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Interview with T. R. Ragan, author of Dead Weight

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Can we clear something up before we start: are you Theresa Ragan or T.R. Ragan?
I am both Theresa Ragan and T.R. Ragan. For seventeen of the twenty years I have been writing, I wrote romance novels under the name Theresa Ragan. Frustrated with the industry, I decided to switch tactics and write a thriller using the name T.R. Ragan. I wanted to kill off some characters along with my frustrations at not having sold to New York, and it worked. Not only was writing Abducted and the sequel, Dead Weight, therapeutic, the books sold well and garnered me my first publishing contract. I will continue to write thrillers under the name T.R. Ragan and romance novels under the name Theresa Ragan.

Okay, that’s cleared that up. We wanted to talk about Dead Weight; can you tell us about it?
Dead Weight is the second book in the Lizzy Gardner series. In the first book, Abducted, you meet Lizzy Gardner and her two sidekicks (assistants), Jessica and Hayley. After working together to put away a serial killer, Lizzy, Jessica and Hayley work together again in Dead Weight to find two missing people. Not only do they help a dying woman look for her missing daughter, they do their best to help a woman locate her sister. Jessica and Hayley are opposites and they don’t particularly enjoy working together. All three of the main characters have troubled pasts and some of them have more secrets than others.

What genre is it?
Dead Weight might be best categorized as a thriller/mystery.

Complete this sentence for us: If you like __________, you’ll love Dead Weight.
Reading mystery/thriller series with strong-minded and believable characters

Tell us a bit more about Lizzy Gardner. What is her standout characteristic that makes her a good investigator? And what about her makes her a joy to write (assuming she’s a joy to write)?
Lizzy Gardner is a fun character to write about. I believe the fact that she cares about people, makes her a good investigator. She puts her heart into every case. Lizzy is not only incredibly caring, she is an all around nice person who was abducted at the age of seventeen. Against all odds, she escaped. Fourteen years later, she has become a private investigator and in her spare time, she teaches young girls to defend themselves. More than anything, she wants to let the past go, but she struggles to find peace. Teenagers like Jessica and Hayley gravitate to Lizzy because they know she is truly concerned about their welfare.

Since you enjoy writing about her – and the world clearly enjoys reading about her – does that mean we will see a third Lizzy Gardner novel? If yes, can you give us any hints as to what it might be about?
The third novel has been turned in, edited and is ready to go, but will not be released until June, 2013. The third book in the Lizzy Gardner series is definitely the darkest of the three. Another serial killer is on the loose and this guy likes nothing better than watching people suffer. He makes Spiderman from Abducted seem like a nice guy. Jessica and Hayley are tired of working with one another and one of them has had enough. Once again, Lizzy finds herself in a heap of trouble, but this time she might lose more than she can handle. 

You have sold truckloads of books. What’s the secret? Step 1, obviously, is ‘write good books’, but what are steps 2, 3, 4 and 5?
2) My mantra for the last 18 months has been, “Just say YES!” But I’m becoming overwhelmed with To-Do Lists. Sadly, I’m now having to say no to speaking engagements and collaborations, but I still say YES to interviews like this because I believe putting myself out there…anywhere…has given me the exposure I need to let readers know that I exist.

3) Share what you have learned with others. I have a detailed list of the steps I took to become published on my website.

4) Be a positive force. I don’t like negativity. There’s too much of it on the news and all around us.

5) Try everything once. If you have a book, try everything for yourself (KDP Select, FREE, $.99, $5.99, advertise, blog, twitter, facebook…try it all) If you ask 100 writers if you should put your book for FREE, 50 are going to say go for it and the other 50 are going to say don’t do it. You’re not going to truly know if it works for YOUR books, YOUR genre, etc., until you try it.

As readers, we tend to imagine that the life of the writer is solitary in the extreme. Is this the case?
Yes. As a writer, I choose to release 3 to 4 books a year, and to do that I need to write at least 8 hours a day…longer when I had my first deadline recently. I can write faster, of course, with no interruptions. When the kids were small, I had to write through the noise and chaos and some of my stories suffered for it, but that’s okay. That’s life. If I could build a small shed outside and write undisturbed, that’s what I would do.

I do my best writing when I lock myself inside a room and have the fan blasting in the background. I love going into a quiet space for the day and writing. It’s what I love to do. I do shut my computer down by 6 pm each day and have dinner with my husband. 

You mention kids and a husband; tell us a bit about yourself.
I grew up with four sisters and no brothers. My parents divorced when I was eleven. I was paying my own dentist bills by the age of 14 and I had a work permit that allowed me to leave high school so that I could wait tables to earn money. I also cleaned houses and babysat until I found work with a large corporation at the age of 18. When I first set out to write a novel, I was determined to do everything I could to learn all I could about the craft of writing. I knew the odds of earning a living as a writer were slim to none, but I wanted to show my four children that hard work and determination would pay off in the end. I was beginning to doubt myself a few years before I became an indie author, but I do enjoy a good challenge. I’ve always told myself and my kids that anything is possible. If you want something bad enough, go for it and never give up.

I have been married for 26 years. We have four children and life just keeps getting better. I am incredibly lucky.

I have been playing the piano since I was eight years old and I love to travel.

You said something about a blog earlier; where is it and do you use social media?
My website/blog is www.theresaragan.com. I’m on Twitter as @TheresaRagan and my Facebook page is here.

Where can we buy Dead Weight?
Thomas & Mercer, an Amazon mystery/thriller imprint, has bought the rights to the Lizzy Gardner series and therefore the books can be purchased on Amazon.

What’s next?
I have two contemporary romances by Theresa Ragan coming out soon. I am writing an outline for books 4, 5, and 6 of the Lizzy Gardner series by TR Ragan and I’m brainstorming a brand new thriller series about a woman who seeks revenge and will stop at nothing to get it.

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  1. Pingback: Interview with Claire Ridgway, author of Interviews with Indie Authors | Indie Author Land

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