Laura Drake is a hybrid author of Women's Fiction and Romance. Her debut, The Sweet Spot, won the 2014 Romance Writers of America® RITA® award. She’s since published 14 more books. She is a founding member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and Writers in the Storm blog.

Laura is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways. She gave up the corporate CFO gig to write full-time. She realized a lifelong dream of becoming a Texan and is currently working on her accent. She's a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours.

Her logline is, 'Ordinary women at the edge of extraordinary change'. She's been described as, 'One of the most thoughtful authors out there today.'

You can learn more and sign up for her quarterly newsletter at her website: https://lauradrakebooks.com

She has a fun group on Facebook - Laura Drake's Peace, Love & Books. Come join us for coffee, snark, and mayhem! www.facebook.com/groups/lauradrakespeaceloveandbooks

You can support your local bookstore & this podcast by getting your copy of Amazing Gracie at https://bookshop.org/a/90599/9781611883527

A little about today's host-

Author and musical composer Kathleen Basi is mother to three boys and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. Her debut novel, A SONG FOR THE ROAD, follows a musician on an unconventional road trip. Bestselling author Kerry Anne King writes, “In a novel filled with music, heartbreak, and surprising laughter, Basi takes us on a journey that encompasses both unimaginable loss and the powerful resilience of the human heart.”

Meaty, earnest, occasionally humorous, and ultimately uplifting, Kathleen’s fiction highlights the best within ourselves and each other. She writes monthly reflections on life, writing and beauty on her newsletter. Subscribe at https://kathleenbasi.substack.com/. 

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Welcome to Author Express. Thanks for checking us out. This is the podcast where you give us 15 minutes of your time, and we give you a chance to hear the voice behind the pages and get to know some of your favorite writers in a new light. I'm one of your hosts, Kathleen Basi. I'm an award-winning musical composer, a feature writer, essayist, and, of course, storyteller. Let me tell you a little bit about today's guest.

I'm excited to be here.

Well, we were hoping we were going to be able to do this recording face to face in the hotel in Chicago at the Women's Fiction Writers Association conference, but we didn't quite make the technology work. So, here we are today, freshly arrived home, and I hear you've got your laundry done.

I did. I did. Now I have to start cleaning. And somewhere in there, I need to squeeze in writing. I don't know when.

I know. 14 books since you're, we're all in awe. We're super happy. And so, I want to start by asking you, what's the most interesting thing about where you're from? And you can choose that to be where you grew up or Texas now.

Well, it's a little bit of both. I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. I was okay until I went to the upper peninsula for college, and the 8 o'clock class is at 20 below 0. I was done. My sister and I were watching the Rose Bowl parade one January, and she looked at it and went, that's where we need to be. And so, we did. We packed up everything we owned in our 2 Pintos, the cars, not the horses. And drove across country to California, sight unseen.

Wow. That's bold.

Well, no. It was stupid. We just didn't know better. It could have ended very badly, but, luckily, it didn't. I met my Texan husband there, and, eventually, 30 years later, we moved to Texas when we retired. Always knew that was where I'd end up. I got here as quickly as I could.

Oh my. That's a testament, I got to say.

I don't have an accent. I probably never will, the Texan accent. My father-in-law thought we had a mixed marriage because I was a Yankee. These people are serious here.

They're hardcore in Texas. Yeah. That I believe.

Oh, yeah.

So, what is something about you that other people find hard to believe? Is there anything? I mean, the motorcycle's pretty cool, I got to say.

Well, motorcycle is indicative of my personality. I am a roller coaster loving thrill seeker.

Had you gone skydiving?

Absolutely. But I had to quit when my main chute didn't open and I had to throw the reserve, then I was done. Yeah. At 60, I think I was 66, I rappelled off of a 11-story building in Midland, Texas just to do it. I just love doing crazy stuff.

That's pretty great. I don't know if people wouldn't believe it, but it certainly reveals a lot about your character. Let's talk about your newest book that's just come out or not quite out? What's the date?

It comes out on the 26th. What is that? 2 days? I've lost track of days.

We're recording late in October. So, by the time this goes to air, it will be out in the world for you. It's called Amazing Gracie. This is a book about an army vet home from Afghanistan who goes on a motorcycle road trip with her little sister. So, my question for you is, are you a vet yourself?

I am not, and it made me worried to write about it because I have so much respect for those who serve, and I wanted to be sure to get it right. This woman has PTSD. She feels partially responsible for her best friend's death over there. So, she has a lot to overcome.

So, tell us then, what do you hope readers are going to take away from reading your novel?

Aside from respect for those who serve, it is an emotional journey. And I hope that people that read it that are in a bad place can see that it won't always be that way. In the book, her sister lifts her up just by who she is. She's a luminous, brilliant little 9-year-old who loves rocks and outer space. And she's so fascinated and in love with the world around her despite coming from a really tough home that it teaches our older sister that there's another way to see the world.

That sounds beautiful. Family relationships are really important. And, you know, a lot of times, we hear in women's fiction that we're talking about, you know, adult sisters or we're talking about parents and children or we're talking about the sandwich generation where you're having problems with your kids and with your parents. And I really love this idea of the dynamic of an adult woman and her not adult sister. That's a really fresh take on this. So, nice. Go you.

I didn't plan it that way. I don't know where these things come from. The ideas just, thank God, keep coming.

That's amazing. That's really cool. Well, let's kind of circle back a little bit to the Women's Fiction Writers Association, if you don't mind me, going back to that, because you've been in on the WFWA since the very beginning. Tell me how this group has influenced your writing journey.

Oh, it's interesting because when I wrote and sold my first book, I thought it was women's fiction. Half of the editors that read it thought it was romance, half thought it was women's fiction. So, it ended up selling as a romance, so I had some things to change, and then, of course, they want more romance from you. So, I was on a romance track for the longest time. But my heart was always in women's fiction. And it's interesting when I changed and started writing women's fiction, I was so excited because there are no rules. I don't have tropes. I don't have expectations. I got halfway into my first woman fiction and went, oh, no. I have no rules. Because I didn't realize that those tropes and the expectations, in a way, are pillars that your book sits upon.

Right.

And if I didn't have those, it was terrifying.

I totally sympathize.

Yeah. Once I got over that, I am just loving the freedom.

Yeah. That's really cool. I remember that when I was trying to figure out what I was writing, it was a revelation to learn that there was such a thing as women's fiction because I was writing mostly stories that had a little bit of romance in it, but they were not romance. I actually set out to write a romance and found I couldn't do it. So, it was so liberating to find this genre. And even now as we're struggling with what to call it, it's really like, we want it to be more universal, something more like just call it commercial fiction, but it's still, it feels very, very liberating to have found my people. Is that how you feel about it too?

Oh, yes. Absolutely. And it's so interesting. So many people at the conference said exactly that. I felt like, I found my home. I found my peeps. You know. And that's so very cool.

Yeah. So, where do you see yourself 10 years from now in your writing journey?

Oh, my. I don't, I don't expect to be here. I don't expect to be here. Sincerely, my family is not long lived. I'm amazed. I'm not afraid to tell you. I am turning 69 this year. And given that I am a thrill seeker and my family history, I am just excited every morning I get up. But if I am lucky enough to still be around and still have a couple of brain cells to rub together, I want to be writing women's fiction. I have so many more emotions and human conditions to explore.

Do you already have a list of the next 2 or 3 germs of ideas that you want to work on?

You know, I've talked to other writers that they have so many ideas. They don't know what to write next, and they keep them on 3 by 5 cards just so they'll remember them. I'm not like that.

Uh-huh.

I get one idea at a time, and I'm terrified as I'm finishing a book that there won't be another idea out there. Now, thank God there always has been.

Yeah. It just goes to show that the imposter syndrome never goes away even after you've published 15 books.

I'll bet Nora Roberts or Stephen King or whoever. I bet they still feel that way.

Yeah.

I hope they do. Anyway, we're not alone.

So, what would you say to anyone who's always wanted to write a book?

Oh, do it. I think as an author, that is the funnest time because you have no expectations. You don't know if you can do it, but you just decide to try. Don't worry about the outside world. Just get your idea and your story down on paper. The rest of the world doesn't even ever have to see it. Of course, I know you're going to feel differently by the time you're done with it, but it takes the pressure off.

Yeah. That is very true. Alright. Well, as we start to wrap things up here, tell us what's the best place for people to find you. What's the one place they should go online?

My website, lauradrakebooks.com. That will tell you about me and my books. But the place I hang out and have a great time is I create a Facebook group on Facebook, oddly enough. It's called, Laura Drake's peace, love, and books.

Laura Drake's peace, love, and books. Very nice.

Right. The only rules are no meanness, no politics, and no spiders.

Oh, there you go. But you can have snakes, just no spiders.

Oh, yeah. No spiders.

Scorpions, okay?

Not really. No. Anything with 8 legs just creeps me out.

Okay. So, tell us as we finish up here, what book or story inspires you the most?

Ayn Rand's, Atlas Shrugged.

Oh, that’s an interesting one.

I was many, many, many moons ago in my first marriage, it was abusive. That book convinced me that I was the answer. And after I read it, I got out of the situation, and I've never looked back.

Wow. Well, that's inspirational for sure.

Got to save yourself.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you for having me. I love it.

We'll look forward to seeing your books. We’ll look forward to Amazing Gracie, and we will look forward to all of the ones that you managed to come before you, you know, give up and abandon us all. Hopefully, later than 10 years from now.

Let's hope. Thank you, Kathleen.

Thanks for joining us today. We hope you'll take a second to give us some stars or a review on your favorite podcasting platform. We'll be back next Wednesday. And in the meantime, follow us on Instagram at Author Express Podcast to see who's coming up next. Don't forget. Keep it express, but keep it interesting.