Interview With Author Rachel Dacus
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I write time travel and women’s fiction, as well as poetry. I’m interested in art, history, and a woman’s journey of self-discovery. My stories always have a touch of fantasy and romance.
An unforgettable tour of Northern Italy inspired me to set many of my books in that graceful land. A charismatic, knowledgeable tour guide inspired the fictional time travel guide George St. James in my Timegathering Series. I’ve published four novels, four poetry collections, and I’m working on a fifth novel in my time travel series.Writing keeps me curious, interested in life and relationships, and connected to the world around me. I enjoy writing time travel in part for to meet people in history. As a former dancer, I believe practice and discipline makes you a better writer, and can be immense fun.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Undoing Time is my latest novel. It was inspired by reading about a remarkable woman artist who was a spy for the American Revolution. Patience Lovell Wright created wax figurines, portraits for people at a time when photography hadn’t been invented. She became successful and even famous, and wound up in London, but her sympathies were with the American Colonies and so she smuggled information about the British inside her figures. I had to invent someone to help her! So my character Liv Pomeroy agrees to go back in time and work for her.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to dictate in short bursts on my phone, especially dialogue. And I find it helpful to be doing something else (thus the need to dictate). I might be taking a walk, washing dishes, or showering, when an idea strikes. I’m thankful for a device I can simply talk into to capture ideas.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Austen has been a huge influence on my approach to women’s fiction. My favorite contemporary authors range from literary novelist Ann Patchett to comedic time travel writer Jodi Taylor. Other authors I enjoy: Sally Thorne, Kerry Lonsdale, Elin Hilderbrand, Louise Bay.
What are you working on now?
I’m returning to a big literary influence, Jane Austen, and scooping her up into my time travel world. What would Jane do in our century? How would it affect her writing? Would she ever agree to go back?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I advertise on Facebook and BookBub. Social media is fun and part of being an author in public, but doesn’t sell books. I enjoy using my background in public relations to craft ads and monitor results.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep reading good books, books like the ones you want to write, and keep writing! It’s a longterm commitment, so don’t be discouraged if your first book isn’t picked up by an agent or press. Write another. And another. Writing, like ballet, requires practice.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Persist!
What are you reading now?
The Little Shop of Found Things by Paula Brackston
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll finish the current time travel book I’m working on and begin working on a sequel to my women’s fiction, The Invisibles. Readers asked, and I was inspired to create a new story involving the sisters Elinor and Saffron and their haunted villa in Italy.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d probably take Jodi Taylor’s time travel series. One Damned Thing After Another and The Time Police among them. They’re so funny they bear rereading.
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