Tracey Landau began her writing career at the age of three, dictating stories to her mother. Twenty-one years later, her first novel, The Queen of Diamonds, has been published by Wildside Press. Landau started writing this book—her third novel and the first to be published—when she was 17, writing on receipt paper during her job at Friendly’s. She is working on a new novel.
- What is your writing routine?
Good question. I think my writing routine ends up different for each work. Generally, the way I start writing the story is the way I’ll continue to write the entire piece. For example, my first novel was all written on my big computer at home, and I was pretty inconsistent about writing every day (or every week . . . or even every month). For my second novel, on the other hand, I started by writing on the back of receipt paper at a minimum wage job as a teenager. I also forced myself to write every day. By the end, nearly the entire first draft was written on receipts. So I guess I still don’t have a regular routine yet.
- Tell us about your current project.
I’m currently writing a supernatural thriller called The Devil’s Servant. It’s a story I’ve been crafting in my head for years now, but only recently started writing down. The story follows the perspectives of two characters: Donnie, a soft spoken young man living a simple and somewhat lonely life, and Celine, a hot-tempered, high achieving detective up for promotion. The story follows Donnie’s descent into madness when he starts to believe he’s meant to serve the Devil, and Celine as she attempts to do everything in her power to stop Donnie in his rampage. As eerie and inexplicable occurrences take place throughout the investigation, Celine begins to realize Donnie’s ravings may not be so far-fetched. One thing I’m excited for in writing this is it offers the perfect opportunity to incorporate literary references, mythology and fables, and the occasional biblical reference to add some dimension to the story, which is what I’ve been wanting to play with for a while now.
- Which writers, living or otherwise, would you host at a dinner party and why?
I think it would be an exceedingly interesting experience to host a dinner party with Shakespeare and Stephen King. They’re both amazing writers with obviously very different styles and personalities, so I think it would be very entertaining to watch the two of them interact, as well as discuss writing together. Plus I’d just love to meet Shakespeare and show him around the 21st century, as well as introduce him to the many cinematic portrayals and reinterpretations of his works (the Reduced Shakespeare Company among them). I’d love to see his reaction.
- What do you enjoy about your MWA membership?
What I may enjoy most about being a member of MWA is the community. MWA members really are a lovely bunch of people. Everyone I’ve met from the group has been friendly and helpful and has offered wonderful advice to assist me in my writing career. Attending an MWA meeting is what led to my first novel getting published, so I owe a lot to the community. Also, MWA hosts great talks and panel discussions with successful writers as well as actual detectives and officers of law enforcement, which are incredibly informative to mystery writers.