Interrogation Room #13: Tracy Bilen, author of What She Left Behind

“Don’t even think of leaving…I will find you,” he whispered. “Guaranteed.” - What She Left Behind by Tracy Bilen

Sara and her mom have a plan to finally escape Sara’s abusive father. But when her mom doesn’t show up as expected, Sara’s terrified. Her father says that she’s on a business trip, but Sara knows he’s lying. Her mom is missing—and her dad had something to do with it.

Each day that passes, Sara’s more on edge. Her friends know that something’s wrong, but she won’t endanger anyone else with her secret. And with her dad growing increasingly violent, Sara must figure out what happened to her mom before it’s too late…for them both.

This week we've hauled author Tracy Bilen into the Interrogation Room, accused of being a First Ttime Offender. Her first novel What She Left Behind, a romantic thriller, debuted May 1st from Simon Pulse.

Tracy is a high school French and Spanish teacher in Michigan where she lives with her husband and two children. Before moving to Michigan, Tracy taught at a ski school for high school students in Vermont (Spanish, not skiing!). She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and taught English in Strasbourg, France. She enjoys cross-country skiing and walks in the woods.

Here is the transcript of Tracy's interrogation:

Laura Ellen: According to your bio, you are a high school French and Spanish teacher. How did you decide to begin writing young adult novels?

Tracy Bilen: I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but I also knew that the road wouldn’t be easy, so I entered college determined to come out with a profession I could use to support myself. Studying French and Spanish was an easy choice, since I love speaking other languages as much as I love writing. When I started writing novels, I wasn’t much beyond my teen years myself. So I started writing with a teen perspective and I never wanted to give it up.

Laura Elen: Were thrillers your intended genre? Going forward, what genres do you see yourself writing?

Tracy Bilen: My first attempt at a novel was a romance, but I’ve always loved reading thrillers…from Lois Duncan as a teen to Harlan Coben, now as an adult. And while What She Left Behind is a thriller, it’s a romance as well. I love both reading and writing romantic thrillers, so I see the genre as my writing “home.”
Laura Elen: You classify What She left Behind as a 'romantic thriller', but it has also been called a  'mystery' by others. Do you see the terms 'thriller' and 'mystery' as interchangeable?

Tracy Bilen: Here’s my take on the two terms: In a mystery, the protagonist usually has a choice about whether or not to try to solve a crime. And while his/her life may be at risk, this normally isn’t evident until near the end. While Sara does have a mystery to solve, I consider What She Left Behind to be a thriller because Sara’s life is in jeopardy from the moment she and her mom decide to run away. 

Laura Ellen: When you began writing What She Left Behind did you know it was going to be a thriller or did it just 'happen' as you got farther into the writing?

Tracy Bilen: I always knew that What She Left Behind would be a thriller, that the novel would be a race against time as Sara searched for her mom.

Laura Ellen: When you write do you plot everything out or do you just let the story take you where it needs to go?

Tracy Bilen: I’m definitely more of a “pantser”than a “plotter.” With What She Left Behind, I knew very little about where the story would go when I started it. One of my critique group partners is a definite “plotter.” About her own work she would say things like, “In chapter 9, such and such will happen.” And I would find that so funny because I could never know something that detailed starting out. That being said, I’ve found that in the manuscripts I’ve worked on since What She Left Behind, I’ve been able to do a lot more of the plotting up front (but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell you what will happen in chapter 9 before I write it!)

Laura Ellen: How would you advise mystery and thriller writers to ramp up the "thrill factor"? Do you have any tips for suspense writing?

Tracy Bilen: When your character is in a bad spot, keep asking yourself, how could this get any worse? And then throw your character into that worse situation (and try not to wince!) Also, try to ramp up the suspense at the end of each chapter. Make your reader feel like he/she just has to turn the page to find out what’s going to happen next.

Laura Ellen: What She Left Behind deals with two very difficult issues -- grief and abuse -- how difficult was it to inject these into your story and still keep it a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller?

Tracy Bilen: Writing these parts was not difficult because that was the way the story unfolded in my mind. That being said, I did have to go back through and crank up the suspense in certain scenes.

Laura Ellen: Was there ever a time in writing What She Left Behind that you felt it was too dark/edgy and you had to pull back?

Tracy Bilen: Yes, there was one scene in particular that I was struggling with and I wrote it the direction I thought my editor wanted it to go. But I also wrote an alternate version of the scene that I was much happier with, and as it turned out, so was my editor!

Laura Ellen: I understand you won the SCBWI-MI novel mentorship for 2009 which meant a year working on What She Left Behind one-on-one with author Shutta Crum. How did this mentorship push you from manuscript to published novel? What were some of the key lessons you learned through this experience?

Tracy Bilen: When I started the mentorship, I had about half of the novel written. In something akin to an editorial letter, Shutta gave me detailed suggestions about how and where to expand the novel. She did this five times throughout the year, and by the end, the novel was ready to make the rounds with agents. One of the things we worked the most on was characterization and character arc. These were weaknesses that I wasn’t even aware of when I began the mentorship, and I’m so grateful I had the chance to grow in this area!

Laura Ellen: Thank you for your time, Tracy. We hope to see you again soon as a repeat offender. Before you go, where can we find you if we need to ask you more questions?

Tracy Bilen: If you want to know a little more about What She Left Behind, you can watch the trailer here. You can also head over to my website at http://www.tracybilen.com

On Twitter I’m @TracyBilen and on Facebook my page is at: http://www.facebook.com/tracybilenbooks
I am also on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4672248.Tracy_Bilen

Click the 'read more' link below to win a What She Left Behind swag pack which includes 1 WSLB notebook and 5 WSLB bookmarks!

Book 'Em: Five 2012 Titles Laura Ellen Wants to Read!

As we step into 2012, I have a few books I am anxiously awaiting to hit the shelves (besides my own, of course!) First and foremost, I love mysteries that involve weird, unexplainable elements. These first three promise to deliver just that:

SLIDE - by Jill Hathaway
Expected publication: March 27th 2012 by Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins

Vee Bell is certain of one irrefutable truth—her sister’s friend Sophie didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.

Vee knows this because she was there. Everyone believes Vee is narcoleptic, but she doesn’t actually fall asleep during these episodes: When she passes out, she slides into somebody else’s mind and experiences the world through that person’s eyes. She’s slid into her sister as she cheated on a math test, into a teacher sneaking a drink before class. She learned the worst about a supposed “friend” when she slid into her during a school dance. But nothing could have prepared Vee for what happens one October night when she slides into the mind of someone holding a bloody knife, standing over Sophie’s slashed body.

Vee desperately wishes she could share her secret, but who would believe her? It sounds so crazy that she can’t bring herself to tell her best friend, Rollins, let alone the police. Even if she could confide in Rollins, he has been acting off lately, more distant, especially now that she’s been spending more time with Zane.

Enmeshed in a terrifying web of secrets, lies, and danger and with no one to turn to, Vee must find a way to unmask the killer before he or she strikes again.

UNRAVELING - by Elizabeth Norris
Expected publication: April 24th 2012 by Balzer + Bray

Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she’s opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it isn’t possible, Janelle knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow brought her back to life.

But her reincarnation, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI-agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s going to need to uncover Ben’s secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

                                    
THE vANISHING GAME - by Kate Kae Myers
Expected publication: February 14th 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Jocelyn's twin brother Jack was the only family she had growing up in a world of foster homes-and now he's dead, and she has nothing. Then she gets a cryptic letter from "Jason December"-the code name her brother used to use when they were children at Seale House, a terrifying foster home that they believed had dark powers. Only one other person knows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush and their only real friend among the troubled children at Seale House.

But when Jocelyn returns to Seale House and the city where she last saw Noah, she gets more than she bargained for. Turns out the house's powers weren't just a figment of a childish imagination. And someone is following Jocelyn. Is Jack still alive? And if he is, what kind of trouble is he in? The answer is revealed in a shocking twist that turns this story on its head and will send readers straight back to page 1 to read the book in a whole new light.

After weird and unexplained, I love a mystery that has an emotional draw to it. Here are two 2012 debuts I am super excited to read - one involves obsessive-compulsive disorder, the other physical and emotional abuse:

THE BUTTERFLY CLUES - Kate Ellison
Expected publication: February 14th 2012 by EgmontUSA

Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad's consulting job means she's grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she's learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place--possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home.

But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as "Sapphire"--a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get the murder out of her mind.

As she attempts to piece together the mysterious "butterfly clues," with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined--a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death.

WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND - by Tracy BilenExpected publication: May 1st 2012 by Simon Pulse

Sara and her mom have a plan to finally escape Sara's abusive father. But when her mom doesn’t show up as expected, Sara’s terrified. Her father says that she's on a business trip, but Sara knows he's lying. Her mom is missing—and her dad had something to do with it. Each day that passes, Sara's more on edge. Her friends know that something's wrong, but she won't endanger anyone else with her secret. And with her dad growing increasingly violent, Sara must figure out what happened to her mom before it's too late…for them both.


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What if a classmate went missing right after you fought with her at a party and she was later found dead? What if you couldn't remember anything after that fight? Not even how you got home? Would you tell the police the truth? Or would you lie about what you remember until you could find out what really happened that night?

16-year-old Roswell Hart finds herself in this very predicament in Laura Ellen's YA thriller, BLIND SPOT (October 2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)