Welcome, Tarah!
Really looking forward to this interview and hope you tell us more about working with a writing partner. I don't know how you do it, I'm assuming you can't write 'by the seat of your pants' but have to take the other person's feelings and wants into account. Thinking I might be a bit too selfish for that, lol!
Let's get started...
Rachel, thanks so much for having me. Your blog is beautiful!
1) What is your writing routine?
I’m a small business owner, which makes my schedule unpredictable, so I make a weekly schedule for my writing. If possible, I like to get up early before my daughter gets up for school. Even an hour in the morning before I gear up for the day can be very productive. I shoot for a minimum of 30 writing hours a week. Anything over that is cake.
2) Which author/s inspire you to write?
Oh, quite a few authors have inspired me. I love the classics, Dickens, Austen, Bronte, even Georgette Heyer and Zane Grey. Modern authors are Stephen King and Anne Rice.
3) Which is your favorite romance subgenre to read? To write?
Favorite romance subgenre to write? ROFL. That’s like putting a kid inside a candy store and asking them to choose one favorite, Wow! That’s a toughie. My first love is historical romance. That’s what I started out reading and writing. I spread my wings to various forms of suspense, which invariably found its way into my historical romance. Heh heh.
4) How do you deal with criticism/rejection?
Lots of tequila. HA! No, seriously. When first starting out, criticism and rejection were very tough. Of course, we never love rejection—or criticism—but you do learn they are part of the business. One of the ways I console myself is by remembering that the rejections I get today are very different than those I got when first starting out. These days, any personalized feedback I receive is more along the lines that the piece didn’t work for the editor, or maybe they didn’t like an aspect of the story or character. For the most part, it’s subjective elements that one editor doesn’t care for, while another loves. My earlier submissions were riddled with comments about how the writing wasn’t compelling, or how I could improve the story.
5) What do you expect from an editor?
I expect an editor to understand my story, but help me make it better. That makes an editor worth their weight in gold!
6) Tell me about your latest release
7) My latest release is Double Bang! a short ménage/romantic suspense written in collaboration with KyAnn Waters. This little hottie was so much fun to write! (We have more planned in this series.)
8) Tease us with a blurb or short excerpt
Sara Martin has a problem. And it’s not the attraction she has for her co-worker Devon Curran…or the lust she feels for her sexy neighbor, Rigg. Yes, those are problems. But she has bigger issues. There’s been a security breach in the impenetrable computer system at work. Suddenly Devon doesn’t look happy. And that is a gun in his pocket!
Devon is working undercover…and Sara is about to blow his case. He’d rather she blow him. She’s as smart as she is beautiful. But he’s lied to protect her. What will she do when she discovers he works with a partner? Tonight, they are going to keep her close…very close…in their protective custody.
9) Which is your favorite character in the book? Why?
While I think Sara is a fabulous character, the men are pretty amazing. This is a ménage, but Devon is the love interest. He’s solid and knows what he wants, Sara Martin—permanently. Rigg, on the other hand, is the ultimate bad boy. He’s an undercover cop working the toughest assignments. He also knows what he wants: an erotic interlude with Sara. How can a woman not want both these men?
9) What are you working on right now?
I’m currently working on a paranormal/fantasy suspense. My heroine is a Mississippi Deputy Sheriff who goes to Scotland to prove that her best friend killed her husband four years ago. What my heroine doesn’t know is that her friend wants her in Scotland to break a three hundred year old spell cast on the eighteenth century lord of the castle.
10) Your biggest piece of advice to aspiring novelists?
Learn your craft—then practice night and day.
11) Where can readers find you?
My website is http://www.tarahscott.com/
Also, for anyone who would like to connect with me at twitter
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tarah-Scott/154741501255577
Thanks so much for having me, Rachel. It’s been a real pleasure!
Thanks Tara for the wonderful post! I agree that learning how to take criticsm and rejection is important to aspiring authors. Another is taking a 'hard' edit as an opportunity to learn and evolve as a writer. I used to take rejection/edits so personally, now I simply view it either constructively or just not that particular publisher's cup of tea.
ReplyDeleteYour WIP sounds interesting I look forward to reading the end result :)
You hit the nail on the head, Olivia. Rejections really are important to aspiring authors--difficult as they are! Many of my rejections have genuinely taught me something, either about my writing or the business of getting published.
ReplyDelete