Welcome to another Friday Reads blog post. My featured book today is gripping wartime drama The Seaside Girls Under Fire by Tracy Baines. This is the latest book in the popular Seaside Girls series and will be published on 22 September. Grab yourself a cuppa, get cosy and let’s get talking to Tracy. 🙂

Will the war put a stop to the Seaside Girls?

Cleethorpes – September 1940

It’s all change for the Seaside Girls…Singer Jessie Delaney has finally got her big break in London’s West End and is determined to make the most of her golden opportunity, even with the start of the Blitz.

Lonely, and lacking the guidance of friends and family, Jessie hopes that seasoned performer Adele Bailey will help her find her feet. But, when fame beckons friendships are tested and loyalties are divided.

Ginny Thompson returns home to Sheffield to care for her sick but abusive father. Will she survive the wrath of her father and the blitz and return to her passion of entertaining the troops on the stage?

Meanwhile, back in Cleethorpes Frances Randolph is busy running the Palace Theatre whilst her husband serves his King and Country wondering if her life in the spotlight is over forever.

Will Jessie make the right choices as she navigates her way to the top – and can Ginny and Frances find their way back to the limelight?

Link: https://mybook.to/SeasideGirlsUnderFire

Welcome to my blog, Tracy, your book sounds fab. Can you tell us a little abour your writing life?

I wish I could tell you that I had a perfect daily routine, that I got up with the sun and wrote 1000 words before stopping for breakfast, wrote 1000 words before lunch then took the rest of the day of for research and editing. In my dreams!

I used to have subscriptions for a couple of writing magazines and eagerly devoured every ‘Writer’s Life’ article I could find, looking for clues. How did other people do it, how did they make the most of their writing time? It took me a long time to realise that the only true way is ‘our own way’.

I vividly recall reading about a young woman doctor with 5 children who was currently writing her third or fourth book. How? How? It didn’t inspire me, only made me feel more despairing. What a failure I was. In the end I stopped looking for answers and began to work it out for myself.

Like many women I wrote when my children were in bed, using that quiet hour or two to write three pages of whatever popped into my head, simply to build my writing muscle. I progressed to articles and then short stories. At the time they were something I could complete and send off – to be rejected many times before the acceptances came. A novel was way out of my sights at that point.

Then my children grew up and moved out and my life became more settled. I began THAT novel.

Now I try and write in the mornings if I can – but if not, I write in the evening. Keeping things flexible keeps the word count rising. Consistency builds a rhythm that I find crucial.

Most mornings when I’m working on a novel I have a bath. Soaking among the bubbles seems to stimulate the little machine in my brain and I begin to hear the characters speak, and sometimes entire scenes play out in my head. I get out of the bath when the inner movie ends and jot all the ideas and snippets of dialogue down on the reporter’s notepad I keep by my bed. Once I’m dressed, I tear off the notepad sheets and take them downstairs to my desk. Typing up the notes on the PC gets the motor running and most times sets the pace for the day. The ideas expand as I type and some days there is a wonderful flow of words onto the screen.

And other times it’s just hard slog. The trick is to keep going. That’s the most important thing I needed to learn.

I set myself a target of words per day which changes as I get deeper into the story. At the beginning it might be 500 words, then a thousand, then double that. Some days I may write more, some less, but the one thing that matters is that I keep going.

Absolutely agree, Tracy, find the routine that suits you best and keep on writing!

Meet Tracy

Author bio

Tracy Baines writes about friendship, family, and finding your inner strength when life gets tough. Her stories celebrate strong women and the importance of community spirit. Tracy’s bestselling historical sagas are inspired by her love of the seaside and its contrast with the gritty industrial fishing ports on the east coast of England where she was born.

Her short stories and articles have been published in magazines such as Woman’s Weekly, My Weekly, Best, Take A Break, The People’s Friend, Candis and The Weekly News as well as many other titles in the UK, ROI, South Africa, Scandinavia, and Australia.

Tracy lives in Dorset with her husband, and dogs Harry and Betsy. Her children and grandchildren live close enough for babysitting duties.

Website: www.tracybaines.co.uk

Facebook:  @tracybainesauthor

Instagram: @tracybainesauthor

Thanks so much for dropping by to talk to us today, Tracy. I hope your book soars!