Let's welcome Tracey Cramer-Kelly today!

Tracey Cramer-Kelly was nice enough to stop by and answer some questions. So grab a cup of coffe and come sit with me while we read her answers. Please leave Tracey a comment or ask Tracey a question, she loves to hear from her readers.

1.Did you always know that you wanted to be an author or did you have another dream?
I think it’s good to dream about doing or being many different things—and its okay when those dreams change! When I was little I wanted to be a veterinarian. By the time I started college I wanted to be a physical therapist. During college I daydreamed about making singing my career! In the end, I got a business management degree and within a few years I had discovered my true calling as an entrepreneur (I’m on my third business, www.LeaderMotorcycle.com). Although I wrote during high school, I never considered it a “career opportunity” (and frankly, I still have no interest in writing full-time or trying to make a living at it!)

2.How long did you write until you were finally published?
Some of the scenes in Last Chance Rescue were written in 1998-99 (after I ran into an old acquaintance at my high school reunion, just as Brad does in my book!). But still it took another ten years for me to settle down to write seriously. By that time I had four novels in progress. Last Chance really came together after I did some ride-alongs with medevac and search-and-rescue. From the time I really honed in on Last Chance to actual publication was two years (my daughter was born 16 months into that time frame!).

3.When you sit down to write, is there a ritual you have to do before you start?
I don’t have a particular ritual, but I do need QUIET (easier said than done since I have two young children aged 2 and 6) and no distractions (i.e., no internet!).

4.Do you plan the story out or just let it flow?
I might have the main characters pretty well ‘cast’ in my head before I start writing, but the ‘contributing’ characters (and sub-plots) often develop as I write. Perhaps I end up writing more this way (and cutting!) but there’s no wrong or right way to write!

Here’s an example: at one point while writing Last Chance Rescue, the antagonist (Quinn) starting taking over the story. I had to ‘cut him off at the legs’ so to speak, because this wasn’t his story. I don’t know how many pages I cut, but he became so real (and human) to me that someday it would be interesting to write his story.

5.Do you have any WIP that you might want to share with us?
I’m currently working on my next novel, which is about a military officer’s harrowing experience at the hand of terrorists, and his personal journey to learn what is truly worth fighting for, and what True Surrender means. In a fun twist, the main character in this novel is actually Last Chance heroine Jessie’s ex-husband!

6.What character is more like your personality or is it a combination of more than one?
Because of my hobbies and my military background, I’ve had the fortune of meeting, working and playing with some very interesting people, and there are bits and pieces of them in my writing. Yes, there’s a healthy dose of imagination and plenty of creative license, but a seed has to be sown somewhere, and for me it is often a ‘human’ interchange. I made the heroine of Last Chance Rescue (Jessie) an Iraq war veteran and gave her some of the qualities I saw in my fellow soldiers/medics (and perhaps myself).

7. When you have a moment to sit down and breathe, what kinds of books do you read?
Lately I’ve been reading military memoir (as it pertains to the subject of my next novel) and the “Left Behind” series. I try to read, um…widely!

8. What author or authors inspire you to write the way you do?
I like books with complex, more adult characters (Nicolas Sparks comes to mind); I am particularly fascinated by how a male character may change/be changed by events/situations (a major theme in Last Chance Rescue as well). I like unusual settings, but not to the point of unbelievability (which is why I did ride-alongs with a medevac team before I finished writing Last Chance Rescue). My ‘pet peeve’ is a book with too much ‘headhopping’ (constantly changing points of view).

9. Do you have any tips for those aspiring authors out there?
Forget about writing what you know (that would be so boring for most of us!), but do your homework to make it as real as possible (but don’t get too carried away—it is fiction, after all!. Don’t write for a particular goal or market; write what makes your heart sing.

10. Do you have any links of where we can find you on the internet?
Yes, I’m on the Web!
http://www.lastchancerescue.com/
http://www.lastchancerescue.blogspot.com/

Tracey Cramer-Kelly will be here on 11-18-2009

Here is an excerpt from Last Chance Rescue by Tracey Cramer-Kelly to get you in the mood for tomorrow. It looks like a great book! Enjoy!

The helicopter shuddered and swayed as it lifted off the helipad. Instinctively Brad Sievers gripped the edge of the bench, willing his stomach to calm down.

The chopper was so full he could hardly move, and he felt overly warm and claustrophobic. Though he wore a headset, he could hear the Colorado air pulsing through the giant blades above.

Minutes ago he'd been terribly insistent about tagging along on this search-and-rescue mission; now he wasn't sure it was a good idea. What the hell am I doing? he thought. I'm in advertising, for Chrissakes!

"Okay, listen up," the team leader said.

The movement of the chopper was so foreign to Brad that he had difficulty paying attention. The team leader talked about the missing snowmobilers -- what they looked like, where they were last seen and probable scenarios. He threw out a lot of numbers -- coordinates, Brad realized later -- and assigned teams to what he kept calling quadrants. "And Jessie will take our ride-along in CHIPS," he finished.

Brad had known Jessie Van Dyke since kindergarten -- in fact, it was entirely possible he'd chased her around the playground in "kiss and tell" -- but they'd been only casual acquaintances through high school. He hadn't seen her in ten years -- until he showed up at their high school reunion in Minnesota just weeks ago, hoping to impress his old crush, Aimee Kinderbach -- who blew him off in the end.

He must have had a blank look on his face because Jessie said, "CHIPS is our medevac chopper. It's equipped with heat-seeking equipment, electronic mapping, medical equipment -- the whole nine yards. It's parked at our rendezvous helipad." She tugged on Brad's harness, adjusting the fit like another woman would adjust a tie.

They disembarked on a plateau that was in the middle of nowhere according to Jessie. Brad wouldn't have known it; the plateau was lit up like the Fourth of July, a line of snowmobiles idling to one side. A blast of cold air hit him, making him thankful for the jacket.

Jessie tapped his arm. "This way." She led him around the helicopter they'd just landed in. Behind it was the smaller helicopter, CHIPS. It, too, had its propellers going.

Jessie swung open the back door and plugged in her headset.

"Hey guys," she said. "We've got company tonight."

She indicated that Brad should take the rear-facing seat, and showed him where to plug in his headset. She introduced him to "Pilot Sam" and "Navigator Rick."

"Brad's been hanging out with us and couldn't resist sticking around for the real thing."

Jessie settled herself into the seat across from Brad.

A pair of lit-up computer screens in front of Rick caught Brad's attention. "How does that work?" As if in response to his inquiry, a voice came over the radio. "Checking all systems ... all teams power up."

Lights began blinking on the computer screen. "Every team has a transmitter as well as GPS on their radio," Rick explained. "We can track them from above and the mission coordinator can track them from the base site."

Brad found himself riveted to the lights on the screen as the teams responded one by one: "Ready on Alpha." "Ready on Bravo." "Ready on Charlie ..."

It took him several minutes to realize what the words meant. "Team names?"

Jessie nodded. "Based on the military alphabet. That was the team leader, Dan, calling for the ready-check."

Finally Rick spoke into his mouthpiece. "We have audio and visual on all teams. We are ready to rock and roll."

"Ditto on the ground," another voice said. "Move out!" The helicopter began to rise as snowmobiles passed it on the right. Out the rear window panel, Brad watched as the launch pad and snowmobile lights disappeared from view. "How do you know where to look?" he asked.

"Sometimes we don't," Rick said. "But in this case, we have fairly reliable information about where they are."

"If we didn't, we may have been put on standby until the ground teams found them -- or first light," Jessie said.

"Or if the weather was really crappy," Rick added.

"Here. Make yourself useful." Jessie was holding something that looked like a cross between binoculars and 3-D glasses. "They're night-vision goggles."

Brad wasn't sure what he was looking for but it felt better to be contributing, so he strapped the goggles on and peered out the window at the ground below. His thoughts drifted to the woman across from him…

Their chance encounter at the reunion had stuck with him after he returned to his new job in Dallas. He tried to forget the way she touched his lapel when she said, "I never would have guessed you for advertising; I didn't think that would give you fulfillment." And the way her eyes searched his when she teased him about being shallow.

And then he lost his job.

And the self-doubt -- was he the reason they'd lost the account? -- started eating at him. He'd been drinking himself to devastation every night, but it hadn't made him feel any better. If anything, that brief conversation with Jessie came to mind more often. So, on a half-drunken whim, he'd driven from Dallas to her home state of Colorado, intending to put her "shallow" comment to rest.

But the conversation didn't go the way he'd envisioned it ...

"Team Foxtrot has a visual." The voice cut into Brad's thoughts, jarring him back to the present. He wasn't sure how long they'd been flying.

"Cannot confirm it's our target," the voice continued. "We'll check it out."

"Are we close enough?" Sam said.

Rick was studying a map on one of the computer screens. "That's southwest of us about 20 miles," he said. "If it's not legit, we can circle back easily and still cover prime terrain."

It was Sam's turn to radio. "CHIPS to back up Foxtrot." He swung the chopper around.

"Affirmative, Chips II."

"Who's on Foxtrot?" Rick asked.

"That would be Micah and Ryan," Jessie said. Brad had just had a long conversation about stock car racing with Ryan, a young Vietnamese-American who was full of jokes.

Fifteen minutes later Rick said, "We're coming up on Foxtrot."

"They look stationary," Jessie said. "I have a visual on their objective ... looks like a wreck, all right."

www.LastChanceRescue.com
http://www.lastchancerescue.blogspot.com/