then the resulting illegibility of my handwriting when I try to speed up! Because I am a pianist and therefore a fast touch typist, my fingers can keep up with my thoughts, so a keyboard is more of a seamless process for actual composition.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
When I was younger, I wanted to be best friends with Jo March (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott) because she seemed the absolute pinnacle of what it meant to be a girl. She knew who she was, she took risks, and she had such a huge heart. Actually, I wanted to be Jo March but, failing that, her best friend would work. I think a lot these days about Jo going through one of her writing storms, and disappearing up into the attic to write and write and write. Everyone would leave her alone until she was done. I would love to be able to escape into an attic and ignore the rest of the world for however long it took me to get all my words down onto paper.
Author Interview - Tracy Wise | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I have already explored being an actress and an opera singer, along with developing my academic and administrative skills into working as a chief of staff to presidents at two universities. Perhaps becoming a diplomat, and working in the U.S. Foreign Service.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
While I love looking at Renaissance paintings, my favorite fashion century is the 19th. I enjoy the transition from the looser Regency styles down through the Victorian, though I would not have wanted to wear a corset. I had the chance to wear a Renaissance-era costume in a production of "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky one summer as an apprentice at Des Moines Metro Opera, and it was a lot of costume to drag around!
Place I’d most like to travel:
Australia and New Zealand. Because that is one part of the world I have never visited but read so much about. Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice was an early inspiration. Also, of course, The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough.
My signature drink:
Always, a cup of tea. Both straight up and with sweetener and milk/milk substitute.
Favorite artist:
Van Gogh, as a painter--his drawings and paintings are so alive and full of energy. Rachmaninov, Beethoven, and Smetana as composers—their music sings to me.
Number one on my bucket list:
Visiting the Hebrides. And perfecting my Scots Gaelic beforehand. I have never been and I believe it would be breathtakingly beautiful. I fear this marks me as a perpetual and incurable romantic.
Anything else you'd like to add:
Writing is a combination of a learned and long-practiced skillset along with everything I have read and experienced. It is also a form of music for me--reading aloud what I have drafted not only helps with catching typos, it helps me craft sentences and paragraphs with punctuation that all act together the way a composer's directions on a score direct the performer how to perform the work.
I grew up living internationally because of my father’s work with a non-profit aid organization, pursued theatre (acting) and then opera, worked in higher education administration at several universities, and now am finally getting the time to do my own creative writing. I also love bringing my skills into creating audiobooks for my writing.
Find more from the author:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61562167671682
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wisefrau/#
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26593393.Tracy_Wise
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/frauwise.bsky.social
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@wisefrau
Website: https://www.twisewriter.com/
About Tracy Wise:
Tracy Wise
Tracy Wise is the author of the novella, Madame Sorel’s Lodger. She spent her childhood in Asia due to her father’s aid work and currently writes university presidential speeches, campus communications, and news stories in California’s Inland Empire. She holds a BA in Theatre and Spanish and an MA in Cultural Studies. A life-long, passionate reader, she designs social media for the Friends of her local Redlands public library in her free time.
