I first heard of Tracy Joy Jones in December 2017, when Tracy began offering a free Christmas novella to her newsletter subscribers. Recommended by none other than the fabulous Melissa Tagg, it was an easy choice to check out Tracy's story. I'm glad I did!! Now about 15 months later, I've read five of Tracy's novellas and not only am I a fan of her work, she's become a friend as well. Her novellas are sweet and funny while touching on deeper emotions that resonate within readers. Now that Tracy is beginning to release her books on Amazon, I asked her if she would drop by for an interview and let us get to know her a bit.
Q: Welcome, Tracy! I have loved your Mayberry Family novellas! Can you introduce the Mayberrys to those who might not have met them yet?
A: Hi Erin, thank you so much for having me! I would love to introduce you to the Mayberry Family. I first met them the month before Christmas in 2017 when I had a crazy idea for a comedic story that just wouldn’t let go of me. The first person I met in that journey was the oldest daughter Gretchen, who arrives home from college to find a Santa look-alike climbing in her little sister’s bedroom window. Suspecting the perfect disguise for a burglar, she goes into attack mode and is horrified to discover she’s just rendered her ex-boyfriend unconscious.
I think I was surprised as anyone when TEN siblings poured out of the family home to go investigate the unconscious Santa! How was I ever going to keep up with them? One of my dearest friends in the world has ten siblings, and after years and years of listening to her wonderful and often hysterical stories, I got to live in the middle of my very own “imaginary” large family and loved every minute.
From there, we met the second oldest of the family, Amelia, in my second novella, “Unlucky in Love & Lyrics." When I first started writing Amelia, I knew immediately that I was going to love her. She grows so much through the stories, but I can’t help feeling that her story isn’t finished. Especially as it relates to her yummy drummer boyfriend, Zeke.
Q: The Mayberry novellas all take place around various holidays. How did you come to choose those special times of year for a setting?
A: That’s a great question. I honestly have no idea! I think Valentine’s Day came too quickly to get a novella out after Christmas, and I had this crazy idea to meet the family throughout the year. My husband’s birthday is March 19th, so we usually make a big deal out of St. Patrick’s Day. From then it was just spacing them at a reasonable pace throughout the rest of the year.
Fourth of July ended up being a challenging one for me because my kids were out on summer break. I’ve never been completely been happy with the way Gretchen and Will’s disastrous engagement turned out. However, I’m working on a re-write that I’m so excited to release in a couple months. I think their story will finally reach where I wanted it to go.
And it’s funny because the next novella was "sort-of” a Halloween release. I’ll let you in on a little secret, I actually don’t celebrate Halloween. However, I’m passionate about all things to do with the Fall. With a house full of Mayberry children, it just felt like the natural place for a story. I do love the way the story ended up being something completely different than I first intended. Kayla’s story celebrates everything fall all in one delicious love-hate mix-up.
And then I ended the stories full circle with a Christmas wedding. If I had to do it over again, I would definitely get married around Christmas. Although definitely not on the actual day.
Q: Do you have a favorite holiday?
A: Surprise! Christmas. Hands down. I decorate everything that moves, and love every part of creating memories for my friends and family. Sometimes I feel guilty that I don’t make more of an effort on other holidays. However, I think so much of what makes it so delightful is that you’re trapped by the cold, your kids and loved ones are home with you, and it seems like we really snuggle into family moments together. We play more games, build puzzles, and there is so much theme music to capture the memories. They say memories are bound by scent and taste and music, and I think that is what Christmas does better than any of the other holidays.
However, a very close second would be Groundhog’s Day, although for completely selfish reasons. It’s my birthday and always a big deal in our house. I decided to write a new novella series this year centered around Groundhog’s Day, so maybe I’m just continuing the trend.
Q: What's next for the Mayberry family? You've mentioned the possibility of a full-length novel in the future. Can you give us any hints about that? (My guess is that it will be Amelia getting her own story!)
A: Yes!!!! Oh my goodness, I can’t wait. I can see the whole thing in my heart. When I wrote the last novella “A Very Mayberry Christmas” I was shocked that first of all, Zeke wasn’t there, and that secondly, Amelia was singing with someone else! What!?! I honestly didn’t know what to think about that development. My mom is one of my first-readers and called so mad at me. She hates tattoos but really loved Zeke.
“You better fix this,” she said.
And she’s right. I knew I had to fix it. I’m not sure exactly what format it will take, longer novella or full length book, but I can’t wait to “fix it” as my mom said. Amelia needs to do some more growing before she’s ready for the next part of her journey, but I can’t wait to be part of it and see her story come to life.
Q. Yay, I was right! I can't wait for this one to come together. What's up with the latest story that is available on your blog?
A: As I mentioned earlier, I get really excited about Groundhog’s Day because of my birthday. However, this year I had a strange kind of birthday. I was sad, and I’m not often sad. I love to travel, and we were home. It was freezing cold and miserable, and I just found myself wishing I could be part of something. My imagination started running away with me and out came a story.
I could have just written it for myself, but I’ve had so much fun sharing my novellas over the past year, I decided to share this one as I write it. I have a whole wacky crew of characters planned for the story, and can’t wait to see how Eden Parrish grows through her time reliving the movie Groundhog’s Day. A Beautiful Day Once isn’t what you think, but I think it will be a lot of fun to live it with her.
Q: Confession: I haven't started on A Beautiful Day Once because I'm waiting for more installments to binge read together. 🙂 Can you tell us a little about your writing journey so far?
A: My writing journey began with my reading journey. I love books. I re-read books. I devour books. But because I love them so dearly, I never imagined I could write. My first real story idea came just over three years ago. It's the story of a girl who lost her parents to tragedy, got trapped in grief, hid out on her grandmother’s front porch, and the boy and a nest of eagles that finally gets her to rediscover the world around her.
Anyway, I sat down to write that story, not knowing if I could even write or what it would be like and five weeks later, I’d written an 85,000 novel. I moved on to the second, and then the third in that series. At that point, I started attending writer’s conferences as a writer. My husband and I own a graphic design company and we have the privilege of working with many other authors. Consequently, we’ve been in the writing world for years, but joining as a writer has been an entirely different journey.
I was advised by my agent that YA wasn’t the best place to start, so I wrote two more books for adults and started trying to find a home for some of the books I was writing. I spent the past year editing and pitching and writing proposals, and, of course, writing the Mayberry family series. To date, I still haven’t found a traditional publishing home for “Calamity Jenn” and “Bye Bye Bailey.” It’s been a bit of an interesting journey for me, but I think that is where having the outlet of my novellas has really helped. I write every single day, as much as I can. I decided a short time after I discovered writing as a passion, that I would write for the rest of my life, even if no one read it.
I’ve learned over the past year that having readers is lightyears better than your stories never being read. However, I will always write for the rest of my life. I’m still praying about the self-publishing road. I think it is the right fit for my novellas, but I haven’t made a final decision for my full-length books.
Q: Who are some of your favorite authors to read?
A: Oh goodness, who don’t I like? I read everything. I mean everything. Except for tear-jerker women’s fiction. I hate crying when I’m getting ready for bed or trying to get ready in the morning or cooking dinner. I just don’t want to do it. And if a story doesn’t have romance of some kind, I struggle. It doesn’t even have to be much. I love the Lord of the Rings, and there’s barely anything romantic in there, but at least it’s there.
In Christian fiction, it feels like I’m picking my favorite child. I love Melissa Tagg to pieces. Both personally and as a writer, she’s delightful. I love Katherine Reay, especially her first book, "Dear Mr. Knightley." I love Kristi Ann Hunter, Susan May Warren, Joanne Bischoff, Denise Hunter. Kara Isaac and Jenny B. Jones make me laugh, which is one of my favorite things to do. And I adore “Lady Jane Disappears” by new author Joanna Davidson Politano. Such an unexpected read. In Biblical fiction, my dear friend Mesu Andrews rocks my world with every book she writes. She is releasing a new book this month, “Of Fire & Lions” on the life of Daniel. There are also classics I read every single year like “Jane Eyre,” “Keeper of the Bees,” “Pride & Prejudice,” “The Blue Sword,” and “The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.”
Honestly, I could talk books forever. My favorite quote is by Pam Allyn and it says, “Reading is like breathing in, writing is like breathing out.” It fills my lungs just to write that.
Q: Where can readers find you online?
A: I touch base most days and am available on my author Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TracyJoyJonesAuthor/
You can also reach me on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/tracyjoyjones/
I have Twitter, but I think I have too many words for Twitter. I agonize forever getting them down and usually give up. 😉And of course on my website, www.tracyjoyjones.com If you join my newsletter, you’ll get to stay up to date with all of my writing journey and news. I’d love to have you along for the journey!
Thanks so much for having me, Erin. It’s been a joy to relive the Mayberrys' journey and I hope your readers will get the chance to meet the Mayberrys as well. “How Gretchen Stole Christmas” and “Unlucky in Love & Lyrics” are now available on Amazon and the third novella “When Fireworks Fly” will be for sale by summer.
It's been a pleasure chatting with you, Tracy! Readers, check out Tracy's books at the links below, and be watching for more releases soon!
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"The Lady and the Lionheart" by Joanne Bischoff
"The Lacemaker" by Laura Frantz
"Life After" by Katie Ganshert
"Prelude for a Lord" by Camille Elliot
"H2O" by Austin Boyd and Brannon Hollingsworth
