If you are among those who regularly read Chicago Splash Magazine or any of our other local editions, then you may already know that I regularly interview authors, in order to share with all of you what I regard as some of the very best books by some of the very best authors of our time. Typically, those interviews have largely focused on one author’s latest work. While this author profile similarly focuses on their latest works — The Best Lies by David Ellis and Echo by Tracy Clark — it also delves deeper into how each one got their start as an author, their writing routines or processes, advice they might have for aspiring writers, the stories behind the stories of their latest works, and some reading recommendations of their own. While these are the first two interviews that I’ve done in this somewhat more wide-ranging format — which includes more information on the background of each author, rather than more narrowly focusing on one particular work for the majority of the interview — I hope to do more such interviews and, hopefully, to continue to help you discover your next great read. So now, without further ado, read on to learn more about authors David Ellis and Tracy Clark, as well as their latest works.
Tracy Clark
Author, most recently, of the forthcoming Echo
Andrew DeCanniere: To begin at the beginning, I was thinking that you could perhaps share a bit about yourself and how you got your start as an author.
Tracy Clark: I’m a Chicago native. I’d say I was born a writer. I think writers are either born or made, but I think I came out of the womb sort of interested in reading and writing and putting stories on the page. I started off in a different area — journalism and editing. I got to a point where I wanted to see if I could write. I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve always had this propensity for it, and you just sort of get to a point where either you jump off of that cliff and do it, or you regret it for the rest of your life. So, that’s kind of how I started. I just sat down in front of a laptop and said “I want to do this. Let me see if I can try.” It took several years to figure out what I was doing and how to do it. I took every class there was to take in high school and college, in terms of creative writing and fiction writing and all of that. Then you just have to take a leap, and that’s what I did. I think I was in my second year of college when I made a decision that I’m going to try and do this. I’m going to see where it goes, and I’m going to do everything I can do to make this thing happen. Then it took 20 years after that before I got my first book contract.
So, it took 20 years of struggling, trying to figure out what the craft of writing was, and then practicing — trying to figure out how to do it. You kind of teach yourself how to write. You can take every class there is to take. Teachers can tell you how it’s supposed to go. Until you actually get your fingers on those keys — or on that pen and paper — and actually do it, you don’t know how to do it, because you have to learn that way. So, it took 20 years of me learning that way, starting over, trying to figure out how to do it, submitting things for publication, getting those rejection letters back, and then continuing on. Just not stopping. That’s kind of how I got started. I just kept doing it — learning along the way, getting those rejection letters, ignoring them, continuing to write, and then trying to learn what I didn’t know.
DeCanniere: I agree. Obviously, you do learn a lot in college, so I would never dismiss the importance of that formal education. However, you do learn a lot by doing as well.
Clark: I think that’s how you learn the bulk of what you need to know — by actually doing it. They can tell you what the craft of writing is, and they can tell you what the elements of fiction are, and you can internalize it. You can know what pacing is, what dialogue is, and setting, and how important all of those things are. When you actually get your fingers on it, and your brain in it, and figure out those problems and those issues for yourself, that’s when the real learning happens. I just tell people to learn as much as you can learn and then go.
DeCanniere: I was also wondering whether you might want to share a little bit about what your latest book is about.
Clark: Well, Echo is a police procedural and I write series. So, I’ve got my team of homicide detectives, lead by Detective Harriet Foster and her partner, and I’ve given them a case that has long tentacles to it. They find a young boy in a field, next to a fraternity house, and as they’re working on this case, they quickly discover that this case is connected to one that happened decades before. It becomes their job to figure out what those connections are, how those two murdered people are connected, and then to find the killer. It’s all based in Chicago and it’s all revolving around this dedicated team of homicide detectives. Harriet Foster is there, in the middle, with her own issues and her own motivations. It’s a wonderful series that I like. I like this character of Harriet Foster. She’s sort of complicated and deep, she does not talk much, and she has her own issues that she has to deal with. In connection with the case that she has to solve, she also has to solve her own life issues — which is kind of an interesting dichotomy to have to work with for a writer, from my perspective.
DeCanniere: It certainly sounds like a wonderful read. I read pretty broadly, but I do like mysteries. I’m a big Agatha Christie fan and, of course, there also are contemporary authors whose work I really enjoy and always look forward to.
Clark: Me, too. I think I started with Agatha Christie, too, and Nancy Drew when I was a little kid, and sort of progressed through the genre. You sort of move up to Sue Grafton and Walter Mosley and Barbara Neely. So, I’ve sort of gone through the journey, following the genre as I went. I kind of knew early on that I wanted to be in that crime fiction / mystery area, and I stuck with it.
DeCanniere: I guess that kind of gets to my next question. When did you decide to write this book, or is something that you wanted to write about, and why?
Clark: This series? I always sort of look for interesting characters to write about. Since I’m in this genre, I wanted a character that could hold up to that. I wanted an African American female. I knew that early on, because that’s what I am. So, I want to write myself on the page. When I’m looking for a new series or new book, I’m looking for characters that put themselves on the page and sustain themselves there. Detective Harriet Foster sort of blew up as I’m putting this body in this first body dump area, and there she was. She popped up and there she was, so now we have to figure out who she is. So, the series for me, so far, has been discovering who this character is, what motivates her, what moves her forward, and how she interconnects with all of these other officers I’ve given her to work with. It’s fun for me, as the writer, as I’m going through these cases — because I have to figure out a different case for each book — how that’s going to touch on whatever her vulnerability is or whatever her flaw is. In Echo, it deals with very young people, and she has lost a son. That’s the connection. There’s this complicated character, this complicated case, and then I’m trying to figure out how she’s going to get from Point A to Point B and beyond in one piece. So, it is interesting for me to put her in that situation, see what she does, and then solve the case at the end, because that’s what the genre dictates. For me, it’s character first, character always — interesting characters, multidimensional characters, deep characters, complex characters — and then we see what happens to them as the book progresses.
DeCanniere: Right. I think that makes it all the more engaging.
Clark: I think so. Most readers connect not so much with plot. Plot is important — you need a plot, you need a story — but it always seems to me that the characters draw you in. Characters engage you. You worry about characters, even if they’re the bad guy. You wonder whether they are going to get what they’re after — what they seek, what they need — and that’s the sort of fuel that keeps readers reading and that keeps the story moving. So, for me, it’s always character. The more complicated character I can create, the better I like it.
DeCanniere: And, as I was just discussing recently, that makes the story more realistic. Another author and I were just discussing how, in real life, people are complicated and multifaceted.
Clark: Absolutely. Nobody is one thing. So, we have good days and bad days. We have challenges. We have hurdles. All of that is realistic. All of that is human. So, you tap into human nature, human emotions, guilt, loss, grieving — and, in Harriet’s case, a sense of responsibility for the job that you have. All of that is good. As much as we can make those characters realistic for the reader, and sort of touch on that humanity, the better.
DeCanniere: You mention your story is set in the Chicago area. What lead to you deciding to set it there? Obviously, I’d guess that living in the Chicago area yourself would be at least part of it.
Clark: I live here. I was born here. Writing is hard, and if you can make it easier for yourself by setting your story where you live — you can sort of go outside your door and access the city you are writing about — then all the better. So, I set it here because I live here, but I also think it’s an interesting city. We have good stuff and bad stuff. You sort of have this foundation of corruption in the city — City Hall and all of that. Then there’s the battle that these characters have to face — navigating not only the crime, not only the community they work in, but the city that they work in, and the department they work in. We’re dealing with bureaucracy, corruption, politics, and all of those messy elements that add a little extra layer to the case they have to solve.
DeCanniere: Do you have any particular writing routine or process?
Clark: Well, I get up early. I still have my day job, so that’s an added thing I have to deal with. I get up at 5:30 in the morning, write for a couple of hours, and then sort of swivel over to my day job. If I have an idea for the book or the story that I’m writing, I have little Post-It notes that I will put on my writing laptop. I have two laptops. One writing laptop, and one laptop for my work. That will greet me at 5:30 in the morning. I do it early, because that is the only time I have. I have maybe two-and-a-half hours before I have to start my day. I try and get as much done as I can possibly do in that amount of time. Some days I will write a chapter or two — things will come out easily and I can move myself along. Sometimes I get up at 5:30 and I write maybe a paragraph or less. It just depends on where I am. I don’t have an outline. I am what they call a “Pantser.” I sort of meet my story and work it through by the seat of my pants. It varies. I might be able to breeze through a couple chapters in that time, or perhaps nothing. Then I just have to accept that, and deal with it, and meet it again at 5:30 the next morning. When I get to the end, I am profoundly happy that I’ve done it. Then, of course, you have to go back and make it art, because that messy first draft is always messy. It is always bad and then you just have to fix it. So, at 5:30 in the morning, I’m there. Whatever comes out will come out, and I meet it again the next morning.
DeCanniere: Any advice for aspiring writers — both those who want to write mysteries or crime fiction, but also writers in general?
Clark: My advice is to keep doing it. It’s like priming a pump. The more you do it, the more water comes out — similarly, the more you do it the better you get. Prepare yourself as much as you can in terms of learning what the craft elements are. If you have to take a class, then take a class. Once you’ve done that, you just have to keep doing it — keep writing. The more you do it, the better you get. The better you get, the better your chances of getting published — or of meeting that dream or goal or whatever you have. You have to keep at it. I think that it is really easy to stop writing, because it’s so hard. It is hard, and it’s easy to stop and do something else because you feel you can’t do it. However, if you think this is what you want to do, and you have a passion and talent for it, then you just have to keep doing it and keep getting better at it each time, and then your chances of getting published improve. So, I would just advise young writers — pre-published writers — to just keep writing.
DeCanniere: As an avid reader, I also always find it interesting to know what you’ve been reading, or who you may want to recommend, or who might you count among your influences?
Clark: I’m always reading all the time, and I’m reading almost everything. What I’m finishing right now is Ramona Emerson’s second book, Exposure. I love this series. There’s one book before it called Shutter. It’s an interesting story about a crime photographer who has this special skill — which I won’t give away here — but the writing is beautiful. I can’t say enough about Emerson’s work. So, I would recommend either her first book, Shutter, or Exposure. You can’t go wrong with either. That’s what I’m reading now. When I finish I will move on to something else.
My TBR stack is burgeoning here. It’s sort of leaning over like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I have other books that I have to get to. When I finish those, I will go and grab the next one off the top and go from there. I’m always reading and always writing. I think any good writer is always reading. You have to read to write.
Tracy Clark is the author of the acclaimed Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series featuring Cassandra Raines, a hard-driving African American PI who works the mean streets of the Windy City, dodging cops, cons, and killers. Clark received Anthony Award and Lefty Award nominations for series debut Broken Places, which was short-listed for the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List and named a CrimeReads Best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. Broken Places has since been optioned by Sony Pictures Television.
A Chicago native, Clark roots for all Chicago sports teams equally. Tracy is a member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime, and she sits on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference. You can find the author on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and on Instagram. You can also find more information on her website. Her latest book, Echo, is due out from Amazon Publishing on December 3, 2024 and is available now for pre-order.
David Ellis
Author, most recently, of The Best Lies
Andrew DeCanniere: To begin at the beginning, how did you get your start as an author?
David Ellis: The truth is that I was a writer before I was anything else, because I was writing when I was a kid. When I was in grade school, I would write for fun, because I had a lot of free time, but I would also write for class. When you’re little, they give you creative writing assignments. I was very enthusiastic about it, and I think I had at least a little bit of talent for it, and my teachers certainly thought so.
When I was in elementary school, I would enter writing contests for kids my age, and I would get some awards and things like that. Once you get to middle school or high school, they stop requiring it. Creative writing stops being a part of the curriculum, and I think that is still true today, judging from watching my kids go through these grades. In middle school, there is almost no emphasis on creative writing. In high school, there is very little, if any. That’s very interesting to me because, when it comes to the arts, every other extracurricular activity is represented at the high school level.
In high school, if you want to be in theatre, you can be. If music is your thing, there are plenty of opportunities when it comes to music. Just about any art form that interests you and, of course, things like speech, debate and sports. That’s not really the case when it comes to creative writing. By the time I got to high school, I had become very preoccupied with sports, and with getting good grades — which meant whatever you assign me I’m going to do, and I will try to do it as well as I can.
There was no room for extracurricular activities, because most of that was taken up by athletics — football and baseball. To fast forward, I went through high school and college and, from there, straight to law school. After I’d been a lawyer for a couple of years, I had one of these moments when I was on vacation watching the sunset and thinking about my life. I enjoyed being a lawyer. You know, we’ve all had those moments where you’re kind of taking stock of your life, and I thought “When did you stop writing? That always gave you so much joy and you stopped.” I had an answer. The answer was that nobody was making me do it anymore, but that wasn’t a very good answer. I made a decision then and there that I was going to actually write a novel — not just think about writing a novel, or just putting a few ideas down, but commit to writing one. For me, that meant an hour a night, because I had a very busy job at a downtown Chicago law firm where I was working until ten o’clock every night. Every day I would write for at least one hour. It took me about three years to write my first manuscript, but that was a big moment for me, when I kind of rededicated myself to writing. So, people kind of say “How did you go from being a lawyer to a writer?” The truth is that I didn’t. I just forgot about writing for about 10 or 15 years.
DeCanniere: I can see how that can happen easily enough, because there’s just everything else in life. There can be a lot of demands on one’s time — and it seems to me that’s particularly true given the field that you’re in. That said, it’s nice to hear you rediscovered your passion.
Ellis: That’s exactly what I did. I rediscovered it, and it changed my life. It was a life-changing decision. It took a long time and — you know, I’m proud of the career I’ve had. I think I’ve published 11 of my own books now, and I’ve co-authored about 11 with James Patterson. I think what I’m most proud of is that I stuck through that first book when there were a million reasons not to do so. I was working like crazy at my day job, and having a life outside of that. Every hour that I spent writing is one I could’ve spent exercising, going out with my friends, sleeping or watching TV. There is an endless list of things you could do instead, and I just said “No, I’ve made a commitment and I’m going to see it through.” That’s what I’m most proud of. I saw it through. Luckily for me, I broke through and got that book published, and I’ve not stopped since.
DeCanniere: Right. It definitely requires a significant amount of discipline to accomplish something like that, and I also think that’s a good segue to my next question. Do you have a writing routine to speak of, and what does that look like?
Ellis: I do. I pretty much have to. What I do is I use the wee hours of the morning, when normal people are sleeping, to write. My alarm goes off every day at 3:30 AM, and I usually get up right away. Occasionally, that’s a struggle. I write from about 3:30 until about 7:00 every morning, and then my children are getting up and my wife is getting up, and then it’s time to go be a judge all day. Usually, there’s no time at night. With the kids being the ages that they are, I’m driving people to baseball practice or piano lessons or someplace. So, I really only get those three or three-and-a-half hours in the wee hours of the morning, but I look forward to them. It’s hard to get up that early, and it takes a toll on you, but I do enjoy it. I have that space and that time to myself. My cell phone isn’t going crazy. I’m not getting emails. I’ll usually put on headphones and listen to some music and just escape for three or three-and-a-half hours.
DeCanniere: Along these lines, what advice might you have for aspiring writers — particularly those who want to write mysteries or crime fiction — but also for writers more generally?
Ellis: I would say that, number one, it’s never too late to start. I didn’t start that late, but I did start late. I didn’t come out of college planning on being a writer. I was probably close to 30 years old when I started, but it’s never too late. Number two, read things that inspire you. Number three, write what makes you passionate. A lot of people will say “Write what you know.” I understand why they’re saying that if you’re writing on a topic that you have an expertise in, that’s a much easier thing to do than to write something you have to know from research. However, what really is more important than that is that you really have to be enthusiastic when it comes to what you’re writing. That enthusiasm will show on the page. If you’re not excited about what you’re writing, the reader will not be excited about what you wrote.
DeCanniere: I definitely agree with the write what you know in one sense — that it can certainly imbue what you are writing with a certain authenticity if you’re writing from your own experience.
Ellis: No question. I’ve been lucky to have a pretty good range of experience in government and law, and now being a judge. So, pretty much all areas of the law and crime are things that I can write about pretty adeptly. That’s helpful to me, and those also happen to be what I find most interesting. I don’t think I’ll ever be writing a romance novel. I might have some romance in a book, if that’s what I think the book requires, but I’m really drawn to psychological thrillers. What I really like to write about is to write about conventional people. I don’t say the word “normal,” because I don’t really believe in the concept of being “normal.” I don’t think any of us think of ourselves as “normal.” We all have our quirks. We all have our things going on inside of our brains. Some of us will share those with the outside world and some of us won’t. So, I don’t like to say the word “normal,” but I like to say “conventional.”
What I find interesting is conventional people — people who generally follow the rules of society, but who are compelled for some reason to violate them. Especially the biggest rule, which is “Thou shall not kill.” I think that’s why people like true crime, because they like to watch shows about people like them, except they’re people who have crossed a line that most of us would never cross. When conventional people — people who own a house, and raise children, and pay their taxes, and follow all the basic rules of society — when those people transgress the outer boundaries of societal rules, I think there’s always a reason why. I think people find that interesting. What made this conventional person act in such an extreme way? That’s the area I like to play in. Seemingly normal people who do things that are abnormal, and that usually involves murder, because that’s the most extreme violation of society’s rules. I like to write relatable books — people to whom you can relate. I don’t like to write all good guys or all bad guys. I don’t really believe in the concept of a villain. I like to have people who are a little bit of both. I like the shades of gray. I don’t like perfect heroes. I like imperfect heroes. I think all of that is more relatable to us. That’s what I relate to, and I think that is what most readers relate to.
DeCanniere: I agree. I think it’s more realistic, more true-to-life that way.
Ellis: Yeah. I think people can see more of their own lives in situations like that. Some people don’t want that, and that’s okay, too. There are all kinds of fiction. There are so-called “heroes” in books who make very few mistakes and they never act in an improper way. They’re always the good guy. Those books can be fun to read, too, and I have nothing against them, but it’s not what I’m personally drawn to. I’m more drawn to a slice of real life with a little bit of extremism in it. To me, that moves me to dig into peoples’ characters and say “What happened to them, or what’s going on in their lives, to make them do things they wouldn’t otherwise do?” I think there’s a lot of drama in that space, and that’s what I like to explore.
DeCanniere: Do you want to share a little bit about what your latest book — The Best Lies — is about?
Ellis: Well, it follows a protagonist whose name is Leo, and his principal traits are that he is a diagnosed pathological liar, and he is a crusading attorney. He is somebody who will do anything to right a wrong — to free an innocent person or to stop something bad from happening. He will stop at nothing, including great personal expense, to right a wrong. That is essentially how the book begins, and it kind of brings all those traits together. That’s not really a spoiler. It’s pretty much something you learn in the first chapter. He is charged with the murder of a very bad person, and he is forced by the FBI to go undercover to catch an even worse person. How Leo works through the threat of a murder charge, and working under cover to catch a very very bad man, is really the story of the book. That’s the tension driving the whole book.
DeCanniere: I also always find it interesting to learn a bit about the story-behind-the-story. How did you decide to write this book or why this particular story is one you wanted to write?
Ellis: Well, I’ve learned enough about myself as a writer to realize I’m at my best when I first start with a character I really want to spend time with. I form that character. I think of the things I want that character to have as traits. Once I have those character traits, at least at a big picture-level, I start asking the “why” questions. Why is Leo a diagnosed pathological liar? Why is he a crusading attorney? What has happened in his childhood, and in his background, to make him that way? As I fill out the character’s background, I find that I’m starting to write the plot, because of course you want interesting backgrounds for characters. When I start with some rather extreme character traits, and I figure out why he acts in such extreme ways, I am suddenly writing the story. I’ve gone from developing a character to writing the plot. In all of my books, the character’s past becomes part of the plot. Then I kind of take it from there. I was drawn to the idea of an undercover FBI operation, because I know that people who are working undercover are under extreme pressures, and I wanted to put Leo in an extreme situation and I thought that’s about as extreme as it gets. He’s looking at the possibility of going to prison to life for a murder — albeit for the murder of a very bad person. To get the government to relax that charge — or perhaps not even charge him at all — he has to do some very dangerous things. Someone undercover is, by definition, working both sides. They’re being deceptive. They’re hiding their true self, in some form or another. A lot of people who are forced into these situations have no training for it. Sometimes they mess up, and sometimes they get themselves killed. So, it’s a very stressful thing to put on somebody. It might be necessary for law enforcement, but it is extremely stressful, and I wanted to put Leo in an extremely stressful situation.
DeCanniere: Would you happen to have any recommendations? I know I’m always looking for my next read, and I know that many other people are as well.
Ellis: Sure. Well, one book I recently read was a book called Bodies to Die For by Lori Brand. What is interesting about that book is that I learned a lot about the world of diet culture and fitness culture. The idea of losing weight and staying healthy. It’s a mega-business, and there are some very interesting characters in that world. There also is the counter to that. The people who think it is okay to look as they do, and say “Don’t make me feel bad just because I’m a little bit overweight.” Lori sets a murder mystery in this world, and within these two competing cultures. It’s quite fascinating. It’s a fun murder mystery, too, and the characters are well developed. It’s a glimpse into a world I knew absolutely nothing about.
There’s a really good author who lives in Wisconsin — Hannah Morrissey. She writes very dark noir mysteries, but she’s one of the best writers out there. I think she’s written three books. She has been setting them in a fictional town called Black Harbor. So, you’ll probably see them as Black Harbor mysteries. If noir is your thing — if you like to go a little dark in your fiction, which I sometimes do — she is it. She’s fantastic. I love Tracy Clark, too. She is terrific. She is really talented. So, we have some good midwest authors. People tend to think they all live in New York and LA, but we’ve got a good group of midwestern authors, and those are some of the best right there.
David Ellis is a judge and an Edgar-award-winning author of ten novels of crime fiction, as well as eight bestselling books co-authored with James Patterson. His novels have been translated into more than ten languages worldwide. In December 2014, Dave was sworn in as the youngest-serving Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. He lives outside Chicago with his wife and three children. For more information about David, The Best Lies (available now from G.P. Putnam’s Sons), and more, please visit his website. You can also find him on Facebook, Instagram, and GoodReads.
Upcoming Event:
Author Signing with Tracy Clark & David Ellis
Barnes & Noble Northbrook
Village Square of Northbrook
45 Skokie Boulevard
Northbrook, IL 60062
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