ISBN: 9781-4343-207-11
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Tracee
Lydia Garner has always been a poet. According to her, poetry was
a way to be abstract in her descriptions while underlining something
deep, and thought provoking, and always she swears did she have
something profound and deep to say whether is was about the feelings
of having a disability or life in general and the obstacles and
barriers that exist as she tries to make in the world.
Her poetry has won honorable mentions and has appeared in her campus's literary magazine. Only recently did Tracee take up longer, more dramatic fiction. Her desire to write something longer was first piqued though a story entitled Tides, a romantic love story "still in progress". The website mistresses invited others to contribute to the story and Tracee decided to give it a try by writing her own spin and how she felt the story should continue. After writing chapters 8 and 9, and later chapters 11 and 12, and having both her contributions posted, Tracee was on the verge of feeling as if the whole writing bit was "it". She adds that academics weren't that good either and that she asked God for something else "in case the whole degree thing didn't work out" and he supplied!
After
writing and submitting the complete story to Tides only to
receive no information about whether or not it was a good story
ending, neither was it posted, she turned to creating her own stories
from start to finish. Family Affairs was not the
first story she wrote but it was the first successfully completed
and the one she says started it all. FAMILY AFFAIRS appears in the
All That & Then Some anthology with BET/Sepia Books. Family
Affairs won the grand-prize award, receiving an advance,
a book contract, a trip to New York to accept her award and most
importantly having her work published by BET Books.
The
success of her future works hinge on that single monumental achievement.
Tracee has secured a two-book contract with BET/Arabesque Books,
the first entitled Come What May, which will be released
in February.
Tracee maintains that she is a creative writer as well as a journalist that enjoys writing "how to" articles, and articles of personal experience, both tragic and inspirational on the disability, African-American and woman experience, not necessarily in that order.
As a public speaker she has facilitated workshops, conferences and other events with the likes of Martin Luther King, III, former secretary of labor, Alexis Herman, former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education, Judy Heumann, and been a guest for the radio show On A Roll, with founder and host Greg Smith, a live weekly syndicated commercial radio talk show on life and disability
Tracee maintains that as her writing career takes center stage, she will always be disabled, and thus she must and always will be committed to the advancement and removal of barriers for persons with disabilities.
You can check out some of her technical writing skills at an "online
publication for women of color" DOEnetwork.com.
She has contributed to their Entertainment and Finance channels.
Read the Tides story on RomanticTales.com,
but don't blame her, she says, if it leaves you hanging and come
back to this site for more updates and excerpts of upcoming projects
TeeGarner.com and be sure
to read her quarterly newsletter.